I have removed the Prologue from the novel manuscript. I have been on the brink of doing this for a long time. I have come to believe it is superfluous and that the work starts out better without it. I have still also kept an epigraph from chapter one, as well. I may end up putting one there, if I can make it short and popping. But, to be honest I think the novel starts out well as it does right now:

"It wasn't good, what L.D.'s dad said to his mom."           Click on the icon:

The next installment of work for our work-in-progress chapbook, The Motion in Motive has been posted.

I have just added the poem Sun Dial by Prasanna Surakanti. This addition. like everything else, is in need of a graphic illustration or other image inspired by it.

See next for guidelines on submitting graphic arts (and photographs) as well as how to submit your words.

AND CLICK HERE FOR THE CHAPBOOK.

This virtual chapbook is a "work-in-progress." The challenge is to build upon the theme, on-line, as you and I arrive and depart the construction site. The chapbook will be locked into place as a finished collection in September 2008.

Work in progress

Throughout the construction time, prose, poetry and artwork/illustrations are posted as each is accepted.

What's eligible?

Writing:

Any prose or poetry that reasonably addresses the theme (the title) will be considered. I will tell you up front however, prose pieces with an overtly academic flavor are not likely to make the cut. That does not mean written from a frame-set of intellect, it means I don't care much for prose that look like a masters or doctoral thesis, or someone's school essay assignment. Other than that, anything is fair game so long as it actually is written well enough.

Artwork/Illustrations:

Artists and photographers can also submit images to be considered as the main artwork for the chapbook or as an illustration for any particular prose piece or poem. The main image will not be chosen until August 2008. The illustrations for each piece of writing will be picked when I see the one that grabs me. I, too, will be working on art or photographs to use, by-the-way. To keep things clean, once an image has been picked, that's it for the illustration for that particular piece of writing -- no more submissions of illustrations will be accepted for it. Each posted prose or poetry piece will be eligible for the illustration until it is clear it has an image. Directly after the choice has been made that fact will be clearly posted until the image is up. As far as my own artwork, at some point, for each, I will decide I have given submissions enough time to come in and will use my own.

Authors may submit their own illustrations so long as the following conditions are met: 1) if they are not the creator of the images they must have verifiable proof of permission and rights to use the image in conjunction with the chapbook; 2) they understand that acceptance of the writing and of the image are not inclusive -- I may not choose to use the authors' art even if I accept their writing, and I may use my own or others' images to illustrate the work.

There is no required slant to the images in terms of color schemes or style. But, of course, you who are submitting graphics, as with writing, must be in control of copyright clearance to grant the WriteGallery rights to post the work.

Limits and conditions

The limits of submissions per person are as they always are for any individual project: three prose pieces and six poems and a 5000 word limit on any single piece of work. And yes, one can submit a total of three prose pieces and a total of six poems (nine separate pieces of writing).

Artists/photographers may only submit two images for each of the main graphic for the collection or two illustrations for any individual prose or poetry work (that's 2 images per prose piece or poem).

Specs for graphics (Note the Dec 2, 2007 inclusion of DPI recommendation):

• MAIN ILLUSTRATION
  1. must be free of text when submitted
  2. must be no smaller than 800 x 600 pixels but no larger than 1152 x 768
  3. Images should be at least 300 DPI -- lower DPI may result in rejection due to poor visual quality
  4. file type must be jpg or png
  5. file size can be no larger than 2 megabytes

• ILLUSTRATIONS FOR PIECES OF WRITING
  1. must be free of text when submitted
  2. must be no smaller than 400 pixels wide but no larger than 800 pixels wide *and the wider it is, the more the aspect ratio should favor the width
  3. Images should be at least 300 DPI -- lower DPI may result in rejection due to poor visual quality
  4. file type must be jpg or png
  5. file size can be no larger than 2 megabytes

  All illustrations should be attached to email to: writing@thewritegallery.com.

  Illustrations can accompany the writing they illustrate or can be separate -- please specify what each graphic is illustrating.

Deadline

The call for submissions is open now and will remain in effect until midnight, August 31, 2008.

ONE FINAL NOTE -- IF YOUR WRITING, PHOTOGRAPH OR ART WORK BECOMES A PART OF THIS CHAPBOOK, IT WILL STAY A PART OF THIS CHAPBOOK: This chapbook, like all others here, is meant to be a single unit, collected of parts that equal the whole. To that end it is to be published/posted as such with all the elements to be kept as a part of it. Thus, no work will be removed from the chapbook unless it is determined that the work is plagiarized or otherwise infringes on copyright.

If I accept your writing or your image, you and I are agreeing that such will stay posted with the chapbook. If you request later for any work to be removed, that request will be denied. The work stays with the chapbook. If you are not comfortable with this arrangement, don't submit work for the chapbook; I will hold you to our agreement if your work becomes a part of this venture.

To make a submission, go to the Submission Guidelines page.

I was recently informed that a web site -- Webshots dot Com -- has at least one page that deceptively suggests that both I and an author who appears at the WriteGallery have sponsored the page there. The page bears pictures of another person identified with the same name as the WG author, but who is not that author. The pictures are risqué.

There is also a false link to the title of the author's work at this site. I say false because the excerpt presented is soft porn text that is not a part of the story here. The link is actually not active, either. That would be because if one were to click on the link and come to the real story one would see it is not the soft porn prose that the webshots page lies that it is.

The false link to the story and to the WriteGallery is in a section entitled "sponsored links." Let me state here emphatically that neither the WriteGallery nor the said author are a sponsor for anything at webshots dot com, nor do we endorse or recommend any page at webshots dot com. In fact, to the contrary, I advise against the webshots dot com web site and rebuke it as unethical and dishonest.

In short, webshots dot com is fraudulent in at least some of its content.