Dear Wannabe Guest Bloggers (and other news!)

I love you all. I really do. But here’s the thing: I don’t actually know most of you. So here’s the deal.

Until now, I haven’t set up any guidelines for guest post submissions. I liked the open-door philosophy: if you write it, I will take it! But I’m receiving a lot of prefab propositions that all sound eerily alike and don’t lead back to a blogger. Instead, it’s always someone who just wants to advertise a commercial website. Which is fine. But that’s not why I do this.

I want to support the blogging community. So to guest post for me, you have to have your own blog. It doesn’t have to be about writing, or reading, or anything specific. It can be about rutabagas. In fact, your guest post can even be about rutabagas- if you’re very clever and you somehow make it relevant.

This also helps to ensure that I’m receiving original content. If I know where you live, so to speak, I can trust you more. If I can trust you, then I can ask my readers to trust you, and ultimately this trust upholds the integrity of my site.

Sound fair? I think it does.

Otherwise, my guidelines remain the same. Include a bio and a photo and a good, original post (recycled or new- doesn’t matter), and I will let you hang out at this blog as often as you like. I’ll even give you content in return, if you want it.

In other news!

The talented Connor at Cities of the Mind- Freelance Writing recently reviewed this blog. You can read the review and his other reviews HERE. This is definitely a good place to get overviews on potentially awesome blogs. And who doesn’t want an introduction to that? Connor’s reviews are concise, informative, and accurate. It’s like going blog shopping with a blog expert. I doubt he’d claim to be an expert, though, but then that’s part of the reason we like him, right?

 

Also, speaking of guest blogging, I’m the guest this week at the Gritty Blog. Some of my regular readers might recognize this post about Believability in Fiction. It’s a good one, I think, and it was a fun one to write.

And speaking of GCP, I’d like to give a shout-out to some of our writers. Check out:

Jodi McClure’s blog, “The Swing”

Cynthia Ravinski’s author site

Will Kosh’s author site

I’d also like to note that I’m looking forward to reading and reviewing Will Kosh’s book, Little Winged One: The First Book of Guardians. There are other books on my “to-review” digital stack, too, I know- I haven’t forgotten you… One I should probably mention is Liz Schulte’s Secrets: Guardian Trilogy Book One (what’s with all the guardian stuff, I wonder?) Out of the five authors that participated in the Blog Tour de Force, she was the only one who emailed me about a review. And I’m not including the prefab mass email requests. But honestly, these authors all gave their books away for free; of course they all deserve reviews. Secrets just got bumped up the list because I appreciate the personable approach.

One other thing. My son turned ONE YEAR OLD yesterday. Where did this year go?! My little monkey is growing up. He’s not even technically a baby any longer- he’s a toddler. I have a toddler. What?!

 

Emotobooks

What is an emotobook?

In short, it’s fiction peppered with abstract art. EmotoSerials are novella or novel length, divided into separate installments. The finished story arcs are called seasons, and each installment is an issue- like a chapter but with its own conflict and resolution (think of TV episodes.) Serials are published monthly. There are also EmotoSingles, which are kind of like short stories- same concept but without serialization.

Despite the brevity of each emotobook, each issue is written and illustrated to engage the reader on a deeper emotional level than traditional prose. Writers use tension to build scenes specifically to be illustrated.

And if you’re a writer, know that you don’t have to submit a story already in emotobook form. The editors at Grit City Publications (myself included) can help you adapt your story into the emotobook style.

The illustrators are also an integral part of the creative team, because they interpret each scene and react through expressionistic art. These abstract illustrations enhance five to seven scenes per emotobook.

If you’ve read the handbook and you’re interested, or if you just have questions, shoot me an email at aj2185@gmail.com.

For a closer look at emotobooks, you can check out our maiden publication and namesake, Grit City by Ron Gavalik. Our catalog launch is scheduled for April, so expect additional awesome emotobook titles, such as the Swing Zone serial by Jodi McClure, Lingering in the Woods, a single by Cynthia Ravinski, and Suburbians, a single by William Kosh.