Your inspiration today is this fascinating picture. An old abandoned library. I wrote this response some time ago.
Refuge
The huge facade of a building emerges among the trees, as we trek our way westward, hopefully toward the rumored survivor town. With the light fading, our small group welcomes the opportunity of proper shelter instead of the tattered tents we have been using for the last four months. Greg, Tom and Jacob lead us into the dappled shade of the building; we stand in awe at the sight that meets us, the remains of an old library with huge floor to ceiling shelves covered in books, dust and debris. The interior has a surreal quality with trees growing within the library walls and bursting skyward through the roof.
Discarding our back packs and bed rolls, we all start to explore the interior before the light completely disappears. Some books totally disintegrate upon first touch but others are sturdier, these we put aside but the remains of crumbly pages are piled together to start a fire, then topped with pieces of several broken chairs. Constructing our tents into canopies along the rear wall with the fire in front, we enjoy the warmth, whilst waiting for the rabbit meat to cook. We all enjoy a deep slumber within the security of the brick building, no sudden noises or movements startling us awake into fear of the unknown, within the blackness of the forest.
As the sun rises its light runs across the floor from the roof opening toward our enclave, rousing us. Gradually, one by one, we stretch and shake away the heaviness of a luxurious sleep and begin to look around the book clad walls. Another fire is started to curb the morning chill and heat water for a weak brew, whilst Greg and Tom go hunting. Carefully testing the staircases Alice and I climb to the upper walkways looking for treasure’s within the shelves, only to find more crumbling books and a few scampering bugs.
We both wish we could stay here within the security of these walls instead of continuing our trek toward an unknown future.
Have fun with this prompt. Please share your response in the comments.
Urban fiction is also known as street lit or street friction and is set in city landscapes. However, it is defined by the narrative’s content of soci-economic realities and culture of its characters as well as the urban setting. This genre is usually dark in tone with explicit violence, sex and profanity and is commonly drawn from the author’s own experiences. Largely written by African American authors, this genre covers the separation of their particular community and culture and the life experiences of its characters in inner-cities.
Earlier urban literature depicted low-income survivalist realities of city living, these included Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist (1838), Stephen Crane’s Maggie, A Girl of the Streets (1893) and Langston Hughes’ The Ballard of the Landlord (1940). These narratives did not just relay African American or Latino experiences but stories of diverse cultural and ethnic experiences.
In 1999 Sister Souljah’s narrative The Coldest Winter became a bestseller and with Teri Wood’s True to the Game there became a standard for entrepreneurial publishing and distribution of contemporary urban fiction.
Urban fiction has experienced a renaissance from 2000 boasting thousands of titles, which include the new Latino fiction novels. There is also a literary wave of hip-hop fiction and street lit, which take a more literary approach using metaphor, signifying and other literary devices. These books are also used for socially redeeming or classroom capacities, while maintaining love and positive outlooks.
In recent years, some urban fiction authors have joined with hip hop artists such as 50 Cent to further promote the genre by penning the musicians’ real-life stories.
Most days writing leaves me energized. Some days I procrastinate, and on those days it’s exhausting.
What is your writing Kryptonite?
In the early stages of a project any distraction has the potential to be writing Kryptonite. When I get deeper into the story and the pages have started to add up distractions have less impact.
Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?
I’ve never given any serious thought to using a pseudonym.
What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?
I have friends who are photographers, filmmakers, and musicians, but no writers. The closest thing would be a couple of professors who have had a strong influence on me.
Do you want each book to stand alone, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
So far all of my work has been stand-alone. I like the idea of doing a series, and plan to revisit the characters from my western novella “Gunmen” soon.
What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?
The best money I ever spent as a writer was purchasing a copy of Stephen King’s “On Writing.” I highly recommend it.
What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
When I was in the fifth grade my class read the Ray Bradbury story “All Summer in a Day,” and it put me in a deep funk. That was the first time I thought about words on a page having any sort of lasting power. Later in the year we read “Flowers for Algernon,” which further strengthened that notion. Looking back now, it seems the fifth grade was one seriously depressing year.
What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?
“The Girl Next Door” by Jack Ketchum.
As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
A giant tortoise. They’re slow and steady, and they live a long time.
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
I currently have two unpublished books. One is a horror novel, the other is a crime novel.
What does literary success look like to you?
Literary success, to me, is continuing to be published. Financial reward is always nice, but honestly, if money were the primary goal I would take up a different occupation.
What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
I don’t like to hold up the writing to do research, as that tends to kill off my enthusiasm. If I am writing about a different time period, or an unusual location, I’ll do some light reading on the subject before I begin writing. After that I limit my research to specific questions that arise as I’m working on the story. By the end of the process I find I’ve done a good deal of research in total, which leaves me prepared to fix my mistakes in the rewrite.
How many hours a day/week do you write?
I try to write three hours a day, six days a week- 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.
How do you select the names of your characters?
Names have to be just right for me be able to move forward. They can come from anywhere. I’ve found character names on road signs, cleaning products and old comic books. Sometimes they come quickly, sometimes they are a struggle. But when I find the right one I can feel it.
What was your hardest scene to write?
Any scene where I have to kill a character I’ve grown to like is difficult to write. I wrote a death scene for a dog that was especially rough.
Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre? If you write more than one, how do you balance them?
I began writing horror, and most of my stories involved criminals. I quickly discovered I was more interested in the criminals than the horror, and so I shifted my focus to crime fiction. I find when I write in other genres I still tend to focus on criminals.
How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing since the second grade. That was the year children’s author Scott Corbett (The Lemonade Trick) came to my second grade class to speak. Up until then I had no real idea that making up stories was an actual job that people had. Once I found that out I knew no other job would do. I’ve been writing ever since.
What inspires you?
Good writing inspires me. Especially by writers who have a better facility with language than I do.
How do you find or make time to write?
I’m fortunate enough to have a schedule that allows me the time to write.
What projects are you working on at the present?
At the moment I’m looking for a home for my crime novel “The Pretenders.” It was set to be released last year, but unfortunately the publisher closed shop before that happened.
What do your plans for future projects include?
Future projects include the previously mentioned “Gunmen” sequel.
Timothy Friend is a writer and independent filmmaker whose fiction has been published in Crossed-Genres, Thuglit, and Needle: A Magazine of Noir. He is the writer and director of the feature film, “Bonnie and Clyde vs. Dracula,” distributed by Indican Pictures. He holds an MFA from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
An article is a written work published either in a print or electronic form. It can propagate news, research results, academic analysis, or debate. These articles are published within a magazine, which is a collection of written articles. At its root, the word “magazine” refers to a collection or storage location.
Magazine writers are essentially journalists. They find, research and write stories that interest readers in line with the particular magazines genre they are submitting to, so it does vary greatly from the kinds of journalistic articles written for newspapers.
Articles follow a format with a headline, a byline, a a lead and the body or running text and finally the conclusion. There are various categories of articles:
Academic paper – an article published in an academic journal. These articles give their writers status within their particular academic field, by the frequency they are cited by authors of other articles and how many articles the writer has published.
Essay – a piece of writing that gives the author’s own argument.
Scientific paper – an article published in a scientific journal.
Blog – blog article subjects are as diverse as the writers creating them from magazine type content to personal journal to refined subject matter.
Encyclopedia article – is primarily a division of content.
Marketing article – content designed to draw the reader to a commercial website or product.
Usenet article – a message written in the style of e-mail and posted to an open moderated or unmoderated Usenet newsgroup.
Spoken article – a audio recording, commonly known as a podcast.
Listicle – an article where the primary content is a list. These are most popular on blogs.
Portrait – portrait of a person.
I was recently approached to publish an article I wrote. The first link is live now. The second will publish the article in the next few weeks.
Mandy Eve-Barnett's Blog for Readers & Writers 