IWSG

IWSG meets the first Wednesday of every month. A community of brilliant writers led by Alex J. Cavanaugh.

Inspiring Soundtrack: Audiomachine – The Great Unknown – TREE OF LIFE

Today, I want to talk about inspiration. As writers, we find inspiration in many things. Whether it’s music or art, photography or nature, family or friends, love or loss…we are surrounded by endless opportunities to unlock our creative potential. Wherever your key inspiration lies, its what drives us to be better each and every time we create.

Never underestimate your ability to achieve your dreams! As a writer, the seeds of greatness have already been planted, let it take root and grow with each nurturing word. No matter what happens in your life, don’t lose sight of your passion for storytelling — it’s woven into the fabric of your being. If you set it aside, you’ll lose a crucial part of yourself. Use the harsh lessons of life to fuel your words — you never know when those words will influence others to do the same…

I’m taking this opportunity to extend an invitation to my fellow writerly friends and treasured readers to join me on an exciting journey through the imagination, driven by what inspires us!

I am collaborating with the major motion picture production house, Audiomachine, on a unique promotion for their next album release, Tree of Life. Audiomachine will be promoting the event on all social media platforms to help spread the word to a wide audience!

Beginning July 15th, I’ll be revealing daily excerpts of a brand new serial solely inspired by the Tree of Life album. There will be approximately 26 posts, each highlighting an album track. When the story is complete, readers will be able to vote for their favorite posts. Three lucky commenters from the top three posts, who’ve previously “liked” Audiomachine’s FB page (and, should they feel moved to “like” My FB page, I won’t stop ‘em) will be eligible for “fan prizes”, such as autographed Audiomachine albums and exciting new releases from your favorite authors!

In addition to this endeavor, I’ll be hosting a “Tree of Life: Branching Out” writing challenge for guest writers, each contributing their own 150 word excerpt to a continuing story collectively written over the course of 25 days. These clever masters of the craft will spin the story in whatever direction they choose, picking up where the previous writer left off, resulting in the ultimate collaborative tale. They, too, will discover what magic the music unlocks! Custom badges will be created for this event for all participating writers!

When the collective story is complete, fans will have a chance to vote for their favorite guest excerpt — the top three writers will be awarded prizes, which will include autographed copies of Audiomachine’s new album, original signed tree-inspired artwork and Biltmore Coffee Traders coffee! The first guest writer will post on July 15th, the second on the 16th and so on until August 9th.

Whoa! I, for one, will be consuming a fairly substantial amount of coffee in the next few weeks:) I hope you all will join us during this exciting collaboration – where music unlocks the imagination!

Attention Writers: If you have a new release coming up and would like to promote it during this collaboration by offering a copy as one of the prizes, give me a shout:) All prize contributors will be promoted, daily, during the event. This is an incredible opportunity to expose your work!

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I appreciate feedback, so comment, critique or just banter to your heart’s content! Should you leave a really awesome comment, I may share my fair-trade, shade-grown, bird-sanctuary, organic coffee with you:) Or, if you leave a link to your site, I can just pop in and say something witty after polishing off a cup or two!

IWSG meets the first Wednesday of every month. A community of brilliant writers led by Alex J. Cavanaugh.

Inspiring Soundtrack: Jonsi – Gathering Stories – We Bought a Zoo

This is my first post dedicated to IWSG, a talented group of storytellers, many of whom I consider dear friends. It is the caliber of people populating this writerly crew that drew me in. They are amazingly supportive, gifted, witty, comical and empathetic of the trials and tribulations each writer endures.

Though I dearly loved the craft, I hadn’t written a word since college that didn’t revolve around technical biochemistry jargon. It wasn’t until August of 2012 that I picked up the proverbial pen and listened to the Voices in my head. They whispered tales of magic and mystery, adventure and adversity, triumph and tragedy, love and loss…once the floodgates opened, there was no stopping their constant chatter.

Once I started posting my fiction online, in March of this year, I opened myself up to an entirely new set of voices – those of my readers. These voices whispered words of encouragement. From them, I garnered valuable advice, critiques, knowledge, comradeship and approval. This gave me motivation to keep writing, keep imagining, keep believing that my stories have a place in the literary world.

And finally, there are the voices of inspiration, through which my stories have found a heart in each brilliant work of art, and a soul born of magical music, the key to my imagination.

I want to thank these voices for spending precious time in my world and giving the Voices in my head a chance to be heard – these stories are for you:)

Cheers!
Sam