We have a fantastic cover image, and we want a fantastic cover to go with it. To which end, we need to be able to create the cover well before November’s meeting, so… we need a title.

The numbers in brackets indicate the number of people who have voted for each particular title. But what we’re voting on now is “sets of titles.” and the numbers in each header indicate how many votes each “set” has received – not the same as how many votes titles within the set have received. Once we’ve chosen a winning set (or a couple of sets), Sheila will research variations on the titles, starting with the one that received most votes in the set, to see which titles work – e.g. which titles might be found by people looking for literary anthologies, which are only going to be seen by people seeking self-help books, and which point are found by people planning camping trips, etc. So… please look at the sets of titles below, and email admin with your favorites.

Also, please note, I’ve added a new “set” as more suggestions have come in. If you want to change your vote, just let me know!

Suggested title-sets so far (with numbers of votes so far):

• Challenge 8
  • Challenging Times (1)
  • Change and Challenge (2)
  • Writing through Challenging Times (1)
  • Challenging Moments, Threads of Hope (4)
  • Challenges Outside the Gate (1)
• Apart and Together 10
  • Coming Together, Falling apart (2)
  • Coming Together in a Time of Falling Apart (4)
  • Falling Apart – Coming Together (3)
  • Falling Apart Together (2)
  • Coming Together While Falling Apart (1)
• Journeys and Ways 6
  • Finding Our Way Through Chaos (1)
  • Making Our Way Through Chaos (1)
  • Finding Our Way (3)
  • Journey Through Chaos (7)
  • Journeys Through Chaos (3)
  • Our Heroes’ Journeys (1)
  • Journey into the Sun (2)
  • Journeys Beyond Chaos (2)
• Tribulations 1
  • Word Tribulations (1)
  • Trials and Tribu-Words (1)
  • Tribulations and Unity (1)
• Waiting 5
  • Waiting for the Smoke to Clear (4)
  • Waiting for Locusts (4)
  • Waiting While the World Falls Apart (1)
  • Waiting for Tomorrow (1)
  • Waiting for 2021 (1)
  • Waiting for the Vaccine (1)
• Quirky 8
  • Weaving with Stones (2)
  • Everything but the Locusts (3)
  • We’re Zoomed! We’re All Zoomed! (4)
  • Doom, Gloom and Zoom (1)
  • The Moon is a Friend (1)
  • Gravitating to Wholeness (2)

Comments made on these titles:

• Might be nice to end the title on a positive note
• Journeys plural represents all our journeys
• Journey echoes the writing idea of the hero’s journey, and we’re all heroes
• Waiting for Tomorrow fits with Beyond Yesterday from last year

Please add your comments and suggestions in the comments!

Visit http://portlandwritersmill.org/30/journal-update-please-read/ (password protected) for details of our current Writers’ Mill Journal. Orders for print copies must be received and paid for by the end of October’s meeting (October 15th). The expected cost per copy will be $3.25, assuming we get enough orders (we share the cost of postage between us, which keeps costs down). If you will not be present at October’s meeting, please email admin at portlandwritersmill dot org to arrange how many copies you want and how to pay. Thank you!

Oh, and please note, I finally got rid of those hyphenated words on the cover. Hurray! Now to make sure they don’t come creeping back…

Timeline for our 2017 edition

1. Deadline for submissions: last day in July
2. Deadline for edits: last day in August
3. Deadline for formatting: last day in September. Then eproofs will be posted to website.
4. Deadline for orders: October’s meeting—October 15^th. All orders must be paid by then.
5. Delivery at our November meeting, Nov 19^th, or make alternative arrangements.

If you’ve entered or will enter a Writers’ Mill contest between last August and this July, you already have a piece of writing ready for submission to the journal. If you’ve not, please consider this your chance and inspiration to WRITE. Don’t forget, we love to include pictures as well so start looking through your phone/camera/computer (same submission instructions – let us know the name of the image and artist, and which section you hope to find it in. Createspace recommends 300DPI for images, but it’s not something we’ve worried about in the past).

Topics (based on contests) for our 2017 edition

• Inspired by…
  • Memories of Minnie, Roseanne and others
  • Two chairs on a beach
  • Swans
  • A piece of art
• People and places
  • The last time I saw…
  • Unspoken Bonds
  • Wonder
  • Point of view
• Times and Seasons
  • Ring
  • Dark and Stormy
  • Full Moon
  • Water water everywhere
• Just for Kids
  • Kid-friendly animal stories, poems and essays (but note, Fred and Joe stories have already been published in Zeus and Bo and Fred and Joe and Co)
  • Other kid-friendly pieces (but note, Carl and June stories may be published separately)

Submission Guidelines

• These are guidelines. We will try to produce a balanced journal, representing the writers of as many members as possible. Limits are guidelines, not hard and fast rules.
• Guidlines for written entries (currently no limits on art):
  • No more than 10 entries per person
  • No more than (approximately) 20 pages per person (it was pointed out that my old computer was the only one producing 1,000 words per page)
  • No more than (approximately) 10,000 words per person
• Entries should be sent to journal2017 at portlandwritersmill dot org. Each entry MUST INCLUDE
  • Author or artist name
  • Entry title
  • Preferred section for your entry
• All documents MUST BE READABLE in Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx, .rtf, .txt, NOT .pdf for example)
• Editors will perform simple copy-editing for format and style. Our aim is to produce a journal of the highest possible quality, in a timely manner, including entries from as many members as possible. Editors reserve the right to
  • reject entries if we have too many
  • beg for more entries if we have too few, and
  • reject entries that would require too much work on their part.

Please consider whether you would be willing to volunteer as an editor. Thank you.

Let’s make this journal another book to be proud of!

Leave your comments and suggestions below!