Love of Writing discussion

I'm thinking about doing a second volume of our 31 Days of October Stories.

This will be primarily broken into the same three categories: cute stories, scary, and terrifying. The theme will be Halloween and October frights, so either Halloween or October must be in the story as a setting piece.

Stories will need to be submitted before July 31st. (extended to August 4th, Friday)

So what do you think? Anyone interested?

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Genre: Fantasy, Thriller, Sci-Fi, Paranormal, Mystery, Crime, Romance, or a mixture (BASICALLY, anything but erotica)

This will be primarily broken into the same three categories: cute stories, scary, and terrifying. The theme will be Halloween and October frights, so either Halloween or October must be in the story as a setting piece.

Rules and Directions -

* Type in English - between 500 to 3,000 words; no erotica and no profanity.

* Post your title, by line, and word count total in the first line of your story/poem/article.

* Upon acceptance of a short story, authors will provide an Afterword and/or bio for their story title with a word count of about 100 words (to fit on one page in the book). You may include a list of previous author publications.

* Each Author will be able to purchase paperbacks “at cost” in addition to shipping cost; Authors are not required to purchase anything. The Author can mark up a book price on their own purchased copies; the Author can sell their own books; the Author can make a profit this way. For regular retail book sales, the Licensee maintains publication profit to use for anthology cost production, promotion, and if sales are enough, for marketing materials.

* Writers are responsible for their own copyright. Authors keep all rights. PRIVACY POLICY IS ENFORCED. COPYRIGHTS AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS BELONG TO INDIVIDUAL AUTHORS. THIS CONTEST DOES NOT GRANT ANY PERSON THE RIGHT OR LICENSE TO COPY OR USE OTHER STORIES. EACH STORY IS PROTECTED BY THE COPYRIGHT OF THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR.

Timeline: STORY SUBMISSIONS CLOSED AFTER July 31st
*Edits by author group/leaders by Aug 15th
*Returns for author acceptance to approve changes between Aug 15-20th
*Cover design by August 30th
*Author contracts and acceptance of story edits returned by September 1st with Afterword/Bio if not already returned.
*Formatting and up loading complete by September 30th.
*Pre-launch and marketing from September 15th to October 1st.
*Launch, and full on marketing from October 1st to November 5th.

Purpose - The main purpose of this project is some fiction writers are looking to participate in an anthology in addition to sharpen plot and character skills, collect your own short stories, receive good feedback, make a good connection with other writers, and take a short break from your current novel to get a fresh view when you return to it.

Halloween Story Starters
• As I looked at the Jack-O-Lantern, it seemed to look back at me, and then...
• Your child won’t stop crying and screaming in the middle of the night. You visit her grave to ask her why.
• There was a low growl from behind the bushes - its eyes glowed red.
• I thought there were no such things as supernatural beings until I met…
• The zombie was walking through my front lawn...
• As I reached into the bag of candy, I thought I heard a voice saying, “Pick me, pick me! (finish the story)
• I was putting my Halloween costume on when I heard something moving in the closet…
• It's been watching me for hours now... Sometimes I catch glimpses of its reflection on the computer screen, but I dare not turn around...
• Write a spooky story to tell around the campfire. Remember, you want to build suspense using onomatopoeia and alliteration. Don’t forget to have a big finale to frighten everyone who is listening.

What Ifs?
• What if you became the monster or character you were dressed as on Halloween night?
• What if there really were monsters under the bed? And one impersonated your child?
• What would you do if you saw a ghost who wanted you to follow him/her?
• What would you do if you heard a scream from an old abandoned house?
• What would happen if you took a walk through the cemetery at night and witnessed the dead rising?
• You just found out that your best friend is a mad scientist. What crazy experiment is she or he working on?

If you would like some writing prompt IMAGES, please go to Glenda’s Pinterest page where she has saved some images specifically for 31 Days of October (and others). www.pinterest.com/glendagreynolds/amw...

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND – that our goal is to create an October/Halloween anthology. We do not have a book cover as of yet. We are still talking about all of this. Suggestions are welcome.

AND YES... I stole most of this from the previous anthology disscusion. Thanks Glenda.

I am

Interesting? Now are you looking for poetry on Halloween for this Anthology or just stories?

I have the one I started last year,Would love to finish it, Are you set on 1000 words?

Very cool. What's the timeline? By the way, I recently installed Grammarly on my laptop here as well as a Chrome extension. A "G" is in the bottom right of this text box and suggests corrections while I type. Just thought I'd put that out there for any writers that would like to try Grammarly. I saw that author Jerry Jenkins had tweeted a lady's blog who mentioned it. www.grammarly.com

Shae, thanks for the invite, but this year will have to say no thanks. I'm busily producing one anthology now and working on a story to contribute to another independent of W750. I saw this linked to "31 Days" and thought you were going to say something like 100,000 copies sold to date, or you and some authors are appearing on national TV.. I hope you get several participants for the Sequel!
David Russell

David, cool. will let you know where to sub stories soon.

Christene, Yes. Looking for Poems as well as stories. Same rules apply. Although if you run shorter than 500 words, I would understand.

Glenda, Timeline is all stories to me by July 31st. Gives me 15 days to finish edits. Acceptance of submission with contract (and edit approval request) and/or declining of submissions will be emailed between the 15th and 20th of August. formatting of accepted submissions and preparing of publishing will be from September 1 to 15th. The goal is to publish October 1st.

And I have Grammarly for my firefox too. Sometimes I have my doubts about it though.

David Russell, Thanks, I understand. And no, we don't have that many sales but we are continuing to make a few every month. Hoping the second one will spur more sales for both.

Everyone, I am looking for 1 - 3 submissions for every author, by the way. So more than one is great.

Shae looking over your notes today and noted that there was a request for 500-3000 words for the submissions, is this correct?

I will contribute to this year's anthology Shae.

I am interested, and I am sure I can come up with a good new story for this. Yet I made a good submission in the 750 Writers group which was used on LinkedIn at the time, that surely would fit with this, and I very much would like it to be really considered for inclusion in this, and I would accept thoughts for how it might be edited for it.

Yes, Christene. You are correct.

Rejoice. Great. Love to have you on board.

Fred. Glad to hear it. The more the merrier.

Sounds like I need to get a link out for where to send submissions. I'll set that up this weekend and let everyone know.

Shae wrote: "Yes, Christene. You are correct.

Rejoice. Great. Love to have you on board.

Fred. Glad to hear it. The more the merrier.

Sounds like I need to get a link out for where to send submissions. I'l..."

Okay I am in ....getting on with it now for the deadline is fast looming...

I loved the last edition.

I've installed Grammarly. Love it!
Glenda wrote: "Very cool. What's the timeline? By the way, I recently installed Grammarly on my laptop here as well as a Chrome extension. A "G" is in the bottom right of this text box and suggests corrections wh..."

Glenda, the Pinterest links for the prompts is not recognized. Glenda wrote: "Very cool. What's the timeline? By the way, I recently installed Grammarly on my laptop here as well as a Chrome extension. A "G" is in the bottom right of this text box and suggests corrections wh..."

I see the prompts. Thanks.Shae wrote: "I'm thinking about doing a second volume of our 31 Days of October Stories.

This will be primarily broken into the same three categories: cute stories, scary, and terrifying. The theme will be Ha..."

I am excited to be involved in this project. I want both books to be experienced. I would suggest that the covers be similar because they will compliment each other. I loved that first cover. I am happily writing now!

Hi Shae,

I am interested and will start working on my short story.

i guys
I am having trouble with Kindle. I can't get a price on 31 Days Vol. 1. I read the sample but cannot find the "buy me" button. I should have gotten it when it first came out.

A nd David Brown, "I'm going to get one of yours, which do you recommend?

https://www.amazon.com/31-Days-Octobe... wrote: "i guys
I am having trouble with Kindle. I can't get a price on 31 Days Vol. 1. I read the sample but cannot find the "buy me" button. I should have gotten it when it first came out.

A nd David Br..."

I have to admit I am just now reading the first book. However, I would be honored to participate in the sequel. I don't know if I will get more than one but I will give it my best effort.

O K, Russell, I was close. Thanks for the tip.

Patricia, Thanks again. I got the book. Shelly

Shelly wrote: "i guys
I am having trouble with Kindle. I can't get a price on 31 Days Vol. 1. I read the sample but cannot find the "buy me" button. I should have gotten it when it first came out.

A nd David Br..."
Depends on what you like. Twisted tales it is a collection of short horror stories with twisted endings, Horrible Sanity was on the best Sellers list. It is poetry and dark tales.

Shae, where do we send the stories when completed?

Shelly, you are so welcome.Shelly wrote: "Patricia, Thanks again. I got the book. Shelly"

I added the prompts the other day as so many were interested. I'm glad to see lots of new and returning authors.

for now, send all submissions to me at slphamrick@gmail.com or s.hamrick.books@sbcglobal.net with the heading "31Days Vol 2 submission".

and thank you, Patricia, for answering questions. I can use all the help I can get. :)

Shae, I sent you two stories. did you get them?

Share, I would like to submit. Shall see if I can do so. Busy summer.
- Sandy Carlson

I'm about 400 words into a horror story for the 31 Days. I am slow especially since I have to use the screen keyboard. About the middle of July, I'll send it and see if you can use it. Thanks for the opportunity.

I have your stories, David.

there is plenty of time left for anyone else that is working on stories to get them in. they don't have to be polished. we can work on that the first of August, so don't worry. just enjoy the creating. let me know if you need any help.

I just sent my story. I hope I get better feedback than what the hubby gave me.

Working on first draft of mine...trying to keep the words to 1000 is challenging as I have another idea to insert into it . Already finished a Halloween Poem. Are you looking for 3000 max from each writer....just asking Shae?

How about a scary poem?

David wrote: "How about a scary poem?"

I loved your Gitchy Goomy poem you posted on the April "Into The Woods" challenge www.goodreads.com/topic/show/18551410...

Thanks, that one is in my agents hand now, working to be a children's book.

poems, songs, stories, articles, and black and white art are all welcome, David.

Including that witch story from this months challenge if you want to sub it with a few added words on how he feels being trapped there before he realizes he is "free".

And on that note, any story written for a previous challenge month, that isn't under contract somewhere, is also welcome to be submitted.

Have some stories coming in so far. Looking for a few more. feel free to contact me if you have questions.

slphamrick@gmail.com or s.hamrick.books@sbcglobal.net or message me here at Goodreads.

now, off on my vacation week. see you all monday.

and yes, i'm sorry, anything from 500 words to 3000 is good but if you run over a bit (or under), i'm not going to say no. send it to me and let me have a look. the object is more to have stories that have a halloween theme that readers can enjoy. and if its just plain scary, thats ok too.

Thanks for the update Share. Enjoy your vacation.

I know I just joined this group, but is it okay if I submit a story?

Have any stories for this month come in? i'm working on one

Hakon, absolutely! Please do submit one or more short stories. And welcome to the group.

I finished story 1 half through story 2. :) Look out July 31st. I am looking at you!!

Glenda wrote: "Hakon, absolutely! Please do submit one or more short stories. And welcome to the group."

Thanks Glenda. :-)

Glenda is it the same drop box from last year?
Are the forms In There too?