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This Week's Headlines - 07/28/2010
Attention: WritersNewsWeekly is now accepting books to be submitted for review. This is an open submission, so all categories of books are accepted, and there is no submission fee. Your book will not be returned to you--it will either be given to the reviewer or donated. There is always a chance that your book may not receive a favorable review, but keep in mind, we call it like we read it. If your book is reviewed, we will contact you.
If you have a book that you would like us to consider for review, please mail a hard copy to:
WritersNewsWeeky
Attn: Meghan Morrow
3468 Babcock Blvd.
Pittsburgh, PA 15237
By Jessica Quillin
At the end of last week, a professional door opened for me that I thought was essentially closed. Okay, not so much a closed door as a door that was slammed shut, window shade pulled down, and then a sign posted saying “CLOSED FOR BUSINESS. COME BACK TOMORROW. THANK YOU FOR YOUR BUSINESS.” The big news? I was contacted by a local university about an opportunity to teach adjunct courses in writing.
The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí by Salvador Dalí
By Chris Stokum
In the early chapters, Dalí seems to be little more than a highly creative but spoiled child. As Dalí reflects on his young adulthood, however, a new facet of his personality begins to emerge. Dalí’s actions, we find, are never as senseless as they appear, his radical opinions never as unfounded as one might be tempted to think. In fact, Dalí’s reasoning, based largely on his aesthetic sense, is often just as convincing as the common rationale he rebels against.
The Write Group
By L.L. McKinney
That is the first step to take after finishing a first draft and this is what we discussed in last week’s article. Once you’ve typed up that final page, put it all aside. They say to let two to six weeks pass before starting on the second draft. And who are They? Other writers, published and aspiring, agents, editors, and people who take up residence in the world of literature.
WNW talks with author Steven Craig Barrett
By Elizabeth Milo and Christopher Stokum
We recently spoke with Steven Craig Barrett, author of the The Apocalypse Chronicles, the first book in the series of the same name.
This Week's Headlines - 07/21/2010
Attention: WritersNewsWeekly is now accepting books to be submitted for review. This is an open submission, so all categories of books are accepted, and there is no submission fee. Your book will not be returned to you--it will either be given to the reviewer or donated. There is always a chance that your book may not receive a favorable review, but keep in mind, we call it like we read it. If your book is reviewed, we will contact you.
If you have a book that you would like us to consider for review, please mail a hard copy to:
WritersNewsWeeky
Attn: Meghan Morrow
3468 Babcock Blvd.
Pittsburgh, PA 15237
The Appointment
A Short Story By Kirk B. Young
I was five years old the first time he looked at me. It was the middle of the night; I had chicken pox and I'd been scratching feverishly at my body all day only to be put to bed wrapped up in a wool blanket. You'd hope it was a cruel joke and not just malevolence, and truth be told it was neither. Auntie Lilith never had any children of her own, and when she looked after me during the summer months it had always seemed more of a neutrality with which she approached my presence there.
Writing Vertically and Horizontally
By Jessica Quillin
In what ways should you think about marketing your work while writing? To what degree should you think about how what you write connects with the rest of your portfolio or is representative of the topic about which you are writing?
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
By Sarah Schiavoni
I’m not quite sure how I got started on Philippa Gregory’s books. I’ve always been interested in England and its rich history, so perhaps I caught a glimpse of one of her titles on a bookstore shelf and thought I’d give it a chance. Even if I can’t remember which of her books I read first, I do remember falling in love with historical fiction and becoming hooked on her writing. I’ve read and bought so many of her works, they now fill up a whole shelf in my bookcase (and are starting to creep onto the shelf below). I hadn’t read any of her books for at least a year, having thought I’d read most of them already. But when I saw The White Queen, a book I was unfamiliar with, displayed in a bookstore, I picked it up. Like her previous novels, this newest book didn’t disappoint me.
"The Next Step. Well, one of them."
By L.L. McKinney
Last week we touched on what I believe is the most serious condition that ails us as writers: procrastination. I bet some people thought I was going to say something like writer’s block. Being unable to think of what to write, or how to proceed with writing, is indeed a serious matter, but in order to discover that you suffer from writer’s block you have to have sat down and tried to write something.
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WNW talks with author Marlis Day
We recently spoke with Marlis Day, author of the Margo Brown Mystery series (Why Johnny Died, Death of a Hoosier Schoolmaster, and The Curriculum Murders) and The Secret of Baileys Chase, the first book in the Adventures in Bailey’s Chase young adult book series.
This Week's Headlines - 07/14/2010
Attention: WritersNewsWeekly is now accepting books to be submitted for review. This is an open submission, so all categories of books are accepted, and there is no submission fee. Your book will not be returned to you--it will either be given to the reviewer or donated. There is always a chance that your book may not receive a favorable review, but keep in mind, we call it like we read it. If your book is reviewed, we will contact you.
If you have a book that you would like us to consider for review, please mail a hard copy to:
WritersNewsWeeky
Attn: Meghan Morrow
3468 Babcock Blvd.
Pittsburgh, PA 15237
Getting Published is Guerilla Warfare
By Alex Miller
I remember how differently I thought in 2007 than I do now. I had just finished work on my first book, a memoir, The Heart of a City. Oh, how happy I was to have achieved such a stellar accomplishment at such a young age. How I danced and pranced about my apartment. I had no idea what a “vanity press” was. Heck, I didn’t even know what a printing press was. Joking on that last part, but you get my drift.
Whether ‘Tis Bolder in the Mind of the Web
By Jessica Quillin
Over the past week, I have spent at least an hour a day pouring through page mockups, selecting images, and writing text for a website to represent my new company. Putting together this business website has become a strangely intimidating process. I say “strangely” because web content development and communication strategy are two major components of what I do for a living.
Spooky Little Girl by Laurie Notaro
By Amanda Linsmeier
The novel tells the story of Lucy Fisher, a young woman who goes on a Hawaiian vacation with her two friends. When she returns home, she’s shocked to discover all her belongings on the lawn, her fiancé unwilling to talk to her, and the locks on their home changed. To top it off, she’s recently been fired from her job. What’s a girl to do? She stores her stuff at her friend’s house and moves in with her sister and nephew, exploring possibilities in the new life before her. Unfortunately for Lucy, she is hit by a bus in the process.
"I need time" really means "I need to MAKE time"
By L.L. McKinney
This week we’re going to talk about a crime we all commit, not just as writers, but also as human beings: procrastination. When I say we all have done the delay dance, I mean all. I see you hiding behind your pile of excuses. Yes, you too.
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WNW talks with author Robert Hays
We recently spoke with author Robert Hays about his latest novel, The Baby River Angel, and his other stories, Circles in the Water and The Life and Death of Lizzie Morris.
This Week's Headlines - 07/07/2010
Attention: WritersNewsWeekly is preparing a series on the impact childhood books have on their young readers. If you’re an author interested in being interviewed, or if you think you have a unique perspective on the topic, contact us at submissions@writersnewsweekly.com.
The Internet and Writers
With the arrival of the internet, writers have gained many benefits such as ways to save money and more access to publications we might not have otherwise known about. Unfortunately, the internet has also caused some of us to pick up some bad habits that could ultimately hurt us...
During grad school, a professor once accused me of lacking “scholarly and critical depth” when participating in classroom discussions. While he later apologized after learning of my complete unfamiliarity with the material for this course (that had no prerequisites, mind you), his comments continue to haunt me when approaching the subject of my own writing and my critical abilities as a writer.
Midnight Revelations by Karen M. Bence
By Chris Phillips
Is there a point at which the rational can no longer be reconciled with the facts? How is one to judge the difference between what the senses reveal and what the spirit world shows?
Bence takes these questions and answers them for Sara Miller, her husband David, and their son Jack. This mystery, and perhaps even horror story, is a tale that grabs the reader and never lets go...
At Least the Hard Part is Over...I Think
Welcome to Fiction, from the First Draft Forward, a little blurb about the undertaking of a fledgling writer going from first draft to querying agents and beyond.
WNW talks with author Brad Parks
We recently spoke with Brad Parks, author of Faces of the Gone, the first book in the Carter Ross Mystery series. Faces of the Gone is about Carter Ross, an investigative reporter who finds himself faced with discovering the true story behind a gory quadruple murder in the city.
This Week's Headlines - 06/30/2010
Attention: WritersNewsWeekly is preparing a series on the impact childhood books have on their young readers. If you’re an author interested in being interviewed, or if you think you have a unique perspective on the topic, contact us at submissions@writersnewsweekly.com.
WritersNewsWeekly talks with the Ask a New Author Team
Book Divas is an online book club started in 2002 as a community for girls to freely express themselves and share in their love of books. Eager to help budding authors, Book Divas recently started a special column, Ask a New Author, where three authors share their stories about breaking into the book business and answer the questions of those hoping to write and publish their own books. We recently spoke with the three authors who contribute to Ask a New Author.
Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer McMahon
By Carlotta G. Holton
When it comes to murder, does history repeat itself? It seems that way in this tautly written mystery that revolves around the decades-old murder of fifth grader Del Griswold, a pariah dubbed, “Potato Girl.” When divorced school nurse Kate Cypher returns to her childhood home in Vermont in 2002, she is confronted not only with a mother who suffers from Alzheimer’s, but also with a new murder involving another young girl.
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
By Amanda Linsmeier
I am admittedly the type of reader who judges a book by its cover. Strolling through Barnes & Noble a few months ago, a certain book happened to catch my eye. Titled The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, it intrigued me immediately, and the synopsis on the back made me want to know more. I didn’t purchase it right away, but the memory of the cover and premise had me searching for it on Amazon.com late one evening. I bought it and devoured it in one or two nights of reading.
This Week's Headlines - 06/23/2010
Attention: WritersNewsWeekly is preparing a series on the impact childhood books have on their young readers. If you’re an author interested in being interviewed, or if you think you have a unique perspective on the topic, contact us at submissions@writersnewsweekly.com.
Is there a writer out there who has the perfect situation? I mean, besides your basic hairdresser/reality TV star/writer?
If it’s not one difficulty, it’s another. There’s the mom whose writing time is constantly interrupted by the toddlers who insist upon regular care and maintenance. Or the office worker who gets up at four in the morning to write-and then gets fired because he falls asleep on the job. And of course, there’s the diligent would-be novelist who manages to sandwich in fifteen minutes of writing a day, including Christmas. Then, when this writer’s decade-in-the-making opus is finally completed, a truck slams into her, just as she’s dropping it in the mailbox. “Save my manuscript!” she hollers from the ambulance. Such is the writer’s lot in life.
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
By Elizabeth Milo
I find it immensely satisfying to read a book that is on one of those “100 Books You Must Read at Some Point in Your Life” lists. If you come across one someday, scan the list for the title The Woman in White. Though it may not be the most recognizable title on the list, it is one you should certainly check off—it’s a classic that just hasn’t reached the same level of fame as its canonical cousins. Wilkie Collins was a master of character voice and plot, and his crowning achievement, The Woman in White, is a very entertaining read. It retains the Victorian charm of its time without sacrificing the modern elements which make it so accessible to a contemporary reader.
The Changing Face of the English Language
Stay-at-home moms and collegiate educators alike are crying out in concern that the English language is decaying right before our very ears. For years there has been a growing panic across the nation that our language is deteriorating into something unrecognizable, and quite frankly, bad. Those who bewail the loudest that the sky is falling are concerned that as slang, “abrevs,” and dangling participles enter the language, English will become something decrepit and twisted. The sensation that is sweeping the nation, though, is founded on some misguided points.
This Week's Headlines - 06/16/2010
Attention: WritersNewsWeekly is preparing a series on the impact childhood books have on their young readers. If you’re an author interested in being interviewed, or if you think you have a unique perspective on the topic, contact us at submissions@writersnewsweekly.com.
I've Been Tommy-Ed
About ten years ago, I won a Tommy Award for my book Desperation.
I remember how it made me feel to win the award because I had worked very hard on that book, had re-written it a hundred times, and truly believed in its cause.
I also remember being quite proud because I knew the namesake for the award, my friend through the years, uh…Tom, of course.
Now, I'm not going to say too much about Tom because he is a dignified man with a good sense of humor, and he isn’t very comfortable accepting too many accolades…but just know that if you were to win such an award, it would certainly be an honor.
By Carlotta G. Holton
The Help is a literary treat. It exemplifies regional writing at its finest. In setting her novel in the midst of the racial struggles of the 1960s civil rights movement, Stockett combines the craft of good storytelling with the message of human rights and dignity.
Variously told by several black maids from Jackson, Mississippi and Eugenia Skeeter Phelan, a young white college graduate and would-be writer, the tale shines light on the plight of blacks and their hopes for equality in a tumultuous time in American history. To protect their positions in society, the women decide to anonymously publish a book with a major New York publishing house.
Turn the light off and go to bed!
In our house, my father was the bedtime storyteller. My mother would make sure I had clean teeth and a scrubbed face, but it was my father who tucked me in and read me stories. When I was a very little girl, we read Bear and the Big Ripe Strawberry, Goodnight Moon, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and many other classic children’s books. When I got a little older, we moved on to the poetry of Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutzky and read and reread so many of the poems that I soon knew many by heart. These poetry books were hard to put down—there was no “The End” to signal it was time for bed, just pages of fun, humorous reading. Each night, my father would tuck me in and sit beside me, reading me countless poems.
This Week's Headlines - 06/09/2010
Attention: WritersNewsWeekly is preparing a series on the impact childhood books have on their young readers. If you’re an author interested in being interviewed, or if you think you have a unique perspective on the topic, contact us at submissions@writersnewsweekly.com.
"My contribution to CHICAGO BLUES (Bleak House, 2007) was way out of my comfort zone, but that’s what I loved about writing short stories. They allow me to stretch and experiment with different characters, plots, eras, and settings. This story is about a Blues bass player whose ability to love and forgive is tested by events out of his control. There’s also a historical element: the story takes place both in the 1980’s and the 1950’s. It turned out to be one of the sweetest stories I’ve ever written..."
Mr. Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett
By Carlotta G. Holton
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, unemployment and homelessness ravaged the social and economic landscape. Many traveled westward across America's heartland to find work at migrant camps. Within this vagabond lifestyle, legends were born. Perhaps the most chilling among these is that of “Mr. Shivers” – death personified. He's been around since Father Time, the workers used to say, and no jail cell can hold him. “He has a train made of night that rides straight to hell,” writes Bennett. And he hurts people...
WNW Talks to Peter Damian Bellis
Peter Damian Bellis refuses to be pigeonholed. He is a unique blend of scholar and writer, combining an English professor’s encyclopedic knowledge of literature with an artist’s organic view on creating art. Not surprisingly, Bellis’s style reflects his dichotomous up-bringing where he benefited from both the academic influences of his father, and the story-telling traditions of his grandmother. Bellis graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in English Literature. Over the course of his career he’s worn many hats, including but not limited to high school English teacher, college English professor, policy analyst for the Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Board, Workforce Development Specialist for a non-profit agency, inn keeper, and chief bottle washer. His most recent work, The Conjure Man is described as “part myth, part fable, part satire, and part coming-of-age story.”
This Week's Headlines - 06/02/2010
Attention: WritersNewsWeekly is preparing a series on the impact childhood books have on their young readers. If you’re an author interested in being interviewed, or if you think you have a unique perspective on the topic, contact us at submissions@writersnewsweekly.com.
The Day Miriam Hirsch Disappeared
The Day Miriam Hirsch Disappeared is a short story from the collection Nice Girl Does Noir I by Libby Fischer Hellmann. "THE DAY MIRIAM HIRSCH DISAPPEARED was the first short story I wrote. My son had been given a book called “THE JEWS OF CHICAGO” for a Bar Mitzvah present, and when I thumbed through the photographs, they resonated -- especially the ones taken in Lawndale side during the ‘30s, a prosperous Jewish community on Chicago’s near west. Little did I know then that the story I wrote about those photos would become the “prequel” to my Ellie Foreman series. Or that the Ellie Foreman series would be the prequel to the Georgia Davis series. The following story, which won the Bouchercon short story contest in 1999, was first published in the Bouchercon Program book. It was later published in ANTHOLOGY TODAY, where it also won a contest, and in the now defunct FUTURES MAGAZINE. You can also find it digitally on Amazon Shorts, and it is available on audio at www.sniplits.com..."
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
By Carlotta G. Holton
At first reading, one might think this is a book about death and dying. With London’s famous Highgate Cemetery as part of the backdrop and the death of one of the main characters at the onset, it’s a natural assumption. While this is a modern ghost story, it is also a book about living and the degree to which some will go to prolong their lives at any and all costs. In essence, it asserts that death is only the beginning...
Karen M. Bence Video Interview
Karen M. Bence is the author of Midnight Revelations, which recently won the fiction horror category in the 2010 International Book Awards. She graduated from Dickinson College with a bachelor of arts in Psychology, and went on to earn her master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania. Having worked as a social worker, psychotherapist, and educator, Ms. Bence is now settled with her family in a farmhouse outside of Atlanta, GA, where she enjoys her equestrian and dog-breeding activities.
This Week's Headlines - 05/26/2010
 Writers News Weekly speaks with Robert Santoro, author of Wrath, and Roy Johnson, sales director of International Book Management Corporation (IBMC), about their experience at this year’s newly changed BEA. Read More |
 Author Jacquelyn Regis was born into extreme poverty in Haiti to a single mother who tried to offer her children a better life. Her family endured daily struggles and poverty living in a small hut in Haiti. Read More |
 Alison Bechdel's book, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, was just one in a long list of books required for my English 461 - Critical and Cultural Theory class. When it came time to read it as part of our discussion about feminist writing, I was a little thrown off: comic book format? Read More |
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