OMG 8 years writing, performing and creating on-chain and I'm still here, alive and (mostly) kicking 😂
But rather than writing a retrospective 'My History on Hive' type post, I thought I'd celebrate a more immediate milestone in my life...
The recent inclusion of one of my poems and one of my short stories in an anthology of fantasy writing.
Away with the Faeries
My works in this collection are inspired by mythology and magic, including a story of a new wizard caught in an alternative dimensions and a poem featuring Norse gods and goddesses.
This collection is a wide ranging body of work with one unifying theme; that of mystery and magic.
If you would like to order a copy you can do so here: https://amzn.eu/d/2ewKwev and enter a land of myths, magick and the mystical in this collection of poetry and short stories.
“Written by various authors from around the world, this is an eclectic tale that will leave you questioning reality!
Be whisked away to a world of witchcraft and wonder- fly among the dragons, flutter into fae circles, be drawn down deep into the depths with mermaids and selkie. Lark around with leprechauns and shapeshift with crows.
From Irish folklore to Chinese myth, the Nordic seas to Orion's belt, this is a magickal anthology of fantastickal proportion.
The words within this book will transport you to a multitude of places even your dreams can't dream!”
Source: Away with the Faeries Description from Amazon
I have written and self-published over 200 poems and over 85 short stories here on hive.
I hope you will join me in celebrating this milestone of having works accepted into a peer-reviewed anthology.
I am duly proud of what I have produced on Hive, and spent many hours editing each creative work that I have published here, but it is true that a writers' CV is looked at differently once work has been accepted by an editor into a collection.
This acceptance shows proof that your work fulfils another professional's view of what should be considered 'publishable' material.
As a special treat to my Hive readers, I will include below a Youtube author's reading of my poem, The Space Between Worlds, that is published in the anthology 'Away with the Faeries'.
The Space Between Worlds is a Ghazal, which is an ancient form of Arabic poetry.
Its most well-known proponent is the Persian poet and Sufi master Rumi who was born in 1207. Rumi's Ghazal, and his poetry in general are amazing and encapsulate the mysticism of both divine and human love perfectly.
The Ghazal as a form is expressed by in line rhymes and a repeated refrain at the end of each two (couplet) or three (tercet) line stanza. I decided to use a three line stanza, otherwise known as a tercet.
This gives the poet more space to breath, and as I've deviated a little from form this was essential. Ghazal are traditionally made up of a sequence of independent stanza, which can all sit on their own as mini poems.
As I wanted to tell a story and build a narrative this was difficult. I feel like I may have achieved independence for most of the tercet but one or two run on from each other to build a story within the structure of the poem. I did stick rigidly to the form in regards to the third line refrain which should be of one to three words that repeat, in this case branches of heaven.
Historically poetry is a spoken format, and is often more effective when performed by the writer. I especially wanted to perform this poem given that Norse mythology lies at its heart and to honour the Skald's (Norse poets) oral tradition.
If you would like to discover more worlds of wonder from this anthology, and further support me and a small independent press, please do consider purchasing Away with the Faeries Anthology from Amazon on the link below.
https://amzn.eu/d/2ewKwev
Thanks for reading 🙂🌿
Click banner to buy anthology
Click banner to visit the community page
Find us on twitter by clicking the banner above.
Wow!! You're really a good poet. Am checking the link out on Amazon. Thanks for sharing my friend.
Thanks sirfx 🙂
Congrats on both milestones. We need all types of content on Hive and poetry can be part of that. What we really need is an engaged audience who can support it whilst earning themselves. When we have an audience then more creators may join.
!BEER
Thanks Steev
I have had work published in anthologies before, but that was many years ago. I'm quite proud of these works being accepted tbh 🙂
That ship has sailed in regards to professional level creative writing (fiction and poetry) content I'm afraid Stevec. Many, many, good writers have been driven away, mainly before, and around the time of the hardfork.
I don't want to get into it deeply, but it has always been an under-rewarded category of content, and intelligent people won't spend hours of their time to make a couple of quid. Much of the audience, and creators, have already been and gone, mainly during the steem days.
Anyway, I prefer to stay positive about my own creative endeavors as that is all I can do 👍
Whatever the issues Hive has had it still offers an alternative to the corporate platforms that exploit their users. Our community is tiny and it would be very different if millions were active here. I am certainly not giving up on it.
Hive still has the problems I mention. Big players (some of whom contribute nothing meaningful in way of content) still drive away talented creators, even those who successfully create/engage an audience... just look at stickupboys. Only the most recent in a long line of people who couldn't stomach the hypocrisy of seeing a ruling class on hive tell an account they must follow an arbitrary set of rules that certain members of said ruling class never follow themselves.
There is a big difference between giving up on something, and recognizing that the odds are stacked against you achieving anything of value.
Yes, hive is an alternative to the likes of Zuckerbook and X. But hive lacks the basic functionality of those sites. Things like being able to control who sees your content, or easily bring real-world friends to hive if you wanted to E.G. make a community where it is just you and your friends using it to post life updates similar to Fbook.
Also, the question of exploiting the average user on hive is a v open one. People with big accounts, x-bidbot accounts that now rake in the $$$ through v strategic curation and DHF funded projects continually devalue the HIVE token against BTC. These people understand very well that the only way to extract value from hive (a deflationary coin) is to dollar cost average out to BTC (a none inflationary coin). Therefor hive is constantly moving downwards against BTC as can be seen in the chart of HIVE/BTC from its inception. There are the odd pumps against BTC, but catching them is v difficult for users who have there hive locked up in HP.
And so the constant downward selling pressure on hive (by v large accounts) is part of how hive exploits its authors and curators as it is right now. But this has been the case for the majority of the time since the hardfork from steem.
These are all realities that most people on hive either choose to ignore, or actively never speak about.
It is what it is.
There are issues with some people, but I think a lot of the whales have an interest in it succeeding. They are not taking money out. Meanwhile St--mit still has some value for no clear reason. I don't get all the financial stuff.
The platform is good for what it is, but it's not meant to compete totally with FB or Twtr. It's a public blog. The communities allow more control over who posts.
View or trade
BEER.Hey @raj808, here is a little bit of
BEERfrom @steevc for you. Enjoy it!Do you want to win SOME BEER together with your friends and draw the
BEERKING.