one year & one hundred thousand miles

We've made it! But only thanks to you, our loyal readers and our talented writers and artist! Thank you for making this year an incredible and successful ride!

In the last year we've watched the growth in our readership go from our close friends and family to a great number of loyal followers spanning the globe. Our submissions went from ten to several hundred each issue and continues to grow. We have been so blessed and we hope that you have been as well.

From the bottoms of our hearts, thank you for seeing out dream through over the last year. The talent continues to grow as we are introduced to other artists with visions closely aligning to ours. We can't wait to see what you have in store for us over the year to come!

Sincerely,

the editors

Welcome & Here are your Skittles

We are beyond pleased to announce the newest edition of our team! Kerstin Demata has gone from amazing contributor to under-appreciated associate correspondence editor and general breathe of fresh air.

She has joined our team mid-stream this quarter and has worked desperately to keep us on track through the overwhelming amounts of submissions. Please join us in making her feel welcome to the team!

More about Kerstin

November is Coming! November is Coming!

Just as it comes every year November is swiftly sneaking up on October like a bandit. For some this begins that two month long holiday panic attack of planning family gatherings, shopping, working and the likes. For others November 1st marks the beginning of NaNoWrImO!

I want to take a few moments to introduce those who are not yet familiar with National Novel Writing Month. November is the time to stop procrastinating and start doing. Begin your outline now or work from one that's been dancing in your head for the last three years because you only have one month! NaNoWrImO has been going strong since 1999 gaining participants in throngs each year. It is completely free to participate and your support network is built right in.

The forums go strong year-long but are of course especially active in November when everyone trying to write a novel is busy procrastinating. The forums act as feedback as well as a really amazing research tool allowing you to post and find people with very specific knowledge that you may feed off of. Even if you don't finish the work that you began in November it is likely to get you farther than you would the other eleven months out of the year.

The goal is 75,000 words, which is your average novel length. There is a tracker and places to post what you have to gain feedback from your peers if you so choose. If you've been thinking about writing a novel and have yet to put pen to paper November is just around the corner! Ignore the rest of the madness, create your own!

Good Luck!

Help Wanted

If you are a regular reader of Vanilla or the whole five blog post that have been posted here you know that we have outgrown ourselves a bit. We (me & him) are looking to increase or staff by adding an internship program.

If you or someone you know that is a college level junior or senior and are interested in an unpaid labor of love and class credit internship please see the job description and apply as directed!

We look forward to your applications! (Feel free to be creative, we honor that!)

Slackers Summer Over

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please forgive our slackness over the last few months. We've been short handed but are in the process of rectifying this situation. As we are looking to increase our staff we are also looking to increase our communications with you! Our hope is to commit to posting on this blog on a regular basis (not once every couple of months) and hope that you will join in with us.

We are announcing our completed Summer issue of Vanilla ready for view.

Until next time,

Enjoy the read!

The Things We Do

Oh the things we do to avoid doing what we love...

Make an excuse to not make excuses. Use the time you've set aside. The laundry can wait, order Chinese instead of cooking diner, turn off the TV.

Poets Proceed with Caution

Most people when embarking on the discovery of their talent for writing, or when beginning their endeavor to become a writer start with poetry. Word of warning, proceed with caution.

Poetry is not the easy place with which to begin. It's not start at all, it is an ending. There is a formula, there is careful calculation, there is use of line and meter, and they are not to be entered in to without precautionary measures. Rhyme isn't something that you throw about and at the end nod your head and call it a poem. Rhyme can be a prison cell and rhythm your sentence.

If you are poet you will fall to this place naturally. You will be freed rather than imprisoned, and line and meter will bend to your will. If you find yourself flailing between counts, move on from this place with a bow of recognition to those who do it with such ease and try your hand at a short story instead.

Strong Language

In a light discussion a few days ago the editors were talking about the use of strong language. This got me thinking about what that phrase means. And being the word enthusiast that I am, I have to dig down for true meaning.

These days we hear the phrase "contains strong language" and we rush our four year old myna bird in footie pajamas from the room. We don't want them repeating that "strong language" in pre-school tomorrow.

If this phrase truly meant strong language, we'd be sitting our children down for a lesson of how to string together proper sentence.

The word "Strong" is defined as: having, showing, or able to exert great power.

The word "Language" is defined as: a body of words and the systems for their use common to a people who are of the same community or nation.

Here is your challenge. Write a scene with two characters becoming very heated. Use strong language to express their anger WITHOUT using a single curse word (or the word exasperated). Post below as you wish.

Selection Process

We are undergoing an extensive selection process for this issue. We've received so many wonderful submissions, and the competition is stiff!

We are so excited for the May issues release! Thanks for all of the submissions! Keep them coming!

Exercising

ex·er·cise

   [ek-ser-sahyz] Show IPA noun, verb,-cised, -cis·ing.

–noun

1.

bodily or mental exertion, esp. for the sake of training or improvement of health:

2.

something done or performed as a means of practice or training:

3.

a written composition, musical piece, or artistic work executed for practice or to illustrate a particular aspect of technique.

The noun doesn't sound so bad. It's when it becomes a verb that the groaning begins. The thought of verbing exercise, if you're like me, makes your brain sweat before you've even begun. There's always some ceremonious preparation interrupted by finding your lost sneaker, or in the case of writing, that lost pen, or the piece of paper with that guys number on it that you might need one day in case of emergency when you're stuck without...what was it for? It doesn't matter, anything to keep you from beginning said exercise.

It's ridiculous that we avoid that which we claim to love. It's that first five minutes that's the hardest though, be it running, or weight lifting, or those first five minutes after you've picked up your paint brush or sat down in-front of that daunting blinking cursor on your word processor. After that, it's a breeze. Hours fly by unnoticed, other than having to tell Pandora "Yes, I'm still listening."

Soon exercise can become routine, and beyond routine it can become habit, and beyond habit it can become ingrained as a part of your life that keeps you balanced and free. One can never be great at something that they don't practice; Mozart I'm sure composed a few really horrific sounding things before and even between his greatest works. Virginia Woolf threw away crumpled pieces of paper with scribbled lines of garbage bleeding down their pages. Van Gogh ran an angry brush through a skewed vase of flowers a time or two, I'm sure. We must all allow ourselves to be weak, and create until we are strong. We must make ourselves, verb: exercise.

If you read any of our musings when Vanilla was first starting we talked about one sentence exercises. A partner practice where one would create a sentence for the other, and the other created a story (preferably in one paragraph) using that one sentence as the basis of everything that followed.

(You may leave your creation as a comment if you would be interested in sharing your exercise. It is always amusing to see how different minds bend the same sentence!)

Here is my one sentence for you:

The chair creaked beneath her weight, it was the only sound in the meeting hall brimming with people.

Happy exercising!