Posted on by Laura Lee

“Ink and Voices,” a Mini-Review

cropped-be-creative-creative-creativity-256514     Perhaps my skepticism about poetry being ALIVE was too skeptical?  I am finding many fine literary magazines and communities, online and in paper, if I just take the time to look about a bit.  What’s different for me, however, is how many of the publications are online only or mainly online.  For an oldster like me who loves to learn and use technology, that’s fine.  I am just happy that literacy in all its forms appears to be thriving.

One publication I just found is Ink & Voices, which can be found here: Ink & Voices.

Ink and Voices acknowledges that the internet is full of places to share writing and art, but states they are different in that:

   Ink & Voices is an online publication and community for artists and writers. We are all about original and unapologetic voices, and providing a space for you to express your originality and humanness. We love pieces that are honest, raw and original.

This publication has three main sections, one for Mind, one for Body, and one for Soul.  Yes, they are brave enough to use those terms in this sometimes snide and toocooltoshowemotions society.   I found mainly fiction and artwork there, but liked what I saw and liked what I read.  Perhaps I just couldn’t find the poetry, but I did look. Nevertheless, Ink and Voices is accepting submissions or writing and art and has a separate category for poetry, all through Submittable.com.   The positive aspects here are that your work is read or viewed “blind,” and judged on its merit rather than your bio or name, or lack of a name in publishing.

I didn’t see a May or June issue, but they are still accepting submissions on a no deadline basis through Submittable.com, meaning they are paying to keep submission coming in.

I am going to investigate this new site more and consider submitting some poetry.  I know I’ll be viewing the artwork there.

If you create “honest, raw, and original” artwork, including written work, why not give Ink and Voices a view?  I personally like to support new literary ventures as well as the more-established ones.

Thanks for reading!

Laura Lee

Posted on by Laura Lee

Fourteen Pieces of Writing Out for Submission and…

woman-typing-writing-windows   Thirteen poems and one piece of nonfiction are “out” for consideration.  I’ve submitted to established literary journals as well as journals about to publish their FIRST issue!

My goal, however, is to read and write more.  That’s how I can learn and grow as a writer and a person, I believe.  While it’s fun to submit, it can overtake the important activities of actually reading good literature and writing more.

Do you find submitting pieces of writing helps your writing or hinders it?

Good luck to those who are submitting!  I’ll keep posting links to new sites I find.  I have found the “Discover” feature of Submittable.com to be helpful in finding new (to me) sites, and then those sites lead to more sites.

Thanks for reading.

Laura Lee

Posted on by Laura Lee

Submissions this Week and Writing Outside my Usual Genre

marketing-man-person-communication   I do enjoy tracking my submissions via submittable.com.  If you are a writer, this site makes it quite easy to submit your writing and to track it: Submittable

If you don’t yet have an account, you can set up a free account and enter your author bio in a matter of minutes.

Yesterday I wrote outside of my genre and submitted a peace poem and a short nonfiction piece written totally in dialogue.  Six submissions this week, three rejections.

It was fun to try writing entirely in dialogue; good thing I’ve listened to teens talk over the years!

How are your submissions going?

Thanks for reading, writers!

Laura Lee

Posted on by Laura Lee

Writers: a nice feature of submittable.com

typewriter-vintage-old-vintage-typewriter-163116     Writers!  Perhaps you knew about this great feature of Submittable, but I did not until today.   Submittable.com is a site where some publishers collect submissions to journals and contests, reply to the writers,  accept submissions, reject submissions.  It’s a way to read submissions “blindly,” without seeing an author’s name.

I like using Submittable, since it also helps me keep track of what piece of writing I’ve submitted where.

What I just discovered, however, is a great find: the “discover” section of the website.  There I found many journals listing their requirements, deadlines, etc.  All in one place.

I also found sites I now like to read from (is that the term…read from? Read there?)

So, writers, if you haven’t discovered the DISCOVER feature of Submittable yet, here you go: Discover Opportunities Submittable.  If you don’t have an account there yet, you will need to create a free account.

What are some useful writing tools you have discovered?

Thanks for reading!

Laura Lee