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6/30 - Where Can I Find Poetry Books: Eight Websites for Affordable or Free Poetry E-Books

4/8/2014

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Hello Write Queeners and Poetry Lovers,

Whether you are an avid reader or a writer obsessed with their craft, it seems as though you can never find enough books of poetry. I know that nearly every two weeks, I'm buying another poetry book. How does one support such a bad habit? Barely, but I do in a couple of ways.

In another post, I will talk about bookstores and events that I've been to that have great poetry selections. Right now, I want to tell you about how I support my habit electronically. 

That's right, e-books of poetry. They are not as easy to find like many fiction and non-fiction works, but it's not impossible. You may be able to find them with sites or apps you already use.


  1. Amazon: If you are an Amazon Prime user and have a Kindle, you are very lucky. A perk of being a Prime member is being able to borrow and read books for free. Finding poetry e-books that fall under Prime is not easy, but it is possible. If you don't have a Prime membership, there is a wonderful and growing collection of poetry e-books as mainstream publishers and small presses start to see the value of e-books even for poetry. They are usually cheaper than their physical counterparts. 
  2. Wattpad: Wattpad is one of the largest communities for writers and readers to come together. You can put out your latest work in parts, letting readers rate and comment on your writing as you go. They have an impressive amount of poetry books in the making.
  3. Oyster: This one is one of my new favorites. For $9.95 a month, you have access to hundreds of books. Think about how much you spend on buying a few poetry books in a month. Now think about if you only spent ten bucks a month and have access to poetry, novels, memoirs and more! It's been called the NetFlix of Books. I adore this service and the fact that they acknowledge National Poetry Month with a section of books. If you want to try it out, Oprah has teamed up with Oyster for people to sign up for a two month free trial. Just click the link!
  4. NetGalley: For the professional reader who reviews and recommends books, publishers on NetGalley request or invite you to read digital (some physical too) advanced copies. The catch here is that you have to have a blog, be an educator, a reviewer, journalist, etc. in order to receive books. Their poetry section is small, but there are interesting reads. If you have a Kindle, you can have it delivered straight to your device. Or you can download a PDF copy.
  5. EBooks.com: Which device do you have? A Kindle, an iPad, a Nook? At Ebooks.com, it doesn't matter because they sell e-books for most devices. They have a wonderful collection of the latest contemporary poetry e-books and more.
  6. Free-Ebooks.net: Free books galore with user submitted books. Good way to study the work of other poets.
  7. BookRix: BookRix is another self-publishing book site community. BookRix promises to help you self-publish your work and distribute it to all the major book sellers. It is also a community where you can either read from the site or download books to read on the go. With over 200 pages of books, there is a lot to explore.
  8. PoetrySoup: PoetrySoup is a poetry community instead of a book site. And all they really do is categorize the links to Poetry books on Project Gutenburg. But hey, if you are looking for classic poetry by category, PoetrySoup saves you the trouble. Plus you can join the community and read their users poetry. It's a win-win for everyone.
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A shot from Oyster and their selection for National Poetry Month!
There is a growing amount of places where you can find poetry e-books. Know any? Leave your recommendations in the comments!

Till next time, 

Christina
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3/30 - Poetry Events to Attend for National Poetry Month

4/3/2014

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Hello everyone!

Events, events, and more events! There's so much happening during the month of April. There's poetry everywhere you turn! I thought it would be swell to have a calendar of poetry-related events to collaborate and share with the community and beyond.

I have created a calendar that anyone can add events to. You can even add an event right now while reading this post! Just click on the day of your event and a pop-up to add event details will come up. You can view events for the day, week, month, as a list, and more. 

As of right now, adding pictures is a little wonky. You have to have the image url in order to add a picture. Your best bet is to take a few minutes and type up the details. If you want to promote a flyer, contact me via the contact tab or on one of my social networks and I'll be happy to share the flyer for your event in this post - I am sure this post will be modified many times.

If you choose to send me event details via social networks, please give me a little time to update the calendar. Priority will go for events coming up within the next couple of days. 

Please share this post so poets, event curators/hosts, and the community can share and go to events that promise to make your hearts sing. Supporting each other is the only way we can keep the arts thriving.
Sharing and contributing this information is free. A little free promo never hurt anyone. 

However, if you would like to work with me for online promotion, photography services, etc. for your event or other reasons on a professional level, please contact me via eatmedia.org.
Till next time loves, 

Christina
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The Write Recommendations: A NYFW adventure with FashionRunsTheWorld.com and more!

9/6/2013

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Hello Write Queeners!

Now we know that I am not a fashionista. Give me some leggings, a cute shirt, and comfy shoes and we are all good to go! However, I do have a slight passion for accessories. When your clothes are okay, accessories can make a difference. 

I had the pleasure to tag along with my fashionista blog buddy Simone Danielle of FashionRunsTheWorld.com, where we stopped in at the NYFW Accessory Showcase hosted by Untapped PR at The Carlton Hotel and to the one year anniversary event at Christian Siriano's store on Elizabeth Street. Of course I was representing myself and E.A.T. Media, something that Simone is a part of anyway, but this was her day as a fashion blogger to go out there and do her thing!

She did a fantastic job rubbing elbows with the best of accessory kings and queens, fashion bloggers (like Naty of A Love Affair With Fashion - witnessed such a nice moment between them that I almost cried!), and more. I had tons of fun with her and meeting all of these fantastic people. 

I definitely give a Write Recommendation to Simone and FashionRunsTheWorld.com, plus to all of the people we met and their goods.

Make sure to read her blog and to keep looking out for her posts on NYFW. She still has a lot of events to go to! 

Check out the pictures I took of the night below!
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Visit Simone's blog at fashionrunstheworld.com for all of her fashion adventures!
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Take a sneak peek into what's to come on her blog about her NYFW adventures via her Instagram @simonedanielle11

NYFW Accessory Showcase hosted by Untapped PR

One Year Anniversary Event at Christian Siriano

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New poem via Instagram

8/28/2013

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Under the sound of leaves crumbling, promises uttered under the blindfold of adoring lips. Your fingertips grow cold; my heart beats like the sun, under the thunder of never.
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for the sons i fear of having. for trayvon.

7/14/2013

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dear womb, 

as you tick tock with expectations, let me warn you - this is not the place

you want to be.

we both know that if you are filled with innocence, it would be the color of brown, an earthly shade with a dark past.

if you are filled with gender, it would be phallic and tender, with no true way to protect it from harm.

our daughters are put through the ringer and can be molded into pillars despite tragedy, 

but our little boys are expected to come out fighting with no mercy; the casualties swept up into a pile of statistics.

a man is a man in the eyes of a man, despite mothers who try to hold on to their little boys every time the street lights came on.

those little boys are always thrown into the path of men, who don't remember what it's like to have scrapped knees kissed by their mothers.

they only remember their first encounters with manhood and how they were told not to cry 

where childhood was dropped on the ground like a bag of skittles, spilling fast into a battle of survival of the fittest

pieces of rainbows spinning aimlessly on the pavement, coloring a war unwarranted.

experience will teach the power hungry how to quiet their demons by suddenly making a mother bend over in pain, 

feeling her womb drain out of life as she waits for her baby to come. 

when she gets that phone call, that visit to her door, her womb becomes devoid of stars. nights suddenly become her worst enemy.

i do not want you to feel that kind of pain womb. 

i'll quietly wait for this world to learn what it's like to give birth and to see death before your time,

because i do not want you to tremble at the thought of bringing a son into this world, where a bag of skittles is considered a threat. 

please forgive me for letting you tick on. 

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RivaFlowz Needs Our Help!

2/10/2013

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Image from Rivaflowz.com
There are many writers and artists that I admire. Each one inspires me to be bigger and better One of my all-time favorite writers who I would love to be when I grow up (in a writer's sense of course) is Miss Erica "RivaFlowz" Buddington. Her writing knocks the wind out of your heart. It's that powerful. Every time she posts a link from rivaflowz.com on my Facebook wall, I know I'm in for a good read. 

Through her blog posts, Riva has helped me see what it really means to be a writer in their 20's, typing away at a keyboard to get to their dreams. Now she needs some help. Riva has the opportunity to go to Callaloo Writing Workshop AND get her book edited by a great editor. She is currently fundraising at Indiegogo. Whether it's by spreading the word or contributing to her fund, I am asking my readers (I know you guys are out there somewhere!) to help out. I'm already doing both because I believe in her dream as much as I believe in my own. If I can't take my opportunities yet, I want to help someone else take theirs. So without further ado, here are the links that will help her get closer to her dream:
Help RivaFlowz Get to Callalloo.
(Her blog post about the campaign)

Help RivaFlowz Get Free Verse Edited and go to Callaloo Writing Workshop!
(Her Indiegogo page)
Share on it Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, whatever you may have. If you have a blog, do a write up about it. Share this blog post if you want. Just SPREAD THE WORD pretty please, my Write Queeners. If you can contribute, even better. 

As she always does, Riva has opened up my eyes to something else: Indiegogo. I think I will be looking into starting my own fundraiser for my projects ;)

Have a great Sunday Write Queeners!


And Riva - I hope this helps!
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Have some common sense Bloomberg!

11/2/2012

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To have the NYC marathon is an insult to all of those in distress after Sandy.

I see Facebook pages popping up and unless you take the time to read them sir, I know that you are still going to go through with this. Hell even if you saw all of the comments, you would still do it.

That's not what a mayor does.

Your people are suffering. I am fortunate enough to be okay, but I know people who are not.

Resuming school on Monday? Great! So what are you going to do for the kids whose schools were damaged in the Rockaways? What is the plan for schools in lower Manhattan if you cannot restore power by then? Are kids going to be penalized for not coming to school next week because they don't know when they are going back to their homes? I would like to know that.

And Staten Island...what are you going to do for them? People are needed everywhere yes, but do you have a plan to get people to Staten Island to help. We can't exactly walk there.

Saying, "We are doing the best we can." is not easing anyone's mind, especially when the next minute, you are saying that the marathon will go on!

If I had the chance to talk to you, I would ask every question in this entry and more. If you cannot come up with a good answer for these questions, then guess what...you shouldn't be having this marathon!

Please use the common sense that the good Lord gave you (but is obviously hidden in the shadows of preparing for a marathon that should be postponed!).
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Getting back on track (...and other adventures)

3/30/2012

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I decided last night that before I start my work, that I would sit down at my desk and write a quick blog entry. As I signed into my site and prepared myself to create a new blog entry, I realized something very shocking: I haven't written a blog entry since 2011.

I can't believe it. I knew my life was hectic, but I didn't realize that it was this bad. Here is a quick update of my life: I moved from Queens to Brooklyn, to my grandmother's in East New York because my roommate found a place with her boyfriend. It was her apartment so my mom and I had to go. And just in time because my grandmother is in the beginning stages of Dementia. That's been another journey all together that I will save for my poor creative writing which has suffered during this whole adjustment process. Between home and work, writing has taken a back seat and fallen asleep.

But this is going to change! If I want to reach my goals, I have to write. To start centering my life around writing again, I have downloaded books about the craft of writing and creating books so I can read them during my breaks and while riding on the train going to and from work.

I also went and did something exciting yesterday evening. I stopped by the 2012 Chapbook Festival at the CUNY Graduate Center on 34th Street. I went to a workshop called "Digital Chapbooks" where editors from Publishing Genius, Epiphany, and Triple Canopy talked about how to create a digital chapbook and the benefits/disadvantages of digital chapbooks.

For those of you who don't keep up with all the digital trends in publishing, especially self publishing, there are many ways to get a chapbook online. You can create a PDF of your book through Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Word, or any word processing software that lets you save and/or convert your file to a PDF.  Then you can place that PDF on websites that will let people view, print, or even purchase your chapbook.

One site where you can view documents is called Issuu. Issuu is one of the leading sites for digital publishing. The best part is that they are FREE (paid options for more features are available)!

Another site, where you can sell your book through the method of print on demand, is called Lulu. Lulu helps you self publish your book and not only provides readers with the chance to read it digital, they also have the option to buy a physical copy! The costs of printing is calucated and deducted from your sale, so you don't have to pay upfront fees.

While this was not discussed at the workshop, through my own personal research (and addiction to downloading free books), you can also publish a chapbook through mobile e-book publishers such as Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing. When I say mobile, I don't mean cell phones (though with a smartphone, you can read books). I'm talking about devices you can carry around with you such as Amazon's Kindle, Barnes and Nobles' Nook, and the many tablets that are around such as the Apple iPad. Through these devices, a book can be downloaded directly to the device and you can start reading instantly.

Other things that were discussed were the sense of community (or the lack of community) digital chapbooks create, how one can make it profitable (well it was touch upon), the methods of design, and how to make it easier to understand.

I hope to in the future months, create a series about the different methods of publishing, since I do want to publish my own chapbook in the near future. I am going back to the Chapbook Festival today which will be going on until about 7PM. I will report my experience at the other workshop I am attending this weekend.

Also, don't forget, April is National Poetry Month so you know what that means at The Write Queen: NaPoWriMo!!! and fun blogs to help writers produce poems (I promise there will be more posts).

Till next time!
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No Motivation...

7/14/2011

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Sometimes a writer gets to the point where they need a breather. I'm realizing this as each day passes and I haven't tried to pick up on my writing challenges. I stopped after four days during my June Tanka challenge and I only got pass Day One of my July challenges. It's not that I don't want to write. I really do. It's just that I am completely blank. 

Part of me wonders if this is due to starting a new job. My free time has decreased drastically. When I am free from work, all I want to do is either sleep, hang out away from my house and computer, or look up useless stuff online. I do data entry so I am at a computer all day long. I work from 7 AM to 3 PM, so I get up at 5, leave the house by 5:30. When I leave work on time, I get home between 4 to 4:15. When I am home, I feel half dead.

If I choose to do something after work, that's less time for me to think about writing. But I need a life too. I work Friday - Tuesday so my weekends are gone. I need to make up not being able to hang out whenever since I have to get up so early.

I've been reading more so that's a plus. Maybe when I am ready to write again, this will help. I don't know...I am a bit sad that I am not writing, but I can't force myself either. So for all those who have been following the blog and wondering, this is my official notice saying that I am taking a break to regroup.

But who knows, maybe I'll come back with a book ;)

Take care everyone, I won't be gone for long! (And I'll still put up random posts).
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Please help out fellow poets Mahogany L. Browne and Jive Poetic!

6/8/2011

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A four-alarm fire broke out at an apartment building in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn early Saturday morning. The fire destroyed the building as well as damaged several buildings in the area. The apartment building of Mahogany L. Browne and Jive Poetic was one of them. The family is alright and is safely staying at a hotel, but the cost of staying at a hotel and replacing many of their possessions is beyond normal. They really need your help. I am asking my readers to considering helping out in anyway they can, whether it's donating through this donation page on PoetCD.com or sending contributions to Rachel McKibbens (rachelmckibbens@gmail.com) via PayPal who is accepting donations on their behalf. Physical donations of food, toiletries, clothing, etc. are also appreciated and you should contact them via their websites, social networking sites, etc. You can also help by buying books and CDs by Mahogany and Jive. And as always, a kind word, a message, or a prayer is a great way of showing love and support. I am sending much love and prayers their way, as well as a small donation on pay day.
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    Christina D. Rodriguez

    A Latinx poet and entrepreneur who blogs about poetry, music, writing, and life.


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