How you see this is up to you. Is this the title? Is it the theme? Is this what the punch of the piece is about? These are just something to prompt your own muse to get started.
Day Five
Day Four
How you see this is up to you. Is this the title? Is it the theme? Is this what the punch of the piece is about? These are just something to prompt your own muse to get started.
Day Three
How you see this is up to you. Is this the title? Is it the theme? Is this what the punch of the piece is about? These are just something to prompt your own muse to get started.
Author Spotlight – Justine Johnston Hemmestad
Justine lives in central Iowa. She says creative writing helped me to rehabilitate myself after a 1990 car accident in which I sustained a severe brain injury. She is the mother of seven children, five of them adults now. Her oldest son Bradley created the cover art for a yet unpublished novel about the Three Fates and Macbeth, called “Macbeth’s Spinners” Seen Below.
When asked about writer’s block she responded “I’ve suffered with writer’s block, but writing is so important to my health that I know I need to keep writing, even if its bad. I revise and rewrite later. I treasure the connections I tend to make between storylines.”
Her response to what she does for fun was “I’m never not writing, since it’s part of my health. I also love learning about history and magnanimous people, and I integrate that in my writing. The research I do for stories is one of the most enjoyable parts of writing. I also love reading and learning about classic literature, and I have a Master’s Degree in English Literature.”
Justine has a Facebook Page to keep up with her activities.
Day one
How you see this is up to you. Is this the title? Is it the theme? Is this what the punch of the piece is about? These are just something to prompt your own muse to get started.
November Pad Challenge
Hello!
We like to encourage writing. We love to see the creativity that comes from the indie. So to encourage that creative, we do a PAD {PAD generally stands for Poem A Day but we have made it Prompt A Day} challenge twice a year. For thirty days I will post a prompt a day. You can use them to inspire poetry, stories, or art. We hope that you will decide to share with us your response. Email it to us for the chance to be featured in the newsletter or on the blog. We are excited to see what you create. So check back daily for the next 30 for a new prompt.
Enjoy Creating!
Author Spotlight – Beulah Vega
Also Known as B.F. Vega for horror/fantasy and speculative writing, Beulah has become one of our favorite authors. We just released a chapbook of her poems. We asked a whole bunch of questions as we always do for these. Beulah’s responses all were delightful. I think that I do not want to paraphrase or clean them up so I will share hers like a interview.
ow long have you been a Creative?
I’ve been in theater since I was seven. I’ve been writing since I was sixteen or so.
What or who got you started?
I don’t know. But whoever it is owes me!! 🙂 Seriously, short stories: I have always made up funny scenarios for my friends and I and one day I just started writing them down. Horror/Poetry came to me when I discovered that boys are no good poopy-heads…because I am that mature. 🙂
Why did you choose to be an Indie Author?
I actually sort of fell into it. I like the community that I have found in the various indie publishers that have published my work. I like that once you are in the community it is more supportive than competitive.
Has any of your work been published/shown or do you have a website? If so, where?
Yes. Stories have appeared in Nightmare Whispers, Dark Celebration, Infection, The Legends of Night, Extreme Drabbles of Dread, Haunts & Hellions, and Good Southern Witches. Her poetry has been published in Fae Dreams, The Literary Nest, The Cauldron Anthology, Sage Cigarettes, Resist! With Every Inch and Breath, The Tuna Fish Journal, Hallowzine, Walled Women Voices against Violence, and Blood & Bourbon among others. Her poems have also been performed as part of the Bay Area WTF festival in “Heroines, Harpies, and Harlots: A Woman Speaks” and the Cloverdale Performing Arts “Dead Poet Society, Players in a Pandemic”
If you have a website, what is it?
https://shuffle.do/@BFVega
What do you do for fun? Hobbies?
Cause mischief. Come up with evil Rube Goldberg style schemes to take over the world. Watch Kaiju movies. And I embroider inappropriate sayings on things. Sometimes I make whole quilts out of my inappropriate embroidery.
Where in the world do you live?
Santa Rosa (It’s an hour north of San Francisco)
Do you have family or pets you want to share with us?
Isn’t “family and pets” redundant? I am in-between cats at the moment and trying to trick my roommate into getting a puppy so I can love it and he can take care of it.
Have you ever suffered with writer’s block? If so how do you deal with it?
Not really. I usually have a million things going on at any time. As I write this I have eight shorts, two books, and some essays that I am supposed to be doing instead. I don’t have writers block so much as writers procrastination. And as with all procrastination the answer for me is accountability…so shhhh don’t tell my writing accountability people that I have so much to do and am filling out this survey instead.
(ok Beulah Vega we won’t)
So go check her out! Her poetry is amazing and her stories are better. We look forward to her work everytime!
Author Spotlight : Elana Gomel
Elana started off writing academic papers, but for the last seven has been writing fiction. At seven years old she read a Jules Verne novel and decided that she would write a better one the following year…it took her a slight bit longer.
Elana chooses to be an indie author because as an academic she lives with strict rules and schedules. She wants a bit of creative freedom in her writing. She has 3 novels and more than 60 short stories published in various magazines and anthologies.
For fun she travels, which means that right now, her only hobby is to go over Instagram posts from years past with a glass of wine and tears in her eyes. She lives in California. Previously she lived and worked in Israel, Hong Kong and Italy. Not to mention the fact that she was born in the country that no longer exists: the USSR.
She has two kids who have learned to put up with her flights of fancy through long practice. The Daddy Longlegs who lives in her office will do for a pet because she doesn’t like dogs and is allergic to cats.
We asked about writer’s block and her response was “Every day. And every day I sit in front of my computer and stare it down until the writer’s block scuttles away, only to come back later.” Such a wonderful way of putting it.
See more of Elana by visiting her website.
Follow Friday
Today we ask that you leave in comments great pages that you think we should follow. Be sure to include your own link! 😍
Author Spotlight : Victoria Costello
Victoria is a author living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has been a creative soul for over 20 years now, Wow can you imagine the magic she has created? She said that sitting in trees as a child got her started. That sounds like a fun story to me. She says she writes to connect people to unseen worlds.
She likes to hike, BBQ, cook, read, and hopes to someday be able to travel again. (Don’t we all) She lives with twin female Cats. When creative blocks hit, she just waits them out.
You can find more about Victoria on her website.
Fae Corps Publishing 