Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2022 i The Writer

HOW MANY SCARY STORIES OPEN with It was a dark and stormy night, with moaning winds and clattering shutters? Or a raging blizzard, with the world awash in white and freezing temperatures? Perhaps a hurricane is due to strike an island town as the seas churn dangerously off the coast, or the telltale whirling funnel of a tornado approaches on a sparse midwestern horizon. As we imagine each ominous sight or sound, our heartbeat quickens. Will the power go out, leaving our protagonist to fend for themselves in the dark? Will they be trapped or forced to seek shelter in some great unknown? These threats spark fear in our hearts: After all, our plucky heroes may have all the bravery, agency, and gritty determination in the world, but no human…

1 Pin down your interests and find a magazine with those themes. If you are already well-versed in a subject, your expertise will show. 2 Read the magazine for at least a few issues to see what content is featured. 3 Often niche magazines have a narrow focus, so it’s possible that topics can be repeated. Pay attention and think of an idea that’s original and timely. 4 Pitch to an already-existing section of the magazine or, if you see a hole, suggest a new topic. Your idea could lead to an ongoing gig. 5 Follow up with the editor a few weeks after pitching if you haven’t heard back. The staff on such publications can often be small, though the workload is the same as the big guns. Be…

Club Plum: Annual Literary Horror Issue submissions Submit “your darkly strange beauties, your unsettling prose poetry and flash fiction, your beautiful and surreal art, your astounding creative nonfiction” to Club Plum for consideration in its annual horror issue. Non-horror submissions are also welcome. Submit by Oct. 1. clubplumliteraryjournal.com/submit Keeping It Under Wraps: Body essays The editors of the “Keeping It Under Wraps” anthology series seek essays “about your experiences, views, and ideas on bodies: your own or in general.” Cited topics include (but are not limited to) body positivity, diet culture, anxiety/mental health, aging, health, gender, abuse, and body dysmorphia. Essays should be within 1,000 to 5,000 words and must be previously unpublished and written in English. If selected for publication, authors will receive £40 and a copy of the…

Niche Mags Information in this section is provided to The Writer by the individual markets and events; for more information, contact those entities directly. ANIMALS/PETS Animal Wellness Natural pet magazine aimed at helping pet owners make wise health-care choices for animal companions. Accepting articles of 500-1,500 words. Submit via email. Contact: Animal Wellness, 160 Charlotte St., Suite 202, Peterborough, ON, Canada K9J 2T8. 866-764-1212. info@animalwellnessmagazine.com animalwellnessmagazine.com Birdwatching Bimonthly magazine for fans of wild birds and birdwatching. Topics include untold stories about birds and bird behavior; first-person accounts; birds in the news; birding hotspots; tips for attracting, feeding, and identifying birds; photo essays; first-person narratives about finding rare birds; history of ornithology and birdwatching. Send queries by email or regular mail. Contact: Editorial Dept., BirdWatching Magazine, 35 Braintree Hill Office Park,…

Dear Gigi, I am working on the second draft of my first novel. It would probably fall under the genre of thriller, though that wasn’t exactly what I had set out to write. I have a short prologue written, but I’m not sure if it adds to the story or takes away from my opening chapter. Any advice on how to know if a prologue is the right way for a writer to start their novel? —PROLOGUE PONDERER Dear Ponderer, When I was a kid reading books for school, I used to skip all the prologues because I was convinced they didn’t add anything. And then I realized I was wrong, in a lot of cases: Good prologues set up the narrative in the pages that follow by giving the…

Sunisa Manning’s debut novel, A Good True Thai, is a sweeping book that takes us through portions of Thailand’s history that much of the English-speaking world does not know. And it dares to address thorny parts of the country’s history through three points of view, one of which has traditionally been taboo: that of a member of Thailand’s nobility. The book is also set against the student uprising of 1976 – an event that’s also a taboo subject to discuss in Thailand – and follows Det, a descendent of a former king of Thailand, who befriends Chang, a commoner, and falls in love with Lek, a Chinese immigrant. The Writer: Can you tell us a little bit about your track to writing A Good True Thai? Sunisa Manning: I was…

When L. Marie Wood tells strangers she’s a psychological horror writer, they frequently recoil from her as if she’s the grim reaper. “It’s like I put a hood on, and I’m walking around with a sickle,” she says. “I can write about vampires and blood, or about Frankenstein, or a zombie apocalypse. Using psychological horror, I write murder mysteries, or add something supernatural, or write dark romance.” As Wood points out, horror writing pairs well with other genres. Its tropes add conflict, suspense, and – in some cases – terrifying imagery to a tale, whether written for the page, stage, or screen. I caught up with three veteran writers who offered their insights into how to craft a compelling horror narrative that makes people jump back in terror…or haunts them…

October 2 Today is the first day of Mystery Series Week. Which mystery author will you read to celebrate? October 4 Finalists for the 73rd annual National Book Awards will be announced today. October 6 Litquake, San Francisco’s annual literary festival, begins today and will continue through October 22. October 8 Happy birthday to R.L. Stine, beloved author of the Goosebumps series. October 10 Commemorate Indigenous Peoples’ Day by reading the work of Indigenous writers, such as the five books by Native American authors that Brooke Blanchard recommended in our February issue, which can be found on writermag.com. October 12 Ann Petry, whose novel The Street became the first novel written by a Black American woman to sell more than a million copies, was born 114 years ago today. The…