Why "deadline" and Pedestal call for submissions

Thought for the week: The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects the wind to change.  The realist adjusts the sails. ~ William Arthur Ward

Why do we call it “deadline”?

All writers deal with deadlines. If you frequently submit to contests or magazines, you live by those dates. Miss one and you either are disqualified or have an annoyed editor on your hands.

As much as we dread them now, deadlines used to be worse. During the American Civil War, prisoners were kept in wooden stockades. A railing marked the limit of the detention area. If a prisoner crossed the line marked by the railing, his captors assumed he was trying to escape and he was shot on sight. Both the Union and the Confederacy used the term and, as you might suspect, there is disagreement over which side used it first.

PEDESTAL MAGAZINE

http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com/submitguidelines.php

Deadline: October 14 for October 2011 issue.
Poetry submissions: "open," no restrictions on style, theme, length, or genre.

Fiction submissions: Maximum length=1,500 words. The story must contain the sentence, "Nobody thought that was where it was supposed to go." 

Pays $.05 per word for fiction,  $40 per poem.

The December issue will feature speculative fiction: science fiction, fantasy, horror, slipstream, surreal, and experimental. All fiction submitted between October 28 and December 14 should be speculative and not exceed 2,000 words.

Hope Clark, Essay Contest, and Nashville Review

Writer’s Thought for the Week: Books don't get written by talking about them, by looking for a 'secret formula' or by agonizing over them. Books get written by gluing one's behind to the chair and writing them.  ~ Mercedes Lackey

Hope Clark, editor and founder of FundsforWriters, is the guest at the Writers Chatroom Sunday, Sept. 18 at 7:00 pm U.S Eastern time. The chat is moderated and no password is needed to enter. Join the chat and ask any writing related question you have. For details and info on Hope and future guests, see http://www.writerschatroom.com/schedule.htm

10th Annual FundsforWriters Essay Contest
http://fundsforwriters.com/annualcontest.htm

Deadline: October 31, 2011  (received, by midnight ET)

This year’s theme is “diligence”: “Your definition of diligence…might involve a personal relationship, a child, a career, a manuscript. Maybe you weathered a difficult phase in your life, and now… you’ve come out on the other side relieved yet wiser, stronger and empowered.”

You may choose to pay a $5 entry fee or not. Without an entry fee, writers are eligible for cash prizes of $50/$25/$15 for 1st/2nd/3rd. With a fee, prizes are $400/$100/$50. Winners will be published in the Dec. 2, 2011 FundsforWriters newsletters. Other submissions will be considered for publication but will be paid the standard rate of $45 if selected.

Nashville Review

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/english/nashvillereview/submit

The current submission period ends October 1. This journal publishes flash, short stories, novel excerpts, poetry, creative nonfiction, and comics. Fiction and nonfiction may be up to 8,000 words. You may submit up to 5 poems at a time. Pays $100 for fiction, nonfiction, and comics, $25 per poem. No reprints.

Their other submission periods are Jan. 1 to Feb. 1 and May 1 to June 1.

Legal Matters/Short Short Fiction Contest

Thought for the Day: Accepting the unacceptable is the hardest lesson to learn and the most important to achieve inner peace. ~  Char Wilson, artist

Legal Matters

Legal Write Publications has a Twitter account @LegalWritePub on articles and blogs that deal with the legal side of writing, as well as a blog covering copyright and related issues: http://legalwritepublications.com/blog/.  Their web site offers free e-reports on the benefit of copyright and what it does NOT protect: http://legalwritepublications.com/freebies/

Esquire/Aspen Writers’ Foundation Short Short Fiction Contest

http://www.esquire.com/fiction/short-short-fiction-contest-2011

Deadline: October 7, 2011

Win a trip to New York to study with Colum McCann, and a scholarship to the Aspen Summer Words Fiction Workshop if you can beat Colum McCann (in 78 words). Entries must be 78 words, in honor of Esquire's 78th birthday, and will be judged on plot, characterization, theme, and originality.

Ten winners will receive reimbursement up to $500 for round trip economy plane fare to New York for a fiction workshop, taught by Colum McCann, and a literary party. Winners also receive reimbursement for up to $500 for two nights lodging in New York City.  One of the ten finalists will be selected as the Grand Prize winner of a full scholarship for the advanced fiction workshop at Aspen Summer Words (June 17 to 22, 2012).

The contest is sponsored by Hearst Communications.

Got a Yarn? and Anderbo No-Fee Novel Contest

Writer’s Smile for the Week: There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.  ~ William Somerset Maugham

The Yarn web site http://yareview.net/  targets writers of young-adult literature. (They define young-adult as age 14 and up.) The web site includes interviews with published authors. If you have published a young-adult book, you can request an interview by e-mailing the editor at kerri@yarereview.net.

They also publish fiction, essays, and poetry but currently offer no payment.

ANDERBO NO-FEE NOVEL CONTEST
http://www.anderbo.com/anderbo1/andernovelcontest-02.html

Deadline: September 21, 2011

Submit the first 36 pages (up to 9,000 words) of your unpublished novel. The contest will be judged by the anderbo.com editorial staff; they guarantee to choose and use one manuscript-excerpt. The sponsor of this contest, Mercer Street Books & Records, will pay an honorarium of $500 to the winning author upon publication on Anderbo.

A win may or may not lead to full publication of your novel, but it would be a plus to mention in a query letter.

Irene Who?/Emotional Titles and Inkwell Submissions

Sorry I’m so late with this week’s post. Hurricane Irene got in the way, or should I say I was in HER way? The eye of the storm passed over Beaufort, NC last Saturday bringing sustained winds of 85 mph with higher gusts. I was without power or cable for two and a half days and am just now getting back to normal. Thankfully, neither home nor family suffered any damage. We were very lucky to have a strong category 1 storm instead of a category 3. Irene was a messy guest, though, and the cleanup after her visit continues.

If you were in Irene’s path, I hope she left you unscathed.

Thought for the week: We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like? ~ Jean Cocteau

Advanced Marketing Institute has a free Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer for analyzing the emotional marketing value of a headline or title. You just type in your headline, select the type of business or industry you are targeting, and it gives you an "emotional rating" for the title based on your word choice.

The rating includes an explanation of which emotion your headline most impacts: intellectual, empathetic, or spiritual. It takes only seconds and is helpful in creating a good title or headline. You can try it here: http://www.aminstute.com/headline.

Inkwell is open for unsolicited poetry, prose and artwork submissions until November 15. Submit previously unpublished work only. Submissions for the spring 2012 issue may be on any subject. The fall 2012 issue will focus on the theme “Living On the Edge.” Pays $10 per printed page plus two copies. http://www.inkwelljournal.org/submit.html

Homophones and Consequence Poetry

Writer’s thought for the week: “Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice.”  ~ Cyril Connolly

Homophones are words that sound identical but are spelled differently.  Think bored and board or foul and fowl.  If we choose the wrong one, a spell-checker is no help.

Working with a critique group, I’ve noticed that some writers, myself included, tend to make the same mistakes with these words.  To and too are common mistakes, as are for and fore. To weed out embarrassing mistakes before hitting “send”, we need to be aware of this pitfall. 

A good tactic is creating a list of words you frequently misspell to develop your own private checklist.  You can start by reviewing a list of the 100 most common homophones.

Consequence Prize in Poetry
http://www.consequencemagazine.org/poetrycontest.html

Deadline: October 1, 2011 (received)

This prize recognizes exceptional work addressing the consequences of armed conflict or social injustice. 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 2012 issue of CONSEQUENCE Magazine.

There is no entry fee and you may submit up to three poems of any length.

No Excuses/Mainly Murder Press

Thought for the week: “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” ~ Albert Einstein

NO EXCUSES

Let’s face it, we all make excuses at times for why we cannot write.

A writing group in Kabul, Afghanistan  has over 1,000 members and published 50 books in various languages in spite of the war. They are unable to sell most of their books – freedom of expression is not widespread and threats to writers are constant.

I don’t know about you, but my excuses pale in comparison. Was the expression “If they can do it, I can do it” ever more appropriate?

MAINLY MURDER PRESS
http://mainlymurderpress.com/store/submissions.php

Opens for submissions in October 2011. This publisher is a traditional publisher and does not publish e-books. I like the fact that authors retain e-rights - the ability to sell e-rights later could prove very valuable. Their niche has been mystery novels with an emphasis on New England-based stories by New England authors, but as of January 2011 they began considering stories written by others and set outside the region.

They consider cozies, quirky character studies, hard-boiled detectives, or lively amateur sleuths. Mainly Murder Press charges no fees of any kind to authors for publishing services.