Resolutions and a Poetry Contest

Thought for the Week: We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. ~  Edith Lovejoy Pierce 

I don’t normally bother with New Year’s resolutions, but my productivity faltered in 2012 because I lost my focus and took a scattered approach to submissions. My 2013 writing resolutions help me focus on what I really want to do and where I’ve had good results in the past. They are:

1. write magazine articles for both print and e-pubs

2. write nonfiction pieces for anthologies

3. schedule weekly time to work on my novel (includes both historical and writing research) and hopefully complete a first draft by year-end

4. dabble in flash fiction or a short story when the muse strikes

5. create a more professional web site

The third one qualifies on only one count – it’s what I want to do and now feel I must do. I started a historical novel several years ago but never finished. I became bogged down in research and felt I needed to work on my craft by writing short work first. 

I’ve kept the book on the back burner so long it’s boiling over and blocking me from other things. By scheduling a fixed amount of time to work on it, I hope to keep it simmering as a side dish for nonfiction. Don’t all cooks experiment now and then?

What are your writing resolutions? If you have resolution block, check the the list Joe Konrath accumulated over the years.

If you’re still procrastinating about the social media January bootcamp I mentioned last week, you have until midnight Dec. 31 to sign up. (The sponsor is on the U.S. West Coast, so presumably that's western standard time.) I’ll be there.

CHA POETRY CONTEST

Theme: Betrayal

Deadline: January 15, 2013
No entry fee

Each poet may submit up to two unpublished poems (no more than 80 lines long each). Cash prizes and publication in the March 2013 issue of CHA for three winning and up to five highly commended poems. 

Pays via PayPal, which handles currency conversions.

Social Media Smarts

I don't know about you, but I'm still learning how writers make the best use of social media. If getting more social media savvy is on your list of 2013 resolutions, check out the January bootcamp offered by Renegade Writer Linda Formichelli and Carol Tice of The Writers Den and Make a Living Writing.

It's a series of 4 one-hour live sessions with emphasis on LinkedIn and Twitter, and includes a critique of your social media profiles. If you can't make the live sessions, recordings and transcripts are available soon after the calls end. I've attended two of their bootcamps and can tell you they pack a lot of information in them so the downloadable recordings come in very handy.

Between now and Dec. 31, the cost is only $97, which also includes a one month membership in the Writers Den, giving you access to their previous webinar recordings and other writer resources. The Den is currently closed to new members except for people who sign up for this class. The nonmember  price goes up to $197 as of January 1, 2013. You can check out the details here.

Literary Magazines that Pay

Writer’s Thought for the Week: Santa’s helpers are subordinate clauses.

LITERARY MAGAZINES

I often read that unknown writers should submit to literary magazines to help further their careers. Agents and editors read them, we’re told. What bothers me is the “no pay” feature of many of these publications.

Want an easy way to find out which ones pay? There’s a handy list of them at The Review Review.

Getting Ideas/Micro Fiction Contest

Thought for the Week: Life is part positive and part negative. Suppose you went to hear a symphony orchestra and all they played were the little, happy, high notes? Would you leave soon? Let me hear the rumble of the bass, the crash of the cymbals, and the minor keys." ~ Jim Rohn

IDEAS

Do you ever run out of ideas? Need a plot twist for your novel or inspiration for new stories to write in 2013? Maybe this list of prompts can help.

 

THE MICRO AWARD
Deadline: December 31, 2012
No entry fee

Prize: $500 US

The Micro Award is presented annually for a work of prose fiction 1000 words or less, written in English, of any genre. Stories considered for the 6th Annual Micro Award must have been published originally in 2012. Qualifying venues are any form of print or electronic publication designed for public display. Self-published stories are eligible.

Digital Imprints/Short Story Contest

Writer's Thought for the Week: Do give books - religious or otherwise - for Christmas. They're never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal. ~ Lenore Hershey

RANDOM HOUSE has three new digital imprints in addition to Loveswept:

        Loveswept  romance and women’s fiction

Alibi     mystery and suspense

Hydra   sci-fi, fantasy and horror 

Flirt     new adult

Although there is no official word count limit, the editors are interested in short submissions (15,000 to 30,000 words) and full-length works (40,000 to 60,000 words.)

ANDERBO SHORT STORY CONTEST

Deadline: December 31, 2012

Award:    $500, trophy, and publication on Anderbo.com

For an unpublished short story 3,500 to 5,000 words

No fee; limit of one submission per author.

Get Paid to Blog

This Thursday, Dec. 6, at 3:00 pm EST the Freelance Writers Den is sponsoring a free online session on getting good-paying freelance blogging work. You can check it out or register by going here, clicking on Events, and scrolling down. I know I'll be listening.Most of these sessions are restricted to Writers Den members but this free call is open to anyone.

The Writers Den is closed to members right now, but should be opening again soon if you like what you hear. I joined several months ago and find the sessions, workshop discounts, stored transcripts, resource materials, and connections with writers in various fields very helpful.

Dashes Demystified/Anthology Call

Writer’s Thought for the Week: One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.  ~ A. A. Milne

Dealing with Dashes 

There’s the em-dash, the hyphen, and parenthetical dashes. Although the dash is more free-wheeling than other punctuation marks, this article in the NY Times aims to time those mad dashes. 

Anthology call: Stepping Up: Stories of Blended Families 

Deadline: January 1, 2013; some decisions being made as stories come in

Pays: $100 plus two copies of the published book

Queries and submissions to samanthawaltz@comcast.net

Looking for first-person essays from people who are or have been part of stepfamilies that are nurturing places, and from those where family members must find ways to rise above the challenges they faced at home. For details see:

http://www.pathsofthought.com/stepping-up-stories/

https://www.facebook.com/notes/stepping-up-stories-of-blended-families/call-for-submissions/340245469397644

Historical Fiction/Poetry

Writer’s Thought for the Week: Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

Historical Fiction

Although I write mostly nonfiction and flash fiction, I have a historical novel on the back burner. One of the problems I wrestle with in that book is dialogue.

I don’t want to use contractions, at least not as often as we do today, and I certainly avoid modern slang, but when I try to write the way people spoke in 1910, the dialogue seems stilted. Instead of adding to the feel I want for my book, the dialogue distracts. I sought advice from other writers who gave me two ways of solving this.

One advised having your main character speak in a more natural (to us) sounding voice, but have supporting characters use speech of the period. After experimenting with that approach, I felt the different styles of speech coming from characters who shared the same time period would jolt the reader. Not that I wanted all my characters to sound alike, but they should be believable as contemporaries of each other instead of one sounding like a time traveler from the future.

Another writer gave me an approach that worked better: instead of trying to mimic the speech of the time, create a sense of the past. Convince yourself and the reader that you are in the time period through other means such as clothing, customs, and standard of living, and your characters will fit right in.

THE PEDESTAL MAGAZINE is open for poetry submissions until December 13. You may submit up to six poems. Pays $40/poem.

Can a Hippo help your writing?

Thought for the Week: The sages do not consider that making no mistakes is a blessing. They believe, rather, that the great virtue of man lies in his ability to correct his mistakes and continually make a new man of himself. ~ Wang Yang-Ming, Chinese Philosopher

Have you discovered Word Hippo? It lets you look up synonyms, antonyms, word meanings, rhyming words, words that start with a certain letter, pronunciations, and translations.

BLACK LAWRENCE PRESS

The month of November is an open reading period for Black Lawrence Press, an imprint of Dzanc Books. They specialize in contemporary literature and creative non-fiction: novels, memoirs, short story collections, poetry, biographies, cultural studies, and translations from the German and French.

Compound words/Poetry market

Thought for the Week: Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. ~ Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

COMPOUND WORDS

Compound words can be confusing, especially since they appear inconsistent. Is it "everyday" or "every day"?

When you describe the “everyday” use of something, such as “that is my everyday watch,” “everyday” is an adjective modifying watch. If you wear that watch “every day” those words are not an adjective.

Both of the following sentences are correct:

The waterproof watch is my everyday watch.

I wear my waterproof watch every day.

It is incorrect to write:  I wear my waterproof watch everyday.

WORDTECH COMMUNICATIONS LLCis open to submissions of book-length (48 single-spaced pages minimum) poetry manuscripts from now until December 15, 2012 from residents of the United States. All chosen manuscripts are published under a royalty contract. Publication of selected manuscripts will occur in 2014. Their books are published through six imprints, each with a different focus. Details and samples are on the web site.

Writing advice/Short story contest

Writer’s Thought for the Week: It's like building a stone wall without mortar. You place the words one at a time, fit them, take them apart and refit them until they're balanced and solid. ~ W.C. Heinz

Lisa Gardner, New York Times bestselling author of suspense, has some wonderful free resources on the Toolbox section of her web site. The articles are downloadable in PDF format – no videos to wade through. The first group deals with advice on craft, the second group with the submission process, and the third with romantic suspense. Well worth a read.

THE FLYING ELEPHANTS SHORT STORY PRIZE

Deadline: November 30, 2012

No entry fee; one entry per writer

Theme: “AndWeWereHungry...”

Theme for the top prize: “And We Were Hungry for Nature...”

This international prize is meant to showcase the work of short story writers published or emerging. The top prize is $2,000; three other writers will receive $1,000 each. Eight stories will be short-listed and published online in their winter 2013 issue along with the winners. The top prize is reserved for the story that connects the theme with nature or the natural world. “No length restrictions, but longer manuscripts (8,000—10,000 words) or shorter manuscripts (less than 2,000 words) will have to be truly exceptional to be shortlisted.”

Psychic Distance/Poetry & Prose Contest

Writer's Thought for the Week: Everyone is a genius at least once a year. A real genius has his original ideas closer together.   ~  Georg C. Lichtenberg

At a book discussion I attended this week, we talked about psychic distance. The different levels are definitely something to consider whenever we begin a new manuscript. Just as we can and should vary the pace within a piece or novel, we can vary the psychic distance from our characters. Here's a great refresher from novelist Emma Darwin on the subject: http://tinyurl.com/3czjg2s

Carson Prize in Poetry or Prose

Deadline: November 15, 2012
Award: $100 and publication
Fee: optional

Publication will be in Mixed Fruit’s first print issue, to be published in early 2013. Open to all writers of any nationality in all genres. You may submit up to five poems of any length or up to two prose pieces (8,000 words or less per piece). If you feel that your submission blurs the line between prose and poetry, select one of the categories and it will be passed on to the appropriate editors. To enter, use the submissions manager and submit under the Carson Prize category. Donations do not influence the judges’ decisions.

National Book Festival/Tin House

Thought for the week: Serendipity is God's way of remaining anonymous. ~ unknown

NATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL

If you’ve never attended the Library of Congress National Book Festival, you can do so vicariously here. The site has videos of author presentations from the 2011 festival as well as audio podcasts from 2007 through 2012.

TIN HOUSE is now reading fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for their Spring and Summer 2013 issues. The Summer issue is open (non-themed.) The Spring issue’s theme is This Means War. “Conflict is at the heart of all stories, and these days it seems that the world's major conflicts are portrayed in black and white, good and evil. We're looking for the grey, the messy, the not-so-easily classified. We're not just looking for work about armed conflict, but domestic, political, ecological, religious, and moral battles. If there is heat, we want to see the fire. The Spring, 2013 deadline is October 31. The Summer, 2013 deadline is January 14.” 

Personal Narrative vs Memoir/Poetry and Prose

Thought for the Week: I still have a full deck; I just shuffle slower now.   ~ Unknown

Personal Narrative vs Memoir

This link describes the difference between personal narrative and memoir, and explains why memoir is more demanding for both writer and reader.

CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW

Submission deadline: November 3, 2012 (postmark)

Pays $50 minimum for poetry, $100 minimum for prose

For their Summer/Fall 2013 issue, Crab Orchard Review seeks work that focuses on the people, places, history, and changes shaping the states in the U.S. that make up the "Big Middle" of prairies, plains, mountains, and deserts that shape the middle and non-Pacific Coast West of the Lower 48 (Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and Nevada).

Help for Writers/Harper Collins Wants New Writers

Writer’s Thought for the Week: …the story doesn't  happen on the page.  It happens in the reader's imagination. ~ Philip Gerard    

WRITER’S KNOWLEDGE BASE

Writer’s Knowledge Base is a free searchable collection of articles relevant to writers. Search on whatever you need help with and the site bring up a list of titles and links to articles.

If writing realistic dialogue is a challenge for you, search on “realistic dialogue” for a list of articles on the subject. You’ll find articles with such titles as “The Rhythm of Dialogue, “ “6 Fillers to Avoid in Dialogue,” and “Balancing Dialogue and Narrative,” among others.

If your plot seems dull and you need to increase tension, a search on “increasing dramatic tension” brings you “The Four Types of Dramatic Tension.” 

 

Need a quick explanation of ballistics for the mystery novel you’re writing? It’s in here.

HARPER VOYAGER

HarperCollins’ science fiction and fantasy imprint is accepting complete and unagented manuscripts now until October 14.

Voyager seeks an array of adult and young adult speculative fiction for digital publication, but particularly novels written in the epic fantasy, science fiction, urban fantasy, horror, dystopia and supernatural genres. After reading the guidelines, authors from around the world can submit their English manuscripts here.

Get organized/Fiction, nonfiction, poetry

Thought for the Week: You've got to get up every morning with determination if you're going to go to bed with satisfaction. ~ George Horace Lorimer

ASANA is a web-based task/project management program that’s free for individuals or small groups. You can track who is to do what.

People you work with would also register with Asana and e-mail updates are automatically added to your project file. Because you would check your Asana inbox for task updates, you won’t get distracted by other e-mails.

While writers often work alone, Asana can help by coordinating volunteer activities or family chores. Each team gets a Workspace. Workspaces contain Projects, and Projects contain Tasks. In each Task, users can add Notes, Comments, Files, and Tags.

CRAZYHORSE welcomes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction/essay from September 1 to May 31. Pays $20 per page of layout up to $200 maximum.

 

Say What?/Call for Poetry

Thought for the Week: Success is the child of audacity.  ~ Benjamin Disraeli

TEEN AND MILLENNIAL SLANG

What the dillio? Need to check on some teen slang for your writing? This teen slang dictionary may help, but keep in mind slang often varies from one region of the country to the next. 

This site gives a brief primer on what millennials are just sayin’.

THE PEDESTAL MAGAZINE

“From August 28-October 13, and again from October 28-December 13, we will only be receiving poetry submissions (no restrictions on theme, length, or style). There is no need to query prior to submitting poetry. Submit up to six (6) poems. Please submit all poems in one (1) file.”

 Pays $40 per poem.

After the release of the December issue, the magazine will go on brief hiatus. The "new" Pedestal will post sometime in Fall 2013 or Spring 2014.

Bread Loaf/Iowa Review

Writer’s Thought for the Week: Creative work…is like a faucet: nothing comes unless you turn it on, and the more you turn it on, the more comes. ~  Brenda Ueland

Bread Loaf Conference

If, like me, you did not attend the Bread Loaf conference in Middlebury, Vermont, you can capture some of the experience thanks to Chloe Yelena Miller. 

You may listen to some of the readings and sessions here.

THE IOWA REVIEW
 
Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome during the fall semester only--September, October, and November. The Iowa Review publishes short stories, flash fiction, graphic novels, self-contained novel excerpts, and plays; poetry of all kinds, including verse plays and longer work; and all manner of creative nonfiction, including personal essays, lyric essays, memoirs, and literary journalism. 

Pays $1.50 per line for poetry ($40 minimum) and $0.08 per word for prose ($100 minimum). They also publish 750-1,000 word reviews of book-length fiction, poetry, and nonfiction on their website.

Poetry/Short Fiction Contest

Tomorrow, September 10, is the birthday of American poet, Mary Oliver. I became familiar with her work only recently.

I like her "Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." 

Good advice for a writer, don’t you think? 

JERRY JAZZ MUSICIAN NEW SHORT FICTION CONTEST 

Deadline: September 30, 2012

No entry fee. Only one story per author.

Prize: $100

The Jerry Jazz Musician reader has interests in music, social history, literature, politics, art, film and theatre, particularly that of the counter-culture of mid-twentieth century America. Your story, 5000 words or less, should appeal to a reader with these characteristics.

E-Book Formatting/Calls for Submission

Thought for the Week: Expectation is one of the greatest sources of suffering.” ~Buddhist statement 

E-Book Formatting

Thinking of writing an e-book? Formatting can vary depending on where you choose to publish, but these links to articles (courtesy of BookBaby) give you an idea of what you’ll be dealing with. Save yourself some time later by following some of the advice while you write your book.

Chicken Soup for the Soul:  Autism or Asperger's

Deadline: September 30, 2012.  Planned publication April 2013

If you are the parent of a child with autism or Asperger's, Chicken Soup invites you to share your story about raising your child - the ups and downs, the effect on your family, your child's special attributes and talents, and the lighter moments too. You may use a "pen name" on your story. These stories will provide advice, comfort and insight to other parents in the same situation. 

Pays $200 on publication plus ten copies of the book in which your work appears.

Consequence Prize in Poetry 

Deadline: October 1, 2012 (received)
No entry fee

Each year a distinguished poet is invited to select the winner of The Consequence Prize in Poetry. The award for best poem includes a cash prize of $200. The winning poet and three finalists will have their work published in the Spring 2013 issue of CONSEQUENCE Magazine. Consequence is a literary magazine that focuses "on the culture of war and social injustice."

 

Timelines/Call for Submissions

Writer’s Thought for the Week: …knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.  ~ Albert Einstein 

Time Warp

www.OurTimeLines.com

If you’re thinking of writing something historical, this site will generate a timeline of significant historical and technological events. You may enter any start or end date from 1000 CE to the present.

You may customize the generated timeline with less significant events or personal events relating to your character.

CARTE BLANCHE
http://carte-blanche.org/submissions/
Fall issue deadline: Sept. 15, 2012
Pays a modest honorarium.

Fiction and Nonfiction “We like narrative: a story that moves from some kind of a beginning to some kind of an end, be it short fiction, memoir, personal essay or literary journalism. If it’s well written and tells a story, we’ll consider it. Word limit: 3500; maximum of two prose submissions per author per issue.”

Poetry  “From odes and haikus to free verse and sonnets, we welcome poems in any form. Limit: 3 poems per person per submission round.”

Market Analysis/subTerrain

Thought for the Week: When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot. ~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Market Analysis

When deciding where to submit my work, I review a publisher’s guidelines and read samples of what they have recently published. A sample copy of a magazine can help me identify that market's demographic by looking at the ads in addition to the articles. Do the ads target young professionals, singles and/or families, people with/without children, etc?

When studying sample articles, I’ve found a semi-automated way of comparing my writing to theirs. If I key in a few paragraphs or download one of their stories, I can use MS Word’s “readability statistics” function to analyze and compare their piece to mine. These statistics include the number of sentences per paragraph, words per sentence, characters per word, and estimated education level necessary for comprehension. I’m sometimes surprised by the results; you may be, too. I find changing sentence length or word choice is usually a simple edit task.

SUBTERRAIN

This Canadian magazine is published three times a year.  The theme for the fall/winter issue is "Our Dying Planet" and the deadline is September 1, 2012. Pays: $25/poem and $25/published page of prose. You need not be Canadian to submit but payment will be in Canadian collars.

Writer Web Sites/Anthology Call

Writer’s Thought for the Week: Authors should not only want to write a story, but should want to write a particular story. They have to believe in it, and believe in their ability to write it. ~ Barbara Delinsky 

101 BEST WEB SITES FOR WRITERS

        

You can download a free copy of Writer’s Digest’s 2012 101 Best Web Sites for Writers just by subscribing to the magazine’s free weekly email newsletter at www.writersdigest.com.

MARGARET RIVER PRESS 

Deadline: August 31, 2012

Invites short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction submissions that illuminate the theme of “fire”. The anthology seeks works that illustrate experiences of and relationships to fire: its destructive, creative and redemptive powers, its social impact, its cultural and ecological role, its terror, symbolism and its beauty. Pays a flat fee of AUD$200 for fiction and creative nonfiction, $150 for poetry for both Australian print rights and International Digital rights, plus a contributor’s copy of the print edition. The anthology will be published in print and digital format.

Writing Habits/Travel Story Competition

Thought for the Week: Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right. ~    Henry Ford 

Slow Leaks

I’m watering my neighbor’s plants while they’re away. The well water system and hose are in their garage so they left me the garage door opener for access. The other day as I walked over I noticed a lot of water in the driveway. When I opened the garage door, a small wave of water flowed into the driveway. A narrow hose between the pump and the tank had developed a small leak. The pinpoint size breach was not visible, but the thin stream of water spewing out had soaked part of the lawn and continued to flow down the driveway.

What does this have to do with writing? The time leaks that distract us from the writing process can add up to a large chunk of lost time. The “just one more thing” that leads to another and then another until a whole morning is lost. I’ve been guilty of that lately and my writing has suffered. When I scheduled a certain time each day to write and stuck to it, I was far more productive. I asked myself if writing had become less important to me, but that was not it. I needed to recapture that focus, that discipline. I’m gradually getting back to my routine. More words find their way to the page and I’m feeling better about myself. I’ll never be as disciplined as the Olympic athletes are with their training regimens, but I’ll figure out what works for me.

Travel Story Competition
 

Deadline: August 31, 2012
No entry fee. You may enter more than once, but each entry must be submitted separately.

Leap Local wants 500 to 650 word personal travel stories involving local people. Perhaps a  tale of mishaps because you didn't use a local expert. Maybe you want to share a unique circumstance effected by the culture or environment you engaged with on your travels. Whether the story be hilarious, exciting, gorgeous or terrifying - you are invited to enter this competition. Your submission will be judged by authors, travel writers, journalists, and other industry professionals. First prize is $500 USD; there are two runner-up prizes of $150 USD. Winning stories and selected others will be published.

Literary Journals/Memoir

Thought for the Week: Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. ~ Winston Churchill 

JOURNAL OF THE MONTH

We can subscribe to all sorts of “of the month” clubs: book, fruit, cheese, wine, or even pig. Now we have literary journal of the month. Editors often read literary journals to find new talent. Interested in writing for literary journals but can’t afford to subscribe to more than one? If you live in the USA or Canada, you can sample more than one journal by subscribing to Journal of the Month. For $33, you receive four different journals. You select the frequency – one every month, every other month, or quarterly. Other options are available, up to 24 journals for $170. I’m going to give it a try.

MEMOIR(AND)

http://Memoirjournal.net/submissions

http://www.memoirjournal.net/downloads/submission-guidelines.pdf

The current reading period ends August 16, 2012 at noon Pacific Time.

No entry fee. One entry per author per submission period.

Seeks memoir in prose, poetry, or graphic form. Does not accept previously published work but does accept simultaneous submissions. (A personal blog is not considered previously published.)

Prizes: $500/$250/$100 and publication.