Your Turn

Thanks to all of you for reading the blog over the past couple of months. I've had my say in over 40 posts. Now it's your turn.

Do you know of a resource that might benefit the group? Do you have a story to share about your writing or reading life? Do have a tale of woe or a success story about getting published? Have you written poetry, short fiction, or essays?

Don't be shy. Step forward and share it on the blog. (For right now, posting to the blog means sending your material to Ellen and me in an email.)

If you're comfortable with computers and email, please volunteer to help administer this site. In just the few minutes each month it takes to publish "Our Stories" and homepage blog posts, you'll be making a huge contribution to the writing group.

Heading west and signing off for now.

—Kathy

Wattpad: Social Writing

There's a new (well-financed) platform out there that helps aspiring writers connect directly with readers: Wattpad. The online social reading/writing platform already has over 5 millions stories posted, and millions of viewers visit each month. Investors see it as the YouTube of writing.

The service is free, and by joining Wattpad, writers can upload their novels a chapter at a time and get comments from readers. Some stories have had tens of thousands of views and comments. Readers get to have a participatory role in the creation of stories that's rare outside of writing groups and the publishing industry.

Weekly Roundup: The Craft and the Business

Conferences
This fall, local Zürich writers and editors from Nuance Words are sponsoring WriteCon Zürich 2012. I love the tagline: ". . . because everyone can write."


Contests

Flash your fiction with Writer Unboxed's 7 Sundays of Summer Flash Fiction Contest. Every Sunday a new image will be posted on Writer Unboxed. Just put your story (250 words or less) in the comments section. The competition deadline for the first week has passed, but it's not too late to add your story and then continue with the new image on Sunday, 8 July. 

After revving up with flash fiction, why not submit a somewhat longer story to the Writer's Digest Short Short Story Competition? The deadline is November 15. If you're a genre writer (whether romance, crime, young adult, or science fiction), check out the competitions in these categories (deadline September 14).