Lit Up: News for a Fantastic New Year
Our Anthology, December’s prompt, News, and Highlights
Happy New Year, you fabulous humans!
May the new year fill your lives with happiness, your hearts with love, and your mind with beautiful thoughts.
We are so excited to announce our news and present to you some of our literary treats that we can hardly wait!
Let’s see…
1. Our Anthology is finally published!
My, my, my… what an experience!
For those of you who don’t know, Lit Up had a short story contest with cash rewards and featured publication in our first Anthology published by our own The Lit Up Press!
More info:
Lit Up: Our Big News is Finally Here!
You can get it now:
Click HERE
A team of wondrous people worked really hard for this, and though we dealt with many challenges we hadn’t predicted, we finally made it to publish the anthology and we are super excited!
People who worked for this collection:
Our judges: Dermott Hayes, David Neilson, Stephen M. Tomic, Ray Harvey, Joan Evans, Pamela Edwards, Chris Drew, Tracy Aston, Julia Kantic, edh lamport, Lisa Suda, Daphne K Moore, Gabriel Stevenson, Jim Salt, Daphelba DeBeauvoir, and the Lit Up team: A Maguire, Pat Link, Tom Conley, and I.
Artwork: Caiti Leigh Fergus // Cover Design: Panagiotis Leontaris
Kindle/Paperback format: The amazing Alexandro Chen (who was also Lit Up’s dad, did you know?)
And, of course, nothing would have been possible without your extraordinary tales. So here are the featured writers once again: Talon Abernathy, Ryan Bell, Zarina Dara 🥀💃🏻, Alexandro Chen, Claudia Clarke, Edith Cook, Sally Davies, Lisa Mae DeMasi, Joan Evans, Thom Garrett, Dermott Hayes, Elizabeth Helmich, Steve B Howard, Brian Kerg, K.D. Kelley, Robert Loughlin, Paul S Markle, Anna Pfeiffer, V. Plut, Erica Rex, Christopher Ryan, Stephen M. Tomic, Tina Higgins Wussow, and you’ll find two extra stories, one from A Maguire and one from me, as offerings to the collection.
If you would like to support our team, our writers, and our mission to deliver the highest quality reads possible, all you have to do is get the book and let those brilliant writers take you on a journey. They all explore our humanity and the way our choices and decisions affect our lives and the lives of others.
We know you have been patiently waiting for this collection, and we’d like to thank you.
If you do enjoy this collection, don’t hesitate to leave a review to help those voices be heard, and we, in return, will do our best to keep delivering amazing reads!
2. CHRISTMAS TALE SELECTION
Sylvia Heike — Merry Christmas With A Little Celestial Help
V. Plut — Sister Cordelia’s Supernatural Christmas
Howard Altman — The Ghost of Christmas Pest
Marta Mozolewska — What I want for Christmas this year
James Jordan — Cold, alone on Christmas Day
3. DECEMBER’S HIGHLIGHTS
SHORT TALES
L.E. Ataire — Gather Round Kids, Lazy-Eye Larry’s Got a Story to Tell Ya
Brian Kerg — A Glimmer in the Dark
JP Fosterson — Movie Stars and Planets
Dermott Hayes — Available, online
Dale E. Lehman — Mr. Smith’s Shed
Austin Briggman — A Clean Break
Adrien Carver — Dice Goes to the Circus
Adrien Carver — The Act of Erasing Oneself
FLASH TALES
Sravani Saha — The Lost You
Rupert Hicks — The Ice Master
Annabelle Strand — Hungover in San Francisco
Edward Punales — The Woman Who Loved the Universe
James Banta — The Robot and the Child
POETRY
Jef Littlejohn — The Bristled Farmer
V. Plut — The Birch in Four Seasons
Stephen M. Tomic — Love Triangle
DiAmaya Dawn — Déjà Vu
Elle Rogers — I’ll Grow Cold
Erika Burkhalter — The Ancient Ones…
DiAmaya Dawn — Mistral
Kylin Vandermeer — Hello again my love : another poem to myself.
belhau — Period
Mateen Manek — Walking Along the Morning Train
Emma Briggs — The Kids of Today
Mackenzie Plieskatt — Broken Ones
Anna Rozwadowska — Fond Memories
Ruth Lazkoz — Guests and ghosts
Akash Mattupalli — ambrosia with a cigarette
TALES IN PARTS
Tom Conley — MitcHELL
Moshe Forman — The Shovan Chronicles
Dermott Hayes — Working in the USA
CREATIVE NONFICTION
4. Lit Up — December’s Prompt:
In A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is [SPOILER ALERT, even though it’s a 175-year-old story] visited by three ghosts: the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. These ghosts show Scrooge the errors of his ways, the moments in time he could have made a different decision and taken a different path.
What we’d like to see is a modern-day story incorporating one, two or all three of these ghosts, taking the MC through the past, present and/or future to see how the decisions they’ve made, are making or will make turn out. Don’t think Scrooge — think the character who believes they’re doing fine until they see the wrong turn they’re about to make in the future; or one who gets a second chance at a long-lost love, or catches a glimpse of a glittering future. Any story that examines the vagaries of Fate and time to change a character mid-stride, make them contemplate the consequences of their lives, and resolve to seek a different way — or choose to follow a path to destruction.
The glorious entries:
Christopher Iacono — A Very Metal Christmas
Sally Davies — Food for Thought
Jennifer Ponig — The Lighthouse
Phillip T Stephens — Christmas Without Snow
Dale E. Lehman — Christmas Future
Kathy Lee Tolleth — The Spirit of Lover Past
5. ACCEPTING NEW WRITERS AGAIN SOON
You may have noticed or read in our last newsletter that we closed submissions and new writer acceptances for a while. We received massive interest and volume of submissions during that time, and, of course, we will be back.
As soon as we sort out those waiting in line, Lit Up will be accepting new writers again and the team will be back to reviewing your brilliant tales!
We will send a relevant newsletter once we’re ready!
Thank you for being such an amazing community.
You’re the ones who give us the strength to keep doing what we do.
From the entire team: THANK YOU!
That’s all for today.
Until next time, don’t forget to live, love, and create.
Much love to all of you,
DiAmaya Dawn
❤
