Click here to view this message in a browser.
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 more fun than I expected, but the mechanics of having to go to an office (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 to the office. Luckily they've been kind about me figuring that stuff out. 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 as well. There might be a few cool trips in my future, but I don't want to say anything here yet, for fear of jinxing them. 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, 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 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 voluteers 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 let me know. I'm also continuing to identify other new changes and additions needed at the website. In the coming weeks, 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 now with your comments and suggestions now. 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. 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: Jennifer Cody Epstein I’ve wanted to be a published author pretty much from the time I was published in Brown Middle School’s “Author’s Corner”, and had my short story (painstakingly copied, in pencil, on yellow legal paper) stapled to the wall outside the principal’s office. There was also a broody, black-and-white photo of me, staring presciently out at my sixth-grade readership. Done, I thought at that point. After that, the rest would be downhill. . . . More Jennifer Cody Epstein Read more Publishing My First Book essays now. Meet the Author: Meet the Author: Yolanda Renée  I am a writer, I can tell a story – a good story – actually an excellent story. What I cannot do is grammar. I wrote an essay in 10th grade, and won third place. The essay came back with the words, wonderful story, but atrocious grammar. Things have not changed. Grammar is a mental block for me, and of course, I blame this on an English teacher – who if she were only interested in teaching the mechanics of English, may have made a star out of . . . More Yolanda Renée Read more Meet The Author essays now. |
OnceWritten.com Writing Contest Deadlines |
OnceWritten.com In the Midnight Hour Halloween Fiction Contest Award: $500 & publication Fee: $15 Deadline: August 31, 2008 OnceWritten.com In the Midnight Hour Halloween Fiction Contest Guidelines OnceWritten.com Fall Fiction Contest Award: $1,000 Fee: $15 Deadline: October 31, 2008 OnceWritten.com Fall Fiction Contest Guidelines To view past winners of OnceWritten.com writing contests, 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 |
Think About Your Own Book-Buying Habits Before plunging too deep into your marketing campaign, be sure to take a hard look at your own book buying habits. When is the last time you bought a book by an unknown author? What motivated you to do so? I, for example, typically buy books by new authors when I’ve met them at a. . . Think About Your Own Book-Buying Habits 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 |
Forward This Email If you enjoy reading the weekly Writing Sparks newsletter, please consider spreading the word and forward it to a friend now. To forward the email, click the link at the bottom of this email. Sign Up Now If you've just received this email from someone you know, and you'd like to receive it regularly, take a second now to join our mailing list. Update Your Account If you're changing your email, or you'd like to make sure you are receiving the correct emails from OnceWritten.com, please take a second to update your subscriber options. |
Mailing List Notice |
|