Terry Pratchett, one of Britain’s best-selling authors and one of the world’s leading fantasy writers, has announced that he’ll donate $1m to research into Alzheimer’s disease. Pratchett himself was diagnosed with the disease in December. BBC News writes:

“I am, along with many others, scrabbling to stay ahead long enough to be there when the cure comes along. Say it will be soon - there’s nearly as many of us as there are cancer sufferers, and it looks as if the number of people with dementia will double within a generation. […] It is a shock to find out that funding for Alzheimer’s research is just 3% of that to find cancer cures.”

However, the Alzheimer’s Research Trust estimates that just £11 per patient is spent annually on research into the disease - compared with £289 for each cancer patient.

Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said the trust currently had to turn down two out of every three research projects due to lack of funds.

She said: “Whilst we were deeply saddened to learn of Mr Pratchett’s diagnosis, we are delighted that he has chosen to speak out about his experiences with Alzheimer’s disease, to raise awareness about its impact and the desperate need for more research.

“Research is the only way to beat this disease and help people like Terry - to prevent them losing their thinking skills and keep them doing the things they love.”

Link to full article

Update: Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing writes:

Pat Cadigan has started a campaign to get 500,000 Terry Pratchett fans to donate £1 each to Alzheimer’s research, matching the funds put up by Pratchett himself, who was recently diagnosed with rare, early-onset Alzheimer’s — the calls the campaign “Match it for Pratchett!”

Today, it was announced that Terry Pratchett has donated half a million pounds to Alzheimer’s research. Hearing that, it occurred to me that if half a million of us all donated a pound to Alzheimer’s research, we could match his donation and make it an even million.

So whaddaya say, guys? It’s a pound. That’s about 2 bucks US dollars, give or take a couple of (US) pennies. You can spare that much. Go here and make your donation. Tell them it’s in honour of Terry Pratchett.

Let’s do it!

Link (Thanks, Pat!)

It’s almost the beginning of the new month, so here’s the regular glut of contest deadlines coming up on the 1st:

Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize
Prize: $3000 and publication
Eligibility: Poets who have not have published more than one previous collection of poems.
Website

W. Y Boyd Literary Award
Prize: $5000 and a 24k gold-framed citation of achievement
Eligibility: Published novel set in a period in which the US was at war.
Website

Doris Bakwin Award
Prize: $2000 and publication
Eligibility: For short stories, a novel or memoirs written by a woman
Website

Center for Book Arts Poetry Chapbook Competition
Prize: $1000 and publication
Eligibility: Open
Website

Willis Barnstone Translation Prize
Prize: $1000
Eligibility: For translated poetry
Website

Beatrice Hawley Award
Prize: $2000 and publication
Eligibility: For US residents
Website

Anna David Rosenberg Award
Prize: At least $750
Eligibility: For a group of poems on the Jewish experience.
Guidelines (pdf)

Lambda Literary Foundation Debut Literary Awards
Prize: $1000
Eligibility: For published debut books of fiction by gay or lesbian authors.
Website

Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize
Prize: $1000
Eligibility: Open
Website

Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award
Prize: $500 and an all-expenses-paid trip to NYC to meet with writers, editors, publishers, and agents.
Eligibility: Poets and authors from Washington D.C. who have published no more than one full-length book in the genre in which they are applying.
Website

SFAI Poetry Translator Residency
Prize: Residencies of up to 4 weeks and a stipend
Eligibility: Poets over 25
Website

Slipstream Press Poetry Chapbook Competition
Prize: $1000, publication and 50 copies of the published chapbook
Eligibility: Open
Website

E. E. Knight has a great list of common writing blunders to avoid.  Some of these are targeted specifically at science fiction and fantasy, but most are relevant to all genres.

I believe in paying it forward, so sometimes I take a look at amateur manuscripts. I imagine I’ll keep doing it until some ballsack Balzac sues me for having a character named Tom when they also had a character named Tom.

It’s amazing how many of the same mistakes you see over and over again. Different authors, same flaws.

Anyway, here’s a list of errors I (and some editors I know) see over, and over, and over again, ad desperandum. Plus a few that maybe just bug me. Feel free to add your own in comments…

Link (via BoingBoing)

Elixir Press is sponsoring a chapbook contest open to all fiction writers and poets writing in English. There will be one competition for poetry, fiction, and multi-genre works.

The prize is $1000 plus 25 copies of the chapbook to be published by Elixir Press. All finalists will be considered for publication.

Fiction manuscripts should be 18 to 70 pages in length. Fiction manuscripts may be a collection of short or short-short stories, a long short story, a novel excerpt, or any other form or combination of fiction. Pretty much anything goes for a multi-genre manuscript. Any artwork included must be in black and white.

The entry fee is $20.

The postmark deadline is May 31, 2007.

For the complete guidelines, see the Elixir Press contest page (via the Poets & Writers, inc. contest calendar).

No peeking. The U.S. publisher of the new Harry Potter novel has strict rules for libraries handling the book this summer.

Among them: Libraries must limit the number of employees who handle the books before the July 21 release and provide names and contact information for each branch manager, according to the contract from Scholastic Inc.

Full story on WashingtonPost.com.

U.S. book retailer Borders Group Inc. said on Monday total sales rose 3.5 percent during the holiday shopping season, but failed to attract enough customers through its loyalty program.

You can view the full story on Reuters, though it’s largely stock-related. (Note that you need to click the “Continued” link on their website to get to page two of the article.)

Guardian Unlimited Books has an interesting story on some of the bestsellers published this year:

Last year, you had to peer hard to discern the much-vaunted “Richard and Judy effect” on sales in a league table with JK Rowling at number one and a top 10 also including four elderly Dan Brown thrillers, the adult edition of the Harry Potter and a Sudoku book. This time, their impact is unmistakable. Kate Mosse at number one and Victoria Hislop at number two were both R&J selections, as were Dorothy Koomson (nine), the Guardian’s own Sam Bourne (13), Elizabeth Kostova (14) and Elisabeth Hyde (39).

View the full article here.

Click below to see the contest deadlines in nonfiction and translation due next Sunday, December 31.

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