Some authors try to use a computer like a typewriter. This can result in some basic formatting issues discussed in this article: http://tinyurl.com/y97mbfxv
Friday, June 23, 2017
Deadline extended to July 22, 2017 for 55-pus writing award
Strathcona Place
A PLACE FOR ACTIVE SENIORS
Deadline now July 22 for award for writers 55-plus
The deadline for entries for the 2017 edition of the John W. Bilsland Award has been extended to July 22. The award was inaugurated in 2015 by the Strathcona Place Seniors Society of Edmonton to celebrate and foster the creativity of older writers.
Writers aged 55 years and older who live throughout Western Canada are eligible to submit work to be considered for this year's award. Prizes of $500 will be awarded in each of three categories: short fiction, short non-fiction and poetry.
The deadline for award submissions is July 22, 2017.
For entry rules and regulations, and to download an entry form, go to www.strathconaplace.com. Entry forms are also available at the Strathcona Place Senior Centre, 10831 University Avenue. For further information email strathconaplace@outlook.com.
The late John W. Bilsland, MA (British Columbia), PhD. (Toronto), was Professor of English at the University of Alberta. In addition to his 30-year professional teaching career, as a volunteer he taught creative writing at the Strathcona Place Senior Centre for more than 25 years. During that time seniors who attended his classes produced more than 20 publications, including books.
Strathcona Place Seniors Centre has been serving older adults in south Edmonton for 43 years, providing a range of social and recreational programs.
Please publish in your newsletter and/or circulate to your membership.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
first lines of a story
How do you capture reader attention with your story starter? This article gives many examples. Which ones do you like? Which give you useful ideas? https://tinyurl.com/y9ssxfxf
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
On memoirs & editors: Robert L. Bacon
I’m reading and enjoying TOO CLOSE TO THE FALLS, a memoir by Toronto psychologist Catherine Gildiner. That made me pay special attention to the following comments by a long-time online friend, editor/writer Robert L. Bacon, regarding his experiences with editing memoirs. I’m not sure about his contention that “memoirs are impossible to sell to a bona fide royalty publisher unless the author is a celebrity or a Holocaust survivor,” but his comments are still interesting and useful.
During the past year I've received a spate of memoirs to either edit or to critique. Just recently, someone even phoned me to present material deemed worthy of the "life coaching" tag as a result of this person's "worldly" experiences. I've often explained in my Newsletters that memoirs are impossible to sell to a bona fide royalty publisher unless the author is a celebrity or a Holocaust survivor, and I continue to stand by this contention. My stance is not based on a bias against someone's wanting to tell the story of his or her own life, but the reality that this sort of narrative doesn't lend itself to much of any form of editing beyond correcting basic grammar. To support this contention, I've also learned that memoir writers don't want their material revised beyond copyediting, so what is a developmental editor such as myself supposed to provide?
To elaborate on that point, it's no different from when a character is "real" and I haven't been told this upfront by the author. I edited a book some years ago in which a character was an absurdly despicable brat who was patently unlikable. Yet this child carried a crucial story thread that ran throughout, and in the end was to "save the day." The character was so unredemptive in every way that by the story's finish no reader would possibly care one way or the other. I had no choice but to soften this child's rough edges. However, the author was upset at my revision even though I'd discussed the suggested changes in considerable detail beforehand. I later learned that this character was a relative whom the author always believed could do no wrong. The writer ultimately "returned" this character to original form and, in my opinion, reduced the entire narrative to little more than pedestrian mishmash.
I've turned down memoirs by some really accomplished writers because of what I just discussed. I had my first encounter with author "adamancy" when I changed the dropping of a plate of food at someone's feet to dropping the plate and the food on the other person's feet. I was told in no uncertain terms that the physical plate had never touched Aunt Edna's feet, only the mashed potatoes. (I altered this scene to protect the integrity of the client/author relationship even though in this case there is no nondisclosure agreement in force.) I still laugh at this. The primary issue involves what an editor can provide a memoir writer. My answer is not much beyond correcting basic grammar and punctuation, and no one needs me for this.
Longtime editor Peter Ginna's book, "What Editors Do," is a compilation of material provided by more than two dozen respected editors. I don't know if it's any better than what highly regarded editor Jerry Gross (who sadly recently passed away) wrote some years ago. Any writer who's worked with a credible editor recognizes what the job entails. In the simplest of terms, editing is the ability to make a story fluent from the perspective of continuity. Accomplishing this, however, is anything but simple, and why I often spend a couple of hundred hours on a client's narrative. Ignoring my drivel, Mr. Ginna's book might be worth a look, should anyone be on the fence regarding hiring an editor, and this has nothing to do with my being one of these unholy creatures.
Robert L. (Rob) Bacon, Founder
The Perfect Write®
http://theperfectwrite.com/home/
http://robertlbacon.blogspot.com/
Please contact me with any questions or comments, and let me
know if there is anything in the field of professional writing you
would like addressed in a future Newsletter.
For authors, The Perfect Write® is now providing
a FREE OPENING CHAPTER CRITIQUE and up to a
FREE 3-PAGE LINE-EDIT (if applicable). Paste your material
(up to 5,000 words) to theperfectwrite@aol.com (no attachments).
For Authors, The Perfect Write® is continuing to offer
FREE QUERY LETTER REVIEW AND ANALYSIS.
Paste your query to theperfectwrite@aol.com (no attachments).
and visit the Sample Letters Page for examples of successful queries.
The Perfect Write® offers comprehensive editing services, from
manuscript critiques to complete revisions, including substantive editing,
line-editing, and copyediting along with query letter design and composition.
For pricing, send your project requirements to theperfectwrite@aol.com.
Monday, June 19, 2017
writing & reading opportunity: uplifting stories
I don’t know anything about the new online site storiesfromtheheart. However, it sounds like an interesting opportunity to write and/or read uplifting stories and maybe even winning a prize. Here’s the link:
Monday, June 12, 2017
Mennonite background & YesterCanada
The following article about my Mennonite background & my book YesterCanada appeared in QC [Regina Leader] & Bridges [Saskatoon Star Phoenix] Feb 10, 2017.
READ MY BOOK FEATURES YESTERCANADA BY ELMA (MARTENS) SCHEMENAUER
“Who wants to move to Canada?” asked my grandfather, Jacob Peter Martens. He glanced around the table at his wife and five children. Were they willing to leave their familiar Mennonite village in Russia and sail across the Atlantic to the new land?
“Yes, Canada!” the children said. Their mother shook her head. The majority won and the Martens arrived in Saskatchewan in May 1926. At first, they lived with relatives in the Swift Current-Herbert area. Later, they settled in the Elbow-Loreburn area, where I was born and grew up.
Life in the new land was challenging, but my relatives’ prevailing attitude was “Yes, Canada!” That’s my attitude, too. Love for this country and its history inspired my new book YesterCanada: Historical Tales of Mystery and Adventure.
Published by Borealis Press of Ottawa, the book presents 30 historical tales spanning this great land and the centuries from the 1200s to the 1900s.
Some of the mysteries in YesterCanada involve eccentrics whose motives puzzle people to this day. One was a Finnish farmer who built an ocean-going ship near Macrorie, Saskatchewan, far from any ocean. Another was a hermit obsessed with the beauties of Niagara Falls.
Elma (Martens) Schemenauer, author of YesterCanada: Historical Tales of Mystery and Adventure.
Other mysteries in the book involve the supernatural, or seem to. For example, who rang the chapel bell in Tadoussac, Quebec one foggy April night in 1782? What mysterious power told an Atlantic Sea captain to change course and “sail to the nor’west?” Who put a jinx on Alberta’s lost Lemon Mine?
I’ve always been interested in faith, values, and the adventures they inspire. Stories in YesterCanada that especially reflect such themes include “Dr. Elizabeth of Onion Lake, Saskatchewan,” “A Nova Scotia Noah and His Ark,” “Lily of the Peace River,” and “Abigail Becker, Heroine of Lake Erie.”
I’m also interested in animals. Among those in the book are Manitoba’s haunted horse, the ten-armed monster of Newfoundland, and the camels of British Columbia’s Cariboo gold rush.
The narratives in YesterCanada are based on Canadian history, biography, folklore, and Aboriginal traditions. The bibliography in the back of the book lists my sources for each story.
YesterCanada: Historical Tales of Mystery and Adventure is a 248-page paperback with 30 illustrations, $19.95, ISBN 978-0-88887-650-8. Ask for it in a store or library. You can also order it online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo, or Borealis Press. For more information, please visit http://elmams.wixsite.com/elma .
opportunity: short stories about community, ON THE PREMISES, deadline Sept 1. 2017
The online publication ON THE PREMISES is running another short story contest. Here’s their announcement:
Short Story Contest #30
It's time for another short story contest!
COMMUNITY
They say it takes a village to raise a child, but that's just one example of a kind of community and just one way a community can affect your life. There are plenty of others--good, bad, and otherwise. So for this contest, write a creative, compelling, well-crafted story between 1,000 and 5,000 words long in which the idea of community (or some kind of community) plays an important role.
One entry per author. No fee for entering. Maximum length of 5,000 words and minimum length of 1,000.
Deadline: Friday, September 1, 2017, 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
Hyphenated Words: If the hyphenated word is generally considered a single word, it counts as one word. (Like "twenty-five" or "jack-o-lantern.") Otherwise each part of the hyphenated word counts separately.
Prizes: $220 for first, $160 for second, $120 for third, $60 for honorable mentions. We will publish between one and three honorable mentions.
To submit, use this link https://onthepremises.submittable.com/Submit and follow the instructions. If you don't already have a (free) Submittable account, you'll be prompted to make one.
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