Although I dabbled with poetry in high school, I am not a poet. I might add those attempts were sweet little rhymes mostly about the latest boy I had a crush on. Lots of us gals did that in those days. Maybe they still do, I don’t know.
Last week, I wrote that I had rejoined the Vocal writing community. I submitted two short stories, one of them for a contest. No word on that yet, but my flash fiction piece Where is Gunnar was selected as a top story earlier this week! Woo hoo!
I have several of my earlier fiction pieces that I plan to dust off and publish there over the next few weeks and months. I also want to write some new ones, as I have tons of ideas.
But what’s this about poetry? Oh yeah. Vocal has a new contest called Ludicrous Limericks. After two friends, Harmony Kent and Staci Troilo, submitted several, I decided to give it a try. I came up with four.
Two are more on the humorous side and one is a nature poem. The fourth was inspired when I began brainstorming my third Legends of Madeira novel. It’s titled The Road.
Royalty-free photo by Nathaniel Luckhurst | Dreamstime.com
It’s easiest to see all the poems by visiting my Vocal Profile. They immediately follow the three pinned stories.
I’m not giving up prose, and I may never write another limerick or any other poem again, but these were fun to do. If you have time to read and share, I’d appreciate it.
Hey, Readers. I’m on the road again today. (Shades of Willie Nelson, anyone?) Seriously, I’m visiting with a dear friend who is well-known in the blogging community, Marcia Meara.
Marcia is the author of several books including the Riverbend and Wake-Robin Ridge series. You can check out all her books by clicking here.
Today I’m talking about music and the songs that inspired some of my books and short stories. I’ve closed comments here, but I hope to see you at Marcia’s place.
Hey, Readers. A couple of years ago, I joined a site called Vocal. It’s a place where authors can publish stories of various genres in both fiction and non-fiction. Authors also earn money when stories are read. Vocal + members can enter contests.
I published one story, but I didn’t have the time to devote to it. This weekend, I decided to join again, and I’ve already published two additional stories and entered one into a contest.
The first one, Where is Gunnar, is a flash-fiction story. You can read it by clicking here.
The second, The Great Adventure is a short story that I entered into the Tall Tale contest. Click this link to read.
Both are a little different from my usual genre, although Where is Gunnar contains an element of suspense. I’d be grateful if you’d pop over to read and share. You’ll need a Vocal log-in to comment, but there’s no cost involved for that.
Hey, Readers. Just a short post to announce that tonight I’ll be a guest on the weekly Voice of Indie Podcast with hosts Stephen Geez and Beem Weeks.
I’ve been a guest there before. Stephen and Beem are wonderful hosts and they make things fun. We’ll talk about Menagerie, Story Empire, my current WIP, and who knows what else. I might even mention a black cat or a full moon.
Hey, readers. I almost didn’t write this post after looking back at my 2022 goals. I’d planned to write and publish two books last year, a short story collection and the second book of the Legends of Maderia series, but I didn’t publish a single title.
When I read Staci Troilo’s plans for 2023, I felt inspired to post this. I hope to look back in January 2024 and see that I exceed my goals. So, here they are.
Writing and Publishing
Menagerie releases next week and is now available for preorder, so I’m already ahead of 2022 on publishing. Writing these stories took most of the year, which obviously wasn’t a good year writing-wise (or at least productivity-wise). Honestly, the eight months I worked at my previous job were probably the hardest in my twenty-plus years there. Maybe it was because I’d planned to retire. It took a few weeks to “recover.” That’s behind me now, and I love retirement.
I’m ready to delve into the pages of Blood Red Dawn, the second full-length novel of the Legends of Maderia series. The goal is to publish it later this year. I had planned to write four Legends books, but I’ve decided to stop at three. I “might” write another short story to go along with the series, but I haven’t decided. Book Three’s title is Edge of Twilight. My plan is to write the draft this year and publish it in early 2024.
The previously planned fourth Legends book will become a stand-alone novel. I’m excited about it. I’ve not written a stand-alone book, save The Stranger which is novella length. I also have three stories that I planned to include in Menagerie, but when I began writing them, I realized they needed to be longer than 10K words.
One of those stories is part of a secret project that you’ll hear more about later on. As of now, there’s no release date planned. A second story will become another stand-alone novel, and the third a possible novelette or novella.
Blogging
I plan to continue my Mystery Monday/Legends and Lore posts. I enjoy researching and writing those. The first one of 2023 will be next Monday. I also plan to make this a weekly post rather than twice a month. I already have a list of topics that I hope you’ll find intriguing.
Hosting
Along the line of blogging, I love to support other authors, and I’m happy to do so here. If you have a new release and would like for me to host you, just contact me. A contact form is at the bottom of this page.
Newsletter
One of my goals for the year is to build my mailing list and publish a monthly newsletter. I’ve had good intentions on this for a while, but always fall short. This is going to be the year I succeed. If you’re interested in signing up, just click this link. Future plans for the letter will include some giveaways and possibly some unpublished short stories that I’ll send only to subscribers.
Creativity
I’ve been thinking a lot about the word, creativity. As an author, I automatically think of writing when it comes to being creative, but the word encompasses much more. I’m declaring 2023 as the year of creativity and I want to keep my creative juices flowing. See you next week, and I hope 2023 is a productive year for you as well.
Joan Hall 
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