Check out BlogNostics: Poetry, Art, Contests, and Amazing Opportunities

Jessica Brant & daughter

If you haven't heard of the creative site, BlogNostics, for writers and artists yet, then you are in for a real treat today. BlogNostics is one of a kind, and we have Jessica Brant with us today to tell all about it, what you can do there, and the contests they are now offering. I won't waste any more of your time with a boring intro because Jessica has a lot to tell us!

WOW: Welcome, Jessica, to The Muffin. On the "About" page for BlogNostics, it states, "BlogNostics is for readers, writers, artists, and followers to get together, share, be supportive, and have some fun creating excellence." So, is this a membership site? Tell us a little more, including your role with BlogNostics.

Jessica: We want our readers, writers, and artists to feel like they are in a community, where they can socialize, making it feel like a growing art commune. As for membership--no, you don't have to have a membership, though it is best to sign up, otherwise it is like cheating yourself if you don't. What I mean by that is that you won't get the full exposure needed to get your work out there if that is what you so desire.

As for me, I am the mom of the house, supporting where I can to show off these amazing and talented people that arrive, attempting to help everyone grow with the site. I see so much unsung talent out there. Just like a proud mother, I want to see our artists create their dreams.

WOW: Okay, Mom (smiles), then let's learn more about how BlogNostics works. Once people create an account, what should they do next and how do they do it? (And is it free?)

Jessica: Creating an account on BlogNostics is completely free and fairly easy to do. I think the easiest, most effective and painless way is by signing up and then login in using one of the social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin. If you do not subscribe to signing up via social media, that's okay; it is just as easy to create your own account with your name, personal e-mail, username, and password.

There is a lot to do, see, and read on BlogNostics. Once you step into our little world of creativity, we have a vast array of contemporary artists and writers from around the world who contribute their works of passion to BlogNostics. We recently added a Poetry Corner, where Willow, our Poetry Aficionado, divulges how to write poetry and prose, in addition to lending guidance to writers that are new to poetry and just need some helpful hints or just a sounding board.

WOW: It sounds great--the free aspect and the support and creativity going on there! Another thing advertised on your home page is Lines Vol. 1. Tell us all about Lines!

Jessica: Lines is our first digital publication and truly a labor of love. We were kicking around the idea of getting into the digital publishing arena for a while but kept putting it on the back burner. We were catapulted into taking action after the sudden untimely death of one of our most beloved poets, Sancheeta Biswas, who passed away on April 6, 2012, leaving behind her young daughter Tua. As a hamlet of talented up and coming contemporary writers, BlogNostics made a call to action to some of our members. Our poets, Lisa Brandel, Neil Chatterton, Ron Reed, Willow, and my father Mickey Munday were saddened by Sancheeta's story and collectively decided to dedicate Lines to the loving memory of Sancheeta. Part of the proceeds from the sale of Lines is going into an educational fund for Sancheeta's daughter Tua (age 9).

We went on a frantic search to find a platform that would deliver more than just the run of the mill, static, black and white e-book. We found a platform that complemented our writers' words with the ascetics that BlogNostics is known for. Lines the publication is an interactive collection of twenty-five poems, stunning graphics from today's most talented photographers and digital artists. The majority of the poetry has been digitally recorded by the artists themselves. making Lines accessible to those who are visually impaired or for those who would simply like to sit back, relax, listen, and enjoy. We were lucky enough to have world renowned, Emmy award-winning producer Carlos Alverez help us with the audio production of Lines. We have included seven spoken-word videos, clickable links, and more. It is truly a revolutionary way to read, listen to, and watch today's most talented, modern day poets. It really is a stunning work of art for the digital world. For now, Lines is available on Amazon for the Kindle Fire as well as Android systems.

WOW: What a beautiful idea to honor a writer's life and her daughter. It sounds amazing! You are offering some contests, which writers can submit to before April 10. What are the categories that you are looking for in this contest? Do you need to be a member of the site to enter the contest?

Jessica: First off let me say, we are so excited to offer our first writing contest, and we are honored that we have an esteemed panel of enthusiastic judges.

We have four categories that writers can participate and they are in: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Prose.

Within the category of fiction, we seek the work to have: a strong character, authentic voice, originality, boldness of form, pushing the boundaries of contemporary fiction. The bn~Expressions in Fiction will be judged by Ray Garton who is the author of over sixty novels, novellas, short story collections, movie novelizations, and TV tie-ins. His work spans the genres of horror, crime, and suspense. Fiction has a limit of 10,000 words.

Lisa Brandel

In Nonfiction, we seek from all works: an authentic voice, originality, boldness of form, pushing the boundaries of contemporary nonfiction, good story telling in things that sound authentic and speak to the human condition or the world. Judged by Lisa Brandel who is known best from her successful blog the WidowLady. She began telling her story only weeks after her husband died and had only posted three times before her father died. Through the pain of losing her father, and then aunt, paternal grandmother, another aunt, and finally her uncle to suicide, she has continued to write not only her story, but also ideas and philosophies about how to make life happen against the odds. She also has a daily inspiration on her “Widow Lady” Facebook page and is currently in the process of editing three books for publication, the first to be published is Every Day Inspiration expected to be released in mid-2013. She is making it her life’s work to inspire people through words and images. Nonfiction has a 9,000-word limit.

bn~LINES in Poetry, seeks from all works: an authentic voice, originality, boldness of form, pushing the boundaries of contemporary poetry. Judged by Lana Hechtman Ayer who works as a poetry manuscript consultant and writing workshop facilitator. She runs two chapbook presses, Concrete Wolf and MoonPath Press, and is an editorial consultant at the literary journal Crab Creek Reviews. Lana is the author of two chapbooks and three full-length poetry collections. Her most recent collection, A New Red (Pecan Grove Press), is a contemporary re-imagining of the Red Riding Hood fairy tale. Lana’s latest work “The Ugly Pregnant Woman,” which is currently in the California Quarterly, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Poetry has no word limit.

Pamela Rossow

bn~LINES in Prose, judged by Pamela Rossow who is the co-author of Mind Over Body. Pamela writes for a variety of genres including, business, journalism, and higher education. She is an established blogger and is committed to integrity and excellence in her writing. Pamela’s poem, "Nothing Good About Good-Bye," was published in the 2010 issue of Coastlines Literary Magazine. The word limit for Prose is 3500-words.

To enter the contests, being a member of BlogNostics is not a requirement, but it is suggested. We would like for those who participate to register first with us on the site.

We are a community of artists and writers with a common goal in mind; becoming a member is a way to stay informed about up and coming events on BlogNostics. It is also required in order to have any works published on the site as well as in future publications.

WOW: The judges are wonderful. What a panel! Thanks for explaining the entire contest to us! What are a couple tips you can give writers to help them be successful in your contest?

Jessica: Whatever you write… be authentic to your own voice. Don't try to be anyone but you. I think the general feeling by the judges is they want strong characters and the ability to push the boundaries of contemporary literature.

WOW: Next let's discuss your various "rooms" and poetry events. It looks like you have a "room" for Beat Poets, Artists, Haiku, and Color Poetry. How does a writer visit and take part in a room?

Jessica: I'm smiling from ear to ear at the moment. Yes, we have "rooms," but we like to call them our bn~BeatRoom, bn~Lounges, and bn~Galleries. Let me start off by saying the General bn~BeatRoom, bn~Galleries, Haiku, and Colour Concatenation are completely free areas of creativity and by that I mean anyone who is registered on BlogNostics can submit their works to those individual "rooms," although we had to put a limit on the amount of submissions we accept to the General BeatRoom. We put a cap of three poems (prose, pieces) to be submitted for publication in the General BeatRoom. There are many reasons for this--the number one reason is that often times we have a single artist submitting four to six poetic pieces, and the General BeatRoom then tends to look as if it has been taken over by one person. We listened to our members who suggested we start individual areas for those writers wishing to submit more than three pieces; and so the Personalized BeatRooms were created for those writers dedicated to their love of writing, where they can shine as bright as they want and get just a bit more personalized attention that does not take away from the other writers. These personalized "rooms" also take a lot time for our "Elves" to design, making sure the writers' personal bio, website, social media information is on their personal page (room)--also frantically finding artwork for each poetic piece. As you can imagine, this is all very time consuming, so we find many of our Elves have coffee intravenously served, saves on washing up I suppose. Our editors also take time out to make sure each piece is up to par; and if it looks like the writer needs some assistance editing, our editors are there to help them out. Visiting the individual areas on the site is easy as a click of a button, and voila--you are there.

Now that we have these Personalized bn~BeatRooms, it has given a few of our poets an incentive to step beyond publishing a few of their works in our General BeatRoom and thereby have made the choice to upgrade to the personalized BeatRoom or Beat Lounges, where a vast collection of poetry and prose from some of today's most talented contemporary writers are housed. There is a small fee involved for those members who wish to have their own Personalized BeatRooms and Beat Lounges--as mentioned, the Elves need feeding. The bn~Arts Gallery is the same, where we showcase photographers, digital artists, and illustrators.

WOW: I just love this idea. How creative! I can't wait to go to BlogNostics and check out some of these rooms! What are Word Scrambles? How about Montages? Can anyone do these?

Jessica: We have fun impromptus to get writers and those of poetic aptitude to get their creative juices flowing. We were sitting around one day trying to figure out how to get people more engaged on BlogNostics, so we came up with the idea of doing a Word Scramble. It is where we at BlogNostics brain storm and choose twenty-three words of which you the writer has to make something poetically amazing for us to read. It really is just a quick, fun, little thing to get us as writers unstuck. Montages are the same, but done with images in which the writer again can create what he or she sees within the images and tell us a poetic story. It seems the Montage tends to be a bit more controversial than the Word Scramble because everyone sees something completely different within an image.

WOW: Sounds interesting. Yes, we try all sorts of things to get people more interactive on our Facebook page. Now, I'm brainstorming thanks to you! How does someone become the featured BN poet?

Jessica: Hummmm, Good question! We take a look at the body of work. It's not about the number of hits your poem gets, or how supportive you are towards other people on BlogNostics, it is simply based on the quality of work a poet has submitted. Does it capture the reader's attention? Does it evoke emotion? These are some of the questions we ask as we look for our featured poets.

WOW: Anything else you'd like to add about your site that we haven't covered?

Jessica:What we really want to be and where we see ourselves going in the future is seeing our members becoming the next generation of celebrated artists, the voices of their generation. It's a lofty goal; but with all the unknown talent we are gathering, I think it is ivery reasonable for Blognostics to obtain this goal.

It is refreshing to find such creative and supportive people all in one place, working for a common goal both individually as well as collectively as a community of artists.

WOW: Thank you so much for sharing your creative and wonderful site for writers with us today! Readers to find Blognostics on Facebook, go to: http://www.facebook.com/BlogNostics.

To find them on Twitter, go to http://www.twitter.com/BlogNostics