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By MacAllister Stone, on February 9th, 2012
By MacAllister Stone, on February 7th, 2012
Happy Tuesday, AWers! This press release just arrived in my inbox, and I thought some of you might be interested:
THE SATURDAY EVENING POST LAUNCHES
FICTION CONTEST IN SEARCH OF
NEXT GREAT AMERICAN WRITERS
Indianapolis (February 6, 2012) — On the eve of the 110th birthday of John Steinbeck, a contributor to The Saturday Evening Post and the acclaimed author of classic novels including The Grapes of Wrath—the Post announces its first ever “Great American Fiction Contest.” The competition offers aspiring novelists the opportunity to join the ranks of other renowned Post contributors including F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, Louis L’Amour, Sinclair Lewis, Jack London and Edgar Allan Poe.
“Good writers help us understand who we are. And The Saturday Evening Post believes that supporting and encouraging writing is all the more vital in a universe where media is evolving so rapidly,” said Editorial Director Steven Slon.
Sponsored by the nonprofit the Saturday Evening Post Society, the contest is designed to promote fiction and creative writing, while seeking America’s next great, unpublished voices. The winning story will be published in the January/February 2013 issue of The Saturday Evening Post and on the magazine’s website. The winner will also be awarded $500, while five runners-up will receive $100 each and have their stories published on the Post’s website.
Entries must be character- or plot-driven stories in any genre of fiction that falls within the Post’s broad range of interests. Entrants must be previously unpublished authors (excluding personal websites and blogs) and stories must be 1,500-5,000 words in length. All submissions should be made electronically in Microsoft Word format with the author’s name, address, telephone number and email address on the first page. The Saturday Evening Post editorial staff in consultation with the magazine’s fiction advisory board will judge the stories. There is a $10 entry fee and all entries must be postmarked by July 1, 2012.
For more information, or to submit a story, please visit saturdayeveningpost.com/fiction-contest.
Remember: Write hard. Write true. And write on!
By MacAllister Stone, on February 7th, 2012
Hey there AWers, don’t miss a good basic introduction to copyright and what it is, from an attorney specializing in literary law, guest-posted at WritersFunZone.com:
As a policy matter, circulating ideas is considered more important than encouraging creative expression, so if there is a risk that an idea will be suppressed because the only way to explain it is copyrighted, the courts will find that the explanation can’t be copyrighted.
(Via Brainstorms & Bylines, another terrific site for aspiring and practicing freelance writers.)
By MacAllister Stone, on February 3rd, 2012
One, two…three?
(Don’t mind me – we’re just doing some software updates!
By MacAllister Stone, on February 2nd, 2012
About Odyssey (from their press release):
ODYSSEY WRITING WORKSHOP
ANNOUNCES ITS 17th SUMMER SESSION
About Odyssey
Since its founding in 1996, Odyssey has become one of the most respected workshops in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror writing community. Odyssey is for developing writers whose work is approaching publication quality and for published writers who want to improve their work. The six-week workshop combines advanced lectures, exercises, extensive writing, and in-depth feedback on student manuscripts. Top authors, editors, and agents have served as guest lecturers, including George R. R. Martin, Harlan Ellison, Jane Yolen, Terry Brooks, Robert J. Sawyer, Ben Bova, Nancy Kress, Elizabeth Hand, Jeff VanderMeer, Donald Maass, Sheila Williams, Shawna McCarthy, Carrie Vaughn, and Dan Simmons. Fifty-six percent of Odyssey graduates go on to professional publication.
The program is held every summer on Saint Anselm College’s beautiful campus in Manchester, NH. Saint Anselm is one of the finest liberal arts colleges in the country, dedicated to excellence in education, and its campus provides a peaceful setting and state-of-the-art facilities for Odyssey students. College credit is available upon request.
Jeanne Cavelos, Odyssey’s director and primary instructor, is a best-selling author and a former senior editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing, where she won the World Fantasy Award for her work. As an editor, Cavelos gained a reputation for discovering and nurturing new writers. She provides students with detailed, concrete, constructive critiques of their work. Cavelos said, “I’ve worked with many different writers, and I know that each writer thinks and works differently. We limit attendance at Odyssey to sixteen, so I can become deeply familiar with the work of each student and provide assessments of strengths and weaknesses. I work individually with each student, helping each one to find the best writing process for him, suggesting specific tools to target weaknesses, and charting progress over the six weeks,” Cavelos said. Her typewritten critiques average over 1,200 words, and her handwritten line edits on manuscripts are extensive.
Odyssey class time is split between workshopping sessions and lectures. An advanced, comprehensive curriculum covers the elements of fiction writing in depth. While feedback reveals the weaknesses in students’ manuscripts, lectures teach the tools and techniques necessary to strengthen them.
The workshop runs from June 11 to July 20, 2012. Class meets for four hours in the morning, five days a week. Students spend about eight hours more per day writing and critiquing each other’s work. Prospective students, aged eighteen and up, apply from all over the world. The early admission application deadline is JANUARY 31, and the regular admission deadline is APRIL 7. Tuition is $1920, and housing is $790 for a double room in a campus apartment and $1580 for a single room.
Meet Our 2012 Writer-in-Residence
Odyssey’s 2012 writer-in-residence, Jeanne Kalogridis, is the New York Times best-selling author of more than thirty books ranging from historical novels to dark fantasy to novelizations. She has written in many different genres, and has even written several nonfiction titles. Her novels are renowned for their detail and evocativeness. Her The Diaries of the Family Dracul trilogy was described as “authentically arresting” by the New York Times and “terrifying” by Robert Bloch, the author of Psycho. Kalogridis is also an amazing teacher and mentor, who has taught at the American University in Washington, D.C.
Other Guest Lecturers
Lecturers for the 2012 workshop include some of the best teachers in the field: acclaimed authors Paul Park, Elaine Isaak, Barbara Ashford, and Craig Shaw Gardner; and top agent Jennifer Jackson.
Odyssey Graduates
Graduates of the Odyssey Writing Workshop have been published in the top fiction magazines and by the top book publishers in the field. Their stories have appeared in Realms of Fantasy, Analog, Asimov’s, Weird Tales, Lightspeed, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, and Fantasy Magazine. Some of the recent novels published by Odyssey graduates are Kitty’s Big Trouble by Carrie Vaughn, published by Tor Books; Spellcast by Barbara Ashford, published by DAW; Jane and the Raven King by Stephen Chambers, published by Sourcebooks; and Sword of Fire and Sea, by Erin Hoffman, published by Pyr Books.
Martin Larsson, from the class of 2011, had this to say about his Odyssey experience: “The six weeks of Odyssey were a roller-coaster ride of inspiration, inadequacy issues, laughter, tears, learning and despair. Somehow, with Jeanne at the helm, we navigated through all this and came out the other side, forever changed into better writers and better people. I came away from Odyssey with knowledge I didn’t know existed and inspiration I’ve never felt before. Apply. Apply now.”
Comments from the Class of 2011
“I have a bachelor’s in Spanish literature, an M.F.A. in writing, and a Ph.D. in linguistics, but nobody has ever taught me about writing the way I’ve been taught at Odyssey.” –Donna Glee Williams
“The Odyssey course is amazing! What a privilege to be able to experience this level of teaching! The incredible amount of progress that each participant made during this course speaks for itself. Fantastic, inspiring teaching in a supportive and encouraging environment!” –K. V. Lavers
Other Odyssey Resources and Services
The Odyssey Web site, www.odysseyworkshop.org, offers many resources for writers, including online classes, a critique service, free podcasts, writing and publishing tips, and a monthly LiveJournal, as well as more information about how to apply. Those interested in applying to the workshop should visit the Web site, phone (603) 673-6234, or e-mail jcavelos@sff.net.
By MacAllister Stone, on December 25th, 2011
May your holidays be filled with light, joy, and love. Merry Christmas, everyone, and very happy New Year!
By MacAllister Stone, on December 16th, 2011
I’m a registered Democrat. I vote, I canvass, I caucus. As a Website owner and as an American, I’m dismayed by Congressional attempts to censor the internet. I’m appalled and chilled that we have a former Senator who publicly asserts that the U.S. should take a lesson from China to establish internet censorship and stifle the free exchange of information.
 The House just acknowledged “legitimate concerns” about SOPA — its version of the PROTECT IP Act (pdf link) — and backed away from a vote that looked certain to occur. The Senate needs to do the same: PROTECT IP will kill jobs and innovation, undermine cyber security, censor the Internet, and provide ready justification to foreign regimes that want to crack down on dissent and political reform.
PROTECT IP won’t catch or punish internet pirates. They’ll simply move shop, work on darknets, or code workarounds. Online piracy won’t even slow as a result of this legislation. Legitimate sites, however, DO have a great deal of reason to worry.
It should be instructive that Universal Music incorrectly and abusively used the DMCA take-down process to stifle and censor content they did not own, just recently.
As flawed as the DMCA is, there IS recourse built into the process for site-owners who are improperly censored and/or interrupted by competitors who abuse the legal process.
I direct your attention to a December 8th, 2011 article in Techdirt:
The US government has effectively admitted that it totally screwed up and falsely seized & censored a non-infringing domain of a popular blog, having falsely claimed that it was taking part in criminal copyright infringement. Then, after trying to hide behind a totally secretive court process with absolutely no due process whatsoever (in fact, not even serving papers on the lawyer for the site or providing timely notifications — or providing any documents at all), for over a year, the government has finally realized it couldn’t hide any more and has given up, and returned the domain name to its original owner. If you ever wanted to understand why ICE’s domain seizures violate the law — and why SOPA and PROTECT IP are almost certainly unconstitutional — look no further than what happened in this case.
PROTECT IP and SOPA would both make these sorts of abuses devastatingly likely, remove the fragile existing protections for independent Websites and small Internet businesses, while doing nothing to effectively prevent piracy.
Harry Reid and Patrick Leahy: Don’t bring this bill up for a floor vote.
To my Senators: Please vote NO if the bill reaches the floor.
(Some text remixed from original letter here.)
Please feel free to remix and reuse this post to contact your own Senators. No attribution necessary.
By MacAllister Stone, on December 3rd, 2011
Happy Holidays, AWers! I thought some of you might be interested in this:
Win a literary agent or acclaimed author’s feedback on your unpublished manuscript for young adult or middle grade readers. This rare opportunity is being offered to the six winners of an essay contest recently announced by the literacy charity Book Wish Foundation. See http://bookwish.org/contest for full details.
You could win a manuscript critique from:
Laura Langlie, literary agent for Meg Cabot
Nancy Gallt, literary agent for Jeanne DuPrau
Brenda Bowen, literary agent and editor of Karen Hesse’s Newbery Medal winner Out of the Dust
Ann M. Martin, winner of the Newbery Honor for A Corner of the Universe
Francisco X. Stork, winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award for The Last Summer of the Death Warriors
Cynthia Voigt, winner of the Newbery Medal for Dicey’s Song and the Newbery Honor for A Solitary Blue
All that separates you from this prize is a 500-word essay about a short story in Book Wish Foundation’s new anthology, What You Wish For. Essays are due Feb. 1, 2012 and winners will be announced around Mar. 1, 2012. If you win, you will have six months to submit the first 50 pages of your manuscript for critique (which means you can enter the contest even if you haven’t finished, or started, your manuscript). You can even enter multiple times, with essays about more than one of the contest stories, for a chance to win up to six critiques.
If you dream of being a published author, this is an opportunity you should not miss. To enter, follow the instructions at http://bookwish.org/contest.
Good luck and best wishes,
Logan Kleinwaks
President, Book Wish Foundation
What You Wish For (ISBN 9780399254543, Putnam Juvenile, Sep. 15, 2011) is a collection of short stories and poems about wishes from 18 all-star writers: Meg Cabot, Jeanne DuPrau, Cornelia Funke, Nikki Giovanni, John Green, Karen Hesse, Ann M. Martin, Alexander McCall Smith, Marilyn Nelson, Naomi Shihab Nye, Joyce Carol Oates, Nate Powell, Sofia Quintero, Gary Soto, R.L. Stine, Francisco X. Stork, Cynthia Voigt, Jane Yolen. With a Foreword by Mia Farrow. Book Wish Foundation is donating 100% of its proceeds from the book to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, to fund the development of libraries in Darfuri refugee camps in eastern Chad.
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By MacAllister Stone, on November 9th, 2011
Final DEADLINE: November 15th
Every screenplay entered is read by two readers and receives two written analyses
We provide each writer who enters BlueCat two written analyses, ensuring each entry is reviewed by two readers, while supporting screenwriters of all levels and stages of development with the constructive feedback all writers require.
“How great to get these analyses — and from astute and careful readers. Their comments both encourage and challenge me to really examine how to make this script as good as it can be. Thanks again! – Cornelia R., 2012 Entrant
ABOUT
BlueCat is an international community that has been discovering and developing writers since 1998. Our Winners and Finalists have been signed by major talent agencies like UTA, CAA and WME, sold their work to studios like Warner Bros., Paramount and Universal, and won major awards at the Sundance, Berlin and Tribeca Film Festivals, all after being discovered by and winning BlueCat.
Judged by award winning Screenwriter and Director, Gordy Hoffman.
PRIZES
Winner of the 2012 Competition will receive $10,000.
Four Finalists will receive $2000 each.
Best Screenplay from the UK: $1000.
Best Screenplay from outside the USA, Canada and UK: $1000.
One writer will be awarded a live, staged reading with professional local actors at Screenplay Live in Rochester, New York, as part of the 360|365 George Eastman House Film Festival.
BlueCat Alumni News
BlueCat Winner The Man in the Rearview Mirror sells for low six figures.
Michael Fassbender (X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) attaches to BlueCat finalist Aaron Guzikowski’s Blacklist Script.
Jim Beggarly BlueCat Finalist (2005) currently has two feature films in post-production; FREE SAMPLES which stars Jesse Eisenberg (THE SOCIAL NETWORK) and Jason Ritter (Oliver Stone’s W.) and THE KITCHEN, which stars Laura Prepon (THAT 70s SHOW).
SUBMIT YOUR SCREENPLAY: http://www.bluecatscreenplay.com
BlueCat Screenplay Competition
www.bluecatscreenplay.com
www.facebook.com/bluecatscreenplay
www.twitter.com/bluecatpictures
By MacAllister Stone, on November 7th, 2011
Hey, AWers! If you write screenplays, this may be for you.
From the Good People at BlueCat:
Submit your screenplay to BlueCat Screenplay Competition! This year’s submission deadline is November 15, 2011. For more information about BlueCat, please visit www.bluecatscreenplay.com/
ABOUT:
BlueCat is an international community that has been discovering and developing writers since 1998. Our Winners and Finalists have been signed by major talent agencies like UTA, CAA and WME, sold their work to studios like Warner Bros., Paramount and Universal, and won major awards at the Sundance, Berlin and Tribeca Film Festivals, all after being discovered by and winning BlueCat.
- Each screenplay submitted to our competition receives two written analyses, each averaging 600 words of valuable insight.
- All screenplays are eligible to be re-submitted after receiving notes.
- Entries for our Final Deadline must be postmarked or received by November 15th, 2011.
BlueCat offers awards to our outstanding finalist and Grand Prizewinning entries. The winner of the 2012 competition will receive $10,000, and four finalists will each receive a $2,000 award.
For complete entry rules and details, an overview of our competition, please visit our website at www.bluecatscreenplay.com/
Questions/Comments: info@bluecatscreenplay.com
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