It’s a Festival. A Festival!
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This Saturday in Austin, The Texas Observer is holding its second annual Writers’ Festival, which is free and open to the public. The event goes from 11:30 – 6:00 at the very funky and cool Pine Street Station (5th & Waller, just a block from good old WriteByNight). Six panels inside, and outside will be free beer and wine, tamales, book sales and sponsor tables (including good old WriteByNight).
Our headliner is local author Sarah Bird, who will be reading from her forthcoming novel The Gap Year (Knopf, July 2011–that’s right, a sneak preview).
Yours truly organized a fiction panel consisting of Doug Dorst (The Surf Guru), Oscar Casares (Amigoland) and Ruth Pennebaker (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough), and moderated by Cyndi Hughes, Executive Director of the Austin-based Writers’ League of Texas.
So, come see us on Saturday. That’s an order, (local) WriteByNighters! It’ll be lots of fun, and you’ll get the chance to rub elbows with some of Austin’s top writing talents.
For more details, visit the festival webpage. read more
YA A to Z
We’re only two weeks away from the WLT’s “YA A to Z Conference” in Austin. From the event website:
At the Writers’ League of Texas’ brand-new YA A to Z Conference, you can focus on the craft of writing for teens and young adults, as well as meet agents and editors and get up to speed on the latest trends in publishing for this hot market.
Registration includes more than twenty panels and lectures, as well as several receptions and parties where you can rub elbows with agents and editors in the Young Adult market. For a small fee, you can also sign up for one-on-one meetings with agents and editors.
Early bird registration ends March 31, so sign up now for a chance to save $70 on admission.
The conference will be held April 15 & 16 at the Hyatt Regency, 208 Barton Springs Road in Austin.
Websites For Authors
Today’s post on the importance to a writer of an Internet presence comes from Dan L. Hays, author of Freedom’s Just Another Word.
Author Website or Blog?
I read an article not long ago which indicated that traditional publishers are not willing to take on new authors who don’t have a blog. For an author who has published a book or intends to soon, a web presence is becoming more essential. So what are the points to consider about setting up a website or blog? I’m not talking about content, but about presence – gaining exposure for yourself as an author.
In June 2007 when I first went to the Agent’s and Editor’s Conference in Austin, I saw published authors who had business cards and websites, and did a mental gulp. I hadn’t thought about that part of the publishing business, but as I heard a number of times in the conference, it was becoming more important. read more
The Science of Artful Writing
Today’s post comes from Mooner Einstein Johnson, WBN friend and Justine admirer. WBN edited his forthcoming novel, Full Rising Mooner. I would recommend cracking a few Carta Blancas before diving in.
Sincerely,
You-Know-Who
The Science of Artful Writing
So. I was asked to write something that describes my creative processes when I write said writings. You know, I was asked to answer questions like how I decide what to write, where do I get my ideas, what do I do to rid myself of writer’s block, what does my writing space look like? Silly shit like that.
I know that most writers consider writing to be work. Hard work. I don’t, I consider writing to be a giant pain in the ass, but easy.
See, I have ADHD and its little brother, ADD, and both in copious quantities. I have been tested to have as many as fifteen distinct trains of thought simultaneously stirring in the cauldron that is my skull. As a for instance take this exact second. I can identify the following thought strings swirling in my brain: read more
Secrets to Motivation and Success
It’s Wideo Wednesday (What? What is that?) here at WBN, so below is our latest shoot for Austin’s PsycheTruth channel. In it (it = the video), Justine lays down some strategies for achieving success and accomplishing your goals, always keeping your eyes on the prize.
FYI, those backgrounds are real. Austin boasts an amazing sky, not to mention, um, the big blue ocean shimmering behind those Greek columns, and the surfside cityscape. And those ubiquitous, shady New England woods.
For more WBN vids (wids), subscribe to our YouTube channel.
How Not to Write a Cover Letter
Two submission cover letters I’ve come across in the past two weeks serve as good advice on how not to get your manuscript the attention it may deserve.
Enclosed please find the attachment- a short story entitled: “[name withheld]” comprising approximately 9600 words, for your kind consideration for publication in your magazine. If the article is found to cross the stipulated limit of 7000 words, it may please be edited judiciously.
Where to begin? read more
World’s Fastest Meet Here
Last week, Austin Shakespeare visited WBN HQ for an intimate rehearsal of The World’s Fastest Hamlet. Stage manager Justin Gordon and I swept aside all the furniture (very theatrically, I might add) to make a tidy little stage upon which Hamlet, Ophelia, et. al., did their best to be or not to be in ten minutes or less. read more
Pitch Meetings With Literary Agents
Today we offer another guest post from Dan L. Hays, author of Freedom’s Just Another Word:
Pitch Meetings With Literary Agents
What is the purpose of a pitch meeting with an agent? This is just my opinion, but it is primarily a business meeting to try to close a deal for representing a manuscript.
I’ve had five meetings with literary agents at writer’s conferences and they were remarkably similar to meetings I’ve had in the business world over a 30 year career. Before I went into those meetings, I tried to break down what each of us was there for. In particular, why would a literary agent attend a writer’s conference and sit through a grueling day of ten minute pitch sessions with nervous authors describing their books? Answering that question was the essence of understanding how to make that meeting a success. read more
WFPL: Rats
This week’s Writings From a Past Life comes from Wendy Polavi, a 17-year-old college junior (!) who has this to say about the piece:
“It’s a chapter from a book of fiction about sewer rats. It isn’t really a common subject, is it? I unearthed this excerpt from the still-unfinished piece today and thought I might share it. I find it charming.”
We do, too. read more
Deserted Isle Books: C4′s New Series
Our good friends at ChamberFour.com have started a new series titled “Deserted Isle Books,” in which “contributors discuss the one book they would choose if they were, well, stranded alone on a deserted isle forever.”
C4 Ed. Nico Vreeland kicked off the series in February with Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, reprinted below (the review, not the novel). Subsequent titles include Franny and Zooey, Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine, and the latest, Marcos Velasquez’s exploration of Bless Me, Ultima.
Get Your Writing Read
I/we are looking for various submissions for various things, so here are some various notes for you on this various Tuesday.
As many of you faithful readers know, I recently became the fiction editor (or Fiction Editor–I never know whether or not to capitalize that) at the Texas Observer, a print magazine based here in Austin.
We’re not open to regular submissions at present, but we are holding our first annual short story contest, aptly named the Texas Observer Short Story Prize. Our guest judge is the legendary Larry McMurtry, author of such classics as Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show, and Terms of Endearment.
WFPL: The Turky War
Our Writings From a Past Life series may be winding down, but the action is just heating up. What follows is a gripping and violent tale set in what I imagine to be the North American continent, pre-honky. The history books are a bit vague when it comes to The Turky War, so I believe that young Duhr’s depiction of the final (and apparently, only) battle will soon become known as the definitive account.
First the story, then my exploration of the political and cultural ramifications. read more
The Two Best-Written Shows on TV
Yesterday Brett covered the first three on her list of the five television shows with the highest-quality writing. Today, we get the top two.
Disagree with Brett’s picks? Duke it out with her in the comments section below.
2. The Vampire Diaries
Okay, bear with me here. I too thought this show would simply be some ill-written teenage manifesto about vampires. I have to admit, I was wrong. read more
Best-Written Shows on TV
Today and tomorrow, Brett will be running down her list of the five TV shows with the highest-quality writing. Remember, though–small doses. TV will eat your brain and poop it out.
5. Breaking Bad
If you haven’t bothered to watch Breaking Bad because you thought a show about dealing crystal meth just “isn’t for you,” then I have to explain that this show is about so much more than drugs. It’s about one man’s plight to retain his humanity and restore order to his family in the face of the ultimate mid-life crisis—terminal cancer. Breaking Bad is hands-down one of the best written shows on television, well thought out, brilliantly plotted, and at times utterly heart-wrenching. Created by Vince Gilligan (The X-Files), the series spins a mad web of lies, betrayal, trust, and deception throughout its first three seasons, giving its two leads (Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul) such complex, riveting material to work with that it’s no wonder both actors have received Emmys. read more
LitMags to Love and Lust After
A few recent Write Here visitors have asked us about our favorite literary magazines. For those who haven’t yet been to WBN HQ, we have various mags scattered about the premises, and a couple dozen more crammed into our bookcase. But which ones do we subscribe to and read faithfully? Which ones do we recommend? Why are we doing that thing where we ask questions and then answer them ourselves, instead of simply phrasing them as statements?
In alphabetical order, here are some of the mags that we have on our shelves.
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