WHWNblog

Mid-Atlantic Writing Conference

The F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference, Inc.

October 13, 2007
8am-8:30pm
Rockville, MD

The F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference, Inc., is a non-profit organization that promotes appreciation of the literary arts. Every October, the organization hosts a day-long conference in Rockville where Fitzgerald summered with his family and where he worked on many of his manuscripts. This event is an opportunity for Baltimore and Washington area writers to work with some of the best instructors, authors and professionals in writing today. This conference is open to the public and registration is required.

The 12th Annual F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference writing workshops cover many genres and topics, and feature leaders who represent an international consortium:

Making Your Novel Sparkle with Leslie Pietrzyk
The Writing Life with Sharmila Chauhan
Young Adult Fiction with Margaret Blair
Poetry with Carly Sachs
Street to Page…Hip Hop to Poetry with Courttia Newland
Creative Non-Fiction and Sports Writing with Larry Moffi
Screenwriting with Kerric Harvey
Breaking That Block with Mimi Ghez
Clues for Mystery Writers with Donna Andrews 
Short Fiction with Alix Ohlin
   
Special guests and panelists include Jay Parini, Jackson Bryer, Susan Coll, Richard Allan Davidson, Suzanne Fisher, and Judy Hruz, to name only a few.

The conference culminates with the presentation of the Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature to Pulitzer Prize winner William Kennedy. Wiliam Kennedy has been awarded with a National Book Critics Circle Award, a MacArthur Foundation grant and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has written novels, non-fiction, plays and children's fiction. 

For information, please contact:  FSFConference@gmail.com

TO REGISTER:  www.peerlessrockville.org/FSF

Registration: $85 per person. (discounts available for seniors, students, early registration)

We've Made It!

I'm pleased to announce that the Write Here, Write Now workshops made the Maryland state poetry page on The Academy of American Poets website. This is VERY COOL.

Academy of American Poets - Maryland page

Scroll down to the bottom of the page - we're just above the writing program at the University of Maryland.

Paul Lagasse accepted to authors' tent at Baltimore Book Festival!

Join me in congratulating him! Participants are accepted by jury, so it's not an easy process! Here's the link to Paul's blog where he has more info:

Seeing Through Clouds blog

Amazon Now Offers Self Publishing

This just in - Amazon Now Offers Self-Publishing!

Amazon has partnered with BookSurge to offer Self-Publishing and Print on Demand (POD) services to offer editorial services, designing, promotional tools including marketing copy, press releases and more.

From the BookSurge site:

"Self publishing has become a unique stepping stone for many authors to see their work in print or create a future in the publishing world. BookSurge provides services for you to create a finished book and makes it available in any quantity and at every level of demand, to readers worldwide. With a range of publishing services to choose from, the possibilities are for your finished book are endless!

"Whether you have a manuscript submission or a fully-designed book, whether you have black & white text or a full-color children's book, BookSurge has a program designed to meet your publishing goals and fit your budget. "

Check it out: BookSurge

My Fiction on NPR!

Tune in to WYPR, 88.1 FM this Friday, May 11 at noon and again at 7 p.m. to hear me read from my fiction.  Aaron Henkin of The Signal invited me to read an excerpt from TRACKS, my novel in stories, on the program. 

We Won!

Some of you know that I have an avatar on SecondLife (aka "SL") called Babu Writer.  Last weekend Babu and her creative partner, Flyw Jie (pronounced "Flive Jiye") participated in a virtual book fair, to promote their (our) virtual book, "The Lemon Princess."  At the end of the fair we were surprised to learn that we won $1000L (that's Lindens, equivalent to about $4 US) for best booth display. 

The SL Book Fair was held at The Book Publishing Village in Wallaby.  Although the village is relocating soon, for the next few weeks at least The Lemon Princess is there.  All you need is to install the free SL software and make yourself into an avatar.

There was press coverage of the fair in some trade publications, and there was even a story on BBC4.  I had a lengthy conversation with a journalist from Australia, and with several editors -- from New York and elsewhere -- who perused our site. 

We used the "moo card"-like poster depicted above as our principal graphic.  I dressed myself up as the princess and Flyw took pics, which he manipulated using Adobe Photoshop. I then added text and links to it in MSWord, made a screen shot, then cropped it and re-saved it as a graphic.  The final graphic served as the lead slide for our slide show, which introduced the book.  We also used it as the graphic for the link to a promo movie for the book (the movie is being re-edited as I type this, so I'll save the link for a later post) as well as the graphic on the object which contained my first chapters, links, and synopsis.

As a result of doing well at the Book Fair, Babu Writer was invited to read some of her poetry at The Blue Angel, the hottest poetry place in SL. The event was well attended; Babu's poetry was well received. Mainly it was fun!  And guess what? Some "RL" editors were there.  Someone tagged Babu on the way out about publishing poetry in RL.  Wanna guess where this poetry was written?  In one of the WHWN workshops, that's where. Looks like Babu will have to come clean and publish it under her real name.  :)

For more information, see my new blog, http://thelemonprincess.blogspot.com/

TRACKS Makes Round Two!

TRACKS, Eric’s novel in stories, moved ahead to round two in the “American Idol” for writers contest.  As one of 20 semi-finalists, he beat out more than 2,600 novelists!

But now, to make it through round two, he needs your help to get closer to the book deal with Simon and Schuster.

All you have to do is register at www.Gather.com -- it only takes a minute -- go to TRACKS, read it and rate it on a scale of one to 10.  Use the bar at the end of the chapter, before the comments begin.  Voting is open until April 25 -- his birthday.

Can you think of a better birthday gift for a fellow WHWN writer than to help him get this book deal?

Read and rate chapter two here.

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976948471

Learn more about TRACKS and the contest at www.traintracks.gather.com.

Write Here Write Now Alumni Need Your Vote!

Two friends, fellow writers, and alumni of the Write Here Write Now family need your support.  Eric D. Goodman and Judy Turner have both entered the Gather First Chapters Writing Competition. The contest was called “American Idol” for writers by The New York Times.

Just go to gather.com and register – it only takes a minute. Then visit the two links below to read and rate the chapters on a scale of 1-10 (Ten stars preferred).

The winner of the competition gets a standard contract from Simon and Schuster!

More than 2,500 novels were entered.  Twenty finalists will be selected, so there’s room for both Eric and Judy!  Show your support today!  Only a few days of voting left!

Tracks, a novel in stories by Eric D. Goodman -  Chapter one: Reset

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976929638

Safe Haven, a novel, Chapter one:

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976924288

In All Things, the Right Word Counts

"The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between the lightning and the lightning-bug."  --Mark Twain

Meet Your Writing Goals

Just found this website and thought it might interest you. A tad girly :), but also very cheerful; it's a place to get down your goals and create action steps to meet them, as well as receive weekly reminders to keep you on track. This would be a great tool to help you meet your writing goals. You can hide your info and be totally anonymous, or meet others with similar goals who can support you and who you can support.

SuperViva!