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Book Proposal/Query Letter Book Camp |
Archive for the ‘default’ Category
Women WRITE Now! Two
Wednesday, June 1st, 2011|
Women WRITE Now! Two: Blogs to Books to Bestsellers |
Women WRITE Now!
Monday, March 14th, 2011| Women WRITE Now! A seminar for women writers and women who want to write |
Do you want:  ~ advice about how to find an agent? ~ to find out how to sustain/improve your writing life? ~ to connect with experts in social media and self-publishing? ~ to understand the fast paced changes happening in the book industry? |
Marita Golden’s E-Newsletter – February 2011
Thursday, February 17th, 2011Finding Time to Write!
The voice on the phone was tinged with desperation and confusion. The question was sincere and very simple: how do I get back my “flow” how do I regain the ability to write regularly and with power? The writer had attended a weeklong writing workshop where her novel was praised as compelling and skillful. Buoyed by the response to her writing she returned home but found that within a few weeks she had “lost” the ability to keep writing, that the inspiration that had carried her through the uncharted waters of the first 100 pages was now gone, faded, a distant memory she could no longer conjure or even remember. Her 9-5 and the demands of her life as wife and mother now seemed to have colonized all the time she once had used to write. The story was in her heart, filled her mind, but suddenly she just wasn’t’ “feeling” the story and now couldn’t find the time to write and felt guilty and depressed.
Winner – Khadijah Ali-Coleman
Thursday, February 17th, 2011Khadijah Ali-Coleman of Fort Washington, MD was a winner of the essay contest “The Book That Changed My Life.” Below is the winning essay on Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret by Judy Blum:
I’ve been reading since I was three years-old. Then, my hands were barely big enough to hold a hard-cover illustrated storybook, my lap too small to hold the stacks of books I loved to pull from the shelves at the library. But, my love affair with words was immediate and addictive. Inquisitive (read: nosy) from birth, it seemed, learning to read was my passage-way into constantly unfolding stories and undiscovered worlds. During pre-teen years, my reading addiction led me to create a new type of insubordination that parenting manuals hadn’t prepare my mom for; she routinely had to reprimand me for neglecting my household chores in pursuit of finishing a new book I had checked out from the Book Mobile. So, when I became a new fan of Judy Blume’s young adult books, Mom’s job as disciplinarian became all the harder. For, my voracious appetite for books seemed only heightened when Judy Blume’s books came into my life. While Deenie, Tiger’s Eyes and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing were loved, read, and re-read, nothing was as life-changing as Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret.
Winner – Devin D. Moss
Thursday, February 17th, 2011Devin D. Moss of New York, NY was a winner of the essay contest “The Book That Changed My Life.” Below is the winning essay on What Becomes of the Borkenhearted by E. Lynn Harris:
I often find myself thanking the late E. Lynn Harris for his What Becomes of the Brokenhearted because of the raw honesty and desire he expressed in his life as a gay man. As a gay youth who had to deal with bullies, defeat, and feelings of longing to be loved, this book gave me the strength to believe in my self worth as a son, brother, student, citizen, activist, leader, and the other hats I will wear in my existence. It took me about two years to read the entire book as I was a student and often focused on reading books for school. However, the most interesting thing was that no matter when I picked up the book to continue reading, the chapters I would read applied to my current situation. It was as if we had shared life experiences and he was telling our story and giving me advice about the next step in my life.
The More Things Change (Vanity Fair and the Whiteness of Whiteness)
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010It should not be surprising that in the year of the triumph of Monique and the lead actress in the movie Precious, Vanity Fair responds with a resounding reprise of the concept of the ultimate and timeless and universal beauty of the thin pale White ingenue on their most recent Feb cover. But I guess it is to be expected, check the source, and Vanity Fair can be no more than what it is. A movie like Precious can only revolutionize as much as the status quo allows; the real revolution and perhaps the most meaningful is taking place in the hearts and minds of so many people of all ages and races who have been touched by this movie and its star.