Meet The Editor

So I requested info from everyone taking board and administration positions. Amy had a unique approach. Rather than summarizing everything she has done, I feel it'd be better to provide you with the link she presented me. Here is her resume. if you go to the Clipbook, you will find a listing of her published articles. I encourage you to take a look. Ask Amy anything you like in the comments secti...

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Posted in: Reorganization,sylvanopolis

Meet Yasamin (Yaz) Our Event Manager

Below is Yasamin's Introduction of herself to our current members. Please include any questions you might have for her in the comments. About Yaz The position of event manager necessarily serves two primary purposes: the planning of events and their subsequent operation. In the first stage, I plan on combining my extensive familiarity with open-mic and set-schedule events to formulate a template for successful events for this organization. Not only have I seen the behind-the-scenes of a plethora of readings, but I have come to understand what it takes to carry out one of them efficaciously. Inside of school I have been required to read, but as it is my passion, I have acquainted myself with more authors than there are fish in the sea. Using these backgrounds and interactive seminar formats,...

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Posted in: SWS administration

Fundraising Manager -- Jazamin Wasi

Below is the Introductory Statement of our new Fund Raising Manager. Feel free to use the comment section to ask her questions about herself, her goals, and fund raisers she is currently researching for our organization. I’m Jazmine Wasi and I am assuming the position of Fundraising Manager. I spent 3 years working as the Activity Director for the Black Student Union at Laguna Creek High School in Elk Grove, CA. My duties as Activity Director consisted of organizing fundraisers, community service events, scheduling club meetings, (basically any event that the club was to be involved in). I gave weekly updates to participants in the club and rounded up volunteers to assist me in all new events I planned. I’m very organized, resourceful, and driven. Overused statement warning: I...

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Posted in: Reorganization,SWS administration

Novel: Outline Up

I'm big on character and plot. But in the last 2 years, my brain has kinda rewired itself. I've developed a more intense need for organization... I think it's my life, really... So I signed up for Nanowrimo. 50k words used to be fairly easy, when my life had a few less details in it :P Now, it's time to re-approach my projects. World Building: 1st I am writing out the background of the world This is how does the magic(s) work? Who IS magical? What is the history and how does that affect your character and world set up? Character Building: 2nd I'm writing up the Character background for my main characters + villain-- Karryna, Dayton, Lara and Bea. 2a: Setting up the minor characters: --I don't need to know their whole back history, but I do need to know their motivations and...

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Posted in: creative writing,outlinining nanowrimo

What are Critique Groups For?

First off--this is the 100th post! So lets celebrate by discussing the reason we're here on this blog, anyway. Critique Groups. What are they for? Why do we need them? Critique Groups exist to help you better your craft. There are multiple ways to look at the purpose for improving one's art of writing. None are less worthy than any other, however different goals do impact critique style. So it is of utmost importance that dominate goal of your critique group is synonymous with your personal writing goals. Writing for Hobby Some people dabble. They can live without writing, but they choose not to. I can't explain this well, because I don't understand it. I used to paint for fun, and draw. I drew because I wanted to see my characters,...

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Posted in: craft of writing,creative writing

If You Could Describe For Me...

So, I'm posting on Thursdays :P Let's pretend today is Thursday. What happened yesterday? The Guy put on a computer game. Stuff had been brewing for awhile (it's part of my process ;) and I've had a few "false starts" on this project already. For the School Daze Blogfest I tried a scene from Karryna's POV. It worked. Far better than anything from stubborn Lara's perspective has. So on went Pandora, in went the Earbuds, and out poured the latest start of the project. Starting new projects always teaches me something new. And while I'm not quite 2k words into this draft, I noticed something I want to work on. Description. Ok,I've always felt this was hard. Why? I could describe something till blood oozed from under my fingernails and I don't think people would feel it's real....

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Posted in: creative writing,description

After a short break...

 It's been a crazy, but fun few weeks.  And now (since everyone was undoubtedly aching for it), here's more Morgana: Chapter Six     When Morgana awoke, she could smell the intoxicating scent of breakfast.  She rose and remembered the tapestry.  While looking at the beautiful designs and heroic tales, Morgana realized that her hooves were tingling.  They seemed to want to leave the room.  Forgetting the tapestry, Morgana followed her hooves out of the room through many hallways and finally down a magnificent stairway that branched into two, but came back to one at the bottom.     As she reached the end, she noticed a gigantic room with countless tables of silver and chairs of gold.  Several of the chairs were occupied with fairies...

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Other than fame, what do Rowling and Meyer share?

So I'm on the CSUS English E-mail list. I received an e-mail from the list service concerning a high school boy who was writing a paper on Twilight. I think I over responded to the question: "Who spread the word?" (about Twilight, that is). I made the case that it needed nothing. And as I built my argument, citing the history of the industry, I found out...well, that was market analysis. And now, creepy as it is I can see why Twilight was a hit. Just by looking at the trend. Wanna know why? Fantasy has always had vampires. We share them with our Horror brethren, and get the creeps from them. Then in the early years of this century Paranormal Romance boomed. And it didn't boom small. It took over the romance genre so rapidly that Harlequin released an imprint, Luna that shook...

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Posted in: genre fiction,market analysis,Twilight

Moving Foreward

In my interest to grow as a writer and a person, I found the idea presented by Anastasia V. Pergakis on her blog "Labotomy of a Writer," fascinating. I fully intended to create my own collage out of old magazines... However, when I pulled out my poster paper and searched the house...well, I recycle many old fashion mags. The magazines that still hang out on bookshelves are old Realms of Fantasy, MZBFM, Asimov's, etc. Nothing I want to cut up. So I took up my colored pencils and paper and created a rough poster: From 2010-09-16 The main goals are the large images. Directly in the center is a desk, one side represents "work" and the other "writing." The left hand corner features a picture odf a kitchen :P The goal represented here is...

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Posted in: creative writing,goals

This is me jumping on the band wagon. Below is a tidbit from Arrelle...shelved 6 years ago after 5 years of writing/revising/rewriting. Be warned, I shall blast my own writing to shreds after the excerpt! :P (To know: Arrelle is in hides, kicked out of her homeland. She and Evridon are in a prison cell. Velrehn is Evridon's home, its people enemies to Arrelle's.) Evridon, though-- "Eh...uh...Arrelle." Someone was shaking her, Someone quite strong since she felt as weak as a leaf...and that was not a sense she liked. She opened her eyes. Velrehni! Her hand, of instinct reached for her side: nothing. Her back: nothing. Her--an animasl smell returned her to the present. "Blahk." The Velrehni made a face. "Those really smell." "I don't trust you." "Fine. Good. That means...

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Link to Steven Sylva-aRT's Blog Entry

I'm sure there's any easier way to link this, but I wasn't sure how to do it myself.  So I decided to post a link to my blog post for the week here.  http://faroutfantastic.blogspot.com/2010/09/movie-review-of-avatar-special-edition.h...

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Lyra!

Humbled by Mel's bravery in posting her first stumbling efforts into the world of fantastic fiction, I have decided to post my own part in it. Sadly, I cannot even claim that this was my first attempt at writing. I was actually working on a novel at the time (the first in a proposed quintet, after which would come a second quintet. I was a very ambitious twelve year old. Obviously something has changed.) Like Mel, I have preserved every painful word. In this installment you will witness info-dumps and a rather poignant example of why I no longer even attempt to write fight scenes. Somewhere along the line I lost the first page of this story so it begins in the middle of a sentence. Essentially, Lyra, our protagonist, is handing out orders to the gang of thieves she runs. “... usual posts....

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Morgana Continues!

The next three chapters of Morgana follow.  First, though, I'd like to make note of the fact that I started a new short story last week, alleviating my fears that revisiting this catastrophe would permanently stunt my writing.  Anyway, onward: Chapter Three     The ball was nearing its end; only one event was left: star reading.  The reading of the stars was the most exciting part of every centaur gathering, but tonight, there was only one message.     “Morgana Stargazer, the soon-to-be warrior will be sent on a quest with a dragon and a fairy.  She shall be a heroine for all eternity.”     All eyes turned to Morgana; she couldn’t be a warrior.  Only men could be warriors!  Morgana felt her world crash down on her...

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It's My Birthday and I'll Cry if I Want To

So today I turn 27. I feel 30 around the corner. If an age can stare at you and accuse you of all your shortcomings...30 is doing that to me right now. I can't get that Simpson's kid's voice out of my head "Ha-ha!" and the feeling of his accusing finger. I woke up depressed. I've learned a ton this year, but I feel like I'm in the same position I was last year. I know I'm not. But when I mark my list of goals I have so many "In Progress" and so few "Achieved." How would I explain myself to the person I was ten years ago? Ten years ago, I felt that I had a lot to prove. Not to my parents. Not to my teachers, and not really my peers, but to myself. I externalized it as "society" as if I could somehow collect that whole abstract notion and bundle it in a bag. Then give it the...

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The Worst Story Ever Told

    Dear Reader, I would like to share something very dear to my heart.  I’ve mentioned the story that Erica, Bri, and I wrote in middle school before.  I think that its beautiful awfulness needs to finally be unearthed.     Let me set the scene.  I met Erica in seventh grade.  She wrote; other than my Young Author projects from elementary school, horrendous attempts at poetry, and childish journals, I had never gotten past the idea stage.  Erica, benign dictator that she was, took it upon herself to get me and the rest of our band of friends into storytelling.  She announced, one day, that we were all going to write a story together.  We were each supposed to pick a mythological creature to be our protagonist.  I chose...

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Social Media Marketing & the Writer

I returned to blogfests this week. Oh, so much fun! I write a passage on Writing Worlds, then go and read other entries, comment, and so forth. The comment-love is easy to come by for blogfests, and they seriously boost traffic to your blog. But that isn't the best part. Reading awesome entries from the other participants and finding other authors in your genre certainly feels good. Then there's the critiques. Sometimes I get really good responses, and many times I find a lot of support. It's really easy for me to see everything wrong in my writing, and very hard to be happy with it, so positive feedback is just as essential as a thorough critique. It might be my personality, I'm more ready to believe negative evaluations to be reality than compliments :P Then I find authors/writers...

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How I Avoid Writing

When I've reached a block in storytelling, one of my favorite diversions is to organize.  I have two big writing binders: one of current projects and another of past.  The past binder includes dearly departed stories like the old Morgana chronicles (started by Erica, another friend, and me in the 8th grade) and the far bettter but still unfinishable Revenge (written by the three of us at a slightly higher level of talent).  Hundreds of pages of Arylle  ideas and drafts fill the front half of the binder.  Tucked in the back are drawings from days of olde when I liked to pretend that I possessed a modicum of artistic ability.  These also mark a period of my writing when I was so bad at developing character that I spent more time debating about what they wore than...

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What is Art?

We writers are prompted to put pen to paper or tap messages on keyboards, for one reason. We have this overwhelming need for self-expression. Sometimes, in my case, the need to express self muted over time. I started writing, like many people, because I had issues. But after watching Loranna fight with her father and Dezy having no father...and so many other elements that reflected my own life...I took those characters and their stories and locked them up entirely. But the damage was done. My imagination gave birth to a world, and the characters were alive in my head. I couldn't always identify with their issues, but as I have gotten older I've learned how to express them better. Them, being the characters. To me art is about communicating. It is one of those things we assume...

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Posted in: California writers,craft of writing,sylvanopolis

Broken Hearts

Today, for the millionth time, I made the mistake of going back and reading parts of my first novel again.  Seriously, this will be the love affair that haunts me for life. And good God I am so pretentious sometimes it's worrisome. -Meli...

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Where I Write

Hi! Haven't posted in awhile. Life assaulted me lately, hitting me from all sides. I have become a ghost, lurking around my virtual spaces, but never interacting. So with a *shove* I'm going to kick my butt in gear! :P Where do I write? Anywhere really. Right now, I am sitting on my Ikea couch. My guy is playing a game. There is a lamp on behind me and a fan running under the living room window. I find that where I write has changed overtime. The first time I mastered the whole Butt-In-Chair scenario I was 17. I had just graduated High School, I had a crappy draft of a 1st novel tucked away, and was determined to crank out a "sequel." I woke up at 7am every morning that summer. I ate my cereal, poured tea--Captain's Stash Chai--turned on Lorena McKennit (changed up the albums,...

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