elma's almanac: January 2015

Friday, January 30, 2015

mystery & crime story opportunity

Darkhouse Books is seeking stories for “Destination: Mystery”: a collection of mystery and crime stories set in locations popular for vacations. I don’t know anything about Darkhouse but you may be able to find them by Googling their name.

Elma Schemenauer CONSIDER THE SUNFLOWERS: 1940s-era novel about love, Mennonites, faith, & betrayal. Info at http://elmams.wix.com/sflwrs Order from Chapters online http://tinyurl.com/nsylp5j or Borealis Press http://tinyurl.com/lfdo9pf

Thursday, January 29, 2015

literary agency opportunities

Lane Heymont of The Seymour Agency is seeking: science fiction and fantasy (exceptional world building is a must), and nonfiction (the inspiring, intriguing, mysterious, and scientific).

Alex Glass has formally announced his new literary agency, Glass Literary Management, formed late last year after he left Trident Media Group, where he worked for 13 years. He will continue to concentrate on nonfiction (including prescriptive, narrative, memoir, sports, pop culture, and celebrity); adult literary and general fiction; and children's fiction.

children's book reviewer

For those who write children's books, here is the blog of a reviewer, Matthew Lorentzen. He prefers pdf files, and will post his review on his blog and on Amazon. This is the link to his blog:

http://l.facebook.com/l/0AQEFv5U-AQGWYOKO2-WltxU1eYpyneeg_laeyZWKwypWXg/rrhowroar.blogspot.com)

and his email address is soalis114@gmail.com

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

radio interview on Faith FM

Robert White interviewed me on Faith FM [SW Ontario] radio: http://tinyurl.com/oclj5qb . There are 3 songs, which you may be able to fast-forward through if you want. After a couple of the songs, I heard only silence but when I hit a key on my keyboard, the interview returned.

needed: poetry about tomatoes

Here’s a message from an editor looking for more poetry about tomatoes for an anthology. It’s interesting as a possible opportunity for those who have something or could quickly write something to submit. It’s also interesting as an inside track on what can go through a beleaguered editor’s mind. For more info, click the link in the first line.

Deadline February 1st: http://www.amoebaink.com/theTomatoAnthology.htm I apologize for not announcing this here until so close to the deadline. Volume wise we have plenty of poetry submissions. So I hadn't considered advertising for more. Quality wise (and diversity wise) however, I'm really not happy with what we have. We've got several poems with brilliant ideas or concepts, but rather than make good use of them the poet seems to abandon them or even mock-them. Since we're on a deadline, it's not realistic to coach poets individually. We have enough good to ok poems to do what we need, but I'm hoping I can stir up some more diverse and impressive poetry. Yes, the theme is Tomatoes and the poem should significantly feature a tomato in some way. It can be a symbol rather than a literal fruit, it just needs to be significant. However don't use it as a metaphor for a human body part (except maybe the head or heart....) PLEASE don't just send us an ode to tomatoes with every tomato related word you can find on a google search. Consider sending something less visceral... if I read another poem about skins and juices I may go crazy. Not that I don't think these concepts could be well done, we just have plenty of them already. What I would really like to see... STRUCTURE... meter, rhyme, alliteration, wordplay... not just lazy couplet rhyme, feel free to play with structure, just have some. (Couplets are fine when done well with good word choice.) If your poem has to be preformed for us to get a sense of tempo, then it's not a good fit. This is a book people will read to themselves, not a stage piece. FOCUS... I like profound, but I also like fun. You have a lot of options as to what you focus on, but try to stick to a main idea within the poem. Narrative poems that actually tell a narrative in a straight forward manner would be great. We're open genre. It can be short and cutesy to deep and profound. But I shouldn't have to read it 20 times to interpret what you're saying. I've got a high IQ, a college degree in communication, and am a devoted study of the language and storytelling, if I can't understand what you're saying then you're not being clear enough. Poems that focused on a single idea related to tomatoes or type of tomato would be nice. We have probably 30 entries that list beefsteak or cherry or heirloom in a boring list. I'd love to see someone take one of those words and play with it. A lot of the poems we've received try to cram in too much about tomatoes. Pick a theme and stick to it. You are allowed multiple entries if you'd like to say more. We would really love to see stuff featuring Aztecs, not just in a drive by line but an actual focus. (Aztecs were the first culture to grow tomatoes as food). We love Italians, but we've got enough pieces that feature Italians. Tomatoes interacting with other ethnic groups would be lovely. Finally, this is not a poetry anthology, but a blend of short stories, poems, recipes, and artwork. So don't write for hardcore poetry reader, write for a general audience. (Yes, we'd love you to submit in the other categories if they appeal to you. We could particularly use more recipes and black and white artwork. We have enough short mainstream stories, but we would really love some genres like mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, and historical Aztecs and early European interactions with the tomato.) Lastly, we have a facebook page with lots of inspiration images and links to tomato history research: https://www.facebook.com/TheTomatoAnthology (Also using it to keep everyone updated on the books progress.) Thank you, hope we'll be seeing your submissions soon.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

reading & fast food

An idea whose time has come—put snippets from books on fast-food cups, bags, etc. Here’s Vanity Fair’s article about it. Does it give anybody ideas? http://tinyurl.com/n68byz3

Monday, January 26, 2015

CBC Kamloops interview

Here’s CBC Kamloops’ Shelley Joyce interviewing me about my novel Consider the Sunflowers: http://www.mediafire.com/listen/n1zlfameaf0axxo .

Friday, January 23, 2015

surprise bestseller: biog of Laura Ingalls Wilder

The real life of Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder was “darker” than what she portrays in her writing. The South Dakota Historical Society Press recently published a biography of her. Contrary to expectations, it turned into a runaway bestseller. Interestingly Friesen’s of Manitoba printed the book. Yay Canada. Here’s the article: http://tinyurl.com/q4so44c .

Kamloops air quality & the proposed Ajax mine: good article here - InfoNews.ca

What does a high PM 2.5 reading really mean for Kamloops? - InfoNews.ca

Thursday, January 22, 2015

writing about family in a memoir

Wondering how to write about family without getting the cold shoulder—or sued? Here’s a good article on that: http://tinyurl.com/kenj4ou .

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

share elma's interview.mp3 - 9 MB

Share elma's interview.mp3 - 9 MB

Radio NL interview

Here's Radio NL's Jim Harrison interviewing me about Consider the Sunflowers. Share elma's interview.mp3 - 9 MB

texting code for seniors

Hopefully not all of the following apply to us—yet. You gotta laugh. It’s better than crying. Praying is good too.

ATD - At the Doctor's

BFF - Best Friend's Funeral
BTW - Bring the Wheelchair
BYOT - Bring your own teeth
CBM - Covered by Medicare
CUATSC - See You at the Senior Center
DWI - Driving While Incontinent
FWBB - Friend with Beta Blockers
FWIW - Forgot Where I Was
FYI - Found Your Insulin
GGPBL - Gotta Go, Pacemaker Battery Low
GHA - Got Heartburn Again
IMHO - Is My Hearing-Aid On?
LMDO - Laughing My Dentures Out
LOL - Living on Lipitor
OMMR - On My Massage Recliner
ROFL..CGU - Rolling on the Floor Laughing...Can't get Up!
TOT - Texting on Toilet

TTYL - Talk to You Louder
WTP - Where are the Prunes
WWNO - Walker Wheels Need Oil
GGLKI - Gotta Go, Laxative Kicking In

Monday, January 19, 2015

authors using social media

Several articles here on how authors can effectively use social media: http://www.webdesignrelief.com/web-design-reliefs-links-roundup-january-2015/

Friday, January 16, 2015

British Columbia Christian lifestyle mag

The Light is a Christian lifestyle magazine distributed in Metro Vancouver & the Lower Mainland. If interested, click here to find out about submitting articles, etc: http://lightmagazine.ca/about-us/

Thursday, January 15, 2015

creative non-fiction contest for women

Room, a Canadian magazine devoted to women’s interests & concerns, invites submissions to its annual creative non-fiction contest. Details here http://www.roommagazine.com/rooms-annual-contests-2015

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

light reading

Here’s a story I wrote & sent to our local newspaper. I didn’t realize till today that they put it online. It’s light—some might say silly—reading : http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/det-midgley-pawnbroker/

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

a goldmine of small publishers

Authors, are you tired of being rejected by big-name publishers? You might try smaller ones. Here are more than 370 that publish poetry, fiction, non-fiction, etc: http://www.pw.org/small_presses . If a listing catches your eye, read it carefully to see what they do and what they want in a submission.

Monday, January 12, 2015

direct-selling your book

There are many ways to sell published books through social media on the Internet e.g. through a Facebook page. But if you want to sell it in other ways—or also in other ways—here are some ideas: http://tinyurl.com/oxxqywj .

Thursday, January 8, 2015

"Frank phoned."

"Frank phoned," my husband said one grey day last winter. Who? Frank Warkentin in my novel Consider the Sunflowers? Since when have imaginary characters phoned their authors? Actually it was Frank M. Tierney, a head honcho at Borealis Press, expressing interest in the novel. Nine months later it became a reality. I'm delighted to be published by this wise kind man. In February 2013 he received the well-deserved Order of Ontario. http://tinyurl.com/nm8x2uh

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

new literary agency, Orchard

New literary agency Orchard Strategies http://www.orchardstrategies.com/literary is open to both fiction and non-fiction.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

no grain, no dairy muffins

I made the almond flour muffins at this site http://tinyurl.com/os7feyd and they turned out fine, though the raisins sank to the bottoms of the muffins. I didn’t bother using paper liners. The muffins came out of the tins easily after I let them sit for about 5 minutes. No grain and no dairy in the recipe—for those who care about such things.