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Barbara Quinn is a novelist, short story writer, and Publisher and Managing Editor of The Rose & Thorn Ezine. She’s the author of four novels. Her short story Crab Lines was recently selected for the Best of the Net 2006 Anthology http://www.sundress.net/bestof/quinnb.htm .

She practiced law for ten years, and held many jobs from lingerie sales clerk to postal worker, cocktail waitress to process server. Her love of travel has taken her to four continents and 47 states. She splits her time between the Jersey shore and upstate New York along with her husband. She has one son, Bret.

Shalla: Hello Barbara, The Rose and Thorn has beautiful fiction and helpful interviews. Congratulations on your beautiful e-zine.

Barbara: Thanks for giving me the opportunity to tell people about The Rose & Thorn. It’s truly a special place. I always say the best people find us, and I’m thrilled that you’re one of them, Shalla. The Rose & Thorn exists because of two things, the teamwork of a dedicated group of volunteer writers, and an avid fan base.

Shalla: Well, first of all, will you tell us more about you as an author? You’ve written a couple of books, 36C and Slings and Arrows, what were your inspirations when writing these?

Barbara: When I was in college, I reluctantly took a summer job as a lingerie sales clerk in a department store. I would have preferred a job anywhere but in the embarrassing lingerie department, so I spent a lot of time hiding in the stock room with my head buried in a book. But I also spent time on the floor selling lingerie, fluffing and folding bras and panties, and talking to men and women about what to buy. I never forgot that job, and I also developed a love of lacy things. My experience served as the jumping off point for the main character, Tressa Connell. In 36C. young Tressa wants desperately to pursue a job as a designer, but instead she winds up selling lingerie in a high end boutique in Manhattan. The book follows her interfaith romance, and her travails at work as well as her relationships with a drug-addicted girlfriend and her loving but strange, parents and grandparents.

Slings and Arrows is a paranormal romance about massage therapist Ellen D’Este. She loses the ability to massage her clients when her husband leaves her for her best friend. Ellen then becomes involved with a shady spiritualist, Miss Wendy. Before long, Ellen is caught up in a world that she never wanted to find. She falls for the wrong guy, becomes a pawn in the spiritualist’s game and discovers her true identity. I think most of us can relate to the heroine’s quest for love and for something bigger than life. Like Ellen, we’re trying to make our way in a difficult world, hoping to find some sort of guidance and along the way we often lose our compass.

Barbara: DiskUs is a terrific publisher that I was fortunate to have publish both 36C and Slings and Arrows. The books are out in e-book version and paperback. Marilyn Nesbitt of DiskUs has been publishing for years and she was a dream to work with.

As the publisher of one of the earliest online literary journals, it was natural for me to turn to e-publishing and POD, which I believe are the wave of the future, along with audiobooks that can be listened to on iPods. It’s far easier to reach many audiences with this approach, and it’s a great way to allow new voices to be heard. 36C and Slings and Arrows are available at the diskus.com website. You can read the first chapters of all my books by going to my page at The Rose & Thorn. http://www.theroseandthornezine.com/Masthead/index.html

My earlier books are Hardhead, a suspense tale about a woman who fails to heed her father’s advice that she never go to Italy, and The Speed of Dark, a fantasy about a young man’s reminiscence of a summer long ago, when he fell for a woman with magical powers. Both Hardhead and The Speed of Dark had agents, but they are cross genre books that were difficult to market to traditional publishers.

I experimented with POD for them, signing on early with XLibris for Hardhead, back when it was free. And for The Speed of Dark, I went to Publish America. First chapters of those two books are also available online and the books can be purchased from the publishers and via Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

Barbara: The Rose & Thorn Literary E-zine has been publishing since 1998. Originally, the site was a member page on AOL, created by Jasmin Randick. After the first issue or two, I joined with Jasmin, and we co-managed the zine until 2003, when Jasmin departed to be with her family. At that point, the staffers decided to go forward and obtain a domain on the net with me at the helm.

The zine has always been staffed by dedicated volunteers who also are writers, and who hail from around the world. We function as a team, taking on the many tasks necessary to keep the site running. The staffers work hard to make the place shine. The Rose & Thorn features fiction, nonfiction and poetry, as well as author interviews and resources for writers. We offer a free newsletter which comes out bi-monthly and interactive message boards with a particular emphasis on poetry. We also have a new book review blog called Roses and Thorns. We receive about 300,000 page views a month. We’re funded by donations and we currently pay $5 for each story, poem, and essay we publish.

Stories are illustrated with beautiful art. You can click on a link and get a lesson about the cover art. The zine nominates for the Pushcart Prize, and has won dozens of awards, including being named as one of the “101 Best Websites for Writers” and an “Internet Envy Site” by Writer’s Digest, and as a “Truly Useful Site” by Preditors & Editors. This past year we finished second in the Fiction category, second in the Poetry category, fourth in the Editor category and sixth in the Nonfiction category of the Preditors and Editors Readers Poll.

The editors work one-on-one with writers to polish accepted pieces. Submissions guidelines are posted at the site www.theroseandthornezine.com . Up to three poems an issue may be submitted to poetryeditor.com. Fiction(all genres) and nonfiction (creative essays, humor) up to 2000 words may be submitted directly to me.

Shalla: What kind of stories do you like at The Rose and Thorn? It says it’s a literary e-zine but do you also accept mainstream? How about genre fiction, like romance, chick-lit, etc?

Barbara: We publish mainstream, experimental, romance, fantasy, science fiction, flash, horror, you name it. We use the broad definition of literary…”writings in prose or verse,” and feel that good writing is good writing regardless of what people decide to call it. If you tell a fine tale, we’re thrilled to publish it however it’s categorized.

Barbara: First, I want to point out that we don’t like sending out rejections. We know they sting and we’ve all received plenty of them. But in the interest of helping writers along their writing path, I’ll share some of what I’ve discovered in the past ten years of looking at submissions.

For starters, there are the people who fail to follow the guidelines at the site. We don’t accept pieces over 2000 words, nor do we open attachments. Yet each week we receive dozens of pieces over the word limit, and in attachments, and those are immediately rejected. Grammar and spelling should be checked and checked again. If an opening paragraph is riddled with poor grammar or spelling, it doesn’t mean outright rejection, but sloppy writing makes it hard for me to think that you have taken care crafting your story. Why start out with a strike against you?

Stories that are snapshots are another category that earns rejection. We want to see a beginning, a middle, and a satisfying ending. Does your piece have conflict, dialog, and an ending that has a punch to it and will get the reader thinking? Lots of writers can paint a scene, but they have to do something with the scene, or into the rejection pile it goes. Too much rambling and too many characters also can earn a rejection. Watch your timeline. The piece has to flow seamlessly, so if you jump around in time a reader can’t follow it.

Finally, I’ll reject anything about sexual abuse of children. Racist, sexist, or abusive language get you immediately into the reject pool. I’d also recommend people that people not submit pieces that end with the main character’s suicide. Ask yourself why on earth anyone would want to read such a depressing tale? Which brings us to depression. That’s another category that crops up a lot in the rejection pile. Most of our readers read to escape. They want to be entertained or enlightened, They want to understand the human condition. Please don’t toss us head first into the abyss and leave us there. If you are dealing with difficult and painful subjects please do so with care.

Here are a few words from my Co-managing Editor, Nannette Croce, about the problems she sees with the essays we receive:

The too-personal essay
These essays usually deal with family relationships:
the distant dad, the overbearing mom, the irresponsible
sibling. Both new and experienced writers stumble on this
difficult terrain. Lack of objectivity can lead to what reads
like a one-sided complaint. Even serious matters like
physical or verbal abuse need to be more than a tale of
woe. Ask yourself, how does the reader gain from knowing
this? Is there a lesson here? If not, consider tackling another subject or fictionalizing your story to add objectivity.

The pleasant memory that goes nowhere
Memories form the foundation of memoir, but there needs
to be an underlying theme. Relating the story of your Little
League homerun or evoking the aroma of Grandma’s
butter cookies isn’t enough. The best memoirs help us to
know people, places, and events and give us a reason
for knowing them as well. Otherwise, as Barbara Quinn
noted, “It’s like viewing a photo album filled with people
you don’t know.”

The cathartic essay
These often deal with very painful experiences like the
death of a loved one or other traumatic experience. Writing
can provide tremendous therapeutic benefit for those who
have experienced trauma, but a piece for publication
must also provide benefit for the reader. Some of our favorite essays have dealt with overcoming adversity or gaining inspiration through pain. The ending doesn’t have to be “happy” so long as you provide readers with something more than what happened and why it hurts. If you aren’t able to do that yet, then, by all means, continue writing, but you may require more distance before you can write on this topic for publication.

Meandering
Of all the traps, this one is easiest to avoid––or at least to
fix. Even experienced writers sometimes veer off-point in the first draft or include information that doesn’t really belong. Always let your essay “rest” a few days. When you pick it up again, the real theme often pops out at you. Another method is to ask someone who can be objective to read it for you.

Shalla: Do you regularly nominate stories for the Pushcart Prize? How many stories do you nominate every year? How do you choose which story to nominate?

Barbara: We nominate three stories each year for the Pushcart Prize. We also nominate three poems. Six pieces are the maximum any publication can nominate. The entire staff is allowed to vote for their favorites and final selections are based on the voting. We also nominate for The Million Writers Award, and other anthologies that come to our attention.

Shalla: Finally, any writing tips and/or editing tips for writers? Books and reading materials you’d recommend? Conferences? Workshops?

Barbara: Tips? Join a critique group. I think places like zoetrope.com and Orson Scott Card’s Hatrack River online workshops are terrific places to learn the craft. Accept feedback. Study the stories and books you read, don’t just read them. You’ve heard it before, and it’s true: Read, read, and read some more. Absorb other voices and then you will be able to find your own.

Books such as Stephen King’s On Writing are a tremendous help. I’m also fond of the late John Gardner’s books about writing. On Being a Novelist, and The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers both have a lot to offer. Learn to use all your senses when you write. I love Diane Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses, and her A Natural History of Love. Both books will help hone your focus as a writer. Don Maas’s book, Writing the Breakout Novel is another book I highly recommend.

Shalla: Thanks Barb, very helpful answers! For more on Barbara Quinn and The Rose and Thorn, please visit: http://www.theroseandthornezine.com (they offer a free newsletter too)

Shalla DeGuzman's short stories have appeared in Poetic Diversity, the Mosaic Literary Journal, the Mad Hatters Review; her articles in The Scriptorium and L.A. Freepress; her skits at the Stella Adler Theatre.

Shalla, a former writer and producer of a health and fitness cable show, is currently writing a new novel. She is President of The ShallaDeGuzman Writers Group; the Senior Editor of SHALLA Magazine where she interviews literary agents, publishers, editors, and authors; and the Publisher for SHALLA Publishing.

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Shalla has been nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize.

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