IWSG, IWSG Anthology Voyagers: The Third Ghost, Being Thankful

Posting the First Wednesday of every month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group, is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. YOU can sign up HERE to participate.

Every month a question will be posed that may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. You can write about anything that relates to your writing journey.

Let's give a warm welcome to our co-hosts:  Feather Stone, Beverly Stowe McClure, Mary Aalgaard, Kim Lajevardi, and Chemist Ken!

This month's question is: Do you have any rituals that you use when you need help getting into the ZONE? Care to share?
When

When I need help getting into the zone I putter in my writing area. I clean up my desk, go through notes and keep or discard and/or straighten and dust books. Generally I work to make my work space neat. It seems to help me get inspired.

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I'm excited to announce that

Voyagers: The Third Ghost is OUT!!

People have asked why I decided to try my hand at writing a story for this anthology. Here's my answer. 

When I saw what the theme for this anthology was going to be and that it was for middle graders, I knew immediately the story I wanted to tell.

Because my family has lived between Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for over hundred years and because I was raised in the VI, most of my stories have a strong Caribbean flavor. For research purposes I have a small collection of books about the islands. One of those books, by Isidor Paiewonsky, is Eyewitness Accounts of Slavery in the Danish West Indies also Graphic Tales of Other Slave Happenings on Ships and Plantations. It was in this book that I read excerpts from the journal of a twelve-year-old boy named Jacques B. Romaigne who journeyed from France, to Africa, to the island of Guadeloupe on a slave ship.
Jacques' story haunted me for years. He lingered behind a near opaque curtain which he pulled aside from time to time, casting ghostly shadows across my mind, reminding me he was still there and that he wanted his story told. Finally I gave in and wrote, “The Blind Ship.” I tried peddling it around to various children’s magazines, but no one was interested. I knew my writing wasn’t the problem so my guess is that it was too dark and serious. Whatever the reason, his story has languished in my files for a good 15 years, yet in all that time, Jacques has never left me.
I had to lengthen the original story from 1000 words (which is the max most children's magazines want) to 3000 or better. That was challenge and it took me a week. But he crept back onto the page and whispered things in my ear. Now, at last, he has come out of from behind the curtains, and his story can be told.

Blurb
The journal of a twelve-year-old boy reveals the horrors of a slave ship, and when its cargo and crew go blind from a highly contagious eye disease, the situation only gets worse.

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Being Thankful

Today I'm thankful for, what else? The Newly Released Anthology!

What are you thankful for? Got any rituals to get into the zone? Have you ordered your copy of Voyagers: The Third Ghost? Purchase links below. Hint, hint.

Amazon - Print https://www.amazon.com/dp/193984472X/ 

Kindle https://www.amazon.com/Voyagers-Third-Ghost-Yvonne-Ventresca-ebook/dp/B083C4WPR5/
Barnes & Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/voyagers-yvonne-ventresca/1135912991?ean=2940163430857
ITunes - https://books.apple.com/ca/book/voyagers-the-third-ghost/id1493413956
Kobo - https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/voyagers-the-third-ghost

IWSG, The Agony of Defeat, IWSG Anthology, Being Thankful

Posting the First Wednesday of every month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group, is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. YOU can sign up HERE to participate.

Every month a question will be posed that may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. You can write about anything that relates to your writing journey.

Let's give a warm welcome to our co-hosts:  Lee Lowery, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Jennifer Hawes, Cathrina Constantine, and Tyrean Martinson!

This month's question is: Has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? What was it and did you finish it?

I'm sure I've been inspired at some point in my life, but I've written so many stories, so many partials, so many snippets, that I can't remember anything specific.

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The Agony of Defeat

So, at the end of January I had this fabulous opportunity to submit a novel of mine to Simon and Schuster (without an agent!). It looked to me like it was, on many different levels, the perfect fit for the particular editor who was accepting unsolicited manuscripts. I worked so hard on it - days, weeks, months - to edit/revise and generally make it as clean as possible. But then...right there at the end...as I exported it from the editing program - which I really like - back to my computer, all of the formatting was lost and I was left with a garbled mess of single/double spaced paragraphs with/without indentations with/without page breaks.

There was no way I could possibly reformat 200 plus pages manually to get it sent off in time. I'd already been up since three in the morning and it was 4 PM when it happened and I had to be at work by 5 PM and wouldn't be back home until 7:30 PM - I know just 2 and a half hours - and I was already exhausted.

I sobbed and wept and cussed a blue streak. Poor hubby, he did a good job being supportive and compassionate even as I yelled at him to shut the f**k up I don't want to hear about how you understand what I'm going through.

via GIPHY
Truly, this has been the single worst writing experience of my life, worse than losing stuff on my computer when it went nuclear. Worse that any rejection.

via GIPHY
All I can tell myself is that there must be a reason for the agony of this defeat. Can somebody please tell me what it is? Is there another editor/publisher out there that's even more perfect?

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Here is the link to IWSG Anthologies where you can meet the contributing authors of Voyages: The Third Ghost. Stop by and a learn a little about who we are. 

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Being Thankful

Today I'm thankful for...

I'm thinking about it...

Today I'm thankful for...

Chocolate.

What are you thankful for? What has been your single worst writing experience? Have you written a story that was inspired by a photo or piece of art?

IWSG, Voyagers and Other News, Being Thankful

Posting the First Wednesday of every month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group, is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. YOU can sign up HERE to participate.

Let's give a warm welcome to our co-hosts:  T. Powell Coltrin, Victoria Marie Lees, Stephen Tremp, Renee Scattergood, and J.H. Moncrieff!

This month's question is:  What started you on your writing journey? Was it a particular book, movie, story, or series? Was it a teacher/coach/spouse/friend/parent? Did you just "know" suddenly you wanted to write?

Happy New Year!

This is a longer post than I intended...

My writing journey began when I was eight years old. My mother was homeschooling me at the time with the Calvert Course, as it was called then. Now it's Calvert Education with over a 100 years of homeschooling experience. It was quite something. They shipped everything that would be needed for each grade in a big box: books, paper, pencils, teacher's manual, etc. EVERYthing.

Anyway, one assignment was that I write something about my family. I doubt my mother expected much, a page perhaps of misspelled words because I was then (not so bad now, though still not great) a most terrible speller due to dyslexia. But apparently I wrote three pages describing my family in great detail. It was in this treatise that I wrote about my sister and me as two grils. From then on we have often been affectionately referred to as "the grils." Even my husband has been known to use it.

My mother, impressed with my effort, became extremely supportive of my writing. Many years later, as an adult, I was going through a slump and somehow she knew. Out of the blue she sent me THE ARTIST'S WAY by Julia Cameron.

The book worked. It got me writing again. And now I'm going to reveal a little secret. Embedded in each my three self-published books - and in any book I may publish in the future - are those three words from her, "follow the way."

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Big news for me. My story, "The Blind Ship," will be in the next Insecure Writer's Support Group Anthology!

 Journey into the past…

Will the third ghost be found before fires take more lives? Can everyone be warned before Pompeii is buried again? What happens if a blizzard traps a family in East Germany? Will the Firebird help Soviet sisters outwit evil during WWII? And sneaking off to see the first aeroplane – what could go wrong?

Ten authors explore the past, sending their young protagonists on harrowing adventures. Featuring the talents of Yvonne Ventresca, Katharina Gerlach, Roland Clarke, Sherry Ellis, Rebecca M. Douglass, Bish Denham, Charles Kowalski, Louise M. Barbour, Beth Anderson Schuck, and L.T. Ward.

Hand-picked by a panel of agents, authors, and editors, these ten tales will take readers on a voyage of wonder into history. Get ready for an exciting ride!

Release date – May 5, 2020
Juvenile Fiction: Historical (JUV016000) / Action & Adventure (JUV001000) / Fantasy & Magic (JUV037000)Print 9781939844729 / EBook 9781939844736

A Writer’s Digest Best Site for Writers and The Write Life’s Best Site for Writers.
Founded by author Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writer’s Support Group offers support for writers and authors alike. It provides an online database; articles; monthly blog posting; Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram groups; #IWSGPit, and a monthly newsletter. www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com

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I'm also thrilled to announce that I have an article in the prestigious travel magazine, Destination, which publishes magazines geared towards specific locations in the Caribbean and around the world. My article, "Yard Culture and the Fellowship of Food" is in Destination: US Virgin Islands/British Virgin Islands. The magazine is published only once a year, so my article will be in the hands of readers for a whole year.

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Being Thankful

What's not to be thankful for?

2019 was a bit rocky, but ended on a high note.

I have a loving husband and sister.

I have a roof over my head, running water, electricity, food

and,

I have my health.

What are you thankful for? How did you begin your writing journey? Do you feel good about what you accomplished in 2019? Are you looking forward to 2020?