There’s a new Jane Austen parody writing website launched by Adams Media:
The site accepts submissions from writers (who are Jane Austen fans) in a “bad” style of Jane Austen. Take a look at a few of the key pages on the site for more information:
Write Like Jane Austen: http://badausten.com/write-like-jane-austen
Panelists: http://badausten.com/panelists
Jane Austen Quotes: http://badausten.com/jane-austen-quotes
Works up to 750 words in length should be typed, double-spaced, accompanied by a money order or check for $5 to cover administrative costs, payable to “Mona Schreiber Prize.” No limit to entries but each must have a separate fee. Put contact information directly above the title and text on your first page.
Deadline is Nov. 21, 2010; details HERE:
Deadline 9/30/2010; $25 Amazon gift card prize; info & entry HERE:
http://www.great-happy-birthday-ideas.com/online-contest.html
Make a funny card inspired by your job co-workers or NBC’s “The Office”
9/26/2010 deadline; no entry fee; $250 prize; rules & entry HERE:
http://www.hallmarkcontest.com/page/contests/contest/oncompanytime/
“Ain’t That Quaint?” theme; 750 words max; July 14, 2010 deadline; use one of the 1929 truisms listed on their site to write fiction or a narrative essay.
Writers of comedic essays, articles, short stories, poetry, scripts, shopping lists and other forms are invited to submit.
Mona founded the Foster City (CA) Writers Contest, taught creative writing for San Mateo County and published humorous articles and essays in newspapers and magazines. Her son Brad founded the Prize in 2000 and judges the submissions.
Works up to 750 words in length should be typed, double-spaced, accompanied by a money order or check for $5 to cover administrative costs, payable to “Mona Schreiber Prize.” No limit to entries but each must have a separate fee. Put contact information directly above the title and text on your first page.
No SASEs, please. Include e-mail address for notification of winners. All entries must be postmarked by December 1 for a December 24 announcement of three winners: 1st: $500. 2nd: $250. 3rd: $100. Entries are not returned and must be unpublished. Winners will have their entries posted on http://www.brashcyber.com. All other rights belong to the authors. Humor is subjective. Uniqueness is suggested. Weirdness is encouraged.
Rules and previous winning entries at www.brashcyber.com/mona.htm
These are great!
Author interview with Hank Rosenfeld
1. Tell us about your latest book.
THE WICKED WIT OF THE WEST by Irving Brecher as-told-to-me is a “freak” of a book, according to my 94-year-old writing partner Irv. Not a bio, not a memoir, but it chronicles his life writing comedies for the Marx Brothers (Groucho gave him the name “Wicked Wit of the West” when Irv punched up “The Wizard of Oz”. Harpo called him Irv “The Nerve”), seven musicals at MGM including “Meet Me In St. Louis,” and created the first “sitcom” in 1949: “The Life of Riley,” starring Jackie Gleason. In fact, the show won the first Emmy in 1950.
The complete title of the book is THE WICKED WIT OF THE WEST: The last great Golden Age screenwriter on the hilarity and heartache of working with Groucho, Garland, Gleason, Berle, Burns, Benny & many more
2. How did you get started as a writer?
I remember writing stories in 5th grade Macdowell Elementary in Detroit, as part of a stay-after-school class in Detroit that was so great, we were given Hershey bars down the hallway afterward class.
3. What does a typical day look like for you?
I pass the time strolling in a midtown-reverie until it’s time to get to the library and put all distractions aside (except they have a lovely BOOKMARK CAFE here at the new downtown Santa Monica Public Library….Then home for dinner and Jim Lehrer Newshour and The Daily Show and read until asleep.
4. Describe your desk/workspace.
At home: A ripped up-upholstered chair, a room full of paper, books on shelves and floor, on all sides, files of clips and articles, and the radio, the chief distractor-in-chief.
5. Favorite books (especially for writers)
Letters of Groucho (Marx), Henry Miller On Writing, Bird by Bird by Annie LaMott
6. Tell us 3 interesting/crazy things about you
Groucho, Harpo and Chico. I’m 53 but feel 35 inside, acting out the spirit of Groucho, Harpo and Chico Marx!
7. Favorite quote:
“Writing a book is like driving at night with the headlights on. You can only see a little way in front of you, but you keep going.” E.L. Doctorow. “A Jew should be in the world, but not of the world.” My rabbi.
8. Best and worst part of being a writer
I love the hours. I hate sitting and stuggling to say something.
9. Advice for other writers
READ
10. Tell us a story about your writing experience.
Once in a movie theater Men’s Room in NYC, I began haranguing a writer, William Burroughs. I compared his writing to Henry Miller’s, praising Miller to the hilt. Suddenly, William Burroughs came out of a bathroom stall.
Where can people buy your book?
You can buy it at Amazon and Barnes & Noble’s websites. The website with my web log wherein to find out more is www.irvbrecher.com
Author #14:
Shellie Rushing Tomlinson, host of ‘All Things Southern’ and author of
Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On, What Southern Mamas Tell Their Daughters That the Rest of Y’all Should Know Too
( Berkley, division of Penguin Group USA)
1. Tell us about your latest book.
My latest book is Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On, What Southern Mamas Tell Their Daughters That the Rest of Y’all Should Know Too. It was released by Penguin Group this past May.
2. How did you get started as a writer?
That’s an interesting question. I’ve been writing as long as I can remember. As a kid you could always find me in the Mimosa tree in my front yard writing the next great American novel. Of course, if the question is how did I get someone to pay attention to my words, well, we might need more space here. The short version: After writing forever, scratching out words on the back of grocery lists, on the game plans of the girls’ basketball teams I coached, and in the margins of the
estimates I was working on for the clients of my interior decorating business, I decided to try and publish a small book called “Lessons Learned on Bull Run Road.” It didn’t take me long to get way tired of rejection slips. My solution was to go my own way. I knew I’d have to create my own “platform” if I had things to say, (kind of the build it and they will come idea.) I created All Things Southern on the web and got on with it. A couple years ago I was preparing to self-publish yet another book, (my fourth), when I was encouraged to try the tractional route again. Although it had remained a goal, I still didn’t think the timing was right. Still, to show my encouragers how much I appreciated them, I tried again. My contract with Penguin was the sweet outcome of that last effort.
3. What does a typical day look like for you?
My day begins with God’s word. It’s what makes the rest of my life work. The rest of the day is full of deadlines and they all demand fresh, new words. I’m either knocking out content for my daily radio segments, prepping for All Things Southern LIVE, my one-hour radio talk show, filming a video segment for KNOE TV8, writing a speech for an upcoming speaking engagement, etc. In and around all of that, you’ll find me trying to snag time to work on my next book.
4. Describe your desk/workspace.
I am so blessed. My desk is on the lake side of my house. Five large picture windows frame Lake Providence, here in the northeast corner of Louisiana. I get to watch the egrets stalking the lake bank for minnows, birds diving down for surprise attacks on unsuspecting fish, and oh yeah– I get to try and ignore the spoiled rotten, moping chocolate lab named Dixie Belle outside the window, the one who is always begging me to come outside for a game of tennis.
5. Favorite books (especially for writers)
Eudora Welty’s “One Writer’s Beginnings” is hands down my favorite.
6. Tell us 3 interesting/crazy things about you
• Every time I get to my car I seem to be surprised that I’m actually going to need the keys AGAIN. One would think I’d put ’em in the same place in my purse every time but that would be too easy, now wouldn’t it?
• I’m forever stumping my toes, again, as if it’s a surprise to find them there.
• I can remember the size of someone’s double windows from ten years ago but I can’t remember to stop and buy milk.
7. Favorite quote
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
8. Best and worst part of being a writer
Best part, working with words, sticking with it until you can express what’s just out of reach.
Worst part, deadlines. I’m a check it off person, who now lives with a variety of deadlines. I’m never caught up. I’ve had to learn to live in that. Easier said than done.
9. Advice for other writers
Don’t get it right, get it written.
10. Tell us a story about your writing experience.
I was nine when I wrote my first book, MARTHA AND HER HORSE. It had interesting chapter titles like “Trouble in the
Pasture”. It wasn’t WAR AND PEACE, but I had a story in me and I needed to tell it. My mother proudly read excerpts of this literary wonder to anyone she could lasso into listening. I’m in my forties now with grown kids of my own but I still love words and my reason for writing hasn’t changed; I need to tell stories. Unfortunately, without Mama’s strong-arm tactics, finding my way in Publisher Land has been challenging. Like Dorothy’s Oz and Alice’s wonderland, the publishing world is an elusive and distant land with its own time system, language and laws. Through careful observation, I’ve been able to ascertain much about this alien culture. I’d be happy to share these secrets with your readers…
The inhabitants of Publisher Land are a hardworking group of people with a special affinity for riddles–as evidenced by their common mantra: Show me your clips. “Clips” are paper trophies, copies of your past glories, proof that you’ve been published before. You need these clips; you must have them in order to get clips. (No, you can’t buy clips.)
Sound impossible? Welcome to Publisher Land. The law of the land is simple. If you’ve been published, you can get published. If you haven’t been published you need to get published, so you can be published. Your chances of getting published are much better if you have an agent. Oh yeah, that reminds me, most agents like to represent people that have already been published.
I’ve determined there are only six people running Publisher Land.
Writer’s Market 2001 lists at least one-gazillion editors (a gazillion is a little more than a million). But I think most of them are the same person because their letters are suspiciously similar. They all speak publisher-ease, a second language I’ve been somewhat successful in learning. For example: their letters might say “we regret to inform you that after carefully reviewing your manuscript we feel it’s not right for our present needs”. This should be read as “you haven’t been published before and pigs will fly before we take the first chance.”
Just as their words have different meanings, the laws of time in Publisher Land differ, too. Often a letter from a publishing house will say they hope to have a firm reply concerning your manuscript in twelve to fourteen weeks. You might think this is a month or two. The people in Publisher Land will be laughing at you. They know it means sometime this calendar year–if you’re lucky. I say, let ’em laugh, but get in the game! I’ve recently had a few small victories, nothing grand, no six-figure advances or anything, just enough success to throw gas on my word fire. But that’s okay. I still have an ace in the hole; a back-up plan I don’t think Publisher Land is ready for–Mama the Literary Agent.
It’s worked before.
Where can people buy your books?
You can find more about me than you need to know at my
website: http://www.allthingssouthern.com
You can buy my books there, subscribe to my weekly emag, watch my video segments, check out my blog, etc. Warning, I will try to hold you captive.
Ask Wendy-The Query Queen 