New Wishing Well Story

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There's a new story up, "Tales from the Wishing Well: Our Lady of Crows." This one has a strong mythic flavor, drawing on ancient stories about crows and their role in creating the world we know. Or not.

The page has a PayPal button for donations and a note that there will also be a necklace inspired by the story.

Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, August 12

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This is an advance announcement for the August Poetry Fishbowl.

Writing is usually considered a solitary pursuit. One exception to this is a fascinating exercise called a "fishbowl." This has various forms, but all of them basically involve some kind of writing in public, usually with interaction between author and audience. A famous example is Harlan Ellison's series of "stories under glass" in which he sits in a bookstore window and writes a new story based on an idea that someone gives him. Writing classes sometimes include a version where students watch each other write, often with students calling out suggestions which are chalked up on the blackboard for those writing to use as inspiration.

I'm going to host a Poetry Fishbowl on my blog on Tuesday, August 12. This time the theme will be science fiction & fantasy (not horror this time; I'm saving that for October). I'll be soliciting ideas for heroes, villains, artifacts or gadgets, weird settings, strange events, and poetic forms in particular. Chances are I'll spend a good chunk of the day, from afternoon to evening or more, alternating between this site and doing stuff offline so my back doesn't weld itself to the chair. I will post at least one of the resulting fishbowl poems on the blog for everyone to enjoy. The rest will be available for audience members to buy, and whatever's left over will go into my archive for magazine submission.

If you enjoy my poetry -- or if you just love poetry in general, or want to promote fantasy and science fiction -- please mark the fishbowl date on your calendar. Drop by and give me some ideas, comment on the posted poetry, encourage people to come look, whatever tickles your fancy. I hope to see you then!

Does Charity Count as CFC?

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Recently I've seen a lot of people using their blogs to promote charity work. There was the Blogathon organized by shadesong and friends; today I spotted beetiger's new 24-hour Zine Thing. Both of those were inspired by other charity fundraisers.

Here's a question for you folks:

Do charitable projects count as cyberfunded creativity or not?

Money changes hands, sometimes rather a lot of money, but it doesn't go to the author or artist; it goes to some worthy cause. Audience interaction is often heavy. Traffic also tends to be heavy, and many new Friends are made. I'm also wondering if people who do a charitable event later see a boost in their for-profit CFC projects.

Let's discuss this.