Submission Rules (?)
Tags: Submission Guidelines, Writers On Medium, Publication, Writing

I grew up wanting to be a teacher. Teaching would be a job with both the structure and the creativity I craved. Alas, that didn’t happen. Instead, a series of unplanned events pushed me into bookkeeping — again, a profession requiring structure but, sadly, very little creativity. Seriously, you don’t want a bookkeeper or an accountant who applies much creativity to their work! Trump thinks otherwise, but I won’t go there.

With that said, Weeds & Wildflowers submissions must abide by only a few rules/suggestions:

Keep it clean. Colorful language is one thing, but vulgarity is another. If you are fuzzy on the definition of vulgarity, look it up.

All photos and images must be your own or uncopyrighted. Use a free photography source such as Unsplash, which is linked to Medium and very easy and legal to use. If you don’t know how to access Unsplash from Medium, ask me. Please claim your photos with a credit beneath the picture or a blanket statement of photo ownership at the beginning.

All quotes and websites must be referenced. If you don’t know how to do that, ask me.

Although I once wanted to be an English teacher, I am too old to be a stickler for all the grammar and punctuation rules of our very confusing English language. Do the best you can. Use a site like Grammarly, if you want. I may make minor adjustments to a piece, but as long as your intent is clear, I won’t sweat the small stuff.

I will, as I figure it out, add tabs for different sorts of stories/pieces, but I am not limiting W&W to specific topics. My desire is to create a space for “older” voices, but that doesn’t necessarily mean voices in older bodies. Some of us were born old, myself included. Perhaps, I should rephrase that as experienced voices. Here are some submission ideas that I favor but aren’t exclusive:

Life stories of all sorts are great. Tell us what made you who you are. I am particularly fond of the life stories of marginalized people — people who struggle to be accepted for who they are.

Because of my strongly-immigrant family, I want to feature immigrant stories — immigrants here in America or other countries — experiences in their new lands, as well as memories from their homelands. I want to learn who you are, how you think, how you got where you are, and your experiences once you arrived. Let’s embrace and learn about one another in defiance of our national prejudices.

In the same vein as immigrant stories, travel stories also have a place here. Tell us where you went, why, and what happened there. Dazzle us with photos of places some of us may never see in person.

Nature and animal stories are faves of mine. As this publication has a garden theme, I am all for gardening photography, stories, and advice. Thinking of Louise Peacock and nan fischer, as I write this.

I have a passion for photography and welcome photo submissions of all sorts. Fred Shirley and Tracy Aston popped in my mind just now.

Poetry — all styles. Some talented poets — Anna Rozwadowska, Tracy Aston, antoinette nevitt and Sherry Kappel, for instance— were added as contributors here — looking forward to some stellar poetry!

Humor — not my specialty but I love to be amused — Harper Thorpe, Mark Starlin, and Jack Herlocker immediately come to mind. Let’s laugh together!

That’s it, fellow Weeds & Wildflowers, although I reserve the right to add to this list should the need arise, and I hope it won’t!

Let’s tell stories in words and pictures!