Tag Archives: apps

Second Year

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Eastlit Second Year: Cover of Issue One, First Year. Picture and Cover Design by Graham Lawrence. An evening picture of Wonnapha Beach, Chonburi, Thailand by Graham Lawrence.First I would like to apologize for any delays in replying recently. I will be staring a new job in a few days time, and will temporarily be working away from home. That has meant finding some temporary accommodation. So I haven’t been as available as usual. Things should settle down again now though. Anyway enough of that.

It is about the second year of Eastlit and some new initiatives that I want to look at this time.

The cover to the left is of the inaugural issue of Eastlit, many moons ago. Just click on it for a reminder of where we started.

Eastlit First Anniversary: Welcome to the Second Year!

As many of you know we are fast approaching the first birthday of Eastlit. That seems like a good time to introduce some new things. It is also a good time to renew energy in some older projects. So for the second year of Eastlit, we have some plans. We will start to roll these out from the December issue.

Monthly Reviews

We will be introducing book reviews by a regular contributor. The aim is to have one per month. This does not mean we will not take reviews from others.

Author and Artist Interviews

These will be of different types. Obviously we do not have he resources to gallivant around the world interviewing people. But there is modern technology. We have several types of interview:

  • written: we send out our questions and the replies are written.
  • audio: we send out written questions and the replies are spoken.
  • video: we send out written questions and the replies are spoken onto video.
  • full video: we send out written questions and you the author or artist find a friend to ask the questions and then answer them while making a video.

We are now inviting all of our contributors over the past year to be interviewed. Just contact us at Eastlit editors

All previously published authors and artists interviews will be published. We will do this via Eastlit and/or Eastlit Live. Oh unless you are hideously rude or offensive! The timing of these will depend on the popularity of this.

E-Magazine

I have virtually completed the editing of the downloadable E-version of he first issue of Eastlit. I will release at some auspicious time!

Republication

This is just a reminder that as from the December issue we will republish a piece of work from a previous issue of Eastlit. This will be chosen randomly. These will appear on their own special page in Eastlit.

Second Issue - Eastlit. EastlitSplashScreen. The New App

There is still some technical work to be done on our new independent Android app. When it is finished, we will release it. In the meantime the old one is still available from the Google App. Store.

Links

If any of our contributors have a literature or art website or blog and would like us to consider linking to it, let us know. We are going o start building a links list.

Second Year Other Things

Thank you to everyone who reads, contributes to and recommends Eastit. Without you, we are nothing. I hope you continue to do so. And if you have any requests, ideas or comments for the second year, please let me know. I will be doing a separate post on areas we may need or not need to change.

And thanks to those who have donated to help Eastlit cover costs. It does make things a easier. It really is appreciated.

Cheers

Graham

Getting Published

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Getting Published news item. Silhouette setting sun. Bangsaen beach. By Graham Lawrence.After getting published, the worries of so many writers are:

  • That their work will not be read much.
  • That over the months their work will disappear and not be seen again.
  • That the publication will cease to exist.

At Eastlit we try to address these post getting published issues. After getting published we do as much as we can for you by use of contacts and social media to make sure your work will be read. We also encourage every writer to publicize not only their own work but also the Eastlit issue in general. If you have a second piece of work published we always link your previous work as a reminder to readers. Plus occasionally I do a news item that will link to previously published pieces of work in a certain category. The piece on Eastern poetry is an example.

The other good news is that the Eastlit website is now paid up for another two years. We do not intend to cease publication any time soon! Thanks to those who helped out with donations. It is appreciated.

We also recognize that over time a piece of work disappears into the archives and is maybe harder for readers to run across. However, there are a number of advantages to being published online. One of these is that you are there as long as the website exists. Another is that it is easier for people to find what they are looking for via an online search than by scouring libraries and newsstands for magazines. Plus you also come up in random searches!

However, we at Eastlit do not think this is enough and want to improve what we offer. We know it can be hard enough getting published in the first place. Then it is even harder to have your work stay in the limelight over time. We have plans to do something about this.

Getting Published – The Future at Eastlit

In the future we are going to republish random pieces of work from previous old issues of Eastlit in a current issue. We will initially republish one each month starting in our December issue. That will be the first issue of our second year. It seems like a good time to start new things.

Eastlit E-Books

We also plan on converting old issues into E-books that can be read on anything from a Tablet to a Smartphone to an iPad to a Kindle. These will be downloadable. There is no timeframe for this to become regular. However, the inaugural December 2012 issue is now in a common e-book format (epub) and I am just working on editing out aberrations that occur in converting digital material. I will also be converted to the other common form (mobi). This e book issue will be launched as a trial issue to see what feedback we get. We hope to improve this as we go along. We also hope that by getting published in e book format your work will be more widely read. Also it should have more longevity than in a paper magazine.

Support

Thank you to all those who have supported us in terms of literary contributions, advice, editorial support, guidance and more recently via donations. It is all appreciated. Please keep those contributions coming in. Also if you can spare a donation of a dollar or two to help support some of these new initiatives, which do cost money, it will be appreciated.

I am also looking for another person or two to add to the editorial board. If you are interested you can contact the editor.

iPhone/iPad App

We are now also ready to launch an Eastlit app for iOS (Apple) devices. This will happen when I have available funds. We hope in the coming year to improve on the quality of the apps. We also have a plan to streamline them, and possibly have a little different content more specific to mobile viewing. More on that later.

Art

Coming issues will see a little more colour with both photographs and digital versions of art from a few new contributors. I am pretty excited at making a move to where we can integrate more visual art into what is a fairly solid written art offering already. We hope to see a few more artists getting published. If you are a visual artist or know one who may be interested, please send something in through the usual submissions channel. If you have questions contact the editor.

OK that is enough on getting published and Eastlit.

But before I go I will mention our Eastlit Live channel again! We hope to have a new interview up soon. You can also send us some live material to publish! If you want to be interveiwed, please contact us.

Cheers.

Graham.

Eastlit September

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Well sorry, I haven’t done one of these pieces for a while. It has been a very busy time for me away from Eastlit. I will however try to get one or two of these pieces out every month.

Eastlit September Issue

Eastlit September: Journal Cover Eastlit September 2013. Well the Eastlit September issue is out and it is nice to be getting posiitve feedback. Thanks from me and thanks from the writers too.

The Eastlit September issue contains a mix of poetry, short stories and non-fiction. It also includes another extract from a novel. Plus we have the regular piece form Steve Rosse in the How Not to Write series.

We continue to try and introduce a few new writers or poets every issue.

I would also like to thank all the editorial board members for their help. You know who you are. Thanks from me to members old and new. Thanks also to those who have volunteered to join he board in the future and also hose who have sent in guest editorials for consideration. It all helps.

Donations

As I said on the front page, now is a time of some expense for Eastlit. If you are able to help with a dollar, pound, yen or two or know someone who is, it will certainly be appreciated. And if you can’t hey just keep reading or sending the work in, or give us a like, share or spread the word. It all helps and we do value it all. In fact from me it is thanks to you all who have sent so much in or spent so much time reading Eastlit. It will soon be a year and it is humbling to see quite how many people have followed the development of this little journal.

Oh for donations the button can be found on the right of some pages or the front page. On some mobile devices it may appear at the bottom of the page. And here it is below:




 

Eastlit Courses

Eastlit is now offering the following online courses:

  • Activaing Creativity
  • Creative Writing

If you would like more information, please contact us.

Eastlit September – Other Things

We are taking submissions for the next 6 issues right now, so don’t be shy. Send them in.

The Android app is going through gradual development. If we can raise the money, we will also publish an app for iPhones. It is already made!

OK enough from me.

Cheers

Graham

 

Eastlit Live

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There are a couple of exciting new developments to mention today: The first Eastlit app for tablets and smart phones, and Eastlit Live.

Bracelets not War: Eastlit Live. Photograph by Graham LawrenceEastlit Live

Eastlit Live is an attempt to move beyond just written words. Now we are in the 21st century. That means multimedia and mobility. In an attempt to keep up with the world, we are introducing a new concept. We call this Eastlit Live. At Eastlit we want to introduce a multimedia approach to literature.

This approach though melds the new and traditional. We all know of poetry readings and storytelling. Both have a long history. Or maybe it should be something more modern limited only by the imagination of the creator.

Well now we have set up an Eastlit You Tube channel called Eastlitlive so that you can showcase your poetry reading, readings of your short stories, interviews or other artistic offerings. We want this to be a service for our contributors. And we see it as a way you can promote yourself. We accept anything that is within the normal guidelines. This means connected to or from East and Southeast Asia and not of an adult nature. On Eastlit Live channel we will host anything submitted that meets our guidelines.This is slightly different from the Eastlit Journal where we scrutinize everything. However, what we highlight in the actual journal will still go through this process. And we will be highlighting the best of what we receive every month.

We plan on launching this new initiative as soon as we can. That relies on you, though. So get your videos in now! Oh if you have questions, please feel free to ask through our contact form or by e-mail contact. I will let you know more as this develops. As there is nothing up yet, just subscribe to the channel if interested. We hope it will not be long before we have something for you.

How do you send them? Well just send me a link to a Dropbox file, Google Drive file or any other way you can think of. You can submit these links or files through the normal submission e-mail, or through our g-mail. Submissions will be put up as soon as possible on You Tube. Plus, every monthly issue of Eastlit will feature a page highlighting and embedding what our editors liked most.

Android App

I have been talking about this since the launch of Eastlit. And the app is another aspect of the Eastlit Live concept. Well, now it is in the Google Playstore. You can find it via the link in the heading. You can also go the Play Store and search Eastlit. It would be great if all of you Android users could give it a go and send me some feedback to the normal e-mails etc. The version out is a simple one, but with 3000+ android phones it has to be I guess. At the moment you can access the whole site. I am not sure if that is the way to go on a mobile though. However, I thought it better to await feedback. There are also possibilities of including extra more social aspects. In the end I decided it was better to await feedback rather than decide myself.

This version does have a small mobile adverts panel. It costs to add these developments to Eastlit, so I have little choice but to seek some ways of recouping a little of that cost. If there is interest in iPhone or Windows Phone apps, let me know. These can be created too. Development though for both is more expensive.

Anyway, I would appreciate any feedback on:

  • What you would like to see included.
  • What pages you would like to see removed.
  • Comments on design, aesthetics etc

Other News:

Anna Yin has sent a copy of her recent book Inhaling the Silence to be reviewed. Hopefully, that review will be in the September issue of Eastlit. Information on Anna’s book can be found at the site of Mosaic who published it.

Oh and of course don’t forget the next issue of Eastlit will be out on August 1, 2013.

Cheers.

Graham.

February

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The complete list of contents for the Eastlit February Issue is below. Please click on a link to go to the page. Eastlit Cover. Picture by Graham Lawrence. Design by Graham Lawrence. The cover shows buildings from Vientiene and provides the backdrop for the February 2013 issue of Eastlit. Editorial by Graham with a poem by Afzal Moolla. Hitoshi and the Orange Peel Mystery by Iain Maloney: This is an an extract from the novel Dog Mountain. Santubong Haiku by Colin W. Campbell. Going Home by Steve Rosse. Five Poems by Kislay Chuahan. The poems are: Afternoon Desert, An Old Age, Seashore Witness, Face of the Nature and Heart of Wood. Gip by Julien Headley. Two Poems by Terry Scott Niebeling. The poems are:Tender Thought and We See but We Don't (Easter Love). Flashing Police Lights Missing by Kersie Khambutta. Three Poems by Linda Woolven. The poems are: November Storm, Night Time Lovers and Laundry Day. Finding a Vein by Steve Tait. Contributors. An alphabetical list of all the contributors to the February issue of Eastlit complete with biographies of all the writers and poets. Note on Work. Please note that we publish work as received. We do not edit work for minor errors. We regard these as decisions made by the author. The one exception is that we may work with second language writers to help them say what they want to say. Subscribe to our newsletter for all the latest on upcoming issues, competitions, incentives, contributors and news in general.

In spite of being a smaller issue, the Eastlit February issue is getting a lot of views. The number of readers is increasing every month right now. Thank you to our readers. Thank you also to the contributors for the poetry and prose that is attracting people.

After three issues, it feels like things are settling down a little. The crazy rushed feeling of November through January has now gone. It is now a time when we can consider new developments. While we do this, we will stick to the current format. Hopefully we can keep a nice mix of poetry and prose and writers new and experienced while adding something new as we go.

March and April Issues.

These will continue in the slimmer format for now. We are taking submissions for both of these issues now, so send them in! Please read the submission guidelines before submitting. We encourage non-native writers to submit work and will give assistance where needed.

Photographs

If you have photos, pictures or artwork from or connected to the region, we are very interested in using it on our front covers. As usual you retain all rights, and just grant us a license to publish it by submitting to us. We would also consider publishing artwork or pictures linked to a story if authors want this.

Previously Published Writers

If you had work published by Eastlit in the December or January issue, you are clear to submit more for the March issue. Writers and poets published in the February issue can submit work for the April issue. You can send it in at any time as we mark it for the next issue you can appear in, so don’t delay!

Chinese New Year

We at Eastlit would like to wish everyone who celebrates it, a Great Chinese New Year, and a wonderful year of the snake.

Other February 2013 News

We are still working on getting more involvement from the few places that are yet to feature in Eastlit. Indonesia remains top of that list, and we may have a development for one of the next issues. Fingers crossed.

There are a few things we at Eastlit will now put more energy into. The first is the writers’ group. The others are the Eastlit app and the possible greater involvement of some of our more regular contributors. More news on these as they arise. If anyone wants to volunteer for anything from writers’ groups to editing assistance, let us know.

You can also get all this news from our newsletter. Sign up now to have the news sent to you.

Finally

I would like to say a personal thank you to all of you who have had contact. After three or four months and looking back, it has been a great experience from my perpsective.

Cheers.

Graham.

 

News

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The complete list of contents for the Eastlit December Issue is below. Please click on a link to go to the page. Eastlit Cover. Picture by Jiawen P. Design by Graham Lawrence. A View of Hong Kong provides the backdrop for the January 2013 issue of Eastlit. Editorial by Bryn. The Prostitutes' Cat by Xenia Taiga. Good Morning, Good Night by Jiawen P. Two Poems by Valerie Wong. Old Man with a Broken Walking Stick by Tom Sheehan. A Misunderstanding by Tony Concannon. A Western Dao by Zach Wilson. Perfect Attendance by Gale Acuff. Three Poems by Afzal Moolla. The Butterfly's Body by Richard Lutman. Two Poems by Zack Lyon. Broken China by Lynda Majarian. No Mans Whore by John McMahon. Three Poems by Valentina Cano. Beaten to Death by John Pickavance. Two Poems by Brenton Rossow. Box by Kalpana Negi. Contributors. An alphabetical list of all the contributors to the December issue of Eastlit complete with biographies of all the writers and poets. Note on Work. Please note that we publish work as received. We do not edit work for minor errors. We regard these as decisions made by the author. The one exception is that we may work with second language writers to help them say what they want to say. Subscribe to our newsletter for all the latest on upcoming issues, competitions, incentives, contributors and news in general.The January issue seems to have received some positive feedback which is nice. Thanks for all the excellent contributions. It was a bit of a rush getting it all finished, and a lot of hard work. Because of this, we are aiming at slightly smaller issues over the next few months. We do want to keep Eastlit a monthly publication if possible. However, sometimes time and resources are stretched. Please bear with us if the next few issues are a little smaller.

February Issue.

This will be out on February 1. It will include at least one review. This will be a first for Eastlit. If you submitted work, you will start to hear if it is to be published in the next week or so. We are still looking for a cover photo for this issue. Send them in if you would like to have your pictures considered. We are also still open for submissions for the February issue for a few more days.

Future Eastlit Issues.

We will continue with smaller issues for the time being. However, we hope to publish some additional forms of writing over the coming months. We are taking submissions for our March and April issues now.

Previously Published Writers

Eastlit positively encourages writers we have published before to submit more work. The only policy is that you will not be published in consecutive issues. You can be in 1 and 3, but not 1 and 2.

News on our Contributors

Richard Lutman whose The Butterfly’s Body was published in Eastlit’s January issue is allowing us to publish the rest of his novella The Iron Butterfly. This will be done in parts starting in the April issue. It will be our first serialization of a longer piece of writing.

Kyle Hemmings has a new collection of prose and poetry out titled Void and Sky. It is available in both paperback and e-book format.

If any of our other contributors have news, please let me know. I will mention it in a future news article.

Other News

There are still a few places that have yet to feature in Eastlit. One of these is Indonesia. We would love to get a few more submissions from such an important part of the regions we cover. That is not to say we do not welcome work from other places!

Work on the app continues, slowly.

Not mush else for now!

OK that is the end of the news for now. I hope 2013 is going well for you all.

Cheers.

Graham.

 

News

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There are a number of announcements in this news issue. I have tried to organize them under headings for ease. We are fast approaching a time of holidays, and we intend to start marking submissions for our February issue very soon. Then hopefully we will get through all the reading and still enjoy New Year. The next issue will be out in early January.

Information for Writers Published in Eastlit

Any writer published in an issue of Eastlit will not be published in the next issue. For example, if you were published in issue one, the next one you can be considered for will be issue three. Of course you can submit work at any time. We will just decide what issue to consider it for. Please keep those submissions coming in!

Eastlit Newsletter

We now have an Eastlit newsletter ready to launch soon. If you want news sent direct to you, Sign up for our free newsletter! Of course, if you prefer to follow us on social networks or by checking the site, that is great. From time to time the newsletter may contain unique information.

February Issue

This issue will see the launch of book reviews. We are accepting submissions of these now.

Writers Group

We are looking to launch a writers group around February or March 2013. This will be associated with Eastlit. However, we do not want it to be an Eastlit exclusive. The group will be open to anyone. We want this group to be an active group. We also want this group to be a place where writers can feel free to express themselves, and where everyone will be regarded as an equal. We also encourage non-native writers to join. More on this as we get nearer the time. However, if you are interested contact us and we will keep you informed.

Other News

We would like to add another editor to read submissions. If you are interested contact admin. We would ideally like to have a non-native editor from within our region. However, we realize this may not be possible. We are also open to the idea of guest editors who cover only one month each.

I am still working on the app. Finding time is not easy.

We hope to start sharing news and updates from our contributors, too. This will be in these news segments or in our newsletter.

Contributors for the January issue will start to hear if they will be published in the next seven to ten days.

And that is enough for this one.

Cheers.

Graham.

News

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Eastlit news this week:

News on Issues 1 and 2:

It is only a week until the first issue is out. For this issue we were aiming at a maximum of 12 pages. It looks like the December 2012 issue will come in at either 10 or 11. We are still waiting on a change to one piece. It is a pretty exciting time for us.

We are now taking submissions for the January issue. We already have a number and so far they are all from within the region! In issue two we will have completely different writers and poets. In this January Issue we also hope to have more pages. We have more time and less distractions for this one. So keep those pieces coming in!

News on Submissions:

The submission guidelines have been changed. We have learnt we need to tighten things up to avoid having to reject too much from outside the region. Most changes affect writers outside East and South East Asia. We want writers to explain how their work connects now. We still encourage writers outside especially those from regional ethnic roots living abroad, or those writing about the region. However, there can be many ways of seeing connection to East our region, and we encourage writers to explain how. We are pretty open minded.

Other News:

I am still working on the mobile app. The plan is to trial it after the first issue. This will be for Android. If it successful, we will move to iOS and Windows.

We are planning an Eastlit writers group. This will be announced fairly soon.

We are not planning a forum. We are also not planning open comments at this point.

These news posts will be weekly.

Cheers.

Graham.

 

Our Aim in the First Issue

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Our aim in the first issue is to bring you an interesting and varied collection. This will be short stories, poetry and flash fiction. It’s exciting that this is so close now. The first issue will be on its own new page. The rest of the site will stay as it is now. We have Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr pages set up. You can follow us on them to get updates if you want. Just click on the links, or the follow us button on the left. We will update you with what is happening regularly.

The first issue will appear on the site on December 1. We are working on East Asia time, so for most it should be up when you wake up. However, if you are in Australia or Japan, please be a little patient!

Other News on First Issue:

I am currently working on apps for mobile viewing. We hope to have an app before the first issue. More on that later.

Thanks for the support for the Facebook event.

Writers can still send us work. See our submissions page.

Please remember to bookmark or follow us. Check here for news. Check the site for the first issue.

Cheers

Graham