Scare Our Shorts Off 3: Revenge of the Results

By: Samantha Martin Finally! The long-awaited sequel to the sequel to the original super-small story contest! Did you get to see The Votening? I thought it was alright, bit repetitive if you ask me. Continue reading →

Scare Our Shorts Off: The Awakening

By: Samantha Martin So last month I asked that you submit some stories along the theme of spookiness. The scariest part? They had to be 50 words or less! And you delivered! Here is a short list of short stories for your viewing pleasure. After you’ve read through, please vote here on who you think … Continue reading →

Scare Our Shorts Off!

(Or SOSO, as I like to call it, knowing that your submissions will be anything but!) By: Samantha Martin For those of you who don’t know, Halloween is one of my most favorite holidays, just barely edging ahead of Christmas and my husband’s birthday (don’t tell him, I don’t know if he reads this column). … Continue reading →

Mix’n’Match Stories: The Matchening!

By: Samantha Martin So, as you know, I challenged writers in the prefecture to give me a story beginning, and then switched things around and had them write an ending to a friend’s story. The two submissions were interesting beginnings by themselves, but they completed each other in such an original way on top of that. … Continue reading →

Mix’n’match Stories: The Promo!

By Samantha McCalip Last month, we linked a story challenge for the prefecture. Please read through the rules here! Unfortunately, I didn’t promote it well AT ALL, so I want to extend the deadline. Please get your stories to goodmorningaomori@gmail.com by Friday, May 13th! That gives you two weeks to write your story beginning! In order to … Continue reading →

Mix’n’Match Stories: The Rules

By Sam Martin We’re going to take a break from contests for an issue or two, but I think I speak for everyone when I say that your story submissions were PHENOMENAL. We want more! So here’s a writing exercise to showcase more of the prefecture’s talent… Continue reading →

What’s your genre? The WINNER is…

[Usually Wordslingin’ is published in the first volume of every month – but we’ve had so many people asking to know who the winner of Sam’s excellent contest was that I’ve decided to bring the reveal forward a little bit. For all your Wordsinglin’ fans, don’t worry! There’ll still be a fresh new article in … Continue reading →

What’s Your Genre? VOTE ON THE WINNER!

HAPPY FIFTIETH, GOOD MORNING AOMORI!! Now as for the Aomori community itself, we knew to expect great things, but wow. You are all a true bunch of creatives, d’you know that? The stories you sent in blew us away, then drew us right back in. We’ve compiled all of your submissions into one post, but before you … Continue reading →

Mystery? Fantasy? Horror? What’s Your Genre?

By Sam Martin In honor of the 50th issue, we here at GMA want to give you a chance to get re-inspired by Good Morning Aomori. Our head editor did a beautiful job of revamping the website, and I thought the Wordslingin’ column could use a touch of freshness too. In this issue, I’m going … Continue reading →

NaNoWriMo 2015: YOU DID THE THING!

By Sam Martin So now that we’re past November, how do you feel? Did you meet your word count goal? Did you complete a story? Continue reading →

NaNoWriMo 2015: HALFWAY THERE

Edited by: Sam Martin “We’re halfway done! Don’t stop! Don’t lose momentum! Don’t lose motivation! YOU CAN DO IT!” writers everywhere cry, supporting one another via social media during this month of hectic word-splosions. It’s all well and good that they believe in you and all that… but what happens when you need to take a break? What … Continue reading →

NaNoWriMo 2015: Why do we DO this??

By: Sam Martin It’s that time of year again, writing fiends– spooky, frightening, horrific writing preparations! Yes, on top of getting jazzed for the best holiday ever Halloween, writers around the world are preparing (or pantsing***) their National Novel Writing Month masterpieces. Continue reading →

How Did We Get Here?

Edited by: Sam Martin Our poem for this issue is brought to you by Hashikami’s own Shikisha Cowan. Autumn is one of the most beautiful times of the year because it is a transitional period. Leaves are changing colors, temperatures drop with surprising quickness, and sunshine becomes a precious commodity. In this poem, the change has already happened, … Continue reading →

Home Away From Home: Part Two

Edited by: Sam Martin Thank you again to Melissa Pavy for submitting the striking imagery in her poem, titled simply “igai.” It was the best possible start to the prompt, Home Away From Home, where we ask JETs to send in their impressions of their placement in poetry form. This week in the second installment of … Continue reading →

Home Away From Home: August

Last month before our summer hiatus, we at GMA asked you to submit a poem about your placement in the prefecture. It could be any kind of poem, any length and rhythm, so long as it was about your home in Aomori. Our first submission is from Melissa Pavy about her placement in Yomogita Village, and it reminds us … Continue reading →

Home Away From Home

Edited by: Sam Martin Hello all creatives, newb and seasoned, in Aomori-ken! We’re going to take a break from our regularly scheduled Proper Prompting to ask you to submit a poem to us. Not just any poem mind you, but a poem about your placement within Aomori. It can be a haiku, a slam, in … Continue reading →

Proper Prompting: Part 7

Edited by: Sam Martin The last few issues of Proper Prompting were compiled from the amazing submissions of JETs around Aomori prefecture. We even had a few anonymous submissions, like last month’s beautiful introspection. I’ve been writing alongside the scribblers in the -ken, and for this month’s issue I’d like to showcase a bit of … Continue reading →

Proper Prompting: Part 6

Edited by: Sam Martin I just wanted to start off by saying thank you to everyone who submitted their work to be published over the last couple of months. It’s absolutely wonderful to know that Aomori Prefecture has such talented and varied creatives living in our midst! Thank you for being so willing to share … Continue reading →

Proper Prompting: Part 5

Edited by: Sam Martin The sakura are blooming, and there is a certain magic in the air that comes with springtime. Our fifth installment of Proper Prompting finds us with another submission inspired by the Random Lyrics Challenge. If you’re interested in hearing how that prompting works, click here! Last month’s anonymous submission conjured up images … Continue reading →

Proper Prompting: Part 4

Edited by Sam Martin Last month, we received a poem by Essa Wiseman that definitely made us feel empathetic to those we spurn on a regular basis. Why do we bat away those that love us best? We could have had something special! It was the perfect conclusion to the prompt “Loveless”, given out in … Continue reading →