The editors of Survival By Storytelling have been working diligently to come up with a little musical treat for everyone.  We’re not the only ones.  The contributors for the first issue will have their own list soon, but for now you’ll have to deal with our ridiculous choices of songs for each of the nineteen pieces of fiction or poetry in the first issue.  If anyone is offended by our choices…blame Shaun, because he is the one responsible for any absurd choices here.

Here goes:

1. “Brighter” – Paramore (“Chrysalis” by Josh Roberts)
   
2. “You Belong With Me” – Taylor Swift (“Night Planks” by Thea Green)
   Of course, Nyx completely disagrees with this one and suggests that “When You Were Young” by The Killers or “It’s Only Love” by The Beatles would be more apt choices.
   
   
3. “Wasteland” – 10 Years (“Memoirs of a Torn Page” by Divya Mohan)
   
4. “Rebirthing” – Skillet (“The Birth of ‘Sweet-Fish’ by Chris Chapman)
   
5. “The Fantasy” – 30 Seconds to Mars (“Waffles” by Meagan Burbidge)
   
   Or “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsokav
   
6. “I’m So Sick” – Flyleaf (“Honor Roll Bound” by Emerald Du)
   
   Or “Nothing Special” by Ill Scarlet
   
7. “Anvil of Crom” – Basil Poledouris, from Conan the Barbarian (“Row 7” by Gregory Wells) (starts at 1:13)
   
8. “Waves of Morning Haze” – Watanabe from Shenmue (“Dried Flowers” by Adrienne Copeland)
   
9. “Die Another Day” – Madonna (“One Last Look” by Nick Lyle)
   
   Or “Ghost of You” by My Chemical Romance.
   
10. “Vampire” – Shane 54 w/ Carrie Skipper (“Invisibility” by Kelsey Ray) (skip to around the 3 minute mark)
    
11. “This Could Be Anywhere in the World” – Alexisonfire (“Me and the Moon, Demilune” by Noah Blake)
    
12. “Frozen” – Within Temptation (“The Bus Stop” by Tejas Ranade)
    
13. “Tonight, Tonight” – Smashing Pumpkins (“A World Without Streetlights” by Tegan Bridge)
    
14. “Minuet in B Minor” – J. S. Bach (“In Plus Than Perfect Planets” by Milton Perez)
    
15. “Lyrical Lies” – Cute is What We Aim For (“Summer of Artifice” by Benjamin E. Nardolilli)
    
16. “See Right Through Me” – Mobile (“Glass Friendship (in a Play)” by Niyousha Bastani)
    
17. “Icarus Dream Fanfare” – Yngwie Mamsteen (“The Rescue of a Unicorn” by Tabatha Schroeder)
    
18. “Broken Strings” – James Morrison & Nelly Furtado (“Frame of Reference” by Natasha Angela Gregorio)
    
19. “A Dramatist Plays Catastrophist” – Junius (“Words to a Dramatist” by Rei Thompson)
    

And there you have it!  Thoughts?  Complaints?

If you were stuck in one of your own stories and couldn’t get out, how would you survive? Would you wield a magic sword? Steal a dangerous spaceship? Or would you manipulate your characters into doing your bidding?

For me? Well, I know in one of my stories (“Artemis”) I’d have to learn how to defend myself really quick, because even at 26 I’d be the target for all sorts of twisted teenagers. I’m sure I’d pick up martial arts fairly quick and carry a large, metal object vaguely shaped like a bat with me at all times. And then? I’d beat the heck out of anyone who came near me. I don’t know if I’d succeed (the world of “Artemis” is pretty screwed up), but I’d sure as heck have to try!

Tell us how you would survive a story you’ve written! We want you to take the name of this magazine seriously: survival by storytelling, after all, is not all that far from the truth to begin with.

I’ve got exciting news!  Harry Markov over at Temple Library Reviews has officially reviewed the first issue of SBS!  He seems to have liked it, but he makes some good points that we will be addressing when we do a second issue, particularly in relation to a lack of any sort of “theme.”

In any case, the review is generally a positive one, and this is good news.  It seems like folks are enjoying the magazine.

And there we go!

Finally, SBS is on CreateSpace, which means we’ll be on Amazon soon.  If you happen to want the CreateSpace version more than the Lulu one, you can go here.

They’re essentially the same product, although some legal language is different in the CreateSpace version.  We’re getting closer to having it everywhere!

During the entire month of November you can save 10% off a copy of Survival By Storytelling Magazine at Lulu.  It’s really simple too.  Go here to our Lulu page, click buy, and enter the code GREATBOOK during checkout.  That’s it.  You’ll save 10% off your purchase and get a copy of SBS in the process!  Cool, huh?

Spread the word!

We’re working on creating some images for ads and other promotional materials (including a press release).  For now, however, if you could please spread the word about SBS by mentioning it on your blogs, Facebook, Myspace, or wherever, that would be fantastic.  We may have some contests coming up to win free copies of the mag that will involve such things!

Having said that, we’d like to open the door to reviewers.

If you have a book-related blog and are interested in reviewing the first issue of Survival By Storytelling, please send us an email to sbsmag[at]yahoo[dot]com.  We have a few hard copies coming in the mail, but if you are willing to read a pdf, that would be most preferred.  SBS is non-profit, so our budget is rather small.  (Also, we can’t give review copies to everyone).

Thanks,
Shaun

Well, I know you’ve all been waiting for this for quite a while, and it’s finally here. Survival By Storytelling Magazine, Issue One is up for sale at Lulu for a mere $9.00 in print and $5.00 in electronic format! You can go here to purchase it. The magazine will also be appearing on Createspace and Amazon in time, but the process for those two is different from Lulu, and longer, but you’ll hear from me as soon as it happens.

For now, you can get your copy of SBS from Lulu. And in case you wanted to know why you should purchase the issue, here’s some incentive:

• We have some amazing fiction and poetry from writers new and old, all twenty-five and under, many of them members of YWO (Diocletian, Mercy, Adri, Nyx, Tegzz, and Crocolyle, unless I’m missing anyone).
• We have an interview with author Paul Genesse (The Golden Cord and The Dragon Hunters; he has also written many short stories for collections published by DAW). He also wrote us a fine article about writing.
• There is also an article by author T. M. Hunter in here, author of Heroes Die Young.
• Every sale of SBS pays our authors. Since we pay by royalties, every sale is directly helping the contributors, and that’s a good thing, right?
• Every sale also helps Young Writers Online, which is also good. Mostly the money goes to contributors, but YWO gets a little bit out of it too, and that goes to making sure we can have more contests in the future!
• It’ll make you feel good inside. Trust me. SBS is like chocolate, only better.

So go out and get your copy now! As for the contributors: you’ll be getting an email from me shortly in regards to free copies for you, which wasn’t in the contract, but, hey, I feel that you deserve something for your patience. Plus, it’s standard practice anyway!

Lastly, please advertise about SBS. I’ll try to get some promotional images together, but if you could blog about us, that would be great. Spread the word and let everyone know what you think about the magazine!

Thanks to everyone who has been supportive of this endeavor over the last year+. It’s been a lot of work and we’re glad to be done, if not a little misty-eyed about it. Thanks to all who contributed, and here’s to a good opening run!

Survival By Storytelling is almost here.  We’re done with the formatting and all we’re waiting on now are the finalized images for the cover.  Once we have those, then SBS Mag is going to press.  Hopefully that will be soon (today or tomorrow).  Either way, SBS is going up and getting out there.  When it does, there will be another post!

We encourage everyone to spread the word.  Tell all your friends.  Blog about us.  Get people to buy the magazine when it comes out.  The more we sell, the better.  Why?  Because payment for stories/poems/etc. is based on sales.  Since you all get royalties, the more we sell, the more you earn.  That means for you it’s a good idea to let people know about us to help this thing along; for those that are not in this issue, we encourage you to buy it and spread the word!

Here’s to a smooth publishing process!

Some notes regarding some comments and emails sent our way recently:

1. Yes, we will accept advertisements for our first issue, and subsequent issues.  We are currently almost done with the first issue, so all requests for advertising should be sent immediately.  Rates are based on the size of your advert, etc.  If you are interested in advertising with us, please contact us via email at sbsmag[at]yahoo[dot]com for more information.  We will not accept pornography or inappropriate content for ads.
2. Submissions will be open when we feel that the first issue has had its run.  We suggest that you subscribe to the feed for our blog to be updated on the status of submissions.
3. Submissions that exceed what is indicated in our guidelines may still be accepted upon being queried by the author.  That means send us an email telling us about the piece if it exceeds our word limit.

And that’s that.  If you have any questions, feel free to post them here or send us an email!