Just want to share with our SUCKER fans and friends this beautiful review of volume 2 by Arianne St. Clare.
http://stclairesbookworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/sucker-literary/
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More FREE copies. . . Goodreads Giveaway!
Our social media director Kacey Vanderkarr has put together a Goodreads giveaway from May 8-June 8th!
Check it out!
Volume 2
(Paperback version)
ALSO. . . SUCKER LITERARY: an anthology, volume 2 is FREE today and Friday on Amazon in the Kindle store. Click here now to get your FREE copy!
There’s no catch to this. . . now readers can get their hands on SUCKER and write reviews to post on Amazon and Goodreads.
This FREE promotion is one of several that will be coming up over the next few weeks. We are an indie literary enterprise that relies on volunteers for staff members (there are currently over 25 of us!) and readers to help promote us. So we thank you in advance for your support!
SUCKER LITERARY is a platform for the emerging author of YA fiction, for the daring writer who wants to talk about the real deal of high school and teenage-hood.
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SUCKER, FREE! (Get it?)
BIG NEWS!
WE ARE FREE TODAY!!!
SUCKER LITERARY: an anthology, volume 2 is FREE today, tomorrow, and Friday on Amazon in the Kindle store. Click here now to get your FREE copy!
There’s no catch to this. . . now readers can get their hands on SUCKER and write reviews to post on Amazon and Goodreads.
This FREE promotion is one of several that will be coming up over the next few weeks. We are an indie literary enterprise that relies on volunteers for staff members (there are currently over 25 of us!) and readers to help promote us. So we thank you in advance for your support!
SUCKER LITERARY is a platform for the emerging author of YA fiction, for the daring writer who wants to talk about the real deal of high school and teenage-hood.
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So how long will this all take?
The question every submitting writer wants to ask the agents or editors who have their work.
At SUCKER LITERARY, we try to be very transparent about the submitting/responding process. So I will break down the steps for all of you who have submitted (and those of you who are just curious).
We are now entering our reading and critiquing period. This process is rolling. From the moment I received the first set of submissions on March 1 when we opened the doors of this reading period all the way through doors closing on May 1, I’ve been fielding submissions to our readers. So the responding process actually has been going on for some time. However, the getting of the actual YAY, NAY, or MAYBE to you all will take another several weeks to several months. This is because our staff of 25 readers must fill out feedback sheets, which include whether or not a piece should be accepted, rejected, or mentored. Then they send those back to me, and I read EVERY SINGLE one. How long does that take?
Well, I have a day job, my own writing, and a family with two kids under ten. SUCKER LITERARY is my labour of love, but in order for it to happen and to happen in the best way possible, each part of the process takes a lot of time (time I have to find in between all other parts of life). So the AMOUNT of time it takes really depends on. . .life.
Decisions about accepting and mentoring come from initial recommendations (on the feedback sheets) from readers, but ultimately the piece must resonate with me. This part of the process also takes some time and cannot be rushed because I want to publish the VERY best work from emerging writers of short form YA fiction.
Once decisions are made regarding pieces, notes and feedback sheets are given to the folks we have agreed to mentor or accept. And they, like all of us on staff, have lives filled with many other responsibilities. I do not like to rush their process of revising. So that part of the process can take more weeks or months. Revising can also take a round or two and so add a few more weeks or months onto that. Once revisions are completed, well, that’s a whole other timeline and blog entry!
So how long will this take? If you are a writer interested in being published, you really need to accept that the road there is not short and if it is, something isn’t right (sorry). Rushed publications mean more mistakes and more mistakes really irritate readers.
Ultimately, writers must be patient and must not rush the process of publishing just to satisfy the itch we all have to share our work with the world. We have to remember the responsibility we have not only to ourselves but to our readers.
So, if you have submitted to us, please be patient and remember that this time we are taking is for ALL of us so that our work can be the VERY best.
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The Story Behind The Story: Ann Karasinski’s A Level Playing Field
Author Ann Karasinski
“A Level Playing Field”
Several years ago in our now defunct local newspaper, I read about a woman, a wife and mother, who had died in a tragic accident. Over time the her story began to haunt me. The newspaper described the woman’s community involvement and named her surviving family members, including a teenaged son. I wondered how her son actually would survive, how he would remember his mother and see his dad, and how he would see himself. Eventually, this son took up residence in my imagination and spoke to me through my own secrets and experiences and became Jason O’Donnell.
My favorite stories have always been about children, young adults, and their parents—where the heart of the story exists in the tension between parent and child. I suppose these stories appeal to me because of my belief that the greatest love story any of us experience is the one we live with our parents. Sometimes this love comes easily, wrapped up in bows and celebrated with trophies, but other times, it is hard-earned, requiring conditions and payment. In A Level Playing Field, I’ve shared Jason’s story, showing the good and the bad, the easy and hard-earned love that shapes us into the people we eventually become.
Ann S. Karasinski
The Story Behind The Story: Allie Brennan’s Dark Angel
About a year ago, I had just finished another book about an impossibly sexy angel guy and his weak (and clueless) human soul-mate. Now, I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy the book, but it made me think; what if the roles were reversed. What would happen if there was a strong kick-ass and sexy female angel and her weak and plain human lover boy. And to really twist it up, what if she was the bad guy? Or supposed to be the bad guy?
To get my novels straight in my head, I sometimes write short stories about them to work out voice, character traits, tone, etc. Well, that’s what I did here (minus lover boy), and I blew through this story so fast I barely breathed. I immediately fell in love with my feisty DARK ANGEL, Lucy, and her jerk of a brother, Damon.
In a moment of blind passion for the story (and recklessness) I scoured the internet for magazines that would love Lucy. I found Sucker Literary Magazine, who were conveniently (I thought) looking for dark, edgy YA. But the deadline for submission was in a couple days . . .Do I? Or Don’t I?
I thought, Hey Lucy’s a teen, she’s dark, she’s edgy. She’s the daughter of the devil . . .how could that NOT fit what they’re looking for? So I slapped my name on it and submitted it. I immediately regretted it. I barely spell checked it. But my writerly self-doubt (and chronic self-depreciation) kept me calm because this was the first thing I’d ever submitted. Anywhere. No way they would accept it . . . Well, they did. And, that’s when the real fun began.
The moral of the story is Hannah and Molly are goddesses of editing, as well as crazy for taking on my first draft. But they believed in the story, and so do I.
Which brings us here, ready to share Lucy’s bad attitude and moral dilemma with the world.
–Allie Brennan, author of Dark Angel.
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The Story Behind The Story: Kelly Samuels’ Do You Remember Fred?
KELLY SAMUELS, author of “Do You Remember Fred?”
A few years back, I went to UCLA to investigate their Extension’s decorating program. And now I’m a writer. Somehow I ended up at the Writer’s Fair, sat in on a lecture and listened to an author talk about all the characters she has swimming around in her head. I thought, Hallelujah, I don’t have a multiple personality disorder; I just have characters searching for a plot. (Some characters I’ve had with me since childhood!)
Fast forward to now: I’ve completed my Certificate in Fiction from UCLA Extension, average 3 + writers’ conferences or workshops a year, and participate in two writers’ groups—one is a master class taught by Stephanie Waxman, the other is a simple group of two amazing women who have taught me the reason why authors write dedication pages.
I have to admit. It was Twilight. I rediscovered the YA genre after reading and re-reading the Twilight series. Thank you Stephanie Meyers for igniting a fire under my butt. However, you will find no vampires in my stories, not yet anyway. I’m a “SUCKER” for love stories and family drama. Mostly because I sorely lacked one of those growing up. Thanks Mom and Dad for being so normal (and boring!) Still together those two. . . maybe I’ll tell their story one day of a teenage boy in the 1950’s who teasingly stole a girl’s loaf of bread and her heart!
As for love stories, I can’t read anything, I mean anything—think, National Geographic cover story—without looking for people who possibly could hook up. Makes reading non-fiction very tricky. So, I write the stories I want to read, about love and heartache and those magical firsts that serve to teach us we’re all part of the human race.
My story, “Do you remember Fred?” in its rough form was a homework assignment for a, drum roll please, SEX WRITING CLASS!!! Yep, that’s why it’s juicy. (And so you know, it was edited a bit for SUCKER!) My inspiration for the story is a compilation of memories of cold winter nights after hockey games in the little town where I grew up in CT. Many parties, many hook ups, many fogged windows in corn fields or empty parking lots. Do kids still spike hot chocolate with Rumplemintz? So 80’s!
I am elated to be a part of SUCKER’s early beginnings. It absolutely rocks! I’ve re-read the first issue about five times. I had a note to myself to submit something. . . someday
. . . but when the email came in about an open submission period, well, I got the chills, and I knew I had to try. I submitted “Fred” about ten minutes before the actual deadline, having spent the entire day polishing it. Okay, scrubbing, exfoliating, giving it a mud mask, and extra strength Vitamin C enriched moisturizer. But it worked! Thank you Hannah & SUCKER. Can’t wait to see my story in print!
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The Story Behind The Story: Hannah R. Goodman’s Miki and Dex
Hannah R. Goodman, author of “Miki & Dex” SUCKER LITERARY: an anthology (volume 2)
www.hannahrgoodman.com
This is a story taken directly from an episode of the TV show that could be my teenage years: The Hannah Chronicles. It is highly fictionalized for your consumption because what really happened that night . . . well, let’s put it this way, there is a reason why I only write fiction and why I will NEVER write a memoir.
My writing process for this story was taken from a free write in a writing class I taught over 10 years ago. This experience really happened to me and the older I became, the episode seemed so insane, so much out of my character. I took it out one day about 4 years ago and thought, man, now this is a good idea. Dex and Miki are slivers of people I know, including myself and the “Dex” who I had in my life as a teen, but really they represent the essence of the end of high school nostalgia, where looking back at the four years feels enormous and looking forward to the future feels terrifying. I feel like Miki and Dex absolutely have to give their torturous love one last go before they move on to their respective futures.
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The Story Behind The Story: Claudia Snow Classon’s Angels and Serendipity
Claudia Snow Classon, author of “Angels and Serendipity”
http://wordprowler.blogspot.com/
Last summer I learned that having a second story accepted by SUCKER entitles an author to a whole new level of editorial support. While most literary magazines merely offer a perfunctory assessment of one’s latest blood, sweat, and tears opus, SUCKER ups the ante by providing en suite one-on-one overnight collaboration. Upon meeting our esteemed founder and Editor-in-Chief Hannah Goodman at an undisclosed country inn (well, sort of chain hotel), I learned that she had planned a vigorous co-editing session for our evening together. Dressed in our PJs, we burrowed under the blankets of our (separate) beds with warm laptops and tepid tea. Hannah proceeded to verbally blue pencil my story while I, one step behind, made edits and corrections. Ideas like feather pillows bounced from bed to bed and by the time it was “lights out” we had plumped my story into a comfortable shape. And for my efforts, I received a mint on my pillow. Thanks, Hannah, for the awesome “bediting” session!
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Story behind the story: Paul Heinz’s The Missing Ingredient
The story behind the story “The Missing Ingredient”
PAUL HEINZ
http://www.paulheinz.com
A transcription of a conversation with my therapist, July 2012
Therapist: So in summary, what you seem to be saying is that you’re still holding onto the humiliation you felt as a teenager.
Me: Well, duh. Isn’t everyone?
T: No, not really. Many people are able to, in time, embrace their childhoods. You can get there too.
Me: No fricking way. There is no way you’re going to tell me that I’ll be able to embrace the time I offered to carry Brittney Wright’s books, and she told me I was too scrawny.
T: You asked a girl to carry her books? What decade were you living in?
Me: Um . . .well . . .
T: Cuz seriously, that sounds like something straight out of Leave it to Beaver. You must have struck out a lot in high school, huh?
Me: Well, yeah. In dating, and, um. . .baseball, too, I guess. Other stuff. Can we change topics?
T: You know, maybe your right. I’m not sure I can help you to embrace your childhood. Unless . . .
Me: Unless what? Doc, you gotta help me! My face breaks out at the mention of tater tots. I panic when I have to unhook a bra, even when no one’s wearing it! For the love of all that’s holy, what should I do?
T: Write about it.
Me: Write about it! That’s brilliant! I’ll write a short story, get it published and parlay that into a novel, and it’ll beat out John Green for the “Awesome Kickass Young-Adult Novel of the Year” award.
T: Um. . .yeah, if that’s the extent of your vocabulary, you might want to. . .
Me: Too late, Mr. Therapist. I’m ready. I’m ready to reveal the suckiness of teenagedom in all its glory!
Check out SUCKER writer Kathleen Ingraham’s story behind the story, “A Little Bit of Sunshine”
