New blog that anyone can post to (sort of)

I have decided to start a new blog, but this time it is for anyone to submit their writing to. The intention is to post short storiesw, poems, reviews act that have sometthing to do with OZ and eventually (read hopefully if I get enough good submissions) publish it in a zine. Which is something I have been wanting to do for a while.

Below is the first post reported here so that anyone cane get an idea of what it is about. The blog can be found at http://ozshortstories.blogspot.com/.

Welcome to the new blog that I have created for anyone to share their short stories, poems, chapter viewing, book reviews or anything that really relates in any way to writing and storytelling. My intention is to maybe get enough good quality stories together to start publishing a zine on a regular basis.

I know that there are a lot of other sites out there that do the same kind of thing but I thought I’d create one for Australian stories. You don’t particularly have to be Australian but whatever you want to post should, in some way, relate back to Australia. However that is the only genre that applies. Your story could be sci fi, romance, detective, erotic, fantasy, children or even an erotic supernatural romance set in the distance future that involves solving a crime. As long as it has something to do with Australia. In fact I encourage you to submit any type of genre that you care. I like variety.

There are a couple of rules, this first being related to Australia. The second is I am in no way an editor so don’t submit anything until it is ready to be published on site. I will read the story and maybe correct any spelling mistakes that I see but that’s about it. And even then I will contact you prior to making the actual change.

I have friends who do edit and a really good at it, and I will be employing their help when it actually comes to publishing the zine, but until then the editing is up to you. On that note though if I think that the story is bad I may not publish it on the website. But it would have to be really bad for me to do that. And I have read some bad ones.

On that note if I put your submission up on this website it does not automatically mean you will get published in the zine. But there is a good chance.

Thirdly don’t expect payment unless I actually publish your story in a zine. And even then I won’t be paying much unless the zine does really well. I’m doing this for free just so anyone can get their stories out there and published. With the current situation where printed books are going it is getting harder and harder to get short stories published so think of this as a chance to get your work out there.

If you are interested and want to submit a story contact me at Jamie.hodder1@gmail.com. You must include your name (or the name you want credit for your submission to go under), a contact email address, the story, poem, book review or whatever it is you want published on the website. Oh yes and any tags you want your submission to go under. This is a blog after all.

Pledge

It would seem to anybody who actually reads this blog that I haven’t yet got the hang of using social network media. Not because I don’t understand it or couldn’t be bothered, I have had a blog on LiveJournal since it pretty much started, but because I don’t usually have anything interesting to say. Or so I think.

I have read other journals such as Fernarcler, whose post are insightful, full of her love of life and a reflection on her resolve to live life to the fullest. I am envious of her poetic ability. I can never write poems, the cadence always seems off when I write them. Which means when I read her beautiful poems I get that much more out of them. Plus she’s pretty as well. The full package really.

So I have made a resolve of my own. If I am to commit to using social networking media then by gosh I am going to do it to the fullest. So here is my pledge. To myself more then anyone else.

I, Jamie Hodder, hereby state that I will update this blog on a regular basis, regardless if I have anything to say, and be funny, insightful, charismatic, intelligent, spell correctly (so far failing, thank you spell check), and generally say things so people can say when they are standing near the water cooler “Did you read Jamie’s blog last night. He is sooo funny. I swear I wet myself laughing.”

Hmm maybe I don’t want to be responsible for incontinence but words to that affect will do.

So let’s see how that goes then.

Until next time

White page of death....well idealessness

It’s been a while since I posted and to tell the truth I sort of forgot about this Blog. I originally started it when I came across it accidently when I was checking out the capability of Google and found out that, because I have a Gmail address I also have a Blog site as well. Since I had the Blog I thought I might as well use it to record some thoughts and see what happens.

Sometimes when I write I come across the dreaded blank page syndrome. That is where I open a new Word document and nothing comes to mind to write, and any of the ideas that I have written down in my little notepad when inspiration hits don’t fire up my imagination. I have read several articles and book chapters from different writers on how to combat this but these techniques only work occasionally for me.

The most consistent technique is one that I have come across myself, and that is changing the medium in which I write. That is, instead of using word I will write in a notebook, or talk into my phone to record a story or, now, blog about an idea. This may not be a big revelation for most writers but it has been a huge help for me. For some reason changing the medium changes the way I think and so the writer’s block goes away. It also changes the type of stories that I write. I tend to write more contemporary novels on Word, Sci Fi/fantasy on paper, history on voice recordings and twisted stories on the blog (as stated in an earlier post I have two blogs. I use the other one for ideas as it is under a pseudonym) and once I write a 1^st person introspective story in excel, just to see if that would work. It didn’t but the story idea is still there when I want to try it in another medium.

As a technophile I find it ironic that I write Sci Fi on paper but that just seems to work best for me. As lazy speller I also find I make a lot of spelling mistakes on paper. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing as that ends up making exotic sounding place and people names to use, but it can be difficult sometimes when I get obsessed with correcting all my spelling mistakes on paper. I can’t wait for the day they invent paper with a delete button It will save a lot of crossing out. I’m just glad that Blogs such as this one have spell check on it as well. I am becoming a very lazy speller indeed.

Anyway I am using this as a way of procrastinating at the moment and should get back into finishing editing my latest story. There are a few competitions coming up that it would be good for and these things don’t edit themselves. Unfortunately.

Until next time