new adventures in writing

while at my bi-annual residency required for wilkes university ma/mfa creative writing degrees, i learned more about creative writing education, the wonderful wide world of publishing, and also delved a little deeper into my own motivations for being a writer. what i’ve come away with: the exciting opportunity to blog about anything and everything fantasy (including what’s going on with my own novel and other wilkes students/graduates’ projects!) on a friend’s fantasy website – thank you alina vitali!! so look for blogs soon from me on www.keydigitalproduction.com

another awesome opportunity that i jumped at when it presented itself was to create a literary magazine for my internship capstone in publishing. there are still some specifics to be worked out with my site & faculty mentors, but basically, i’ve come up with an initial “mini business plan” for this site – that i intend to grow beyond my capstone. it will be a legitimate literary magazine with its own website, etc., geared toward members of the military – all branches (including reservists & veterans) – and their families.

submissions will come from those associated with the u.s. military and their families. every genre – including visual art – will be accepted. my target audience will be members of the military, their family and friends, and anyone else supportive of our service members. several friends and acquaintances from wilkes – including my wonderful mentor david poyer, who’s retired from the navy – have already promised to submit pieces and pass along the word to their own contacts. yes, i’ll need to verify people are who they say they are, but i think i’m up to the challenge.

i’m thrilled to have this opportunity and the details are in the works. thank you to donna talarico, fellow wilkie, creator and editor of http://www.hippocampusmagazine.com/ for all the assistance and advice you’ve given me thus far!! it’s been invaluable.

so, be patient with me as i embark upon these two major undertakings, which will begin to take shape in the next couple of weeks. the literary magazine will be online to begin with – one issue per month – with plans for a yearly (or more as time/budget allow) between-the-covers publication.