Fringe Words 2010: A Hoot

This year the London Writers' Society paired up with the London Fringe Festival to bring Fringe Words back to the festival.

If you did not attend Fringe Words 2010, you missed a good time and some great stories, all of which were linked through associations (real or imagined) with London, Ontario.

Hosted by LWS president Richard Nagel, this was what you missed

London Author Runs Contest With $3000 In Prize Money And No Entry Fee

London Ontario author Peter Riley sent me this info on a contest he is running to promote his novel. The contest begins on July 4th. From his website:

"Enter this contest to have a chance to win a chunk of $3,000 in total prize money...the catch is you’ll have to read the novel in order to answer the questions.

You’re probably thinking: Free e-book, cash prizes . . . What gives?

What gives is that I’m 65 god-damned years old, this novel means more to me than anything in the world, and I’m desperate to get it published while I’m still alive." 

Who cannot relate, no matter what your age? 

Peter's idea is to get his book noticed and, possibly, picked up by a publisher.

An innovative approach, this looks like a good chance to interact with another London author, have a bit of fun and maybe win a bit of cash for your own publishing efforts.

And - who knows - his book, Universes, might make a great summer read. (I love the cover so I hope you don't mind, Peter, that I put it in this post so people could see it.)

His website is www.universes.ca and contest information is HERE.

One Way To Avoid Rejection Of Your Manuscript Or Why Publishers Hate "Smart Quotes"

Ruth Zavitz forwarded this email on using "smart quotes" which was sent to her by Bob Zumwalt. It turns out that publishers are so busy that, sometimes, they will reject a manuscript simply because it will be too much time and work to clean it up.

From Bob Zumwalt:

"Gayle Surrette, IWW's Fiction admin, wrote this a while back.

It offers another perspective on formatting submissions that goes beyond our concerns at Novels-L. Learning proper formatting for our list is good practice for approaching an agent or publisher. They may not send a 'formatting problems' reminder in response to a sloppy submission."

From Gayle Surrette:

I have to speak to the smart quotes plain text thing.

Writers' Police Academy Workshops Include Firearms Training Simulator

Mystery writer and LWS member Pat Brown sent me the link to the Writers' Police Academy, a workshop for mystery writers given by police officers.

The workshop will include Firearms Training Simulator (FATS) and offers writers the opportunity to:

* Train like the pros
* Bring your writing to life
* Real police academy instructors
* Something for all genres
* Train with real police, fire, and EMS equipment
* An on site working fire station and EMS equipment

Pat says she's going to it and expects it "to be great."

From the blog of Lee Lofland, author of Howdunit: Police Procedure & Investigation A Guide For Writers, and one of the officers who teaches the course:

"Show me your hands! Drop the gun! Drop the knife!

Get out of the car, now!"

Strange Angel Calls For Original 30-Minute Plays

Strange Angel Productions is now accepting submissions of original 30 minute one-act plays. 

Six plays will be chosen to be a part of a 4-day theatre-based charity event which will be held at the ARTS Project November 3 through November 6, 2010. 

The six plays will be grouped into two sets of three allowing for one group to perform on Wednesday/Friday and the other on Thursday/Saturday. All are evening performances.

Submission Guidelines:

Call To Artists, Musicians, Writers For Saturday, October 2, 2010

From the L.O.O.K. Organizing Committee!

Just received an email from Ron Stewart who hosts poetry workshops once a month at Landon. A member of his group asked him to forward notice from L.O.O.K. about this event in October and its call to artists, musicians, and writers to participate. The following info is from the email:

A Call to Artists for Saturday, October 2nd, 2010

To convene in Queens Park on Dundas East, Old East Village

Between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. in London, Ontario. NO FEES.

The Bicycle Powered Stage

Got a band? Love to perform on stage? This stage is going to be powered by the people. Literally!

Self-Editing For Fiction Writers

Ruth Zavitz, along with critique group attendees Paula Carr and John Hitchens have just recommend Self-editing For Fiction Writers.

I found self-editing to be a very slippery slope, since the eye and brain are wired to jump over mistakes and see what should be on the page instead of what is.

Had the text-to-speech software TextAloud2 been around back then, I would have used it to listen to my book for an audio proofread and catch those mistakes, but it wasn't.

I remember an email that circulated years ago. It was full of misspellings, but the joke was that no reader saw them until he or she got to the end and the misspellings were pointed out. I remember I found it shocking.

But the brain is very clever and an expert at making sense of misspelled words. All it needs is for the first and last letter of a word to be correct and  it will fill in the rest, especially if you're tired, bored, or have gone over a manuscript so many times you know it by heart.

According to researchers at the University of Toronto, as reported in an article in Science Daily:

June 9 - Locavore Author Sarah Elton At LPL

This sounds great. From LPL website:

Come and meet Sarah Elton on Wednesday, June 9 at 7 pm in the Stevenson & Hunt room in Central Library. Sarah is Canada's leading voice in the local food movement, the food columnist for CBC Radio's Here & Now, the author of the just published book:

Locavore: From Farmers'fields To Rooftop Gardens - How Canadians Are Changing the way we eat. 

Locavore describes how foodies,100-milers, urbanites, farmers, gardeners and chefs across Canada are creating a new local food order that is sustainable and can feed us all. In recounting the stories of its diverse cast of characters, Locavore lays out a blueprint for a local food revolution.

A book sale will follow.

Passion Test Profile

I'm definitely taking this test after I get the London Writers' Society June 2010 edition of the newsletter queued to go out.

Seeking Writing Festivals

LWS member Miguel Carbonell sent me the email below giving an update on how his book signing went and his desire to do more of them. He has one coming up this month on June 5th.

If anyone knows of a writer's festival other than the four he mentioned here -  Words Alive, GritLit, Eden Mills and Bookfest - please leave the info in a comment.

Hi Clyo,

I have a signing Saturday, June 5th from 1-3 p.m. at the Chapters in Ajax. My next signing in London will be at Chapters North (opposite Masonville Place) on Saturday, June 26th from 1-4 p.m.

    I thought the signing at Chapters London South went fine. I sold a few books and got to talk to a bunch of people.Also important, the salespeople at the store now know what the book is about.

    Often, people ask them for suggestions, so it's good to have them on your side. Because the children's section of the store was curtained off for remodelling, they placed me across the main aisle on the wrong side of the store. I had to explain to everybody that my book was a children's book.The store manager decided to keep my book and suggested another signing event some time in the Fall. That's good news.

    On another subject, I was going to ask you if you have a list of festivals in Ontario where writers can go and sell their books. I got some locations from Brian Henry, but maybe other members of the LWS know of promising opportunities. This might be useful information for the LWS website or your newsletter. This is the list from B. Henry:

    Words Alive, north of Toronto: www.wordsalive.ca/news/

    GritLit in Hamilton: www.gritlit.ca/

    Eden Mills festival: www.edenmillswritersfestival.ca/

    Bookfest in Windsor: www.bookfestwindsor.ca

I've looked into these four, and the one at Eden Mills in September appears to be the most promising. It costs $25 to rent a table and two chairs for the main day. I've asked them if they want me to present my book at one of the festival sessions, but I think I'll be running against some major writers for a spot.

    Cheers,
    Miguel

Sell Your Fiction With Videos

50% of what people look at on the Internet is video, so a video campaign is a great way to get traffic to your writing website.

Likewise, a good way to get viewers desperate to read your book is to record a bit of it (a very interesting bit) that leaves the viewer wanting to know the end of the story and, therefore, wanting to buy your book to find out.

You can hire a professional videographer to do this and/or go to a studio, or you can do it yourself with your home video recorder or camcorder.

Just be sure to include a URL at the end of your video that shows viewers (and readers) where to go to purchase your book.

Let's say that your book is called Agatha's Exile and you choose to read a harrowing account of Agatha stumbling into a group of zombies. (My tongue-in-cheek tip of the hat to Liz and her hilarious creation, Helga Bitter.)

So your call to action in that case could be something like:

Liz Bardawill Publishes Video On You Tube

LWS member Liz Bardawill is using video to showcase her writing and story skills. Here's her first video, featuring "Helga Bitter." It's a riot - very funny - I loved it (and I don't think it's just because it's Liz), and I bet you will too.



In terms of getting filmmakers to call her, however, there is one thing missing: a call to action.

After all, Liz wants a job as a writer or on a film crew, right?

So what she needs to add at the end is a call to action that says something about who she wants to call her, and for what work, something like:

Filmmakers: Darlings, need a talented concept creator and writer for comedy horror films?

You've seen just a teensy sample of my work.
 
Don't wait. Contact me at: (email)

If like Liz, you are thinking of using video to find a writing partner or filmmakers to work with or (gasp) pay you to write scripts, then be sure to include that call of action, otherwise people will think that you put up the video just for fun and with no particular goal in mind.

If you do not want to use your primary email address at the end of the film, then set up a gmail account and use that address.

I will tell you, however, that as long as your email address is in a film and cannot be mined by bots, spammers are unlikely to bother you.

Once you have your video ready, sign up for a free membership with TubeMogul. You can upload your video to about 25 sites through the free version of the service.

(By the way, I've shared these ideas with Liz and she agrees they are good and she'll use them for her next video. Now you have the benefit of them too.) ;-)

2010 New England Shakespeare Festival Sonnet Contest

Are you a Shakespeare lover? Want to try your hand at writing a sonnet?  If it sounds like fun, then the  2010 New England Shakespeare Festival Sonnet Contest is for you. DEADLINE: August 1, 2010


1. Sonnets must be Shakespearean:
    • fourteen lines
    • ababcdcdefefgg rhyme scheme
    • basically written in iambic pentameter, variations and substitutions are permitted.

2. Submissions must be original and unpublished.

3. Writers may enter as many sonnets as they wish.

4. The entry fee is $3 (U.S.) per sonnet. Checks should be payable to "The New England Shakespeare Festival."

5. Entries may be mailed (must be received by deadline) or submitted electronically using the Sonnet Contest Online Entry Form.  Note that the form also allows submissions in two additional categories, the Student Sonnet Contest  and a  Rubber Ducky Sonnet Contest for younger children.

Invitation to May 30 Launch of Possessions: The Eldon House Poems

I just received this email invitation to the book launch for Possessions: The Eldon House Poems.  Everyone is invited.

On behalf of Christine Walde and Poetry London, I want to inform you and the London Writers' Society of our exciting upcoming launch of Possessions: The Eldon House Poems. We would love to have you there. Would you please help us spread the word to the London Writers' Society? The details are down below. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Many thanks,

Debra Franke

Poetry London Reading Series

www.poetrylondon.ca

Who: Poetry London in association with Museum London

What: Official launch of Poetry London's first anthology of poetry, Possessions: The Eldon House Poems, with readings by selected poets from the anthology

Where: The lawn of Eldon House, 481 Ridout Street North, London Ontario

When: Sunday May 30, 2-4 p.m.

Admission: FREE

Why: On the occasion of Eldon House's 175 anniversary

Possessions: The Eldon House Poems is an anthology of poetry published in partnership between Museum London and Poetry London on the occasion of Eldon House's 175 Anniversary. Featuring 27 local poets from London and the surrounding region, the anthology celebrates the history, lore and artifacts of the Harris homestead in the past, present and future.

Please join us on the lawn of Eldon House at 481 Ridout Street North London on Sunday May 30 from 2-4 p.m. to launch this collection of poetry, featuring reading by selected poets from the anthology. Cake and lemonade will be served. Books will be for sale. Rain or shine.

You may recall that another book launch took place last October, for Through a Land of Extremes: The Littledales of Central Asia which recounted the daring travels of Teresa Harris and her explorer husband St. George Littledale in the late 19th century. From the Eldon House website:

"Born at Eldon House in 1839, as the youngest child of John and Amelia Harris, Teresa went on to travel the world with St. George, including remote Tibet, earning the couple fame as Victorian England's greatest travellers in Central Asia. The Clinch's 313-page book describes in detail their many travels, and acknowledges London archivist John Lutman and Theresa Regnier of the University of Western Ontario for all their research assistance. In addition, the late Peter Smith, program coordinator at Museum London, was thanked for his wide knowledge of Eldon House, the Harris family and early Canada.

"This extraordinary presentation was previously delivered to the Royal Geographic Society in London, England and at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. for National Geographic."

Both Museum London and Poetry London host wonderful events, so attend this one if you can. 

The museum restaurant, by the way, is second to none and would be a great place to have brunch beforehand. On The Fork has the best view of any restaurant downtown, a relaxed yet refined ambiance, and superb food. Who knew blueberry pancakes could be so delectable?   

May 15, 2010 GenreCon Literary Convention in Sarnia

LWS member Pat Brown will be a presenter this month at 2010 GenreCon, a free literary convention in Sarnia. A wide range of discussion panels on writing, reading and publishing genre fiction—including mystery, horror, fantasy and science fiction—will take place from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

There will also be panels on anime and manga, a free film program of anime movies on the big screen in the Library Theatre, book signings and books for sale. 


When: Saturday May 15, 2010 beginning at 10 a.m.


Where: Sarnia Branch of the Lambton County Library, 124 Christina Street South, Sarnia, Ontario, one hour northeast of Detroit, Michigan on I-94 and one hour west of London, Ontario on Highway 402.


For more information: contact Jeffrey Allen Beeler Reference Librarian at the Sarnia Branch of the Lambton County Library, 124 Christina Street South, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada N7T8E1. Phone: (519) 337-3291. Email: Jeffrey.beeler(at)county-lambton.on.ca

The Power Of Words - Last Day To Vote For Amnesty International Film

I'm in a rush, just want to post this fantastic film on the power of words. If you read this today, April 29, 2010, you can still vote for this Webby nomination and propel it to "the best of the web" in the Public Service and Activism catagory.

Get Happy Video About Abraham-Hicks Teachings Makes Me Smile

I took a break from working on the May 2010 newsletter to listen to an inspirational broadcast on Hay House Radio. (Hay House is the number one publisher of self-help and new thought titles.) I heard a very interesting broadcast and that led me to check out the website of Abraham-Hicks. There I found a link to the video below.

Books by Esther and Jerry Hicks may not be your cup of tea, but they are very successful authors and workshop presenters who have been teaching that we create our own reality through our thoughts since 1986. I just recently discovered them and this video (made by an admirer of their teachings) which I absolutely love. It leaves me smiling every time I watch it. I hope it does the same for you.

2010 London One Act Festival Concludes

L.O.A.F. concluded on Sunday, at a 4 p.m. awards presentation at the Black Shire Pub.

I saw all ten plays, having attended on the three nights during which the adjudicator, Bernard Hopkins, gave feedback (Thursday, Friday and Saturday), and really enjoyed the festival.

For a recap of the awards, see my post on the London Playwright's Blog.

Back to Blogging!

Back when I rebuilt the LondonWritersSociety.ca website I really wanted to create a wordpress blog in which I would have more options in regard to function and design.

Ever the unrealistic optimist in regard to how much I can get done, I took the link to this blog off the website. Of course then I stopped adding posts as well.

Long story short: I haven't had time to create the blog I envisioned. Worse yet, it's been nearly eighteen months since I wrote a post on this one.

Yet during that time I would have so liked to comment on dozens of literary events that might have been of interest to other writers.

So I give. I'm going back to this blog, and putting the link to it back on the website until such time that I actually have another blog in place.

Now: back to working on the May 2010 LWS newsletter!

"How To Get A New Roof" To Be Published

I just received notice that my creative non-fiction story "How To Get A New Roof" is to be published in Cezanne's Carrot. "How To Get A New Roof" is a finalist in Cezanne's Carrot's "Journeys" contest.

I entered more information about it in the London Writers' Society "My Successes Blog."

This is fantastic news and a watershed moment for me. While I have had a couple of poems published on-line, this will be my first story published by a literary press.

At the beginning of this year the Grand Theatre presented my little play, "The Ten Commandos." Now one of my stories is to be included in a well-respected and discriminating publication.

Joyful Progress!!