The Writers Network News, November 2011 Issue http://ezezine.com
The Writers Network News, October 2011 Issue
In This Issue
One: From the editor's desk -- Words and People
Two: Ask the Book Doctor -- About Essays, Turning Humorous Essays into
Newspaper Columns, and Formatting Titles
Three: This Month's Writing Tip from Bobbie Christmas – Hypothetical
Statements Call for Subjective Tense
Four: Subjects of Interest to Writers
Five: Contests, Agents, and Markets
Six: Creative Writing Assignment – Think Outside the Box
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The Writers Network News
No Rules; Just Write!
Editor: Bobbie Christmas
Contents copyright 2011, Bobbie Christmas
No portion of this newsletter can be used without permission; however,
you may forward the newsletter in its entirety to anyone who may be
interested in subscribing.
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Meet Fellow Writers
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Past Issues Still Available
To view current and past issues of The Writers Network News, go to
http://tinyurl.com/c4otf6.
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Some links in this newsletter may include "tiny url" with the help of
www.tinyurl.com, which takes long Web addresses and converts them to
short ones.
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Writer's quote of the day
"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart." --William
Wadsworth
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One: From the editor's desk -- Words and People
Dear Readers:
I love words, so it is no surprise that I love other people who love
words. In last month's issue of The Writers Network News, I reported a
discussion I had with a member about the use of "sneak" versus "snuck"
and the fact that "snuck" is used in spoken English, but it is
considered substandard in written language, except in dialogue. This
kind of stuff fascinates me.
Having discovered Scrabble on Facebook and then adding it to my iPhone
as well, I've become a complete addict of Scrabble, playing with
friends and strangers alike. In case you think I'm some sort of master
at Scrabble because I'm a great editor, it's not so. I am not a master
at the strategy of Scrabble, and worse, I am not the best at looking at
a jumble of letters and making long, point-scoring words out of them. I
often miss excellent opportunities and end up losing, yet I get right
back in the game, with the same friends or with strangers. Why? Because
I love words.
My fascination with words began when I was young. My father read books
to us kids at night, acting out the dialogue and adding emphasis to the
narrative. He made me long to learn to read, and I eagerly grasped the
skill when I finally entered first grade. Kindergarten was not
available at the time, or I would have learned earlier, I'm sure.
I certainly hope that everyone with children will read to them when
they are young. It gives children a boost for life. Even after I
learned to read, my teacher used to gather us cross-legged on the
wooden floor and read about Jane, Dick, Sally, and Spot and their
adventures, reading to us at a much higher level than we could yet
read, and it made me want to read even better, so I could read more
intricate stories. My father and my first-grade teacher made me yearn
to learn, and I did.
As an adult, I read to my son even before I was sure he knew what I was
saying, but he sat quietly in my lap and helped me turn pages when he
was small, and once he began speaking, he was able to finish my
sentences when I read him his favorite books. Children learn by
repetition, and while it may annoy adults to read the same stories over
and over, doing so is the best thing we can do for children.
By the time my son was five, he was sight reading signs that passed by
quickly on the highway, and when he reached grammar school, he excelled
in all his courses, because he so easily read his textbooks. He breezed
through college and veterinary school, and it comes as no surprise that
he is also an excellent writer. In addition to practicing veterinary
medicine, he writes a veterinary column for a regional magazine.
My daddy has passed on, but his legacy lives on, in me, in my son, and
in all his children and grandchildren, all of whom have done well in
life. What started all this success? Words. No wonder I'm a word
person.
Oh, and by the way, because I bought and paid for a house strictly from
my income as a writer and editor, I call it "The House that Words
Built."
Yes, I love words, and I would wager you do, too, because you subscribe
to this newsletter.
Write In Style is officially out of print, now, and I'm selling the
last dozen or so copies through my website while I search for any
publisher for a second edition of that award-winning book, which is
still in demand.
New copies are selling for more than $200 on Amazon. While they last,
however, you can still buy one of the few remaining new copies at the
original price of $12.95. To purchase, go to
http://zebraeditor.com/book_write_in_style.shtml. Hurry! Supplies are
rapidly dwindling.
Yours in writing,
Bobbie Christmas (Bobbie@zebraeditor.com or bzebra@aol.com )
Author of Write In Style (Union Square Publishing), owner of Zebra
Communications, and director of The Writers Network
If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, please sign up to get your
own copy. Simply go to www.zebraeditor.com, click on "Free Newsletter,"
and follow the prompts. I never share your address or send out spam.
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Two: Ask the Book Doctor -- About Essays, Turning Humorous Essays into
Newspaper Columns, and Formatting Titles
By Bobbie Christmas
Q: I just wrote up an account of an event that happened to me when we
first moved to Georgia. I want to know if it qualifies as an essay. It
is not a series of musings on a central theme, as in some essays I've
read. It is the true story of what happened and what I learned from it.
I looked up how to write an essay, and the information told how to
write a persuasive essay. Mine isn’t that type of writing, though. If I
write a nonfiction piece without attempting to prove a point, is it an
essay or an opinion? It would help to get clarification, because I
usually don't write nonfiction.
A: Essays come in many forms, including personal opinion, persuasive,
and personal experience. Many humor columnists write in the form of
essays that relate personal experiences combined with their personal
opinions about what took place.
Personal experience essays concentrate on a specific event or related
events, and they often unfold with action and dialogue, which sets them
apart from a persuasive essay. If your story is shown through action
and dialogue with strong writing, it becomes creative nonfiction. If
you already write strong fiction, you should have no problem writing
strong personal experience essays, too, and it sounds as if that's what
you have done by writing about your experiences when you moved to a new
state.
Q: I like to write humorous essays. Where can I market them? How does
one get one's own newspaper column?
A: You'll find plenty of markets for essays in the usual reference
books and websites for writers: Writers Market, www.writersmarket.com,
Literary Market Place, and more. Remember not to trust any one source
too much. Always seek several sources. For example, I use
writersmarket.com, but I search for companies that list their websites.
I then go to the publishers' websites to get accurate information on
how each publisher prefers for writers to submit articles, because
every one is different.
As for writing and syndicating a newspaper column, the answer is far
too complex. For a simplistic answer, see
http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Newspaper-Column, or for how to
syndicate a column, see
http://www.ehow.com/how_2050845_syndicate-column.html.
Q: I am having a discussion with my writer's group about referenced
titles in a story. I said the title should be in italics. Another
member believes, according to the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research
Papers, the title is to be underlined. Can you give us the correct
answer, underlined or italics?
A: The answer depends on type of title and the type of writing. If you
are writing a research paper, obviously you should follow MLA style and
underline book titles, if that is what MLA calls for. Because I edit
books, I'm more familiar with Chicago style, which is used not for
research papers but for books, so that's what I feel more comfortable
explaining.
If you are writing a book that refers to another book, Chicago style
calls for italics for book titles and other works of art, such as album
titles, statues, and paintings. If the body of the book refers to the
title of an essay, research paper, or a short story, however, that
title should be in quotation marks.
Consistency is the most important thing. Underlines in a manuscript
translate to italics in a published work. The two are, in effect, the
same thing. For that reason, never use underlines in one place in a
manuscript and italics in another.
Bobbie Christmas, book editor, author of Write In Style (Union Square
Publishing), and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your
questions, too. Send them to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com. Read more "Ask the
Book Doctor" questions and answers at www.zebraeditor.com.
Would you like to read, save, or share the Ask the Book Doctor column
as a PDF file? At http://zebraeditor.com/files/ask_the_book_doctor.pdf,
the newest column is posted around the first of each month.
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Three: This Month's Writing Tip from Bobbie Christmas --Hypothetical
Statements Call for Subjunctive Tense
In hypothetical statements and other statements that express things
that exist only in concept and not in reality, the verb changes to
subjunctive. Hypothetical statements often use the word if. Example:
(hypothetical) If I were tall, I would be stately. If I were you, I
wouldn't do that.
Not all if statements are hypothetical, however. Some statements do say
exactly what they mean, and when they do, they do not require the
subjunctive. For example, the following sentence is not
hypothetical--that is, what it states does, in fact, exist in
reality--and therefore it does not call for the subjunctive tense: If I
was wrong, I apologize.
Use my trademarked Find and Refine Method to locate uses of the word
if, to be sure you have used the subjunctive tense when statements are
hypothetical. Go to the Find function on your computer (Control + F on
a PC or Command + F on a Mac) and under Find What, type "if." Click on
Find. When the word "if" appears in a sentence, read the sentence
carefully to determine whether it is hypothetical or not and repair the
verb accordingly. Hit Find Next and continue to the end of the
manuscript to find and address each potentially hypothetical statement.
For more opportunities for improving your manuscripts, buy one of the
few remaining copies of Write In Style at
http://zebraeditor.com/book_write_in_style.shtml.
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Four: Subjects of interest to writers
Kudos
Member Dan Anderson sent some exciting news: "I have recently signed a
three-book deal with Tell-Tale Publishers. They will publish my next
humorous mystery, the Eye of the Tiger in early 2112. They will also
republish my first two mysteries, to be titled Killing Me Softly With
Your Love and Black Magic Woman, since they are eager to have all my
mysteries under their banner."
He adds, "A Hollywood entertainment company is interested in turning
two of my books into films. I have signed an option agreement. Here's
hoping the options are exercised and my mysteries find their way to the
silver screen."
Bria Burton won first place in the Royal Palm Literary Awards for her
unpublished fantasy novel. Way to go!
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How would you like your book to be on the bestseller list before it is
even released? Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Steve Jobs
soared to the top of bestseller lists shortly after news broke of the
Apple co-founder's death, and its publisher quickly moved up its
release date by nearly a month, with plans to release it November 21
instead of October 24.
The world will miss the creative genius of Steve Jobs.
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More E-book Readers
As more and more people read e-books, Amazon has unveiled its new
Kindle line. In addition to the Kindle Keyboards that sold for up to
$139, you can now choose a $79 Kindle that is lighter than the original
Kindle Keyboard and allows you to borrow books from the library as well
as buy e-books. The Kindle Touch for $99 has touch, and there's the new
tablet/ e-reader, Kindle Fire, for $199 that promises a wide range of
Android apps and also supports video, music, and the Internet by way of
Wi-Fi..
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From The Chicago Manual of Style website Q & A this month:
Q. I'm trying very hard to understand how through and to are different,
as in "Monday to Friday" or "Monday through Friday." Do they mean the
same thing? To complicate matters, if an en dash is substituted (as in
"Monday-Friday"), could the meaning be either through or to? I'm
editing a paper that contains hundreds of date and number ranges.
Sometimes the writer spells out to or through, but most of the time, he
uses an en dash. I've read 6.78 a gazillion times and need further
clarification. Thanks!
A. First of all, this is a clear case of an inclusive range. You are
not dealing with scores or directions, so don't worry about that
different use of to discussed toward the end of 6.78. In this
construction, to and through mean the same thing. (When after a
gazillion attempts, you're still stymied by something like this,
sometimes it helps to step away from the style book and think a second
about what you know. If a website said the library was open Monday
through Friday, and if a newspaper ad said it was open Monday to
Friday, and if the sign on the door said "Open Monday-Friday," would
you wonder whether they meant different things?) They need not,
however, all be written the same way, except in places where it would
look odd otherwise, such as in a single sentence, or in a list or
table.
The Chicago Manual of Style is the reference that book editors use. For
more CMOS Q & A, see http://tinyurl.com/2xscwn.
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Purge Your Prose of Problems
A Book Doctor's Desk Reference, Fifth Edition
Please don't buy this book! I'd rather you pay me thousands of dollars
to edit your book. I don't want you to use this book to go into the
business of editing books for others, either, yet many people do.
If you insist, though, you can order my proprietary book-doctor desk
reference book online at http://tinyurl.com/4ptjnr.
In alphabetical order and in easy-to-understand language, Purge Your
Prose of Problems covers all you need to know to revise and edit
fiction and nonfiction books, including grammar, punctuation, word
choices, creative writing, plot, pace, characterization, point of view,
dialogue, Chicago style, format, and much more. The spiral binder lets
the book lie flat in front of your computer, for easy use. Available
printed or as a PDF e-book that allows you to keep all this vital
information on your computer for ready reference.
To save thousands of dollars by editing your own book, order Purge Your
Prose of Problems today at http://tinyurl.com/4ptjnr.
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Words Writers Should Know
chapbook
noun: A small book or pamphlet containing stories, poems, or religious
tracts.
USAGE:
"Gloucester writer and editor David Rich will read from and discuss his
new chapbook of poems."
Ann Gail McCarthy; Rocky Neck Tradition Kicks Off Busy Weekend;
Gloucester Times (Massachusetts); Aug 10, 2011.
Today's word comes from one of my favorite sources, A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg of www.wordsmith.org.
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Ask the Book Doctor: How to Beat the Competition and Sell Your Writing
answers many of the questions you wish you could ask an editing expert.
Whether you write books, short stories, articles, reports, or anything
else, learn more about how to write, edit, and sell your work.
Paperback: $14.95 plus $4.99 S & H (total: $19.94 US) E-book: $8.95, no
S & H, with almost instant delivery. You'll save almost $10 by buying
the e-book! To order either, go to http://tinyurl.com/lexp7n.
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Wooden Horse Publishing warns: Be careful if you write online and quote
other sources, even in comments. In a recent blog post we highlighted a
company called Righthaven LLC, a business founded solely to monitor and
sue small websites and blogs.
To find out what Righthaven and other "copyright trolls" have been
doing, read
http://woodenhorsepub.wordpress.com/2011/09/11/think-before-you-quote-even-in-comments/
and then warn others. This information comes from Wooden Horse
Publishing at http://www.woodenhorsepub.com.
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Write In Style Soon to be Unavailable; Do NOT pay $265 for a copy!
Hurry! I have fewer than thirty copies left of Write In Style, my
award-winning book that teaches writers my Find and Refine Method ™ to
locate specific words and phrases you can delete, upgrade, or rewrite
to power up your prose.
After I sell all my copies, you'll have to pay the prices on Amazon, up
to $146 per book, unless or until I find a new publisher or
self-publish it. Prices are likely to rise even more, when I run out of
new copies.
When I last checked, new copies of Write In Style were selling for
between $75 and $265 on Amazon.com. Don't believe me? See
http://tinyurl.com/4hc2bxu. Used copies were selling for as much as
$107. Don't pay those prices! For a few more weeks, you can still buy
this book at the original cover price of $12.95 plus shipping, and I'll
even sign it for you. To order, to go
http://zebraeditor.com/book_write_in_style.shtml.
Write In Style: Using Your Word Processor and Other Techniques to
Improve Your Writing by Bobbie Christmas First Place winner of the
Royal Palm Award for education, Best in Division (Georgia Author of the
Year Awards), and Finalist in USABookNews Best Books 2005. Available at
http://zebraeditor.com/book_write_in_style.shtml.
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Free Book Reviewer
The Literati Press
http://theliteratipress.blogspot.com/
Reviewer: Starr K. Griggs, starr.k.griggs@gmail.com
Accepts fiction mainly, including paranormal, Christian, fantasy, YA,
and Adult and most genres except erotica.
"I like to post reviews a week or so before a book becomes available. I
do my best to have a quick turnaround, so it works best when you give
me a date you would like the review.
Besides her blog, she posts your book reviews on Goodreads, Smashwords,
Amazon, and www.christianbook.com. She notes, "Typically the book is
the payment for the review, but donations are always accepted (LOL)."
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Free Tools for Writers from Bobbie Christmas and Zebra Communications
Order PDF reports on correct manuscript format, how to form and run a
critique circle, how to identify weak writing and repair it,
self-publishing versus traditional publishing, and much more. Sixteen
reports are available, and the list keeps growing. Go to
http://zebraeditor.com/free_reports.shtml. Newest report: Genre–A
Slippery Subject Essential to Fiction: Learn about genre fiction
categories and the benefits of complying with genre specifications.
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Keep up with Bobbie's activities on Twitter:
http:twitter.com/BookDoctor4u
Become Bobbie's friend on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/bobbie.christmas
New! Zebra Communications on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Zebra-Communications/133481530079088
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Five: Contests, Agents, and Markets
The Rag
http://raglitmag.com/
Dan Reilly, assistant editor
dan@raglitmag.com
The Rag is a quarterly electronic literary magazine that publishes
short stories and poetry. We aim for quality and affordability. You can
download The Rag for $2.99 an issue from our store as an epub or pdf
file. Now accepting submissions for Issue #2, to be released in
January, 2012.
We're looking for the grittier material that tends to fall by the
wayside at the more traditional publications, but all styles and themes
are welcome. This magazine publishes in the e-readers market,
specifically (Kindle/Nook/ePUB). The overall goal of our publication is
to create a sustainable magazine that can afford to pay its writers,
while also producing a competitive product in the literary marketplace.
You can find out more by visiting our website http://raglitmag.com/.
We paid between $100 and 150 per piece for the publication of our first
issue, which was when our magazine didn't yet exist, so that would be
the minimum level for subsequent issues, and for our next upcoming
issue we hope to pay more within the range of $150 to $200 for each
piece, and possibly more, depending on the level of support we can drum
up over the next few months.
To submit, click on the "submissions" link on our site, and that will
take you to http://raglitmag.submishmash.com/submit. We use a company
called Submishmash to manage our submissions process. This process
requires no cover letters, bios, synopses or special formatting: what
we're concerned with is the quality of content in the piece, nothing
more.
We do charge a $3 fee for online submissions. Why? We prefer not to
accept paper submissions, for logistical reasons, and they end up
costing the author more than $3 to print and ship anyway. Also, it
costs money to run a website and a submissions management platform, and
the fee allows us to sustain our online submissions medium; if there is
any money left over from submission fees, we make sure that it goes
back into the pockets of the writers we publish. If you’d rather not
pay a submission fee, however, or are otherwise unable to make online
transactions, we offer a printed mail-in process. E-mail me at
dan@raglitmag.com. and I will send you the mail-in guidelines.
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Makeshift magazine wants stories of street-level ingenuity
Editor-in chief, Steve Daniels, steve@mkshft.org
We are excited to announce the launch of Makeshift: A Journal of Hidden
Creativity, a quarterly magazine and multimedia website
(www.mkshft.org) highlighting creativity and invention in
resource-constrained areas around the world.
The magazine will explore grassroots efforts by under-the-radar
entrepreneurs, often in developing countries, to reuse and repurpose
materials in production. The inaugural issue includes improvised tools
in Myanmar, recycled art in Colombia, everyday product hacks in Kenya
and adaptive reuse of industrial sites in the US.
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Strand Magazine
P.O. Box 1418
Birmingham, MI 48012-1418
We are interested in mysteries, detective stories, tales of terror and
the supernatural as well as short stories. Stories can be set in any
time or place, provided they are well written, the plots interesting
and well thought.
We are interested in stories of almost any length, but preferably the
2000-6000 word range. However, we may occasionally publish short shorts
of 1000 words, and sometimes we may consider even a short novella. At
the moment, our payment rate for stories is $25-150. No submissions
accepted by e-mail.
We purchase first North American serial rights. All manuscripts should
be typed, double-spaced, on one side of each page. For return of your
manuscripts, please enclose a SASE of suitable size. Average response
time is 4-10 months. We suggest before submitting that you purchase a
copy of The Strand. You may do so by sending $10 or by visiting our web
site www.strandmag.com.
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Tell-Tale Publishing
This fiction publisher is interested in romance, fantasy, horror,
mystery, and young adult. Accepts e-mail submissions, but carefully
follow all the guidelines listed at
http://www.tell-talepublishing.com/guidelines.html.
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Six: Creative Writing Assignment - Think Outside the Box
Think Outside the Box
The term "to think outside the box" refers to innovative thinking,
thinking that goes beyond the ordinary, beyond what we automatically
think. With the holidays looming, I have been thinking about gift
boxes, too, so this assignment calls for thinking outside the gift box.
Most gifts come packed in a box, or at the very least, adorned with a
bow, but some gifts cannot be placed inside a box or wrapped with a
bow. For this assignment, think of gifts that are incapable of being
put into a box or wrapped up and then write a story about somebody
giving or receiving that gift. Show the results of giving or receiving
that gift.
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Do YOU have news for The Writers Network News? Please send it in the
body copy, not an attachment, to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com. Deadline: The
15th of each month.
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Send a copy of this newsletter to all your writing friends. Tell them
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clicking on "Free Newsletter."
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With the exception of Zebra Communications, information in this
newsletter is not to be construed as an endorsement. Be sure to
research all information and study every stipulation before you accept
assignments, spend money, or sell your work.
The Writers Network News: a newsletter for writers everywhere. No fees.
No officers. "No Rules; Just Write!"
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