2nd Place! And other news!

 

I entered and won second place in the Lakewold Poetry in the Gardens Contest! I had hopes, but not that high, so I was pleasantly surprised and amazed to gain a second-place win. Celebrations will occur officially February 3rd-5th at the Lakewold Lit Fest Poetry in the Gardens Event in Lakewood, Washington.

The event includes live readings, workshops, and open mic readings will go through the whole weekend. Writers, readers, poets, and poetry lovers are all welcome!

To find out more or get tickets to the event, go to the Poetry in the Gardens Lit Fest Page.

This Wednesday, January 18th, I'll be teaching my first class in a seven-class series called Writing Stories Weekly at Tacoma Community College. Find out more at their Continuing Education Page.

Before that, I'll be at the Creative Colloquy Open Mic night tonight at Anthem Coffee-Stadium District tonight at 7p.m. Show up, listen, and take the mic with your own writing!

Do you have any news to share? Have you been to any writing events lately? Ever won a prize in a poetry contest? Please share in the comments.

IWSG January 2023: Word(s) of the Year and Book Celebrations!

 

IWSG: Words of the Year

Many thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh and all the co-hosts this month: Jemima Pett, Debs Carey, Kim Lajevardi, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, and T. Powell Coltrin!

January 4 question - Do you have a word of the year? Is there one word that sums up what you need to work on or change in the coming year?

So, if you've been here before, you know I have a hard time picking just one when it comes to favorite books, favorite anything, and a single word for the year, so I usually pick a phrase, or a combination of words.

In 2019, my phrase was: Small Steps.

In 2020, it was: Creative Confidence and 6 Impossible Things Before Breakfast

In 2021, my phrase was: I have an invitation and a choice to experience healing and to help others heal.

2022 was: Wellness, Creativity, and Courage - not necessarily in that order.

For 2023, my phrase is: Courageous quests, healing, compassion, and creative entrepreneurship.

You might notice some repeat themes there. :)

In fact, it is in many ways, a culmination of all the other years rolled into one phrase. 

It's taken me a while, but I think I'm beginning to notice which themes are important to me in my life and in my life's work. 

However, themes that aren't mentioned here are: hope, justice, and just mercy. These also show up in my work. Hope for a righting of brokenness, which is a different type of healing for the world, and which I believe also takes courage, compassion, and creative thinking. 

If you like these themes, consider checking out some of my work.

Book Celebration

I have a tough time remembering to celebrate the finish of my books. I'm not talking about Book Blasts and Book Blog Tours. Those are celebratory, yes, but they are also hard marketing work.

I mean, a true celebration of work being finished including friends, family, feasting, and fun. 

While I know short story collections often don't do well in the world of analytics, I am thankful for the stories in my new collection and proud of putting it together. So, I am celebrating this week with a dinner, a gathering, and some fun. 

If you would like to help me promote my book, that would be an awesome bonus, but I'm not sending out all the book blog promo materials. 

Instead, if you would like to help, please consider the following tweet and image, choose what you would like from there, and tag me in anything you send out into the world. 

Tweet:

Escape to strange landscapes and new worlds!

25 Impossible Tales of Survivors, Flawed Heroes, and Annoyed Villains: A Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy by @tyreanmartinson will take you to 25 new places!

#scifi #fantasy #shortstories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BGT65CMF 

Escape to 25 New Worlds!

In 25 Impossible Tales of Survivors, Flawed Heroes, and Annoyed Villains, you can escape to 25 different landscapes in fantasy and science fiction! Find out more HERE.

For the next book I publish, I'll do the big ask for promo help, but for now, I'm happy to simply celebrate. BTW, the next book will be coming out this year... but not yet. 

New Book Release: 25 Impossible Tales!

25 Impossible Tales of Survivors, Flawed Heroes, and Annoyed Villains: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection

 This is a fun book of stories I collected over almost ten years, with unique worlds, interesting characters, and tough dilemmas.

Some of these stories are new to 2022, written during a Clarion West Flash Fiction Workshop in the summer.

Some of these stories were previously published by professional and literary publications like Creative Colloquy, Aurora Wolf, the Insecure Writers' Support Group Fantasy Contest Anthology from the 2016 contest, Book Dreams 1, and more. It was fun to work with these stories again in this collection.

This collection, unlike previous collections, is focused all on speculative fiction genres, from science fiction, paranormal, fantasy, and science fantasy.

The stories are a mixture of Noble Bright and Dark, with some sweet stories that could fit in the YA genre, but also with some heavier stories which mention abuse and trafficking. I tried my best to keep the graphic nature of those themes off the page, but I did give a content warning for tough subject matter.

If you are interested, you can find it in these places:

Amazon

Smashwords

 "Unique world-building and fascinating characters with strong voices."

No matter how hard circumstances are, there is hope for survival, even if it means making one simple choice in the right direction or standing up in the face of impossible odds.

But the question remains: What is the right direction and which way is up?

In these 25 Impossible Tales of Survivors, Flawed Heroes, and Annoyed Villains, we meet over 25 characters faced with impossible odds and difficult choices. Each story offers a unique perspective on what it means to be human, to survive, to live with hard choices, to have purpose, to love, to succeed, and to have hope.

These stories are set in near-future, alternative world, and far future science fiction and fantasy worlds. Some characters fly spaceships, and some wield swords. Some characters are everyday people, and some are extremely strange.

The story lengths range from 300-word micro-fiction stories to full, short stories. Some end with a horizon open, and some with the horizon closed.

CONTENT WARNING: Some of the stories in this book include graphic sword-fighting and fist-fighting. Some contain references to abuse and human trafficking, but I did strive not to include any of those in graphic detail. Due to the nature of this content, you may need to read the stories carefully.

Most of these stories end on hopeful notes, but a few of them end with either a sense of "justice" or reckoning.

Amazon

Smashwords