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Writing Sparks Newsletter
March 14, 2008
Greeting |
My warmest greetings to you all. I hope this email finds you all happily pursuing your writing dreams. Life has been beyond hectic this past week. The new job is turning out to be a blast, but the mechanics of having to "go to work" (even though it's just once or twice a week) are more than I expected. The office is more or less a 40-minute drive from my home. In Los Angeles, though, more or less can vary from five to twenty minutes. Add in a stop at my local Starbucks, and I'm never quite sure when I'm going to get there. Luckily they've been kind about me figuring out the timing. For, those of you that haven't been following my newsletter that long, I recently took the position of online editor at TravelAge West Magazine. The magazine is a travel publication, distributed to travel agents throughout the Western U.S. I'd been freelancing for them for the past three years and now that they are redoing their website, I've come aboard in a more permanent position. The magazine just posted my Fiji article at www.travelagewest.com/articles.aspx?article=7280 but unfortunately you have to log in to be able to see it. An easier way to read about the trip (and all of its blustery cyclone weather) is to visit my blog at Monicas Rants. Needless to say, I'm loving the fact that there may be increased opportunities for travel in my future. There might be a few cool trips coming soon, but I don't want to say anything here yet, for fear of jinxing them. If my schedule isn't ridiculous enough, I'm also heading back to school in April. Some years back I started the Creative Writing Certificate Program at UCLA, and true to form, never finished. So I've re-enrolled and am feeling charged up about my own fiction writing. At any rate, there are big changes planned for OnceWritten.com in the coming months. We're going to be upgrading content at the site and offering more features, including re-launching our book reviews page, adding literary journal listings, and adding interactive comments to our articles and posts. I'm also in the early stages of thinking about a complete web re-design, but haven't decided if I want to commit that time and energy yet. This week I added social bookmarking icons to some of the major pages on the site, such as our Free Creative Writing Prompts page. So if you belong to Deli.cio.us, StumbleUpon or any of the other bookmarking sites, please do take a second to add us to your favorites page. Another challenge/goal in the very near future is to identify a new moderator for our forums. Our current moderators, FunWriter and Terry are awesome, giving, terrific people, but they are way overworked (and just volunteers to boot), so I'd like to get them some help. I'm most interested in finding a moderator with creative writing critique experience, to post helpful yet not harsh comments on the Post Your Short Stories and Post Your Poetry sections. If you're interested in helping out, please drop me a line. I'm also continuing to identify other new changes and additions needed at the website. Stay tuned for a survey (and a chance to win a $100 Amazon.com gift certificate) about OnceWritten.com. We'll be asking you to identify your favorite features and tell us what you don't like, what you think is missing, and generally what's on your mind. Can't wait a couple weeks? Feel free to drop me a note with your comments and suggestions now. I hope things are rosy for all of you, and as always, I wish you all the very best. Happy writing! Monica |
Get Past |
Publish Your Own Coffee Table Book Blurb.com takes self-publishing to a new level. If you're looking for a cool way to organize your photos, your blog entries, your recipes, this is a lovely and graphically easy way to put them together. You won't get a listing at Amazon.com, and I couldn't find any mention of an ISBN number, but if you are looking for a unique gift idea for your friends, this is a great way to go about it. www.blurb.com. |
Writing Sparks |
Creative Writing Prompt #1 First Line -- Sometimes Koko's rabbit would tell her stories. Creative Writing Prompt #2 Build Character -- Write a story or scene about a character you're working on who must bail a friend out of jail. Want More Prompts? Monthly Membership Writer's block, be gone! For less than the price of one cup of coffee a month, you can receive daily creative writing prompts designed to get your pencils blazing. www.oncewritten.com/DailyWritingSpark.php. |
Meet |
Publishing My First Book: Melissa Walker The
summer before I started high school, I filled a loose-leaf notebook with the
tale of an overweight girl who wanted to find a prom date, so I guess you
could say I always had some book dreams. . . Visit Publishing My First Book now to read the full story. Meet the Author: Peter Balaskas  I soon realized that they were the wrong type of competitions to enter
“The Grandmaster.” They were literary competitions; “The Grandmaster” would normally be considered as a genre work.
Specifically, it was a supernatural thriller. . . .Visit Meet The Author now to read the full story. |
What's New in |
Tainted Hero, Michael Davis As a decorated Army Ranger, Eric Emerson is honor bound to defend the helpless, and trained to survive against a ruthless enemy, yet these skills were useless to protect his family. Riddled with guilt, he’s torn between his combat experience and the rules governing society. The conflict shatters his marriage, his job, and his sanity, until sheRead an excerpt from Tainted Hero now. Some Glad Morning, Irene Steele  Mildred Johnson is orphaned when her parents are killed in a protest for voting rights in the South. Her Aunt Rose flees with her to a Chicago relative's. Years later, they join a campaign to elect Chicago's first black mayor, and Mildred falls for the leader of a grass-roots voter registration drive. During the campaign, the truth about her pastRead an excerpt from Some Glad Morning now. Spirit Box, Michael Mordenga  No one can breathe on the icy planet of Taros-Avros, but that didn’t stop colonization. The solution: make spider children companions that assist with breathing. It was a genius idea and it made survival on the planet essential and profitable. The only problem was that it had a serious flaw. All the spirit boxes in the spider children were dyingRead an excerpt from Spirit Box now. Too Much, Linda Taylor West  Luke likes food a little too much. He wants to eat everything. When will he stop? Join Luke on this rhyming adventure as he learns the importance of good food andRead an excerpt from Too Much now. |
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Read More Books View a complete list of all our first chapter excerpts at: www.oncewritten.com/First-Chapter-Excerpts.php now. |
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Want to See Your Book Listed Here? Promote your book to nearly 10,000 avid book lovers around the world. Listings start at just $25 for a lifetime spot at OnceWritten.com. www.oncewritten.com/About/Advertise-Your-Book.php |
OnceWritten.com Writing Contest Deadlines |
OnceWritten.com Poetry Contest Prize: $500 Fee: $15 Deadline: March 31, 2008 For complete information, visit the OnceWritten.com Annual Poetry Contest page now. To view last year's Poetry Contest winner, visit our Literary Lounge now. |
Join the Forum. . . |
This Week We're Talking About. . . Clinton or Obama? www.oncewritten.com/Community/viewtopic.php?t=768 |
We're Looking For Travel Writers |
Tell Us Your Travel Story OnceWritten.com is introducing its sister site, Travel Glitter, and is seeking writers for the site. We pay $10 for a 300-word article. To learn more about the new site, visit www.travelglitter.com/Submission-Guidelines.php |
Free Content |
OnceWritten.com offers two different types of programs that webmasters
or bloggers can use on their website completely free of charge. Instant Writing Prompt Generator To give your users cool writing prompts, visit our Instant Writing Prompt Generator at www.oncewritten.com/FreeWebsiteContent.php Writing Contest Graph To keep a regularly updated list of upcoming contest deadlines on your website, visit our Writing Contest Graph page at www.oncewritten.com/FreeWebsiteContent.php |
Resources for Writers |
Learn at home, on your schedule, with Absolute Classes Novel writing. Book proposals. Screenplays. Poetry. Freelance writing. Our instructors work with you one-on-one, online, giving you assignments and personal feedback, and guiding you through a charted course of learning designed to help you reach your writing goals. Visit www.absoluteclasses.com. FUNDSFORWRITERS The grant source for serious writers. C. Hope Clark knows her stuff. Voted 101 Best Web Sites for Writers - 2001 through 2007. Four newsletters to choose from. A site to behold. www.fundsforwriters.com |
Promote |
Online Book Reviews It’s no secret that a favorable book review can help get your book noticed. The problem is that book reviews aren’t cheap to obtain. If you expect a 10% return on your investment, that means you have to send 30 books in order to hope for 3 reviews. Online Book Reviews Want more book promotion ideas? Visit our Promote Your Book page now. |
Enter to Win Free Books |
Enter to Win Free Books We have some great books for this month's giveaway contest. To enter to win a copy of any or all of these books, visit www.oncewritten.com/Win-Free-Books.php now. You may enter as many giveaway contests as you like, but in order to win, you must enter each contest separately.
Want to See Your Book Listed Here? OnceWritten.com Featured Author package includes a listing in our book giveaway contests, which generates more than 1,000 page views per month. Learn how to Advertise your Book at OnceWritten.com. |
Email Options |
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