Month: October 2015

The Scene Weekend: ‘The Hand’ by Guy de Maupassant

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October 31, 2015 Hey there again…..found a short story to share with you guys on this day. I hope you like it….. The Hand by Guy de Maupassant All were crowding around M. Bermutier, the judge, who was giving his opinion about the Saint-Cloud mystery. For a month this in explicable crime had been the talk of Paris. Nobody could make head or tail of it. M. Bermutier, standing with his back to the fireplace, was talking, citing the evidence, discussing the various theories, but arriving at no conclusion. Some women had risen, in order to get nearer to him, and were standing with their eyes fastened on the clean-shaven face of the judge, who was saying such weighty things. They, were shaking and trembling, moved by fear and curiosity, and by the eager and insatiable desire for the horrible, which haunts the soul of every woman. One of them, paler than the others, said during a pause: “It’s terrible. It verges on the supernatural. The truth will never be known.” The judge turned to …

The Scene Weekend: Art Business Workshop 2016

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October 31, 2015 Morning! To those who celebrate Halloween, Happy Halloween! Now let’s get to the nitty-gritty of what’s happening in the creative world. The Art Business Institute has another workshop coming in January 2016….. (from the website) ART BUSINESS WORKSHOP  WASHINGTON D.C. JANUARY 16 – 17, 2016   The Arts Business Institute will present a comprehensive business workshop for artists and craftspeople on January 16-17, 2016 in Washington, DC. This event will provide essential information in a highly focused program, as well as optional personal consultations for participants. Artists who would like to enter the national marketplace for handmade goods will learn how to build a collection, price profitably at wholesale, market and sell their work. Fine artists are also perfect candidates for the workshop, as information will be presented on pricing artwork, marketing, selling online and offline, and entering the corporate art market. Topics to be covered in this two-day workshop are: Wholesale 101 Creative Marketing Selling your Work Online Copyright Protection Create an Effective Art Website Pricing for Profit/Pricing Fine Art Art and the Corporate World Sales Strategies …

The Scene: The Hamlin Garland Award & Colorado Prize for Poetry

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October 28, 2015 Hello everyone! Have two pieces of information for you literary peeps. Take a look below, if your interested you know where to go right? Good! Read!   The Beloit Fiction Journal announces the second annual HAMLIN GARLAND AWARD for the SHORT STORY $2,000 and publication will be awarded to the top unpublished story on any theme Jude for this year’s contest is Nickolas Butler, author of Shotgun Lovesongs. Send entries to: Chris Fink, editor / Beloit Fiction Journal / Beloit College, 700 College Street, Beloit, WI, 53511 or enter electronically using Submittable at: https://beloitfictionjournal.submittable.com/submit A reading fee of $20 must accompany each entry. Checks are payable to Beloit Fiction Journal, or pay entry fee through Submittable. One story per entry/multiple entries ok. Maximum 7,000 words. All entrants will be considered for publication. The award may be split at the judge’s discretion. Postmark deadline: December 1, 2015 Visit the Beloit Fiction Journal at http://www.beloitfictionjournal.org   the 2016 COLORADO PRIZE FOR POETRY $2,000 honorarium & book publication Book-length poetry manuscripts accepted until January 14, …

Reflections: Enjoying Fall…

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October 27, 2015 Afternoon all. The end of October is near and I’ve enjoyed fall, my favorite time of year. I love to post poems and yes, I’m posting one about fall (can’t remember if I did before or not) so read and enjoy.   My Autumn Leaves BY BRUCE WEIGL I watch the woods for deer as if I’m armed. I watch the woods for deer who never come. I know the hes and shes in autumn rendezvous in orchards stained with fallen apples’ scent. I drive my car this way to work so I may let the crows in corn believe it’s me their caws are meant to warn, and snakes who turn in warm and secret caves they know me too. They know the boy who lives inside me still won’t go away. The deer are ghosts who slip between the light through trees, so you may only hear the snap of branches in the thicket beyond hope. I watch the woods for deer, as if I’m armed. Bruce Weigl, “My Autumn …

The Greatest Horror Movies of All Time……

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October 26, 2015 Hello again! Everybody had a great weekend? I hope so, because I did. Over the weekend, I came across an online article from Indiewire where HitFix asked horror filmmakers such as Clive Barker, Guillermo del Toro and others to pick the greatest horror films of all time. Here is the top ten……   The Exorcist The Shinning The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Rosemary’s Baby Alien The Thing (1982) Halloween Psycho Night of the Living Dead Jaws   To see the rest, go to this list. This was a spur of the moment post, just perfect for Halloween right? Enjoy the rest of your Monday, be blessed, and come back Wednesday for some creative stuff! Horror Filmmakers Pick Greatest Horror Movies of All Time by Sam Adams (Criticwire)         featured image courtesy of the170.com

Creative Close-Up: Which Music Streaming Service is Best for You?

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October 26, 2015 I love music, doesn’t matter if it’s rock, jazz, pop, metal or maybe a little country, I just love music. Over the years, music streaming has become the norm. Who can remember Napster? Now we have Apple, Rhapsody, Pandora, Spotify, and now there is Tidal. When iTunes came on the scene, I came aboard with it. Now I’m trying Apple Music, so far so good, but it needs more bug fixing. I also have an account with Spotify. It was premium, but now it’s a free account. Crazy yes, but that’s how I work. Both Apple Music and Spotify are pretty good. At first I couldn’t tell which quality of sound was perfect. The winner goes to Apple, because it’s sound is near perfection. Tidal is the new kid on the block of music streaming. They claim that they’re the first music service with High Fidelity sound quality, High Definition music videos. I have no doubt that it’s true. As we all know Jay-Z and 17 other artists including Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Madonna, to name …

The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe

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October 23, 2015 Morning my creative peeps…..Friday is here and here is something for all to enjoy….a tale of the plague published in 1850 by the one and only, Edgar Allan Poe. Enjoy!   The Masque of the Red Death   by Edgar Allan Poe THE “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avator and its seal — the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour. But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and …

No Entrees for Crimson Peak Fan Contest

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October 20, 2015 Hello again everyone. It saddens me to say this, but there were no entries to this contest. None. Of course if there were money involved, then it would’ve been successful. Money does make the world go round….. There are a few good reasons for this. First, I should’ve planned this around this time last year. I could’ve had a few sponsors to help with this contest, but did I think about that? No. Secondly, trying to keep this contest afloat wasn’t easy. I really needed to campaign a whole lot harder and that was another downfall. Lastly, I knew I couldn’t do this by myself, but I wanted to at least try! Running this blog is no easy feat. With a second shift job (4:30pm – 1:00am), working on this blog, and my artwork and writing, it gets hard, but the bright side: you may fail, but that you can always try again. You live and you learn, right? So yeah the contest was a big fail, but so the hell what!