Market News, Contests, Conferences and Classes #2

Conferences

Dreamin’ in Dallas
Plano, TX – April 4, 5
8:30 am – 5:00 pm
Southfork Hotel

Conference 2008: Fantastic Forty–Writers Glory
OWFI announces its “FANTASTIC FORTY–WRITERS GLORY” 40th ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE to be held May 2nd and 3rd, 2008. The annual OWFI conference features writers, editors, agents, and informative programs to help you learn to write better and get published. It also helps you meet, network, and make lasting friendships, and to take advantage of the opportunity to learn from writing and publishing professionals. This is one of the finest and least expensive writers’ conferences in the country, so plan to attend. Register early as the conference has sold out in the past. More information about the 2008 conference will be posted as it becomes available. For a taste of what to expect, please access the Conference link for last year’s event.

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Contests

East Texas RWA Southern Heat
Heart of Louisiana Labor of Love Contest
Fiction from the Heartland Contest

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1993 Pulitzer Prize-Winning author Robert Olen Butler, an English professor at Florida State University, has accused Gawker, a website based in NYC, of stealing an e-mail he sent to a circle of friends. The e-mail’s contents reportedly contained the information that is wife, novelist Elizabeth Dewberry, has left him for Ted Turner. The News-Press.com website says that they remain “the best of friends” and they will both be attending the Sanibel Island Writer’s Conference Oct. 4-7. Turner owns a plantation next to Butler’s…(looks like someone was a might too neighborly–DW….)

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GalleyCat reports more about the never-ending Nan Talese/James Frey/Million Little Pieces drama:

Not everybody is impressed by Nan Talese’s belated jab at Oprah. Earlier this week, Andrew Sullivan held the Doubleday editor up as a prime example of what’s wrong with the publishing industry, “one of the shallowest, dumbest and most archaic in the U.S.” For Sullivan, that scene from the literary festival in Grapevine boils down to a bitter complaint from someone who got caught perpetuating the fraud of A Million Little Pieces. “Is Talese ashamed?” he asks. “No. Does she still have her job? Of course. It made money, and the people running the publishing industry have no other values but mercenary ones.”

See GalleyCat for more of this post.******************************************************************************************************************************

From Publisher’s Lunch:

Personnel News
At the Hachette Book Group USA, Little, Brown publisher Michael Pietsch and Warner publisher Jamie Raab have both been promoted to executive vice president for the group, Megan Tingley has been promoted to senior vice president, and Maja Thomas has been promoted to senior vice president of Hachette Book Group USA Audio and Digital Publishing.

At Basic Books, Lara Heimert has been promoted to vp and editorial director, responsible for overseeing the editorial staff, and executive editor William Frucht has been promoted to vp.

At Workman, Page Edmunds has been promoted to associate publisher, working with sales, marketing and publicity to create strategic promotional campaigns and focus on increasing sales through various selling channels. Edmunds, who has been a director of national account sales, will continue to sell to Ingram and the warehouse clubs and will continue as in-house liaison with HighBridge Audio.

Also at Workman, Matthew Benjamin is joining the house as senior editor in early September, and he will continue to acquire men’s interest, humor, sports, nature/outdoors, and popular culture. He has been at Collins.

Ayesha Pande has moved to Collins Literary as agent and foreign rights director, as of August 1.

At St. Martin’s, David Moldawer has been promoted to associate editor, and he will continue to build his nonfiction list in the pop culture, humor, science and technology, and reference.

Abroad, Hachette has hired Thomas Abraham away from Penguin India to start a division in India for Hachette. Penguin international sales and marketing director Mike Bryan will take over as ceo and president of Penguin India on September 1.

Lisa Lyons has become president of Kids Can Press. She has been serving as interim leader. Her previous publishing experience includes a stint as director of marketing for Harper Canada.

Charles Simic was named our 15th poet laureate by the Librarian of Congress.

JT Leroy fraud Laura Alpert was ordered by a judge to pay $350,000 in legal fees to Antidote International Films, on top of the $116,000 in damages. (The company had asked for $1 million in fees.)

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From Cynthia Sterling:

Looking for inspiration? Finding it tough to keep going in the face of rejection? Write Attitude is a site offering lots of inspirational and practical help. http://www.writeattitude.net/

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Wanda Ottewell has been promoted to Senior Editor in charge of the Superromance line. Laura Shin is no longer with the company.

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Dark Recesses (http://www.darkrecesses.com) is a quarterly ezine that publishes horror and dark fantasy. The publication pays 3 cents a word, up to $150 for stories 500-5000 words (shorter pieces have a better chance here.) Complete guidelines are available at the website. There are plans in the works to move into a print publication in 2008.

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Midnight Showcase (http://www.midnightshowcase.com) is an ebook publisher that offers a wide variety of genre fiction, from westerns and mysteries to paranormal, including historical and contemporary and erotic romance. They publish short stories, novels, and complete novels available for download. They are open to submissions. Guidelines are available on the website.

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Feel free to pass along this newsletter and to encourage others to sign up to receive it. If you reprint or forward the newsletter, all I ask is that I be given credit for it. Anyone can sign up by sending a blank email to cynthiasterling-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Cindi Myers
The Man Tamer Harlequin Blaze, May 2007
A Wedding in Paris, Harlequin Anthology, June 12, 2007
Men at Work, Blaze Anthology, July 1, 2007
www.CindiMyers.com

Google launches Authors@Google site

“Just this year, we’ve hosted a great variety of authors, including Martin Amis, Strobe Talbott, Bob & Lee Woodruff, Jonathan Lethem, Don Tapscott, Senator Hillary Clinton, and Carly Fiorina. The subjects of their talks range from literary fiction to science fiction, sociology to technology, politics to business.” Goto: google.com/talks/authors

read more | digg story

Have you had a “Jericho” experience?

I got this in an email today….
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Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9 NLT

Taking Jericho

Imagine this scene for a minute. You’re a captain in Joshua’s army camped a few miles outside the city of Jericho. You’ve seen the thick, double-layered stone walls surrounding the city and armed soldiers guarding every entrance. You’ve heard tales of the fierce Canaanite army and their ability to hold their ground in battle.

In the midst of all of this, an edict comes down from the upper ranks. Israel is planning to take Jericho. Actually, what the message says is that Israel has already taken Jericho, but Jericho just doesn’t know it yet. The battle plan is really no plan at all. You’re supposed to get your troops together and conduct a victory march around the city. Just once?for six days in a row. Then on the seventh day you’re to march seven times around the city. That’s when your soldiers can march in and take possession.

The next day you’re marching around the city, and you can’t help but hear the taunts coming from inside the walls. You know how silly this all looks, but you keep marching just the same. Because you know that God is on your side, and you’ve seen what he can do.

This is why God reminded Joshua time and again to “be strong and courageous.” God has a way of working that tends to fall outside the norm, and he needs people who trust him enough to go the distance, no matter how bizarre the game plan. Courage is important to God because courage is a natural byproduct of trust. And the greater we trust, the braver we become. As long as God leads the battle, we can march in confidence, knowing that we’ve already won. God gave Jericho to Israel on the seventh day, just as he said he would. So,?what wall does he have you marching around?

Just when I needed it

I had weird workweek. Wednesday I came to work and a tacky note had been slipped under my office door. That afternoon, a friend read this in Dear Abby, and showed it to me.

THE MAN IN THE GLASS

(Author Unknown)

When you get what you want in your struggle for self

And the world makes you king for a day,

Just go to a mirror and look at yourself

And see what THAT man has to say.

For it isn’t your father or mother or wife

Whose judgment upon you must pass,

The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life

Is the one staring back from the glass.

Some people might think you’re a straight-shootin’ chum

And call you a wonderful guy.

But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum

If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

He’s the fellow to please, never mind all the rest,

For he’s with you clear to the end,

And you’ve passed your most dangerous test

If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years

And get pats on the back as you pass,But your final reward will be heartache and tears

If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.

According to Maggie Shayne, Attitude is Everything.

Or so she says in this blog entry at Story Broads.

And it really is, isn’t it? I would do well to remember it. And I can tell a difference myself, too, when I approach a day with a positive attitude. Like attracts like, doesn’t it?

And how weird is it, just when I am running across this subject, I run across almost the exact same words on another website? I was watching the Biography Channel, who featured James Van Praagh, the medium who is an executive producer of the Ghost Whisperer. I was curious, so I checked out his website. I click on the link for inspiration, and this is what I see:

“When someone says or does something that is hurtful, we tend to hold on to the hurt and harbor ill will toward the person. From the standpoint of psychic energy, this is a mistake. Carrying an emotional hurt encourages and feeds the negative thoughts and feelings we have about it, and this sense of hurt permeates our space. As I have said many times, like attracts like. Therefore, we will attract similar elements of equal negativity to ourselves. The sooner we allow ourselves to go through the feelings of anger and frustration when hurt, the sooner we can let our pain go. And with letting go comes the true healing step: forgiveness.”

This is a quote from his book “Reaching to Heaven – A Spiritual Journey Through Life and Death”

So, do you think someone is trying to send me a message? I admit, one of the hardest challenges I face in this life is letting go of the hurt I feel when I am wronged, or see myself as wronged. That’s right. When the movie THE GRUDGE came out I thought it was about me.

Ha ha, ha ha..heh heh..uh…ahem. Anyway, if it were an Olympic sport, I’d at least bring home the silver.

It’s no coincidence those nearest and dearest to me often say “get over it” and “let it go.” Not a very flattering thing to admit, I know. But maybe it’s a redeeming feature I at least recognize a fault or two. How wise it is to blog about it, perhaps not so much. But since I’m no master at masking my feelings, those same near and dears know this about me already.

THE POINT IS–I should just let it go already.

23 hours and 37 1/2 minutes with a toddler

Often, We get the chance to babysit my brother’s and sister-in-law’s child, a two-year-old toddler. The baby is a delight, the first baby in our family in over 30 years. So you can imagine we are all absolutely ga-ga.

So, this Sunday, Toddler stayed overnight because the parents needed our help with a Dr. appt. the next morning. We always have fun when Toddler stays over. God bless my brother and his wife, Hubby and I only get a small taste of what they excel at everyday.  I never thought I’d be pulling leftover MickyD’s hashbrowns out of my purse at the end of the day!  But oh, how worth it!

And, of course, this weekend was the weekend my husband finally decided the time was right to remodel the living room, something I’d been nagging about for over a year. He does things in his own time, you see. But it made no difference to Toddler, because, like in many areas, Toddler approaches any situation with the innocence and acceptance of a child. We learn a lot from her.

For instance, yesterday, Toddler put me in my place with one word. One of MY words. We were playing, and she distributed two small throw pillows between us. We played with them awhile, then I tossed mine frim my chair over to her on the couch with a “Wheee!” Great fun we were having. Later, when we were putting away her toys, she’s really good at that, she started tossing them a little hard into the basket. So I told her that she needed to be careful, we don’t throw toys, she cocks her little angelic head at me, grins with a knowing-that-she-has-my-number twinkle in her eye and says, “Wheee!” Then grins wider, actually smirks (I swear, she smirked) turns away and begins collecting more toys.

Oh my. Nothing like being pointed out as a hypocrite by a two-year old. Wow.

Anyway, each time we keep her, I wonder if, in fact, I am too old to be thinking about having a kid of our own. I know, it would be different to have a child from scratch, so to speak, and get used to the routine. One thing I know though, is that when I’m around Toddler, getting up in the mornings isn’t a chore. And that says a lot, everyone who knows me knows what a dud I am in the mornings. I am constantly amazed while I watch Toddler learn new things, things I take for granted. Looking through her large, crystal clear eyes, I look at life differently. When I am around her, I see things more purely.

I think we could all use a dose of that, a washing away of the heaps of cynicism and tainted life experience, like Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9, New Testament) when the scales were removed from his eyes by Ananias, by the command of the Lord, and he saw the light. Saul was one of the most viscious men to persecute Jesus, threatening any who would proclaim Christ as the Messiah. Often, I think, when life doesn’t go our way, we rail against it and become so side-swiped by the disappointments or blase about life in general, we become blinded too. Until a truly remarkable experience or person comes along, and removes the scales from our eyes. When Jesus met Saul on the road to Damascus, He asked Saul why he persecuted Him. Then Saul was stricken blind, and told what he must do.

What happens when someone has lost their sight? They have to pay attention to life in a different way. They have to listen, really listen and attempt to understand what is going on around them. And then someone extraordinary comes along and helps them see how things should be. The way children do naturally. Jesus sent Saul to Ananias in Damascus. Toddler was sent to my brother and his wife, who share their gift with us. So I can’t help but think that we all should be more like Toddler. Because Toddler is more like Jesus than anyone I know.

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Don’t forget about Romantically Inclined’s new Romantic Notions chat, this Saturday, October 14th at 8 p.m. EST! It’s the grand opening, and there will be a lot of fun and prizes to go around!

Messages

We took my 95 Year old Granny out for her birthday tonight. When we got back home and turned on her TV, the Hour of Power was on whatever station she’d been watching earlier, and the preacher on there had some neat things to say. One of them was about Peter walking out to Jesus on the stormy sea. The summation was we should have the faith to step out of the boat, keep the Faith while the storm continues to surround us, and reach out to God in prayer when the storm weakens us, as Peter did when he said, “Lord! Save me!”

So a few minutes ago, I went to the organization’s website, and they have articles that council on various subjects, and here’s a quote I found that certainly applies to me:

6. Abandon outcomes to God: I learned this concept from Dallas Willard and it’s been so helpful to me. Don’t try to control how situations go for you or what people think. Trust that the Lord is sovereign and that he is working all things for your good (Romans 8:28).

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition present your requests to God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7, NIV). Anxiety is a control problem of trying to manage the outcomes of dreams, projects, people, situations. It’s usurping the Lord’s Sovereignty; it’s lack of trust.

The entire article is a good read. I think we are always getting messages we can use, we just need to pay attention. Like in the message I got from within R.A. Salvatore’s interview that I mentioned a couple of blogs ago.

Another message that struck a chord within me (with a Texas twang) this last week was from Dr. Phil, as he interviewed a woman who struggled with her eating habits and obesity. He asked her, “Don’t you deserve better?” or something close to that. It resonated with me…and I wondered, why don’t I ask myself that question? Don’t I deserve better than letting myself get so overweight? Don’t I deserve better than to let past disappointments weigh on me so much I become paralyzed when it comes to my writing? Who am I to let fear rule me like that?

Ok Ok Ok

Before I forget, I want to tell you something I heard today. I was listening to Barbara DeMarco Barrett’s Writers on Writing podcast this afternoon. R.A. Salvatore, Sci-Fi-Fantasy author was the guest, and he said something that hit home with me.

“Writing is about abuse . . . this business is about rejection
. . . Nobody (editors) tells you what they like, they only tell you what they don’t like . . . it hits you right in the gut when someone trashes your writing and there’s nothing you can do about it because it’s there on the page, you can’t say ‘I wish I had done this’ but you didn’t and that’s the way it is . . . being published cannot be the emotional focus of your writing . . .you only survive if the writing is what’s important to you.”

Sometimes, I believe I’ve lost sight of that.

Now, for Gabrielle:
The G.I. Blues Cruiser. That little window is Aloha from Hawaii. On the other little window, it’s the black jumpsuit, baby!

Just Zipping Through…

Well, we’re back from vacation, and I have to tend to a house where it looks like my suitcases exploded, but I wanted to zip in and tell you about my friend Jennifer Archer’s blog on Romantically Inclined! Jump on over and read a little bit about how her life has been since becoming a first time author. She also blogged on Romance by the Blog this last week about “happily ever after, with or without him.” Both are very interesting and informative reads.

I read somewhere recently that people won’t read your blog if you talk about yourself, because, like, who cares? Well, tough cookies. I have a lot to say about our trip, and it’s coming. So if the tidbit I read about is true, that should scare off the one or two readers I have! But I hope it doesn’t. I’ll be back later, in the meantime, check this out:

Eighty-five times he’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars–all in the same day.

Dick’s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right? And what has Rick done for his father? Not much–except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

He’ll be a vegetable the rest of his life; Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old.
“Put him in an institution.”

But the Hoyts weren’t buying it. They noticed the way Rick’s eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,” Dick says he was told.
“There’s nothing going on in his brain.”

“Tell him a joke,” Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? “Go Bruins!” And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, “Dad, I want to do that.”

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described “porker” who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried.
“Then it was me who was handicapped,” Dick says. “I was sore for two weeks.”

That day changed Rick’s life. “Dad,” he typed, “when we were running, it felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!” And that sentence changed Dick’s life.

He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could.

He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon. “No way,” Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren’t quite a single runner, and they weren’t quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially:
In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, “Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?” How’s a guy who never learned to swim and hadn’t ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon?
Still, Dick tried.

Now they’ve done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don’t you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you’d do on your own? “No way,” he says.
Dick does it purely for “the awesome feeling” he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992–only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don’t keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

“No question about it,” Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.” And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race.
Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. “If you hadn’t been in such great shape,” one doctor told him, “you probably would’ve died 15 years ago.” So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other’s life.
Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father’s Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

“The thing I’d most like,” Rick types, “is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.”

To be happy

“The true way to render ourselves happy is to love our work and find in it our pleasure.”

– Francoise de Motteville

“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.”

–Erich Fromm

When you wish upon a star…

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”

– Walt Disney

The direction of your dreams . . . .

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

– Henry David Thoreau