Twitter-verse

How do you express passion in 140 characters or less? Twitter-verse could become a new form of prose. But can it survive abbreviated text-speak? Can it be literary?

Many of the short, terse, posts going out over twitter are just blurbs. People reporting on their lives …

(via Maxwell Cynn)

Writing Fiction v/s Writing Non-Fiction

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I'm taking two courses this summer at Central Piedmont Community College. One is on writing short stories, the other is freelance journalism. I thought both would improve my blogging, my short fiction, and my all around writing skill. In this tight market a writer has …

(via Maxwell Cynn)

Night at the Grand Ole Opry

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I've never been to the Opry. I've been a country music fan as long as I can remember - I'm also a rock fan and about every kind of music fan I can think of :) - so I have always wanted to visit the Grand Ole Opry. I got the chance Friday night.

The show was great. I …

(via Maxwell Cynn)

Making A Literary Life ~ by Carolyn See

I'm taking a few writing courses this summer at the local Community College. One of them is a six week “short story marathon” where we will write four complete short stories, ready for publication. That should get the juices flowing.

The required reading for the …

(via Maxwell Cynn)

Review: A Body at Rest by - Susan Petrone

A Body at Rest by Susan Petrone

The book jacket announces : Martha and Nina are underemployed, overeducated slackers who are wasting their twenty-something lives while serving drinks at a dive bar in Cleveland. Martha's escapes are smoking too much, drinking, and reading …

(via Maxwell Cynn)

The Art of Writing

First off, let's define our terms so we are all on the same page. Many endeavors can be defined as arts, crafts, or vocations. Vocations can be learned, but often require some level of aptitude, if one is going to be truly proficient, and often a great deal of training …

(via Maxwell Cynn)

Agents and Writers: conflicting priorities

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Lately there's been a lot of flap between Writers and Agents. One of my friends on facebook and Blogger wrote some scathing posts, which received some flaming comments both in agreement and in rebuttal. Well, let me take that back. There has always been tension between …

(via Maxwell Cynn)

#queryfail > #agentfail > writers self publish

*reposted from the underground press blog

With all the current bad blood between agents and writers, and the belt tightening at publishers, the industry seems to be at a cross roads. Many writers are giving up on the quest for an agent and querying small presses …

Top 100 in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards

From Amazon:

One hundred semifinalists have been selected for the next round of the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Each entry in the Top 100 has received a full manuscript review from Publishers Weekly, in addition to early customer reviews of excerpts posted …

Sock Puppets and Trolls

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I visited the ABNA (Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards) message boards today, just to see how things are going. The next cut will come soon (April 15). I noticed a very disturbing trend. “No” votes.

I have posted before about the turbulent nature of some of the …

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards : Review of my Excerpt

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The reviews finally came out in the Amazon Breakhrough Novel Awards. Looks like I got trashed by a reviewer who thought my protagonist, Ezekiel Strong, has a “chauvinistic streak”.
Okay, Zeke is a bit snarky, a bit of a smart ass, he comes across as a Hardboiled PI …

My 13 day work week

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I've been working six days a week, ten hours a day on most days. This week I had to work Sunday. That made a 13 day work week. I'm tired. Because of that there has been no time for reading excerpts in the ABNA contest, or writing reviews. I also haven't been keeping up …

Another 5 Star Review in the ABNA Contest

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I continue reading the top 500 ABNA excerpts. I have found some wonderful gems. The quality level in this competition is very high. I haven't read anything yet that could not do well in bookstores.

I found another 5 star excerpt. This is a beautifully written piece by …

Eating crow and loving it

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In my ill timed diatribe yesterday I explained my reasoning behind my rating system for ABNA excerpt reviews. I stand behind the logic. I also said there would, most likely, be no 5 star ratings from me. I underestimated the talent of my fellow writers.

Last night I had …

How I rate ABNA entries: a personal view

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So much to read, so little time

The 500 excerpts were posted in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. Anyone can down-load the excerpts and review them. The feedback will effect the judges' decisions as they cut the field down to three finalists.

I'm trying to read and …

ABNA Top 500 Announcement

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Amazon announced the top 500 manuscripts in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards last night. It was a tense day. Many of the writers spent the whole day glued to their monitors – on the Amazon message boards, on CreateSpace, and for many Facebook became a good place …

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards: Quarter-Final Round

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On March 16, 2009 (Monday) Amazon.com will post the excerpts presented by the 500 writers who made the quarter-final round. There were approximately 10,000 entries in ABNA this year, so it is a huge achievement to make this cut. It was decided based on the writers' …

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards Semi-Final Round

One week to go before Amazon announces the 500 semi-finalists in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards (ABNA). The slush pile of entries (up to 10,000) have been waded through, their pitches read and judged, and the field of 500 should be taking shape. Unfortunately all …

Contraception and STDs in Erotica

I'm a member of an Erotic Romance crit group over at AQ Connect. One of the subjects that came up recently was “safe sex” in erotica, or romance in general. I'm not a big reader of erotica, and what I write is more romantic than most of what is considered …

Online Communities: Flame Wars

I've been online since the mid 90's – hanging out in chat rooms, message boards, forums. The dynamics of group interactions are intriguing, for someone who loves to watch people. Much of the psychology is universal among divergent communities, whether they are sports …

(via Maxwell Cynn)