Tips on contacting publishers ( or insider secrets)

I have 25 years experience working with poetry in one form or another the following is a  modified list of what most publishers use as their criteria.

Presentation of your poems is of major importance, and it is advised that you spend some time doing this. The following points, although not true for every magazine, are intended as general guidelines you should check before submitting your work:

• Make sure that your poems are typewritten on a separate sheet and that they look clean and presentable
• Do not send more than six poems unless the publication asks you to do this
• Include a short and polite covering letter to the editor/s
• Always be sure to send a stamped addressed envelope with your poems, for the editor/s to make their reply
• Always keep your own copies of poems in case the ones you send go missing
• It is usual to have to wait for a period of time to get a response. Depending on the magazine, the Editor/s may be inundated with submissions and need time to get through this. At A New Ulster we try to get in touch as soon as we have read the submissions.
• It is unlikely that you will be paid in money for having your poems published, but it is usual to at least receive a free copy of the magazine. It is not usual to have to pay yourself to have your work published. Sadly A New Ulster can’t afford to do this at this time. Every person who submits may download a copy of the magazine.
• A New Ulster does not take credit for any work submitted. All work belongs to the artist this includes intellectual copyright. 

Finally, do not be put off by rejections. This is the plight of every writer and you should remember that every established poet has had their work rejected at some point in their career. If you follow these guidelines, continue to read as much poetry as possible and concentrate on improving your work as you go along, then you have a good chance of succeeding!

I’ve had work rejected Triptych for example was turned down but then I made the mistake of being too obscure with the piece (its a play on my experiences growing up during the Troubles). Rejection of a piece isn’t the end of the world although it can be a bummer.

Submissions for issue 8

SUBMISSIONS  for A New Ulster issue 8

We are now accepting submissions for issue 8. We accept art of any kind, photography, short stories, poetry and haiku’s. A New Ulster also accepts essays on fiction or local history.

NB – All artwork must be in either BMP or JPEG format. Indecent and/or offensive images will not be published.

Please include your name, contact details, and a short biography. You are welcome to include a photograph of yourself – this may be in colour or black and white.

Images may be resized in order to fit “On the Wall”. This is purely for practicality.

E-mail all submissions to: g.greig3@gmail.com and title your message as follows: (Type of work here) submitted to “A New Ulster” (name of writer/artist here); or for younger contributors: “Letters to the Alley Cats” (name of contributor/parent or guardian here). Letters, reviews and other communications such as Tweets will be published in “Round the Back”. Please note that submissions may be edited. All copyright remains with the original author/artist, and no infringement is intended.

These guidelines make sorting through all of our submissions a much simpler task, allowing us to spend more of our time working on getting each new edition out!

 

Lost settlements

I’ve been taking pictures old houses and homesteads on the Cavehill I’ll be uploading them soon I had thought someone else would have written something or catalogued them before but no one seems to have done so. 

What is a decent person?

I always wonder what constitutes a decent person? For years I thought that it was holding the door for people letting those older than yourself ahead in the queue, not stealing and not being selfish. 

So what does a decent person do? what do they look like? 

Well I don’t think we can really answer either question fully as there is no common consensus of what a decent person is. Or is there? I’ve been obsessing over this lately I suppose its because of recent health issues or just turning forty 🙂

I give to charities, during the cold weather checked up on my elderly neighbours and I believe that a person can be decent without being religious. I don’t judge people on their religious or political preferences even if I don’t support their parties actions or manifesto and i believe in supporting LGBT rights. I even support equal marriage for those who want it.

Ironically while there are many who would applaud my stance and the causes I believe in there are others who would condemn them. So am I decent person? Perhaps a decent person is just another persons devil in disguise?

Complicated isn’t it? I’m probably over analysing the situation but here’s the rub I hold the door open for someone or some people eg a family I’m a decent person I hold the door open for a young woman I’m a perv, a letch and so on….. 

There are days you ask yourself why bother.

However every day I try to do one good thing, be it a deed, a simple piece of conversation or a donation to charity. Speaking of charity I have a pool of ten I donate too each because I believe in the work that they do. I can’t give to any more than that I can’t afford too. I’m waiting on hospital treatment for two herniated discs between the l3/4 and l4/5 regions. You can’t work when you can’t move anything, or walk far or well you get the idea. I’m currently on meds I may need surgery for the injury that worries me as I’ve been told that it can lead to paralysis….still so can the injury if not treated properly. So I’m now on a health regime which sucks. 

 

So back to the question at hand am I a decent person?

Time will tell.

I suppose.

ATOS tell woman with mental age of 3 yrs to get a job (not satire – please share)

Pride's Purge

MEENA’S FAMILY HAVE ISSUED A STATEMENT ASKING EVERYONE TO NOW RESPECT THEIR PRIVACY:

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Meena’s family are asking for their privacy to be respected. A genuine misunderstanding has been made, no thanks to the aggressively worded letter the family received. They will be pursuing the matter with the appropriate bodies and ask you all to respect their wishes.

Thank you.

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Miracles and Violence: St Augustine’s well in the 17th century

Pilgrimage In Medieval Ireland

St Augustine’s Holy Well sits on water’s edge of Lough Atalia or Loch an tSáile, on the eastern edge of Galway city.

Originally this well was one of a group of three, but the northern and southern wells no longer survive. The Galway Archaeological Inventory states all three wells were dedicated originally to St Augustine but Máire MacNeill (2007) refers to the northern and southern wells as being dedicated to the  Blessed Virgin and John the Baptist.

The surviving well has been very tastefully restored by the Galway Civic Trust in 2000. Today it consists of a concrete hexagonal trough surrounded by a low wall. The well is tidal and when I visited the tide was in, but it was still possible to get close to the well. The trough was filled with small coins .

At the turn of the last century the main days for devotion at the…

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Issue seven of A New Ulster

There has been a lot going on over at A New Ulster’s website check it out. https://sites.google.com/site/anewulster/

while there check out the latest issue of A New Ulster https://sites.google.com/site/anewulster/issue-seven

Short post today as its day three of my 40th birthday 🙂

Art and alcoholism

I sucked at French at school my French teacher ended up getting me transferred from her class into a subject I’d always wanted to do namely Art and Design. My style for need of a word was influenced by various subjects and materials I loved working with pencil, ink, watercolour, acrylics and I also used biro’s. One of my mentors was an art teacher and family friend she encouraged my experimental approaches to art and set tasks. This post though isn’t about art its about alcoholism. I’ve seen lives devastated by alcohol my friend was one of those who’s past had driven them to drink. The alcohol removed the pain of the past but at a heavy price. I’m not going to name names especially on FB as these thing tend to get back to people and to be honest a family has suffered enough. The drink won, my mentor died because her liver failed this was years ago but last week it was brought back to me when another friend passed away from the same disease. I suppose I’m in a reflective mood. Alcohol can destroy lives and yet when your young you don’t think about the long term effects of heavy drinking. I’ve been an alcoholic myself back around 96′ up to 98′ instead of facing my problems I hid behind a bottle usually red wine. I managed to get myself clean but it took ages to do so. I still paint, draw and write but each piece reminds me at times of the darkest moments of my past.

Call for Submissions to The City Fox!

The City Fox

Hello to all and Welcome to The City Fox!

We are a fresh, new e-zine wanting to bring something a little different to the table.
Set up by soon-to-be graduates of the Creative Writing undergrad. degree at York St John University, we hope this will give us a chance to read some cracking new fiction. Read more about us and what we are looking for in the ‘About’ section. You can also find out a little about our foxy friend in the ‘Meet the City Fox’ section.

We are now open to submissions for Issue one: ‘Bones’ until April 30^th.
Please read our guidelines carefully before submitting any work to us.
All submissions to be sent via email to thecityfoxsubmissions@outlook.com

Our angle with ‘Bones’ is really down to your interpretation.
Read our ‘About’ and ‘Submit’ sections to get an idea of what we’re looking for.
After all, it…

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Renew Enterprise on Netflix

The following are the words of Doug Drexler, make up artist on Dick Tracy, TNG. Doug has also worked on the Battlestar Galactica reboot as well as its numerous spin offs.

Funny… I was a part of the Save Star Trek campaigns in the 60′s, so I’m having flashbacks! It’s a hopeful and positive endeavor, I think high hopes are what makes life worth living, right? Star Trek was always about high hopes. Look! It’s a proven fact, Star Trek fans get things done! They got the movies made, named the first space shuttle Enterprise, and gave Gene Roddenberry the clout he needed to make TNG.

The voyages of the NX-01, with Captain Archer, Trip, T’Pol, and the rest of the crew ended just as the show was finally beginning to get it’s legs. Nearly all of us agree that the fourth and prematurely final season of Enterprise demonstrated that this show was a late bloomer.

A new day has dawned for the way television is produced. No longer do three networks decide what you get to watch. It started with cable. A place where the audience pays for the shows they love by subscribing. Now the next huge step has taken place. The ability to stream the shows you want, when you want them, from the Internet. Today, Netflix, Hulu, Kickstarter, and Amazon are challenging the way television is funded, and the way it is decided what gets made.

Interesting things have happened in the last year. Netflix began producing original programming, bringing back popular shows that the stodgy old programming model had done away with. “Arrested Development” is back in production. “House of Cards” with Kevin Spacey is doing well. The producer of “Veronica Mars” raised 3 million dollars on Kickstarter to make a movie from a show that the network thought no one watched.

Can we get that fifth season of Enterprise which chronicles the Romulan War? See our crew back with a dazzling refit NX-01? Folk’s, It ain’t impossible. Throughout Star Trek’s history, it’s fans have moved mountains. We can do this, it’s it not that difficult. Watch Enterprise on Netflix. Even if you just run an episode while working around the house, that will build numbers, and attract attention. If you don’t have Netflix, write them. They pay attention. One thing we know for certain, the apparatus that brings us the shows we love will follow the money.

JJ Abrahm’s is making Trek movies. If we’re lucky (and you enjoy his take on Gene Roddenberry’s masterpiece) we get one every 2-3 years. We’ve learned something from this Star Trek drought… we miss that golden age of Star Trek, with it’s intimate storylines. So gang, spread the word, share the FB page, and most of all, run Enterprise on Netflix. It ain’t over til it’s over, and we’re owed three more season of Enterprise. We can’t be afraid of the wind.

– Doug

https://www.facebook.com/StarTrekEnterpriseSeason5NetflixCampaign