New Books for Writers

New books for writers available through the Oshkosh Public Library:

The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within by Fry, Stephen

Careers in Writing by Camenson, Blythe

The Longman Guide to Intermediate and Advanced Fiction Writing by Stone, Sarah

The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing by LaPlante, Alice

Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir by Goldberg, Natalie

How to Get a Literary Agent by Larsen, Michael

The Artful Edit: On the Practice of Editing Yourself by Bell, Susan

The Legacy Guide: Capturing the Facts, Memories, and Meaning of Your Life by Franco, Carol

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Christian Fiction by Benrey, Ron

Becoming Whole: Writing Your Healing Story by Myers, Linda Joy

Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing by Leonard, Elmore

Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book by Poynter, Dan

Only as Good as Your Word: Writing Lessons from My Favorite Literary Gurus by Shapiro, Susan

How to Write: A Screenplay by Schwartz, Mark Evan

Will Write for Shoes: How to Write a Chick Lit Novel by Yardley, Cathy

How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead by Gore, Ariel

The TV Writer's Workbook: A Creative Approach to Television Scripts by Sandler, Ellen

WFOP Triad Poetry Contest

The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets annual Triad Contest ends Aug. 1, 2008.

Rules:

Contestant must be a current WFOP member in good standing. (Annual dues are $25)

There is no entry fee. Do not send a SASE. Entries will not be returned.

Entry form must be completed in full, included with the submission and postmarked by the contest deadline date listed on the entry form.

Contestant may enter only one, original, unpublished poem in each category. The same poem may not be entered in more than one category. Categories are Designated Theme (theme for 2008 is "Keepsake); Kay Saunders Memorial New Poet (no specific subject or form) and Poet's Choice (no specific subject or form). Maximum length of all poems is 75 lines.

Manuscript must be typed on 8.5" x 11" white paper, one side only, one poem to a page. Type the category in the upper left corner.

Writer's name should not appear on the page with the poem.

Prizes:
Designated Theme: $50, $30, $20
Poet's Choice: $50, $30, $20
Kay Saunders Memorial New Poet: $50, $30, $20

For complete contest rules and entry form, click here.

2008 Fabulous Five Writing Contest

The Wisconsin Romance Writers of America is sponsoring the 2008 Fabulous Five Writing Contest. Submit the first ten pages of your manuscript in one of several categories listed below; only the first 25 submissions in each category will be accepted.

The contest is open to all authors unpublished in RWA approved full-length fiction in the past five years; deadline for submissions is March 1, 2008.

Fee: $18 for WisRWA members /$20 for RWA members /$22 for non-RWA members

Categories:
Short Contemporary
Long Contemporary/Single Title Romance
Romantic Suspense/Intrigue
Historical
Fantasy/Futuristic/Paranormal/Time Travel
Erotica
Women's Fiction

For submission guidelines, registration form and other information, please click here.

Wisconsin Romance Writers Convention

The Wisconsin chapter of Romance Writers of America will hold their 2008 convention May 16-18 at the Radisson Hotel Conference Center & Oneida Casino, Green Bay. Fees for Friday/Saturday are $110 for members; $145 for non-members. Day fees are also available.

Keynote speaker Lori Foster first published with Harlequin in January 1996. Her second book launched Temptation Blaze and her 25th book launched Temptation Heat. Since those early days, Lori has routinely had 6 to 10 releases a year. She's a Waldenbooks, USA Today, Publisher's Weekly and New York Times bestselling author with over 50 titles published through a variety of houses, including Berkley/Jove, Kensington, St. Martins, Harlequin and Silhouette. In 2005, Lori received the prestigious Romantic Times “Career Achievement Award” for Contemporary Romance.

Other workshops include:

Anna Schmidt Self-Editing: The Good, the Bad, and the Downright What Were You Thinking!?

Editor & Agent Q and A session

Rhonda Penders Size Doesn't Matter: Its not the size of the publisher you should be looking at when deciding who to query.

Dianne Castell The Heroine Revolt...or you've come a long way, baby. Heroines from Mythology to Meryl Streep, complete with props.

The conference will also feature editors from publishing houses St. Martins Press, Avon, Bantam, The Wild Rose Press, Harlequin and others.

For a complete schedule of events, fees, and registration form, click here.

Wisconsin Science Fiction Writers Convention

WisCon, an annual Wisconsin science fiction writers convention, will be held May 23-26, 2008, in Madison. Registration is capped to the first 1,000 writers who register. The conference fee is only $45 for the weekend and childcare is available for $1 per child.

Over the weekend, attendees will get to choose from more than one hundred multi-tracked items, incuding lectures, readings, book signings and critique groups. Genres range from science fiction to fantasy to horror to non-fiction, from books to movies to comics to scholarly papers, from items populated with professional authors to detail-loving academics to attentive fans. For a schedule of events, click here.

Joyce F. has attended the conference several times and highly recommends it!

Key to Creativity

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong."
Joseph Chilton Pierce

There's a neat article by Rob Daughery titled "Understanding the Mind: 5 Keys to a Writer's Creativity" that has some interesting ideas; it's not very long, yet has great information about how to use the brain's natural abilities to be more creative.

Club Judging Contest

The Oshkosh Area Writers Club will be judging entries for the Create-a-Book contest at the March 15 meeting. The contest is open to students in grades 3-5 and ends March 3. For more details on the contest, please click here.

Author Alice Hoffman coming to Neenah

Author Alice Hoffman will be coming to Neenah Public Library at 10 a.m. Friday, April 18.

Bestselling novelist Alice Hoffman has published 20 novels for adults and several books for children and young adults. Her novels have received mention as notable books of the year by New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Her book, "Here on Earth," was an Oprah Book Club selection. The newest “Fox Cities Reads" titles (a community-wide reading program), are Blackbird House and Green Angel, both by Alice Hoffman. Copies of the books are available at the Neenah Public Library and other Winnefox libraries. Seating is limited; first come, first served.

Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Oshkosh Area Writers Club is 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 19, in the lower level meeting room of the Oshkosh Public Library. The writing prompt is: "A picture is worth a thousand words" and the Author Spotlight is Dixie J.

Congrats to Dixie

Dixie’s novel, Running Crazy, which many of you reviewed, has been selected by the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest to move to the second stage of the contest. As one of 1000 semi finalists, she will get a review by Publishers Weekly. Please post a review on her site after reading the 5000 word excerpt: http://tinyurl.com/34hybf

No word yet from other members who submitted contest entries.

Club Documentary

Kudos to Jim Stevens, who has finished the documentary on the club; thanks to everyone who agreed to be interviewed and for allowing Jim to tape our meeting. Jim hopes to get the documentary aired on the Oshkosh Communty Access Televion (OCAT) Channel 10 but you can view the 10-minute piece at: http://www.boathouseloopers.com/videos/OAWCtest2.wmv

Thanks Jim for undertaking this project!

Classes at the Clearing

The Clearing Folk School in Ellison Bay has announced it's 2008 schedule of classes. Some of the offerings of interest to writers are below; prices are reasonable. More information can be found at their website.

Winter 2008 (registration now open)

Beginning to Write Poems
Mondays from 10 - 11:30
4 Sessions; First Class: February 4

Classes will include a variety of writing exercises and prompts to help students write their own poems. Please bring pens and a large notebook or legal pad.
Location: The Conference Room in The Meadows at Scandia Village, Sister Bay

Tuition: $40.00

Summer 2008 (registration opens Feb. 21)

The Process of Writing: Focus on Poetry & Short Prose - Chris Swanberg
May 18 - 24

Poetry Camp: Generating New Work - Robin Chapman & Judith Strasser
May 25 - 31

Writing Personal Fiction - Sara Rath
June 22 - 28

The Spirit & Practice of Poetry - Ellen Kort
July 13 - July 19

Joy Seeking & Journal Writing - Darlene Cole & Joyce Morrison
July 20 - July 26

Writing from Your Life - Jerry Apps
Aug. 3 - Aug. 9

The 3-in-1 Writing Workshop - John Lehman
Aug. 24 - Aug. 30

Women's Writing Retreat - Judy Bridges
Sept. 7 - Sept. 13

Curtis L. Brown Challenge

The Fox Valley Writers Club is again sponsoring the Curtis L. Brown Challenge (Dixie J. took second place last year!). This year's theme is "Inventing and Inventiveness."

Rules:

There is no entry fee.

Deadline: Entry must be postmarked before midnight February 29, 2008.

Any high-school senior or older resident of the Fox Valley and surrounding communities is eligible to compete.

Entries should not exceed 2,000 words.

Any form of writing is acceptable - prose or poetry, fact or fiction - but must not have been published before.

The contest's theme, Inventing and Inventiveness, can be explored from any angle. It can cover the story or impact of an invention; the solution to a problem; or any event, in which quick thinking saved the day, rescued a pet or a person, or resolved an embarrassing situation.

Correct English is assumed, and entries will be judged primarily on originality and clarity. The judging decision is final, and entries cannot be returned.

Entries should be double-spaced on one side of sequentially numbered sheets. Only the title of the entry may appear on top of every page. The writer's name, address, and telephone number, the title of the entry, and its word count should appear on a separate sheet and nowhere else in the manuscript.

Mail to: "Curtis L. Brown Writing Challenge" 635 Quarry Lane, Neenah, WI 54956-4146.
Award certificates and monetary prizes will be given to the three best entries. First place: $45.00; second: $35.00; third: $20.00.

Winning entries may qualify for publication in the Club's Experimental Literary Journal, Ego Trips, but copyright stays with the author.

BIC HOK TAM

BIC HOK TAM is the motto of Book-in-a-Week, which means butt in chair, hands on keyboard, typing away madly.

Book-in-a Week writers are connected through a list created at Yahoo. The main purpose of the group is to write, but they also exchange information, publishing news and kudos. Anything writing related.

The Monday of the first FULL week of the month (usually) we begin BIW at 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). The dates are planned for the year making it is easy to mark your calendar and plan ahead.

BIW writers decide on their own goals and submit them to the list the week prior to BIW. During BIW, writers write as much as they can and post their daily totals to the list. To stay motivated we recommend checking in everyday whether you write or not. We’re here to help with the support and accountability. The group works on the honour system.

No editing, no going back over what’s been written. Write, write, write. What is important is getting the words down, creating a first draft. Editing and revising comes later. Allow yourself to write quickly and without worry. Get your ideas down first.

Some members actually finish a book in one week and for others the only time they write is during BIW, thereby giving BIW a double meaning.

Writers can work on whatever they wish--a story, an article, book length fiction. It should be in the beginning stages rather than something you have already written and want to polish. You can even select something from work or school, like a research paper, as long as it is writing related.

At the end of each day writers post their page total to the list. Just the number of pages written, not the actual pages. If you had problems writing, share what happened and why. If you did really well, share that, too. List members are always supportive. Discussing the problems and successes helps.

The BIWs are scheduled a year in advance. Most of the traffic on the list is generated during this week but it doesn’t end there. You are welcome to stay and be as active as you like. We have some regulars who participate every month and some who only participate a few times a year. Check out “When” in the navigation bar to find out when the next BIW will occur.

We have members from all over the world: The US, Canada, India, Ireland, Australia, France and Taiwan. This BIW list unites writers from all walks of life, published and unpublished.

Writing Prompt for Jan. 19

Some members have indicated they would like a writing prompt to get them started on a piece to write/read at a future meeting. The prompt may used in a poem, essay, character or description sketch.

The writing prompt for the Jan. 19 meeting is: A picture is worth a thousand words.

Playwriting Class

Milwaukee Repertory Theater is holding an introductory playwriting class on Tuesdays, from Feb. 5 to March 11, 2008. The class provides a supportive environment for beginning writers and curious non-writers who are interested in creating texts for live theater. Participants will work collaboratively to create original monologues, scenes, and short plays. This class is intended for people ages 17 and up. Instructor: Dr. Dean Yohnk, Rep Education Artist. $150. Milwaukee Repertory Theater, 108 E Wells St, Milwaukee, Milwaukee County. Call 414-224-9490 for more information.

Florence Lindemann Humor Contest

Members of the Wisconsin Regional Writers Association are welcome to enter the Florence Lindemann Humor Contest, which opened Jan. 1 and closes March 15, 2008.

Contest rules:

Include your name, address, phone, local newspaper (including an address), title of manuscript and word count ON THE COVER PAGE ONLY. The pages of the manuscript should contain only page number and title of the work.

There is an 800-word limit.

All entries must be original and unpublished at the time of submission.

All entries must be typewritten and double-spaced on one side of white 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Entrants are urged to keep the original of their manuscript and submit a good-quality photocopy.

Entrants should include a SAS postcard ONLY if they wish to be notified their manuscript has been received.

Entries will not be returned. (They may be retrieved after the awards ceremony in May. Any manuscripts not recovered at that time will be destroyed.)

Winners (including up to two Honorable Mentions) will be notified when the judge returns his/her decision. They are not told how they placed and they are asked not to reveal their status before the ceremony.

A check for $8 made out to WRWA must accompany the manuscript.

First place winners are not eligible to enter this contest for the following three (3) years.

Winners receive:

First Place - check for $50, Certificate, and a traveling trophy engraved with their name to keep for one year.

Second Place - check for $30 and Certificate.

Third Place - check for $20 and Certificate.
Not meeting these qualifications will result in disqualification of the manuscript and return of the manuscript and entry fee.

The contest opens January 1, 2008.
All entries must be postmarked by March 15, 2008.

Send all entries to:

Barb Jensen
410 Winnebago Ave.
Portage, WI 53901

Not a member of WRWA? Click here for a membership application.