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!