February 28, 2016

“We Have a Particular Relationship with Vowels” The BreakBeat Poets Experience

“We Have a Particular Relationship with Vowels” The BreakBeat Poets Experience

I had no idea what to expect when I decided to attend a poetry reading called “The BreakBeat Poets” at an art gallery. So even though everything that followed was, by definition, “not what I’d expected,” that phrase did little justice to my actual experience. As I entered Uforge Gallery on a balmy Thursday night, I was greeted with the aroma of wine and the sounds of hip-hop music echoing off paintings of men without faces and photographs of women sitting on the floor. A panorama of bodies in motion, buzzing, stretched from wall to wall. The organizers of the event, Papercuts J.P., had a table with the anthology of poems by The BreakBeat Poets and the poets’ individual books for purchase along with tote bags, bookmarks and free wine. I found a singular seat along…

Continue reading →

February 22, 2016

“To Write, To Grow Up” by Rachael Allen

“To Write, To Grow Up” by Rachael Allen

Editor’s Note: Guest Blogger Rachael Allen talks about her experience in Creative Writing Classes.   * * * A good creative writing class feels a bit like growing up. You arrive eager and breathy, whipping out efforts that while earnest are lacking. You listen and admire and emulate. You judge and then learn to empathize. You make friends and feel vulnerable and must continually prove yourself. Through these efforts, if you write and write and write, you hopefully come out with a better sense of yourself and a fat folder of writing on your desktop. I started taking creative writing classes in high school, my school luckily being one with the funds and interest to have an arts program. That class didn’t feel like an academic space; rather, it was a space for me and…

Continue reading →

February 22, 2016

50 Ways to Sell Your Writing — #5: Anthologies

50 Ways to Sell Your Writing — #5: Anthologies

Part 5 of a multi-blog series on how many ways there are for writers of all stripes to make a living doing what they love. Check out #1 here on Fictional Cafe, and #4 on my own blog. Anthologies Anthologies are collections of short stories by several authors, compiled by everybody from major publishing houses to simple Kickstarted projects leveraging the fundraising power of multiple authors. As a reader, chances are you’ve discovered at least one of your favorite writers by encountering her first in an anthology of one kind or another. In a lot of ways, writing a story for an anthology is a lot like writing for a magazine. You find out it exists, you pitch the project, and if they accept you they publish your story in a volume along with several…

Continue reading →

February 12, 2016

The New World of Podcasting

The New World of Podcasting

As we conclude the podcasts of my two novels, Wild Blue Yonder and its sequel, Madrone, we enter into a brave new world: a podcast with extraordinary production values. By that I mean what we call in the business “FX” or special effects. A multi-faceted soundtrack to accompany voices, possessing all the sounds you’d expect to accompany a movie but in a sound-only broadcast: in other words, a podcast. What you’re about to hear, beginning next Monday, February 15, is “The Leviathan Chronicles,” a podcast with the most sophisticated soundtrack I’ve yet to hear in all my days and years of listening to podcasts. Nothing even comes close. I would love to share with you all kinds of details about the many people in the cast, the sound engineering, the energy of the script itself, but the creator,…

Continue reading →

February 9, 2016

A. J. Sidransky On Writing: Crime Fiction or Otherwise

A. J. Sidransky On Writing: Crime Fiction or Otherwise

Editor’s Note: Fictional Café member A. J. Sidransky shares some stories and wisdom from his writing experience. Enjoy! * * * From the time I was a teenager I wanted to be a writer. When I was 17 years old, graduating high school and heading off to college, my parents asked me, “What do you want to do? What do you want to study?” I said I wanted to study English and I wanted to be a writer. “No, no, no, no,” they said. “You need to be able to earn a living and support a family.” I spent more than thirty miserable years in the real estate finance business. Thank god for the great recession. The first thing I will tell you is that a writer, regardless of genre, has to write. If you…

Continue reading →

This is your site

Welcome to the Fictional Café! Your baristas are interested in all genres of short fiction, poetry, excerpts from novels-in-progress, your photographs, art, and audio or video podcasts. We encourage you to share your work for publication in the Fictional Café. Click on the Join/Submit button above to learn more.

Archive

Facebook

This message is only visible to admins.
Problem displaying Facebook posts. Backup cache in use.
Click to show error
Error: (#200) Provide valid app ID Type: OAuthException