We are also having Joseph Lee, of Wolf&Fox Design Studio, redesign and relaunch our blogsite so that it is a REAL website. The mock-up is AMAZING and our fans and supporters will not be disappointed. Details, plus an interview with Joseph, are forthcoming.

Coming Attractions and Events

BLOG TOUR
We are going on tour! Blog tour that is. July 1- July 31. Details will be posted soon. Watch for our writers and staff as they spread the word and love for SUCKER LITERARY. Kacey Vanderkarr, our new social media director is heading up this project. Contact her if you are interested in hosting us for a day. kacimari27@gmail.com

SUCKER-FREE DAY
On July 20-21, SUCKER LITERARY volumes 1 and 2 will be free on the Kindle store on Amazon. Take a read BEFORE you submit to us during our next reading period.

BOOK SIGNING
Hannah and Alyssa will be at The Stamford Author Event on August 10th from 12 to 4 pm at the Hilton Executive Center, signing copies of volume 1 and 2. Come meet us in person and check out our cool swag.

OPEN DOOR DAY
Yes, it’s back. Last submission period we had two fabulous stories come to us through our OPEN DOOR DAY. So we are doing it again. We will be reopening the doors for volume 3 on August 1 at 12 a.m. Doors will stay open until 11:59 p.m. Submissions must follow our guidelines. This round will not include feedback. Send us your VERY best and SUPER polished work. Any submissions that do not follow our guidelines will be deleted.

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Read Hannah’s guest post on Henandinkbytes.

http://stclairesbookworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/sucker-literary/

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 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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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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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

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http://www.KellySamuels.com

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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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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