Tuesdays with Story

Writer’s Mail
January 9, 2014
“Frozen Tundra” Edition

“Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work.” – Chuck Close

1st and 3rd
No meeting because it was just too cold. We do have some cool news, though:

Rebecca Rettenmund and Isaiah are engaged! He proposed over the holidays while they were climbing a snowy hilltop in Michigan. The wedding date is planned for September in Paoli (home of the Cheese Shop) in the park where they met.

Lisa McDougal will marry Guy in Las Vegas in October by an Elvis tribute artiste.

As The King said, you just “Can’t Help Falling in Love”! Congratulations!!

Who’s up next . . .
January 14: Karen Zethmayr (page of pop-up book instructions), Holly Bonnicksen-Jones (chapter 6, Coming Up For Air), Deb Kellerman (chapter 3 of recent work), Carol Hornung (chapter, Ghost of Heffron College), and Ryan Wagner (poems).. . . *Meet at Barnes & Noble Westside.

January 21: Lisa McDougal (chapter 11, also chapters 7 and 10 rewrite, Tebow Family Secret), Cindi Dyke (chapter 2, North Road), Bob Kralapp (short story, “Hole in the Wall”, Part 1), Millie Mader (chapter 50, Life on Hold), Ruth Imhoff (scene 1, Flame of Souls), Jerry Peterson (chapters 22-23, Capitol Crimes), and Cathy Riddle (What I’ve learned about publishing).

February 4: Amber Boudreau (chapter 28, Noble), Andy Pfeiffer (chapter, The Void), Kashmira Sheth & Amit Trivedi (???), Pat Edwards (???), Judith McNeil (chapter 8, My Mother, Savior of Men), and Jerry Peterson (chapters 24-26, Capitol Crimes).

Wanted: Newsletter editor for February . . .
Pat Edwards is getting Writers Mail out to us this month, but who will take on the assignment for February? You’ve not yet been the editor? Here’s your opportunity to master a new style of writing where brevity is the name of the game. Respond to Pat today.

Contests-o-rama!
Thanks Alicia and Jerry!

http://columbuscoop.org/2014_great_novel_contest.php
Found another novel writing contest. Deadline is end of this month.

Erma Bombeck essay contest (Humor or Human interest categories);
http://www.wclibrary.info/erma/#enter

Chicken Soup for the Soul is “looking for stories and poems.” (4 categories: My Guardian Angel; Overcoming Challenges/Finding Inner Strength; Reboot Your Life; The Power of Forgiveness); http://www.chickensoup.com/form.asp?cid=possible_books

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award still hasn’t announced its 2014 opening and rules yet but it should be any day. Info period has been shortened in recent years. They’ve never revealed the number of submissions but — a — guess is that they want to decrease the number of submissions and theoretically this could increase a writer’s chances of making the first and second cutoffs. http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Novel-Award-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=332264011

The Council for Wisconsin Writers is now accepting entries in its contests for best novel, best nonfiction book, best book of poetry, best children’s book, best short fiction, and best short nonfiction published in 2013. You can enter even if you are an indie author – self published – and even if you’ve only published an e-book.

Yes, there is an entry fee of $20, but the winners get money, up to $500 depending on the category. Go to the Council’s website, http://www.wiswriters.org/ , for the rules and the entry forms. Move fast. The deadline for getting in is January 31.

Great word . . .
From Word Spy Paul McFedreis:

shelfie
noun. A photo of one or more shelves, usually bookshelves, owned by the photographer. Also: bookshelfie.

Example Citations:
“Like the selfie (which had a recent moment of infamy thanks to President Obama), a shelfie is a kind of self-portrait. It doesn’t reveal, however, the truths to be found in a photographer’s face. Instead, a shelfie shows you what you can learn about someone from looking at their bookshelf.”– Hector Tobar, Hey everybody, let’s ‘shelfie’, Los Angeles Times, December 18, 2013

“I don’t know whether I should resolve to be more patient and tolerant in 2014 or go with my instinct and throw myself fully into the fight against gullibility/ stupidity. Gullipidity. Actually, I might just throw myself into the fight to make ‘gullipidity’ happen. Also, ‘shelfie’ – a photo tweeted of one’s bookshelves – because if that takes off, well, for the first time I shall feel that I finally have something to offer the world.
– Lucy Mangan, 2013 has been a riotous success, Stylist, December 17, 2013

Earliest Citation:
#shelfie (Taken with Instagram).
– between-brightnessandme, Tumblr, September 10, 2012

The Last Word . . .

Brain Pickings @ http://www.brainpickings.org/