Grumpy Old Bookman: A blog about books and publishing.

Grumpy Old Bookman - A blog about books and publishing, aimed at both readers and writers. Listed by the Guardian as one of the top ten literary blogs.

::Welcome to Mslexia::

::Have we done 'mslexia' the new wrting for women project with a quarterly magazine?

From the website....

• what agents and publishers are looking for
• latest research into the psychology of creativity
• how to turn your own life into literature
• exercises to stretch your imagination
• analysis of publishing trends
• interviews with top authors about their writing methods
• masterclasses in prose and poetry
• the anatomy of a bestseller
• professional primers in copy editing and manuscript presentation
• tips for coping with rejection
• getting started as a freelance journalist
• how hormones affect your writing
• reviews of the best new books by women
• the perfect cover letter that gets your work read
• how to use dreams in your writing

And piles, piles more. Really nice website too.

::Welcome to Mslexia::

Writers inc - Writing for London

Now in its 15th year Writers Inc is a London-based organisation which exists to provide a forum for writers to develop their skills. Through day and weekend residential workshops Writers Inc aims to give opportunities to aspiring writers of any age, background and experience to benefit from high quality tutoring from the founders of , Sue Hubbard and Mario Petrucci, and guests.

Details of the WRITERS-OF-THE-YEAR COMPETITION 2006 are now available on the Competitions page. The closing date is 10 April 2006.

Writers inc - Writing for London

Authors OnLine: FREE PUBLISHING FOR SELF-PUBLISHING AUTHORS

Press Release from Authors OnLine ....

Do You Know A Budding Author?

Do You Have A Story To Tell?

We Can Help!

Press Release

FREE PUBLISHING FOR SELF-PUBLISHING AUTHORS

Date: 30th January 2006

Company - Authors OnLine Ltd,

Contact details - 19 The Cinques, Gamlingay, Sandy Beds SG19 3NU

Tel 01767 652005, theeditor@authorsonline.co.uk

Website – www.authorsonline.co.uk

UK rival to LULU - Authors OnLine offer FREE publishing DEAL

Authors Online, the original digital UK Print On Demand publishing company helping authors to self-publish their work, have launched a new UK and US based service to rival free publishing offered by LULU in the States. The first UK based company to do so. The concept works in exactly the same way in that any author who wants to simply publish and purchase a few books and who has the technical knowledge to produce print-ready files to a supplied template can now do so without having to pay any sort of setup fee. This is extremely useful for authors wanting to submit books to trade-houses, or for an individual, company, organisation or schools requiring copies for private distribution.

If an author then wants to make their book available through retail outlets, an ISBN and distribution services can be purchased separately.

Richard Fitt, The Editor of Authors OnLine says ‘We recognise that a lot people are now far more conversant with the software to prepare their work for printing than was the situation when we started distributed Print On Demand publishing 5 years ago. So if they have the know-how they probably don’t want to pay for us to do something they are quite capable of doing themselves. A lot of individuals and organisations use Word Processors, Graphics packages and Adobe Acrobat to a very sophisticated level nowadays and we are ideally suited to their needs. We also hasten to add that we still offer all our normal services for everybody who either can’t or doesn’t want to do it themselves.’

Authors OnLine doesn’t pretend to have the sophisticated software that LULU uses to help with uploads and tutorials and relies on a simpler system with a certain amount of manual interface, but it believes that the concept is perfectly workable using its own tried and tested publishing methods.

Ninety percent of our time is spent on layouts and formats, so if the manuscripts come to us already prepared the rest is simply loading the books and ordering copies, however the finished result is of course entirely the responsibility of the author, but if the manuscript is prepared with due diligence there is no reason why the books will be anything other than first class.’

Related Links:

Authors OnLine
Lulu

The V.S. Pritchett short story competition from the The Royal Society of Literature.

Sally Ratcliffe writes ....

We are seeking (urgently desperately madly) calibre entries for the V.S. Pritchett short story competition and are really trying to tap into valued sources of committed writers. We are aware that many writers do not know of this prize. We hope you can encourage entries via email perhaps to your students or by displaying the poster? This is a great creative opportunity not only offering £1,000 together with prestigious publication, but the chance to write the 'long' short story - rare nowadays - of 2 -5,000 words. Please visit http://www.rslit.org/prizes/pritchett.php
Deadline: 14th February 06 but extended to end of week 3 of Feb.

Yours faithfully,

(Sally Ratcliffe) Deputy Secretary

The Royal Society of Literature
Somerset House
Strand
London
t: 0207 845 4677 (direct line)
f: 0207 845 4679
e: julia@rslit.org

Related links:

The Royal Society of Literature

Writing the Other: A Practical Approach by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward.

Its one of the great 'truisms' of writing that you should write what you know. However there are also many famous occurences of people writing what there was no way they could ever know - the classic one being the old chestnut of a dowdy middle age man who has little contact with women writing very sensitive womens prose such as that portrayed by Jack Nicholson in 'As Good As It Gets'.

During a Workshop attended by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward one of the students expressed the opinion that it is a mistake to write about people of ethnic backgrounds different from your own because you might get it wrong, horribly, offensively wrong, and so it is better not even to try.

This opinion, commonplace among published as well as aspiring writers, struck Nisi as taking the easy way out and spurred her to write an essay addressing the problem of how to write about characters marked by racial and ethnic differences. In the course of writing the essay, however, she realized that similar problems arise when writers try to create characters whose gender, sexual preference, and age differ significantly from their own. Nisi and Cynthia collaborated to develop a workshop that addresses these problems with the aim of both increasing writers skill and sensitivity in portraying difference in their fiction as well as allaying their anxieties about getting it wrong.

Now a book has come out of this workshop. Volume 8. Writing the Other: A Practical Approach by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward or you can read about the Acclaimed 'Writing The Other' workshop.

2006 Doris Gooderson Short Story Competition

A quick competition Jan found....

2006 DORIS GOODERSON SHORT STORY COMPETITION Entries should be returned no later than 15th May 2006 to: -

The Competition Secretary, 29 Christine Avenue, Wellington, Shropshire, TF1 2DX
Rules of Entry: -
Entries must not exceed 1200 words, must be in the form of a Short Story and written in English. Prizes are 1st = £80, 2nd = £40 and 3rd = £20. Further prizes may be awarded at the discretion of the judge.

An entry fee of £3 is required for each entry or £10 for 4 entries. Entries from overseas can only be accepted with an entry fee in sterling.

This entry form can be photocopied if required.

The Closing Date is 15th May 2006.

No identifying marks should be on the entry.

Each story must have a title page containing title, word count and authors name and address.
2006 Doris Gooderson Short Story Competition

Moving in to our new permanent home: the next meeting, Tuesday 7th February at 7.30pm in the Library's new Meeting Room .

Hi Scribblers,

Just a reminder that our next meeting is on Tuesday 7th February at 7.30pm in the Library. Access is now available by stairs as well as the lift to the upper floor and so we will be using the new meeting room for the first time.

The homework theme is DECEPTION which should be written in an historical genre if possible. At the meeting we will discuss how you feel about using a theme word together with a genre.

Two brief notes, the social proved another success with 14 of us attending. If you missed it, then there is another one coming up on MONDAY February 27th to help mark someone's birthday.

Jack

Jack's scan was cancelled until he has a minor operation already planned for March. Once this is over, Jack will then have his scan and hopefully he will begin to return to normality. The good news from Caz is that he has started to get his appetite back, and when Alex and I called in to see them, Jack was very chirpy.

PC Viruses

Morag has warned that a new virus strain of the Trojan Horse has been detected by her Norton Anti Virus system in an email and attachment sent to her. Whatever you do, don't open any attachments from anyone you don't recognise. Even if you do recognise the sender it may well be advisable to email back for clarification of the content before opening it.

'Plug ins'

From Les and Joan a warning about a possible cause of housefires -

The insurance investigator said that a Plug-In fragrance device, in the bathroom was the cause of the fire. He said he has seen more house fires started with the plug-in type room fresheners than anything else. He said the plastic they are made from is THIN plastic. He also said that in every case there was nothing left to prove that it even existed.

When the investigator looked in the wall plug, sure enough the two prongs left from the plug-in were still in there. Her sister-in-law had one of the plug-ins that had a small night light built in it . She said she had noticed that the light would dim and then finally go out.
She would walk in to the bathroom a few hours later, and the light would be back on again.
The investigator said that the unit was getting too hot, and would dim and go out rather than just blow the light bulb. Once it cooled down it would come back on. That is a warning sign .
The investigator said he personally wouldn't have any type of plug in fragrance device anywhere in his house. He has seen too many places that have been burned down due to them."

Feedback on Homework placed on Website

Talking of Les don't forget that he would like some feedback on the homework that was posted on the website, and also that from Kate too.

Until Tuesday

Keep Scribbling,

Dave

The 2006 Essex Book Festival: possibly the largest literary / writing event in the East yet.

From Irvine Welsh and Germaine Greer to Tony Parsons, Joanna Trollop and Kate Adie and over sixty other events, there really is quite a lot of different things on in the biggest reading and writing festival in the Eastern region.

Highlights include....

Professor Germaine Greer, Simon Heffer , Martin Newell and Ken Worpole are in a group discussion ‘Talk About Essex’ .

Are Essex stereotypes a thing of the past and were they more fiction than fact anyway? What Is It About Essex? brings together four famous and always entertaining Essex commentators to decide what still makes their county so famous or infamous.

Graham Swift talks about his recent book 'The Light of Day'. With the East Anglian set Waterland and Last Orders this Booker-Prize and top Penguin author established himself as a creator of compelling fiction. Focusing on his recently acclaimed novel, The Light of Day, Graham Swift is a highlight of the Essex Book Festival.

For the Full guide to what's on at this year's Festival.

Essex Book festival homepage.

Related links:

Aldeburgh poetry festival

Ask Chris

BBCi - Essex features

BBCi - Get Writing

British Arts Festivals Association

Cambridge Word Fest

Chimera Magazine

Essex poetry festival

Extracts/ University of Essex

New Writing Partnership

Penguin readers' group

Redbridge Now - arts & entertainment

Southend Poetry Group

Felixstowe Scribblers Social January 2006