September 2012
11 posts
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“I hope you’ll make mistakes. If you’re making mistakes, it means you’re out...”
– Neil Gaiman, Make Good Art commencement speech (which you should watch)
Good advice, y’all.
—James
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The three types of stories I most often reject... →
millionsmillions:
Joe Hiland, The Indiana Review‘s fiction editor, has some advice for writers who submit to his (or any) magazine.
We at HOOT talk about these sorts of things a lot when looking through our submissions for what we want to publish. After all, it’s not just about what suits our tastes, but also what is new/exciting/pushing buttons in the form!
—James
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Need a reason to check us out?
We’re recommended on Goodreads as “ the best so far” in terms of cool places to publish poetry.
This is a helpful thread, so check it out!
—James
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Positively Reviewing Your Own Work? →
RJ Ellory, award-winning author of crime novels such as A Simple Act of Violence and A Quiet Belief in Angels was blasted by fellow crime writer Jeremy Duns for posting glowing reviews of his own work on Amazon under the pseudonym “Nicodemus Jones.”
After Duns exposed Ellory on Twitter, the author had no choice but to fess up to calling A Quiet Belief in Angels “a modern...
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12 of the Most Beautiful Online Literary Magazines →
HOOT’s fantastic online issues may have not made the cut, but check out these other greats (especially if you are looking to procrastinate on something important).
—James
Reader survey:
Why do you, or would you, subscribe to HOOT?
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It's not summer anymore...
…which means you should really start working on your writing again!
Join us tonight at 9pm EST and until 10.30 EST for the coolest online literary crit session ever!
Y’all should know the drill by now, but if not, here goes:
Most of the HOOT staff (3 out of 4) will be sitting in a specially created chat room (which you can find by clicking http://www.hootreview.com/workshops) to...
August 2012
7 posts
4 tags
More workshop reviews!
So in case you need one more reason to visit out HOOT chats on Wednesday night from 9-10.30 EST, here’s a testimony from 3labs, a frequent user, about how awesome we are:
“I just started writing poetry a few months ago, learning in on-line classes. I stumbled upon Hoot and their chat workshop just by chance as I was exploring the online world of poetry. I went to one a month...
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5 Building Blocks of Your Character’s Personality →
bookaddict24-7:
“Now that you’ve decided what your character’s motivation is, it’s time to actually construct the vessel in which this purpose will reside. Just how do you build a person? By creating a life where none existed.”
-Dailywritingtips.com
Happy writing!
This is important in “micro-settings” too! Especially when you have less space to work with a character, that person...
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Check out our online issue #11, too!
You can see it here: http://www.hootreview.com/onlineissue11/ (don’t you love self-explanatory links?)
Things you have to look forward to:
vegetables
mice
interesting vocabulary choices
If you’re reading this, chances are you are 1) not at work or 2) “working” on a side project that involves Tumblr— so hit us up and share your thoughts!
—James
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Print Issue #11 is up!
http://www.hootreview.com/printissue11/
And it’s pretty awesome. Don’t you think?
This week’s written piece, entitled “No More Astronauts,” is by Adam Loomis.
And yours truly (aka James) did the background art! Look at that, school-art teachers— I told you I’d be published someday.
—James
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Workshoppin' on Wednesdays
In case you’d forgotten that we do this, tonight (Wednesday night) is our usual online workshop! Bring a short piece (150 words or less) and your literary lenses and get ready to critique others’ work/have other people help you with yours!
Go to our website, http://www.hootreview.com/workshops/, and click on the link. We’ll be there from 9-10.30 EST, so we’d love to have...
July 2012
17 posts
PEN Poetry Roundup: Po-blog is dead, long live the...
penamerican:
In a world of inspired poetry Twitter and tumblr…nay, in a state of status update and animated gif, whatever happened to the blog scrolls of yore where poetic thought is explored ad hoc in post and comment alike? The poetry blog is alive and well; collective concerns like Montevidayo and THEthe Poetry Blog are thriving, and today we’ll celebrate some lone rangers lighting up the...
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6 Things You Must Learn from Hemingway →
unconsciousplots:
1. He read the masters and studied them obsessively.
2. He was friends with writers and discussed writing, art, and literature incessantly.
3. He prioritized his writing.
4. He wrote all sorts of things.
5. He wasn’t afraid of the process.
6. He knew when his work needed to be put in a drawer.
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HOOT t-shirts are coming!
Should we put our cute owl graphics on the font or the back of the t-shirt?
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40 Twitter Hashtags for Writers →
amandaonwriting:
#amediting posts from people who are editing #amwriting posts from people who are writing #askagent agent questions and answers #author #authors #editing #fictionfriday #fridayflash flash fiction on a Friday #nanowrimo national novel writing month #novels #novelists #poem #poet #poets #poetry #pubtip publication tips #publishing #scifi #selfpublishing #vss very short...
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Corporate news!
No, really. CORPORATE!
HOOT is now officially incorporated!
Which means we get a tax-ID number to pay our taxes properly!
And we can get the ball rolling on applying for tax-exempt status, giving us the opportunity to help serve the community better!
A lot of exclamation points, I know. But here’s the last one: a HUGE thanks to our chat regular Ron who has taken on our gargantuan project...
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10Flash Magazine and Genre Stories! →
Even though the magazine is no longer publishing new content, go check it out. Who says you can’t read awesome genre-based writing in short form?
—James
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Anatomy of a Micro-Fiction →
Sometimes it’s hard to think about the necessary mechanics of a functional narrative in a short-format piece. How can you cram all that stuff into something short (in HOOT’s case, 150-words-or-less!) and still make it readable? Moreover, how do you go about taking APART a piece of flash/micro?
Take a look at Bob Thurber’s piece and think on it! I thought it was helpful and gave...
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Make me a name, pat it and shape it: From... →
Notable storytelling involves paying close attention to big concepts like psychic distance, point-of-view, and a reliable narrator, but success in these areas does not always produce memorable flash fiction. Sometimes it’s the small stuff that makes the story noteworthy. The small stuff? What we name our characters, how we handle details within the story, and in what way we add texture coupled...
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June 2012
17 posts
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Philly’s HOOT Review Serves Up Fiction & Poetry →
Hey all,
Guess who got written up in Geekadelphia this week? We did! Thanks to Shawn Proctor for writing this fantastic article! It is great and awesome and great, and you should check it out, and us out.
Why? As Shawn put it:
If you’re like many fiction readers, subscribing to a big literary journal was a way to support the arts and keep new stories and verse at your fingertips. Most likely...
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Librarians are our heroes, too! →
We agree with the Public Library Association and Sherman Alexie— appreciate your local library and all the learning you could be getting done by checking out a book!
And don’t forget to thank your librarian for being awesome, of course.
—James
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We need an idea for a HOOT SLOGAN!
…That will go on t-shirts.
Have any ideas?
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WriteWorld: Can Writing Be Taught? →
Anonymous asked: A question! My friend asked me if I was enrolled in any creative writing courses and I said no. And I was thinking that besides for the basics (like grammar, the fact that your story needs a plot/beginng, middle, and end, and spelling) is there really anything in writing that you…
A great question and a good answer! Relevant for those who teach/attend/want to attend writing...
“Wear the old coat and buy the new book.”
– Austin Phelps (via doubledaybooks)
And by that we mean subscribe to HOOT for $14/a year! That’s 12 postcards for a whole year, one every month, in the mail! Not junk mail! Exciting!
You know you wanna. Even dads like it! It ISSSSS almost Father’s Day, by the way…
—James
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Another review from our online workshop!
You all know about our workshop, right?
Wednesday nights, 9-10.30 EST, go to www.hootreview.com/workshops and click on the link to join in!
Bring a piece of writing, 150 words or less, to have critiqued by HOOT staff and anyone else present at the chat— or just hang out to help provide feedback to other writers!
This is what a recent participant, Chelsea, had to say:
Hoot Review’s...
Steps for a Cooler World VI: embroidered post...
alittlewater:
Step one: find some thin cardboard and embroidery thread
Step two: find pictures you like
Step three: use the handwheel of a sewing machine to punch holes in the board
Step four: thread them joyously
YAY!
Wanna make your HOOTs 3D? I think we’re going to have to give this a shot, especially when we put them in frames for craft fairs!
—James
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Photographers Launch Postcards Across America... →
interrobangzine:
Two Brooklyn-based photographers will begin a three month long summer trip documenting America through postcards. They will document their trip, print postcards as they go. Sounds like an interesting project! Click the title of this post to read the full posting about it on Gadling.com.
“As I’ve often said, you can shop online and find whatever you’re looking for,...”
– Economist Paul Krugman Is a Hard-Core Science Fiction Fan | Underwire | Wired.com via Shelf Awareness (via housingworksbookstore)
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Why Novelists Should Write Flash →
The other day I was talking to someone about needing to write a short piece, and they said, “if it only has to be 150 words, can’t you just write it now? You have 10 minutes!”
Flash is a lot more than having 10 minutes to spare. That being said, for those of you who favor longer, more extensively “complex” works of writing, read this article and take some of those 10...
