Sticky Notes Blog

A blog of writing news, tips, and inspiration from Fat Plum

Category: Literary genres

Spotlight on Jennifer Angelo

Our friend and humor writer Jennifer Angelo is quite prolific in the "published" category these days. Check out her hilarious column "A Pressing Need for a Plumber" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (March 19, 2006). You'll find her story "I Want a Cookie" in the book Chicken Soup for the Soul Healthy Living Series: Diabetes. And her story "Flying Through Thin Air" will run in the May edition of Diabetes Forecast. (You can read a reprint of the piece on her website's Clips & Samples page.) Congratulations Jennifer!

Posted by Julie on April 28, 2006
This entry was posted in the following categories: Literary genres

The latest Nancy Martin mystery

Have Your Cake and Kill Him Too (NAL, March 2006) is the 5th book in The Blackbird Sisters Mysteries by Nancy Martin. If you haven't caught on to the Blackbird Sisters yet, you are behind the times — in fact a TV series is in the works! Nancy Martin is very active in the PIttsburgh writing community, having been a founding member of PennWriters and currently the president of the local chapter of the Sisters in Crime. She doesn't need a bit of our luck but wish her all the best!

Posted by Julie on April 28, 2006
This entry was posted in the following categories: Literary genres

Pittsburgh Creative Nonfiction Literary Festival

Fat Plum recently attended the first-ever Pittsburgh Creative Nonfiction Literary Festival, organized by CREATIVE NONFICTION, the journal devoted exclusively to the creative nonfiction genre. We had a table in the Media Fair, which gave us not only the opportunity to premier several Fat Plum products (look for them soon on our website) but also to talk to a lot of writers and editors. In addition, FP's Cindy Closkey spoke on a panel about online publishing, wearing her editor's hat for Inkburns literary journal. A great weekend all the way around and our thanks to Creative Nonfiction for organizing it. It's good for the soul to connect with a community of writers. We'll be posting our top take-aways over the next few days (as we recover!).

Posted by Julie on November 20, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Literary genres

Blogs and fiction

People are noticing that weblogs (online journals, like this one) can be a new literary form. Jim McClellan of the Guardian makes the argument that blogs have the "potential to be a new fictional form." (Thanks to Stephany Aulenback for the link. She also highlights Jim Munroe's forthcoming blog novel, An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil, which I hadn't known about but am now eager to see.)

The first blog that caught my full attention was that of Mark Phillips, a writer in San Francisco. Mark had submitted several of his blog entries to Inkburns, with the suggestion that the collection of them could make for an interesting piece. Mark's blog blurs the lines between fiction and nonfiction, diary and writing journal, writing and art. We published a set of entries related to life in San Francisco, writing, and more.

In thinking about blogging as fiction, though, I also think of the serial I started for Inkburns, "Lift." The main reason for publishing "Lift," to be honest, was to have something to flesh out the journal in the early days, before we were known and had piles of submissions to consider. But writing it turned out to be a good discipline for me: it provided a monthly deadline, required thought and character development, made me work at writing more seriously. I don't considered it a finished work, but I do hope to revisit the characters and situations and create something with them that feels more cohesive and full than "Lift" turned out to be.

Posted by Cindy on April 12, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Literary genres