Final Deadline Come & Gone, Onward & Upward!

Allrighty then,

The final July 1st deadline came and went and we're working our way through the existing submissions. As of last week, I finally have access to the master manuscript for the Buffalo Anthology along with a word processing program to save the newly accepted submissions on to. The running theme for this anthology seems to be that we're running behind. Ahem....

As of this morning, here is the latest round of accepted non-fiction authors and their work:

A Welsh Corgi In South Buffalo by Cindy Mantai
Tiny Square Egg Noodles by Lesa Quale
Waiting For A Generator by Joe Genco

If you haven't heard yay or nay from Alycia and myself yet, it won't be much longer. I'm really pleased with the last-minute submissions we've received, but I'm trying to go through them in the order in which they were sent. I'd like to have all the acceptance/rejection decisions made by the end of this month so that we can meet up some time late in August so that we can get to know each other and discuss options and plans for publishing the anthology.

More on the anthology as it develops....

Thank you (as always) for your patience,
Tom Waters
Co-Editor

Looking good!!!!

Hello all you submitters, readers, writers, past and present Buffaloians and those just eager to check out the upcoming Buffalo anthology- I hope all is well with each and every one of you and it's been fantastic getting to know several of you through the emails you write telling me what you're into reading, writing, doing, and working on. I love that so many of us are connected on Facebook and to be able to help with your creative ideas as you have MANY! I haven't written on here in a while so just a quick personal thanks to all of you who have asked to follow me on Twitter- it's been a crazy busy few months with traveling for my writing and acting (thanks to those who checked out the Batman animated series I was involved with, I recognized several of your names on the comment boards, the network was flooded with love for my character :> so I was asked back for a 2nd round thanks to many of you, looking to move to DC , working on the new book I have coming out in early 2010, and finishing up going through all the submissions I had in my inbox for this Buffalo ANTHOLOGY which will finally be launched soon with all your terrific work!!

I just finished reading four new submissions and the date for submissions is as you know, closing in quickly so if you know of other talented people who would like to offer us their Buffalo-related pieces, tell them to get a move on! If the feel, talent and Buffalo slant we are looking for is there, we WANT to accept it. It doesn't have to be a 'perfect' draft so don't waste time perfecting and perfecting if it means it holds up sending it in. That is what WE as editors are there for- to fine-tune the excellent material you send us to get it publication ready. I'll be honest- 90 percent of work needs to be fine-tuned from an editors eye so don't worry about it- just submit!!
We really want to get this completed so that it can launch and start showing off your talents. I'm thrilled to showcase these pieces and to get your names out there.

Remember- you OWN these pieces so once the anthology is out- definitely send them to magazines, e-zines, contests and the like. Be sure to mention it was included in the Buffalo Anthology (we'll finalize a good title name soon)- the more credits you have, the better. I want to start seeing you guys EVERYWHERE so submit for all that you can. We've been lucky to have met some talented photographers who are interested in helping out with this project and I can't wait to see where those collaborations lead and once the submission period is complete, we can start talking about other aspects such as the art, funding, possible backers, advertising, etc as I know some of you are involved with businesses that might like to contribute so we'll all get on the same page with that as soon as the writing/editing aspect is 100% done. Thank you so much for all the interest in helping us and for telling your friends in OTHER creative arenas who now wish to help,
The finish line is almost here- thanks for your patience and for making us able to get to know so many of you and your work. There's enough haters- lets put some positivity and great vibes into this city and showing OFF this city while showing off some talent!
:>
Alycia

Reply To Senders

Okay...
I've spent the better part of this morning replying to writers submitting to the project and answering any questions raised over the last six months, so we're making some headway and thought that I'd take a quick break just to throw a post up on the site.
A lot of great material has been sent our way in the last year. Emphasis on LOT and GREAT. Unfortunately, the motherboard on my personal computer exploded some time during my vacation and I'm typing on a loaner. All I can do in the next day or two is respond to emails and read what we haven't accepted YET. Unfortunately, this is not a 'dog ate my homework' excuse.
Next week, Alycia and I will be touching base to talk about the final round of accepted submissions and we'll be formulating a battle plan for wrapping the book up, contacting all accepted authors and working on pre-production for the book. You'll be seeing a lot more posts on this site and honestly, after two years (I can't BELIEVE its been that long), I'm really looking forward to finishing one of the longest-term book projects I've ever been a part of.
If your work has already been accepted for the anthology, please email both of us with your CURRENT EMAIL ADDRESS as we'd like to keep in contact with you in the coming months. If you're local, we're planning on promoting the book as a team, so please let us know if you're interested in volunteering your time this winter (early 2010) for in-store promotions, signings, radio show interviews, etc. I have a group email list for the Anthology, but odds are that a few people aren't on it, so please email us simultaneously just to make sure at:

bigwordsmailbag@yahoo.com

and-

alyciaripley@hotmail.com

Next week, we'll tackle the latest round of accepted authors. Things should start speeding up at this point as I'm not in the middle of eight million other projects for the time being (thank God).
Again, thanks for your patience, your faith in the project, your submissions, your interest, and your support for the Buffalo Anthology Project. A big thanks goes out to the Buffalo Writers Meetup Group for spreading the word and letting some of the new writers who have come into the fold during the interim know what to submit and where to submit it. Thanks also to ArtVoice for rotating the submission call on a semi-regular basis.
The final round of submissions (and boy do I mean FINAL!) is almost over. Stay tuned for more updates!
Thanks,
Tom Waters
Co-Editor

Guest Monster Christina Wos Donnelly, JR Finlayson and myself gave our final Monsters Of Verse reading last night at the Center For Inquiry as part of Just Buffalo’s monthly Literary Café hosted by Perry Nicholas, which falls on the first Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m. Christina was fantastic, and I had no doubt that she’d round out the lineup nicely. This was the first reading we’ve done together since Rust Belt Books in 2002, and it was a pleasure to share the stage with her while she did a series of far-ranging poems along with some short rants.
Finn filled the middle portion of our feature with a comprehensive sampler of his work from his current chapbook (Gypsy Stance Blues) along with a lot of the new work he’s written as a result of the MOV experience. I read a short selection of newer stuff along with ‘Poem For Finn’ from Breathing Room Volume I: Free Verse and closed out the set. After six months of going through hell and back on stage and off, it was a very emotional evening for Jeff and me. The timing for the Monsters Of Verse couldn’t have been any better, because it gave us an outlet for everything else that was going on in our lives and inspired us to write some new material while we were performing our older work.
I’d like to thank everyone that was involved with the Monsters Of Verse project over the last six months. Desiderio’s, Don’s Atomic Comics, Clarence High School, Caz Coffee, FYE, Borders Books, Talking Leaves, Chow Chocolat, Spot Coffee, The Small Press Book Fair, The Buffalo News Collectible Show, Night Life Magazine, UB Spectrum, Buffalo Spree, Carrie Gardner, Richard Wicka, Kyle Kaczmarzcak, Josh Smith, Christina Donnelly, Diane Meholick, Anne Foster, Brian Platter, DJ Soma, Michael Bly, John Kindelan, Joe Stevens, Perry Nicholas, and everyone else who had a hand in helping to make the project such a diverse and successful traveling poetry show of mischief, mayhem, and yes, poetry.
I’d also like to extend a huge debt of gratitude to JR Finlayson. We’ve been friends since we were 17 years old (when we had a creative writing class together) and we’re stronger friends as a result of the experience. Things were bumpy and strained at times, but Finn was a trooper throughout, and for that, I’m tremendously grateful.
Now that MOV is over (or at least my tour of duty is if Jeff decides to keep the moniker and run with it), I can get back to working on the Just Buffalo Anthology Project with Alycia Ripley. We’ve got about a year of backlogged submissions and I blocked out the next two months so that I can devote some time to clearing our submission log before the final round of entries come racing past the plate in the next two months. If anything, MOV was a great practice run for the ensemble book promotion that every accepted writer will be taking part in next year when the anthology is finally released.
Have a great week,
Tom Waters
Monster Of Verse (semi-retired)

Slush Pile!

How magazine editors do it every week or every month is beyond me...

The submission pile for the final call keeps growing and all I can tell you is to please remain patient.
After conferring with Alycia on and off over the last few months, it sounds as if ALL of us are chomping at the bit to put this collection to bed and send it off to press.
It's never left my thoughts.
Unfortunately, I'm in the middle of promoting two books, finishing the final leg of pre-production on a collection due out this summer, just got done emceeing a charity benefit, host a podcast radio show and co-host a poetry podcast AND I try to spend some time with my new wife at the end of every activity-stuffed day.
As I've told Alycia time and again, for the last six months, I haven't even had time for myself.
Please be patient.
The two of us will be blocking out no less than two months to review, address, accept and reject every single submission that has been sent out. I'm a perfectionist (as well as a completionist), and would rather give each piece the time and attention it reserves and look at all of the previously unremarked-upon submissions in one solid window than rush through a few at a time and power skim. This is why I would be a horrible magazine editor. As a writer, it's cruel and impersonal to skim. That's how I feel, anyway.
A big thanks goes out to Alycia for keeping the life lines open while I'm out on the front lines for a few months in the perpetual motion machine better known as non-stop promotion and freelancing.
In May and June, Alycia and I will knock our heads together and get down to brass tacks.
After that, all accepted writers can jump in on the game and we can finish this book (and promote it next year) together. As a collective of diverse and multi-talented writers from the same neck of the woods.
Deal?
Talk to you in another month (or two at the most),
Tom Waters
Poetry Editor

Tom's Atomic Poetry Kegger at Don's Atomic Comics on Saturday, February 7th from 6 p.m.-?

For Immediate Release:

On Saturday, February 7th from 6 p.m. until 12 a.m, Don's Atomic Comics (located on 6354 Transit Rd. in Depew) will be holding 'Tom's Atomic Poetry Kegger' to commemorate Valentine's Day on the 14th as well as the release of Tom's breakout poetry collections, Breathing Room Vol. I: Free Verse and Breathing Room Vol. II: rhymes & relics. Anyone who brings or buys a copy of either poetry book ($14.95 each) will drink free Molson for the entire event. Any customer who brings a girl will receive 20% off all comics and collectibles. Customers must be 21 or older to receive free beer. Buffalo poet and Monsters Of Verse co-founder JR Finlayson (Gypsy Stance Blues) and local comic writer/artist Kyle Kaczmarczyk (The Red Eye, Zombie Works Publishing) will also be at the event signing copies of their latest work. Breathing Room I & II available now at Don's Atomic Comics, Talking Leaves, Borders Books and direct from the distributor at lulu.com. For directions or regular store hours visit Don's Atomic Comics online at www.donsatomiccomics.com or call 684-5981.!

-graphic design by Brian Platter, Six Shot Studios (www.sixshotstudios.com) .

FINAL Call For Buffalo Anthology Submissions Runs From 1/09-7/09

This is it! Alycia is back in town for a brief time and we'll be committing the next six months to wrapping up the LAST slate of submissions along with securing a publisher for the collection. Close pal Christina Wos Donnelly soothed some of my woes by emailing to say that most anthologies take two years on average. Here are some answers (along with some criteria) to answer some recent emails:

1.) If you've already submitted work and had it accepted, feel free to submit more material. The odds of a second (or in some case, third) work from the same author being included are less favorable than the initial submission, but if you believe your other works are capable of surviving the firing line, have at it.

2.) You will only be notified IF your submission is accepted. As working writers, we decided at the outset that chain rejection emails were infinitely nastier than no reply at all. If you haven't heard from myself or Alycia by next year's end, then your work didn't make the cut. Sorry. This doesn't mean that you're not a promising writer/artist/poet, your work just wasn't a good fit for the project. No hard feelings?

3.) We are still accepting poems, so feel free to submit, but the acceptance ratio will be much greater for essays, flash memoirs, historical expositions and works of fiction. The collection as it stands is top-heavy with poetry. Buffalo has a phenomenal poetry scene with a wealth of talented poets, but we firmly believe that there are still a lot of other creative endeavors and headspaces toiling away in Buffalo that deserve greater recognition.

4.) Please, by all means, SPREAD THE WORD! We want this collection to be just as succesful as you do, if not more. Just Buffalo can always use some extra help (financially and creatively), so if you have an altruistic bone in your body, push it to the breaking point. Tell your writing workshop. Tell your friends that have been writing and haven't gotten a lot of work published on the local front. Tell your peers if you're firmly entrenched in the heirarchy. If there's one thing this project has taught us (and there have been a lot of valuable lessons down the road), it's that word of mouth can hold a lot more weight than a listing in most of the notable newspapers. A Call For Works listing is all well and good, but after the day or the week-long run is over in a publication, word of mouth keeps the submissions rolling in.

5. And finally (before the Final Call For Submissions copy), if you were one of the writers who submitted for the last reading period (summer 2008), we haven't gotten to your work yet, so don't be crestfallen...yet. Alycia and I will be hitting the learning curve in the next six months to put this project to bed once and for all. After July, we'll be rounding up as many accepted contributors as we can for the purpose of putting our heads together in person to decide on a finished project together. This is not a two-party system. This is not a head trip for myself or Alycia. This is a non-profit collection with the dual intention of promoting lesser known creative talents while raising money for Buffalo's only literary center in a time of need. A finished manuscript is only the first stepping stone on the road to publishing, promoting, marketing and selling the book. Trust us on this one. Compiling the book will be easy compared to the junket we have in store one calendar year from now. We'll need as many hands on deck as we can get to put this book out in a professional, fiscally viable manner. As always, contributions (creatively and financially) are appreciated.

And now, the Final (and Lord, do I mean final!) Call For Submissions. Happy New Year,

Tom Waters
Poetry Editor

Alycia Ripley
Fiction Editor

Buffalo Authors Alycia Ripley and Tom Waters will be considering any and all submissions of flash fiction and nonfiction (2,000 word max) as well as poetry (10 page max) for inclusion in an upcoming not-for-profit anthology about present day Buffalo. Since the submission period has been extended and the publishing window has been reconfigured to allow for a larger collection, works of fiction as well as historical or biographical essays will be given precedence over poetry submissions due to the current content of accepted works thus far. Submissions will be considered in (as well as) outside of Buffalo, and the material must be topical to modern day Buffalo life, landmarks or Buffalonians in general. All entries must be cut and pasted into the body of an email and sent simultaneously to ‘bigwordsmailbag@yahoo.com’ and ‘alyciaripley@hotmail.com’ with the type of submission in the subject heading (ex: ‘flash fiction submission’).
In addition, please include name, address, email address and published works you would like listed after your name in the completed anthology. The finished book will be published in the Spring of 2010 and all royalties will go towards the betterment and continued success of the Just Buffalo Literary Center. Submission period will run from January 1st-July1st and accepted authors will be notified via email. In addition, any and all parties interested in contributing their time or capital towards publishing, producing and marketing the book are also welcome to email or query.