For those of you who have been waiting to get your hands on a copy of the latest issue of Faraway, today is the day! Copies still warm from the presses are now on display at Second Story Books of Claremont, California. In the coming days there will also be copies in Borders Bookstore in Montclair, California, and in Needlesandpins Records of Pomona. Now you can read all one hundred splendid pages without burning your retinas off looking at a computer screen.
Allow me also to take this opportunity to plug Second Story Books of Claremont, which has been one of our staunchest supporters. They’ve got a great selection of new, used, rare, hard-to-find and interesting titles to choose from. More importantly, they are one of a rare breed of independent bookstores. If you’re tired of going into Barnes and Nobles and seeing a million copies of the latest James Patterson or Dean Koontz book, stop by Second Story. More importantly still, the proprietors of Second Story support writers and artists like those who contribute to and publish Faraway.
So stop in to pick up the latest copy of our journal and browse around for a book to read afterwards. And don’t forget to let us know what you think!
]]>We’re pleased in this issue to feature a series of four poems by seasoned New York writer David Kowalczyk. I’m excited to change the pace today from the short stories we have been featuring and post these poems, for your reading enjoyment.
Life Is A Funny Old Dog
After prayers for white French tulips
at my doorstep arrives
a bouquet of wilted dandelions.
Click here to read more poems by David Kowalczyk or click here to download the newest issue of Faraway.
]]>If not, what are you waiting for?! This issue contains work by over thirty contributors from all around the world. The content and the layout are the best Faraway has seen in its two year publication history. Download it now by right-clicking the image, and clicking “Save Target As” (2.85 megabytes). And don’t forget to click the comments form below, and let us know what you think!
I’ve also updated the Marathon page with an account of today’s run.
]]>Ten short stories! Thirteen poems! Over thireen works of art!
Over thirty contributors: Andy Mills, Dan Moreau, Diana Magallon, Jeff Crouch, David Kowalczyk, Val Murah, Katie Rutherford, T.R. Healy, William Walsh, Ellen Perry, Suvi Mahonen, Luke Waldrip, Vic Fortezza, Michael Woodcock, Karen Greenbaum-Maya, Janet Thorning, Jim Fuess, Jim Lyons, Christian Pinchbeck, Michael Pitassi, Colin James, Joseph Goosey, Daniel Sawyer, Josh Mitchell, Jared Hernandez, Joseph Grant, Ron Savage, Gay Degani, Steve Cartwright, Scott Sawyer, and Jeff Hendrickson!
Click below to download your copy!
With just a few days till the start of National Novel Writing Month, I’m really started to get excited. I feel as if I’m about to begin a race. I received an email today from Chris Baty, Program Directory for NaNoWriMo, that includes a funny, inspirational timeline for the month of November:
Here’s the plan:
Today: Make a tax-deductible donation to help us pay for National Novel Writing Month. So far, we’ve received donations from 3.4% of our participants, putting us 6.6% away from our goal. Chip in! Even $10 makes a big difference, and pays huge dividends in halos and noveling karma. We’re a nonprofit, and we’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars readying this swashbuckling adventure for 110,000 adults and 15,000 kids and teens around the world. We need your support!Tomorrow: Make sure you’ve set your time zone correctly (it’s under User Settings). Some word-count features appear and disappear at midnight on November 1 and November 30, so dialing those in now will save you stress later. Join a local region, and find out when and where the first novel-writing get-togethers (called “write-ins”) for your city or town will be held. Tune in to WrimoRadio, NaNoWriMo’s podcast, and learn how you can be on the November 3 episode.
October 31: Get the first pep talk email. You’ll receive about three of these a week—one from me and two from our panel of esteemed celebrity pep talkers—throughout November. Note: If you donate $50 or more today, you will receive six years of pep talks from me in a beautiful 80-page PDF, constituting about as much week-by-week NaNoWriMo advice and encouragement as any human being can handle without falling over.
November 1: At midnight, local time, start writing your book. You need to log 1667 words per day to stay on par. The site will be very slow for the first few days of the event, but with patience you can update your soaring word count in the box at the top of our site or on the “Edit Novel Info” page of your profile. Watch your stats graph fill. Send a link to your author profile to your friends so they can follow your progress. Revel in the majesty of your unfolding story. It’s November 1! You are an unstoppable novel-writing machine!
November 2: Stop writing. Wonder if you should start over. Keep going. Feel better.
November 3: The first November episode of WrimoRadio goes up on the site, beaming out overcaffeinated messages of hope from Wrimos worldwide. We’ll be podcasting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from here until December.
November 8: As the first full week of writing comes to a close, you will be at 11,666 words. This is more fiction than most people write in their lifetimes, and you did it in a week. Go, you! This is also Municipal Liaison Appreciation Day, a raucous international holiday that celebrates NaNoWriMo’s volunteer chapter-heads (the folks who organized the write-in you went to last week). Chocolate, flowers, and gifts of expensive electronics are appreciated.
November 13: Nothing really happens on November 13.
November 15: After the second week of writing, you will be at 25,000 words. This is the approximate length of such legendary works of fiction as Animal Farm, Death in Venice, and Gossip Girl: I Like it Like That. You’re halfway to winning! Attend a Midway Party in your town, or come to San Francisco, where the Night of Writing Dangerously Write-a-thon will set records for group noveling and candy consumption.
November 16: The second half of NaNoWriMo dawns. Writerly confidence builds. Your book comes to life, and characters start doing interesting, unexpected things. Nice. Weird.
November 22: After the third full week of writing, you stand at 35,000 words, the NaNoWriMo milestone universally recognized as The Place Where Everything Gets Much, Much Easier.
November 25: Novel validation and winning begins, and Word-Count Progress Bars turn from blue to green (over 50K) to purple (over 50k and a verified winner!). Check our FAQs for details on uploading your manuscript and winning. For the first time ever, a very limited number of 2008 Winner t-shirts will appear in the store. These will make you smile.
November 27: American Wrimos celebrate the true meaning of Thanksgiving by gathering together with friends and family, wolfing down a huge meal as quickly as possible, and then ditching those friends and family to hide in the bathroom with a laptop.
November 30: By midnight, local time, we will all be the proud owners of 50,000-word novels that we could barely imagine on October 31. Plan to attend your local NaNoWriMo Thank God It’s Over Party, where grins will abound, champagne will flow, fives will be highed, and wrists will be iced.
If you’re taking part in NaNoWriMo, let us know. And don’t forget to download the latest issue of Faraway.
]]>Click the thumbnail below to download the pdf of the newest issue. For optimal viewing, download and save the file, then, in the Adobe Acrobat window, click view: two-up continuous.
You can also click on the miniviewer below to stream the new issue via www.Issuu.com/faraway. NOTE: Because Issuu.com is not compatible with the latest versions of Adobe Acrobat, some material in this issue will not display properly. We recommend that you download the issue from the link above.
This issue features stories, poems, and artwork from two dozen contributors, including Andy Mills, Suvi Mahonen and Luke Waldrip, Jeff Crouch and Diana Magallon, Jim Lyons, Jim Fuess, Michael Woodcock, Josh Mitchell, Jared Hernandez, Michael Pitassi, T.R. Healy, Ellen Perry, David Kowalczyk, William Walsh, Joseph Grant, Vic Fortezza, Gay Degani, Karen Greenbaum-Maya, Steve Cartwright, Ron Savage, and Christian Pinchbeck.
And please be sure to tell us what you think!
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