NEW YORK, Oct 31 (Reuters Life!) - Frank Beddor, best known for producing the comedy film “There’s Something about Mary,” began writing seven years ago — and says there’s no looking back.

His debut novel, “The Looking Glass Wars,” claims to tell the truth about Alice in Wonderland, or Princess Alyss, who fled with bodyguard Hatter Madigan to the real world after her mother, the queen, was overthrown by her older sister Redd. Alyss is later sucked back into Wonderland.

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(New York)Irritated subway riders can now turn their frustration into poetry.

“Vent Your Inspiration” asks riders to compose poems about what they want to improve about the subway system and what they appreciate about the MTA.

Contestants are asked to submit poems of up to 30 lines in a category of their choice, such as air quality, train conditions or positive feedback.

The winning works will be sent to the MTA and Governor’s office with a request for an action plan.

The person with the best poem will get a 30-Day Unlimited Ride MetroCard donated by the Straphangers Campaign.

For more information, go to www.ventyourinspiration.org.

Contestants have until November 20 to send in their work.

The editors of Spirituality & Health magazine invite you to a week long retreat with travel writer Judith Fein, her photographer husband Paul Ross (see their website at www.GlobalAdventure.us), and Editor-in-Chief Steve Kiesling, at a remarkable eco-resort, Rancho Encantado (www.encantado.com), in the heart of the Yucatán, in Mexico, near Belize.

We will go to remote Maya archeological sites, cook with Maya people, swim, go kayaking, get a massage, take a boat trip, enjoy breakfast and a three-course candlelight gourmet dinner each day, explore the remote tropical lagoon where the resort is located, and learn to transform all these experiences into travel articles and travel stories. For those interested, travel photography will be demystified.

The best story will be published in Spirituality & Health. No experience in writing or photography necessary. Space is limited to 26, and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. All costs are included, except airfare to Cancún. The resort is three and one half hours from Cancún, and transportation from the airport is provided.

Price per person is $1,895.
($100 discount for booking before December 15.)
To reserve, call Rancho Encantado at 1.800.505 MAYA (5292).

Soul of Travel Writing Workshop
March 8–15, 2007
Rancho Encantado eco-retreat & spa
Laguna Bacalar
Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula

Elsah, IL (PRWEB via PRWeb) October 30, 2006 — Principia College has been awarded a $1 million grant by The Annenberg Foundation to endow a Visiting Scholars Program within the College’s newly formed Leonore Annenberg Center for Educational Innovation. Modeled after programs at the nation’s finest institutions, the new Visiting Scholars Program will draw leading scholars, diplomats, writers, and civic and business leaders to Principia for short-term teaching and writing opportunities.
Principia sponsors a number of programs that, in recent years, have brought distinguished public servants and scholars to the College campus including George H. W. Bush, Colin Powell, Sandra Day O’Connor, Margaret Thatcher, Jimmy Carter, Thomas Friedman, and six Nobel Peace Laureates. The Visiting Scholars Program will further enrich the academic curriculum by providing students with the opportunity to interact directly with distinguished thought leaders beyond the boundaries of a one-time speaking engagement.

Warren Adler, who has all his books available in traditional print, is a pioneering author in electronic publishing as well. All twenty-seven of Mr. Adler’s books can now be purchased and downloaded online.

DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) and DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), an eBook publishing and distribution company, launched their online bookstore (www.dppstore.com) just ten months ago.

Opening their store with just seven titles, the DPPstore’s virtual shelves are now lined with five hundred titles by new authors and the best eBooks from independent publishers, creating an eclectic array of literary offerings.

The DPPstore (www.dppstore.com) continues to grow and this week is pleased to announce it has added 27 more eBooks, all by critically acclaimed author Warren Adler.

As a novelist, Mr. Adler’s themes deal primarily with intimate human relationships — the mysterious nature of love and attraction, the fragile relationships between husbands and wives and parents and children, the corrupting power of money, the aging process and how families cling together when challenged by the outside world. His books have been cited by readers and reviewers for their insight and wisdom in presenting and deciphering the complexities of contemporary life.
His novels have been translated into more than two dozen languages. Ten of his novels have been sold or optioned to the movies, and two have become major motion pictures, the classic The War of the Roses and Random Hearts.

Warren Adler is arguably the only author in the world, published by major publishing houses, who has re-acquired the English language and foreign rights to his entire backlist of more than 25 novels. Stonehouse Press (Adler’s own publishing company) has made the English language versions available in all eBook formats and Print-on-Demand formats in trade and hardcover.

full press release here

Marisha Pessl’s debut novel ‘Special Topics in Calamity Physics,’ not only started a bidding war that earned her a six figure advance,  it debuted at number 6 on The New York Times Bestseller List, which called it “a whirling, glittering, multifaceted marvel, delivered in an irrepressibly smart and flamboyant new voice.”

“Special Topics” focuses on a precocious, hyper-literate teen named Blue van Meer as she prepares for her senior year of high school in North Carolina after crisscrossing the nation with her college professor dad, a brilliant widower.

 

It’s a lush book, studded with metaphors. A woman’s perfume “hung in the air like a battered pinata.” A man seems “to hand out smiles like a guy in a chicken suit costume distributing coupons for a free lunch.” A girl “looked at me with anxious interest, like I was a dress on sale, the last in her size.”

 

“I’m a people watcher,” Pessl says. “When I’m writing, I do see it very visually, as in a movie. Then it’s simply up to me to describe it through a character.”

 

Though the 514-page book — illustrated with more than a dozen of Pessl’s own drawings — appears at first to be a humorous account of Blue’s attempts to fit in with the cool kids, it soon turns into a thriller, one that ultimately tests the father-daughter bond.

read more here

 

Court TV™ is hosting the Search for the Next Great Crime Writer Contest™ in conjunction with the new series, Murder By The Book™. Click here to learn how to get a shot at landing a book deal with Regan (an imprint of HarperCollins).

Need some inspiration?  Watch Court TV on November 13 at 10PM ET to hear five best-selling crime novelists discuss the real-life crimes that influenced their work.

For full contest details, visit CourtTV.

The early entry deadline for the 10th Annual International Screenplay Competition presented by the American Screenwriters Association is October 31, 2006. Late entries must be postmarked no later than November 30, 2006.

This esteemed competition offers more than $30,000 in prizes and the chance to win invaluable Hollywood exposure. Grand prize includes $10,000 and a script development trip to Hollywood. All finalists receive one-on-one script consultations with such screenwriting gurus as Michael Hauge, David Trottier, and Rob Tobin, and promotion to more than 6,500 key industry decision makers. All quarter finalists receive a professional script analysis. Find entry details at GoASA.com.