Working on a Big Project!
Plus, a book review and book excerpt
Last month, Carolyn Howard-Johnson pitched an idea for a free ebook my way. This particular free ebook would be available to subscribers of my free monthly newsletter, the SPARREW Newsletter. (Check it out here!) I loved the idea and agreed to take it on! Little did I realize just what kind of work lay ahead in getting this thing together.
Carolyn contributes a monthly column called Tricky Edits to this newsletter, and being ever organized and efficient, she sent me her files before leaving for her vacation. I looked it over and I LOVE it! It’s so good! I can’t wait to share it with readers.
But I am including some stuff, too: Issues of newsletters, interviews, column excerpts and book excerpts!
What subscribers will receive is a mammoth ebook that is jam packed with helpful resources and information to self-publishers, authors, reviewers, editors and writers! Seriously, this thing is nearing 200 pages!
This tome will be available as an ebook as well as a print book. Circumstances being what they are, I will need to set the print book at a price, but any royalties it earns will go straight back to supporting the newsletter! The ebook, however, will be free.
I am very excited about this project. I have been working on it all weekend and plan to get it out by next weekend! I have definitely learned the value in starting on a big project early, because I discovered that I didn’t have everything I needed since Issue Eight had technical problems so I didn’t request photos for that issue. Well, I am requesting them now! Plus, I’m spending as much time as I can working on this since it requires reformatting and some corrections. Unfortunately, I am not able to fix broken links. It would seem that some articles from 2022 and 2023 are no longer online.
In any event, if no one hears from me all week, this is why! I am also working on wrapping up a novel as well as certain book reviews that fell by the wayside.
If you ever have a big project to work on, my advice is to start working on it as early as possible and don’t wait to reach out to others you need information or material from. Go at your pace and have faith in your project. It will get done at some point – and, hopefully, on time!
Book Updates
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!
A new year means a new anthology from Twisted Dreams Press!
Dark Harvest: Terrifying Tales from the Poisoned Planet is a collection of eco-horror stories about the Earth fighting back against years of pollution, abuse and neglect. From marine creatures mutated by climate change attacking humans to chemically-altered wildlife taking over the cities, we want your spine-tingling stories that capture how the harm done to our planet creates vengeful creatures and evil stretches of nature.
Stories should be 2000-10,000 words and all subgenres of horror are welcome. Reprints welcome!
Deadline: February 15!
Email your stories along with your bio to Submissions@twisteddreamspress.com
Please place “Submission: Dark Harvest, (YOUR NAME)” in the subject line.
Stories must be a Word doc/docx file only.
This anthology is for charity and all proceeds will benefit the National Audubon Society.
Payment: One digital copy
Scheduled Publication: Earth Day 2025 (April 22)
Please note that this is the LAST MONTH we are accepting short stories for the “first time living on your own” anthology! The deadline is January 31! Check out this graphic for more info:
Book Reviews
At Dawn Reviews Books:
What’s New at SPARREW?
Check out my interview with the author, Liz Newman, which appeared in the December 2024 issue of the SPARREW Newsletter!
Read it here.
This Week’s Book Promo
Here is an excerpt from my ebook, THE IDEA WORKBOOK: How to Choose and Use Your Ideas.
Excerpt from THE IDEA WORKBOOK: How to Choose and Use Your Ideas
By Dawn Colclasure
Copyright © 2022 by Dawn Colclasure
Chapter One
What’s the Big Idea?
“There’s no such thing as an idea being brain-born; everything comes from the outside. The industrious one coaxes it from the environment; the drone lets it lie there while he goes off to the baseball game. The ‘genius’ hangs around his laboratory day and night. If anything happens, he’s there to catch it; if he wasn’t, it might happen just the same, only it would never be his.”
—Thomas Edison
Ideas are everywhere. You have probably heard that saying many times before, but what does it really mean? How can ideas be everywhere? Are they just sitting there, waiting for us to snatch them up? Is there a special way for us to see them?
Actually, it’s not that literal.
Yes, ideas are everywhere, but you just need to know how to find them. It doesn’t take some special skill, rare tool or unusual gift to find them. Anybody can pick up on ideas. You don’t need any special training, talent or years of practice to come up with ideas. Some people may believe they can teach you how to come up with ideas all the time, but you really can come up with ideas on your own without their help. Sometimes, we are put into a situation where we must come up with an idea. For example, if a person is in a life-or-death situation and they absolutely NEED to come up with an idea for escape, then no matter who or what they are, chances are pretty good that such a person will come up with some ideas.
For the most part, people are content to find ideas whenever they strike or feel so inclined to get an idea for something. While they go about their days with hundreds of ideas swirling all around them, they may not take notice of any of them and just continue about their business until they latch on to an idea they could use. But if you want to be more receptive to these numerous ideas just waiting to be snatched up, then be willing to grab those ideas even if it’s not something you can use. For example, I have come up with a few ideas for restaurants. I even created menus for a couple of them. However, I do not work in the restaurant business. I am not a chef and never worked in a busy kitchen. Still, I liked these ideas, so I grabbed them and wrote them down all the same. (One of them ended up in a novel I wrote!)
When we say that ideas are everywhere, it’s because it can take a little quiet observation and unlimited thinking to come up with them. You can take one simple scenario – such as a homeless person waiting at a bus stop – and turn it into a number of ideas based on your own creativity and unlimited way of thinking. You can also take one thing, such as a child’s shoe left on a bridge, and get numerous ideas based on that item alone. It all depends on you and how receptive you are to ideas.
So, in addition to changing the way you see, observe and think about things, it helps to basically make yourself available to receiving and creating ideas. “Ask and you shall receive.” If you actually seek out ideas and want to find them, then with time, you will.
Just work on being more receptive to the ideas that are around you.
I am so excited about this. It may turn out to be more fun than most wedding anniversaries--and I have been married a verrrry long time! (-: I hope all your readers, my readers, and writers everywhere will come help us celebrate three years of your newsletter, Dawn--in ways that will help their own writing careers! A good way to start is to share this Substack entry with all the writers you know and ask them to share, too. The idea is spread far and wide the fun Dawn and I have had with her SPARREW project! (-: