Sunday, March 18, 2007

Lon makes international anthology/book signing

Lon's short story, "All That Remains," is one of a dozen in the UK-published anthology Love and Sacrifice. The collection is meant to be a companion book to the film London Voodoo and centers—in a very dark fashion—on troubled relationships. Read more about it here:

http://www.zenfilms.com/publishing/

For an extra treat, click on the links to read samples from the stories. Also, the guy who plays "Pinhead" (from Hellraiser) reads one of the pieces and it's free to listen to. Pretty cool!

The book costs a little less than $12 American. I tried paying through PayPal, but it kept telling me my session had timed out. (I'll see when I get home if it was charged a bunch of times.) Other than that, there are phone numbers available to call to order. Anyway, this looks like a great book! Congratulations, Lon!

I admit, with this announcement, it was written so well I just put it in third person....okay, so I'm lazy tonight...

Lon's "My fib" (haiku-like poem based on the Fibonacci sequence 1/1/2/3/5/8 syllables) came in as an honorable mention in the Flashquake "Less is More" contest and is available free to read here: http://www.flashquake.org/contest2/fibs.html

Also, he'll be doing a book signing with two other Writers of the Future winners at Booklover's Gourmet in Webster, Mass at 11am on Saturday the 10th. The signing is in conjunction with the store's 12th anniversary festivities.

Booklovers' Gourmet
55 East Main Street
Webster, MA 01570
508-949-6232



Kathryn accepted to SARAH LAWRENCE!!

Wow, guys!! This one's big...Kathryn got accepted to the master's program at Sarah Lawrence. This school is very difficult to get into, so she deserves huge KUDOS!!

Congratulations, Kathryn. You deserve it.

New Mouth Full of Bullets is available!

Just letting you know, the new issue of Mouth Full of Bullets, which contains Keith's first published story, "Man Overboard," as well as a great tribute from the Editor and a separate tribute page with Keith's photo, is now up.

Visit the site at http://www.mouthfullofbullets.com/

Some great stuff in the mag, too. Worth a browse.

Kaye’s Publishing coup!

1. "Wailing Station," the story which won 2nd place in Toasted Cheese's "Dead of Winter" contest in 2006, is now available online. The issue will be posted until June 1. To get there (and to read the other stories as well; the first prize winner's FANTASTIC), go to www.toasted-cheese.com and click on "Current Issue." If you've already read my story, consider reading the others, particularly if you like well-crafted short fiction. I'm NEVER disappointed in what I find there, and Toasted Cheese has become a must-read every few months. Best of all, it's FREE!

2. "Deconstructing Fireflies," which I wrote with Nathan and was published in The Illuminata, has been invited for inclusion in a science fiction anthology. Woo hoo! We've signed the contracts under the agreement that they use a cleaned-up version, since it went through another round of edits after The Illuminata published it. Tyrannosaurus Press, while small, does get reviewed. The collection is due out in 2008.

3. There was a third story, which I sent you all info about on the private e-mail newsletter. I've been asked not to blab about that on any public website until the issue is out this summer!

In other news, I've decided to pursue short fiction for my master's. It's really where my passion lies. I'll be working on my master's application this month, which for Goddard is quite extensive and complicated. Forgive me if I drop off the face of the earth! EEK!

Pencils! Points: Feburary 27, 2007

Hello, all! What a great meeting. I'm just sorry not everyone got the chance to read, although I have to say that for two hours, six readers – and the quality of the feedback – was bang-up! Next time, we'll try for at least seven! For those of you who missed out this time—Henderson, Judith, Jerry, and Ann—you'll be up first at the March 13th meeting.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

First up: WELCOME, NEWCOMERS! Three of you in one meeting! Welcome Mike, Thomas (do you go by Tom?) and Gary. We hope you'll be joining us again.

SUNDAY, MARCH 11TH: Kathryn and Kaye are going to be reading from their work at Arcadia Coffee House in Old Greenwhich at 1 p.m. Other writers and editors will also be sharing. Come on down, have some coffee, and show your support! Details were e-mailed, but if you need them again, e-mail Kaye.

UPCOMING NEARBY CONFERENCES. Two are coming up in Hartford: The National Writers Workshop, sponsored by the Hartford Courant, and CAPA-U, sponsored by the Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. The first one features heavy-hitters for lecturers; at the second one, you can sign up to meet with an agent. Information was distributed via e-mail for both; however, if you need more, e-mail Jen for the Hartford Courant conference at xcheck24@gmail.com, or Kaye for CAPA-U at pencilswritingworkshop@gmail.com.

JULY MAY SEEM A WAYS OFF, BUT IT'S REALLY NOT! We're going to be working on putting together our 4th Anniversary party pretty soon. Right now, we're shooting for July 14, but since Carol has volunteered to have it at her house, we have yet to nail anything down, so it may be a week earlier or so depending on her schedule.

Writers have a cool podcast! She's called Grammar Girl, and you can find her column and show at http://grammar.qdnow.com/.

Pencils! travelers: Shirley's got Tuesday night classes, Joyce is in Morocco, and Vance is in Spain. Hopefully we'll see them all soon!

Hey, Arun, it was good to see you!! Where you been at, yo? (tee hee)

1. Kaye kicked off the evening with the presentation of her prologue from her new novel. "For all his love of art and paper, he was into littering. "Contributing to the archeological digs of the future," he always said. And she shuddered when she felt something on her, starting at her, and she got the sense that whatever it was that was watching them was not happy about the shedding of cigarette butts all over its domain."

2. Eric, who's a relatively new member, read his story "Pro Bono." "Thirty years later he was alone, the forgotten moments with Laura high points in the topography of a life of little compromises. At some point during college, Laura had gotten very radical and angry, and he had stopped talking to her, disturbed by her new extremism. Paul had gotten serious about his career. He married Marcia while he was still in law school. Now he was divorced."

3. Yvonne, who will be applying to Goddard to pursue her Master's, presented an essay called "A Baby Boomer's Retrospective." "Anyone who says that we never fought a foreign war on our own soil didn't own a TV in 1968. Every battle was fought out in every American living room every night in hideous detail."

4. Mike, a newcomer who writes a column for the Waterbury Republican, read through one of his pieces. For some reason, I DIDN'T GRAB A COPY!! I'm so annoyed with myself. The writing was tight and good and there were only a few suggestions for making it better. It was about plastic toy soldiers rotting under a porch. Well, a few other things. Sorry, Mike, my fault for not grabbing it so I could quote it! Eeek!

5. Lon, who joins us all the way from Groton, was back for yet another meeting and also made his first presentation to the group. The first chapter of a YA futuristic/horror novel (which I don't think I wrote down the title for) put an interesting bent on the reality show. "Asher Benedetto swallowed more of the designer water. It was warm and tasted of pencil lead, but it was expensive, or so the pink-faced, pink-jacketed production assistant kept saying. His father, sober and wearing a borrowed suit, paced back and forth, staring at the screen mounted overhead like he was trying to memorize it. It went blank every so often as the other clairvoyants were put to the test."

6. Roger brought another chapter from his book How my Retirement went South, and I think it was the first one he's brought so far that has brought in a little bit of research. "I guess you could say the problem was on its way to being resolved though. An article in Creative Loafing told about two guys who made a living out of picking up dog crap for clients. I couldn't believe it when I read it."

Rejection Slip Party Overwhelmingly Accepted!

Hey all,

A dozen Pencils! members watched their frustrations, angers and grievances go up in smoke at the 3rd Annual REJECT-A-RAMA held Sat. Feb. 10 at Al's. For those of you who missed it, it was a GREAT time and let's hope next year's event is even bigger! Here's a brief overview of some of the fun we had. TO SEE PHOTOS, VISIT WWW.PENCILSWRITINGWORKHOP.COM's Pencils! Scrapbook.

First, a MYSTERIOUS box of cookies showed up on Al's doorstep before the party. A bunch of wild stories as to how it got there ensued, but in the end, I found out a few days later THEY WERE FROM YVONNE, who couldn't attend at the last minute. THANKS SO MUCH, YVONNE!! THEY WERE YUMMY!!

Kaye ranted about certain editors that really pissed her off, including one that took AN ENTIRE YEAR?? A WHOLE F'N YEAR?? to respond (which was fine, because she sold the story elsewhere in the meantime); Vance griped about the fact that a certain editor sent him a rejection -- with sloppy typing and only on a half-sheet of paper! God, how disrespectful can you BE??; Kathryn bitched about the difficulty of finding markets for her work; Joyce had one rejection from a certain review ("Chattahoochee sounds like something you get from a dirty toilet seat!" -- AL), and the crowner on the night was Jerry, who read his only rejection thus-far -- a Pencils! e-mail he received in error (Kaye's bad and another story for another time, but WOW, that was truly HYSTERICALLY FUNNY!)

Kaye handed out Chocolate playing cards (for luck in the coming year, of course) and blank charts she made up for submissions tracking. The night finished out with a presentation of a few positive rejections, in which the editors were friendly or took time to comment.

And, when all was said and done, I can't even count how many bottles of wine we all consumed. And Jerry, I apologize forever that I forgot to pick up the diet soda. That's usually a trick I definitely don't miss.

Happy writing, and, as always, SEND OUT YOUR SHIT!!

Upcoming Conference put on by The Hartford Courant

On April 14 -15, The Hartford Courant will put on its 2007 National Writers Workshop. It's a two-day event. Jen Connic, has been to this event a few times, says it's a wonderful resource and she's learned a lot every time she's gone.

SHE IS PLANNING ON ATTENDING. ANYONE ELSE? Maybe some of us can get a group together to go for at least one of the two days, or, if we get really ambitious, maybe we can do some kind of overnight, as the event does take place at a hotel. For more information and to check out the cost and who's speaking (one of the speakers is my friend Lauren Baratz-Logsted, who's published ten books), visit:

http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-nww2007,0,3796551.htmlstory