Rod Raglin's Blog

Blooms briefly bejewelled by raindrops. Click link to watch the slideshow

https://animoto.com/play/igM1L8JPrVtxdLxgNYhIIQ

More photos of summer gardens at https://rodraglin.smugmug.com/Flowerswith-attitude

#summergardens #summerflowers #raingarden #raindrops

Sunset Drama: A of Ten Vancouver Sunset Photographs now featured on Open Arts Forum

Sunset Drama: A Gallery of Ten Vancouver Sunset Photographs by Rod Raglin

More sunsets and other stuff at https://rodraglin.smugmug.com/

Two of my photographs have been selected winners in Lumen Art Gallery’s, WILDFLOWERS International Art Competition.

Wildflower Chaos – The Creatio Magna Certificate
Singled Out – The Emerging Virtuoso Certificate

It’s an honour to have these two images included with some remarkable works by an impressive group of international creatives.

According to the gallery, this competition “received an extraordinary number of submissions from around the world” making it one of “our most vibrant and inspiring competitions to date.”

The gallery notes describe the exhibition as reflecting “the beauty of wild flowers themselves—each unique, each growing in its own way, each contributing to a breathtaking landscape of creativity.”

To view the entire exhibit, visit https://www.lumenart.gallery/winners-of-wildflowers?utm_campaign=4931167c-213d-442e-96f2-ffac555d93fe&utm_source=so&utm_medium=mail&cid=0bc30318-0c6b-43d0-98b4-f4ebed9bda05

Lumen Art Gallery is a platform that invites talented artists to participate in monthly competitions.

To view more of my photographs including landscapes (nature and urban), birds, sunsets and more blooms check out my portfolio at https://rodraglin.smugmug.com/

#wildflowers #ArtCompetition #Winners #LumenArtGallery #ContemporaryArt #InternationalArtists #photography

Crow Portraits – A compilation of 6 of my photographs capturing the character and charisma of crows in candid closeups is being featured now on The Front Page of Open Arts Forum. View them now at https://openartsforum.com/crow/

See more photographs birds, including crows, at https://rodraglin.smugmug.com

@openartsforum #CrowPortraits#Crows#Birds#avian#flight#photography#birdphotography#wildlifephotography#crows#GenusCorvus, #familyCorvidae

The paperback edition of Finding Meaning, Making Sense – An Anthology of Short Stories and Poetry – 2022-2025 has been published. The E-book was previously published on May 1, 2026.

This graphic was created by AI from the synopsis I provided. Am I the only author that finds this new technology utterly amazing? It’s also incredibly seductive – I mean, some of the metaphors it comes up with at too good to, well, at least adapt. I have and am currently participating in a few (human) critique group and I find AI is at least as good or not better at constructive criticism. The response is immediate and I don’t have to reciprocate.

Since many of the works in this anthology have been previously published, the majority of publications will not accept them. If I want them to continue to be read, self-publishing was the only option.

I suspect most of the opposition to AI is coming from industry professionals, editors and marketers who are, if they’re not already, becoming redundant. Marketing is especially susceptible as indicated by the dozens of spam emails I receive daily. I’m using AI to help launch FMMS, though it didn’t make a difference in the relaunch of my five-book Mattie Saunders Series.

This anthology consists of 52 works, 27 poems and 25 short stories, and to make it easier for readers to navigate to a specific work, the table of contents of the e-book edition provides a direct link to each work. Simply click on the title and you’re transported to that specific poem or story. Currently the e-book is tracking at #296 in Poetry Anthologies (Kindle Store) and 10,938 in Short Story Anthologies on Amazon.ca. What that means is irrelevant since my only benchmark of a book’s success is sales–and there have been none.

Navigating publishing the paperback edition proved to be more challenging than the e-book. Having established page numbers in the table of contents, late edits that added to the length of some works threw them out of order. When I went in to correct this, I discovered that the Kindle Create file the book had been formatted on had disappeared!

I have subsequently (painfully) discovered that the KCB (Kindle Create Book) file is your only editable project file. You can only open and edit this file inside Kindle Create. If you save it to your hard drive, you’ll find you can’t open it and furthermore, you’ve inadvertently deleted the KCB editable file.

If this is not enough to drive you crazy, you’re a better/stronger/more patient person than I am. Rather than re-import and reformat the entire manuscript, I capitulated. Halfway through the paperback edition the page numbers on the table of contents no longer correspond to the beginning of the story or poem. It’s close–a page or two, but not bang on.

Somehow, I don’t think this will make or break the success of the book.

Both the e-book and the paperback are now available at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU

A gallery of 8 of my images of lilacs is being featured on the front page of the Open Arts Forum site.

View them at https://openartsforum.com/forum/threads/love-of-lilacs.35895/

For more photos of gardens, urban and natural landscapes, the street and skyscrapers, the moon, mountains and more visit https://rodraglin.smugmug.com/

My short story, Invasive Species, has been published in the Unnamed Journal 46: Electric Barbarella.

“Something’s growing the thawing tundra. Something we’ve never seen before–and there’s no stopping it.”

Described as “A swirl of Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy, Pulp, and snark, served hot quarterly,” this edition of the Unnamed Journal is available on Amazon at

#newfiction @unnamedjournal #shortstories#amreading#readingcommunity

Back in July 2025, I submitted for consideration three poems and a short story on the theme of resistance to Awatum Press for their publication to be entitled, Resistance: An Anthology of Overcoming. My short story entitled, They, was accepted.

That began a long saga that included the publisher entering into negotiations with “Museo del Prado, the most prestigious art institute in the world” to reproduce of the Goya painting, “Second of May 1808” for the cover.  When I’d all but given up hope of this project ever being completed, I received an email announcing the release and order link.

https://www.awatumpress.co/product-page/resistance-an-anthology-of-overcoming

According to the publisher, “Our goal was to have the names of the contributors front and center, even if it meant redesigning to meet the museum’s requirements. We have really put our best foot forward to position your work, not based on your writing accolades, but on the merit of your idea.”

Presented as a “A thorough narrative on overcoming. Five novelists. Five poets. One volume,” the publisher provides the following description of the anthology:

“Resistance shows up in ways that reflect how we are human: triumph in insurmountable odds; survival within the world’s impersonality toward us; getting out of bed when everything tells us nothing is worth it. Resistance is as human to us as our need to be in community. This collection examines resistance from a narrative lens to gift the world a weighted embodiment of the theme.”

I thought They was a pretty good short story, but “a narrative lens to gift the world a weighted embodiment of the theme”?

@awatumpress @museoprado #awatumpress #MuseodelPrado #ResistanceAnAnthologyofOvercoming

My photograph, Spring Bud, has been published in “Buds & Blooms: Volume 2”, 14th Issue of the Cosmic Daffodil Journal. CDJ celebrates all forms of creative expression: art, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, short stories, paintings, and sculptures. Through writing, painting, and sculpting, they “weave worlds and evoke strong emotions, inviting readers to embark on magical journeys. Like the daffodil symbolizing renewal, our art signifies resilience and new beginnings even in the darkest times.”

To download a copy of the Ebook visit https://cosmic-daffodil.squarespace.com/ebook-collections To support them visit https://ko-fi.com/cosmicdaffodiljournal

It begins with a request from what appears to be a credible literary agent.

Hi,

I hope you’re doing well.

“I recently came across your work and was genuinely impressed…always interested in connecting with writers… Are you currently represented? If not, I would welcome the opportunity to review more of your material and explore the possibility of working together. Please feel free to share your manuscript or let me know the best way to proceed.”

This is yet another scam targeting naive and vulnerable aspiring new authors.

This one wasn’t difficult to detect, at least for me, simply because reputable literary agents very seldom (never) solicit self-published authors. In fact, the majority don’t even respond to query letters.

The next step was to check their email address, and in this case, it was a Gmail account. This was further proof that the request was from a scammer since agents affiliated with an agency use the company’s domain email address.

Example:

Agent@gmail.com is a scammer

– is legitimate (most likely)

Since this scam was new to me, I’ll decided to play along hoping they’d divulge what they were after and reveal the convoluted manipulations they use to achieve this goal so I can describe to my readers.

It turned out to be an interesting discussion that included such topics as what’;s necessary to be a successful author (craft plus luck), the merits of traditional publisher as opposed to self-publishing (credibility as opposed to obscurity), the Dunner-Kruger effect (you’re so stupid you think you’re smart or as it applies to new writers you’re so bad you think you’re good) and even some tips on how to improve my writing.

After going back and forth, it became very apparent the scammer was using AI to generate its responses – generic rather than specific answers to direct questions, errors in punctuation and formatting, however, all things considered, I’ve way worse conversations (not as informed, less literate, totally delusional) with real authors and zero tips on improving my writing.

In the end the conversation ended without any clear indication what the scammer wanted? I can’t imagine how they could benefit from receiving a work in progress manuscript unless the con was to get the author to pay for editing or publishing. If that was their intention, why not come right out and ask for it like so many other hybrid (vanity) publishers do?

In today’s online world it’s best to trust no one, unless proven otherwise.