Bad Hair Day Call to Submissions –Deadline Extended to July 25

Mozark Press seeks humorous fiction stories for A Shaker of Margaritas: A Bad Hair Day. For this anthology, a bad hair day is one of those days when things don’t go according to plan; in fact, it is as horrible as a bad perm or hair that turns green—unintentionally. Things go wrong, but with humor, stubbornness, and attitude—the female protagonist can survive any kind of bad hair day.

Submissions deadline is July 25, 2012.  Approximately 20-25 stories will be selected for the anthology and will be paid $20 upon publication.

For submissions guidelines visit the "Bad Hair Day" page on www.mozarkpress.blogspot.com or www.mozarkpress.com.

Bad Hair Day Call to Submissions - Short Deadline

Mozark Press seeks humorous fiction stories for A Shaker of Margaritas: A Bad Hair Day. For this anthology, a bad hair day is one of those days when things don’t go according to plan; in fact, it is as horrible as a bad perm or hair that turns green—unintentionally. Things go wrong, but with humor, stubbornness, and attitude—the female protagonist can survive any kind of bad hair day.

Submissions deadline is July 15, 2012. Approximately 20-25 stories will be selected for the anthology and will be paid $20 upon publication.

For submissions guidelines visit the "Bad Hair Day" page on www.mozarkpress.blogspot.com.

Check out the Missouri Arts Council feature on Storm Country! Midwestern Storms Roar Through New Book

Missouri Festival Features Storm Country: The Anthology

Linda Fisher 

The March 6, 2012, Governor’s Annual Verses and Voices Festival which celebrates Missouri’s poetry, music, and art featured readings from Storm Country: The Anthology published by Mozark Press for the Missouri Writers’ Guild. The program was performed in the rotunda at the State Capitol in Jefferson City, Missouri. The theme was “Remembering the people of Joplin in their time of pain and loss in the storm. Commemorating the help and hope that followed.”

Choirs from Benton High School, Jefferson City High School, Savannah High School, Missouri Western State University, and Joplin High School performed poetry set to music. Joplin High School premiered “Storm Country” by Susan LaBarr, Missouri’s Composer Laureate.

The “Storm Country” lyrics were adapted from “My Foundation” written by Bill Cairns and published in Storm Country: The Anthology. All choirs joined their voices for the ending to commemorate those who helped Joplin after the devastating May 22, 2011, tornado. The moving performance received a standing ovation.

David Clewell and Walter Bargen

Missouri Poet Laureate David Clewell read a poem he wrote for Joplin. He later read “Supercell” from Storm Country: The Anthology for Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Poet Laureate of Kansas, who was unable to attend due to illness. Walter Bargen, Missouri’s first Poet Laureate, read a new poem and “Harmony Tornado” from Storm Country. Claudia Mundell, President of Joplin Writers’ Guild read her poem “Weather Tantrum” from Storm Country.

Missouri Writers’ Guild President, Deborah Marshall, recognized Ms. Mundell for first proposing the idea of an anthology to benefit Joplin Schools. Ms. Marshall also recognized the Humanities Council for their support and Mozark Press for donating publishing and editing for the project.

Meet the Author: Kathy Page "Invisible Cougar"

Kathy Page dabbles in many things, writing being one of them. She also enjoys participating in the local community theatre, reading, painting, and spending time with family and friends. Traveling is a particular enjoyment, which is good as she does quite a bit for both her paying job and volunteer work. She is on the national Board of Directors and an FDA Patient Representative for the Ekbom Disease Foundation. Kathy also does advocacy work for the American Cancer Society. Kathy enjoys an occasional challenge to keep life exciting.

The Invisible Cougar

Kathy Page

T

wo major events happened on my fifty-fifth birthday; I started losing my invisibility, and I became a cougar. The birthday was inevitable; losing the invisibility was a mixed blessing, and at the time I had no idea what a “cougar” was.

Let me back up a little. Two years ago my husband Alvin left me for his secretary—his  much younger secretary. While I knew he had been unfaithful in the past, it still came as a hurtful surprise. Even more hurtful was our daughter Niki’s ready acceptance of the situation. Her words when he moved out were, “Well! You have let yourself go. Dad has a prestigious job and needs someone “glam” to stand beside him.” It was at that point that I started becoming invisible. Once the divorce papers were signed, I no longer existed for my ex-husband. Our daughter completely defected to her father’s side and became fast friends with the new wife.

Then I started noticing that friends stopped calling. When I passed them on the street, they looked right through me. During the long walks I started taking, not one person responded to my “hello” or smile. Sales people ignored me as I wandered the aisles and the Girl Scouts didn’t come to sell cookies at my door. I assured myself several times a day that I still existed by looking at myself in the mirror. Of course, that did nothing to make me feel better. Looking back was gray listless hair, a face with no make-up, frumpy loose clothing, and a defeated look about the eyes. I realized I was slowly fading away.

The rest of this story, and twenty other fiction stories, can be found in A Shaker of Margaritas: Cougars on the Prowl available in paperback and in Nook and Kindle versions.

Book Signings for Cougars on the Prowl Saturday December 3, 2011

Sonia Todd ("A Workers Compensation"), Susan Thomas ("Ashes Remain"), and Mary Ellen Martin ("Speed Dating") will be siging A Shaker of Margaritas: Cougars on the Prowl at Hastings in Moscow, Idaho, Saturday December 3 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Linda Fisher ("Cyber Cupid") and Kathy Page ("Invisible Cougars") will sign Cougars on the Prowl at Sedalia Book and Toy, Sedalia, Missouri, on Saturday December 3 from 1 - 3 p.m.

“Cougars on the Prowl is a delightful collection of fiction stories with adventurous female protagonists,” Editor L. S. Fisher said. “This book is dedicated to boomer women who are youthful thinkers and creative in their romantic choices.”

Cougars on the Prowl is the second anthology in the Shaker of Margaritas series. The first anthology, Hot Flash Mommas, won a 2011 Show Me Book award from the Missouri Writers’ Guild.

Storm Country: The Anthology

Missouri is Storm Country and my hometown is in a place affectionately known to locals as “tornado alley.” We share that designation with many other towns in Missouri, but after the disastrous tornado that hit Joplin, they have earned the title the hard way. 

My thoughts have been on Storm Country since I have been working on the anthology. My small press, Mozark Press LLC, was honored to donate publication of the anthology. Claudia Mundell, President of the Joplin Writers’ Guild, who lives in Joplin first came up with the idea of an anthology of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction stories with the subject of Midwest storms as a way for writers to help the people of Joplin. She said, “Not everybody can carry steel and lift walls and not everybody can cook, so everybody does what they can, and writers write.”

I have had a chance to read the book several times while copyediting. The stories range from poetic observations to raw emotions of a teenage boy who was crowded into a basement room with family and a stranger off the street while the EF-5 Joplin tornado raged overhead. The fiction stories speak of real emotions in intriguing stories.

The works in Storm Country: The Anthology were written by veteran writers, poets laureate, previously unpublished writers, and poetry by sixth-grade students.

This outstanding collection is available online at www.mozarkpress.com or at  www.stormcountry.workpress.com/. All proceeds will benefit libraries in the Joplin School District. It isn’t everyday that you get to help a worthy cause by reading an outstanding book.