In honor of its 5th anniversary, Indie Blu(e) Publishing and Brave & Reckless are teaming up this November to sponsor a series of 30 daily creativity prompts, comprised of the titles of our 25 published books and four upcoming titles, along with a couple fun phrases to round it out. We think our book titles are pretty damn cool and we hope they spark your creativity. You are welcome to respond to as many that inspire you.
There is only one rule to the prompt challenge: the book title or phrase should serve as the title of your piece OR all the words in the title should be integrated into your piece somehow.
Note: Some of IB books have fabulous subtitles. Want an extra challenge? Try integrating the subtitle into your response
It is our honor and pleasure to publish your prompt responses on Indie Blu(e) Publishing and Brave & Reckless . We welcome poetry, prose, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, and high-res original art inspired by the prompts.
How to Submit
- Email your submission to indieblucollective@gmail.com
- Writing can be submitted in the body of the email or as a separate Word document or PDF
- If you are submitting writing, please include a suggested image to accompany your work. Unsplash and Pixabay are two of our favorite sites for royalty-free images.
- Your email should include your name EXACTLY as you want it to appear on Indie Blu(e) Publishing and Brave & Reckless, a short biography, and any links you want shared.
SMITTEN This Is What Love Looks Like is an anthology of love poetry by 120 lesbian and bisexual women ranging in age from 15 to 87 from around the globe. This is a book that should be gifted. In spite of its implied audience, Smitten is not just for women who adore women. It is for those whose hearts twist and skin prickles at romance, who know the flight of butterflies in their stomachs, who long for the feeling of home in another’s heart.
“This is poetry that penetrates into the heart of not only the experience of lesbian love, but into what love means to the human psyche. These are emotions that live in each of us; that they are expressed here with a uniquely feminine interpretation truly enriches the palette of lesbian literature.
Women poets have here found a stage upon which they can present their passions and intimate feelings openly and in unison. SMITTEN brings the beauty and intricacies of women’s love for each other into a unique and captivating presentation. With the publication of this volume, Indie Blu(e) remains at the forefront of giving lesbian literature a new and important direction.
Lesbian writers have long suffered the neglect of history and the close-mindedness of the world of literature and have yet somehow managed to rise above the indifference and the prejudice to express their distinctive creativity. The women represented in SMITTEN are strong voices confidently expressing their individuality. Perhaps Sappho verbalized it best when over two thousand years ago she wrote:
“May I write words more naked than flesh, stronger than bone, more resilient than sinew, sensitive than nerve.“
Yes, that is the kind of poetry to be found within the pages of SMITTEN.”
–Erik Klingenberg, blogger, nightpoetry
“Love doesn’t have just one “look” to it and I thank SMITTEN for reminding readers of that.
Love transcends race and gender.”
– Christy Birmingham, Versions of the Self
“Too often we sideline LGBTQ+ work as a genre of its own, when it should be mainstream; literary works which are written by people to be enjoyed by people, no matter what their race, sexuality, gender and/or religion.
Yet, until this happens, I applaud Daquin and Indie Blu(e) Publishing for brazenly making a stand. Until labels are but words and not identifiers, it is important that writers like those in this collection share their voices and stories, ever-lasting love and heartbreak, and their hopes and fears, to remind the literary world they will be heard, no matter what the response may be.”
–Kristiana Reed, Flowers on the Wall
To purchase SMITTEN This Is What Love Looks Like: Poetry by Women for Women an Anthology, click here.
Publication Date: October 27, 2019
ISBN-13: 978-1951724009
Indie Blu(e) Publishing 