Monday, February 18, 2013

Interview!

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick note to tell you about a little interview I did with Susan Palmquist.



Take care and happy reading!

Darlene Poier
Publisher
Ficta Fabula
Inspiring Creativity and Imagination

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Romance is in the Air!

Hello Everyone!

We’re already halfway through February! This is a good month with lots going on: it’s a fairly romantic month as countless marriage proposals are made at this time, it’s the shortest month of the year and for those of us in the northern hemisphere, it’s the last full month of winter. There’s much to celebrate.

As always, it’s been fairly active here in our publishing company. The logo is almost ready to , the mobile app won’t be too far behind, and Laura and I are inching ever so much closer to our 1 day workshop (http://123yourepublished.eventbrite.ca/# ), and the website will also be coming very soon. There’s a lot to do and somehow 24 hours in a day just isn’t quite enough.

To date, we’ve received 39 story submissions with more on the way. I haven’t yet had a chance to read through them yet, but we have a long weekend coming up so I think I’ll take advantage of that time.

In this issue of the newsletter, we’re fortunate to have Susan Palmquist give us her take on all things Romance. In the last issue I’d mentioned that we were going to be examining different genres of fiction and Susan has generously provided us with our first instalment.

There’s a lot of good in romance novels. I like reading them from time to time if I need to turn my mood around to a happier disposition. Besides which, growing up they were a useful source of information about those "romantic moments" in life.

I went on to the Harlequin Romance website a few weeks ago and was surprised to discover that there were many sub genres inside the romance genre. There must be a great demand and I applaud all the authors that aim to fill it.

If you are an author, what is your favourite genre to write in? Have you tried something different? Is the genre you’re writing in the one you enjoy the most?

If you are an avid reader of all things fiction, what is your favourite genre to read? Why? I’d love to get a discussion going about this so please feel free to send an email or comment on our blog or Facebook page (Pages Of Stories FB page) about what you love to read or write.

We are now accepting story submissions to our new magazine.

Take care and happy reading!

Darlene Poier

Publisher

Ficta Fabula
Inspiring Creativity and Imagination

A wholly owned subsidiary of Pages Of Stories, Inc.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

More News!

Hello Everyone!

It feels so good to be getting back into the publishing swing of things! Much has happened since we were last in communication and my only challenge is where to begin.

In the initial announcement, mention was made of Laura Crowe who will become the editor of Ficta Fabula. Laura’s been able to find time out of her busy schedule to write an introductory article for this newsletter.

We’ve been able to get some wonderful exposure thanks to Vanessa O’Loughlin of the writing.ie website (http://www.writing.ie/resource-types/submission-opportunities/). There’s a lot of good and valuable information there suitable for everyone that loves the written word.

Another website that has some very useful information for authors has been created by Phil Aston and he also has an interview with a publisher that we’re all familiar with. You can find it at: http://www.informationforwriters.com/#!interview-with-a-fiction-editor.

As well, we now have an illustrator. The plan is that each story will have an accompanying illustration and Dan Webster will be the one doing it. Dan lives and works in Calgary and I know him from my IT world. One day I walked into the lunch room and there he was, drawing away on his sketch pad. We started talking and he brought in more of his work. One thing led to another and I asked him if he would be interested in doing this and voila! we have an illustrator. You’ll see his work on the Welcome page of the new Pages Of Stories website when it goes live.
 
 

That is actually a good lead in to what I wanted to talk about. You see, Laura and I also put on a one day workshop together called ‘1,2,3 ... You’re Published!’. We spend a day going through writing and editing exercises and I spend some time talking about some things an author could do to get a more positive response from an editor/publisher. We’ve been going around and promoting it to as many non-writers groups as we have writers groups.

After more than 20 years of working in the corporate world, it’s my belief that when many people go home from their day job they do what they really enjoy. It could be reading, writing, wine or beer making, cooking/baking, woodworking ... really anything. It’s those people that go home and write that I want to reach, to tell them to keep their dreams alive. Everything starts with the first step.

This unique 1 day workshop has many great learning tools regardless of where you are in the writing process. Please check out the information in this newsletter.

I’m a big believer in people following their passions. The tricky part for many is finding out what that passion is. For me, I always new I wanted to be involved with books. I thought it would be writing one, but I found I much prefer reading and publishing to writing .

I’ve also come to the realization that there is a very important place in the world for fiction. Fiction drives creativity and imagination. Without creativity and imagination, there would be very limited innovation and I believe it is innovation that is one of the cornerstones of society. If Gene Roddenberry hadn’t given Captain Kirk and the rest of the Enterprise crew "Communicators" what would our flip phones have looked like? I could go on, but I just wanted to give this one example.

I’m fortunate enough to be following my passion, and I hope that you are too. Please feel free to comment on our blog or Facebook page (Pages Of Stories FB page) about what you love to do.

We are now accepting story submissions to our new magazine.

Take care and happy reading!