But first, a bit about our new contest series.
Every week we are going to have a contest on our Facebook Page. The contests will change from week to week but the winners will always be published in the magazine. The contest winner and the runners up are chosen by a voting system, and then the editors of Authors Publish will select several additional entries from the rest to be the Editor’s Choice winners.

Below are all the winners of this week’s contest, their challenge was to write a six word memoir. So many people wrote so many wonderful memoirs that it was very difficult to narrow it down to our favorites. If you want to read all of the entries (over 3,000) and see the rest of the contest details click on the link. To see the winners just scroll down.

Pick a character and then write down his or her name at the top of a sheet of paper. If your character is male write a female version of his name, for example Henry Lee would become Henrietta Lee. Not all names can change gender so easily, so if you have to modify it a little more go ahead.  If your character is female write down the male version of her name.

Your main character for this writing prompt is the same character that you initially chose. The only thing that has changed is their gender.

Now that you have a name and a character, you have to do something with them. If you have already written most of your book, or if you have taken your character from an already existing text, you should probably take an existing scene and re-write it with the main character now having the opposite gender. Or you can write a scene from scratch.

There is a lot of room for a flexibility. You can take this prompt in a comedic direction or a serious one. It is all up to you.

Happy Writing!

The famous Japanese Novelist Haruki Murkami wrote an entire book about how running helped him write. Kay Ryan, a former poet laureate for the United States, also has a daily running routine, but there are also famous writers who swear by boxing, swimming, yoga, ballet and all sorts of other activities not just in terms of keeping themselves fit, but in terms of improving their writing. After all exercise is scientifically proven to make you smarter.

Over a decade ago I joined a gym and ever since then I have made sure that I have exercised five to six days a week. Over this decade my writing has really improved, partially because of the thoughts and energy I put into exercise help refresh my brain and my writing reserves. I have come up with some of my best writing ideas on walks, runs, and kayaking trips.

I don’t swear by any particular kind of exercise. Any kind of exercise helps improve your writing, and helps bring new thoughts out into the open. When at a writing retreat in rural Washington I will walk and hike to get my exercise. While traveling I will use the elliptical at my hotel. If there is no elliptical I will do sit ups, squats, push ups, and various other exercise in my room. I just make sure I am always active.

Now the trick to this is getting into the habit of exercising.  Start slowly if you have not exercised in a while. Walk around your neighborhood for 15 minutes every day, or do 25 crunches, 20 squats, and 5 pushups and go from there. Make sure whatever you are doing is within your comfort zone and gradually work towards doing more. Make sure to check with your doctor if you are unsure.

I have become a much better writer, and a much happier human being since integrating daily exercise into my routine.

These terrible poems are not useless, they are funny and one could even say compelling in their own way. Now you can submit them to Caboose, a journal that is only interested in publishing bad poems. The worse the poem, the higher the likelihood of it being accepted.

Now they are an online journal that plans to publish their first issue before AWP (The biggest writing conference in North America) at the end of February. So that means the sooner you submit the better. It also means that they will probably have a pretty fast response time if they are currently working to meet that deadline

It helps to have a sense of humor about writing as a poet. Acknowledging that one writes terrible poems is becoming more and more of the writing culture. Reading series’s often have a section devoted to bad poems and so do many journals. Besides the best bad poems are funny, so to not share them is a small crime against comedy.

Also the wonderful thing about Caboose is that you’re not actually publishing this work under your own name – you are encouraged to make up a ridiculous pen name and a fake bio. They also accept art work submissions and fake rejection notes. They use the submission manager Submittable. You can submit up to five poems at a time.

To learn more visit their website here: http://caboosejournal.wordpress.com/

Beorh Quarterly stands out for having an exceptionally fast response time to most submissions. They almost always respond within a day. Which means that you know that your work is accepted and rejected as soon as possible. They do accept simultaneous submissions, but I generally advise against simultaneously submitting work to a journal that responds this quickly. Because if the work is accepted you might have to withdraw it from other journals whose answers you have been waiting on for months. They are also open to previously published work as long as you hold the copyrite.

Work must be submitted via email. It should either be attached as an RTF file or it should be cut and pasted into the body of the email. Work must be size 12 Times New Roman font and double spaced. When you submit put the following text and information in the subject line: BEORH QUARTERLY SUB: “title of your story” / your pen name.

If you are interested in submitting please visit their website at http://beststoriesoutthere.wordpress.com/submissions/.