Rough Draft
The Official Propaganda Organ of the Cincinnati Writers Project
Summer 2011
Greetings From Rough & Draft
Scott Heile (Rough) Tonya Mitchell (Draft)
writerscott@yahoo.com tmitchell.inkspot@yahoo.com
Welcome to the warm weather issue of Rough Draft. It’s summertime and the livin’ is easy. But what about the writing? For some of us, it’s that time of year when school’s out, vacations beckon and we’d rather spend time outdoors than edit a manuscript. Well, hats off to those of us who are keeping at it.
Those of us who, like postmen, persevere. Rain or shine.
Here’s a glimpse of what’s inside this issue:
As always, if there’s a writing topic you’d like to see us explore or news you have to share, let us know. We promise not to hurt you.
“While thought exists, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living.”
-Cyril Connolly, literary critic and writer
The One You Feed
Marcia Eckstein
meckstein@lys.org
What makes you look forward to critique group?
We all know the answer to this one. Who doesn’t love those excellent souls who, when reading your manuscript, give it thought and care? Those people who critique the manuscript, not the writer. The brilliant ones who understand that listing strengths is as important as marking weakness and, in addition, can verbalize what they found meaningful. The ones who consistently answer the questions: What grabbed you? What stopped you cold?
Those writers who treat you like a writer.
The writer who prepares her manuscripts professionally and by implication treats group members as professionals, who sits quietly while the room puts her baby under a microscope, who knows why she’s there, can ask the group a pointed question regarding her manuscript, can accept the critiques for what they are worth, and learn from them, is worth more than we will ever be able to repay.
What makes you dread group?
The woman who expects group to critique her piece, but doesn’t find time to return the favor? The writer or critiquer who is more interested in showing off her cleverness than in the piece itself? The one who whines because others don’t agree? The critiquer or writer who drones on and on, the only one in the room in love with her voice? Last, there is the brilliant one, misunderstood by the rest of the world, a martyr, a missed miracle whose only weakness is bad luck because anyone with half a brain would see how perfect her writing is.
“Groups, by their very nature, are dynamic.”
All groups—be they writers or otherwise—include negative and positive types. If we are honest, most of us exhibit negative traits at one time or another. They are as common, as insidious, as bothersome, as dirt. For dirt we use a broom, with humans the rules differ.
There is good news. Groups, by their very nature, are dynamic. From month to month a group will change because members’ circumstances change. If you dread the guy across the room because he argues with every word, maybe it’s time to take a vacation from his manuscripts and to use the critiquing of same to take a powder. The social workers will tell you that feelings are what they are, it’s how you act on them. To sit and argue is a waste of time. To clench your fists and curse the idiot under your breath is silly. After all, it’s your blood pressure that’s being affected.
After a time (a very long time for some), the Dreaded One will begin to realize that you are paying more attention to other writers. In a lucid moment, she may even ask herself why. In a perfect world, she will change her behavior to suit your expectations. Let me know when this happens.
In the meantime, keep calm and carry on knowing that this is a group and, as such, change is over the horizon. By all means follow the iron clad rule of any good marriage: you will not change them. Only they will change them.
“The negative will eliminate itself once it figures out it’s gaining no purchase in the fertile ground of your mind.”
Your brainpower and energy are too valuable to let something this insignificant prevent you from producing razor sharp critiques and impeccable manuscripts for group members who deserve it by returning your favor. As the song goes, accentuate the positive. The negative will eliminate itself once it figures out it’s gaining no purchase in the fertile ground of your mind.
There is allegedly–who knows what breeds some of these internet stories?—an old Navaho legend that goes something like this. A young boy was listening at his grandfather’s knee about the good wolf and the bad wolf in each of us. The good wolf is charity, love, kindness, respect, forgiveness, patience, etc. The bad wolf represents greed, envy, egotism, laziness, bad manners—you get the point. These two wolves, the grandfather warned, wage battle within us throughout our entire lives.
Perplexed, the young boy asked, “But Grandfather, which wolf wins?”
The grandfather answered, “The one you feed.”
“What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers.”
-Logan Pearsall Smith, American-born essayist and critic
The Next Anthology Cometh
Tonya Mitchell
tmitchell.inkspot@yahoo.com
It’s official. The CWP will publish its fourth anthology in 2012. This time there’s no theme, so be bold, be creative. The focus is on the writing itself. Send us your best poetry and short stories. Enrapture us with your words. We can’t promise you fame or fortune, only a thorough reading of your manuscript and (possibly) publication.
So get writing. Polish that plot, work those words, buff your characters to a fine sheen. The submission period isn’t that far off - April 1 thru April 30.
Look for the official call for entries, guidelines, updates and deadlines in upcoming Rough Drafts and online at
www.cincinnatiwriters.org.
“If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”
-Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist
Finding My Muse
Scott Heile
I sometimes see myself as a gardener, cultivating little black rows of words (mostly weeds), urging the seeds of my imagination to sprout and grow into stories or chapters. More often than not, however, the fragile seedlings wither and die on the vine, leaving me unsatisfied and kneeling in the dry and barren patch of ground that might have been.
Now that I've released my daily dose of poetic metaphor, let me get to the point. Those bastards! You know the writers of whom I speak. They complete twenty, even forty novels in a lifetime. How do they find the time, the inspiration?
I hear talk, authors who swear every word they put on paper is done for one person: their 'muse.' A glittering, awe-producing creature so lovely in appearance or charismatic in personality that the writer can't help but pour forth his best work to please the object of his literary affection.
“Unfortunately, no matter how much encouragement these loved ones have given me in life, as muses, they're flat liners.”
I long for such a person and have tried using people around me: Mom (she always knew I'd be somebody), Grandma (the epitome of wisdom, surely looking down on me expecting only the best), my wife (my soul mate, the one who reads all of my stuff first), even my high school creative writing teacher (he set the writing bug in my head, defined it, first recognized my ability).
Unfortunately, no matter how much encouragement these loved ones have given me in life, as muses, they're flat liners.
At times, darker forces inside take notice, compelling me to use negative inspiration: the jackass kid in school who made fun of me, editors who've rejected my submissions with the cold hand of indifference, those quick to denigrate my position in life. (I'll show them.)
Even with these unhealthy thoughts swimming around in my ego, I find no magical deliverance from my torturous lack of motivation.
“The reality is that writers, the real bread-and-butter, every-day-in-the-trenches writers get up in the morning and put words on paper because they have to.”
I go deeper, wondering why I write at all, why anyone writes. Is it simply for the money? Certainly I've been around long enough to realize how infrequently 'real' money comes to an author for his efforts.
The reality is that writers, the real bread-and-butter, every-day-in-the-trenches writers get up in the morning and put words on paper because they have to.
Maybe the 'literary gods' sprinkled magic dust on the heads of a chosen few babies in their cribs, or some spark of storytelling greatness, handed down from Chaucer to Austen to Updike, burns deep in the belly of a small percent of the population, leaving them to decide whether they have been given a gift, or a curse.
What that situation doesn't leave them is the option to choose not to write.
The songwriter Tom Waits once penned, "Got to get behind the mule in the morning and plow." Most of us, I suspect, have lives with jobs, families, duties. We live those lives, take care of our family and fulfill our duties, finding time (if possible) to scratch out a few sentences.
Those with a 'spark' in their belly have the same distractions and obligations, but a different approach. The dishes are piled in the sink and the boss wants that statistical report in two days, but first they bang out a few thousand words. (Hopefully the kids get fed and sent off to school first.)
The lucky writers with the magic dust in their hair must write. Regardless of the compensation, they are driven to put the thoughts in their heads on paper. What reward did Emily Dickenson or Edgar Allen Poe receive during their lifetimes for such great effort, if not the self satisfaction of creating literature, poetry?
I know what you're thinking. "Poor Scott, he can't finish a short story because he wasn't tapped on the shoulder by the hand of God to be among the chosen ones. What a cop out."
And you're right. That is a cop out.
The simple truth is, there's no beautiful woman or mountaintop guru waiting around the corner to hand out inspiration, and there's no magic dust or belly spark. There's only the will and determination to write. The ability to sit down in front of the computer screen day after day and pour out one's thoughts through good times and bad.
This is what separates the writers from those who just like the idea of being a writer; the love of writing for writing's sake.
So the only question remaining is: Which one am I?
Joseph-Beth Booksellers to Host Our Own Tom Groh, Other Authors This Fall
Scott Heile
Our ever-busy and much loved (by some) fellow CWP member Tom Groh has yet another feather in his writing cap. His short story, Fortune's Hostage was published online by Short Story America and selected to be in the first Short Story America Anthology: 56 Great Contemporary Short Stories.
After a high society power luncheon (sea urchin sushi and quail's egg salad, I'm told) with the editor/founder of SSA, Tom learned the anthology will be carried by Joseph-Beth Booksellers in their 'new out in hardback' section at the front of the store, and at the Bookshelf in Madeira's Camargo Station.
Book signings will be scheduled with the Bookshelf at the Mercantile library in August, and at Joseph-Beth in October. Dates and times have not been announced.
The website to purchase the book is: http://shortstoryamerica.com/index_buy.html
Congratulations to Tom, and keep up the good work.
“When I get a little money, I buy books. If there is any left over, I buy food.”
-Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch thinker and humanist (1466-1536)
Poetry in the Hills
Karen George
This is the second year I attended the Hocking Hills Festival of Poetry and it will no doubt become an annual event for me. The festival, now in its tenth year, was held mid-April, two and a half hours from downtown Cincinnati at the Izaak Walton League Lodge on Lake Logan in Logan, Ohio.
Alan Cohen, event organizer, asked for a donation of only $25 to attend the event, which began on Friday evening and ended Saturday. The Friday night event started with a half-hour variety of music, followed by three poets reading their work: Ellen Bass, Andres Rivera, and David Lee.
Santa Cruz poet Ellen Bass's poems have appeared in hundreds of journals and anthologies, she's won prestigious awards, and teaches in the MFA writing program at Pacific University, as well as conference and workshops internationally. Her poems were personal, and yet universal, about such subjects as sex, love, birth, aging, and death—poems of ordinary life—spoken with straightforward language and quiet intensity.
The second featured poet was Andres Rivera, a young poet, hip-hop artist, and social justice activist who lives in South Central Los Angeles, where he is a Community Outreach Coordinator and Teaching Artist with Street Poets, which he described as a "poetry-based organization dedicated to the creative process as a force for individual and community transformation." His spoken poetry performance was riveting with his use of rhythm, rhyme, and repetition.
Friday night concluded with David Lee, pig farmer and Utah's first Poet Laureate, who has published a dozen books of poetry, and recently retired as Chairman of the Department of Language and Literature at Southern Utah University. His poems were rambling, hilarious tales of local townsfolk and the rural life of the American West, told with an authentic voice of the characters that might inhabit those places.
Saturday morning a two-hour workshop was led by Ellen Bass, revolving around various uses of place or setting in your poems. The rest of the afternoon you were free to read, write, meet with other poets, hike, nap or eat to your heart's content.
That night's program was similar to Friday's, with the addition of two things: poetry performances by local students who competed in the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Competition, and the announcement of the Power of Poetry contest winners, followed by the first, second, and third place poets reading their winning entries. There was no fee to enter the poetry contest, but you had to be present to win the prizes of $100 for first place, $75 for second, and $50 for third.
The poets were gracious and accessible and the atmosphere was casual: metal folding chairs in a large semi-circle, microphone in good working order, people coming and going as needed. But as Alan advised on his website, bring cushions along to make the sitting easier.
Besides the poetry festival, Logan has hiking trails, and is close to such attractions as Old Man's Cave, Ash Cave, and Cedar Falls, part of Wayne National Forest. There are campgrounds, cabins, bed and breakfasts and hotels, as well as ample restaurants.
For more information, visit the website, where you can sign up for their mailing list to receive emails about next year's events: http://www.powerofpoetry.org/homepage.htm
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”The covers of this book are too far apart.”
-Ambrose Bierce, American journalist, short story writer and satirist
The Mad Anthony Writers Conference
Debbie Groen
debgroen@cinci.rr.com
On April 8-9, I attended the Mad Anthony Writers Conference at Miami University's Hamilton Campus. The proceeds from this event establish a literacy program for the Boys and Girls Club of Hamilton. The conference was very informative, and I was impressed with the caliber of speakers and workshops.
Friday's sessions were devoted to Murder & Mayhem and included a visit from the Newport Gangsters with tales of bootlegging and gambling in neighboring Kentucky. Fairfield Police Officer John Cresap and his German shepherd dog, Ketcher, demonstrated a K-9 Unit in action. Ketcher has found drugs in unusual places such as baby bottles and
stuffed animals.
Chief Anthony E. Dwyer of the Butler County Sheriff's Dept. presented "Anatomy of a Homicide" which followed a murder investigation from start to finish, complete with police file photos. Good, old-fashioned footwork nets the best results, and no clue is too small. Finding evidence is essential, and can turn up in unlikely places such as sweeper bags, drains, and even drywall. Chief Dwyer worked on several high profile homicide investigations that have been featured on "America's Most Wanted" and the Discovery Channel's "New Detective" Series.
Author Hallie Ephron told us what's involved in "Writing the Killer Mystery". Author & playwright Sally Nemeth, who has written for "Law and Order", gave us the inside scoop on writing for TV.
Lt. Scott Scrimizzi of the Hamilton-Fairfield SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) shared his experiences and treated us to a tour of the fully-equipped SWAT vehicle, which was very impressive.
Saturday's twenty workshops were for writers of all genres. One of my choices was "Crafting Emotion of the Written Page" with author Nancy Pinard who is on the board of the Antioch Writers Workshop in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She pointed out how using all of your senses makes the scene come alive for the reader.
Hallie Ephron gave the luncheon keynote address. She urged us to be persistent, regardless of the number of rejection letters we receive. She read some of her rejection letters, and pointed out that many great authors had been repeatedly rejected before they became published.
The next Mad Anthony Writers Conference will be held April 13-14, 2012. To find out more, check out their website at www.WriteLikeMad.com
“When I was writing The Keep, my writing was so terrible. It was God-awful. My working title for that first draft was, A Short Bad Novel. I thought, How can I disappoint?”
-Jennifer Egan, 2011 Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad.
A Rant About Dialogue and Punctuation
Ryck Neube
I’ve discussed this before, but here’s something that has been plaguing members of our critique group for years. Usually I use more profanity when I discuss this. But I’ll be kind with y’all.
First of all, go to your Word Options, then to Proofing, and make sure your Grammar Check is turned on. Beware that it’s flawed and capable of being horribly wrong, but it will draw your attention to punctuation blunders.
The ‘he’ in ‘he said’ is only capitalized as a sentence opener.
He said, “I protest this mockery.”
“I protest,” he said. “This is a mockery, sir.”
“I protest,” he said, “this mockery, hon.”
“I protest this mockery,” he said.
She asked, “Should I protest this, Grandma?”
“Should I,” she asked, “protest this for my grandma?”
“Should I protest this?” she asked.
“Geronimo!” it said, leaping from the plane.
Note the frigging punctuation. Note what is capitalized and what isn’t. This ain’t rocket science. I suspect the confusion comes from that pesky pronoun I. Since it only appears capitalized, it seems natural that its fellow pronouns would also. Notice how ‘hon’ and ‘sir’ are not capitalized. Now, if your character’s name actually was Honey, that ‘hon’ would be capitalized. See how ‘Grandma’ proper is capitalized, but ‘my grandma’ is not.
Once again, go back to the examples and note the punctuation. I keep encountering writers who think it’s optional. It ain’t.
“Dialogue is not the way real people speak.”
Now, let’s talk something harder than rocket science.
Dialogue is not the way real people speak. Next time you are listening to folks chatter, take note at how poorly people communicate. How many “I, uh, ya knows” can you use before your reader gets bored? Instead, a writer’s dialogue is there to inform your readers, to move the story along.
But while you are eavesdropping on people, study their body language. Like apes, people do a lot of communicating with their bodies. A shrug at the right time can be as good as a page of blather.
Close your eyes. Hear how your characters talk. They all sound alike, don’t they? You hear them in your head, but on the page…they all sound alike. So what are you going to do? At this point, too many writers shrug and say, so what. Hey, (here you fill in the blank with a best-selling author) doesn’t bother to do it. Why should I? Well, once you sell twenty million books, your editor and agent don’t care. You’re their walking ATM.
What can you do?
You can give each character their unique vocabulary, words or phrases only they use.
Now, if you decide to go with dialect, remember that a writer’s job one is to be reader friendly. Notice how few authors hit it as hard as Faulkner did back in the day. And notice how his earlier work didn’t layer it on like the later work did. So until you are as skilled as a Nobel Prize winner use a light brush to apply your dialect. A little goes a long way. And do be consistent, once a character says ‘ain’t’ he’s stuck saying it throughout your piece.
First-Time Novelist Coming to Cincinnati
Karen George
Karenlgeo@zoomtown.com
Michael David Lukas, author of the debut novel, The Oracle of Stamboul, (Harper Collins) has been invited to Cincinnati by CWP member Carol Laque. Lukas’ visit is scheduled for September 13th-16th with a reading/book signing planned at Joseph-Beth Booksellers for the evening of Tuesday, September 13th.
Lukas’ book, hailed as “a charming tale of passion and intrigue” by the Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman, revolves around an eight-year-old girl who becomes an advisor to the sultan of the Ottoman Empire and ends up changing the course of history.
The San Francisco Chronicle declares, “Lukas brings a raconteur’s sense of storytelling, a traveler’s eye for color, and a scholar’s sense of history.”
Lukas has been a Fulbright scholar in Turkey, a proof-reader in Tel Aviv, and a Rotary scholar in Tunisia. He is a graduate of Brown University and the University of Maryland, and his writing has been published in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Slate, National Geographic Traveler, and the Georgia Review.
Other author events are being planned. Details will follow in a group email once dates, times, and locations have been confirmed.
To read an NPR interview with Lukas and an excerpt of the novel, visit: http://www.npr.org/2011/03/01/133965740/doing-the-first-novel-hustle-the-oracle-of-stamboul
Writer’s Prompt: When a little nudge will do you…
Write about a guessing game that goes wrong
Change a “thank you” to a “screw you” and see what
happens
Write about the elephant in the room
Ugly something up and start anew
Write about a journey with an uncertain destination
Writer’s Word Match
Can you match the word to its correct definition?
(answers at the end of the issue)
\LOO-kyoo-breyt\
\PAN-gruhm\
\long-GUR\
\LOG-uh-fahyl\
“If you like the idea of being a writer, you can buy a black turtleneck, a Vespa, and hang out at Starbucks. You can have all of the affectations of being a writer without the hard work. It's a much easier path to follow.”
-Jamie Ford, author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, when asked what he liked better—writing or the idea of being a writer.
South of the Border Correspondent
Jenny Engleka
jennyengleka@yahoo.com
We went to the zoo in Panama City this weekend. To the untrained eye (not that I'm an expert) this zoo might have seemed like a sad, sad place to house the animals. The cages were made of chain-link fence and were not the spacious real-estate the giraffes or the tigers at the Cincinnati Zoo enjoy.
But the fact that all of the animals in the zoo were possibly rounded up within a five-mile radius, I think they (almost exclusively birds and monkeys) were glad to be out of harm's way.
It only cost a $1 for adults, $.60 for kids, so I'm not going to complain.
“Those who throw objects at the crocodile will be asked to retrieve them.”
The best part for me was the sign posted in English and Spanish on the Crocodile exhibit. It stated: Those who throw objects at the crocodile will be asked to retrieve them.
Karen George won the annual Next Great Writer Contest, sponsored by the Carnegie Center in Lexington, for her short story "The Floating Child."
Karen George's poetry chapbook, Into the Heartland, is available from Finishing Line Press (www.finishinglinepress.com) or Amazon.com.
Her poetry interview on WVXU's "Around Cincinnati" is archived at: http://198.234.121.108/aroundcincinnati/041011_KarenGeorge.mp3. She was also featured on From the Inkwell Crescent Hill Radio program, and on Accents - A Radio Show for Literature, Art and Culture on WRFL, 88.1 FM, Lexington.
Karen’s poems have recently been published in Blood Lotus: An Online Literary Journal, #19, the Summer 2011 issue of Ontologica, the anthology For a Better World, 2011, and a flash fiction piece appeared in Thumbnail Magazine.
The following authors will be appearing at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, for readings and signings this month:
Michael Sims, The Story of Charlotte's Web: E. B. White's Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic, Monday, July 18 at 7:00 pm
Kelly O'Conner McNees, The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, Wednesday, July 20 at 7:00 pm
Ellen Sussman, French Lessons, Thursday, July 21 at 7:00 pm
Jonathan Herbert, Banyan Street, Thursday, July 28 at 7:00 pm
Fantasy writer Jim Butcher will be celebrating the release of his new novel Ghost Story with a Q&A and signing Friday, July 29 at 7PM at Books & Company, 4453 Walnut Street in Beavercreek, Ohio.
A new writers group will be meeting the first and
third Wednesdays of the month at 7:00 pm at Ryan's Tavern, 241 High Street, Hamilton, OH. Email Deb Groen at debgroen@cinci.rr.com for more info.
There's also a new writers group in West Harrison, IN. It meets every third Thursday from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm at the North Dearborn Public Library. For more information see
WordWritesGuild.org.
Books by the Banks: A Mecca for Readers and Writers
Tonya Mitchell
tmitchell.inkspot@yahoo.com
Cincinnati’s book festival, Books by the Banks, is set for its 5th annual run at the Duke Energy Center on Saturday, October 22 from 10am to 4pm.
Whether you’re an avid reader or a writer looking to stalk “real writers” (or both, like me), Books by the Banks is the place to be. Network with authors from all over the U.S, attend author panels, purchase and have your books signed by those living the dream.
Authors specializing in Children’s Books, Cookbooks, Fiction, Local Interest, Non-fiction, Teen and Travel will be in attendance and more authors are still being added to the roster.
Check out the program, list of authors and more at their website at booksbythebanks.org
Kentucky Women Writers Conference
Dates for the September 2011 conference have been set. Daytime sessions will take place on Friday and Saturday, September 16–17.
Registration for the daytime sessions is now open. We offer discounted rates for early registration before August 1: $150 for 2 days, $80 for 1 day, and $30 for students. Early registration is crucial to ensure your place in one of these limited-enrollment writing workshops:
Workshop in Poetry with Lynnell Edwards
Voice and Persona in First-Person Narrative with Kim Dana Kupperman
Workshop in Poetry with Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Workshop in Short Fiction with special guest Sallie Bingham
Workshop in Poetry with Susan Stewart (Saturday only)
Stretching the Boundaries in Nonfiction Filmmaking with Katja Esson
Workshop in Fiction with Danzy Senna
Other daytime sessions with unlimited enrollment will include craft talks on translating poetry, plotting in fiction, and more. A complete schedule will be released later this summer.
You may register by check or online with a credit card, and you will be given a confirmation number. To enroll in a workshop, you must first purchase a two-day pass and then enter your confirmation number on the workshop enrollment form.
For more information go to kentuckywomenwriters@gmail.com
Looking for Poets
Jeromy Cannon hosts a poetry and music show called, "Bytes N Pieces" on Cincinnati's newest radio station, WVQC. We broadcast via our low power FM signal 95.7fm and stream via our website at www.wvqc.org. Are you a local poet? Jeromy would like to feature you on the show. Contact him at moonguppie@gmail.com. He would be happy to meet with any poets interested. The show airs on Tuesdays from 8-9pm and is rebroadcast Mondays from 10-11:00pm.
The Accidental Word
Overheard at CWP Writers Group
“I think we all write what we know. A writer should write what they know. Of course, I don’t know what that says about Mary.”
And speaking of Mary…
Mary FitzPatrick on High Fantasy: "I don't understand the appeal of inherited authority and the lack of flush johns and antibiotics."
Found hanging on the cubicle wall of a co-worker: “I’m a wordsmith. Kinda like a blacksmith only without all the tools and fire and stuff.”
Etcetera
Classified Ads
Got something to market? Email tmitchell.inkspot@yahoo.com. It’s free.
Support Local Authors, shop at the BOOKBANK, Cincinnati’s only local author’s bookstore, located at InkTank. Contact ann@inktank.org if you are a published local author.
Writer’s Retreat
Southpointe Villas Two-bedroom, ocean front condo 12 miles South of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Bring your own sheets, towels, toothbrush and bathing suit. Pool, cable TV, full kitchen, 1.5 bathrooms, private balcony, great ocean view, sleeping room for six. $550 - 990/wk depending on time of year. Call Linda Arnest 513.379.2094 or email linda_arnest@hotmail.com.
http://www.writersdigest.com/101BestSites for 101 Best Brainyquote.com – fun; ssa.gov/OACT/babynames – trying to name a character?; ***urbandictionary.com – modern;
Nanowrimo.org – National Novel Writing Month (November)
Book-in-a-week.com – Their motto: BIC HOK TAM. Butt in chair, hands on keyboard, typing away madly; thestorystarter.com – need a kick start?; Online Writing Groups and Communities
absolutewrite.com – a lot here, navigate at your own risk.
ed2010.com - for learning about the magazine side of publishing; thwritingbridge.com – Application process. If you’re approved, you’re on probation and must keep up with the required critiques and submissions; agentquery.com – Indispensible; duotrope.com – handy for finding markets for short stories; writersdigest.com, the magazine on-line, and writersmarket.com have enough to get you on your way. But you have to pay for a subscription to writersmarket.com, along with publishersmarketplace.com, another biggie in publishing, so if you’re just looking for agents, agentquery.com is free and has all you need; jakonrath.blogspot.com – Newbie’s Guide To Publishing
cbaybooks.blogspot.com –good glossary;etreidliterary.blogspot.com
nathanbransford.blogspot.com –agent site
***bookendsliteraryagency.blogspot.com – daily posting from Jessica Faust of Bookends Literary Agency ***pubrants.blogspot.com –agent Kristen Nelson, chatty, useful labels, interested in women’s’ fiction (and beyond); ***rejectionqueen.blogspot.com – if you want to feel better about your own rejections
anotherrealm.com/prededitors - Preditors & Editors
literarylawguide.com/resources.htm – the go-to source for copyrights; QueryTracker.net – If you plan to send out lots of queries, or have more than one project
sfwa.org/beware – Originating from the sci-fi crowd, this watchdog site is for all writers; Read up on your fav author: armchairinterviews.com; eighteenquestions.com; noveljourneys.blogspot.com; coolstuff4writers.com – Self-explanatory; writesideout.com –Custom book covers, t-shirts, etc.
CWP Members blogs & websites:
www.joedriscoll.org
CWP: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CWP_Fiction/?yguid=177017700
Mary Fitzpatrick, Prez CWP, http://maryfitz.typepad.com/my_weblog
Bob Lewis, fiction writer, http://iaintsorry.blogspot.com
Amy Purcell, fiction, www.amypurcell.com/blog
Chris Specht www.cspecht.com
Madeline Izzo - www.pittsburghwritersproject.org
Jenny Engleka www.icecharades.blogspot.com
Victoria Barber-Emery www.idlechameleon.com
Jeff Hillard, RED! www.redwebzine.org
Victoria Barber-Emery - vbemery@vibedesignllc.com
Rough Draft is published four times per year: January, April, July and October. We are always looking for compelling articles, information, news, etc. for upcoming issues, so why not anonymously volunteer the writing services of a fellow member? J
Anything of a timely nature should be sent well in advance of the next issue (unless, of course, you are submitting publishing credits – these are accepted post mortem).
Email Scott: writerscotth@yahoo.com, or Tonya:tmitchell.inkspot@yahoo.com
Answers to Writer’s Word Match:
1. c 2. d 3. a 4. b
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FREE PARKING
Definitely worth the price of admission check out the Geofair website for more info
My friend Jenny, who lives in Panama City, sent me this sign from the zoo there.
If only rules like this could really be enforced...
It was mostly hidden my clouds but I think it may have been that mythical sun thing I've heard about.
Serously, I love cold wet weather, but even I'm looking forward to maybe seeing some sun tomarrow.
It can stay cool though. I hate hot weather
I wasn't going to watch, really I wasn't, but they are putting new gas lines in on our street and they started work at 7:00 and I couldn't sleep through the noise, so I though "what the Hell..." and got out of bed and plopped down in front of the telly.
Just a few basic impressions -
Sometimes things line up and you do get rewarded for your hard work. OK, it did rain on our opening event. Twice. But, we also got two rainbows, including one of the brightest, coolest, double rainbows I've ever seen.
Note the Big-Bug Praying Mantis under the rainbow.
These seven year old cellphone camers photos don't do the sculpture or the rainbow justice. Some people had real camers and I'll try to post one of their photos later.
David Rogers artist who made the big bugs, was there, and he's a good sport. At one point when we were avoiding rain in the special event tent he signed our Big Bug Uniform shirts. That was pretty cool.
After all the planning the Big Bugs are finally here.
The official opening is Saturday, but the dry-run for Park employees it tonignt.
Ok. I know you've heard that before. (The part about me being back, not that part about me having a question about time travel)
I have some book reviews that are way overdo and some general stream of conscious random thoughts to post about.
For starters, a discussion over at Galaxy Express has got me thinking about time travel. If you were sent back in time to say ancient Rome or Medieval England, could you use your everyday 21st century knowledge to change history? I'm assuming in this question that both time travel and changing history are possible. Those are two big assumptions I know, but for this discussion lets just take that as a given.
In stories like Lest Darkness Fall (and I'm sure countless other SF stories) the hero is able to change history by building some sort of machine before it's time. These stories always made me feel inadequate because I think I'm smart, and well read, and pretty hand's on about things, but I'm also pretty sure I couldn't build a printing press, steam engine, or even introduce penicillin if I was somehow marooned back in the past. ( Oddly since I can spin, knit, throw a pot, make a bow, or atal atal and even knap flint I always thought I would do OK in some sort of after the fall situation.)
Is this just me? Is it a sign that folks, even SF readers and science Geeks like me are less mechanical than they were back in the day when stories Lest Darkenss Fall were written? I'm curious to see what people think. I really an interested in discussion here folks so feel free to comment.
Rough Draft
The Official Propaganda Organ of the Cincinnati Writers Project
Spring 2011
Greetings From Rough & Draft
Scott Heile (Rough) Tonya Mitchell (Draft)
writerscott@yahoo.com tmitchell.inkspot@yahoo.com
Welcome to the spring issue of Rough Draft. It's April and, this being our first newsletter as co-editors, we thought it fitting our release date fall on or around April Fool’s Day. We’re fools at heart (we volunteered to edit this, right?) and we figured we’d bungle something (or many things) putting this issue together the first time.
To honor the “month of fools” we’ve included one bogus article. It will be your job, dear readers, to cull that bad pony from the herd of serious pieces. If that’s not tempting enough, here’s a teaser of what’s in store in this issue:
So bear with us as we tackle our first issue, and attempt to “make it our own” as former editor Marcia Eckstein insisted. And please…let us know if we’re doing something, anything, right.
“Life, like fiction, is filled with plot problems.”
-Brian A. Klems, Newsletter Editor, Writer’s Digest
Speaking of Which
Marcia Eckstein
meckstein@lys.org
April 23rd, 2011 marks my nineteenth year with CWP. I remember leaving a message on an anonymous voicemail, then forgetting it. Three weeks later a stranger named Garland called. He chattered on and on about being out of the country and not calling back sooner and someone named Arnold at whose home the “meetings were held”. I kept telling him he had the wrong number. Then he said the magic words: “writer’s group”.
At that moment, a big chunk of my life fell into place.
During my first meeting, at Arnold’s Bar & Grille, I was nobody special and the feeling was sweet. Not the high strung one with the pretentious vocabulary, not the flighty artistic one who got lost trying to find the place, I was the common as dirt suburb lady with silver hair who, like everyone else at the table, happened to write. People got my jokes. I could refer to Dorothy Parker without sounding obsolete. I was allowed to hate Faulkner (but only if I promised to give him a second chance). My brain was stimulated. I joined a posse.
I fit.
That feeling of belonging still thrills me to this day. Without CWP, I’d still be depending on friends and family to “read it and tell me what you think”. This does not work well for me as my mom thinks everything I touch is golden, while my brothers think of me fondly as the family eccentric and my dad assumes I already know that I could do a better job of it. Reading this over my shoulder, my husband said, “no changes, it’s good”.
You can see what I’m up against.
So I want to say thank you. When I joined CWP, I went from being someone who writes to being a writer. My job now is to make others feel as valued.
“Stories are the vessels I use to interpret the world to myself.”
-Pat Conroy, author of My Reading Li
An Interview with Tom Groh of LitWits
Tonya Mitchell
tmitchell.inkspot@yahoo.com
Rough Draft caught up with Tom Groh to discuss the LitWits, the CWP splinter group that began meeting in January of this year. The following interview was conducted via Skype while Tom was doing time in a correctional facility somewhere in Kentucky. (He’s out now, and doing fine.)
RD: Why form another writers group, separate from CWP?
TG: Honestly, I get hung up on the word “separate” because I still consider myself a part of the CWP family, and I’m sure my fellow LitWits do as well. But to answer your question, why form another group to begin with? It was my hope that in a smaller, more focused group, people with mutual interests and shared reading/writing experiences might be the answer. So far, so good.
RD: How does this group differ from the Wednesday & Thursday night groups?
TG: The only real distinction is that members are focused primarily on literary fiction. Most have already published fiction or poetry, and continue to write seriously, consistently, with the intent to publish again.
RD: Any special rules this group adheres to that’s different from the Wed/Thursday groups?
TG: Not really. There are only 6-8 of us and we meet just once or twice each month, so I didn’t expect to have the “volume” issues a larger group might encounter sometimes. That in mind, we did relax a few of the submission limitations (how frequently one could submit, word count, etc.) Thankfully, three months in, that hasn’t been a problem.
RD: How many LitWits are there, and is there room for more?
TG: Officially, we have 10 members on the roster, though so far only 6-8 have been able to attend regularly. Honestly, I’m thrilled with the number. We fit around one table, don’t have to shout to be heard, get our food and drink orders placed in one fell swoop (truly, a blessing), and, perhaps most importantly, we never feel rushed. So I’ll not go so far as to say that we’re a closed group, but I think we’re managing nicely right now.
RD: Do the LitWits plan to continue going to regular CWP meetings?
TG: Attending any and all meetings beyond the iron LitWit curtain is strictly forbidden and is cause for immediate expulsion from LitWits. Additionally, communication with “CWP regulars” is frowned upon, though I realize we have no legal way to monitor that.
Seriously...LitWits come and go as they please. We’re not stranded on red-butt monkey island, nor do we want to be. A handful of LitWits still attend the Wed/Thursday meetings as often as their schedules allow. I’ve been back twice (and both times have been pop-ins) but the cauliflower bisque and goetta grilled cheese sandwiches have been visiting me in my dreams, and I do miss my friends. I’m sure I’ll be back from time to time.
RD: What sort of writing is being passed through to LitWits so far?
TG: Mostly weird stuff, seriously. Tales of mummified trophy hands, Jewish hillbillies, geriatric criminals, teenaged voyeurs, fence-post-wielding snake exterminators. Virginia Woolf would likely dismiss us with a pale-lipped sneer, though she was always a bit of a prude.
RD: What’s the inspiration behind the group’s name, the LitWits?
TG: Some of us bounced different names around, but for weeks the only thing we could agree on was the need for a catchy name. LitWits just came to me, the way these things often do, and it stuck. For me, the term represents the thin line between self-deprecation and flatulent arrogance, paradoxical traits common to all successful writers.
RD: How do members submit stories and generally stay in touch with one another?
TG: LitWits has a Yahoo Groups site similar to the site maintained for the main group. We post writings and comment to each other primarily through that site, though we also email one another, IM, text, phone, meet each other surreptitiously at dark bars and other rendezvous points.
Visit the LitWits site at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CWP_LiteraryWriters/
“Some want to write, others to have written.”
-variously attributed
Columbia University Study Bristles Writers and Other Professionals
Scott Heile
Have you ever felt a certain sense of pride which comes from finishing a story or novel, especially when it has been well received by readers? If so, researchers from the University of Columbia might now be able to shed some light on why.
In a detailed study of 7,500 people across the country, data was compiled regarding the amount of self-importance associated with working in particular professions. Factors such as salary, number of subordinates and quantitative benefit to society each job contributes were cross referenced with how necessary people believed they were to the people and institutions around them. When researchers from the Sociology and Statistical Mathematics Departments of Columbia analyzed the data, they came up with a list of the five professional types most likely to overestimate their self-importance. The list is as follows, with number one being the highest amount of ego inflation:
1. Educational Administrators
2. Senators
3. National Dog Show Canine Handlers
4. Fiction Writers/Journalists
5. Parking Meter Readers
While some of these positions are viewed by most people as important, others have sparked debate as to their overall benefit to society. (Senators?)
The Columbia study conducted in 2009 and published in the Journal of Academic Sociology, (hereafter referred to as the JAS,) raised eyebrows not only in the professional communities it singled out, but also from some unlikely places. Not surprisingly, spokespersons from nearly all of the above mentioned professions quickly denounced the study as 'unscientific' and 'biased.' The dog show handlers were the only group to remain silent on the matter, primarily because no one representing them could be found.
Within days of the JAS article, no less than fifty major newspapers across the country ran scathing editorials against the study, major network nightly news anchors questioned the motives of the researchers, and late night talk show hosts feasted on the whole affair.
Tempers escalated further when Columbia Statistical Math professor Trey Winston was quoted in the New York Post as saying, "I don't know why the evening news (people) are so upset. I didn't think they had writers anymore. Do they?"
Senator Robert Meszaras, a Republican from Arizona and ranking member of the appropriations committee, initiated action to investigate the funding of the study.
"I want to make sure tax payer dollars were not used to subsidize this useless and insulting poppycock," the Senator stated to a room full of sympathetic reporters.
The appropriations committee placed the investigation on a legislative fast track and was also pressuring managers of the Milton and Yvonne Bradley Charitable Trust to disclose any grants given to Columbia in connection with the matter.
Two days before the vote, however, the Obama administration revealed that its newly appointed Commission on Humility had requested Columbia to conduct the study. Given that information, Senate Democrats reversed course and blocked any further involvement on their part.
Many school boards across the country cancelled subscriptions to the JAS and a (purported) grass roots movement of parents and children held silent protests in support of their board members and principals. In towns from Maine to California, streets were lined with kids holding messages, (many hand written on the backs of outdated school levy yard signs,) in protest of Columbia and the JAS.
One mother from Oklahoma City said, "We likes what they do for the kids," when asked why she made the effort to get out and support local school administrators.
Penny Cavendish, spokesperson for the United Meter Readers of America (UMRA) stated that the study was, "just another attempt by big city government to chain the self esteem of UMRA's members to the gutter."
Sol Knowles is the mayor of San Pedro, California, where the UMRA is headquartered. When pressed for a statement regarding the official position of the meter reader's union, he replied, "Huh?"
Readers of Rough Draft might wonder why fiction writing, the one job most associated with this publication, has not been addressed. The simple answer is, given the writing profession's high ranking of self-importance, the editors feared RD readers might abandon the article once they read the section pertaining to them, and go off immediately to drink a glass of Chianti.
Although the outcome of the Columbia study might be disconcerting at first glance, it serves to remind us all of our humanity. Success can be a terrible thing without a daily spoonful of humility. Regardless of the number of novels published, short stories accepted, or even smiley faces received on critiques from fellow members, we are, everyone of us, people first.
“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading it.”
-Moses Hadas, teacher, classical scholar and translator
The Court of Common Pleas
Ryck Neube
Permission Plea
The CWP board has decided to convert our three anthologies (Feral Parakeets and Other Stories, Someone Has To Die and Not From Around Here, Are You?) into Kindle format to be available on Amazon and hopefully generate some additional sales, and therefore income, for the CWP. If you are an author of any of the stories, poems and/or essays in those volumes, we would like your permission to do so.
If your work appeared in any of those anthologies, please send me an email saying you are on board if you haven’t already done so. For a nominal fee, I will also answer any questions you may have.
Current E-Addresses Plea
If anyone has a current e-address for the following people, would you be so kind as to send them to Rneube@juno.com.
SUSAN DAVIES GFROERER
MARTHA and ROGER CROTTY
AMY SUARDI
MIKE ORMSBY
ANN MAZZARO
While I have your attention…. Do keep me in mind when you change your e-mail address. Drop me a line so the CWP can stay in touch with you.
“The single biggest reason I got my stories taken in various literary magazines—and I want to stress this—is because I refused to give up. Period.”
-Steve Almond, author of The Evil B.B. Chow
The IRS
Ryck Neube
Every year, I get a panicked call from an IRS chum of mine. First and foremost, his problems usually revolve around people who received their completed forms from an accountant and mailed them off without double-checking the work. People, when you sign those puppies, it becomes your problem--with interest and penalties—if, during the tax season rush, the preparer makes a mistake. You inspect your children’s homework, why not your own taxes?
As the spouse of an IRS employee, our taxes are audited each year. Ergo, I tend to be extremely conservative. Rule One: if you don’t have a receipt, it ain’t a deduction. Period. It doesn’t matter how righteous that expense may be. You misplace the receipt, you eat it.
The Schedule C allows a writer like me to deduct my writing expenses and allows me to deduct my losses from the 1040. It’s an easy form whose accounting requires nothing more than a shoebox of sorted receipts and your tally of them. Don’t be intimidated.
But don’t be stupid.
Even before I became a corporation, I was regularly filing losses. It’s all a matter of being able to convince the government you are writing seriously in the unlikely event they ask. Making a profit three years out of five is one way. (It doesn’t matter how small the profit is, or how large the loss is.) A big stack of the rejection slips is evidence. Your log of stories and novels mailed out is evidence.
One note: when you get paid in copies--that is income you should report on your Schedule C. Why? It shows you are doing your best to be professional. For writers, deductions are easy; showing an auditor that you are reporting income they can’t track says you are an honest person. For instance, if those two copies you received in lieu of real money retail at ten bucks, then you have twenty bucks of income to report. If your poems gets you a year’s free subscription, the retail value is considered income.
Postage is never questioned as an expense. Envelopes and workshops, agents and writing magazine subscriptions are valid. Other expenses can raise red flags. Hey, if you can prove it, take it. But….
The home office deduction is a major source of tax fraud, so it draws special attention. If you take it, triple check your numbers. And no, no, no matter how much you write on the sofa, you can’t deduct your frigging couch. I know one guy who included his bathroom and kitchen as part of his home office. Busted.
Your computer is a major writing tool, but don’t be a fool about it. Microsoft Office is a solid deduction. Porn Master 5000 ain’t. Is your computer completely deductible? Is there anything but business on it, like music, like your wedding video? Does your family use it? Is your internet fee deductible? Can you prove it’s only used for business? These are questions you may have to answer.
Books can be a business expense. Microsoft Office 2007 for Dummies is valid. So are any of the versions of Writer’s Market. That last Stephen King novel that taught you the proper way to punctuate dialogue ain’t. If it’s fun, don’t even try to deduct it. I know an actress who deducted all the movies she saw and rented. She claimed it honed her craft. The auditor laughed.
Should you ever be audited, keep one thing in mind--be polite and prepared with your receipts. Auditors are overworked and underpaid. They don’t earn a commission. They want to get your case processed as quickly as possible. Make their day as easy as it is hard for you.
Much of an auditor’s job involves judgment calls. Let’s say you went to a SF convention where you took a writer’s workshop. Now you had to be a member of the con to take the workshop. So is your full con membership deductible or merely 1/24th of it? (Given a forty-eight hour convention and a two hour class. I’ve simplified this because I’m lazy.) You’ve been helpful and organized. You’ve been sullen and digging through a box of receipts, wasting time. Which of you will find an auditor willing to cut you some slack?
Writer’s Prompt: When a little nudge will do you…
Write a scene that depends on the failure of a reasonable expectation, such as:
A radio that receives a single station
A car door that lacks a handle
A museum guard who touches the paintings
A faucet that delivers something other than water
“The single biggest reason I got my stories taken in various literary magazines—and I want to stress this—is because I refused to give up. Period.”
-Steve Almond, author of The Evil B.B. Chow
“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”
-William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)
Writer’s Word Match
Can you match the word to its correct definition?
(answers at the end of the issue)
\an-uh-kuh-LOO-thee-uh\
\lek-suh-KAH-gruh-fee\
\loo-kyoo-BRAY-shun\
\im-BROHL-yoh|
\kak-oh-EE-theez\
\pro-LIKS; PRO-liks\
When asked for a solution to writer’s block, the poet Robert Stafford is reported to have said: “I just lower my standards and keep on going.”
South of the Border Correspondent
Jenny Engleka
jennyengleka@yahoo.com
I have access to many of the same news outlets that I did in the states. So I know that Hugo Chavez hasn't been in the news much. Not because he's now such a great guy, but because there's much worse going on elsewhere.
Yet, in my neighborhood, even in my building, Chavez comes up a lot in conversation.
Our building is filled with Latins. I've met only one Canadian, one American, but families from Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador, and especially Venezuela. I have met at least five different families from Caracas.
They are the wealthy Venezuelans who have fled and some will say up front that they don't know when they'll ever return. They are taking their money out of the country and buying apartments and other property here.
One mother mentioned how little there is to buy in the grocery stores. There is a black market already in place. That can't be a good sign.
There must also be a lot of propaganda in the media in Venezuela against the US, because everyone I've met mentions, within the first five minutes of conversation, how crazy Chavez is. They usually apologize for him. It is like they are setting the record straight once they are out of Caracas.
I must say it was strange to hear an eight-year old tell me, in English, in a serious manner, that Chavez was crazy.
When that country finally tips, I imagine most of them will come here. Panama is happy to accept them and their money. The ones with ten-year visas may go to Miami, but it is easier to settle here.
Most of the men in our building will be happy to, because I've come to the unscientific conclusion that women from Colombia and Venezuela get boob jobs like American kids get braces
April is National Poetry Month
Opportunities abound to celebrate National Poetry Month. Here's just a sampling:
POEM-A-DAY
Beginning April 1, Poets.org sends one new poem to your inbox each day to celebrate National Poetry Month. The poems have been selected from new books published in the spring. See the website to sign up.
THE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POET'S GALA
On April 27, 2011, the Academy of American Poets will present its ninth annual benefit, Poetry & The Creative Mind, at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center. Some of America’s leading artists, scholars, and public figures will participate in this extraordinary evening celebrating the role of contemporary poetry in American culture. To learn more, go to: http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/92
NAPOWRIMO
Every April many poets throughout the country participate in NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month). An adaptation of National Novel Writing Month, NaPoWriMo challenges participants to write and post a poem each day in April. Learn more http://www.napowrimo.net/
POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY
In celebration of National Poetry Month in April, New York City is hosting the 9th annual Poem In Your Pocket day (PIYP) on Thursday, April 14, 2011. Join in the excitement by carrying a poem in your pocket. For details visit nyc.gov/poem.
Karen George had a prose poem published in Blood Lotus: An Online Literary Journal, #19. http://www.bloodlotusjournal.com/2011/02/bl-19.html
And…Karen George's poetry chapbook Into the Heartland is available from Finishing Line Press, www.finishinglinepress.com. Authors are listed alphabetically. Cost: $12 (plus $2 postage and handling). Release date: April 29, 2011. You may also order it by sending a check or money order to: Finishing Line Press, P.O. Box 1626, Georgetown, KY 40324.
For the second time, Jean Syed will have poems published in the ezine The Road Not Taken: The Journal of Formal Poetry.
And…some of Jean Syed’s poems have been included in Saad Goshen’s book For a Better World 2011.
Carol Feiser Laque’s latest collection of poetry, Mapping the Confluence was published in 2010. Copies are available from the poet by calling 871-0521.
And…Carol was also the recipient of the CWP’s Sky Blue Badass Lifetime Achievement Award for 2010.
Mary Anne Reese’s poetry chapbook, Raised by Water, was accepted for publication by Finishing Line Press. $15. Available on Amazon and www.finishinglinepress.com.
#1 NY Times Bestselling Author Anna Quindlen will be discussing and signing her new book Every Last One
Tuesday, April 5 at 7:00 PM, Joseph Beth Booksellers.
Laura Munson will be discussing and signing her memoir
This Is Not the Story You Think It Is...: A Season of Unlikely Happiness Thursday, April 7 at 7:00 PM, Joseph Beth Booksellers
NY Times Bestselling Water for Elephants Author Sara Gruen will be discussing and signing Ape House Friday, April 8 at 7:00 PM, Joseph Beth Booksellers.
Kentucky Women Writers Conference
On Behalf Of Kentucky Women Writers Conference
Dates for the September 2011 conference have been set. Daytime sessions will take place on Friday and Saturday, September 16–17. For more go to kentuckywomenwriters@gmail.com
Women writers
A call for manuscripts for short essays and poems. Please go to our website for more details. Upcoming deadlines: May 1, 2011. Terri Spahr Nelson, Editor, Sugati Publications www.sugatipublications.com; Reflections from Women Project www.ReflectionsFromWomen.com
Looking for Poets
Jeromy Cannon hosts a poetry and music show called, "Bytes N Pieces" on Cincinnati's newest radio station, WVQC. We broadcast via our low power FM signal 95.7fm and stream via our website at www.wvqc.org. Are you a local poet? Jeromy would like to feature you on the show. Contact him at moonguppie@gmail.com. He would be happy to meet with any poets interested. The show airs on Tuesdays from 8-9pm and is rebroadcast Mondays from 10-11:00pm.
“A book threatens to kill its author repeatedly during its composition.”
-Michael Chabon, novelist
The Accidental Word
Overheard at CWP Writers Group
“Complexity (in a story) is like cholesterol; there is good complexity and bad complexity.”
“Scanners can hate.”
“This was an easy read, and I say that with some joy.”
“You say ‘the trees stood still.’ That’s what trees do.”
Etcetera
Classified Ads
Got something to market? Email tmitchell.inkspot@yahoo.com. It’s free.
Support Local Authors, shop at the BOOKBANK, Cincinnati’s only local author’s bookstore, located at InkTank. Contact ann@inktank.org if you are a published local author.
Writer’s Retreat
Southpointe Villas Two-bedroom, ocean front condo 12 miles South of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Bring your own sheets, towels, toothbrush and bathing suit. Pool, cable TV, full kitchen, 1.5 bathrooms, private balcony, great ocean view, sleeping room for six. $550 - 990/wk depending on time of year. Call Linda Arnest 513.379.2094 or email linda_arnest@hotmail.com.
http://www.writersdigest.com/101BestSites for 101 Best Brainyquote.com – fun; ssa.gov/OACT/babynames – trying to name a character?; ***urbandictionary.com – modern;
Nanowrimo.org – National Novel Writing Month (November)
Book-in-a-week.com – Their motto: BIC HOK TAM. Butt in chair, hands on keyboard, typing away madly; thestorystarter.com – need a kick start?; Online Writing Groups and Communities
absolutewrite.com – a lot here, navigate at your own risk.
ed2010.com - for learning about the magazine side of publishing; thwritingbridge.com – Application process. If you’re approved, you’re on probation and must keep up with the required critiques and submissions; agentquery.com – Indispensible; duotrope.com – handy for finding markets for short stories; writersdigest.com, the magazine on-line, and writersmarket.com have enough to get you on your way. But you have to pay for a subscription to writersmarket.com, along with publishersmarketplace.com, another biggie in publishing, so if you’re just looking for agents, agentquery.com is free and has all you need; jakonrath.blogspot.com – Newbie’s Guide To Publishing
cbaybooks.blogspot.com –good glossary;etreidliterary.blogspot.com
nathanbransford.blogspot.com –agent site
***bookendsliteraryagency.blogspot.com – daily posting from Jessica Faust of Bookends Literary Agency ***pubrants.blogspot.com –agent Kristen Nelson, chatty, useful labels, interested in women’s’ fiction (and beyond); ***rejectionqueen.blogspot.com – if you want to feel better about your own rejections
anotherrealm.com/prededitors - Preditors & Editors
literarylawguide.com/resources.htm – the go-to source for copyrights; QueryTracker.net – If you plan to send out lots of queries, or have more than one project
sfwa.org/beware – Originating from the sci-fi crowd, this watchdog site is for all writers; Read up on your fav author: armchairinterviews.com; eighteenquestions.com; noveljourneys.blogspot.com; coolstuff4writers.com – Self-explanatory; writesideout.com –Custom book covers, t-shirts, etc.
CWP Members blogs & websites:
www.joedriscoll.org
CWP: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CWP_Fiction/?yguid=177017700
Mary Fitzpatrick, Prez CWP, http://maryfitz.typepad.com/my_weblog
Bob Lewis, fiction writer, http://iaintsorry.blogspot.com
Amy Purcell, fiction, www.amypurcell.com/blog
Chris Specht www.cspecht.com
Madeline Izzo - www.pittsburghwritersproject.org
Jenny Engleka www.icecharades.blogspot.com
Victoria Barber-Emery www.idlechameleon.com
Jeff Hillard, RED! www.redwebzine.org
Rough Draft is published four times per year: January, April, July and October. We are always looking for compelling articles, information, news, etc. for upcoming issues, so why not anonymously volunteer the writing services of a fellow member? J
Anything of a timely nature should be sent well in advance of the next issue (unless, of course, you are submitting publishing credits – these are accepted post mortem).
Email Scott: writerscotth@yahoo.com, or Tonya:tmitchell.inkspot@yahoo.com
Answers to Writer’s Word Match:
1. b 2. d 3. e 4. f 5. a 6. c
Well I went to Tuscon at the beginging of February and I've not had a moments's rest sinc...
Seriously I've been busy, but I've also been reading and I'll have a bunch of new reviews up soon.