News
Grind Writers
b4 Valentine’s Day 2013
Get busy now
$20,000 prize for a single poem! Details—page 13
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Inside 2
Grind Writers meetings 2013
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Why absolutely EVERYBODY needs a copy editor
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E x p a n d i n g
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The Next Big Thing
you
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ePUB - selfPUB
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The Ongoing Saga of MO
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Things to do, places to go
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Introverts/Extroverts
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Submit. You know you want toa
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20 Gs for a single poem!
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Do itprompt
Light bulb jokes for writers Q: How many copy editors does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: I can’t tell whether you mean ‘change a light bulb’ or ‘have sex in a light bulb.’ Can we reword it to remove the ambiguity? Q: How many editors does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Only one. But first they have to rewire the entire building. Q: How many proofreaders does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Proofreaders aren’t supposed to change light bulbs. They should just query them. More here.
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Grind Writers schedule 2013 Sun Sat Sun Sat Sun Sat Sun Sat Sun Sat Sun Sat Sun Sat Sun Sat Sun Sat Sun Sat Sun
Feb 17 Mar 2 Mar 17 Apr 6 Apr 21 May 4 May 26 June 8 June 23 July 6 July 21 Aug 10 Aug 25 Sept 7 Sept 22 Oct 5 Oct 20 Nov 2 Nov 17 Nov 30 Dec 15? –
Please check your email the morning-of meetings in case of lastminute cancellation due to inclement weather.
10am til 12:30pm Grind Gallery Café 4124 Main Street at King Edward Ave. In the back room
to be decided
Thanks to Mr & Mrs Kim, the Grind owners, for letting us meet in their Back Room for the last six years and for their support of the arts in general – they provide gallery space to many local artists. Please buy something while you’re there to support the Grind. And – please - clear up after yourself. If you don’t do it, others end up bussing your mess.
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Why absolutely needs a copy editor These sentences (as typed by medical secretaries in Glasgow) are a good laugh. (The rest are here.) These sorts of things creeping into your manuscripts are not – and they can be hard to spot in your own writing. If you’re self-publishing, hire an editor.
The patient was to have a bowel resection. However, he took a job as a stock broker instead.
Large brown stool ambulating in the hall.
Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities.
Examination of genitalia reveals that he is circus sized.
When she fainted, her eyes rolled around the room.
Discharge status:- Alive, but without my permission.
Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.
The patient was in his usual state of good health until his airplane ran out of fuel and crashed.
She has no rigours or shaking chills, but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night.
Between you and me, we ought to be able to get this lady pregnant.
By the time he was admitted, his rapid heart had stopped, and he was feeling better.
On the second day the knee was better and on the third day it disappeared.
She slipped on the ice and apparently her legs went in separate directions in early December.
Patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch.
While in ER, she was examined, X-rated and sent home.
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expandi n g First independent arts and culture smart phone application in Canada
New App:
Fuel Your Creativity
Broken Pencil: the magazine
Courses online and realtime.
of zine culture and the independent arts is
Read about it here.
thrilled to announce the release of THE NUB: Indie Arts Hub.
The Nub is the first independent arts and culture smart phone application in Canada.
It is a revolutionary new way for readers to encounter exciting new arts and culture 6
content from across the country.
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©2013 Margo Lamont
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Oops, that didn’t sound right
Here is what a mistake sounds like (writes “Melanie” in the Hong Kong Writers’ Circle News): Reading a piece out loud makes you realize a number of
things. Such as: this sentence is clunky/ cliched /lame. Or (if it's dialogue): No one actually speaks like that. Or maybe: Throw this out and start over.” Read more in the Hong Kong Writers’ Circle News here
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If you have kids….
you’ll remember
and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing
that incredibly annoying song they would sing “The Song That Doesn’t End…”
especially if they had you trapped in the car, driving and powerless
Well, The Next Big Thing questionnire is a bit like that. Nowadays it’s popping up all over the place. It’s like a chain letter minus the chain and the dire warnings and nebulous rewards. Someone sends it to you and then you tag several more people forward. I couldn’t find out where it began and, like that song, it shows no signs of ending. The thing is, even if you re not yet published, the questions are actually quite a good exercise in clarifying what you’re doing. You can change “novel” to “story” or “play” or “poem” – you get my drift. (Incidentally if you suffer from insomnia, #4 is a great way to Occupy Your Mind and induce those elusive Zzz-zz-zzs) Thanks to Daniela Elza, Vancouver poet extraordinaire (she managed to get a PhD while raising two children [!] who presumably did not sing The Song.) She’s just published a book of her poems, the weight of dew, and has another book due soon, Milk Tooth Bane Bone. You can read Daniela’s responses to the Next Big Thing questionnaire here. If you google ‘the next big thing questionnire’ you can read gazillions of writers’ responses.
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ePUB Cheryl Kaye Tardif
/ selfPUB
Canadian writer— and absolute epublishing phenom
She grew up in Vancouver and now lives in Toronto. Cheryl has epublished a slew of books and then recently described how she did it in her nonfiction book, How
I Made Over $42,000 in 1 Month Selling my Kindle eBooks. And she did; she’s made bucketloads epubishing her books.
If you’re interested in the mechanics of epubishing and promotion in the realms of e – here’s a bit more information about how Cheryl got to where shes is, in these Interviews: one with James Oh; another with The Dark Phantom Review. The DP interview was part of her “virtual book tour” for Whale Song (you can read about 70 pp. of the book there). Read about her publisher, Imajin, below.
The Hay Houses and their Balboas
IMAJIN a Canadian publisher
The dance of now…
who could be just what you’re looking for
Hay House is a U.S. publishing house established by and respected spiritual guru (You Can Heal Your Life) Louise Hay. Review Hay House’s submission guidelines here.
“Imajin Books is an innovative publisher of quality fiction in ebook and trade paperback editions. You'll find our books at Amazon, KoboBooks, Smashwords and other ebook and print retailers.
Notice in the FAQ where the question is “What if I choose not to go through a literary agent” (this is just after the previous FAQ said they only view work through an agent, but hey…). Hay House replies:
“We are a small, independent Canadian publisher and we operate as a traditional publisher in some ways (yet we're anything but "traditional"), offering small advances and above standard royalties. We are NOT a subsidy publisher and we do not charge upfront fees to our authors. See our submission guidelines. “We are an electronic publisher (ebooks) and a print publisher (via Createspace), and we offer solutions to authors looking for publication who do not want to selfpublish. Our trade paperbacks are distributed through Ingram Content Group and Lightning Source. We're environmentally conscious, so we do not do large print runs but use on-demand technology. Ebooks are our primary focus, not print.
Pretty sweet. Publishers no longer have to take much of a chance on Uknowns. They let the new author do all the upfront cost and heavy lifting and then, if you do well, they might pick you up. Nothing wrong with this. But it’s an interesting circle: ‘twas originally the trade publishers who set themselves up as “the” legitimate mode of becoming published, and that pertained for a couple of centuries. Legacy pubishers were part of the elite who looked down their noses at “vanity presses.” So now legacy pubishers have upgraded the vanity thing, have declared selfpublishing respectable, and they’ve established their own epub imprints through which they can feed their trade publishing arms if the epub books do well. A brilliant survival strategy, really, in the face of the epublishing threat.
“Our authors will have input regarding their book title, cover design and book videos, and will be considered part of our team. As the publisher, we will creatively market your books online with passion and dedication, and we expect the same in return from our authors.” More here at their website: www.imajinbooks.com. The good news? Imajin is opening up submissions again in March.
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The Edge of Right
dun dun dun The ongoing Saga of Mo Yan…
Places to go, people to see, things to ….
and his 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature win
UBC Alumni Book Club Tuesday, February 19 – 7 pm Choose between Timothy Taylor's Stanley Park and Lynn Coady's Mean Boy at this book club in which you can meet the facilitator and fellow alumni, and learn about the book before you read it. Tix $10. Cecil Green Park Coach House, 6323 Cecil Green Park Rd., UBC.
Writer Perry Link does not think Mo Yan (aka Guan Moye) deserves the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature for 2012—or probably any year. Link says he would have picked someone else:
Mo Yan
“Mo Yan would not have been at the top of my own list, which would include writers who work both ‘inside the system’ in China and outside it.
See WP Kinsella in person (but you have to drive to Hope) Thursday February 21 – 10:30am, free Canadian author will read from, and chat about, his latest book, Butterfly Winter. At the Hope Library, 1005A--6th Ave., Hope. More info: 604-869-2313.
“For authenticity and control of language, I would rate Zhong Acheng, Jia Pingwa, Wang Anyi, Liao Yiwu and Wang Shuo more highly; for mastery of the craft of fiction, Pai Hsien-yung and Ha Jin are clearly superior to Mo Yan; for breadth of spiritual vision, Zheng Yi is one of my favorites.
Galiano Island Literary Festival February 22–24 Galiano Oceanfront Inn & Spa 4th annual festival featuring John Belshaw, Kevin Chong, Pauline Holdstock, Nancy Richler and many others.For complete details, visit galianoliteraryfestival.com.
“I would also have put Yu Hua or Jin Yong (the Hong Kong writer of popular historical martial-arts fiction) above Mo Yan.”
Above items gleefully lifted from BookNews the eletter of the Vancouver International Writers Fest
In short, just about anybody else. While definitely not a Mo cheerleader, Link’s list could serve as a something of a guide for Chinese writers we ought to be reading (as well as Mo).
Is there room for Introverts in a world that mainly values Extroverts?
Search the source site LITERARY MAGAZINES LISTINGS FOR EVERY TYPE OF LITERARY MAGAZINE
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Call for submissons th The Writers’ Union Of Canada 20 Annual Short Prose Competition Deadline March 1, 2013 Website – www.writersunion.ca Fiction or non-fiction work of up to 2,500 words. in English written by an unpublished author. Prize: $2,500 for the winning entry, and the entries of the winner and finalists will be submitted to three Canadian magazines. Open to all Canadian citizens and landed immigrants who have not had a book published by a commercial or university press in any genre and who do not currently have a contract with a book publisher. Original and unpublished (English language) fiction or non-fiction is eligible. Read the guidelines carefully – here.
Submit. you know you want to
Calls for submissions
Contest Ascent Aspirations Magazine Nanaimo) Poetry & Flash Fiction Contest Deadline: March 9th, 2013 All info here.
Call for submissions Warpaint Anthology Deadline: February 15, 2013 In the battle against conventional wisdom, artistic expression is our greatest weapon. ZenFri Inc. is publishing Warpaint – Issue 2 an anthology of bold, unusual, and provocative short fiction (up to 6,000 words) and visual artworks and is now accepting submissions of your writing or art. Warpaint establishes a vibrant space for transgressive and outsider art, waging war against the commonplace, and representing polemical themes. Its confrontations are inspired not simply by irreverence for the established, but an attitude that sees experimentation and dissent as the spurs of ingenuity. That’s why in Warpaint nothing is treated as sacred. Warpaint shares all sales revenues equally among its contributors. It’s also 100% artist-run and funded. Guidelines here.
Contest EVENT magazine – Nonfiction Contest Deadline: April 15, 2013 $1500 in prizes available, plus publication $35 entry fee includes 1 year of EVENT 5,000 word limit. Submission guidelines here. Call for submissions Newborn Anthology - Leaf Press Deadline: January 30, 2013 Leaf is gathering poems for an anthology about the newly born, the almost born, the journey inbetween. We are interested in thresholds and liminal states; in moments that transcend global cultures. Authors of selected poems will receive $50 plus a copy of the book. Read the guidelines.
Call for submissions th 17 Annual Writing Contest of the North Shore Writers’ Association Deadline: postmarked February 28, 2013 Full guidelines here. Categories: Fiction: up to 2000 words per entry Nonfiction: up to 2000 words per entry Poetry: a submission of one to three poems constitutes one entry.
Roundup of poetry contests here. Geist Emerging Writer-of-the-Month Emerging writers are invited to submit short written works online. Read FAQ.
Prizes for each category: st 1 prize: $100 & publication nd 2 prize: $50 & publication rd 3 prize: $25 & publication
Honorary mention: at the judges' discretion Winning entries will appear in the 2012 anthology Entry fees: members - $15 per entry; non-members $20 per entry
Fish Short Memoir Prize 2013 €1,000 prize (yes, €s) Closes Jan 31st
The Fish Short Memoir Prize provides an opportunity to have your short memoir published. The 10 best memoirs will be published in the Fish Anthology 2013. Read all about it here. Fish, in Cork, Ireland, seems to be a well-regarded publisher. 12
Submit …
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Love – Love – Love. All we need is Love – Love – Love. It’s ee–ee– ee–sy
Call for submissions - open Subterranean Blue Poetry Subterranean Blue Poetry is an Internet Poetry and Art Publishing Café. We thrive on new original words and New Age art. All poets and their poetry are welcome and we are especially looking for homegrown poets from the Canadian first nations/American Indian Community; Quebec; small town Canada; international poets and anyone who was ever considered “the other.” New Age art offerings are for the masthead of each issue. Read all info here.
Calling all poets! Coastal Spectator A new arts-based review and commentary site operating independently out of the U. Vic. We want to publish, on our home site, one new poem each week for a year, so if you have a new piece of work -- that is a haiku or up to 25 lines long -- do submit. We can pay $25 for each poem published, and once its week on the site is over, it will be placed in a poetry archive onsite. We see it as a new way to introduce new or pending books of Canadian poetry. By "new" we mean book published in 2012. If you've just signed a poetry deal, then this is a good way to let the world know.
Call for submissions Literary Review of Canada (LRC) Submissions beginning May 1, 2013 for publication July/Aug–Dec 2013 For 2013, each issue will feature poems that share a common form or theme. (Jan-May issues already called out). During the months devoted to a given form, the subjects will vary, and vice versa. As always, we welcome unsolicited, unpublished, original submissions, provided that they fit one of the categories outlined. Here is the remainder of the 2013 publication calendar to help guide submissions: • July/August: ekphrastic poetry, i.e. pieces inspired by other art forms (visual, film, music, etc.) • September: prose poems • October: poems inspired by family • November: ghazals • December: poems inspired by food
Read all about it here.
20 thousand dollar prize for a single poem! The Montreal International Poetry Prize.
Please include the month in which you would like your work to be read in the subject line of any emailed submissions. For more information, check out our full submissions guidelines here.
Submission guidelines here.
The Quotable This online magazine wants writer-readers to submit stories based on their monthly prompts. Info here.
Closes March 31st (time zone alert).
Regime magazine - Short Stories. Poetry. Performance writing. Not only do they want your work but they offer that you can tack $20 on your submission and they’ll send you back a detailed one-page critique. Note: do your due diligence. Read it all carefully. Full submission info here.
What are you waiting for!
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Free-write picture prompt:
Free-writes
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easy rule
1.
Write for 15 mins., without
stopping – without lifting your pen off the paper, without thinking. Just let it flow ad write. Don’t edit, don’t go back, don’t rewrite (you can edit
Keep your huddled masses, but please send me your favourite prompts
later). Write whatever comes to mind— doesn’t
Do you have favourite writing prompts – prompts that you can depend on to “prime the pump?” Please send me your prompts – along with info about where you got them if they are not your own originals.
I may use these in some kind of publication or article or online so by sending them you are giving me unlimited permission to use them in any medium without payment. Please send to: margolamont@gmail.com..
matter what, even if it’s, “This is a crappy prompt and…….” Just write that
down and keep on going.
See where it takes you.
The Grind Writers News
Bring your output to the
©2013
next Grind Writers.
Margo Lamont
e: margolamont@gmail.com b: http://wildsynapticleaps.blogspot.com/ previous issues: http://issuu.com/grindwriters/docs 14