Hook, Tagline and Sinker - Ever Wanted to be a Published Writer?

So here we are, again, on the cusp of a Garbanzofest.  We've made it to Garbanzofest 2.  May we still be here to say we're on the eve of Garbanzofest 20 1/3.

We begin, as all good stories do in this age, with a trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m-T4zkbphY

And a social media event link:
https://www.facebook.com/events/421536421269936/

But what's a Garbanzofest?

Well, a Garbanzofest is a celebration of words.  Or, better put A Celebration of Words.  Maybe we should even consider A Celebration of Words©.  Most specifically this is a Celebration of Words for the release of Garbanzo Literary Journal (Book Two).

If pressed for time, there's the press(ed) release version here (although with warning and spoilers - the version in the next few paragraphs is so much more exhilarating to read):
http://bethel.patch.com/groups/events/p/garbanzofest-2--garbanzofest-reworded--a-celebration-of-word...

There aren't enough celebrations of words.  Of storytelling.  Sure, there are lots of words and there are author tours and there are festivals...but what is it to "celebrate" words?

One must revel in the words.  Announce and enunciate in a manner that lifts them to the heavens.  Party.  Believe with the fullness of breath and the participation of pronunciation that if love is the key, then what delivers from the heart holds is greatest sway in the letters and passionate whisperings that come from all things poetic (as was spoken in Dead Poets' Society - "To woo women!").
As this is the second, we've done this once before.  While it seems silly to say that before the second there was only the first, it is an assumption not to be taken lightly.  For example, the run of each issue of Garbanzo Literary Journal is 304 6/10th books...maybe one day we'll put the 6/10ths books on display or auction them off to charity - for they are quite the beautiful work of art.  As we said above, let us all reconvene for Garbanzofest 20 1/3.

What is there to see if you join us on Saturday June 1st from about 1pm until 4 or 5pm at Molten Java and Byrd's Books in the lovely Victorian at 213 Greenwood Ave in Bethel?  Yes, you might say we are over-taking the place - but that doesn't mean there won't be coffee and food to be found - and there's a little something for everyone, always, in such a fest.

Well, the event will have three live music performances, an open mic (at which all are invited to read) including a number of Garbanzo authors reading live their published works, videos of Garbanzo authors from around the world reading their stories, and a community collaborative writing event - The Haunted Bookshoppe which invites all guests to participate in adding their words.  The latter of course is where we came in with asking if you'd like to be published.  But, as all good previews, we're going to tease and nudge (please don't begrudge) and get back to that in a moment.

So, there'll be ceremony.  There'll be pomp.

There will of course be words - live readings from Garbanzo authors as well as video and audio recordings sent by our most devoted and spectacular Garbanzo authors who, since they are located all throughout the world, could not attend in the body yet wanted to be here in the soul, and found a digital transubstantiation to be possible.  Just because we're bookmakers doesn't mean we hold communication crosses of adamantium up so as to fend off the technology zombies (although that mixed metaphor gives one quite the idea for a fine story t be written soon...).

There'll be a whole lotta live music from talented local musicians:

Them Damn Hamiltons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mURHOfB7QfM

Lys Guillorn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO5dCKJVPSk

Elisa Flynn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t51xdYnc8oM

Coffee at Molten Java.  All sorts of tomes available at Byrd's Books - including both Garbanzo as well as some of the handmade journals we make - a bit of both - words from others and a place for words to be written!  An opportunity to support the creativity of Bethel.

And intriguingly, a little something we call a Community Collaborative Writing Project.  Here's where the title of this article comes back around and the wonder must grow so as to lead all paths to Garbanzofest and each hand lifting up a pen...

We did one of these Community Collaborative Writing Projects a few weeks back at an event held in Tarrywile Mansion.  We asked everybody who was interested, daring, brave, to write around thirty words (punk-rock style - which means rules are meant, to be broken, if given a purpose and reason but not for the sake of, never just for the sake of) based on the theme "The Spirits of Tarrywile Mansion".  After the event we reached into the Big Purple Box of Words© (yes, really, we have a Big Purple Box of Words© - that alone makes it worth adventuring to the event on Saturday) and found an order in which the transitions flowed and the themes ran like a river seeking its outflow after a long Winter's nap.  The result was...well, we'll have it on-hand to see what happens when a bunch of folks throw caution over the edge of a cliff (and provide it a hang-glider) and tell a story.

That being said...

The project for Garbanzofest the Second is based around the theme "The Haunted Bookshoppe".  Why the spooky themes?  Well, just look at the release date for the next volume of Garbanzo (you see, we don't publish on an every three hundred sixty five day pattern - oh no, certainly not us).  Suffice to say we're looking ahead.

So we'll ask all visitors and revelers to set fly the whimsy and set free the imagination and write a portion of what will eventually become a new long-form poem stitched together from only the writings gathered on June 1st at the event.
All participants who have their work selected will have their names included with the publication of the piece in Garbanzo Literary Journal #3 (Available October 27th, 2013).  There will be free graphic novels and DVDs available to all who participate and leave an entry in the Great Purple Box of Words© (which has now been mentioned three times - intrigue is dripping from the computer screen now!)

You can see a bit more, here:  http://www.garbanzoliteraryjournal.org/community.html

Is that enough intrigue?  Something different on a Saturday afternoon?  A gathering of the local artists in an opportunity to do something a bit out of the ordinary in which participation is hoped for and potentially expected - which of course some could consider the opposite of entertainment (which might be passively devoured) whereas this asks of effort - which is the step one must take toward creation, toward art, toward that which satisfies the soul.

Better yet, think of it this way - we're not looking for authors.  We're not even looking for writers.  We're looking for storytellers.  And while one reading this might say that they are none of these things - even when you go to a grocery store, and come home, and recount the event - we're telling stories.  Thus we're all story tellers.  Don't worry about not being a writer - we'll guide you to writing down the words because once one realizes that writing is just telling a story - and that one doesn't have to be an Author (see the foreboding capital A) then it is much much easier and that much more exciting.

Yeah, that's how Garbanzo Literary Journal works.  A conduit for stories.  At the end of days, stories are what we leave behind.  Make each and every one, a page-turner.

P.S.  We released the lobsters (as mentioned in the previous column).  But, that story will have to wait until next time...

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If you've read this far, you must think, feel, wonder, posit...something....about what you have just read.  Even if it is but a greeting, leave a note at the bottom, to mark tangible trace that you were here.  The internet does not have to remain so impersonal.

Want to learn more about The Rooster's Crow...visit http://www.theroosterscrow.org

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