Author / J.L. Smith

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Posts by J.L. Smith

I am a writer/political scientist based in Eagle River, Alaska. I hold a BA degree in English/Creative Writing and a MA in International Relations. Best of both worlds, I write everything from naturalistic poetry to Russia and the former Soviet Republics. Recent publications: Academic Nonfiction: The Syrian Dilemma: Moscow's Motives in the Syrian Uprising (2013). ISBN: 9781304283931 Creative Nonfiction: "The Important Things" - Alaska Women Speak - Winter 2015 issue Fiction: How to Eat a Bagel - 50-word Stories - Sept 15, 2015 The Devil and the White Room - Down in the Dirt - July/August 2016 Poetry: "Sara" - Grassroots - Fall 1999 "Femininity" - Cirque - Summer 2015 "Sitting in the Bathroom" - Yellow Chair Review - July 2015 "A Happy Poem" - Eunoia Review - August 2015 "Willow Rebuilds" "Spectators" "Fire Angels" - Alaska Women Speak- Fall 2015 "Dark Clouds Descend Low" - Three Line Poetry - Issue 33 - Sept 2015 "Da!" - Peeking Cat Poetry - 8th issue - Oct 2015 "Three times my baby's stroller passes by" - Eunoia Review - Oct 2015 "Babushka's Samovar", "If I May Speak", and "High Tea and Fancy Things" - Alaska Women Speak - Winter 2015 Issue "Joanna's Child" - Cirque - Winter Solstice issue 2015. "Away with the Bitterness!" - Peeking Cat Poetry - 9th Issue - Dec 2015 "Away with the Bitterness!" - Alaska Shorts (49 Writers blog) - December 22, 2015 "The Reflex", "The Drop Off", and "Crossed Eyes" - Eskimo Pie - Feb 2016 "The Fragments You Carry", "The Fireweed Dies", and "Crabapples" - 13 Chairs - Spring 2016
by J.L. Smith

National Poetry Month Prompt #1

Welcome to National Poetry Month! In honor of this special month, I will be posting daily prompts to help inspire all of us to create more poetry this month! Get writing! Get that inspiration.

Prompt #1 (Image or phrase) Candle under water

by J.L. Smith

2 Poems: Alaska Women Speak

I am humbled and pleased to announce that Alaska Women Speak will be publishing 2 of my poems in their upcoming Spring 2007 issue: “After the Blitzkrieg (London, 2002)” and “The Photo He Kept (St. Louis, 2002).” Within Alaska, you can find a copy of AWS at Barnes & Noble, The Homer Bookstore, and at many other fine booksellers. You can also purchase it online at http://alaskawomenspeak.org. Check out all the great works!

by J.L. Smith

Devil and the White Room – Edible Red

I’m pleased to announce that my short story “The Devil and the White Room” is included in Edible Red collection, produced by Down in the Dirt magazine. A horror short story with a twist! Check it out here: http://scars.tv/2016july-decenber–collection-books/Edible_Red07-12dirt2016.htm

 

by J.L. Smith

Eternal Sacrifice – Medusa Series Part 12

Part 12 – The Eternal Sacrifice – has just been posted to Wattpad. Check it out here: https://www.wattpad.com/355472469-medusa-the-lost-daughter-eternal-sacrifice

by J.L. Smith

Medusa Series: 2016 Stats

Wow, I totally forgot to mention my Medusa series on Wattpad in my 2016 stats. Goodness, I have posted 11 parts out of 35 so far.  If you haven’t check out this series on Wattpad, please do so.  It is free and I really appreciate the support.

Here’s to 24 more parts: Medusa – The Lost Daughter. Part 12 will be posted soon!

Happy 2017!

J.L.

 

by J.L. Smith

Happy New Year

Thank you for reading this blog. Your support and correspondence over the year (and beyond!) means a lot to me. This blog has grown a lot since I started it over a year ago, with many, many works added to it. I hope to continue to add more content over the next year to make it an even better experience for you, the reader.

Even after being fortunate enough to have published about 60 works (thank you, dear editors and journals!), I still feel like a new writer at times, and often wonder how other writers go about writing and submitting their works for publications.  Enter Trish Hopkinson’s New Year post about her blog and submission totals for the year. Reading her stats, I am in awe of her blog stats (it is an awesome blog, check it out here, if you haven’t already!) and of her submission stats too, so I decided to look at my own.

Using Duotrope, I looked up my stats for 2016. I write mostly poetry, though, I also write and publish fiction and nonfiction occasionally.

In 2016, I submitted 197 works for publication. These are Duotrope stats.

187 were poetry –this does not include my Alaska Women Speak submissions, of which I had 9 poems published. Duotrope does not list them, so they are not included in the raw numbers.

7 nonfiction – This number leaves out 1 AWS submission as well that was published.

3 fiction – This number, again, leaves out 1 AWS submission that was published.

Overall, I had a 14% acceptance ratio, without the AWS submissions counted. Poetry acceptance was 13.1, fiction was 100% (OK, believe it or not, I just got lucky here for this year, for one of these pieces was rejected in 2015, which doesn’t count this year). Nonfiction acceptance was 16.7%.

In 2017, I plan to submit to more tougher markets (yeah, I know, isn’t it hard enough to get published without MORE rejection!), so my acceptance rate will probably decrease quite a bit next year.

38 works were accepted for publication in 2016, with 3 to be published in 2017.

Not bad, definitely, but as a writer I always strive for more challenges.

Next up are goals for 2017, which I have not articulated yet.

Writers out there, how was 2016 for you?  Please post and share!

J.L.