Hi

Looks interesting enough,

 Wonderful idea! I'm not great at poetry but I think this would be fun to do.

The idea is great! I could only support it. My suggestion is to submit poems not only about chess (this is an imposed limitation), but whatever you want.  I also wonder if anybody can suggest a good printing shop?(not for this project, but in general: I am looking to find out where in NJ or close  I can find a decent price and quality.

Thanks,

Happy

hmmm. why not?

I like the idea.  My impulses run along synapses that indicate a readily accessible (by the larger www community) ongoing collecion of writings by any and all comers of the Chess.com community with the idea of annually taking the 'best of and creating an electronic book, you know the Chess.com Poets and Writers Anthology that could be the document that is publishable.
Just don't ask me to diagram the previous sentance. 
We would put the yearly writings (poetry, short story, memoir, etc.) selections for the webzine to a straight up and down vote, (by the larger Chess.com community -yes?) very democratic, or have the editors come up with the final selections.  That way, the work selected would be of the highest quality, which is important, in my opinion.

With all the brains behind the Chess .com operation perhaps the zine could be downloaded by interested parties, as opposed to published, for a very modest fee (marketed on the internet) and the monies if any could be used to offset costs -if any- of putting the product out.  Just some thoughts.  Charlie

Well, I'm only in grade 11, so it's not very good, but I have a pretty sweet poem about chess that I'd be willing to submit.  Let me know if you want it!  :)

I'm risking a little here by posting this - I hope he doesn't mind. And I hope you all care enough for another opinion (mine).

IJReilly and I kicked this "Publishing" idea around a bit (earlier this month when we were newly 'promoted') before we came up with the "Open Mic" idea. It was his idea actually, as an PWoC Anniversary celebration. And he had clearly put a lot of thought into it - having some prior experience - he had clear ideas, defined criteria and even offered to publish this in book format (at his cost) with an end-product that all we contributors had to do is pay postage for our free copy. Very generous.

But I snuffed it. Being cynical at the core, I talked him out of it saying it wouldn't have enough interest or the interest would be too qualified (in a conditional sense, not a skill-level sense)...

I guess I should have given PWoC the benefit of the doubt because I can see more enthusiasm from a passionate contingent here. Whether it would been enough to result in about 50 pieces (no more than 2 each), I don't know.

And when the idea came up again vis-a-vis Rael, he thought maybe take his idea off the shelf, dust it off and run it past you guys. As we considered it, we saw the other weeds start to bloom: copyright issues, pseudonyms, themes. And then we saw the committee monster slinking through the undergrowth, ready to wrap itself around the project like a boa constrictor.

Perhaps we're not ready yet. That's my opinion, but I'm not sure we'll know his - he's on sabatacal and will perhaps be back at a much later date - perhaps late Spring, early Summer. In the meantime perhaps we at PWoC can do this "What-If" posting and hash it out.

Me? If I think its worth that kind of effort, I'll use the energy to submit to an anthology in Real Space.

Good Luck. Seriously, I mean it.

I would like to express my complete support in whatever capacity you see fit. 
Memoirs of the lesson I learned playing chess...that have nothing to do with the game....would be something I would like to add to the book...what do you think...?

Same thing happened to me too and I don't have time to re-type it. :(

Good luck Rael; it seems like a lot of work to me.

I like the idea, but the publishing won't be something Rael can do on the way home from work. There would have to be some face-to-face between at least a few of the contributers, and most would prefer not to hop aboard a plane headed for Canada.

No...the copyright problem is not a simple or minor task.  You lay yourself wide open for the damnedest set of legal battles over copyright infringement.

I think, rather than immediately seek those incidental peculiarities of country of origin or the fact this site is about chess or even that it's the internet or what have you - I think, at base (and perhaps this is just my stubborn mysticism); the only point is that we exist and are human.

The way I see implementing this would be to bring out the best of each of us - similar to the way we offer ourselves to the electronic forums... only this time it would be an exemplary aspect of our person (which, if you reflect, is an extention of what we're doing here, virtually - showing ourselves, our hopes and suspicions, our poetic circumloquations.

And the end of the day the only constant here is the sharing of our essences. Who cares how we came to be here? Who is standing in some marketplace in the center of the city speaking to a beautiful stranger and questions how they came to be there? Life is something that happens. So too, our writing.

If we wish to do this, it will be easy. All we've been doing in life, be it in real life or in cyberspace - is reaching out.

All humanity - just reaching hands. Offerings. We choose to show ourself or disguise ourselves. In all spheres. So be it.

This is simple. Each of us who imagines that this might be something they wish to be a part of need only soul search to the extent as that they discover a few personal pieces that they deem shareable - not surprising, seeing as how this is already a sharing collective.

In all spheres our highest act is to put our best selves forward. We needn't complicate it. So you have strung together some sweet string of language once upon a time that you're proud of, well, celebrate it and send it out there.

All this zany scheme is comprised of is that I would take such offerings and format them into an interesting word document, one which we'd all print. No one would benefit monetarily from this, presumably. Copyright in this day and age ought not to be a poet's fear. But yes, I've been paranoid with the best of them.

Anyways, it was an idea like the spear of some racing Zulu warrior dashing into the savannah and tossing it towards the sky, hoping it will land home in some exotic beast upon which we might feast (meat = success in this metaphor).

We'll have fun debating the title. But by the way, if we go through with this, it counts as a publication on your writer's CV. My perfectionist instinct means I would follow through fancily.

It's only an offer. The hand is outstretched. Moments dissolve and others arrive. There is no reason this idea might be in any way exceptional. It's just something casual and cool, which requires only your yes.

I think if we put together a themed collection it might be worth putting out there:

poetry and prose about chess or online-ness or having friends we've never met.

Yes, you are insane.

But, as Neils Bohr used to say about difficult equations or cosmological theories: "Nice. But it's not crazy enough."

Possible we could do this, chapters by country of origin, call it "My Little Piece" or something about our tiny corners of the world and e-world. We write about our towns or our cyberspacetimes or our connections via these keyboards.

How about a screenplay? each writer gets 3 minutes. 30 writers, short, short stories.

Graphic novel?

Maybe Step One is compiling all here first and editing later.

so i thought i posted here, must've been an internet glitch?     I'm in on this.  let's just make sure and get the copyright stuff sorted out ( a minor task ).