Table Of Contents
Introduction
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Literary Quote
“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.”
― J.D. Salinger
Book Deal
Writing Prompt
Why is this site the 102nd best site that you read today?
Email us your response, or share it with us on one of our social media profiles.
The best responses will be featured in a future post.
Literary Meme
Book Giveaway
There is no giveaway for this month. There will be one in June.
Social Media Shout-out
Lin Connelly-Green had this to say on our Facebook page about an article asking about the number of books in the world.
NEVER too many books.
Thanks for the support Lin. We hope you enjoy the picture of your comment. We are going to do that from now on with the social media shout-outs.
Comment on one of our social media pages if you want to get a future shout-out.
Actual Pen
This Day In Literature History
Literary-related events that happened on May 25th.
1816 - Collection of poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge published by John Murray in London, including "Kubla Khan" and "Christabel"
1895 - Oscar Wilde sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for gross indecency
Literature Fact
Nathanael West’s 1939 novel The Day of the Locustfeatures a character called Homer Simpson.
New Book Release
Literature Trivia
In our previous article, we asked "What is Mark Twain's real name?"
His real name is Samuel Clemens.
On the theme of pen names, today's question is "What is George Orwell's real name?"
Writer's Office
Here is an item that you could have in your office.
Other Articles By Us
Did you know that one of our bloggers Brooke Smith has her own website for her writing? Well now you do.
Articles From Other Sites
Here is an article on Reedsy Blog about short stories.
A short story is a form of fiction writing defined by its brevity. A short story usually falls between 3,000 and 7,000 words — the average short story length is around the 5,000 mark. Short stories primarily work to encapsulate a mood, typically covering minimal incidents with a limited cast of characters — in some cases, they might even forgo a plot altogether.
Agent Central
Name - Laurie Abkemeier
Agency - DeFiore and Company
Website - Publishers Marketplace: Laurie Abkemeier
Email - laurie@defliterary.com
Twitter - @LaurieAbkemeier
Interested In Representing - BIPOC Voices, Journalism/Investigative Reporting, Narrative Nonfiction, Nonfiction, Pop Culture
Current Bestseller
Writing Contest
Something Or Other Publishing is holding a short story contest at this moment.
102nd Best Website For Writers - Short Story
I headed over to the history section of the magazine stand. Why didn’t I walk right over to the writer’s section since that is kind of what this blog is all about? I don’t have a history blog, anyway. There is no part about history books here or history quotes. Well, if I can be frank, I like to learn about history more than writing. What am I going to learn about in a writer’s magazine that I can find useful; some advice that I either don’t care about or have heard before, or a preview to a book that I probably won’t read anyway? For a guy who loves writing, I am not that crazy about learning more about it. Which is why when me and my sister went to Barnes and Noble, I didn’t run to the writing section. If I am ever in the magazine stand, I am almost always by the history section. Plus, I couldn’t run over there; we had our masks on because of COVID-19. Have you tried to run in those things? I have a hard enough wearing them as I sit. At the end of the day, no matter how advanced or special they make these masks out to be, I am still covering up my face, preventing my oxygen intake from being at its full potential. Seriously, didn’t we all learn about this crap while we were in science classes in school?
On the stand was your list of magazines of events that most people have heard of, even those who are not history buffs like me. There was one about knights with a great picture of a medieval knight in all his armor, the Roman Republic with notable leaders like Marcus Aurelius and Caesar on the cover, communism with its symbol of a hammer and sickle and Lennin; among others that all would fit under the category of the magazines I preferred.
Since this was the closest part of the stand to the door, we headed there first, as compared to the area my sister wanted to go to, the puzzles and games, but that was on the other side of the store, so that would wait.
I grabbed the magazine about Rome as I pulled down my mask. “See this, people can’t get enough about Rome. We love it. I already have three magazines about Rome, so I don’t need to buy another.” I put the magazine back down. “Although I guess I could learn more about them. Can you ever really learn enough about Rome? The answer to that question is no, obviously.” I started on a rant about Rome that was as much to myself as it was to my sister. “Rome didn’t think it was just any empire. It thought it was the empire. That was destined to take over and conquer the world. And here I am a thousand years later talking about how people can’t get enough of it. Maybe those Romans weren’t far off with their own….”
As I continued to discuss Rome, my sister scanned through a psychology book. “So you’re getting it?” She noticed I didn’t have on my mask. “Put your mask back on.”
“Fine.” I listened more for her sake than the health of others. “I don’t get it, though. While we are in here, we have to wear masks, but outside we don’t.”
“Like when we go to a restaurant. We have to wear masks to sit down, but then when we sit down, we are fine.”
“That makes no sense. I can’t wait till we all go back to complaining about gun control and overworking and drinking too much coffee.”
“Don’t forget the traffic too. All those courteous drivers will be back on the road then too.”
“Damn. I miss the isolation the pandemic provided. Granted, that was because it killed people and caused mass hysteria, but hey, the roads were clear, which was nice.”
“Life, it is what you are doing now.” She read from the magazine she held. “That is what the magazine says. How stupid. Can you believe that is what they put in here? That is not insightful at all.”
“It could be worse; they could include a random fact that has nothing to do with anything in order to present some supposed knowledge that they want the reader to believe they have.”
“Like ’10 percent of your memories make up all of your life’s actions? Would that count?” My sister read from the magazine that clearly didn’t impress her.
She walked over next to me as I decided on the Crusades or Caesar. “So, what are you thinking of getting?” I told her that I wanted a history magazine before we walked inside.
“Well… I could go Rome. But that is so overused. And yet, so great. I could go communism. But that may make people think things about me.”
“We don’t need Mom and Dad thinking you’re a Communist.”
“That would make for fun Thanksgiving dinner conversation. Hey Mom. Hey Dad. I’m a Commi bastard.”
“Yeah, while you are at it, you should make a presentation of it, like that one cousin did with our family.”
Recently one of our cousins sat down with their parents and brothers and sisters to explain to them how they are all racists and bad people. That’s what some in our family do; we point out how the others in our family are bad people, instead of facing the harsh truth; we are all kind of jerks.
“I’m going to go with knights.” I picked up the magazine with a medieval knight on the cover.
“That won’t make for a better presentation, though.”
“Mind if we look at the writing section before we go to get some puzzles?”
“Sure… You plan on buying anything?”
“Probably not.”
My sister picked up a random writing magazine as I mocked what I saw in front of me. “The New Yorker. You know you are not a real New Yorker if you read The New Yorker. You are trying to show people you are so smart and clever if you own one.”
“I thought I saw some in your office.”
“Yeah. I own a few.”
“Hey, look at this." She spotted a magazine with the words,101 best websites for writers, on the cover. Don’t you have a website for writers?” She picked up the magazine.
“It isn’t really that helpful to anyone, or even for writers, but sure.”
She turned to the pages that had the list of the websites, and she quickly learned that this blog is not considered a top 101 site for writers. Sorry to all the writers out there who look to this site for advice. You should probably go to another site if you want that.
“It is probably not on this list.” I said, certain it wasn’t. “because my site doesn’t have that large of an audience. Although there are a few things that the blog can improve on, let me tell you.”
“Obviously.” She said as she stared at the magazine done with her search. “The website design is outdated. The social media posts are confusing. And I don’t really like the op-ed pieces.”
“Thank you for your feedback. Do you have anything else you’d like to say about the site?”
“I don’t get the name. Pens and Words, what does that mean?”
“The pens are the writers, and the words are the words of the writers. Why is that so hard to understand?”
She muttered. “Probably because your site never explains it.”
“You know what? I am not in the mood to read anything about writing anymore.”
“You never were.”
“All the more reason to go to the puzzles and games section.”
She put back the magazine, and we headed over to the other section. She could tell I was a little dejected by the rejection of the site. “Hey, don’t worry about it. Your site is the 102nd best site for writers I know.”
“Thanks. What puzzle are thinking about getting?”
We spent the rest of the afternoon going through Barnes and Noble, parading each shelf we came across. From Harry Potter to fiction, to the bestsellers, we enjoyed our time in the store. We even stopped by the café to get some drinks. As we drank iced coffee and I ranted on about writing, and my sister spoke of her work problems, I took off my mask every chance I could get. I learned of a loophole in the system. You don’t have to wear your mask if you are drinking or eating something, so always do one of those. I may have had only one iced coffee during the whole time, but it took me forever to drink it.
We left the store with the items we both desired and headed towards our car. She must have known I was still a little upset with my blog’s lack of placement on the list. “Look at it like this; you don’t need to be listed in the magazine; you have your own blog for writers anyway.”
“I write the 102nd best website for writers. That’s not that bad.”
Ending
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About The Blogger
Greg Luti is an editor and blogger on pensandwords.com. His favorite writers are Robert Frost and Charles Bukowski. He enjoys reading up on history, watching comedies, and playing video games, when he is not writing down a few notes for his next piece. He started this blog out of his love for literature and hopes that the reader shares that same passion.
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