My family and I like to donate to charities through the year. The holidays are a great time for it, but so often in January our thoughts turn to what we can do to improve our own lives. This is fine, admirable even.

It might even be that your bank account is rather, we’ll say flat after the holidays. That’s why I’d like to suggest Wikipedia as the cause of the month.

Now, I hesitate to call Wiki a charity. I mean, raise your hand if you’ve never used it to research some piece or another. No, no one? Okay, let’s start with the fact that we owe them.

I love Wiki not only because I use it to work almost every day. I love it because it is nothing short of magic. It is written by anyone, everyone. I could hop on there right now and add to it, and so could you. Now what you or my add might very well be clever and useful.  I might well go on and write all about poetry or short fiction in an entertaining and educational way. But I might also go on there and write about nuclear reactors or Vietnamese cooking. I know nothing about those things and am not in any way capable of giving useful information.

Therein lies their magic. Despite the fact that Wikipedia is updated by anyone who might want to update it, it is surprisingly useful for research. I always use it as a starting point, and I surely do check multiple sources for all of my facts, but more often than not I find the information correct. That has to be magical.

Wikipedia is magic for another reason. They are the most often used website in the world, and they have no ads. I can’t say that. I do ads all the time. (Click here to pre order Thirty Days, Thirty Ideas for free, with the promo code 30one) What they ask for instead is an occasional small donation.

If you visited Wikipedia during the holidays you noticed the pop up asking for donations. “If everyone reading this would donate three dollars, we would reach our fundraising goal in an hour.”

If you can spare some time and three bucks, please do two things for me. Go to Wikipedia and donate three bucks. Even the most broke of college student can spare that much, and if not this month maybe you can next month. Then, if you’ve got a blog, maybe show some Wikipedia love there. If you do, please link to your post in the comment section.

Free education, free sharing of information is a cornerstone of the internet. Let’s all do what we can to help it out.

I love fairy tales, like a lot. Especially twisted ones like Tenth Kingdom, Fables and the classic The True Story of The Three Little Pigs. It might be rather telling that this was my favorite story as a child.

Circuits and Slippers blends that love of a twisted fairy tale with science fiction. This one will be on my list to order when it comes out.

One thing the editor would like you to know is that there is only room for one adaption of any given fairy tale. Cinderella and Pygmalion have already been taken by the editors.

Genre- Science fiction based on fairy tales.

Word count- 2,000 to 10,000

Submission date- April 8

Wait time- Some time after deadline.

Payout- Royalties split among authors. So, you’ll be getting some of my money.

Rights- Six months exclusivity.

If you like what you find here and want to support me, please check out my Patreon page. You can help me out and get some great exclusive fiction along the way.

Happy New Year! It’s officially 2016, and I can’t get wait to get started.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably been planning for the new year for weeks now. If you’re not like me, then you’re in the majority. I have a terrible habit of planning more than I work sometimes, and never more than at the new year.

I’m working on that. But planning has been important for the past year. 2015 was what I call a foundation building year. I wrote all of the content for Days, and lots of other collections that need work still. I worked hard on social media, and met so many great people. I launched Thirty Days, Thirty Ideas, and now I’m ready to collect it into a book. I finished Broken Patterns. of course. Foundation years are important, but they are taxing for an impatient person like me. It made things easier bear, having an idea where the finish line would be.

For now, though, there’s no one better to talk to about planning than a planner addict. I’ve tried everything. The problem is, a lot of these awesome planning tips don’t work long term. They either distract or are too damn complicated to be worth the trouble.

We’ll be talking about planning that works around children, day jobs and the terrible habits of an adult with ADD. If these ideas work for me they’ll work for you, because you’re probably not as flighty as I am and you can’t be worse.

We’ll begin in earnest on Sunday, but let’s start with a quick tip. Today is the day most people make New Years Resolutions. Don’t. Make goals. Real goals with a real game plan, not some vague wish. Today, think about where you’d like to be in a year. Think about your family, your personal care and your writing. Personally, I have a ton of goals for the year. Honestly, more than I really care to list here.  Instead, I’d like to share my major business goals. Each of these goals has a whole page of little steps, but that’s rather boring.

• Make actionable and inspiring content for you guys here. This will include posts, printables, and more information built in to my newsletter, Paper Beats World. One way I’m already doing that is by publishing Thirty Days, Thirty Ideas in January. Don’t forget, if you pre order it you can get it for free with the code 30one. It only works until the release date, January 21.
• Write awesome stories. Well, that’s my whole life, not just this year. I’m going to finish Starting Chains, and make a start on Missing Stitches. I’m also going to publish Days, which I might have mentioned about a thousand times. But, what I haven’t mentioned is the brand new surprise I’m planning. No idea of a time frame yet, but stay tuned.
• Start making money from my writing, so that someday I can write full time. As I mentioned before, I made no money during the past year of banging my head against the door of traditional publishing. I bet that indie writing will be better for me, but I guess we’ll see.

What are you planning for 2016? Will this be the year you get published? Or will it be a foundation building year like 2015 was for me?

Welcome to the very last Paper Beats World post of 2015. I have had such an awesome year, watching this little corner of the internet grow. I can’t wait to see what sort of community we’ll build here in the next year.

2015 was full of surprises for me. I wasn’t expecting to get promoted at the day job. I wasn’t expecting to move. I sure wasn’t expecting to get a dog, which was on my Bucket List, by the way. All of these were good surprises, but still.

I was also surprised by the posts here that you all loved the most.  Really, I guess I shouldn’t be, but I was.  Just in case you missed them, here are the top ten most popular posts of 2015.

10. Writing 101, Day 15. That’s actually kind of misleading, because the fifteenth day of writing 101 I didn’t do the prompt at all. That was the day I finished the rough draft for Starting Chains. The title of the post was Done! I am really surprised and touched that this announcement made the top ten.

9. Writing 101, Day 17. The writing 101 event was awesome. This day the prompt was about fear.

8. Writing 101, Day 14. This was a writing prompt that led me to write a comical (I think) short piece in the form of a letter.  Again I am so thrilled to see some of my personal fiction work on the top ten list. If you missed the ‘Open Letter’ feel free to give it a read.

7. Write a Sapphic poem. I think Google search engine had something to do with this. Sapphic isn’t a common word, after all. I love the form, and I love the word. So, if you found my site by searching for sapphic poetry, welcome!

6. Market, Betwixt. The first but not the last market to make it to the top ten, Betwixt was an anthology that I did not enter. Again, I think search engines played a part here.

5. Write a burlesque poem. I really hope someone found this when searching for something naughty.

4. Writing 101, Day 6. This was a writing prompt that led me to talk about my day job. At least, more than I usually do. It also led to some of the nicest comments I have literally ever had on this site. I actually cried.

3. Markets, Second Hand Smoke. Again, search engines. But this was one of those markets that I was really happy to see. I am so glad that we’re becoming more aware of the impact smoking has not only on the health of the smoker, but on the people they smoke around. I wrote a piece that I might post here sometime, about growing up the daughter of a smoker.

2. Get Your Free World Building Printable. Alright, I guess this one doesn’t surprise me at all. It was free, it was pretty cool, and I talked it up on Social Media a lot. But I’m really glad people liked it. I hope you click on the link and get it, if you haven’t already.

1.The Best Gift For Writers. I guess I underestimated the ‘gifts for’ theme. I was so happy to see that this one was so popular.

Thanks again for reading. I can’t wait to see what tops the charts next year.

Don’t forget, I’m on Patreon now. If you want to support me, and help me keep doing what I do, please check me out. You also get stories that won’t appear on Paper Beats World, and some other goodies.  Click here to see my page.

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Christmas is over.  The wrapping paper is in the trash, and the cookies are all eaten.  Today is Sunday, and I’m getting ready to go see Transiberian Orchestra this evening.  Exciting!

Tomorrow marks the start of what I call “Hangover Week.”  It’s the four to five day span between Christmas and New Years that are a horrible purgatory of still in vacation mindset but you’ve still got to go to work.  The kids aren’t in school and your relatives might still be in town.  if you’re an introvert like me that’s a nightmare all by it’s damn self.  With all of that crazy going on, the thought of adding writing into your day can very well seem like a baseball sized crater crashing into your eggnog soaked brain.

So take the week off.

I’m serious.  There are times in our lives when all of the ‘Can do, pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ mentality in the world will not help you.  Having a baby, the holidays, family emergencies, just being sick.  Any of these can toss your life on it’s ear.  This year, for instance, I took time off when we moved.  I also took from the 23rd to tomorrow off.

This is important.  Our brains need to rest, just like everything else.  Otherwise we suffer from burnout.  So take some time and take care of yourself.

Eventually, though, it’s going to be time to get back to work.  Like tomorrow for instance.  The next time you find yourself trying to come back from an extended writing break, here’s some things that might help.

Planning and preparations beforehand

• If at all possible, schedule your return to the writing world. I know this isn’t always going to be possible.  If you’re sick it’s a crazy thing to even consider.  But if you schedule a hiatus on purpose, which I highly advise, plan your return date.  Put it on your calendar, in pen.  Because if you wait to get back to work when you ‘feel like it’ it might never happen.  If you know it’s coming, you’ll be more mentally prepared.
• Have something waiting for you that you are pumped about.  Trust me, if I go back to a desk full of editing I’ll be less than enthusiastic.  If I have nothing, I’ll fear my desk. (Though I have two sure fire ways to avoid a blank page.  One is the fact that I’m working on a series.  The other is my 30 Days, 30 Ideas Challenge every August.)  But, if I left off on a great chapter, and I know what I want to do with the next one, I’m ready to get back to work.

The First Day Back

• I try to plan my writing day back for a day I don’t have to work at the day job.  Coming back to work is going to take more time than you think.  If I try to start again with just my normal two hours, I’ll spend the whole time trying to collect my thoughts.
• I don’t have a huge to do list the first day, because I know damn well I won’t get it all done.
• I like to plan a special treat for the morning I get back to work.  A special creamer, a unique coffee.  Maybe even doughnuts.
• I don’t ask a lot of myself, that first day.  It’s more about getting back into the grove than actually producing anything decent.

Here’s hoping this helps you get back in the swing this week.  I am going to spend the week trying to figure out my five year business plan and trying to get all of the stray wrapping paper out from under the furniture.  Oh yes, the indie writers life is just rock star.

If you’d like to support us here at Paper Beats World, and get access to more of my writing than I share here, please check out my Pateron page.  You’ll also get a copy of Days before anyone else! 

Merry Christmas!  Actually, you’re probably reading this a few days after Christmas.  I know I’m not even looking at my computer today.

So, whenever you read this, the market this week is Glittership.

Glittership is a podcast that is devoted Science Fiction and Fantasy with an LGBTQ theme.

Genre- Science fiction and fantasy

Word Count-100 to 6,000

Submission date- Any time

Payout- 3 cents a word

Wait Time- Not listed

Rights- Also not listed

Here, then, is your link to full submission guidelines.

Don’t forget that I’m on Pateron now.  If you want to check out my page, get access to more of my fiction work and even get a copy of Days before anyone else, click here.

Merry Christmas Eve!  So, here’s your present, are you ready?  I collected all of the printables I made this year, (All two, but I’m hoping to create more next year.) and put them together in one post for you.

I hope you have an awesome holiday, and I can’t wait to see what 2016 brings for all of us!

This one is for a printable to bring list when planning a writing trip with your kids.

This one is the far more popular World Building printable.

If you guys like this, I’ll make it a yearly thing to collect the printables I (hopefully) make throughout the year.  Let me know!

Also, don’t forget that I’m on Paetron now, so if you want to show your love and get access to my stories before anyone else, check it out.