Alyce Wilson

I’m pleased to share my first blog post for Mommy Poppins!

https://mommypoppins.com/newlin-grist-mill-glen-mills-kids-visit

I’ll be writing pieces for them on things to do and places to visit for families in the Philadelphia area. This first blog is about a place we loved to visit, which stayed open even during lockdown last year, with strict social distancing provisions. It was so good to have a place we could visit and enjoy nature, outside of our apartment grounds.

I’ll be participating in Philcon 2020 as a panelist. This year it will be virtual, which means that anyone can tune in. Please visit the official website (https://philcon.org/) to find out more.

Here’s my schedule:

A Worldwide Sandbox
7 p.m. Friday, November 20
Carl Fink (moderator), Eric Hardenbrook, Alyce Wilson, Savan Gupta, Tauney Kennedy

How has modern technology (and our enforced physical separation) changed the way we communicate and collaborate?

Reading – Alyce Wilson
1 p.m. Saturday, November 21

I’ll be reading selections from my newest poetry collection, “Owning the Ghosts,” plus perhaps a selection from my 3x-great-grandfather’s poetry, Dr. James Meredith Mathews, from the collection of his poetry I published in December 2019, “Reading’s Physician Poet.”

How Many Different Modes of Editing Are There?
11:30 a.m. Sunday, November 22
Alyce Wilson (moderator), Peng Shepherd, Barbara A. Barnett, Gregory Frost, Alex Shvartsman

Checking for mistakes in grammar or spelling is one obvious focus of editing your work; looking at potential problems with pacing and plot-holes another. But what about edit passes for tone, and examining how your word choices and sentence structures impact the feel of a scene? Or the value of doing a draft that looks solely at removing anything unnecessary?

Books as Trophies?
4pm Sunday, November 22
Alyce Wilson (moderator), Tom Purdom

Why do so many of us keep books that we already know we’re never going to look at again by the time we finish our first read-through? Is there a quantifiable benefit to keeping them, or are we better off Marie Kondo-ing through our collections?

I got my panel requests in late this year, so I’m not sure they’ll be on the official schedule. Here they are:

Fri 7:00PM in Plaza V (Five) – Learning to be an Effective Panel Moderator

Moderating a panel is more than just showing up and asking people to quiet down if a discussion gets out of hand. Learn what the best mods do to prepare for and handle the panels they are responsible for managing.

Sat 2:00PM in Plaza V (Five) – SciFi from the Parents’ Eye

How to shepherd our children through the modern age of SF.

Sat 3:00 PM in Plaza II (Two)—If Christianity Had Never Come Along

Imagine what the 21st century would be like without Christianity in history. Would we be worshipping a different god or gods? Or would society have developed in a different direction? What fiction is already exploring this idea?

Hope to see you there!

It’s the end of an era. Yahoo! has decided to shut down the Yahoo! Contributor Network entirely. I’m not surprised, since they’ve been gradually shutting down a lot of the programs within YCN that gave writers opportunities to make money on top of Performance Payments. The good news is that all rights to my articles will revert to me, allowing me to sell them elsewhere, if possible.

I will be archiving copies of all of my articles as they appeared on Yahoo! for my records. You have until July 31 to go through my profile and check out any articles that interest you, because I will still get whatever Performance Payments accrue during that time.

I’m not actually too upset: writing for Yahoo! was fun, and I got a lot of great comments from editors over the years. But this would be a good time to turn my focus towards writing projects that could potentially earn me more per piece.

Thanks for reading and sharing all these years!

My Yahoo! Contributor Network portfolio: http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/alycewilson/

I just received a form rejection from “Silver Pen” magazine, run by Silver Blade, which was one of the magazines I’d submitted to in October as part of 31 Queries in 31 Days.

Five more poems available to send out again!

Looking back at 2013, I had many successes. I built on my existing author’s platform, connecting with more users/potential readers on Twitter, Google Plus, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Facebook and Pinterest.

Thanks to the 30 Queries in 30 Days Project and its extension, the 31 Queries in 31 Days Project, I received acceptances from Miracle magazine and Five poetry magazine and secured an editing gig for a series of children’s books.

I published my second non-fiction book, Dedicated Idiocy,  a Kindle-only book, and made progress on my current work-in-progress, Now with Kung Fu Action Grip, a collection of writings about my 3-year-old son.

This year I have two main goals:

1) Complete and publish Now with Kung Fu Action Grip.

2) Complete and publish my new poetry anthology, Owning the Ghosts.

In addition, I want to build on my successes by sticking to three good habits:

3) Post at least once a week on this blog; my blog for my book for older parents, Belated Mommy; my Goodreads author’s blog; and my personal blog at LiveJournal.

4) Write at least one poem a week.

5) Apply to at least one writing job or send at least one submission a week.

In general, I will also be striving to continue to build my author’s platform and to find creative and results-driven ways to promote my published works.

And an exciting update: I learned that I’ve been selected as one of the finalists to be included in the Project REUTSway anthology, from the November YA writing challenge. I will keep you posted on the book as the project progresses!

Striving to finish up the 31 Queries in 31 Days project:

28) Submitted a proposal for a job via Elance, writing a custom poem for a client.

29) Submitted a proposal for a job via Elance, converting children’s stories into publishable short stories for a collection to raise funds for a charity.

30) Submitted a short story to Cricket magazine (one of my favorite magazines as a child).

31) Proposed a product name for a new style of boots, posted by a client on ODesk.com.

And that’s it! And just before midnight, too!

Let’s see if I can get this done today… cruising towards the end of the 31 Queries in 31 Days project:

26) Submitted five poems to Found Poetry Review (so excited to find this outlet; I’ve been writing found poetry for years).

27) Submitted five poems to Poetry East.

Here I am again, close to the end of the month, but I’m determined to pull out a success in the 31 Queries in 31 Days project.

23) Submitted two poems to Hoot Review.

24) Submitted four poems to Literary Mama.

25) Submitted five poems to Paper Darts.

Updates: I received a rejection from “The Georgia Review” as well as from “Fabula Argentea,” which came with comments.