Let me encourage you to find other ways of connecting with our authors, they are worth getting to know.

My parents gave me a really long name and I don’t use most of it. The parts I do use are written, “Wil Ogden.” People tell me I should have two “L”s but why waste ink or electrons when the name is the same with one “L” or two. My print publications will use this name. For purely online publication, I use Pantros.

I am currently 39 years old. I don’t look or act my age. I’ve been writing since I was 16, but didn’t really know what I was doing until about 3 years ago when I discovered Hatrack, Liberty Hall and Notebored. I’ve written five or six novels and a couple hundred short stories and flashes.

Currently my only publication credit is “The Wishing Jar” at turnthepagemagazine.com. I blame my stubborn reluctance to submit work for publication. I do have an acceptance for an upcoming print publication at Bards and Sages Quarterly. “Aurora’s Smile” should be in their January 2010 issue. I’m getting paid for that one so I’ll be able to call myself a professional writer.

My website, Pantros.com is usually outdated, but will always tell you where to find anything I’ve published.

I am rarely inspired by talented writers. Bad writers often inspire me to show how it should be done. In that sense, Laurel K Hamilton, Mercedes Lackey and Piers Antony are my inspiration. Okay, so Misty and Piers are not really bad writers, but they do sometimes seem to sell out.

I found out about Notebored from Hatrack and Liberty Hall. I don’t tend to write dark enough for Liberty Hall’s pervasive flavor, and Hatrack is a bunch of people who don’t know what they are talking about arguing over what’s the right way to do it. I’ve learned there is no right way, there’s just making what you do work within itself.

What I like best about Notebored is the friendliness of the people here. As long as I don’t talk about how I disagree with conservative Christian views, I get along fine. Maybe if I didn’t disagree so vehemently… There is an audience for Christian based writing at Notebored, but there are plenty of us who have other views on religion and the gods, too.

My best advice for a Notebored newbie would be to stick with it. Nothing seems nice when it’s telling you how your writing isn’t perfect. And those people aren’t always right. But examine the criticism; decide if there is any value to it and if there is anything to do to deal with it. I’m not just talking about writing, but the philosophy works as well in that arena as any.

Don’t be shy about critiquing others. We learn more by analyzing writing than by writing and very few of us can distance ourselves far enough from our own work to analyze empirically.

Authors Note:
Since Wil finished this interview, but before it’s publication, he was notified of a sale on one of his short stories, Aurora’s Smile. It will be forthcoming on Bards and Sages Quarterly, congrats to you on the sale, friend!

I am trying to change that and increase the activity again so that we function better, and more able to provide services to the people who are looking for critiques and help with their stories.

Part of that plan has been to reinstate the monthly flash challenges.

The trigger for flash challenge this month was supplied by Scully:

Whales and dolphins can literally fall half asleep. Their brain hemispheres alternate sleeping, so the animals can continue to surface and breathe.

Interesting idea here - what would humans do with the ability to fall half asleep? Advantages? Disadvantages? Criminal Defense? etc.

From an article on the 20 things you didn’t know about sleep, from msn.

We had two people play along, and the voting polls are now open. If you have a membership to the NoteBored, come on over and read, crit and vote! The April flash trigger will be going up later on today.

Another fun activity going on are writing duels. There is one going on now between Lord Darkstorm and myself. Short stories,are due by April 7th. The genre selected is fantasy and the word count has a 5,000 word limit.

It’s been slow. But this is a start.

Thanks for checking in with us at NoteBlog. I’ll be back with further updates on the goings on.

Coming Soon

The Wolf’s Sister: a tale of the Holtlands — from Samhain Publishing (11th November, 2008)

http://samhainpublishing.com/excerpt/wolfs-sister

 

And see the movie trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyTyFeeA22Y

(All content of this post taken from her websites)

 

We are proud of you Ruth!

 

Picture:
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=157