New Location!

Featured

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Keiko O'Leary

This month we’ll be trying out a NEW LOCATION, which we hope will become our home. I’m very excited about it! Here is the address:

Snake & Butterfly
191 E Campbell Ave
Campbell, CA 95008

(408) 466-4023

Snake & Butterfly is an owner-operated local coffee shop / gelateria / chocolate factory in downtown Campbell. There is a 3-story free parking garage right behind it (entrances on 2nd and 3rd Streets), which nearly always has plenty of spaces empty, and in case of a major event happening on the same night (unlikely), the surrounding neighborhoods are easy to park in.

We meet at 7:00 pm every Tuesday except the first Tuesday of the month. That means this month our meetings are May 14, 21, and 28. Hope to see you soon!

New and prospective members: Work on your latest writing project in the company of fellow writers. Members write in all different forms and genres, so come to share and learn! Please bring pen and paper or whatever you use to write.

Call for Submissions: Thanksgiving Mystery Anthology

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Keiko O'Leary

Here is a call for submissions for an e-book anthology to be published in the fall. They’re looking for short mystery stories that take place at Thanksgiving. See below for details. Write to the End member Betsy Miller has a few stories published by this publisher.

Call for Submissions from Untreed Reads

We had so much fun with The Killer Wore Cranberry back in 2010, that we felt it was time to revisit the anthology. So, we’re happy to present The Killer Wore Cranberry: A Second Helping.

As in the previous anthology, all the stories contained within must be about murder and mayhem happening at Thanksgiving, and must feature a typical Thanksgiving dish as a vital part of the story (i.e.: turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie). Most importantly…it must be funny! This anthology is all about making people laugh while enjoying a great mystery short at the same time. The anthology will be edited by Editor-in-Chief Jay Hartman.

And now, the rules:

1. All stories must be between 1500-5000 words.

2. Deadline for submission for consideration is September 1st, 2012. This is a firm date; no submissions after this date will be considered.

3. All submissions should be sent to Jay Hartman at jhartman@untreedreads with the word THANKSGIVING in the subject line.

4. Submissions must be in DOC, RTF or ODT format.

5. Unlike the previous anthology, we will not be publishing the stories individually. Only the anthology will be available.

6. Authors will receive royalty, but not upfront payment. Authors will each receive a share of royalties of 50% of net (net = cover price – vendor commission) based on the number of authors in the final anthology.

7. Characters appearing in other Untreed Reads series or other series not published by us are strongly encouraged (i.e.: Wade J. McMahan’s Richard Dick, Beth Mathison’sMobsters or Young at Heart or Albert Tucher’s Diana Andrews)

8. Your story MUST have humor in it, feature a Thanksgiving dish and have a great mystery or crime at the heart of the story.

9. Stories not accepted for the anthology may be still be considered for other publication.

10. Previously published works are fine providing that electronic rights have reverted to the author and the story is not currently offered for free anywhere on the Internet or currently published through a self-publishing venue (i.e.: Smashwords, Amazon KDP, etc.).

11. There are no restrictions whatsoever on age, race, sex, sexual orientation, etc in the work.. Just tell us a great story!

Please direct any questions to Jay Hartman at jhartman@untreedreads.com. We recommend looking at the original The Killer Wore Cranberry for an idea of the types of stories we’re looking for.

All decisions on material will be made by September 15th, 2012. Every attempt will be made to notify all authors of the status of their submission at that time. Please do not inquire about status prior to September 15th, 2012.

This anthology has an expected publication date of October 15th.

This is an open call, and may be reposted anywhere and everywhere.

Best,
Jay Hartman
Editor-in-Chief

Untreed Reads Publishing

http://www.untreedreads.com

http://store.untreedreads.com

Why Write to the End?

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Keiko O'Leary

Often new members come to our writing group and ask for feedback on their as-yet-uncompleted novel. Or someone who’s been with us a while will get an idea for a story while at the group, write a few scenes of it during the writing sessions, and then ask everybody what we think. This seems perfectly reasonable on the surface, and is, I think, why many people start going to writing groups in the first place.

However, as a group we have learned that giving feedback on the actual writing is not helpful in these situations. What we invariably say to people is, “Have you gotten to The End yet? Have you finished the first draft?” And if the answer is no, then our feedback is “Keep going! Get to The End! When you get there, you’ll be able to answer your own question.”

There are quite a few variations on this advice. For example,

Writer: I’ve just realized I need Character X to be an insurance salesman instead of a knight, and the book needs to start off in Palm Springs two years earlier!

Group: Write yourself a note to that effect, pretend you already made all those changes and they are wonderful, and KEEP GOING! Get to The End!

Writer: Do you think I should structure this story as a series of flashbacks, or would it make more sense to do it in chronological order?

Group: Finish the story however you can. When you reach The End, then you’ll be able to figure out what story you’re actually telling and whether it will work better told in flashbacks or chronologically. Don’t waste time deciding that now. Just KEEP GOING! Get to The End!

Writer: Should I use first or third person? Past or present tense? I keep switching as I write.

Group: Use whatever gets the story out. Switch all you want – that’s easy to fix later. Anything that helps you get the story out is the right thing for that moment. KEEP GOING! Get to The End!

We’ve been together for quite a few years (I started running the group in 2004, and some of our members have been with us since then), but we only got a name for our group within the last year. Why did it take so long? I don’t know. Maybe it had something to do with wanting the name to reflect our identity as a group. Why did we choose the name Write to the End? That’s easy: it’s the advice we most often give each other. As soon as we thought of that name, we knew it was a good one for our group. And we’re also experiencing an unexpected benefit: It’s very satisfying and motivating for the name of our group to be a sort of rallying cry. When one of us is getting bogged down in a story, another of us can say, “It’s going to be okay. Just write to the end!” I think it has already made our group stronger and is probably helping our members with their writing projects.

Of course “Write to the End” has other meanings too, which as writers we appreciate and use. But its most useful meaning is to always prefer finishing what you start over worrying about what you’ve written, which I would encourage you to apply to your own writing. Remember, don’t fix it—finish it! Write to The End!

Give the Gift of Unconditional Love: Write

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Keiko O'Leary

I’m a visual artist as well as a writer, and I opened up 1984 the other day, with the intention of looking for details for a painting I want to do. I meant only to skim a few paragraphs, get an idea of what London is supposed to look like, and then get back to planning the painting. But I couldn’t keep my focus on the research. Without realizing I was doing it, I started to read. Because 1984 is just that beautiful, that compelling, that – home? Is that what it feels like: coming home? I’m generally a nervous and lonely person, always second-guessing the loving intentions of friends and even family, always trying to hide my true self because I’m sure I will be rejected. But reading 1984, I become unselfconscious. Reading 1984, I am completely myself, and I have no thought that I might not be accepted that way. For me, the experience of reading 1984 is an experience of being loved unconditionally.

And you know what? Once upon a time, 1984 didn’t exist. Once upon a time, George Orwell wrote and struggled and edited and wrote and threw away whole paragraphs and rewrote and gave up and kept going anyway, in order to create that book. In order to create a text that gives me the experience of unconditional love. Maybe you hate 1984, but I’ll bet you’ve read something that gave you that experience, too. And maybe, if you don’t quit, if you work hard to master your craft and give your stories form and get them into the world, something you write will give someone else that experience.

As humans we always seem to expect something in return: maybe we can’t truly love another person unconditionally. But our stories can. So keep going. I’m cheering for you.

-Keiko

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Holiday Short Stories

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Keiko O'Leary

E-book publisher Untreed Reads (paying market – royalties, no advances) is looking for holiday short stories, especially relating to Kwanzaa and Hanukkah.

From: Jay Hartman [mailto:jhartman@untreedreads.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 7:03 PM
Subject: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Holiday Short Stories

Untreed Reads is announcing an open call for short stories for our holiday season. Please note the following:

1. The holidays we are interested in are Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and New Year’s. We are looking for Hanukkah and Kwanzaa stories in particular.

2. Short stories may be in any genre (except religious, erotica, children’s or anything above a PG-13 romance), but must encompass one of the holidays listed above.

3. The short stories will NOT be in an anthology, but rather published as stand-alone stories. All will receive our standard short story line covers.

4. Previously published material is fine providing electronic rights have reverted to the author.

5. Stories may not be shorter than 1500 words or longer than 5000.

6. Deadline for Thanksgiving submissions is October 31, 2011. Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah is November 15th. New Year’s is November 30th. Submissions received after these dates will not be considered.

7. For this call, we can only accept works where we can be granted worldwide English rights.

8. This is an open call, and may be reposted and resubmitted everywhere.

All submissions should be sent to Jay Hartman, Editor-in-Chief, at jhartman@untreedreads.com. Submissions should be in Times New Roman, 12pt and DOC format attachment. Submissions may NOT be submitted as either PDF or in the body of an email. Stories sent in that manner will not be considered. Please indicate the holiday in your subject line in the format: HOLIDAY: NAME OF STORY.

Once we have selected our stories for the season, all authors will be notified as to the final status of their submitted manuscript.

For any questions regarding this call, please direct them to Jay Hartman at jhartman@untreedreads.com.

Best,
Jay Hartman
Editor-in-Chief
Untreed Reads Publishing

http://www.untreedreads.com

http://store.untreedreads.com

First Post

Posted on July 16, 2011 by Keiko O'Leary

Work on your latest writing project in the company of fellow writers. Members write in all different forms and genres, so come to share and learn! Please bring pen and paper or whatever you use to write.

We meet at 7:00 pm every Tuesday except the first Tuesday of the month.

This post used to say where we were meeting at the time (a certain Starbucks), but I’ve edited it in order to avoid confusion. For our current meeting place, please see sidebar.

Hope to see you soon!