1. February 2012
Volume 1, Issue 2 Between the Lines
Upcoming
Deadlines and
Events:
• February 29:
Harrah’s
Emerging
Writer’s Series
Speaker Jody
Shipka is
speaking from
7:30-9 in
Education Hall
2097.
• March 1:
Deadline for
4+1 Program
applications.
• March 9:
Deadline for
submissions for
the Literary
Awards.
• Watch your
inboxes for
upcoming
meetings of
the Writing
Arts Club and
Rowan
Writer’s Club!
Individual Highlights:
Graduate Spotlight 1-2
Writer’s Mind 2-4
Inside Track 4-6
Rowan University Writing Arts Department/ (856) 256-4000
Carlough walked into the classroom with
three bags full of binding and stamping
materials, wearing rolled up blue jeans, a
canary yellow cardigan, brown loafers
with no socks, and a friendly grin.
Everyone in the room perked up as
Carlough started to unpack his bags full
of tricks, and I, along with the other
students and Dr. Wolff, was fascinated
by what he had brought: reams and
reams of paper and card stock in all
different weights and colors, stencils,
paper cutters, yarn and thread, stamps,
ink pads, copies of his zines and Today
Terrific popsicle box sets, and enough
enthusiasm to light up the room.
As Carlough finished setting up in the
front of the room, he lead us all through
his journey to self-publishing, his binding
process, and some of the projects he’s
currently working on. “I’m enjoying life
after school! I’m teaching at a SAT
tutoring place, and I still get to publish
my work,” Carlough said as we settled to
chat on a bench in the fading October
sunlight after Dr. Wolff’s class. “By
creating my own zine (a noncommercial,
often homemade or online, publication
usually devoted to a specialized subject
matter), I can showcase what I’m
working on and I’m completely in
control,” said Carlough. “The traditional
publishing process can be disheartening,
but zines aren’t like that at all. They used
to be pretty serious in topic or theme, but
now they’re getting more personal.”
Some of the zines Carlough has
published are Today Terrific, Short Story
Graduate Spotlight: Self-
Publishing with Joe Carlough
Every Day (SSED for short), Displaced
Poetry, Dark Nature, It Lies in States,
and Trapped Rabbit, all of which are
available for purchase on his Etsy site.
“When publishing yourself, you don’t
have to be perfect,” Carlough said. “You
can have a business and have fun at the
same time. I always carry copies of my
zines wherever I go, and I’ll give them
out to people. If they’re interested
enough in my books to look me up,
they’ll buy something else from the site
and come back.”
Carlough started his first zine, Today
Terrific, the summer between his
freshman and sophomore year at
Rowan, but it wasn’t until his senior year
that he started publishing. “I needed
about $200 to get started. I would sell
everything at an inexpensive price, and
over the last two years, when I started
seriously selling my zines, I’ve made
about $2,000,” Carlough said. “My
overall goal is to have my own printing
press.” While it might have been slow
going to start, Carlough has sold his
zines and chap books in Israel, Australia,
Indonesia, Sweden, England, Canada,
and Brazil. “Someone bought one of my
books in Australia. That’s crazy!”
Carlough said.
In addition to achieving
international success, Carlough does
reading in the Philadelphia area. He
recently participated in an independent
study with playwright/composer Molly
Rice, and is now busy composing a
produced in New York as well as across
the country, and is composing a
bedtime/fable with musical score to
accompany the story and each
character.
When asked what motivates him
2. Between the Lines
“Try everything in
writing!”
-Joe Carlough
(picture taken from
Carlough’s Etsy
website)
bedtime story/fable with an
accompanying musical score.
When asked what motivates him to try so
many different ventures, Carlough said,
“a lot of it is just not being afraid trying
new things. Just try it!” That was, in fact,
Carlough’s advice to fellow writers: “Try
everything in writing!” Carlough
explained that he loves poetry, but feels
he’s better at writing fiction. “I get bored
with the time it takes to create fiction,”
Carlough said. “That’s why I wanted to
try playwriting because I feel like that
combines both poetry and fiction and I
like performing.”
As the sun started its final descent,
Carlough gathered his bags and turned
Alum Spotlight Continued
Inside the Writer’s Mind highlights the
work and success of Rowan’s student
creative writers. Joe McGee is an MA
student in the Writing program and
recipient of many literary awards this
past year. I had a chance to sit down
with Joe to discuss his literary
achievements, which include second
place winner for genre fiction in the 80
th
annual Writer’s Digest Writing
Competition, first place winner for
YA/Teen writing, second place for short
fiction, and second place for poetry at the
63
rd
Annual Philadelphia Writers’
Conference, and third place in Writers’
Journal poetry contest. I asked him
about his award-winning work, his writing
and submission process, and his advice
for fellow writers.
JL: When did you start writing?
JM: I was twelve when I started
deliberately creating to entertain. I
Inside the Writer’s Mind with Joe McGee
Page 2 of 6
to me before we both went our separate
ways with his final piece of advice: “Ask
for things all the time, but be nice about
it. And do something!” After experiencing
Carlough’s joy and enthusiasm about his
work, it’s difficult not to be motivated to
do just that.
brought in short stories, like Weird Tales
or Twilight Zone types of stories, to
school for my friends to read. When I
was in the sixth grade, there was a
program in Pittsburg called Young
Author’s Day where each school would
hand-pick a few students to go and
participate in a regional workshop, and I
got picked to go. That was my beginning.
JL: What degrees do you have under
your belt so far?
JM: I have my BS in Psychology; I was a
commissioned officer in the Army, and
after that I came back to Rowan to take
some classes in Journalism and started
working at the Gloucester County Times.
Fast-forward a few years, and now I’ll be
graduating with my Master’s in Writing in
May, and I just applied to two highly
esteemed MFA programs that specialize
in young adult literature.
3. Between the LinesPage 3 of 6
JL: What inspired you to write each of
these award-winning pieces?
JM: Russell Sprout, the protagonist in my
middle grade novel, really started with his
name. His name actually came up at
dinner with my family, and my kids
thought it was hysterical. After that,
Russell took the story and ran.
“Ink Soul” started as a class project for
my Core II class, where we had to
research a topic of interest and
incorporate our research into our writing.
That piece was the first piece that I’d
deeply researched, and I tried to figure
out how to make a research project
creative. So, I chose tattoos, (which I
love) and fantasy (which I love even
more). I liked the idea of tattoos with a
magical nature in a dystopian future.
“Red Light” came to me when I was
stopped at a red light by the Landmark
coming home from class. There was
someone on the porch smoking a
cigarette while trying to balances his drink
on the railing, and that was it. The
thought behind that poem was that
people don’t even know when we writers
are watching them and putting them into
our work.
“Murder of Crows” actually came about
because of a writing prompt I found
online: you had to use the name of a
mixed drink and somehow incorporate it
into the story. I liked the play on words
with a plot twist at the end.
JL: When did you first start submitting
your work for contests and publication?
JM: In the early 1990s I started sending
out my work, and by December in 1993,
my story “Stewart’s Sandbox” was
published in a magazine called “Lost
Worlds.” The story was about a boy who
plays in his sandbox and everything he
did, like an earthquake or an avalanche
Inside the Writer’s Mind Continued
Picture provided by Joe
McGee.
“I feel like I’m carving a
niche for myself. It still
makes me smile. It’s
going to be a good
year.”
-Joe McGee
for example, happened in the world.
JL: Do you have a system in place to
keep track of your submissions?
JM: I have a spreadsheet that includes
the title of the piece I sent out, where I
sent it, the date I sent it, the date I could
expect to hear back, and the result.
Everything’s color-coded: blue for pieces
out in circulation, green for accepted
pieces, and red for rejections.
JL: How many drafts do you write before
you’re satisfied with the piece? Is your
revision process different for poetry and
fiction?
JM: It is different for poetry and fiction.
For poems, I do at least three drafts, and
with fiction, it depends on the story. I
revise as I go, and for fiction stories, I
usually write about five drafts: the first I
go through the piece and handwrite the
revisions, and then I’ll read it aloud to see
how it sounds. The next stage of revision
is more focused on plot and structure,
and after that I’ll give it to a few people to
read. Once I get their feedback, I’ll go
through another two rounds of revisions.
I used to hate revising because I would
do too much of it as I was writing. Now I
just focus on writing and producing the
work, and then I’ll go back and refine.
JL: How did it feel for your work to be
recognized so much in the past year?
JM: Rewarding! I feel like I’m on the right
path. The Philadelphia Writers’
Conference was a great experience
because I got to present my work to a
panel of judges as well as my peers. The
Writers’ Digest award was my biggest
success so far; I feel like I’m carving a
niche for myself. It still makes me smile.
It’s going to be a good year.
4. Between the Lines Page 4 of 6
JL: Have you started any new projects?
JM: Yes, I’m almost done with my short
story collection, and I’m running out of
things to submit. I don’t really get a lot of
sleep, but I feel like I’m making up for
lost time. I have so many more things to
write, and I don’t want people missing
out on my stories. In Carroll's Alice in
Wonderland, the Queen of hearts says
"Sometimes I imagine six impossible
things before breakfast." Well, that's me
on a bad day. It's not uncommon for me
to have a dozen ideas upon waking. I live
my life by the edict "What if?". It is
essentially my mantra.
JL: Any advice you’d like to give to fellow
writers?
Inside the Writer’s Mind Continued
Angela Speakman and Krystle Wright,
both recent graduates from the MA in
Writing program, have been hard at work
finding their niches in the professional
field. Angela Speakman started The
Writing Blueprint, a company designed
“to provide the assistance and support
you need to craft your best written work,”
according to the company website
homepage
http://www.thewritingblueprint.com.
Krystle Wright, who graduated from the
4+1 program in May, found a way to
combine her passion for creative writing
and her expertise in public relations.
The Inside Track: A Peek into the
Professional World
“Pay attention to the
world around you. You
never know what you
could use for story
options or details.”
-Joe McGee
“Share your work;
writing is only words on
paper, but they become
real when someone
else reads them.”
-Angela Speakman
JM: Pay attention to the world around
you. You never know what you could
use for story options or details. Keep in
mind that writing doesn't have to be
difficult, just relax and tell your story. If
you do that, and believe in it, it'll be a
good one. Be confident and write
incessantly, even if you don’t want to.
The hard part is sitting to write, but
writing doesn’t have to be. And network:
connect with fellow writers who you can
lean on through success, rejection, or
whenever you just need a friend. We
writers need each other. Who else can
understand our quirks, oddities, and
otherwise eccentric behavior?
She started her own public relations and
marketing company, and is actively trying
to expand her business by promoting her
philosophy: “the very best public
relations and marketing strategy starts
with the very best storytelling,” which is
displayed on her company website
http://krystlelwrightpublicrelations.webs.c
om.
Here’s what they’ve been up to since
finishing school last May.
5. Between the LinesPage 5 of 6 Between the Lines
JL: How did you develop your concept?
AS: I started this program by taking a
couple of classes because I love writing
and the feeling you get when you finish a
piece, but I wasn’t sure about continuing
on for my MA. Once I started to really
connect with my classmates, I realized
how much they helped in meeting
deadlines and provided support. When
you’re accountable to someone else, it
makes the writing process more
manageable. I wanted to do that for
writers outside of the program.
KW: I was the PR graduate assistant for
the College of Engineering at Rowan
while I was in school. Over the summer I
had an internship and freelancing
opportunities. As I was gaining more
success from my freelancing project, I
just decided to take a chance and start
my own business.
JL: For Angela: Can you talk a little bit
more about the Writing Partnership
you’ve developed? For Krystle: Can you
talk a little more about your philosophy of
seeing public relations and marketing as
different forms of storytelling?
AS: I ask each new client to fill out a
questionnaire to see if they have a
written piece they want to work on and
where they want it to go. If they have a
piece they want to improve, we could
help them get it ready for a public
reading or polish and refine the piece for
publication. The client’s end goal for the
piece will determine what kind of
Partnership would work best for them.
KW: I loved fiction and creative writing!
When I started the program, I wasn’t
The Inside Track Continued
“Always look for
different opportunities
and use whatever
you’re doing to build
your writing skills.”
-Krystle Wright
sure how I was going to be able to
incorporate that into a more marketable
outlet. I stumbled into PR, and realized
that people want to hear a story about
how [business owners] got started, what
[they] believe, and not just about what
[services] they can offer.
JL: How do you tailor your services to fit
your clients’ needs?
AS: It’s all about what the client wants.
As I mentioned, after reviewing their
answers to the questionnaire, we tailor
our services to fit our client’s needs.
KW: It’s a combination of what I think the
client could use and what the client
thinks would work best. They are the
experts of their business, much more so
than I will ever be. Listening to their
aspirations and applying my skills to help
them reach their goal is what I try to do.
JL: How do you handle the wide range of
writing genres/topics your clients come to
you with?
AS: Not everyone elects to, but I match
those clients who would like to work with
a second reader with someone who’s
compatible to their genre and style (I’m
everyone’s first reader). Right now we
have 12 second readers who all focus on
different genres and writing styles, and
we’ve had some pretty successful
client/reader relationships develop.
KW: The wide variety of writing projects
PR allows me to do is my favorite thing
about this industry. Right now, my main
areas of expertise are in the engineering
and medical fields, but I just started
working with a photographer who is also
new to business. We’re both sort of
trying to build our businesses together.
6. JL: Can you name some projects you’ve
seen completed that really struck you?
AS: One client came to us because she
wanted to write a memoir about a
specific time in her life. She signed on
for a four-month Partnership Agreement,
and finished her draft. She only wanted
to write it for herself, but if she ever
wanted to have it published, I’m sure
she’d have no problem finding someone
who would be interested. I got the best
Thank You note I ever received from her,
and it showed me how much this
experience has widened my ability as a
writer.
KW: I’m still involved with the Rowan
University Engineering email marketing
campaign that currently reaches close to
2,000 corporate, academic and alumni
contacts.
JL: What do you generally charge for
your services?
AS: It varies. If the client is just looking
for someone to edit his or her work, then
it’s an hourly rate, unless it’s a large
project, like a novel. For the Writing
Partnership, it’s more based on the
The Inside Track Continued
Rowan University
Writing Arts
Department
201 Mullica Hill
Road
Glassboro, NJ
08028
PHONE:
(856) 256-4000
E-MAIL:
lopezj@rowan.edu
We’re on the Web!
See us at:
rowan.edu/writingarts
ROWAN UNIVERSITY
201 Mullica Hill Road
Glassboro, NJ 08028
COMPANY NAME
STREET ADDRESS
CITY, STATE 00000
nature of the project and how long the
client thinks it will take them to write it.
We start with a project fee and go from
there.
KW: It depends on what the client wants,
but right now I charge either a flat fee or
an hourly rate.
JL: Any advice you would like to share
with students still in the program?
AS: Write and be disciplined. Even ten
minutes a day adds up to 70 minutes a
week; you can fill a page or two in 70
minutes! Share your work; writing is only
words on paper, but they become more
real when others read them. It takes
bravery to share your work, but it’s worth
it.
KW: Use all of the resources you have
available to you. I went to weekly
seminars and small business meetings
right in my town. Always look for
different opportunities and use whatever
you’re doing to build your writing skills.
Keep an open mind; you never know
what’s going to happen.
All articles written by Julianna Lopez.
Feel free to email me with any questions
or comments at lopezj@rowan.edu
