Sunday, March 17, 2013

St. Patrick's Day Issue

Top O’ the Morning to Ya!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day or Lá Fhéile Pádraig to all those that celebrate it! Enjoy your Guinness or Green Beer on this day celebrating the awesome Irish.

It’s been a whirlwind two weeks and I can’t believe it’s Sunday … again. On Thursday and Friday I spent at a publishing conference and learned so much.

This is a dynamic industry with many players - big and small. There are many different kinds of mediums to deliver publications through. Technology has come a long way and is in a constant state of change. As such, everyone is trying to figure out how best to deliver the content that they have and reach the most number of people possible. There are mobile apps, mobile friendly websites, there’s Android and Apple and now BB10. How to deliver and on what? What part does Social Media play?

As most of you know, I embrace technology and all the exciting options that come with it. Which is why it might be surprising to discover that the message that stuck with me the most is: regardless of medium - paper or electronic - content is king. If you don’t have a product that people are interested in, then it doesn’t really matter what the medium is.

I’m fortunate to be in touch with so many amazingly talented authors that are willing to provide the content for this magazine. The stories that will be published in this magazine are highly entertaining, thought provoking and in some cases a bit risque. In the fiction industry, stories never get old or dated. A classic novel can live on for centuries if it is a well crafted, entertaining story.

As I think about all the stories that have been published through Pages Of Stories and all that will be published through Ficta Fabula, I am so excited for the future. I know that this content will survive and we’ll keep working with the technology of the day to deliver it in the best possible format to reach even more people. But we won’t forget traditional mediums either. So that we can ensure that everyone can enjoy the talent within the pages, the magazine will also be offered in print as well as online.

And speaking of amazing fiction writers, we have the pleasure of a guest article from Allan Kalupar. In our continuing examination of different genres of fiction, Allan is discussing Horror. We’ve published 3 of Allan’s stories - and one of them is Gary’s absolute favourite. Read through to the end of the newsletter. There’s a surprise there for you.

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.

You can send an email to info@pagesofstories.com to get the whole newsletter. It's Free!

Take care and happy reading!

Darlene Poier
Publisher, Ficta Fabula
Inspiring Creativity and Imagination
A wholly owned subsidiary of Pages Of Stories, Inc.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

New Logo and Westerns

Hello Everyone!

If you would like to receive the entire newsletter, please send an email to info@pagesofstories.

The third month of the year has now begun and for us it’s coming in like a lion. We are in the middle of a blizzard and I’m quite happy to stay put and send this out to you.

I’ve found a company that will be able to publish a mobile app the way that I would like to see it done and fairly cost effective as well. I wouldn’t have thought that it would be so challenging but I’ve learned so much about the whole mobile application process that the next time it should be a breeze.

The new logo for Ficta Fabula is included. I’m so excited to have this done, and it was all thanks to the wonderful interpretation of what I was asking for by Zenna, owner of Zen Garden Graphic Design (zengardengraphicdesign.com) . Let me know what you think of it!

Laura and I have our 1 day workshop (http://123yourepublished.eventbrite.ca/# ) approaching. This is such a jam packed 1 day session that it will be tough to fit everything in. This is a good workshop regardless of the stage of writing that you are at.

To date, we’ve received 45 story submissions with more on the way. I’ve read some of them and have been entertained. Just a quick reminder, we have a minimum 1,000 word count.

In this issue of the newsletter, we’re examining Westerns. I’d never read a Western before this past week and I can honestly say I was surprised. Without giving away the whole article I’ve written, I was expecting something fairly formulaic and action oriented, so I was a little surprised by what I read.

The Western genre isn’t one that would appeal to many people, on the other hand I think 20 or 30 years ago it was a good way to get many boys interested in reading, similar to what Harry Potter did 10 years ago. From what I’ve seen it’s a huge challenge getting many boys to read, but it seems they are among the perfect audience for this genre.

What do you think? If you’d like to share your thoughts about the Western genre, we’d love to hear from you.

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.