About Us,
Contact Us,
Submission Guidelines
BEFORE SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS OR E-BOOKS to Fear of Writing, please check our submission guidelines for writers (see below). We accept only specific material related to writing, Fear of Writing, and the Fertile Material writing prompts.
READ MILLI'S SPECIAL ARTICLE:
Etiquette 101: How to Contact a Writing Website
Page Contents
Contact Us
About MILLI THORNTON: author of Fear of Writing & Online Course Presenter
About AMY ANDERSON: Online Course Presenter (Trainee)
About JENNI BARTELS, Virtual Assistant & FoW Gazette Editor-in-Training
About WALT NICKELL, Fear of Writing Gazette Columnist
About SUSAN SMITH: FoW's Recommended Book Editor
Submission Guidelines
Etiquette 101: How to Contact a Writing Website
Grateful Thanks for Web Scripts and IT Support
Our Special Thank You to Clips Ahoy
Contact Fear of Writing Staff
Milli Thornton
dba The Word Nerd
P.O. Box 2814
Ridgeland, MS 39157
Phone: 830-832-1355 (we're on Central Time)
When emailing us, please contact the appropriate department:
Site owner, Milli Thornton:
Fear of Writing Gazette (newsletter):
Online Creative Writing Course Presenter, Milli Thornton:
FoW's Recommended Book Editor, Susan Smith:
Online Arts Outreach / Texas Public Radio submissions:
Fear of Writing Clinic enquiries:
Writers' Muse Coaching Service:
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About Milli Thornton
Author, Site Owner & Online Course Presenter
MILLI THORNTON is the author of Fear of Writing: for writers & closet writers. She is lead workshop presenter for the Fear of Writing Clinic and her e-book, Become a Workshop Presenter, won first place in the e-book category in the 2004 DIY Festival. Milli runs local writing circles based on the 112 writing prompts in her book—known as the Fertile Material—and her mission is to put the fun back into writing.
She is also lead Course Presenter for the Online Course based on her book.
Milli was born in Wallace, Idaho and spent her childhood in Great Falls, Montana. At the tender age of 12, she moved to Australia in 1972 with part of her large family. She fell in love with Australia and lived there for 25 years, returning to the USA in 1997 to spend time with her mother.
After a year on the stormy Oregon coast, Milli moved to Taos, New Mexico for six years, where she wrote her first book. After climate-related health problems, she fled the desert in 2004 for the humidity of the Hill Country in Texas.
After two years in Canyon Lake, Texas, where she hung out with “The Chicklettes” and other local Fertile Material writing goups, Milli returned to Taos, New Mexico just in time for the first rain-drenched summer in many years.
In January 2007, she moved to Jackson, Mississippi with her husband, Brian Williams, who was offered his dream job as an RF Engineer working on a cutting edge antenna.
Despite the work and stress of all this moving around, Milli would like to make one more major move: her dream is to live Down Under again.
More about Milli's book:
Fear of Writing: for writers & closet writers
More about Milli's e-books:
The Whiffy Secret / The Saga of Joelene the Bean / Budgeting Made Simple / Become a Workshop Presenter
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About Amy Anderson
Online Course Presenter
(Trainee)
March 2008 - Part of the requirements for becoming a Course Presenter at Fear of Writing is to experience the course firsthand as a student. AMY ANDERSON, our newest staff member, is currently doing just that.
Amy was born in St. Louis, Missouri and has lived in Rhode Island since age 12. She is happily married and has two kids and two dogs (a boy and girl for each). As a speech language pathologist, she works with people ranging in age from 3 to 93. This career path helps to exercise her interest in all things "language" and her love of helping others.
Amy loves to read (favorite: 19th-century chick lit) and watch movies (favorite: Room With a View), and strives to love exercise. She has a BA in English from Providence College and an MS in Speech Language Pathology from the University of Rhode Island. She considers herself to be a closet writer, and her understanding of what this feels like is used to benefit her students in her work as Trainee Course Presenter.
Under Milli's supervision, Amy has begun posting feedback on the Student Message Boards to gain experience. After she graduates, Amy will enter a period of rigorous training and go for certification. She will be the first to pass through Milli's new, much tougher training regimen.
Read Amy's Article, The Writing Life
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About Jenni Bartels
Virtual Assistant &
Fear of Writing Gazette Editor-in-Training
JENNI BARTELS fills the much-appreciated role of Virtual Assistant. What this mysterious title means is that Jenni writes and edits Fear of Writing material and keeps off-site blogs, author profiles and articles updated. (Milli is the on-site Webmistress.) She also researches and suggests marketing ideas and helps Milli put the most workable ideas into practice.
She is also soon to undergo training to become editor of the Fear of Writing Gazette.
Jenni was born in Wilmar, Minnesota, and has been wandering the world ever since. Having moved around the country with her family several times while growing up, Jenni is now settled (for the moment!) in Rochester, Minnesota, where she is living, writing, working, and dreaming. Among other things, she is learning Italian and working towards getting her TEFL certification so that she can join her fiancé, Antonio, in Italy, where she plans to write, teach, and raise an incredibly literate, multilingual family.
“I am what my mother calls ‘a voracious reader.’ I adore books and journals. I really miss being in school, because I’m such a research nerd. I love the discovery process—when you can actually feel the world opening up to you, it’s a beautiful thing.”
Jenni is a self-proclaimed closet writer, who found sanctuary in scholastic writing and assignments but often has difficulty finding the endurance and self-assurance to write without external motivators.
“I love language,” she says enthusiastically before donning a sardonic smirk, adding, “I’ve been shooting my mouth off for years, and documenting many of these instances through writing for almost as long.”
Jenni worked on a college newspaper in North Carolina as a features columnist and editor. She has B.A.’s in Psychology and English, holds a Master’s degree in English, and is currently a student of the Fear of Writing Online Course. Her Master’s thesis was a novella that she’s developing further (into a full length novel) and hopes to get published.
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About Walt Nickell
Fear of Writing Gazette Columnist
WALT NICKELL is a 2005 graduate of the Fear of Writing Online Course. Over the years, he has published Short Fiction and Poetry in both national and smaller literary magazines. What is the 800-Pound Gorilla in Walt’s writing life? The novel. While he’s written three novel-length manuscripts, he has not yet published a book.
“Whatever small amount of writing talent or ability I have,” Walt says, “I am delighted to possess it. But in all honesty, sometimes I truly wish I did not have this desire, this physical need, to write. I’m not as young as I once was, and now any night I go to bed without having done some type of creative writing, I feel I’ve completely wasted the day. I want to leave something of myself behind, and when I’m not writing, I have the distinct fear that when I am gone, there will be nothing other than my children to show that I was ever here.
“That thought disturbs me on an incredibly deep level, and I’ve recommitted myself to living a life with writing as one of the central components. I plan to do everything in my power to ensure there is something of myself that extends beyond my lifetime.”
Walt lists his hometown as Blackwater, Kentucky, the fictional area where many of his stories take place. He has been happily married for nearly 25 years and has three sons. His youngest son, Benjamin, has Autism. Ben’s personal story has generated a great deal of interest and he now has his own webpage located at:
http://fearofwriting.com/Ben-Nickell-&-Betty.htm
APRIL 2008: In the coming weeks and months, through the Fear of Writing Gazette Walt intends to provide exclusive insight into his writing process. He has a new novel that is just now in the planning stages. He will be writing regular columns detailing his progress on this novel from initial idea to completed first draft, and perhaps beyond.
You can visit Walt at his Website: www.darkandstormynight.net
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About Susan Smith
FoW's Recommended Book Editor
SUSAN SMITH is Fear of Writing's exclusively recommended book editor. If you have a manuscript that needs editing—and you enjoy working with a friendly professional who operates on perfectionism—we suggest you contact Susan for a quote. Below are Susan's credentials, which we're VERY proud of.
SUSAN MAKES HER MARK AT GRAMMATIKA
Michelle Strunge Moser, Supervising Editor at Grammatika.com, was kind enough to share her impressions of Susan for this article.
“Susan scored 97 percent on the proofreading test,” Michelle said, “which falls in the 100th percentile. She is among the top three proofreaders we have on board. Yes, the test is HARD; no one has EVER gotten 100 percent correct on the test. She is also certified as a Grammatika expert copyeditor.”
With her outstanding test results, Susan was given a chance to help create a new Web course for the company's sister site. Grammatika provided a short sample for style: Susan matched it perfectly and sustained it for the entirety of the lessons she wrote for them.
“She is one of the most brilliant, versatile writers I've encountered in my nearly two decades in the publishing industry,” Michelle said. “I would trust Susan completely with any project I could throw at her. She writes with confidence and humor, drawing her audience in and making them feel at home in the most foreign of topics.”
The course Susan wrote for, performing punctually under a tight deadline, is called Essential Skills for Proofreaders.
“Your blog readers can find Susan's work at EditorialCourses.com,” Michelle added, “although they won't be able to actually see her work unless they register for the course itself.”
Both Grammatika.com and EditorialCourses.com are projects of the Michigan-based company, Copyright Editorial, LLC.
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Submission Guidelines for Writers
Before submitting your work to Fear of Writing, please read our submission guidelines below. We accept only specific material related to writing, Fear of Writing, and the Fertile Material writing prompts. Thank you.
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Read Milli's article: Etiquette 101: How to Contact a Writing Website
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How to Submit Please submit by email, as a Word document in an email ATTACHMENT.
ONLINE ARTS OUTREACH / TEXAS PUBLIC RADIO
This is a great way to get started and find out what's special and different about the Fertile Material writing prompts. Visit this page from more information: Story Podcasts for Online Arts Outreach.
FEAR OF WRITING GAZETTE
Visit the Subscribe page and read “How to be Featured in the Gazette.”
ARTICLES
Most of the articles on this Website were written by Milli. However, we'll consider your article if it suits the theme of this Website. We do not offer payment for articles. If you'd like to write an article for the fun of it—or simply to gain more writing experience without the pressure of submitting to a paying publication—visit the articles page for clues about what we like.
E-BOOKS
Milli is not currently accepting submissions for e-books.
THE SEQUEL
The sequel, Son of Fear of Writing, is still in progress and it's not too late to submit.
Please look through all of the categories below. The two at the end, in particular, are relevant to everyone who submits.
All short stories submitted for the sequel MUST BE BASED on one of the Fertile Material writing prompts from Milli's book, Fear of Writing.
Fertile Material Stories Milli asks writers to submit their Fertile Material stories raw, in order to show the power of the imagination when we write without fear of editing. Also, your Fertile Material submission does not have to be a complete story. Vignettes or unfinished stories are acceptable. This removes the pressure of having to come up with an ending, which can sometimes be enough to squelch the desire to get something written (an important feature of the Fertile Material that will be demonstrated many times in the book).
Seven Laws and Subliminals Participants of the Fear of Writing Clinic from 2001 to April 2005 took home a manila folder containing writing exercises on colored paper. You're welcome to submit anything you wrote on these colored sheets during the workshop. From May 2005 onwards, workshop participants did these exercises in the student workbook.
Fear of Criticism Participants of the Fear of Writing Clinic do this exercise and Milli has collected several for the sequel. She encourages further submissions of the Fear of Criticism piece.
Bio With each story Milli is including a biographical sketch of the contributing writer. You don't have to write a formal bio (in fact, she asks you not to). Simply pour out some "stuff" about yourself—such as a very brief background on your life, how and when you started writing, and what you're working on now writing-wise. Just put it all down higgledy-piggledy and she'll pull it together in ways that best suit the book. If you want, you can also submit your photo to be used on the Website (see others).
How to Submit Please submit by email, as a Word document in an email ATTACHMENT.
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Grateful Thanks for Web Scripts & IT Support
Milli Thornton and her IT Manager wish to thank JavaScript Source for several excellent scripts used throughout the site. JavaScript Source is an excellent JavaScript resource with tons of cut-and-paste JavaScript examples for your Web pages. All for free!
Milli Thornton and her IT Manager wish to thank ButtonGenerator.com for their attractive and easy-to-use button generator. We used the button generator to create the dog paw buttons on the Navigation Bar and also the Buy Now, Download, and Student Login buttons.
Milli Thornton and her IT Manager wish to thank eXtropia.com for the “Search This Site” script used on the left menu bar.
Milli Thornton wishes to thank her husband, Brian Williams, for his brilliant Site Template design and untiring IT Management for fearofwriting.com.
“I could not have built this site without Brian's help,” Milli said, when interviewed recently on Fear of Writing TV.
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Our Special Thank You to Clips Ahoy
If you've ever built a commercial Website and tried hunting down some usable clip art at 4 a.m., you will know the frustrations involved. All that beautiful clip art that you cannot use because your site sells things.
It once took me five hours to find a single image in the public domain that I could use on a page that sells products. Agggghhhh!
After almost a month of building this Website, I accidentally found Clips Ahoy and the wonderful Corey Wisla and Adrea Satre. If you're looking for great clip art with flexible policies, click on their logo:
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