Work-in-Progress

Editorial Advice Available at the Fitzgerald Conference

2008-10-07T07:05:00.000-04:00

According to this announcement, the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference is making a few changes this year:

Professional Literary Advice from Top Editors and Consultants

Many writers-from the aspiring to the established-already know about the impressive highlights of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference coming up this October 25 in Rockville, Md. Registrants will have the opportunity to learn from such pros as Elmore "Dutch" Leonard, Susan Cheever, George Pelecanos, Laura Lippman, and many others. Writers can participate in workshops with subjects ranging from novel structure to the relationship between authors and publishers.

For the first time, the Fitzgerald Conference offers writers the opportunity of a one-on-one meeting with a literary magazine editor or literary consultant Amy Holman. This is an opportunity for aspiring authors to sit face-to-face for 20 minutes discussing your manuscript in a scheduled appointment.

How it works:
* once you've registered for the conference, you can sign up for an appointment with the consultant of your choice for only $30. Contact the conference via PotomacReviewEditor@montgomerycollege.edu or 240-567-4100 to schedule and to pay and to submit your mss.
* you'll have the opportunity to submit your manuscript (Fiction 12-15 pages; Poetry 5-7 pages) - the deadline is Saturday, October 11.
* during the conference, you'll sit down with the literary consultant and discuss your work.

Participating editors include ...
* Mark Drew of The Gettysburg Review
* Gregory Donovan of Blackbird
* Patricia Schultheis of Narrative.
* Mary Flinn of Blackbird
* Amy Holman, literary consultant

Registration and more information is here or call (301) 309-9461. These consultations are first come, first scheduled. First register for the conference, then your manuscript must be received by October 11 (Fiction 12-15 pages, Poetry 5-7 pages).

A Surefire Formula for Guaranteed Success in Your Writing

2008-10-06T06:51:00.001-04:00

I’ve been reading Good-bye to All That, which is a classic memoir about World War I, written by British poet/novelist/translator Robert Graves. The book was written in 1929, in a big rush—only 11 weeks—and was successful enough that Graves was able to focus on writing for the rest of his life (he was the author of more than 120 books--!!).

Historian Paul Fussell wrote the introduction to my edition and included this amusing piece that Graves wrote about the writing of his book; Graves really, really, really, REALLY wanted it to be a successful and popular book, and here’s how he went about achieving that goal:

“I…deliberately mixed in all the ingredients that I know are mixed into other popular books. For instance, while I was writing, I reminded myself that people like reading about food and drink, so I searched my memory for the meals that have had significance in my life and put them down. And they like reading about murders, so I was careful not to leave out any of the six or seven that I could tell about. Ghosts, of course. There must, in every book of this sort, be at least one ghost story with a possible explanation, and one without any explanation, except that it was a ghost. I put in three or four ghosts that I remembered.

“And kings…People also like reading about other people’s mothers…And they like hearing about T.E. Lawrence, because he is supposed to be a mystery man…And of course the Prince of Wales.

“People like reading about poets. I put in a lot of poets…Then, of course, Prime Ministers…A little foreign travel is usually needed’ I hadn’t done much of this, but I made the most of what I had. Sport is essential…Other subjects of interest that could not be neglected were school episodes, love affairs (regular and irregular), wounds, weddings, religious doubts, methods of bringing up children, sever illnesses, suicides. But the best bet of all is battles, and I had been in two quite good ones….

“So it was easy to write a book that would interest everybody….”

There you have it, the secret of your success! I’m sure it’s just a coincidence, but a couple days after reading this, I found myself pondering whether I could squeeze a ghost into my historical novel.

Work in Progress: Are You Searching for Perfection?

2008-10-02T06:47:00.000-04:00

Hey—how’s your writing going? Is your latest story/novel/essay/poem/memoir perfect? Mine neither. Ugh.

Getting discouraged? Would you like ONE perfect thing in your life? Yeah, me too.

Is perfect pound cake one of your lifetime goals? Yes! Yes! Me too!

I may not be able to make your writing perfect, but I can show you the pathway to perfect pound cake…and be assured, that this pound cake bears absolutely NO resemblance to that dry, bland, plastic-wrapped crud from the grocery store bakery. Simply follow this recipe exactly and you will have one area of perfection in your life!

This recipe is from an amazingly precise—and demanding—but worthwhile—cookbook called The Best Recipe by the editors of COOK’S ILLUSTRATED magazine. On the cover: “Would you make 38 versions of crème caramel to find the absolute best version? We did. Here are 700 exhaustively tested recipes plus no-nonsense kitchen tests and tastings.” The recipes can be intense, but none has ever failed me. Here’s the edition I use, from 1999, and here’s the new edition, updated in 2004. Highly recommended.

Anyway, this cake is pretty easy as long as you have a mixer—just do exactly what the recipe says:

½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
3 large eggs, plus 3 large yolks, room temperature
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ teaspoons water
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups plain cake flour

1. Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9 x 5 x 3 ½ loaf pan (7 ½ cup capacity)* with vegetable shortening or spray. Line bottom and sides of pan with parchment paper by placing two pieces of paper, one lengthwise and one crosswise, into pan.

2. Beat butter in bowl of electric mixer set at medium-high speed until smooth and shiny, about 15 seconds. With machine still on, take about 30 seconds to sprinkle in sugar. Beat mixture until light, fluffy, and almost white, 4 to 5 minutes, stopping mixer once or twice to scrape down sides of bowl.

3. Mix eggs, yolks, vanilla, and water in a 2-cup glass measure with a pour spout. With mixer set at medium-high speed, add egg mixture to butter/sugar mixture in a very slow, thin stream. Finally, beat in salt.

4. Remove bowl from mixer stand. Turn ½ cup of flour into sieve or shaker; sprinkle it over the batter. Fold gently with rubber spatula, scraping up from bottom of the bowl, until flour is incorporated. Repeat twice more, adding flour in ½ cup increments.

5. Scrape batter into prepared pan, smoothing top with a spatula or wooden spoon. Bake until cake needle or tester inserted into crack running along top comes out clean, 70 to 80 minutes. Let cake rest in pan for 5 minutes, then invert onto wire rack. Place second wire rack on cake bottom, then turn cake top side up.** Cool to room temperature, remove and discard parchment, wrap cake in plastic, then foil. Store cake at room temperature.

The recipe also notes that you can double it and bake the cake in a large, nonstick bundt pan (14 cup) for the same amount of time. Also, “though best when freshly baked, the cake will keep reasonably well for four to five days.” If you can keep it around your house that long!

*basic loaf pan

**I usually leave some overhang on the parchment and use that to pull the cake straight out of the pan.

Tiny Masters: An Approach to Personal Essays

2008-10-01T06:42:00.000-04:00

Brevity Magazine has published this interesting craft essay by Sherry Simpson about writing personal essays:

“The notion of tiny masters comes from author and New Yorker writer Susan Orlean, who once explained that she’s most interested in writing about people who are masters of their “tiny domains.” (She meant orchid thieves, 10-year-old boys, female bullfighters, Maui surfer girls, and The Shaggs, among others.) Adapting her approach to personal essays can help writers discover a rich subject near at hand – something they already know a lot about, something that interests them. It helps shift the focus from writing exclusively about the self to writing about knowledge, ideas and processes. As writers explore their mastery on the page, they instinctively begin playing with structure and making connections they never knew existed. Meaning begins emerging naturally from their drafts, pointing the way to future revisions.”

College Essay Contest

2008-10-01T06:40:00.000-04:00

Not sure if this company is going to sign you up for something or what, but for a chance at $5K in scholarship money, it seems worth taking some time to investigate:

"Education Matters" $5K Scholarship

In the second half of 2008, ScholarshipExperts.com is offering the "Education Matters" $5K Scholarship. One scholarship recipient will be chosen to receive a $5,000 scholarship. Applicants must:
Be thirteen (13) years of age or older at the time of application

Be legal residents of the fifty (50) United States or the District of Columbia

Be currently enrolled (or enroll no later than the fall of 2014) in an accredited post-secondary institution of higher education

Complete an online scholarship search profile at ScholarshipExperts.com

Submit an online short written response (250 words or less) for the question: "What would you say to someone who thinks education doesn't matter, or that college is a waste of time and money?"

Deadline: October 31, 2008
More details here and here.

Delmarva Review: Call for Submissions

2008-09-30T06:37:00.000-04:00

Despite the regional sound to the title, all are welcome to submit to The Delmarva Review, according to this call for submissions:

The Delmarva Review Seeks New Prose, Poetry, and Artwork Submissions

The Delmarva Review, a regional literary review open to all writers, is now calling for submissions of new poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction through Dec. 31, 2008, for the second issue. The editors will consider writers’ “best unpublished work.”

The Review is seeking unpublished “evocative” fiction up to 3,000 words, poetry up to 40 lines, and creative nonfiction up to 1,500 words. Photography and artwork will also be considered for the cover and illustration. For writers’ guidelines and submission information, see the website.

Twenty-four authors from eight states and three foreign countries were represented in the 2008 issue, though most writers were from the Chesapeake Bay and Delmarva region, including Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. Copies are available in libraries, select book stores, and through the Review’s website.

The standards are for “well-written, evocative prose and poetry exhibiting skillful expression.” Submission guidelines called for “great story-telling and moving poetry. In creative nonfiction, we are particularly interested in material influenced by the land, people, and cultures of the Chesapeake Bay and Delmarva regions.”

Established and emerging writers are encouraged to submit their best work. The nonprofit Eastern Shore Writers’ Association, with members across the Delmarva Peninsula, sponsors and publishes The Delmarva Review. Its website is www.easternshorewriters.org.

Job Opportunity at One of My Fave Magazines

2008-09-30T06:33:00.002-04:00

Lots of job listings here lately…maybe it’s all the stress about the collapsing economy! Okay—so this one at the Oxford American doesn’t pay, but it’s an AMAZING magazine and I’m sure you’ll gain valuable experience leading to big bucks down the road in the editorial biz:

I originally read the ad in the magazine, so tell them that when you apply (anyway, you should be reading the magazine). But here’s the info off the website:

If you are enthusiastic about learning any facet of the magazine business, including editing and writing (and other specialized areas like ad sales, graphic design, or publicity), please consider applying for an internship at The Oxford American.

No previous experience necessary. We offer year-round programs that can accommodate most schedules. (The minimum internship lasts three months in the summer and five to six months during the rest of the year.) The job is full time and non-paying.

The Oxford American internship program provides some flexibility for internship starting dates, but most applicants prefer to start their internship periods in January, mid-May, or mid-August. We encourage potential interns to submit their applications according to the following deadlines:

March 20 (for internships starting around mid-May)
August 1 (for internships starting around mid-August)
November 10 (for internships starting in January)

Send applications to:
OXFORD AMERICAN
Attn: Internship Program
201 Donaghey Avenue
Main 107
Conway, AR 72035

Or e-mail: oamag@oxfordamericanmag.com

Oxford American interns are thoroughly trained and given many responsibilities. On leaving OA headquarters our interns are ready to conquer the world. READ MORE ABOUT INTERNSHIPS

Yes, Your Verse Is Alive, Emily!

2008-09-29T06:29:00.000-04:00

I’m sorry to be missing this event, as this new book on Emily Dickinson and her friendship with Thomas Wentworth Higginson has been getting a lot of buzz:

The Arts Club of Washington presents "Her Own Society: Brenda Wineapple on Emily Dickinson" based on Wineapple's new book White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

Tuesday, October 7 - 7:00 PM
Arts Club of Washington
2017 I Street NW, DC.
(703) 994-3166.
Free and open to the public; booksigning and reception to follow.

On Tuesday, October 7, the Arts Club of Washington will host renowned author BrendaWineapple as she discusses the lives of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Their mysterious kinship is illuminated in Wineapple’s book White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, which Knopf released this August to rave reviews. Higginson was a radical abolitionist, John Brown supporter, gun-runner, and leader of the first federally authorized regiment of black troops. He made the elusive poet’s acquaintance when she responded his Atlantic Monthly article offering advice to “young contributors.” She hand-scribbled a query: “Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive?” Examining the poems, Higginson recognized “a wholly new and original poetic genius.”

EMILY DICKINSON (1830-1886) lived out most of her life in her family’s home in Amherst, Massachusetts. A prolific but private poet, she published fewer than a dozen poems before her death; later generations placed her among the masters of American poetry. Dickinson cultivated few outside correspondences, but her letters with Higginson spanned a quarter-century and included the exchange of almost one hundred poems. They would meet face-to-face only twice, encounters that are carefully and thrillingly recreated in White Heat.

BRENDA WINEAPPLE is also the author of the award-winning Hawthorne: A Life, Genêt: A Biography of Janet Flanner, and Sister Brother: Gertrude and Leo Stein. She teaches in the MFA programs at Columbia University and The New School and lives in New York City.

Judith Thurman of The New Yorker praises Wineapple as “an astute literary biographer with a feisty prose style and a relish for unsettling received ideas....White Heat is written with a dry heat that does justice to its impassioned protagonists.” Franz Wright declared White Heat to be “one of the most astonishing books about poetry I have ever read.”

For more information, check the web site.

Popular Culture + Poetry

2008-09-29T06:15:00.000-04:00

Here’s an interesting call for submissions for poets. (I can already envision my “Ode to Project Runway”!)--

Umbrella, the supremely rereadable electronic journal, is now reading for our winter issue, online December 1st. Guidelines are here. In addition to reading works of a general nature, our theme for the Winter edition will be popular culture. Movies, TV shows, music, fashions, trends, pop icons and iconography: intrigue us with poems that recognize the depths beneath the shallows. Deadline: November 10, 2008.

And if you scroll down in the guidelines, you’ll see that they’re also looking for umbrella artwork: “Images featuring umbrellas, in digital format, whether photographs, photographic collages, or photos of artworks, are eagerly sought!”

Blogging Break

2008-09-25T06:25:00.002-04:00

I will be away from blogging until October 8ish, but thanks to the miracle that is modern life, I have—I hope!—set up some posts to magically appear while I’m gone. So…either this will work nicely and there will be updates to read all next week. Or, none of it will work, and there will be about fifty things to read all at once on October 8.

Guest in Progress: Paula Guran

2008-09-25T06:20:00.001-04:00

I don’t know Paula Guran, but I automatically adore her since she was kind enough to grant permission for me to reprint the following piece about our brave new world of grammar. I live in constant confusion about things like whether it’s proper to write e-mail, email, or even E-mail…web site or website? Here are some authoritative answers on this topic for those of you who, like me, sit up at night worrying about this kind of stuff. (I’m serious, BTW.)

This piece is taken from the newsletter sent out by Writers.com: Writers on the Net, which offers a tempting series of online writing classes, writing groups, a (free!) newsletter, which I recommend, and a bajillion other resources. You can check out the line-up of classes here, and subscribe to the newsletter here.

Also worth checking out: Paula’s blog, which can be found here. After all, you have to respect someone who has had this said of her: "Paula Guran is the grey eminence behind the world of horror. She is the secret mistress of the genre. Listen to her."
--Neil Gaiman, author/screenwriter

STYLE & USAGE: CYBERTERMS

Way back in 1994 when I first started composing e-mail newsletters, the words associated with online communication were just beginning to acquire a set "style." My first encounter with bona fide guidance to cyberterms came in 1996 with "Wired Style: Principles Of English Usage In The Digital Age From 'Wired'". I adopted their style for the most commonly used cyberwords and usually adhered to it (with the one exception noted below) since.

-- "Internet" is always capitalized as is its abbreviation "Net"; preceded by "the" unless being used as a modifier. (You find something on "the" Internet, but you connect through an Internet service provider.)

-- "Web" is a shortened form of the proper name "World Wide Web" and is always capitalized. "Web site" is two separate words with the word "Web" capped. (Compound words like "webzine," webmaster," webcam," webcast," etc. are lowercase.)

-- "online" (no capital, no hyphen)-- "email" (no capital, no hyphen)

Now the Internet and its vocabulary are commonplace and enough time has passed that consensus has been reached by reputable style guides. "Internet," "Web," and "online" have been standardized.

And, although I see "website" commonly used in fiction books and elsewhere, as the "Chicago Manual of Style" puts it: "formal usage still calls for 'Web site,' in recognition of the initiatives of the World Wide Web Consortium."

The proper style for the common term for "electronic mail" is, according to the 11th edition of "Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary", "e-mail." (M-W dropped its previous recommendation of the capital "e" but retained the hyphen.) "The Associated Press Stylebook" adopted "e-mail" earlier and the 15th edition of the "Chicago Manual of Style" uses "e-mail" as well.

Bill Walsh, a Washington Post copy editor and author of "Lapsing Into a Comma", considers the unhyphenated version an "abomination." He makes a valid point: "...no initial-based term in the history of the English language has ever evolved to form a solid word."

As for the plural of "e-mail", CMS sees "e-mail" being grammatically equivalent to "mail" as "sensible" as in:
-- Do you have any e-mail?
-- How much e-mail do you get?
-- How many e-mail messages did he send to you?
-- E-mail is great.

Sentences such as these, below, cannot be considered definitely incorrect, but CMS feels they seem to be more informal:
-- I got two e-mails today.
-- Send me some e-mails when you get a chance.

As always, the important thing about style is picking one and being consistent.~~Paula Guran

About: Paula Guran is the editor/editorial director of fantasy imprint Juno Books. In an earlier life she produced weekly email newsletter DarkEcho (winning two Stokers, an IHG award, and a World Fantasy nomination), edited Horror Garage (earning another IHG and second a World Fantasy nomination), and has contributed reviews, interviews, and articles to numerous professional publications. You can read Paula’s blog, here.

Happy Birthday...

2008-09-24T05:09:00.001-04:00

…to my guy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, born in St. Paul, Minnesota (1896). Here’s a link to number of quotations attributed to him, many of them unfamiliar to me. Some are quite bleak, some are funny, many are inspiring, and of course all are brilliant! Complicated guy. I suspect this is not an original observation, but I bet he’d be fun at a cocktail party.

A quick sample:

“Life is essentially a cheat and its conditions are those of defeat; the redeeming things are not happiness and pleasure but the deeper satisfactions that come out of struggle.”

“In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day.”

“It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.”

“His was a great sin who first invented consciousness. Let us lose it for a few hours.”

“First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.”

"Short Stack": New Washington Post Book Blog

2008-09-24T05:07:00.001-04:00

The Washington Post has started a daily-ish blog about books called Short Stack, which can be found here.

I thought this post was interesting, about what a reviewer’s responsibility is when a book has a “secret”: reveal or not? This discussion was in regard to the new Philip Roth novel (which I feel is getting more than enough publicity on its own without my mentioning it by title). From what I’ve read about this book, it seems to me as though because the secret comes in within the first quarter of the book, and because it doesn’t really make sense to talk about the book without it, revealing is okay. Reviewers dishing on whodunit…not so cool.

Baltimore Book Festival

2008-09-24T05:05:00.001-04:00

The Baltimore Book Festival is this weekend, and while you can read about the whole event here, I’d like to note two events of particular interest:

Friday, September 26, 2008
5pm-6:30 pm
Fiction writer Paula Whyman will be reading along with other Maryland State Arts Council grant recipients.

Baltimore Book Festival, Creative Café tent, Mt. Vernon Place, 600 block of Charles Street, Baltimore, MD. Free Admission. Details are here.

Saturday, September 27
2:00 pm
Poet/editor Kim Roberts participates in a panel discussion, "Getting Publicity for Your Work" with Binnie Syril Braunstein of Press Kit Communications, Michelle Murray of Chapter Three, prize winning novelist Djelloul Marbrook, and Marilyn Marbrook of the NEA literary program.

Baltimore Book Festival, Creative Cafe tent, Mt. Vernon Place, 600 block of Charles Street, Baltimore, MD. Free Admission. Details are here.

Reading Opportunity for Poets

2008-09-24T05:04:00.000-04:00

Apparently, it’s all poets, all the time around here this week:

Call for Readers: Cornelia Street Café is looking for readers to take part in a reading series for Post-MFA / Pre-Book Poets. Three poets read for 10 minutes each. The poets then discuss the trials and tribulations of writing after the MFA and before finding a home for their manuscript.The next reading is 11/17/08. This is a non paying gig.

To be a reader, please submit 5 poems to alexandraloxton@gmail.com

You can also check us out on Facebook as "Post MFA / Pre Book Reading Series."

"Stomping Gently on the Writer's Heart"

2008-09-23T09:19:00.000-04:00

Writer and editor Brian Doyle explores the art of “no” in this essay about rejection slips published by the Kenyon Review. (Link via About Last Night)—

“The most honest rejection letter I ever received for a piece of writing was from Oregon Coast Magazine, to which I had sent a piece that was half bucolic travelogue and half blistering attack on the tendencies of hamlets along the coast to seek the ugliest and most lurid neon signage for their bumper-car emporia, myrtlewood lawn-ornament shops, used-car lots, auto-wrecking concerns, terra-cotta nightmares, and sad moist flyblown restaurants.

“’Thanks for your submission,’ came the handwritten reply from the managing editor. ‘But if we published it we would be sued by half our advertisers.’

“This was a straightforward remark and I admire it, partly for its honesty, a rare shout in a world of whispers, and partly because I have, in thirty years as a writer and editor, become a close student of the rejection note. The shape, the color, the prose, the tone, the subtext, the speed or lack thereof with which it arrives, even the typeface or scrawl used to stomp gently on the writer’s heart—of these things I sing.”

Missouri Review Contest

2008-09-23T09:17:00.000-04:00

I try to avoid posting about contests that require fees, but the Missouri Review contest offers a lot of $$ for the winners and is quite prestigious. Plus, the fee gets a year-long subscription to the journal, which is such a good journal that we all probably should be subscribing to it anyway.

But get moving—the deadline is October 1:

The October 1st deadline for our 18th annual Jeffrey E. Smith Prize for fiction, essay, and poetry is rapidly approaching. Once again, we’re offering prize amounts of $3,000 per genre plus publication in our spring issue, making this one of the nation’s top literary prizes. Three finalists in each genre will also receive awards and be considered for publication. The entry fee of $20 includes a year-long, 4-issue subscription. Submit by mail or electronically.

Check out www.missourireview.com/contest for complete guidelines and on-line submission form.

Poetry Job

2008-09-23T09:13:00.002-04:00

This sounds like an interesting job…for someone with these skills! (Note that the deadline for email application is September 25.)

Job Title: Editor and Online Program Manager, Poetryfoundation.org

Job Description: The role of editor of poetryfoundation.org includes the following responsibilities:
--Provide editorial direction to staff editors, producers, and consultants in order to publish the site's frequently updated content. This includes acquiring and approving all articles and other content such as feature articles, podcasts, and other audio and visual features.

--Work with other Foundation program senior managers to publish online content and information from all program areas at the Foundation.

--Develop marketing plans and campaigns to promote the website as needed. Direct the process by which poems and other materials about poets and poetry are added to the site's archive. This includes supervising the permissions process for all published content.

--Collaborate with other editors at the Foundation on poetry issues and judging of awards as necessary.

The role of online program manager includes the following responsibilities:

--Manage the technical staff and consultants who design and develop the site's user interface to
ensure the quality of the user experience.

--Manage technical consultants, including developers, usability experts, and hosting providers, to ensure the security and performance of the underlying technical infrastructure.

--Develop and execute plans to steadily increase traffic to the site, including managing the process for gathering and reporting web traffic data, search results, and web traffic marketing plans, and establishing partnerships with other websites important to the mission of the Foundation.

Qualifications:
Extensive background and familiarity with contemporary poetry
Extensive experience with managing editorial processes, including web publishing processes. Strong knowledge of web technology and web design
Substantial project management experience
B.A. degree or greater in English literature or computer-related studies

Salary: This position offers a competitive salary and excellent benefits. Full-time, exempt.

Application: The Poetry Foundation is an equal opportunity employer and values the various perspectives and talents of a diverse staff. Interested applicants should email a cover letter, along with a C.V. or résumé, to employment@poetryfoundation.org

(please send all attachments as a Word or PDF document; subject line: Editor/Online Program Manager).

The deadline for applications is September 25, 2008.

More info: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/foundation/Webeditor.html

David Foster Wallace Commencement Speech

2008-09-22T09:04:00.000-04:00

Thanks to husband Steve for pointing out this: The Wall Street Journal ran an adaptation of the commencement speech that David Foster Wallace gave to the 2005 graduating class at Kenyon College. I thought it was remarkable:

“And I submit that this is what the real, no-bull- value of your liberal-arts education is supposed to be about: How to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default-setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone, day in and day out.

“That may sound like hyperbole, or abstract nonsense. So let's get concrete. The plain fact is that you graduating seniors do not yet have any clue what "day in, day out" really means. There happen to be whole large parts of adult American life that nobody talks about in commencement speeches. One such part involves boredom, routine, and petty frustration. The parents and older folks here will know all too well what I'm talking about.”

Note: I can’t even remember who my commencement speaker was…some sciencey guy. THIS I would have remembered.

"Workshop Your Book"...All of It!

2008-09-22T09:02:00.002-04:00

If you’re working on a novel-in-progress (or book-length memoir), you probably know how hard it is to find good feedback. Traditional workshops may not be skilled at coping with chapters—not to mention that sometimes you only get to submit one chapter per workshop. But here’s an opportunity for you to get continuous, concrete feedback from an excellent teacher and fellow novelists/memoirists-in-progress. And it sounds as though this class would also work for you even if you’re just at the beginning of your project. Here’s instructor Hildie Block’s invitation and class description:

Are you, or someone you know, working on a book? I have 1 more space in my Workshop Your Book, yearlong writer's workshop. The group meets to discuss novels and memoirs, Monday evenings 7:30-10 pm in N. Arlington (VA) at Ft C F Smith. We meet about 30 times over about 10 months (we take breaks after about 8 sessions). This is the third year I've offered this group and it's amazing to watch people fulfill their dreams and complete a draft in that time.

Most workshops are only 8 sessions long, and people are limited to workshopping about 50 pages in that time. This workshop gives you the opportunity to workshop 200+ pages! And the bonds formed between folks last . . . both of my previous groups have stayed together to support each other through subsequent drafts!

In addition to workshopping, we'll chat about everything from plot structures to dialogue, agents to publishers.

The cost for the whole year is $750, payable through check or paypal.

(And who am I? I have a masters in writing from Johns Hopkins and have taught writing at American and GWU as well as given lectures at JHU. I currently lead several writing workshops through the Writer’s Center. My book Not What I Expected: the unpredictable road from womanhood to motherhood was released in 2007, and I have had over 50 short stories published.)

Please email me with questions-- hsblock@verizon.net

Book Giveaway--Results

2008-09-22T09:01:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Lisa Kenney, of Centennial, Colorado, who was randomly selected to receive a free, signed copy of Joshua Henkin’s novel, MATRIMONY. Thanks to Josh for making the book giveaway possible!

Guest in Progress: Paula Whyman

2008-09-18T09:34:00.004-04:00

A short but sweet intro…here’s writer Paula Whyman, telling it like it is in her “book proposal” for The Life of the Unsuccessful Writer:

The Real Writing Life
by Paula Whyman

Book Notes

From the Publisher: The Life of the Unsuccessful Writer by Paula Whyman is an instructive and contemplative meditation on writing and on life and, indeed, on the writing life, intended to provide a real world, experientially based, holistic ballast against which aspiring writers may gauge their expectations and balance their hopes and dreams. From a ‘writer’s writer’ who’s so obscure, even other writers won’t know who she is. Unlike well-known and successful authors who have produced inspirational writing guides, such as Eudora Welty and Joyce Carol Oates, here is a writer whom other writers can realistically hope to emulate.

Publishers Weekly called the book “a…much-needed tutorial for the vast majority of writers who are destined to labor in obscurity, well-deserved.”

Promotions: Postcard mailing, print ad in Poets & Writers, readings in Spokane, Sheboygan, Tallahassee, Queens, Olney, and anyplace else where the author has long-lost cousins, ex-friends, or more successful author friends who feel guilty enough to let her crash for the night. Print run 500, staple-bound. Workmanlike Press.

A follow-up to this volume, entitled The Spiritual Life of the Unsuccessful Writer: Cursing the Darkness and Lighting a Candle Only to Find It’s Not the Dripless Kind, will be released in Spring 2009.

Excerpt from Chapter 1

A Day in the Life: A Little Splash of Cold Water for the Soul
(or, A Place Called Hope in a Land Called Delusion)

Adhering to a daily schedule of work is the first step toward discipline in your writing. You may wish to keep track of your tasks by entering your daily accomplishments in a journal. Here’s an actual description of a typical work day, selected at random from my own journals.

8:30am: Yippee! The kids are off to school. I have all day to write! What freedom! I pay the bills and eat breakfast. I drink the same tea as Salman Rushdie. Is it helping?

9am: I have all day to write! I’m going to work on my novel! It’s my third novel. The other two have not been published. The first one was rejected by 28 editors, all of whom commented on how much they admired the writing—28 ‘good’ rejections, wow! The second novel made it to the quarter-final round of a prestigious contest run by a small university press (not Iowa). Should I put that in the cover letter with my next submission?? The winning novel was published by the university press as a paperback original, and the author was paid $1,500. There was no second printing. I am jealous.

9:30am: I receive an email from the Author’s Guild announcing a settlement in a class action suit. Has any of my work been reproduced electronically without my permission? If so, I can now get paid. I think about this. Hmm, I’m pretty sure I signed over electronic rights in my contract with that magazine, along with 100 shares of stock in Microsoft, my parking space, a few ovaries, and a puppy. They’re publishing my work; I don’t want to piss them off.

9:45am: People are calling--Everyone loves the piece I wrote for the city newspaper! I’m great! I’m a writer! People read my stuff! Editor asks me for another piece!

10:30am: Editor of city newspaper rejects my new story, saying he likes it but it’s “not quite right for them.” “Not quite right”: the classic half-ass brush-off non-explanation explanation. I sulk. I know it’s a great piece. What’s their problem? My mother thought the piece was hilarious. Are they saying my mother doesn’t know what’s good for them?

11am: I email the new piece to four newspapers in other cities. One writes back immediately to say they don’t buy freelance stories. Another writes back to say I should send it to a different editor. I send it to that editor, and she says they don’t buy freelance stories. I never hear back from the other two.

Noon: The mail comes. I receive a check I’ve been expecting for six months for an article I wrote a year ago. I put it on top of the mail pile to show my husband when he comes home. See, I’m getting paid for writing! I’m a writer!

Also in the mail, a rejection slip from The Topeka Review for a short story I submitted. It has taken them six months to respond to my submission. They send me a form rejection slip with no comments. Fuck ’em. Fuckin’ Topeka. Fucking piss-ant grad-student-reader fucking soul-patch-wearing eyelid-piercing tattoo-fearing milk-drinking intelligent-design-advocating UN-hating philistine

I also receive a rejection for a short story I submitted to a prestigious journal. They give me written comments: They love it! I’m great! They want to see more of my work! I’m on top of the world. I highlight the good parts and tape the rejection slip to an index card and stick it on my bulletin board. Whenever I pause in my work, I stare at the rejection and my soul is filled with a boundless joy. I love everyone. I’m going to finish my novel and it will be published and prominently displayed on end-caps in Barnes & Noble, where it will be selected for the Discover New Writers program. PEN will see my genius and I’ll be nominated for an award. I’ll be asked to write a feature related to the topic of my novel for the New York Times Sunday Magazine. I’ll be interviewed on NPR. An excerpt of the book will appear in The New Yorker. Film options will be sold, translation rights...

12:40pm: Why haven’t I been working on my novel?

1pm: I receive an email from the editor of an obscure online magazine: Will I please write a column for which I won’t get paid, but think of the glory? I’m flattered, and I accept.

1:30pm: I do my civic duty and write a pro bono letter on behalf of my community protesting a tree removal plan. Four board members request conflicting edits. One of them takes issue with the tone. What--Sarcastic? Moi? Another would like to add comments about Intelligent Design. I tell them the letter is theirs to do with as they wish, but please remove my name. Did Hemingway have to put up with this?

2:15pm: Stare into space.

2:30pm: I’m in the zone. I’m writing, finally.

2:38pm: The phone rings. It’s my mother. She’s calling to tell me about something very important that’s happening to someone I don’t know two months from now. I ask her if I can call her when I’m finished working. I’m writing! I can’t be interrupted! Does A.S. Byatt answer the phone when she’s in the zone?!

3:15 pm: I’ve figured out what’s wrong with my novel: There’s no discernible plot. I’m on page 137. But the characters are great! WWVWD? (What would Virginia Woolf do?) It’s important to stay positive; I’m nearly halfway through, right? Must. Keep. Writing.

4:23 pm: Alice calls very excited. She’s going to have a short story in The Atlantic Monthly. It’s the first time she’s ever submitted there. She’s quite talented, and she deserves the recognition. I’m really very happy for her.
Really.

Really.

I’ve submitted every story I’ve ever written to the Atlantic, and I’ve had such nice, encouraging comments from Mr. Curtis each time. “Maybe the next one,” he wrote. He said that! So I send a next one, and a next, and each time I feel as if our relationship is developing, growing—we’re cozy, we’re buds, we’re colleagues—that it’s just a matter of a sentence’s difference, a few words here and there, and he’ll take it, he’ll say ‘yes.’ Yes! Maybe the section breaks are problematic, too many asterisks in a row—Should I have gone with four and not five? I know he wants it to be perfect, and we’ve come so very close. And then I hear—not even from him—about the Fiction Issue: no more monthly stories, just a single annual Fiction Issue. And now he says ‘yes’ to Alice. I can’t help it; it feels like a betrayal. I take out his letters and re-read them, looking for clues, subliminal messages, holograms…

4:45 pm: Stare into space. Wonder when the literary magazines will be submitting their Pushcart Prize and O’Henry and Best American award nominees. How can I get them to nominate my stories? Maybe if I send strong subliminal messages by thinking about it very, very hard--

5 pm: Checking Yahoo News. This is called research. There could be something relevant to my novel. Oil prices; Fed raising rates; riots in France. Nope nothing of interest there. Oh, lookie here, someone was fired from the cast of “Desperate Housewives”…

5:48pm: Must. Keep…

6:05 pm: Time for a word-count check. Only the third one this afternoon. That’s the meaning of self-discipline. Number of words written today in my novel: 664. Total word count: 40,661 I broke 40,000! At this rate, I’ll be finished in, let’s see…in…

7 pm: Where is my check? My husband has sorted through the mail and has accidentally torn up the envelope with my check inside, thinking it was junk mail. “Sweetie,” he tells me, “I don’t think that was a paycheck. The fine print said, ‘Signing this check enrolls you in the Visa frequent buyer program for only $9.95 per month.’”

But I get the first month free…don’t I? ~~ Paula Whyman

About: Paula Whyman is the recipient of a 2008 Maryland State Arts Council grant and fellowships to the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Her work is included in Writes of Passage: Coming of Age Stories and Memoirs from The Hudson Review (June 2008, Ivan R. Dee), and in the current issue of The Delmarva Review. Her work is forthcoming on National Public Radio and in the anthology Gravity Dancers, edited by Richard Peabody. She has recently completed a novel. Her humor writing has appeared in the Washington Post Magazine, and more can be found on her website: www.paulawhyman.com.

She will be reading at the Baltimore Book Festival, along with other Maryland State Arts Council grant recipients: Friday, Sept. 26, 5pm-6:30pm at the Creative Café. Details are here.

Last Chance: Book Giveaway!

2008-09-18T09:34:00.001-04:00

Enter today for your chance to win a free, signed copy of Joshua Henkin’s novel, MATRIMONY. All you need to do is email your
--Name
--Mailing address
--Subject line: MATRIMONY
to me, before NOON EST, tomorrow, Friday, September 19, 2008. One random winner will be selected to receive the book.

Read more about the book in this post.

Great Reads

2008-09-17T08:56:00.001-04:00

I made a conscious effort to read more books this summer, and to try some things I might not normally pick up. Sometimes that worked, and other times not. But here’s a short list of some recently-read books that I would strongly recommend, in no particular order:

Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles. This books starts as a complaint letter to American Airlines about a bad flight delay and ends up as an exploration of a man’s lost life. Funny and fast—probably perfect for your next flight!

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. I’m probably the last person to get around to reading this excellent non-fiction account of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, but if I’m not, and you haven’t read it either, do! This book gave me a new appreciation of one of my favorite cities.

The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver. I previously wrote about Shriver’s other fabulous novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin, here. I was worried that this one might seem gimmicky: a woman has a key moment when she could be unfaithful to her long-time lover or she could not, and the book follows her life both ways, if she were unfaithful and if she wasn’t. Rest assured, it wasn’t gimmicky at all, and offered amazing insight into the nature of relationships. Helpful if you’re one of those people who always second-guesses yourself with “should-haves.”.

Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand. A creepy, horrifying novel set in “real” Maine—away from the tourists—that asks tough and fascinating questions about art. Not for the squeamish….

Bad Girls: 26 Writers Misbehave, edited by Ellen Sussman. Women writers were asked to contribute essays about being “bad”—whatever that might mean to them. Two of my favorites were the essay by Katharine Weber about climbing to the 99th floor of the World Trade Center when it was under construction and Pam Houston’s account of her estranged father’s death and funeral.

Before I Die by Jenny Downham. I already wrote about this one here, but it’s worth mentioning again. A 16-year-old girl dies of cancer—yet it’s a beautiful exploration of life and death, not at all sentimental or sappy, but obviously very, very, very sad.

Money for Nothing, Book for Free

2008-09-17T08:55:00.001-04:00

Don’t forget to enter for your chance to win a free, signed copy of Joshua Henkin’s novel, MATRIMONY. All you need to do is email your
--Name
--Mailing address
--Subject line: MATRIMONY
to me, before NOON EST on Friday, September 19, 2008. One random winner will be selected to receive the book.

Read more about the book in this post.

No spam, no mailing lists.