Hello there!
On August 1, we roll out the Inlinkz form to sign up for the August WEP challenge, GARDENS. (Thank you again, Olga Godim, for the fantastic badges!)
Whoever wins a challenge is given the opportunity to write a guest post. Arpan Ghosh won the February Valentine's challenge with his paranormal story. You can read the story HERE at Arpan's blog, Tales of Unusual Strangeness.
Arpan was given free rein with his choice of topic, so when Arpan offered to write a post about FANTASY, we were excited, as the next Insecure Writers Support Group anthology will feature FANTASY. How cool is that!
Many of us aren't FANTASY writers, yet most of us love to read it or extend our repertoire. If you're interested in submitting to this anthology, perhaps you will be inspired by Arpan's post and begin thinking of a story for publication in the anthology.
Take it away, Arpan...
Hi everyone!
I can't quite remember how I came across the WEP
blog about a year ago, but I'm really glad I did! Yolanda and Denise have
created such a perfect playground to flex one's writing muscles, and I've had a
lot of fun with their prompts so far! For my guest post, I’d like to tell you how I got into writing.
It begins, appropriately enough, with a story.
Once upon a time, there was a boy. Or maybe it
was a girl. A farmer, perhaps. Or it could have been a princess, a
knight or a witch. They all lived in a realm on the other side of
imagination. It was a land of endless adventure, where magic beans would sprout
into towering stalks, wolves would hatch elaborate schemes of deception and
even the simple act of biting into an apple was fraught with danger.
When I was growing up, fairy tales were as much
a part of my diet as chicken nuggets and candy, and I devoured them with
just as much relish. They transported me out of a mundane world that had too
much homework and a sad lack of talking dragons, and through their own strange
magic, transformed me from an ordinary boy into a voracious bookworm.
Bookstores and libraries were my preferred
haunts in those days (they still are, actually). They were like train
stations to faraway lands. I was always on the lookout for the next
carriage to board. Fairy tales instilled in me a love for the fantastical
that I never outgrew, and transitioning into fantasy and science fiction was a
natural step. Tales of hobbits, robots, space explorers and superheroes
shaped my childhood and teenage years, inspiring me to create worlds of my own.
Writing, for me, has meant many things over the
years. When I was a boy, it was a way to breathe life into my imagination,
putting strange worlds and unusual people down on paper for all to see. During
my teenage years, I sought out maturity by trying to ground fantastic stories
in reality, revealing wizards to be mere men with fancy technology. As I've
grown older, however, I've rediscovered the magic and wonder of childhood and
sought to re-capture it through stories.
Writing fantasy is the act of opening a
door to another world and inviting people to step through, hoping that the
journey will be so much more than just a trip to the next page. I write because
I want people to feel the same thrill I felt as a child, to make people believe
that castles can be built among the clouds and that perhaps,
the quiet old man on the train is a time traveler reliving his
younger years through wiser eyes.
Setting up a blog has been a great way for me to
find an audience for my stories (small as it is), and to cross paths with like
minded writers. And writing challenges like WEP provide an excellent opportunity
to flex the writing muscles and, quite often, to test new genres or writing
styles.
With that in mind, I'd love for everyone reading
this to try their hand at a fantastical tale (that is, if that isn't your forte
already). The Insecure Writers' Support Group (another great platform for
writers that I've recently become aware of thanks to Denise!) will be accepting
submissions for a fantasy anthology soon. More details will be rolling out in
the coming weeks, but it's a fantastic opportunity to put your work before an
even wider audience.
So fling open that door and usher people in to
see the wonder that lies on the other side.
I'll definitely be first in line.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you Arpan!
Please leave a comment for Arpan.
Are you considering submitting to the IWSG Anthology on FANTASY?
Are you a FANTASY writer? Do you have any advice for non-fantasy writers?
REMEMBER: The August sign up for GARDENS is August 1, less than a week away!
Watch this space!
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