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Posts Tagged ‘Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Competition’

Writer’s Mail

Posted in Newsletter, tagged , on June 1, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Writer’s Mail for May 24, 2012
by Jen Wilcher

Five of us gathered at Barnes & Noble to discuss the three reading we had for the week. However, we forgot to take notes. Oops.

May 29: Fifth Tuesday!

June 5: Greg Spry (chapter 29-31, Beyond Cloud Nine 9). Judith McNeil (more of “The Waldorf Hysteria”), Amber Boudreau (chapter 6, Noble), Andy Brown (chapter 1, novel), and Jerry Peterson (chapter 4, Rage).

June 12: Holly Bonnicksen-Jones, (Coming Up For Air), Terry Hoffman, (The Great Tome), Jack Freiburger, (Jesus at the IHOP), Andrea Kirchman (???)

June 19: Greg Spry (chapter 32-45, Beyond Cloud Nine 9), Jaida Temperly (chapter 1, Final Portfolio), Millie Mader (chapter 36, Life on Hold), Rebecca Rettenmund (chapter 9, The Cheese Logue), Aaron Boehm (film script, part 2, “Stealing from Yourself”), Alicia Connolly-Lohr (chapter 2, Lincoln, Black Hawk and the Thirty-Eight Hanged), and Jerry Peterson (chapter 5-6, Rage).

Fifth Tuesday . . .
May 29, less than two weeks away. Will you be with us?

Second-and-fourth group are our hosts. We will be at Terry and Jan Hoffman’s home south of Madison that evening. Carol Hornung has asked that you make your reservations with her. Be sure to tell Carol what you are bringing for the feast table. Yes, this is a potluck dinner, so bring your lucky pot filled with good food to share.

The writing challenge, ahh yes. Write a 250-word story from an object’s point of view. Says Carol, “Have fun with it! Maybe you are an acorn about to fall into a stream. A golf ball about to be smacked across campus and through the Dean’s window. The last leaf falling from a tree in autumn.”

Not going to make it to Fifth Tuesday? Write for the writing challenge anyway. It’s a challenge, so do it.

When you have your piece done, email it to Carol.

2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Finalists
Meet the 2012 Finalists, read our experts’ reviews, and more.

Alan Averill, The Beautiful Land
• Alan Averill has been writing for as long as he can remember. In addition to numerous short stories and plays, he has helped localize and edit over 30 video games. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, his dog Miso, and a whole lot of rain.
• Read the experts’ reviews

Charles Kelly, Grace Humiston and the Vanishing
• Charles Kelly, formerly a reporter for The Arizona Republic, was co-winner of the Arizona Journalist of the Year Award in 1992. Kelly lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.
• Read the experts’ reviews

Brian Reeves, A Chant of Love and Lamentation
• Reeves is a creative writing teacher and a member of The Guttery, a professional writing group located in Portland. He lived in Hawaii for several years, where he developed a passion and respect for the culture and people of the islands.
• Read the experts’ reviews

Cassandra Griffin, Dreamcatchers
• This is Griffin’s second year entering the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. While she enjoys challenging herself by writing all kinds of genres, she loves to delve into new fantasy worlds, especially told through the eyes of young adults.
• Read the experts’ reviews

Rebecca Phillips, Out of Nowhere
• Rebecca Phillips lives in Nova Scotia, Canada with her husband, two children, and cat. She started writing young adult novels at the age of twelve and hasn’t stopped since.
• Read the experts’ reviews

Regina Sirois, On Little Wings
• Regina Sirois is 90% reader and 10% writer, and as such, her loyalty lies with readers. She graduated summa cum laude from Missouri State’s Department of History and English and settled in the golden wheat fields of Kansas with her high school love.
• Read the experts’ reviews

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Writer’s Mail

Posted in Newsletter, tagged , on March 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Tuesdays with Story
2-23-2012

Quote of the Week
“So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.” – Dr. Seuss

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest Update
It turns out that Tuesdays With Story can brag of not one, but TWO second round finalists in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest! Greg Spry’s novel Beyond Cloud Nine has been selected (along with Asperger Sunset by Carol Hornung, mentioned last week). Round three finalists (best 250 out of 1000) will be announced at the end of March!

March 2, 2012 – the 108th Anniversary of the birth of Dr. Seuss
My personal favorite Dr. Seuss book was “The Lorax” (and I really hope they didn’t screw up the movie). “I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees./I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.” Even at a young age I marveled at the need of creatures to have an advocate, and, quite frankly, the Lorax has a bit of a downer ending – everything is gone, ruined, including the Lorax, except there’s just one spark of hope – one last truffula seed. “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot/nothing is going to get better./It’s not.” He told the truth to children. I appreciated that.
Here’s what the Amazon Author page has to say about Dr. Seuss:
“A person’s a person, no matter how small,” Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, would say. “Children want the same things we want. To laugh, to be challenged, to be entertained and delighted.”
Brilliant, playful, and always respectful of children, Dr. Seuss charmed his way into the consciousness of four generations of youngsters and parents. In the process, he helped millions of kids learn to read. (more…)

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Writer’s Mail

Posted in Newsletter, tagged , , on February 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Tuesdays with Story
2-23-2012

Quote of the Week
“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” – W. Somerset Maugham

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest (Carol Hornung)
The second round has been announced and I am delighted to say that Asperger Sunset, along with 999 of its closest peers, made it! The next round is 250 of that 1000, to be announced at the end of March. Wish me luck!

Alumni news . . . (from Jerry Peterson)
Ben LeRoy, our TWS leader for several years back a decade ago, last year sold his publishing company, Tyrus Books, to F+M Media. F+M publishes Writer’s Digest and 34 other magazines, and it owns seven book imprints, eight now with Tyrus.

Ben went with the sale, continuing as publisher for Tyrus. The sale gave Ben access to more capital and marketing muscle than he had as an independent publisher. “It also gives me a regular paycheck and health insurance,” he said. “That’s come to be important to me as I’ve gotten older.”

Home base for Ben and Tyrus continues to be Madison.

Tuesday Night at the Bookstore (from Amber Boudreau)
Eight of us gathered ’round to review pieces for the evening.
Rebecca shared chapter four of her Cheese Logue. Lots of chuckles while she reads aloud. Pat and Millie like the imagery she uses about the moon. Rebecca tells us this is her shortest chapter. Pat had a question about calling the police car a prowler. Everybody liked it, it moved well. (more…)

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Writer’s Mail

Posted in Newsletter, tagged , , , on January 22, 2010| 1 Comment »

January 21, 2010 by Cathy R.

“The essence of dramatic form is to let an idea come over people without it being plainly stated. When you say something directly, it is simply not as potent as it is when you allow people to discover it for themselves.” – Stanley Kubrick

Writing friends…

This group has been around for quite awhile—nearly a decade now. One former member and group leader, Ben LeRoy, founder of Bleak House Books and now Tyrus Books in Madison, says he was asked to take over leadership of an ongoing group of aspiring writers “sometime around 2002 or 2003” by Sherry Klinker, then the publicity manager at Barnes & Noble. Shortly afterward, the growing group split into the two sections we now have today. Ben recently offered to do a question-and-answer session with TWS members to share what he knows about books and publishing. Maybe in spring?

This week, news from another early member who continues to write and publish, Kashmira Sheth: I want to tell you my new book BOYS WITHOUT NAMES just came out yesterday. If anyone is interested I have posted pre-pub reviews on my website: http://kashmirashet h.typepad. com/

– Kashmira

Writing challenge set . . .

To your keyboards! First-and-thirders, our hosts for Fifth Tuesday – March 30 at Booked for Murder – have set the writing challenge: “A Night at the Bookstore.” (more…)

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