October writing contest announcement! Scare me, I dare you!

a writing contest brought to you by J.R. Wagner


Scare me, I dare you!

                             
 
Details:
 

Contest category: Short Story
Type: Horror
Deadline: October 10, 2013
Entry fee: $0.00 (FREE!)

Word count Maximum: 750

Prizes:
First place: Two signed copies of Exiled and a digital copy of Tristis Manor  
Second place: One signed copy of Exiled  
Third place: Swag (bookmarks, bracelets, etc.)
 
Prompt: Write something scary. That's it. Seriously. Something to keep in mind; I don't scare easily -especially when it comes to writing mostly due to the pacing of the story (*cough* pay attention to pacing). Work on the slow build or, if you're really good, hit me in the face and keep my attention for the duration.


PLEASE read the contest rules Below.

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND reading the scoring rubric (found in the contest rules). It will tell you exactly how each submission will be scored. There will be a bonus of up to ten points based on how scary it is (not in rubric)

Contest rules: 

• Entries must be emailed to contest@theneverchronicles.com
• All entries must be submitted by midnight on the deadline date
• Entries must be pasted into the body of an email. NO ATTACHMENTS
• 12pt font double spaced -normal font (Garmond (preferred), courier new, arial, default email font)
• No submission limit
• Early submissions appreciated
• Previous winners are excluded from being considered for prizes
  
• 750 word Maximum word count
• Spelling and grammar taken into consideration
• PG13 stories only please
• No previously published works (unless self-published)
• By submitting an entry, you are giving permission for your story to be posted on this website, the J. R. Wagner author blog and the J. R. Wagner author facebook page. If and when they appear in the aforementioned locations, the author(you) will be credited and have the opportunity to provide links to the author's (your) external sites. (websites, blogs, facebook pages etc.)
• All works are the sole property of the authors.  Reproduction of any kind, without the permission of the author as well as proper citation is strictly prohibited.
• Scoring rubric can be found HERE each category is worth ten points.
  

~In the book world, word of mouth is king~

Coming soon....

the second book from The Never Chronicles

Available now from J.R. Wagner...

A tale of perseverance, strength and redemption.

www.TheNeverChronicles.com

In bookstores

 

Music with a Message: Beautiful Candice Glover, I am Beautiful

by J. R. Wagner

This is the Eleventh song in my Music with a Message series. Music for teens that was released within the past five years and has a positive, uplifting, self-esteem boosting theme.  

Song: I am Beautiful

Artist: Candice Glover

Album: Music Speaks (Single)

Lyrics:

You say I sound silly when I laugh real loud
Talk about my day and you tune me out
You keep telling me lies to make things worse
But I don’t hear you
‘Cause I’m listening to his words
And he says I am beautiful
And when I fall
It don’t matter that I’m not perfect
I am beautiful
I’m not alone
And in his eyes I’m so worth it
I’m worth every tear
And every scar
And even when you say I’m not
He says I’m beautiful
You say I’ll never be good enough
Knock me down
Won’t help me up
And you always say the right thing to make me hurt
But I don’t hear you
‘Cause I’m listening to his words
And he says I am beautiful
And when I fall
It don’t matter that I’m not perfect
I am beautiful
I’m not alone
And in his eyes I’m so worth it
I’m worth every tear
And every scar
And even when you say I’m not
He says I’m beautiful
And I deserve better things
He says he understands
I got to do whats right for me
And he says I am beautiful
And when I fall
It don’t matter that I’m not perfect
I am beautiful
I’m not alone
And in his eyes I’m so worth it
I’m worth every tear
And every scar
And even when you say I’m not
He says I’m beautiful
He says
He says
I’m beautiful
And I’m worth every tear
And every scar
And even when you say I’m not
He says I’m beautiful

Video:

 

Don't forget to check out the other music with a message posts. Visit my page with all the listings. 

~In the book world, word of mouth is king~

Coming soon....

the second book from The Never Chronicles

Available now from J.R. Wagner...

A tale of perseverance, strength and redemption.

www.TheNeverChronicles.com

In bookstores

 

Meditation And The Art of Writing

-->A guest post by Marcela De Vivo

Being a writer is one of the most difficult things to do because it’s not just a career path--it’s also a state of mind. Unlike many other hobbies, passions, and career paths, when you are in the wrong frame of mind for writing, everything gets blocked. You are unable to come up with ideas, find your style, or write with any sort of flow. Being blocked from writing can be incredibly frustrating. Luckily, people who meditate have found a lot of success in fighting writer’s block and becoming a stronger writer.

Put Yourself In The Right State of Mind

If your mind isn’t completely focused on your writing, it will be much tougher to get any words to paper. If you are nervous about deadlines or thinking about fights you had with your best friend, your focus won’t solely be on your words. It will impede your writing abilities completely. With the use of meditation, you can control your thoughts and put yourself in the writing mindset that you so sorely need.

Clear Out All Negative Thoughts

Critics are often a huge impediment to a writer’s abilities. If you are sitting down to write and keep thinking that you aren’t good enough, you can’t do it, and other negative thoughts, getting past that block will be impossible. By learning meditation, you can teach yourself to put a wall around those inner critics, thereby allowing yourself to write and not think of the negativity.

Gain Inspiration

There’s nothing more frustrating for a writer than sitting down to write and drawing a blank. Just because you’re in the mood to write doesn’t mean you’ll be able to get the words to flow. One of the many perks of meditation is gaining inspiration that will allow you to write to your heart’s content.

One Minute Meditations

If you’re in the middle of a sentence and all of a sudden writer’s block hit’s you like a ton of bricks, one minute meditation is the trick that you need. You’ll be able to close your eyes and do breathing exercises in just a few seconds to get yourself back on track.

Calms Your Nerves

Writing can be a nerve-wracking experience. You put so much of yourself into your prose that it can be terrifying. With meditation, you can keep yourself from letting those nerves get to you when you need to get to writing. By practicing basic breathing exercises during meditation you can get better control of your nerves.

Create a Meditation Room

Your home and writing space may be cluttered with furniture, papers, and all those other life essentials. Creating your own meditation room can help prevent these distractions during your writing process. Keep the decor in this room minimal and relaxing such as a wall fountain or small bonsai tree to bring in small elements of nature.

Steps To Meditate

Meditating is actually quite easy, so don’t worry about not being an expert. At the most basic level, you can clear your mind, repeat a positive mantra, and use breathing exercises in your meditation room or small space. Take as long as you need because getting on track with your writing is what’s most important.

Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer from Southern California. As a full-time writer, she understands how difficult it can be to get your thoughts down on paper and finds meditation a great tool to avoid writers block. Follow her on Twitter today!

You can also find Marcela on Facebook, Pinterest and her website.

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~In the book world, word of mouth is king~

Coming soon....

the second book from The Never Chronicles

Available now from J.R. Wagner...

A tale of perseverance, strength and redemption.

www.TheNeverChronicles.com

In bookstores

 

Music with a message: Warrior Demi Lovato

by J. R. Wagner

This is the tenth song in my Music with a Message series. Music for teens that was released within the past five years and has a positive, uplifting, self-esteem boosting theme.  

Song: Warrior

Artist: Demi Lovato 

Album: Demi

Lyrics:

"Warrior"
This is a story that I have never told
I gotta get this off my chest to let it go
I need to take back the light inside you stole
You're a criminal
And you steal like you're a pro
All the pain and the truth
I wear like a battle wound
So ashamed, so confused
I was broken and bruised
Now I'm a warrior
Now I've got thicker skin
I'm a warrior
I'm stronger than I've ever been
And my armor, is made of steel, you can't get in
I'm a warrior
And you can never hurt me again
Out of the ashes, I'm burning like a fire
You can save your apologies, you're nothing but a liar
I've got shame, I've got scars
That I will never show
I'm a survivor
In more ways than you know
Cause all the pain and the truth
I wear like a battle wound
So ashamed, so confused
I'm not broken or bruised
'Cause now I'm a warrior
Now I've got thicker skin
I'm a warrior
I'm stronger than I've ever been
And my armor, is made of steel, you can't get in
I'm a warrior
And you can never hurt me
There's a part of me I can't get back
A little girl grew up too fast
All it took was once, I'll never be the same
Now I'm taking back my life today
Nothing left that you can say
Cause you were never gonna take the blame anyway
Now I'm a warrior
I've got thicker skin
I'm a warrior
I'm stronger than I've ever been
And my armor, is made of steel, you can't get in
I'm a warrior
And you can never hurt me again
No oh, yeah, yeah
You can never hurt me again 

Video:(sorry couldn't find the 'official')

Don't forget to check out the other music with a message posts.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7 

Part 8

Part 9 

Or visit my page with all the listings

~In the book world, word of mouth is king~

Coming soon....

the second book from The Never Chronicles

Available now from J.R. Wagner...

A tale of perseverance, strength and redemption.

www.TheNeverChronicles.com

In bookstores

 

Video Contest Winner announced.

Congratulations to Jeremy Rovny and his cast and crew for submitting the winning video to the Exiled Video Contest!

Watch this incredible submission below.  After you're done, scroll down and read the interview with Jeremy.

Congratulations, Jeremy, great work on the video.

Where do you hang your hat?  Simply based upon some of the accents in the video I would guess south of the Mason-Dixon line?

Indeed, we're all from Texas! I was hoping that wouldn't show, but once I met Kenny Harris (Master Ammoncourt), I thought, "Well, so much for the Gandalf sounding wizards." Haha, that's actually how I imagined his character sounding at first--like Gandalf. But Kenny is a true Texan. So just imagine...cowboy wizards.

It looks like you gathered quite a collection of actors to shoot your video.  Are they friends, volunteers, family? How did you bring everyone together?

Actually, this was the first video I've made where I sent out casting calls and such. Previously I would just use my family (which was great as I have 5 siblings), but since we're growing up, getting busy, and going to college, that doesn't really work anymore. Also I wanted the experience of directing people I've never met. It was actually really great; they were so easy to work with!

What is your background in film/acting? Are you in school for either currently?

So far, I'm totally self taught. I realized at a young age that I really want to be an actor/filmmaker, so I just started doing it. I totally took over the family camera and started making videos of every vacation or major event in our lives. But I'm in school for filmmaking right now. I'm finishing up my basics and just transferred to UT Arlington to get a BFA in Film/Video/Screenwriting.

How did you hear about the contest?

I found the contest through onlinevideocontest.com (OVC). I had won 3rd place in an international Ihop contest video in the summer of 2012, so I was encouraged by that.

What made you decide to enter (other than the obvious winning prize, that is)?

The contest stuck out because it was for a fantasy video. I love the fantasy/sci-fi genre, and hadn't made a video like that yet, so I really wanted to try it out. Yes, I'm a nerd. I love the Lord of the Rings films and books, and I've read nearly all of Terry Brook's Shannara books.

Is that Final Cut Pro you used to edit the film?

I did use Final Cut Pro!! My first few videos (some of which are pre-youtube) were made on iMovie, then I used Final Cut Express (which was actually my brother's copy--he was into making videos at first too, but then went off to do physics for some reason), then I switched over to Pro not terribly long ago.

In hours, how long did it take you to shoot versus edit?

Shooting was comparatively way shorter, which is saying something considering the first shoot (the council chamber one) was about 11 hours non-stop. I was expecting that shoot to be maybe 3 or 4 hours...I still feel bad for everyone that came to set that day...So shooting over all took about 17-22 hours.Editing itself--like splicing the footage together--didn't take too terribly long. Probably longer than shooting though. But then I got to color grading and vfx. Oh man. That took forever.

I read on your youtube channel that you’ve been involved in filmmaking since you were fourteen.  True?  

Not entirely true--I've been into filmmaking since before 14. I loved movies in general, but that's not saying much--many people do. Then my siblings and I discovered the home video camera, and we started making videos with it. I began my main youtube channel and the name "TorchFire Productions" around the age of 14. Like, it was probably around then I decided it was for sure what I wanted to do. I made many videos before that point though, most of which were funny family videos--sometimes not even anything resembling a story, but just experimenting with the camera and learning what I could do with it.

I just watched your Life of a Villager video…hilarious. I used to play Age of Empires all the time. So funny.  I guess you play (or used to)?

Haha, yay for Age of Empires fans!!! Man, AOE II the Conqueror's Expansion is one of the greatest games of all time.

You have quite a bunch of creative videos on your channel, do you write?

I did write most of these videos. Some of them my siblings have helped write though.

About the cast…You played James, correct? How long have you been acting?

NO! I didn't play James!! None of that happened! He was played by...my evil twin!! Okay, yeah, that was...me. I just don't like admitting it because that's easily the worst acting I've ever done. As I said before, we've mostly just done comedic videos, so that's what I'm used to--comedy. Even all the plays I've done have been comedic. It's natural for me. So when I saw this role I thought, "Hey, now I can finally try to act serious!" I had only really done that one time before in a short film I made with one of my brothers when I was 15ish called "Knife Hunt." I think I just over thought it and tried too hard while acting for Exiled. WAY too hard. My worst scene is where I looked shocked after seeing the memory orb thing. The script was originally written to include James's master getting consumed and killed by fire. So when I acted that I thought, "Okay, you just saw a guy who was like a father to you get burned alive. Also, you're an angsty teenager who's being falsely accused of murdering your own master. Go long." 

As a young filmmaker, I always struggled to find older cast members. You were able to find two great actors to play Ammoncourt and Akil.  Where did you find those guys?

I'm pretty sure I found Kenny (Ammoncourt) and David (Master Elder) through shortfilmtexas.com. They responded to the casting calls I wrote. Yeah, I was a little afraid of directing people so much older than me at first! Also, I don't know if any of them knew that their director was also acting... But I was so happy they all took me seriously considering I was the youngest one on set. Plus, I don't know why anyone would listen to a person wearing such a ridiculous wig. They never even saw me without it. In fact, I ran into Eric Weiss (Red Guard 1) in a later production we were in together, and he didn't recognize me at first without the wig! But they were all so courteous and compliant.

As a writer, I was shocked when I first saw Charles Johnson (who played Akil). Based upon the description in the book, he was a dead ringer.  Were you able to cast him simply based upon his appearance?

Yes, Charles was a friend from church--I had no idea he could act, yet he probably did the best of all of us!! If you recall, I emailed you early on asking what Akil looked like, as he wasn't described at all in the first chapter. You responded with a description that perfectly matched this guy I knew. Charles instantly popped in my head when I read that email. I laughed at the idea of him playing the character because I don't think he'd ever acted before. But he totally killed it..

David Eaton (played Master Elder) was very creepy.  I think he pulled off his role so well.  His facial expressions alone were enough to make my skin crawl.  Did he require much direction?

Yeah, David Eaton did great with playing a total creep...which was funny considering he was the kindest guy on set!! He was super cooperative. I actually gave him (and Kenny, really) a lot of direction. David was so nice and subdued I guess you could say, that in reality I think it was difficult for him to become a maniac. Most of his expressions actually came naturally, but I worked with him a lot on how he said the lines, especially volume-wise. My method of making the actors feel comfortable was to act out what I wanted them to do except twice as exaggerated. I think that helped them relax a little.

Kenny Harris (Master Ammoncourt) looked very comfortable in front of the camera.  How much acting experience does he have?

I don't think Kenny had a whole lot of experience before this role--he had maybe acted in a few projects before this one. He has insisted over text that he's much better now and wants to do something else! Haha, obviously I am eager to take him up on that offer.

Are you working on any other projects right now?

Oh goodness, don't get me started. Okay, I'm editing a wedding video right now, then I have a short video to make for one of my brothers, then I have to finish the behind the scenes video for the Exiled video, I have to make a video for the gym I work at, a video for the parkour program I'm starting there, a video of a parkour jam I attended recently, I want to get another short comedy sketch made soon (I have about 50 different ideas to choose from), and there's a feature film I've been trying to work on. 

Any plans for the prize money?

Well, I gotta tithe some of it, provide promised pay to some crew members, and then see how much is left. I'd also like to keep some to offset the budget of making the video...which ended up being a little bit more than I'd like to admit. If any substantial portion remains, I'd like to put it toward purchasing more film equipment. I still need an external field monitor to attach to my camera--if anyone knows of a good one to buy for a 7D, let me know!

Jeremy Rovny is co-founder and owner of TorchFire Productions. His goal is  "to make awesome feature films." He works as a  tumbling, parkour, and freerunning coach at Maverick All Star Tumblers, and more recently have begun work as a freelance filmmaker/videographer. 

YouTube channels: 

"Rovnys" My old channel; hardly worth visiting unless you want to find some of my older stuff.

"MavsTumblers" Containing only tumbling, parkour, and freerunning videos. Cool stuff. I believe you'll find them different than other videos of the same genre.

"TorchFireProductions" The main channel which I hope will soon be consisting of quality and entertaining videos of all different genres.

Jeremy's VIMEO Account

Facebook (Jeremy Rovny) 

Twitter (@JeremyRovny).

From Jeremy;
 
Thanks for the interview, it was my first time to do one!!! It's been fun! More, BETTER videos and films to come, I promise!

The entire, unabridged interview is available HERE (on my website, TheNeverChronicles.com)

~In the book world, word of mouth is king~

Coming soon....
Evasion
the second book from The Never Chronicles

Available now from J.R. Wagner...

A tale of perseverance, strength and redemption.

Available Now!

www.TheNeverChronicles.com

In bookstores