Hello all,
Some great advice from former literary agent Nathan Bransford today on how to tighten up your writing—by just deleting a few phrases! Before submitting your piece to any market, check through it and see what of these can be cut—a cleaner, tighter piece always gives you an edge in the slush pile.
Thanks to 34 Orchard contributor Trisha J. Wooldridge for the link! Enjoy!
Let’s face it: the holidays—no matter which one of a few is celebrated in December—can be not so great sometimes. There are people we miss, traditions we wish had never ended, tensions in relationships that’ll either explode over the punch bowl or get stuffed away in a stocking for yet another year, and hauntings by past not-so-merrys… and that’s just for starters.
But it’s these darker undercurrents that make the happier times more joyful. As sad as the holidays can be, if we didn’t have those downers, we wouldn’t have the intense moments of magic. Those moments when the world simply stops and we’re given the gift of perfect happiness, even if fleeting.
Writers always talk about their playlists—music they work to. I have them for 34 Orchard, too, and I even have some just for the holidays. Here’s mine. It’s nostalgia and pain, starry dark and eclipse sharp. I put them in an order that tells a story, too—well, sort of, anyway. I don’t really expect anyone to get it because nobody’s in my head, but I hope you enjoy it. The full Youtube playlist link is below, and for your convenience, I included the link to each individual song as well.
Thank you for supporting 34 Orchard—for submitting, for donating, for opening up these blog posts and reading them, for sharing our magazine. And above all… for reading. The goal with every issue is for every reader to find a piece of writing that hits home, that speaks, that says, ‘hey, I’m not alone,’ that will never be forgotten.
If you’d like to suggest some titles of your own? Leave a comment! I have to pre-approve the comments, so if you don’t see it, don’t think I didn’t receive it and I’ll approve them as quickly as I can. Or, you can drop us a note through the Contact Page.
Wishing you all a gleefully melancholy holiday season,
Kristi
1 “Taxi (Ave Maria)” – Perri Alleyne/arr. John Murphy (from the motion picture 28 Days Later)
2 “Every Day is Christmas” – Colby Caillat
3 “Save Some Christmas” – Rob Thomas
4 “Do You Hear What I Hear?” – Pink Martini
5 “Last Christmas/Leave Before You Love Me Mash-Up” – Anthem Lights
6 “Long Ago” – Adam Sandler, Alison Krauss and the Eight Crazy Nights motion picture cast
7 “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” – Rascal Flatts
8 Magnificat (2010): 6. Suscepit Israel – Kim André Arnesen
9 “In the Bleak Midwinter” – Gustav Holst (Instrumental)
10 “Blue Christmas” – from the Rankin Bass special Year Without a Santa Claus
11 “In the Bleak Midwinter” – the cast of BBC’s Ghosts (Ghosts UK), Season 2, Episode 7
12 “Blue Christmas” – Peter Cetera
13 “Save the Snowman” – Dan + Shay
14 “Secret Garden” – Theodore Shapiro (from the motion picture Last Christmas)
15 “Somewhere in My Memory” – John Williams, from the motion picture Home Alone
16 “Eventually” – Lawrence (from the motion picture Noelle)
17 “Just Like That” – A Christmas Story Live! – Maya Rudolph
18 “A Long December” – Counting Crows
19 “Merry Christmas, Alabama (Never Far From Home)” – Jimmy Buffet
20 “Christmas Gifts/The Best Gift” – Sandy Bainum and Euan Morton
21 “A Christmas Festival” – Leroy Anderson
22 “Last Christmas” – Emilia Clarke (from the motion picture Last Christmas)
23 “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” – Nancy Wilson
24 “Auld Lang Syne” – Lea Michele (from the motion picture New Year’s Eve)
25 “Auld Lang Syne” – Zooey Deschanel; score by John Debney (from the motion picture Elf)
Sometimes birdsong is dangerous.
If you love 34 Orchard and you want a volume full of tales that carry our vibe, don’t miss Darkness Most Fowl from The Godmother of Horror Press!
This anthology was invitation only, and so writers we’ve recommended and several 34 Orchard alums build terrifying nests in this bird horror anthology! Edited by #7 “The Last Days”’s Elaine Pascale and featuring stunning art by Michael Takeda (#11, “Kintsugi”), others are Zachary Kellian (#6, “Shrike Song”), Die Booth (#1, “A Murder”), Ernest Ògúnyẹmí (#7, “The Flute”), Leen Raats (#8, “The Solitary Man”), Nicola Kapron (#3, “The Bodies We Should Forget”), Selah Janel (#5, “Mister Skinandbones”), Rob Frances (#4, “Everything Fits If You Push Hard Enough”), Robert Mayette (#8, “The Milestones on That Path”), L.E. Daniels (#8/“Weird Witness”), and ten other popular voices. From grackles and creepers to magpies and nightjars, these flights of dark fancy will claw your heart every time you hear beating wings.
In the mood to be read to? Elaine has set up online readings! Schedule and days/times (with who’s reading so if you’ve got a favorite from a past 34O issue it’s easier to find them). Readings should be available at the YouTube link after the fact in case you miss the moment.
Wednesday, November 12 – 8 pm
Kiyomi Appleton Gaines “Flight and Fawn”
Lee Andrew Forman “Old Ways”
Hideki Nakazono “The Heavens Demand”
Holley Cornetto “Guilded Cage” (34 Orchard recommends her book We Haunt These Woods)
Nikki Kallio “The Cardinal” (34 Orchard recommends her collection Finding the Bones)
C. O. Davidson “A Parliament in the Woods”
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfoqUGjaJZs
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/3972255883024644
Friday, November 14 – 7 pm
Nicola Kapron “Dirt and Ashes”
Robert Mayette “To Even Look at Me”
Ernest Ògúnyẹmí “Christmas Chicken”
V. Castro “Witches of Winchester”
Geneve Flynn “I Am Not Myself Today”
L. E. Daniels “Stomata”
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aTNA0KiITk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1DnNac4kme/
Sunday, November 23 – 1 pm
Kristy Park Kulski “Magpie Teeth”
Leen Raats “Flock”
Selah Janel “Invasive”
Rob Francis “Skinflint’s Flock”
Die Booth “Little Gibbet”
Zachary Kellian “Predators of Paradise”
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3ofVc4NK9w
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1453335772391314
It’s here!
The twenty artists in this issue wander the corridors of longing, which is often considered a yearning for a person, object, or location. But it can mean so much more—and sometimes be the loneliest, most isolating emotion in the human experience.
As the purported “most wonderful time of year” approaches, for those who long for anything at all, it might actually be the darkest.
Welcome to the house so empty your own voice comes back to haunt you.
Welcome to 34 Orchard.
The downloadable PDF is designed so that it can be printed on double-sided paper for easy reading like a print magazine. As always, the issue is free, but there is a donation link should you choose to contribute.
If you like what you’ve read, spread the word!
34 Orchard 