Monthly Archives: October 2006

New Zealand Writing Fellowship Doubles in Value

Posted on October 26, 2006 by Aurel

Law firm Buddle Findlay is celebrating the 20th anniversary of one of New Zealand’s most successful literary fellowships by doubling the annual financial grant it makes to the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship from $20,000 to $40,000 a year.

The award, offered each year in partnership with The Frank Sargeson Trust, also allows an outstanding published New Zealand writer to live and write rent-free in the Sargeson flat, located next to Auckland University.
Well-known writer Emily Perkins is the current holder of the fellowship. She took up her year-long tenure at the Sargeson apartment in February where she has been working on her new book, Novel About My Wife, for Bloomsbury Publishing.

The fellowship was established in 1987 to commemorate Frank Sargeson and provide assistance for New Zealand writers. Next year will also be the 10th anniversary of Buddle Findlay’s sponsorship. Applications for the 20th anniversary fellowship close on November 3.

(more…)

Posted in Articles, Awards, Contests, Resources |

Writing tips from a pro: Fiction author Lackey says she once revised a book 17 times

Posted on October 26, 2006 by Aurel

Source: Toledo Blade

Either Mercedes Lackey is a good teacher or she had a keen audience last night. Not long into her talk about how one becomes a published writer, the audience of about 175 was finishing her sentences with her mantra: “Glue your derriere to the chair and write.”

Lackey, who has published 70 books, offered several tidbits, such as send a completed book (not the commonly recommended three chapters and an outline), to an editor; do not hire an agent to promote your work (because you can do it better yourself), and be nice to your editor and publisher.

“Don’t make your editor’s life miserable. It’s already miserable: they live in New York.”
(more…)

Posted in Articles, Author Tours, Authors, Events, Interviews, Reading |

PWINSIDER.COM SEEKING NEW CONTRIBUTORS FOR WRESTLING AND MMA

Posted on October 26, 2006 by Aurel

Source: PWInsider.com

From time to time, we are contacted by those interested in contributing and writing for PWInsider.com. For those of you who are interested in writing about pro wrestling and MMA, read on!

PWInsider.com is currently seeking contributors for columns and live reports on the following areas of interest: (see below)

Our sister site, ProWrestlingXTRA.com will house all MMA coverage. We are also seeking non-wrestling contributors for comic book, sports, video game, and pop culture articles and columns. If you have an idea for coverage or an article not mentioned above, we would be happy to hear about it as well!

Please feel free to contact us as Columns@PWInsiderXTRA.com to submit sample articles. We thank everyone for their interest in contributing and for their support of PWInsider.com. (more…)

Posted in Articles, Publishers, Websites |

Schroeder says writing book helped him out of rut

Posted on October 26, 2006 by Aurel

BERLIN (Reuters) – Gerhard Schroeder said he wrote his wave-making memoirs to get out of a rut he fell into after leaving office and insisted on Thursday he had left politics for good even if he still believed he did not lose a 2005 election.

The former German chancellor was at his entertaining best deflecting tough questions at the launch of his book “Decisions — My Life in Politics” before a crowd of more than 300 journalists, political leaders and German novelist Siegfried Lenz.

Schroeder used his humor to defend his widely criticized decision to publish excerpts of his 544-page memoirs in advance in the very newspaper, the mass circulation Bild, that he had savagely attacked a year ago for campaigning against him. (more…)

Posted in Articles, Authors, Book Release, Events, Newly Released Books |

Our mania for awards – and what it says about us

Posted on October 25, 2006 by Keren

Michael Jackson has won 240 of them. Frank Gehry has bagged 130. The culture of prize-giving has gone mad. It has replaced the art of criticism in determining cultural value and shaping public taste. We enjoy the glamour of a Booker or an Oscar night, but we lose something too in this orgy of awards, says Jason Cowley  

According to English, author of the enthralling The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value (Harvard University Press), we are reaching ‘the point of a kind of cultural frenzy, with scarcely a day passing without the announcement of yet another newly founded prize’. Any number of large corporations, wealthy institutions and patrons are lining up to partake of the frenzy as sponsors and paymasters, though one wonders how much of this is to do with tax-avoidance issues and how much with the need to be seen as socially and culturally relevant and cool.

In the book world, prizes have long since supplanted reviews as our primary means of literary transmission, and now they are taking on the task, from the professional critics, of judgment as well. This of course is not just a literary phenomenon: the success of the Booker Prize, which was established in 1968, led in this country to a kind of Booker envy. Every arts bureaucrat, it seemed, wanted his or her own equivalent of the Booker…

Link to the Guardian Unlimited story

Posted in Articles, Awards |

Book Talk: Author Horowitz on his life with a teenage spy

Posted on October 25, 2006 by Aurel
NEW YORK, Oct 24 (Reuters Life!) – Anthony Horowitz has been writing children’s books for 26 years but his teenage secret agent, Alex Rider, carved out a new path for him — action movies, and he thinks it’s awesome.

Horowitz has written six adventure stories about Rider, a 14-year-old British schoolboy who battles villains as a secret agent, since the first in the series, “Stormbreaker,” became a best seller in 2000.

The year “Stormbreaker” was turned into feature film with London-based Horowitz, 50, writing the screenplay.

Horowitz is currently writing “Snakehead,” his seventh Alex Rider book, along with a screenplay for the next film. (more…)

Posted in Articles, Authors, Interviews, Movie Adaptations, Upcoming releases |

Profile in Courage Essay Contest for High School Students

Posted on October 25, 2006 by Aurel

The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation announced the 2007 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest is accepting submissions from U.S. high school students. A first place cash prize of $3,000 will be awarded.

The annual Profile in Courage Essay Contest invites students to write an essay about a political issue at the local, state or national level and an elected official in the United States who is acting or has acted courageously to address that issue. The contest is a companion program of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, named for President Kennedy’s 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Profiles in Courage,” which recounts the stories of American statesmen, the obstacles they faced and the special valor they demonstrated despite the risks. The essay contest is sponsored by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and generously supported by Fidelity Investments.

Students and teachers may access the contest’s Web site at http://www.jfklibrary.org. The deadline for entry is Jan. 6, 2007.

(Read the original article here)

Posted in Awards, Education, Resources, Websites |

Scholastic Gears Up for Annual Writing Contest for Kids

Posted on October 25, 2006 by Aurel

The Scholastic Book Fairs announces the 2007 Kids Are Authors competition, a national book-writing contest for teams of student writers in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Kids Are Authors encourages students to use reading, writing and artistic skills to write and illustrate their own books. The winning books are published and distributed nationwide through Scholastic Book Fairs.

Since its inception in 1986, the Kids Are Authors competition has encouraged thousands of children to write and illustrate original books. Students develop their entries in groups of three or more under the supervision of a teacher or other faculty member who serves as the project coordinator. Entries are judged by a panel of authors and publishing experts on originality, content, overall appeal to children, quality of artwork and the compatibility ofand illustrations.

Each year, two grand prize winners are selected for fiction and nonfiction, along with 25 honorable mentions. In addition to having their books published, the grand prize winners receive a medal, a commemorative certificate and a copy of their published book. Their school receives a $5,000 Scholastic Book Fairs product voucher and 100 copies of the printed book. Scholastic Book Fairs also awards $500 in merchandise and Certificates of Merit to 25 runnerup schools.

Schools interested in participating in the 2007 Kids Are Authors writing contest can find detailed information online at http://www.scholastic.com/kidsareauthors. The deadline for entries is March 15, 2007.

(courtesy Metrowest Daily News)

Posted in Articles, Awards, Contests, Education |

Dylan Writing Prize Finalists Gather

Posted on October 25, 2006 by Aurel

The finalists of the world’s largest literary award – the inaugural EDS Dylan Thomas Prize – have come face-to-face for the first time.

But as the countdown to the awards ceremony continues, they say there is no rivalry between them.

The winner of the £60,000 prize will be revealed during a dinner at the Brangwyn Hall in Swansea on Friday evening. Among the shortlisted names are Rhondda writer Rachel Trezise.

(Read the full article here)

Posted in Articles, Authors, Awards, Events |

Article Explores Benefits of Writing Groups

Posted on October 25, 2006 by Aurel

The following article in The Republican asks the question, What to look for in a writing group?

Many writers prefer to write in a secluded, quiet space without interruption. And sadly, all too often, the writing is then tucked away in some dark drawer or private journal and never read by anyone other than the writer, leaving the writer wondering, “Is it any good?,” “Should I cut that last line?,” “Should I use a comma here or a dash?” 

Writers can benefit from having others read and critique their work before the final polished version.

Good writing ought to be shared. Not-so-good writing can be improved (and then shared). That’s where writing groups come in – a good writing group will support your efforts as a writer and offer suggestions on how your work might be improved.

(Read more)

Posted in Articles, Resources |