Working with Editors: Send in Your Best Work

Good advice from one of our authors if you are looking to submit to Dark Oak Press & Media.

M. B. Weston's Official Website

About a year ago, I submitted a short story for a yet-to-be-titled anthology edited by one of my friends, author John Hartness. Hartness co-edited The Big Bad 2, which featured my story “The Witch Hunter“, so we have collaborated before. I respect him as a person, author, actor, and friend. I definitely want his opinion on my story, and I trust his corrections.

This anthology, originally titled Corsets, is rather open ended. I believe the word count maximum was around 9,000 words (because my story was 8,300). We were told to write anything we wanted as long as a corset was featured prominently in the story. My story, a thriller/horror story called “Blue Lights,” takes place on the moors of Dartmoor.

Most of my blog posts focus on writing before the story reaches an editor. I’m going to focus my next few posts on working…

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Working With Editors: Eliminate Forms of “To Be” & “Had”

A great post to read for all authors interested in submitting to Dark Oak Press and Media:

M. B. Weston's Official Website

I’m currently working on the corrections my horror/thriller short story, “Blue Lights,” which will appear in an anthology edited by John Hartness. I figured I would write a few posts about some of the things I’m working on during the editing process. (Be sure to check out my last post, “Working With Editors: Send in Your Best Work.“)

As I mentioned in that post, I worked up to the deadline to complete this story and only slept for a few hours during the final days of finishing the story. Unfortunately, I committed one of writing’s the cardinal sins: using forms of to be and have/has/had too often, and my exhaustion kept me from catching them. Editors hate the overuse of those two words, and John mentioned it to me in an email:

Go through and excise every use of the verb “to be” all is, was, had been words must…

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Making a Living as an Artist: Sean Taylor’s Interview with Allan Gilbreath

Understand that very few people actually make a living through the arts as opposed to being a waiter.  The job of waiter is clearly defined in the mind of the public.  The job of artist is not.  – Allan Gilbreath

Sean Taylor did an interview with Dark Oak Press & Media‘s managing editor, Allan Gilbreath on the topic of making a living as an artist! Check it out here: http://seanhtaylor.blogspot.com on Sean’s blog!