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09 January 2009
Catherine's Kitchen The Writers' Ezine - T-Zero Xpandizine

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Catherine's Kitchen

Catherine Manning

Salads, mundane or not, I don't think so!

Having just got over my second fight with dengue, maybe it was milder this time as I've been trying to eat healthier and have been eating more salads! Last time I was out for seven weeks, this time thankfully only two weeks and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy if I had one!

When I was growing up salads were boring, consisting of lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumber maybe tarted up a bit, but nonetheless boring and only local lettuce, which my turtles won't eat now. Then there was the normal chicken or potato salads doused with mayonnaise. Not altogether interesting.

However, today the sky's the limit and salads are made from any and everything; the variety is endless and nutritionally good. It makes you want to devour a salad. Everything can be included: the tenderest of greens, roots, lean meats and poultry, seafood, grains, pastas, beans, fruit are among the raw materials. One of the virtues of a salad is that it can be made quickly and need not be fussed over.

The ancient Greeks knew that salad was healthy; they held it to be the food of the gods. In Shakespearean England, so-called fountains of youth, assembled from the first tender herbs and lettuces of spring, were eagerly consumed as antidotes to the grim winter diet. The great French gastronome Brillat-Savarin summed it up nicely: "Salad refreshes without weakening and comforts without irritating," he wrote in 1825, "and it makes us younger."

Whether truly rejuvenating or not, salads are, with their endless choice of ingredients, bountiful sources of minerals, vitamins and other nutrients. And when carefully dressed, they will be low in fat and thus in calories.

Most lettuces are between 90 and 95 per cent water and salads made with grain and dried beans or pasta are loaded with complex carbohydrates, the main source of energy for the body, and protein.

Dried beans offer a generous supply of fibre and protein; but for all their protein to be utilized by the body they still need to be coupled with other foods that offer complimentary proteins. Many of these are the very ingredients of successful modern salads: wheat, rice, meat and dairy products to list a few.

A salad can be a most varied of dishes and need never be the same from one day to the next. With a great selection of lettuce and other exotic ingredients on the market, it may be a simple bowl of lettuce with a light vinaigrette or a more complex composition of meats, vegetables, grains or fruit that might serve as a meal. The ingredients can either be raw or cooked, or a mixture of the two, and it can be served chilled, at room temperature, or even warm.

Cooks today have been more selective in balancing ingredients and flavours, bearing in mind the salad's place in the meal as first course, main course or side dish.

Potatoes are ideal for making a more robust salad and may be mixed with celery, onion, ham or chicken, and various herbs, such as chive and parsley. Even sweet corn or pineapple chunks maybe be added for a sweet flavour. The dressing may be varied using a mixture of natural yogurt and mayonnaise or virtually anything that you fancy, maybe a little curry powder added for extra flavour.

Pasta salads are open to innovation and pasta may be combined with seafood, olives, onion, red pepper and served with a garlicky French dressing, designed for pasta lovers.

Goat cheese rolled in chopped mixed herbs, maybe combined with a variety of melon balls, papaya, cucumber, grapes, cherry tomatoes, radishes and fresh spinach leaves and sprinkled with a little salad oil and fresh orange juice, offers a refreshing salad with contrasting flavours and textures.

An odd but actually very refreshing side salad is sliced strawberries and cucumber served with a dressing of low fat yogurt combined with chopped mint and a touch of strawberry syrup, seasoned with salt and pepper.

The choices and combinations are endless. However we do it or however we eat it, salads are here to stay.

 

Melon Ball Salad

  • 100 gr. (4 oz.) soft goat cheese
  • 4 Tbs. freshly chopped herbs (basil, parsley, chervil)
  • 225 gr (8oz.) each of two kinds of melon: cantaloupe, honeydew or other.
  • Cucumber, peeled
  • 1 large pawpaw (payaya)
  • 100 gr (4 oz). black grapes
  • Juice of 1 orange
  • 8 cherry tomatoes
  • 4 small red radishes
  • Fresh spinach or vine leaves (or Romaine lettuce if preferred)
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 Tbs. salad oil

Roll goat cheese into balls and coat with fresh herbs. Using a melon baller, scoop the melons, cucumber and pawpaw into balls. Add the grapes. Sprinkle the melon balls lightly with the orange juice and black pepper.

Hull the tomatoes and roll the cucumber balls in salad oil. Line serving dish with spinach or lettuce leaves and arrange fruit, vegetable and cheese balls on top. Sprinkle with a little oil and orange juice just before serving.

This may be made into a sweeter salad by replacing the radishes, cucumber and tomatoes with balls of apple and pear and mix the orange juice with a little passion fruit pulp for a more tangy taste.

A favourite coleslaw whenever I make it:


Cashew Coleslaw

  • 250 g/8oz. firm white cabbage shredded (I mix red and white for colour)
  • 3 celery sticks, sliced
  • 3 red skinned sweet apples, cored and sliced thinly
  • 4 spring onions, sliced
  • 50 g/2 oz. cashews toasted (I also use pecans, toasted)
  • 2 Tbs. chopped parsley
  • 150 ml (1/4 pt) mayonnaise (make your own or use your favourite)
  • 2 Tbs. natural yogurt.
  • Salt and pepper to taste.

Place all ingredients in a bowl, mix mayo and yogurt together, pour over salad and toss well. Chill.

Serves 6-8.
 

Bon Appetit
Cath

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Nine Creativity Blockers The Writers' Ezine - T-Zero Xpandizine

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Nine Creativity Blockers & How to Release Them

Carolyn Blount Brodersen

Being the stupid optimist I am, I actually don't believe there are uncreative people or that creativity is a character trait. After years of studying creativity, both as a research project and on my own, I've come to believe that creativity is a habit. That you can choose to take the road less traveled and that you can teach yourself to think divergently. I believe we also can pick up the habit of listening to that childlike inner whisper –– the playful, spontaneous one –– and harness our analytical editor side until we really need it.

Remember in the movie "Castaway," how Tom Hanks' character finally gets a creative idea from a winged logo? He creates a sail-wing that will eventually whisk him to freedom. The creative idea saves him. Can creativity whisk us to a new place in our writing lives, too?

Most of us would answer "yes" to that question, wistfully. We realize how important creativity is to our writing process. But how do we access our creative side consistently, and don't we sometimes thwart the creativity we otherwise could access?

Alexander Hiam, a noted and prolific business expert on creativity, has summed up nine obstacles to creativity. These obstacles are the failure to:

  • ask questions
  • record ideas
  • revisit ideas
  • express ideas
  • think in new ways
  • wish for more
  • try being creative
  • keep trying
  • tolerate creative behavior
While some of those creativity blocks sound like common sense, the truth is that we often block ourselves without being aware of it.

1. Failure to ask questions
When a speaker asks if there are any questions and no one raises a hand, there is a tacit assumption that everything is okay as it is. Either the information was absorbed or it is in stasis. Questions imply that something more is needed: a movement toward or away or deeper into an idea. If you want to be more creative, you need more than stasis, you need the creative rub, the fruitfulness of tension, the mushrooms that grow from frustration.

To start being more creative, start by asking questions of yourself, of situations, of others. Questions stimulate possibilities and change, and are a precursor to brainstorming. When you can't think of what to write, ask questions about what you want and why. And ask why of why. Speak aloud and stew over those questions. Challenge assumptions; status quo doesn't lead to creativity.

2. Failure to record ideas

What do you do with all those questions and the answers you come up with? Write them down, if you value your creativity. Recording your ideas may be the single most important creativity "unblocker" you can enact. Don't assume you will remember, don't expect entire songs or stories to appear full-blown in your head. Honor the bits, the molecules of ideas. If you capture those bits, they can have affinities for other bits and can organically form into larger entities, making idea cells, tissues, and organs. Writing your thoughts down solidifies them and stirs up new life, like seeds that can sprout without your awareness.

When ideas come to you, don't fumble with a computer (unless one is handy), just scribble it down. Don't think about form or appearance. Keep your idea writing loose and airy. Train yourself to listen, for listening is power. Everything that encourages you to express is good. Scribble on paper so you can express yourself graphically, dynamically. Draw circles, arrows, make faces, something.

To make it ridiculously easy to record your bits and ideas, place notepads and pens at strategic locations in your car's glove compartment, on the nightstand, at your desk, in your purse or briefcase, always out and available. A Scottish physicist said the greatest discoveries have come about in the three Bs: the bed, the bus, and the bath. More than a few of my ideas for poems came to me while I was driving or riding. Just as quickly, those ideas would have dissipated if I had not recorded them. Charles Darwin said he had to write a contradictory thought down within 30 minutes or his brain would seek to refute it. Do you scare off your unusual and seemingly contradictory thoughts (and dreams)? Don't give that creative idea a chance to flutter away; write it down or draw it immediately.

Then, what do you do with those recorded ideas? Express them (#4) and revisit them (#3). Surround yourself with idea-catchers. When my husband was blocked while writing his master's thesis, I persuaded him to get a tiny tape recorder and speak into it. He had plenty of ideas he could glibly express out loud, but found himself unable to write them. All he had to do was spend a few sessions with the tape recorder, then write out the ideas he recorded, before the torrent of ideas that became his thesis fell into place. The tape recorder was just a crutch. Whatever tool it takes to catch those ideas, use it with gusto.

Plus, if you record your ideas, it can be a mind-dump, allowing you to let it go. Once your idea is recorded, it's easier to relinquish it. Out of your head but not forgotten, just transferred and available for reuse. This transferal of chewed bits leaves more space in your mental fridge for fresh finds.

Noted creativity guru Julia Cameron recommends morning pages: three handwritten pages of your thoughts first thing each morning, every morning. Henriette Anne Klauser recommends rapid writing, writing for ten minutes each day, come what may. If you are having a difficult time writing, write about that; just WRITE for ten minutes, turning off the inner critic. You'd be surprised how true creativity can emerge from that "effluvia" writing. The important thing is for it to be "okay" to write anything and to exercise the writing of that anything.

Writing a little is often like opening a channel, releasing the flow. With the possibility of being heard, the silent partner/right brain/intuitive side of you is cajoled into coming out. Ever listen to a shy child? Your attention and responsiveness open the child up. Your encouragement brings out more conversation. So open it up and get it down, without concern for how it comes out or what it is. As comedian Mike Myers says, it's better to write something crappy than to not write at all. Something crappy can be fixed later.

3. Failure to revisit ideas

Once you've capture your ideas, what's next? Revisiting is crucial. Ideas are like friends. If you don't visit and revisit them, you drift apart. Develop a relationship that nurtures your idea-friends. Enjoy them. Spend time with them, Invite them in. Be pals. Go for walks. Make them live and grow.

When you are writing, you are essentially trying on ideas. An easy first step I use when I need to write but am having a hard time doing it, is to simply collect the recorded ideas. Gather those snips and jots and bits on pieces of paper and e-mail and journal entries and sticky notes. Start typing those ideas up and collecting them. You can reassure your blocking agent, "oh, I'm not really writing, I am just gathering." A measure of respect is needed, though. Your ideas aren't junky ideas, they are future friend-ideas. So regard them as buddies and be happy to see them again. Typing them up and gathering doesn't take much creative energy. When you are tired and not feeling juicy, organize your ideas. Just by surrounding yourself with them, you will feel juicier.

Don't be afraid of random slips of paper. If those slips are tossed into a box and you are revisiting your box o' ideas, you can get random juxtapositions that may spark new ideas. We know how William Burroughs and the Beatnik writers chopped up pages of their writing and recomposed them in new ways. This discovery-by-doing method of writing lets ideas speak for themselves. If I took it for granted that I would have a limitless supply of readily available ideas, then I wouldn't need to record them. Make a conscious decision to honor and value your ideas, and to record and revisit them consistently.

4. Failure to express ideas

Expressing can be drawing, shaping, scribbling, dancing, humming, practicing. Practice the habit of expressing. Your expression doesn't have to be planned or staged in any way. One of the beauties of writing for me is that I can take my time sorting and shaping and expressing my thoughts before they are ready for presentation. I am one of those people who can never come up with a snappy retort on the spot, but in my own time, one usually comes. Writing gives us freedom in the time dimension and includes incubation –– the negative space of writing –– the looking-out-the-window part of the writing process. But for the time dimension to work to our benefit, we must express the culmination of the incubation and lay that egg. Sounds unremarkable, but if you practice expressing, the expression channel stays open better.

5. Failure to think in new ways

Here's a hard one: How do we think in new ways? Start by deliberately avoiding the rut, if you know you are in one. Then reward yourself for thinking in new ways. (This is easier-said-than-done advice, for sure.) Lastly, and here's the fun part, spend time filling up the creative battery with new input. Julia Cameron recommends Artist Dates: time you spend alone simply doing something different and pleasurable. Utne Reader recommends hosting a Bad Art Party, where you get together with friends and create silly stuff without judgment.

Doing things you are not good at is another way to stretch your thinking. Learn a few sentences in Japanese. Participate in a fashion show. Use your non-dominant hand. Drive a different way home. Hang out with kids without telling them what to do. Thinking in new ways stretches and flexes our creativity muscles.

6. Failure to wish for more

Wishing for more fits in with asking questions (#1) and requires imagining more. Imagine other colors, other characters, other realities. Imagine the final product. Imagine your writing success. Be okay with frustration along the way, too, because it fuels invention (through wishing for more).

7. Failure to try being creative

A lot of us admire creative acts or creative people but don't think of ourselves as creative. Well, before you became a writer you had to imagine yourself writing and being a writer. And it worked, you imagined yourself into and created a new future. Sure, not all writing is creative, but all writing is create-ive, requiring the creation of something that did not previously exist. You have been creative, therefore you can DO creativity. And you can do it again.

What trying to be creative breaks down to is two parts: one part is coming up with the fresh and fertile new ideas, and the other part is editing and judging them. But even if we can allow ourselves the freedom and joy of questioning, expressing, practicing, recording, and all the other parts of outside-the-box creativity, we still might block ourselves by letting the inner critic in too soon. That critical voice is crucial to the process, given the right timing. Think of it this way: creativity is not complete unless those wild and uninhibited ideas are corralled and tidied. First, you toss ideas out higgledy-piggledy and then you decide which ones stay and which go. Generate and then separate, sow and then sort, play and then edit, brainstorm and then judge. If we can separate those two roles, then each one stands to let the other one live.

With only the brainstorming side, we'd be like children saying any old thing and thinking it marvelous. With only the judging side, we'd never get through to juicy thinking because we'd block it with so many shoulds and oughtas before the creative stuff could come out. Ideally, creativity is a dance of the two: "Your turn to lead," "Okay, now it's my turn," or even, "Let's sashay that way together."

8. Failure to keep trying

Somewhere in our culture is this grand myth that if you have done something once and failed, it can't happen. My neighbor said (almost proudly) that she got two fingers caught in a favorite ring and had such a hard time getting them out she could no longer bear to wear that ring again. I thought, if you can learn something, then you can unlearn it. What a waste not to bother to keep trying, especially for something as rewarding as creativity. Your first try at writing something may have your inner critic howling with scorn. But so what? It's just an inner critic. You can still be playful and try it again.

9. Failure to tolerate creative behavior

One of the things I had to do to write this article was to ignore the sound of your criticisms in my head: the "Well, that's a nice piece of fluff," or the "How can I get anything out of a simple article that could actually help me?" comments. I am pretending I can't hear a thing. For now, I am chunking it out and serving it up. Later, I'll look at it with critical eyes, toss the debris, and compose the final seasonings with your tastes in mind. But first, I have to let myself go through all the goofy bad writing and scribbles and pitfalls and junk and many, many revisions on the way to the final product.

Part of the creative process is releasing your fears: the fear of looking stupid, fear of failure, fear of standing out too much, fear of success. Knowing this can help us feel more tolerant of creativity in others and more supportive of it in ourselves. We are all afraid and yet we get a lot of creative work done anyway. Maybe the act of creating makes us feel so responsive and playful and alive that it's worth it.

Don't let this list of creativity blockers end here. Let this be a participatory article. How do you thwart your creativity? Knowing how you do it is the first step in "unblocking." Calling it out is the key to releasing yourself of the blocker's thrall.

T-Zero: The Writer's Ezine
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Copyright 1998 - 2007, Writopia Inc. All Rights Reserved

Fiction Short Story The Writers' Ezine - T-Zero Xpandizine

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Fiction Short Story

Betty Kreier-Lubinski

Visiting Hour

When she woke, she knew she'd been grinding her teeth and had chewed the inside of her mouth raw. "I've been bad," she thought, "I shouldn't do that."

She looked around the unfamiliar room. A strange lady was sleeping in a bed close to the windows, and there was a wooden thing between the two beds against the wall. It had a big mirror and five drawers down the front, and she couldn't remember what it was called. On top, there were water bottles and stuff, and a framed picture of a smiling little girl. She wondered who the little girl was.

She bit her lip and pulled the sheet tighter around her shoulders. She didn't know where she was or how she got here. From down the hall, the loud noise of crashing dishes frightened her. The noise seemed to be coming closer. She clamped her hands over her ears.

The red-haired lady in the other bed sat up suddenly and opened her eyes.

"Margaret, are you awake?" She looked around but she couldn't see any Margaret. Just the two of them were there. She looked out the window, and could see some bushes with flowers. They were pretty.

"Margaret, have you forgotten your name again?" The lady in the other bed spoke patiently. "Your name is Margaret. I am Ione, and you are Margaret."

"Oh," Margaret said, shaking her head in confusion. "If you say so." She wasn't sure Margaret was her name, and she didn't trust that Ione person.

"You need to go to the bathroom now so you won't pee the bed. Come on, I'll help you." Ione got out of bed, came over and started to pull Margaret's covers down. Margaret didn't want to be uncovered. She yanked the covers back up around her neck. Ione started to pull the covers down again, and Margaret clenched them more tightly, a low growl emanating from her throat.

"Come on, Margaret. You know you don't like it when you pee the bed. It's messy, and it stinks, and it makes our nurse mad."

Margaret didn't know what Ione was talking about. What nurse? What was she doing here anyhow? She seemed to remember waking up in a different room some other time, but couldn't remember where or when.

Ione reached up under the covers to feel the bed. Margaret slapped at Ione, and Ione yanked her hand back. "Oh, dear, your bed is wet. You've already peed. Our nurse is going to be mad. She's always mad when she has to change the beds before breakfast. I better call her now so we can get it done before the food comes." Ione buzzed the nurse.

Margaret didn't register what Ione was saying, but she knew she'd been bad. Tears started rolling down her cheeks. What would the nurse do? Margaret scooted down under the covers and pulled the sheet over her head so the nurse couldn't see her.

"No, honey, don't cry." Ione said. "You can't help it. You just forget, that's all. It's okay. Don't cry."

The nurse came and hustled Margaret out of the bed and into a rocker while she cleaned up the bed and changed Margaret's gown. "Breakfast will be here any minute," she said, "then you're going to have company, Margaret. Won't that be nice?"

"Wish I had company," Ione said.

The nurse smiled. "Margaret needs company more than you do. You'll be going home at the end of this week, but Margaret is not going home."

Margaret is not going home. Margaret is not going home. Margaret rolled the words around in her mouth, but they were tasteless. She didn't know where home was, or what it was, and who the visitors might be. She glanced back at the flowers, the pretty flowers, and wished she could have them in her room. Breakfast was warm oatmeal with brown sugar. Margaret's hand was unsteady, and she spilled as much on her robe as she got in her mouth. The icky stuff stuck to her fingers and gown. The nurse had to change it before the visitors came, and she jerked the new gown over Margaret's head.

"Your visitors are going to be here any minute," she said. "We have to hurry. Now, don't spill anything more." Then a tall, elderly man, a bit stooped in the shoulders, came in, a very serious look on his face. Behind him was a young woman. Margaret didn't know either of them.

"Hi, sweetheart," the man said.

"Who are you?" Margaret asked.

"I'm Keith, your husband." He came over and hugged Margaret. She liked hugging so she hugged him back, although she wasn't sure he was her husband. You couldn't always tell when people were telling the truth.

"Mother, I'm Karen, your daughter," the younger woman said. "Look, we brought you some flowers and candy."

"I like flowers. They're pretty." Margaret watched as Karen got a vase and water for the flowers and sat them on the dresser.

"Here's the candy," Karen said, opening the box of chocolates.

Margaret remembered sweet. Candy was sweet. She picked up a piece and stuck it in her mouth.

"Mother, no," Karen said sharply. "Don't eat the paper on the candy. That's awful."

Margaret chewed faster so that Karen couldn't take it away from her.

"Here, I'll take all the papers off for you." Karen started to pick up the candy box. Margaret reached out and snatched up a handful of candies before Karen could take them away. She put another piece in her mouth, and another. Karen tried to grab the paper off the pieces Margaret was putting in her mouth, and Margaret jerked back and hit Karen's arm, then quickly crammed another piece in.

"Oh, Mother," Karen scolded. "You can't eat that much candy at one time, and you absolutely can't eat the paper. It'll make you sick."

"No," Margaret mumbled. "I'm not your mother. My daughter is prettier than you." She glared at the younger woman. Her words slurred with candy and paper. She grabbed the box of candy and held it tight to her chest so Karen couldn't get it away from her. "I remember you. I hate you. You're the lady who comes and steals my clothes."

Karen burst into tears. She got up suddenly and rushed out to the hallway.

"Sweetheart, that's not nice. Karen is trying to help you." He patted his wife's shoulder awkwardly, and said, "She loves you very much."

"She's not my daughter. She comes and steals my things."

"Steals your things?"

"Yes, every time she comes, she picks up some of my clothes and sneaks them away with her. She thinks I don't notice. Pretty soon I won't have anything left."

Keith smiled. "Honey, she takes your clothes home to wash and iron, and then we bring them back to you. See, I've got some of your clothes right here in the suitcase. These are all things Karen washed."

"All I know is that she steals my stuff."

"You hurt her feelings."

"I don't care. She steals my stuff."

Keith sighed and let it go. "Your birthday is coming up, Margaret. We're going to ask permission to take you out for dinner. Won't that be fun?"

Margaret didn't know if that would be fun or not. "I'm not sure I want to go."

"Sure, you want to go," Ione said. "My gollies, you'd get some good food for a change. The stuff they serve here is awful."

"Maybe," Margaret said. She wasn't sure. "As long as we don't have to take that girl who steals my stuff."

Keith grimaced. "Sweetheart, that's Karen, our daughter. She does not steal your stuff. See, I brought it all back, all your clothes that she took. She wants to go, too. It won't be any fun if the whole family can't go."

Margaret panicked. She didn't understand, she couldn't absorb it, but she felt pushed into something she didn't want. She wondered if this was really her husband. Was this what husbands were like? If so, she hoped she didn't have one. Margaret was relieved when her visitors were gone.

They waited outside to see the nurse, to get some more information about how Margaret was doing. She gave them a quick rundown on Margaret's physical condition. Then she mentioned Margaret's distress during the visit. Keith said, "She thinks Karen is stealing her clothes when she takes them to wash. I couldn't seem to get through to her. She doesn't recognize Karen."

"Please, Mr. Taylor, don't let that bother you. Alzheimer's patients sometimes get weird ideas. Usually they let go of them after awhile, and go on to other things. You need to let it go in one ear and out the other."

Karen's eyes watered. "It's hard when I remember how she was before."

The nurse nodded sympathetically. "It's harder for you than her. Most of the time she doesn't remember how she used to be. You just have to take each day as it comes."

Karen said, "I may not come to visit any more. All I do is upset her."

"She might be even more upset if you didn't come. On an unconscious level, I believe your mother knows you love her and care about her. She likes to be hugged. Hug her a lot."

"Yeah," Karen said. "We'll see."

After they walked out, Margaret stuffed the last piece of chocolate from the box into her mouth. It hurt. She couldn't chew; her mouth was too full. She tried to spit it out, but it just stuck there. She dug out some of the chewed chocolate and paper with her fingers. They got all sticky, and she couldn't figure out what to do with the chewed glob. She shuddered, and wiped it on her nightgown. She pulled up the edge of the sheet to wipe the chocolate juice dripping from her mouth, smearing it on her face.

Ione looked on in horror and said quickly, "I'm going to call the nurse."

Margaret started to hide under the covers again, but just then, she noticed the pretty flowers on her dresser and wondered where they had come from. That was a nice friendly hug that old man gave her. She wondered who he really was.

© Copyright 2002 by Betty Kreier-Lubinski

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Karen's Keynotes – Query Letters

Karen MacLeod

Sending in a Query Letter to a Potential Publisher

You've prepared your manuscript to be the best it possibly is. You've had "beta readers" take it apart, critique it, and help you "vet" it. You have made the spelling perfect (and don't count on your computer's spell checker, it lies) as well as checking the continuity, grammar. You've given it a total proofreading for any errors. If you have NOT done this, or had someone else do it for you, this is the first step to getting your manuscript published.

The second is to prepare a package of materials, including manuscript excerpts, to send to a potential publisher. Part of that package is the important query letter.

I suppose there are as many ways to send in a query letter to a publisher, as there are ways to tell a tale.

Before submitting your manuscript to a publisher, investigate what genre(s) your work falls under, and which publishers may be interested in the type of work you have written.

Searching the internet will guide you to potential publishers' websites, where their guidelines should be available. Follow those guidelines exactly, for the best chance at getting your work noticed and published.

Examples of those guidelines might include the following:

Guidelines for Authors:
All book length fiction, all genres. Everything: romances of all types, plus westerns, mysteries, crime, historicals, paranormal, sci-fi, horror, suspense, thrillers and blends. The majority of books will be romances.
No porn. We are interested in good books that have fallen through the cracks, that don't meet normal guidelines.

Send: First two chapters plus a synopsis. SASE. Also a short letter indicating your experience, whether you are a member of a writing organization, the length of the book(s) being sent, and the type of book. If it is a blend, mention that: is it more western than romance or whatever. If published, let us know if this book is unencumbered. If you wish to send more than one book, send the synopsis and first two chapters of one book and just a brief synopsis of the others.

No electronic submission, please. If your book is not yet finished, say so, and tell us how much still needs to be written. The length should be from 60K to 100K, more or less.
Simultaneous Submissions Accepted.

There are a few "givens" that you might keep in mind as you write that all important, first impression letter:

1) Write it in formal, business style. In Office 2000 there are letter templates to help with this. Either the "elegant letter" or the "professional letter" format is suitable. If you are not using a program such as office, library books are available that outline secretarial typing and letter styles. My thirty-year-old secretarial school typing manual is just as accurate in format as the provided templates are today.

2) Let the publisher know briefly and concisely what it is you are offering them, and asking for in return. Use appropriate language, formal yet warm. You're not writing the publisher as if you would write a close friend or family member.

3) Be sure that whatever you send to them is "disposable." If you want your material returned to you, it is your responsibility to provide a postage-paid envelope for the return of the items. Specify in your letter what to do with the items you have provided.

Be sure to write a polite follow-up letter if you have been contacted after your initial package has been submitted. Follow any instructions you have been given.

I've included two examples to get you started:

An actual query letter (all addresses fictional) used with permission of the author, Elizabeth Caldwell. The manuscript she names is real, and is "going the rounds" to find a publisher for it. I worked extensively with Elizabeth on "Sacred Honor," before she (or should I say, "we") decided it was ready for marketing.

The plot synopsis of "Sacred Honor" is also used with permission.

 

Read more about Karen at the Karen Leslie MacLeod Bio page.

 


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Sample of a Query Letter

 

Elizabeth Caldwell
25 xxxxx Road
City, State 11111
(555) 555-5555
ecauldwell@myfictionaldomain.com

     August 19, 2002


Ms.YYYYY, Editorial Manager
Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing
P.O. Box zzzzzzz
City, State 11111


Dear Ms. YYYY:

What happens if an American Tory in 1776 travels to the future, 2276, steals a key political document, goes back in time to 1774 and hands it over to England's commander in charge of the American colonies? An alternate world, or does the world remain the same?

"Sacred Honor" is an historical science fiction novel with a word count of 72,660.

My previous credits include one non-fiction book, "Teenagers! A Bewildered Parent's Guide," published in 1996, which sold three to five thousand copies. Unfortunately, book sales quickly decreased when Silvercat Publications' book distributor, Atrium, declared bankruptcy and failed to honor its contracts.

I have also donated four science fiction short stories: "Joys of Spring"; "Mask, A Modern Fairy Tale"; "Lottery"; and "Lady in the Lamp" for charity at Sime~Gen, Inc., owned by Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah.

My pen name is Lillian Caldwell. The first three chapters, query letter, synopsis/outline are disposable copy. I hope that you find "Sacred Honor" intriguing enough to consider publishing by your firm. I look forward to hearing from you.


Cordially,



Elizabeth Caldwell

 


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Sample of a Synopsis

 

Lillian Caldwell
Writing as Elizabeth Caldwell
ecauldwell@myfictional domain.com

Synopsis for "Sacred Honor"

In 1776, Benjamin Thompson, a British spy for General Gage in Boston, makes a deal with Lord Germain, to be put in charge of the American Colonies. Thompson would time travel into the future, 2276, steal the Declaration of Independence, return with the document to 1774 and sell it to Lord Germain for wealth, position and power.

In 2276, Huey T. Stone, the governor of the mid-Atlantic City States, wants to destroy the Declaration of Independence and replace it with his own version of history. He manipulates two paramilitary cadets, Abidemi Black, granddaughter to Mbakondja, and Mark Monsanto, a former displaced person, and orders them to steal the Declaration and bring it back to him.

Neither Benjamin Thompson nor Huey T. Stone is aware that there are three people determined to stop them.

Mbakondja, leader of The Regulators, an organization established during the Revolutionary War in the South to protect Blacks from the British, disagrees with Huey's grand vision of a new America and rebels against his authority.

Miriam Haleen, leader of a street gang, The Regulators, is betrayed by Huey, and she joins forces with Mbakondja temporarily to get her revenge against Stone.

Betsy Freeman, double agent to Dr. Franklin and Lord Germain in 1776 and known as Lizzie Freeman in 2276, wants to eliminate Huey T. Stone permanently from office and imprison him with Britain's enemies, the Spaniards.

Don Honeyman, an agent for the British in 2276, switches sides and joins forces with Mbakondja's when he learns that Huey T. Stone plans on unifying the American city states and rule over them.

Taken by surprise, Huey T. Stone is deported to Florida. Mbakondja learns that Abidemi died overseas and only Mark returns with Don. Mbakondja sends them west, out of reach of Betsy Freeman, and tells them to stay in touch.

Miriam Haleen thwarted by Betsy's plan, lies low and waits for Betsy to make her final moves.

Mbakondja's apartment is raided by Betsy's operatives, and they don't find anyone there. This time, Betsy Freeman lost the battle, but not the war.



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Literary Lights

Priscilla Fagan

Style, thy Name is Metaphor?

The greatest thing in style is to have command of metaphor. Aristotle

The trademark of a good writer is the sometimes elusive metaphor which clearly shows what we see, hear, smell, feel, taste. Beware of the metaphor. It is the spirit of good prose. It gives the reader a picture, a glimpse of what the subject really looks like to the writer. It is dangerous, can easily get tangled and insistent, and more so when it almost works: don't have a violent explosion pave the way for a new growth. Sheridan Baker

What is a metaphor? Most dictionaries say it's a comparison between two things based on similarity without using the (similes) words like or as. Diomedes says it's, the transferring of things and words from their proper signification to an improper similitude for the sake of beauty, necessity, polish, or emphasis.

A good metaphor has three qualities: aptness, novelty, and simplicity. Don't force a comparison. A good metaphor is one that comes to you, not one you have to search out. Donald Hall advises, Try to activate the daydreaming mind. In other words, let your thoughts wander.

Metaphor is a writing device, which, if used correctly, illuminates the meaning 'not only of the thing at hand, but of the story and its theme.' If used incorrectly, it will fail to surprise and convince us. Pleasure in artistry comes precisely when the illusion rings true without, however, destroying the knowledge that is an illusion. In the same way, the techniques of every art offer us the tension of things that are and are not alike. This is true of poetry, in which rhyme is interesting because 'tend' sounds like 'mend' but not exactly like; it is true of music, whose interest lies in variations on a theme; of composition, where shapes and colors are balanced in asymmetry. And it is the fundamental nature of metaphor, from which literature derives. Janet Burroway

So, style, thy name is metaphor. Style, thy name is also, voice, dialogue, plot, character, setting, point of view. Style is unique to the author and when done correctly, all elements fitting together and telling a story that holds the reader, then you have polished fiction. A good style should show no sign of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident. W. Somerset Maugham

It's that simple. Jonathan Swift wrote, Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style. Or to use metaphor and simile: Style, like the human body, is specially beautiful when the veins are not prominent and the bones cannot be counted. Tacitus

I'll see you next month. I have to work on my optimism.

Priscilla


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Poetics

Glennis Hobbs

How to Start a Poetry Group

Have you ever finished a poetry course or gone to a workshop that has been very successful? The creative spark has been burning and you'd just like to keep that momentum going.

Perhaps you live in a remote area and you'd like to link up with other poets who think the way you do and exchange ideas for feedback.

The solution is simple. Start a poetry group.

You tell yourself that you could never do that. Well, with a little gumption and some hard work, you can get a group started.

First of all, start with your local sources. Contact your public library to see if they know of any local writers. Then check with your local arts council or your community college. These places may have names to suggest. If you have taken a writing course, approach your teacher or your classmates.

Do you have a local cable access channel or a local radio station that runs community announcements? Consider putting an ad over these stations. You might even wish to insert an ad in your local paper. Put an announcement over your local radio station. Often the media is willing to run public service announcements or stories. Give a phone number and an e-mail address where you can be contacted. You might even ask the library or your arts council if they would take names for you.

Once you have a few leads, return calls promptly. Ask for names of other persons to contact or ask people you have communicated with to get in touch with others.

You do not need a plethora of bodies. Anywhere from five to ten is a good number to start with. Now it's time to start think about holding an organizational meeting. There are many places which will provide free space.

Be certain to advertise your meeting well in the newspaper, on cable announcements and on the radio. Ask if you can put posters up around town.

Before your first meeting, write down some organizational notes. Think about what you want to accomplish with a writer's group. Do you want a group that says, "Wow, your work is terrific!" Or are you serious about your writing and looking to improve your craft and looking for people who share that desire.

On the night of the meeting, be there early. Have a sign-up sheet for people to leave their names, phone numbers, and /or e-mail addresses. Appoint a chairperson and ask someone to act as secretary and take notes. Give people a chance to express their viewpoints and needs.

Once you have a structure in place, take advantage of people's desires to help and give them jobs. Someone may be experienced in dealing with the media and could make a good publicity chairperson. Others may want to help behind the scenes and could be asked to phone people or set up the meeting room and make coffee.

Other things you need to think about are, workshops, fees, meeting times, critiquing, meeting formats. Are you willing to learn? Are you willing to share your critiques? Can you develop a thick skin?

Once you have formed your group, publicize it well. If you contact your local media, they may be willing to do a local interest story. Consider sending in a press release to your local, state or provincial writing organization so that they can include it in their newsletter or online e-briefs.

It may take a bit of time to work out the glitches, but the rewards are great and the learning environment will be stimulating.

You may live in an isolated area or have little time to attend formal meetings. Perhaps you've taken an online course and it's come to an end. You've been enthusiastic about your course and wish it would never end. Perhaps you'd like to keep in contact with your classmates and pursue your poetry.

The answer could be to form an online poetry group.

Start with members of your class and ask if any of them would be interested in forming an online group. Some teacher's encourage their students to join an alumni group and keep in contact. One such group is Cindy Clarke's Writes of the Imagination group at writesoftheimagination.com.

You might also contact your local provincial or state writer's group. Many of these have an announcement section and will gladly carry an ad for you.

Some of the suggestions that pertain to forming a live group also will pertain to online groups. Again, have a purpose in mind and some basic ground rules.

Do you want a group that is strictly for critiquing? If so, you may wish to limit the number of people in a group. You may wish to ask people to submit a sample of their work before accepting them. Set ground rules for the number of poems that a person can send and also set some ground rules for critiquing. A good rule to follow is "if you want your work critiqued, you must participate." Do you want wonderful whitewash critiques or do you want helpful constructive critiques? Are you willing to give the type of critiques you want to get yourself? Set up some time guidelines.

If you are a member of WVU, consider joining a Study Group. WVU provides a study group called Word Weavers which is strictly for poets to poetry and share and receive critiques. However there are other study groups which also welcome poets.

WVU also has a Senior Poet's workshop P123 which is an open workshop for experienced poets. Here writers will hone their skills as advanced poets, study recognized poets, expand their knowledge of poetic forms, participate in the development of group exercises. They have a place to pursue literary critiques of poems. They also take part in online chats to discuss poets and poetry.

Being part of a live or an online poetry group will not only encourage you to write poetry, but will also develop your critiquing skills and your knowledge of your craft. Being part of a group will be challenging and rewarding. Best of all, you will be part of a group of people who share your love for poetry.
 

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Poetics Presents

Kathy Kubik

Kathy Kubnik has been writing since she could pick up a pen. She is a member of WVU, and is currently taking poetry courses there. She is 27 years old, and resides in Illinois. She works full time and attends DePaul University where she is pursuing her BA with a focus in creative writing.

Kathy says that her definition of poetry is: "a song, a painting, a morsel of something tangible that calls out to me, sings to me. For me, reading poems is my fix, my "trashy novel," pieces of me yet undiscovered. My hand in the cookie jar, soon to discover the milk chocolate morsels that have melted on my hands, a reminder for later. Each poem I read becomes a part of me."

T-Zero is pleased to publish Kathy's first poem.
 

The Shining Path Trials

In the courtroom Indian women
wear felt hats decorated with flowers,
purples and pinks peep out from the crowd.
Men in patched trousers and worn sandals
flinch as the story unfolds.
Go tell it on the mountain.

In the Ayacucho province,
ragged with smoke grey mountains,
deep jungle cloaked with valleys,
is a little village named Chiakee.
Go tell it on the mountain.

Hooded rebels, faces hidden
arrive before dawn as
husbands and wives, hands held tight
mouths tilted upwards, towards Him,
sing a hymn of devotion.
Round notes explode into the air,
a mixture of prayer and chant in
Quechua and Spanish.
Go tell it on the mountain.

Black heads, black hoods,
"Yanayuma" the villagers call them
behind their backs
instruct the women to continue with their hymn
as they separate the men,
23 in all.
Go tell it on the mountain.

Wives take a last look
into eyes they've loved, laughed with,
as Rebels kill each man,
crush heads with rocks
cut throats, cut tongues,
stab hearts, backs.
Intestines on display
Husbands die slowly,
the hymn sung softly now, with gags and tears.
Go tell it on the mountain.

Soldiers guard the dumps until
dogs and pigs are finished rooting them,
the scent of flesh intoxicating,
leaving nothing but bare bones.
Before fleeing, they take
blankets, ponchos, sewing machines, radios
Everything.
Go tell it on the mountain.

In the courtroom,
20 years later and
a stadium-full of people gone,
30,000 to be exact,
a woman in her forties now,
with button eyes and missing teeth,
lists off the names of the 23 men
that went missing that night.
She sings the hymn
once again.

Go tell it on the mountain.
Over the hills and every where;
Go tell it on the mountain,
That Jesus Christ is born.

Copyright (c) 2002 by Kathy Kubik


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Poetics Presents

Michael Waterson

Michael Waterson is an actor/writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. He has been published in numerous small magazines. He also writes and performs with a traditional Irish band.

 

Receipt for Homemade Life

Start from scratch with an ordinary day,
the sun an unbroken yolk
sliding into a blue bowl.
Fold in attic images with a wooden spoon:
a mote-filled ray through a dingy dormer window.
a box of books, yellow, gilt-edged pages,
with ink figures like scrimshaw;
a patch of grass spattered with split plums;
yesterday's news folded
and stuffed in the door-jamb
against ruthless January.
Sprinkle lightning bugs and katydids.
Bake endless summer evenings.
Remove to the back of your mind to cool while
moving table to actuarial table: work and love,
marriage, rearing, and divorce.
Uncover years later and salt
with enough tears to float
barge-loads of nostalgia
for coal-bin winters and warm bushels,
for the fire-gutted red brick shell;
for the cobblestone alley
where you stood and stand,
weeping stranger;
for the blank-page bones
of the devoured days.

Copyright (c) 2002 by Michael Waterson


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Recognitions

Judy Hunt

Welcome to Recognitions, a column dedicated to proclaiming the writing successes of Writers' Village University members!

Kathy Stowe was thrilled to get paid for her writing after her short story, "Oh Sure, I Understand Honey," was published in the fall issue of Virginia Adversaria, a literary magazine local to the Virginia area. It was a long time coming. The story was written and accepted by Virginia Adversaria more than a year ago.

Describing the unusual conception of the story and its impact on her, Kathy said, "The entire story came to me in a dream at 2 a.m. and I had finished writing it (almost in exactly the form it stands today) by 6 a.m. Rarely does a dream provide a coherent story –– and rarely is a story written this easily. That's what I learned from WVU, that learning to write is work –– but that I can do it. I don't have to wait for a dream to hand me a story. At WVU I realized that given an assignment, I can sit down and craft a story. This has been very empowering. My output has increased logarithmically over this year."

This is evidenced by Kathy's other publishing accomplishments in the past year, which include a poem in T-Zero, an essay in the Mystery Readers Journal and two short pieces at www.Einkwell.com.

Kathy has taken a wide variety of WVU courses since becoming a member in December 2001. She said, "The peer feedback has been great –– very supportive and very insightful. I have enjoyed the camaraderie from the Mystery Readers Group. I will definitely re-enroll at the end of this year. I would feel lost as a writer without the support of WVU."
 

Kat Yares claimed she is surprised to find when someone likes what she has written. She was in for another surprise then when her short story, "Bed Rocks," was accepted for publication in the October issue of Thirteen Stories, a print 'pocketbook' published in Canada. The story was workshopped in the WVU ShadowLands study group, where Kat has been a member since joining WVU in April 2001. She worked with her study groupmates on her first short story published this year, too; "Lost Souls" appeared in the February issue of Quantum Muse.

Writing since her teens, Kat said, "As I got older, I found it was cheaper than therapy and began writing with more serious intent." She discovered WVU after taking the free F2K class and, "found the most supportive group of people in the online world. I belong to many online writers groups and at one time belonged to a professional genre association, but my two study groups at WVU, ShadowLands and Word Slingers, are where I tend to feel most at home."

Taking as many diverse classes as time permits, Kat's interests are varied. She writes short stories and is now working on three novels simultaneously.

Kat has high praise for her writing support system. She said, "Without the friends I have made in my two groups, I doubt I would have the confidence to even submit a short story to a publisher, let alone attempt a novel. I credit WVU and its members for pushing and prodding me along to reach a personal dream."

Congratulations, Kathy and Kat! Our hats are off to you. We are confident we will see you featured again in a future Recognitions column. Your commitment to your writing is inspiring.

We look forward to reading about your writing accomplishments in this column. If you or someone you know has received recognition for writing, please send the information to recognitions@wvu.org. Let us know!

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Signs of Life

Nancy L. Horner

Boom, Bang and Bloop

"I need you to squash my muscadines for me," my husband said. I was in the midst of folding an immense pile of laundry. "You know, with bare feet like they do in the movies."

I looked over my shoulder. "In what? That big soap bucket you've got 'em in?"

"Yep."

"No way. Squash your own darned grapes." I continued folding, ignoring the goofy grin on his face.

"Oh, come on. It'll be just like they do it in Italy."

"This isn't Italy and I'm not stepping on anything squishy in my bare feet. Especially in some little bucket."

Fortunately, David gave up at that point. He was about to begin work on his first attempt at making muscadine wine, apparently a fine Southern tradition, since the muscadine is a type of fruit that grows well in the Deep South. He disappeared; and, because he didn't return with sticky feet, I assumed he was planning to put off the great squishing event until another day.

The next day, he returned from work with a recipe scrawled on a scrap of paper. "I got a good recipe from Billy," he told me. "And some samples. Boy, Billy's proud of his wine. Want a taste?" David produced two nacho cheese sauce jars full of a deep red liquid.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah. It's good––a little stout, maybe, but good stuff. The 1999 vintage is in peanut-butter jars."

This muscadine business was starting to really get interesting. He unscrewed one of the jars; I sniffed it and coughed. "That one's a little stronger than the other," he told me.

"You know Phyllis? In the house up the hill?" David pointed out the window. "Her husband makes muscadine wine, too. Phyllis said one year he made all his wine and lined the bottles up out in the shed. He chose to use nice glass wine bottles and corks––something he'd never done. One day, he said to Phyllis, 'You know, I think I may have corked that wine up too soon. I probably should have let it finish fermenting so there wasn't any more pressure to build up.' About that time, he and Phyllis heard a tremendous 'boom' from the vicinity of the shed. They opened the door of the shed to find glass shards and sticky liquid everywhere."

By this time, I was having giggle fits. David continued the story.

"Phyllis looked at her husband and said, 'Honey, you didn't give any of that wine away, did you?' He said he had given some to one of the neighbors. 'You need to hurry up and call him,' Phyllis said. 'What if he's got it in the house and it explodes?' So he called the neighbor. No answer. Just to make certain, he went down to the neighbor's house and found him out mowing the lawn. Together, they took the bottles outdoors, set them at the bottom of the driveway and backed up. Just as they got to the top of the driveway, both bottles exploded."

"So," David finished. "I've gotta be careful. Ours will stay in the garage."

"Well, thank you for that," I said.

"At worst, we'll just get a couple of really sticky cats."

Later on that night, David brought in the equipment he had once used for beer-making and then loaned to a friend for a couple of years. I really hoped his friend would keep the entire kit forever. Oh, well.

Banging noises started up in the kitchen shortly after he located all the necessary ingredients. I deliberately made myself scarce for the rest of the evening. The next day, I padded out to the kitchen and discovered what appeared to be every mixing dish and implement we owned, all piled up in the sink and on the counter, the whole lot of them coated with dried-out purple blobs. Yuck. I spent the entire morning and much of the afternoon soaking, scrubbing off muscadine remnants, running everything through the dishwasher, drying and putting them all away.

"In the future," I told David that evening, "please rinse the muscadine remnants off the dishes before they harden."

"Oops, sorry." He gave me his contrite look. "Have you seen my wine, yet? It's bubbling, already."

"No."

"You've gotta see this."

David dragged me out to the garage, where his wine sat fermenting in a large container with a clear tube that rose out of the top, looped around a couple times, and then went back down into another hole in the lid of the container. "Bloop," it went. A little bubble of liquid zipped through the tube. "Bloop."

"That's so cute! I love the bloop sound." I stood watching the little bubbles burp their way through the tube. David grinned proudly up from his place beside the bubbling mixture.

"Six more weeks," he informed me, "till the wine is ready to bottle."

Great, I thought as I stood listening to the funny blooping noise. That'll give me plenty of time to empty a few nacho cheese sauce jars.

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Writer's Read

Wynelda-Ann Shelton

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
By Anne Lamott
Quality Paperback, ISBN 0-385-48001-6
Anchor Books, Copyright 1994

Not long before I found the courage to join WVU, I found the first book on writing that really spoke to me. It was hiding on the bottom shelf of the sparse writing section in our small community library. The title of the book was Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott.

I had this fantasy of the life of a published author. The author would sit down, and the story would flow onto the page without much pain. It would be sent out with the utmost confidence, be snatched up by a top editor and published and then hit the best-seller list. Then the cycle would repeat. There was no way, I thought, that published writers could possibly be as insecure as I was.

Boy, was I wrong.

In Bird by Bird, Anne talks of days when you sit at the computer staring at the screen, nothing being written. She also talks of ways to get around it. A whole chapter is devoted to the concept of giving ourselves permission to write a really horrible first draft. Another way of getting the story out is writing what can be seen in a one-inch picture frame: paint the picture with words. Maybe it’s an image of the hero standing on the front porch. Whose home is it? Why is he there? Are his eyes squinting at the sun?

The advice and commentary of Bird by Bird went far beyond writing advice for me. The Seattle Times called the book, "a gift to all of us mortals who write or ever wanted to write… sidesplittingly [sic] funny, patiently wise and alternately cranky and kind…" It was the cranky and kind that held the key for me.

Anne Lamott is kind enough to talk about the cranky times. She talks of times of insecurity and jealousy in Bird by Bird. Things you couldn’t get many to admit to without some sort of threat. Some may see jealousy, insecurity or even crankiness as pettiness, but what is pettiness if not the ability to see and notice the small things? Suddenly, in this funny book with real advice, I found out that I was not alone. I was not the only one in the universe who so wanted to fit in but never quite did. I was also not the only one to have to bite my tongue when one of my friends called every day with even better news about her life than I could ever hope to have. I was, well, sort of normal.

The concept of not being alone in the world is one of the best gifts I’ve ever received. After receiving it, I took F2K (the free class sponsored by WVU) and loved it. So I joined WVU and I haven’t felt alone in my writing since.



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Writer to Writer

Rie Sheridan

Why Couldn't It Have Been Snakes?

I’m in total agreement with Indiana Jones when it comes to snakes. I hate ‘em.

But I would rather face a pit full of pythons than that more dreaded beast: a deadline. I am one of the world’s worst procrastinators, and that is every editor’s nightmare. Learning to stick to a deadline and deliver on time is one of the best skills a burgeoning author can acquire, and one I am constantly working to improve upon. Ask all those patiently awaiting my manuscripts.

If you can learn this skill, you have an edge in many types of writing. For example, monthly columns for newspapers or magazines (like this one) rely on meeting deadlines. Even the most sympathetic editor can only give so many chances before you are shown the door. And the word will get out that you are not the most reliable candidate for any other such position. Trust me on that. The publishing world, especially the e-publishing world, is very closely-knit. Editors talk to one another.

On the other hand, if you are seen to be consistently on time with your work, need little rewriting, and accept editing gracefully, a good chance exists that your reputation will precede you there as well. You may find yourself asked to fill in when there is a need for a piece with a minimum of time till deadline. Editors like someone they can rely on. They will tell their friends. They will start offering you jobs because they know you can do them quickly and efficiently. It is a win-win situation for everyone concerned.

How can an author learn to meet deadlines? First of all, I just got a big calendar for my wall where I can write in upcoming deadlines and what is expected. One ideal way to help yourself be on time is to up the deadline by a day. That way you are finished early. I plan on trying this next month.

Give yourself a reward when you meet a deadline. Go to a movie, eat some ice cream, take a bubble bath, whatever suits your fancy.

Set your own deadlines in your writing so that you get used to meeting those of your editors. I have two stories to finish for Echelon Press. I intend to set myself deadlines for finishing them so that I can get back to other projects.

Don’t beat yourself up the first time you miss a deadline. But if it happens consistently, examine your work habits and see if there is a change you can make that would help. I know I need to dedicate some part of each day to writing, no matter how tired I am, or how much fun offered distractions may sound. If managed correctly, deadlines can actually begin to be a blessing to you--you will know just what needs to be done and by when. Wouldn’t it be nice if all our snakes were so easy to slay?


T-Zero: The Writer's Ezine
http://TheWritersEzine.com
Copyright 1998 - 2007, Writopia Inc. All Rights Reserved
Submissions Guidelines The Writers' Ezine - T-Zero Xpandizine

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Submissions Guidelines (Updated)

Until further notice, only plain text submissions in the body of the email will be considered.
NO ATTACHMENTS.

What We Pay For

Fiction: Stories should be of interest to writers in general, not just a narrow group.

Fiction should be submitted to fiction@thewritersezine.com. Payment starts at $15.00.

If considered for publication, you will be asked to return an email agreement including your name and address.

Craft Features: Queries about Craft features should be sent to nonfiction@thewritersezine.com.

Payment starts at $15.00, and, if considered, you will be sent an email agreement to fill out and return.

Poetry: Due to the large number of recent poetry submissions, a temporary hold on further poetry submissions is in place until early 2008.

Please do not email us to ask what we pay for in other categories. When we can add to our list, we will include it in these guidelines.

What We Publish

Original short fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, particularly non-fiction related to the craft of writing and interviews.

For fiction we prefer something with a plot and resolution. If we like the main character, we are more likely to accept the story. If the main character has a problem to resolve or has to make a choice, that's conflict, and we love conflict! Too many writers confuse conflict with fight scenes. Don't be one of them. Give us a protagonist who acts, makes choices no matter how hard they are to solve his or her dilemma, not a wimp who drifts along and has to be rescued.

Non-fiction should be related to the craft of writing or be good resource material for writers. Accuracy and originality are vital. No reprints. If it has already been published somewhere else, our readers will spot it and let us know.

What We Won't Publish

Anything that inspires "hate," is defamatory or is pornographic.

Simultaneous submissions.

Material that has appeared elsewhere (reprints).

Seasonal material submitted during the same month (i.e., a Christmas story in December). Our lead time is short compared to print publications, but we do need time to edit, html and proof submission. A good guideline is to submit the manuscript by the first of the preceding month (i.e., submit a Christmas story before November 1st).

Length Recommendations

  • For Fiction, under 1500 words is preferred. We will consider excerpts from longer works.

  • Poetry should fit on one printed page if possible. A maximum of five poems may be submitted at one time (when the hold is lifted).

  • Non-fiction or Craft features have the most leeway in word count. In general these manuscripts should be 750 to 2,000 words. We like to take advantage of the hypertext capabilities we have available and link to charts, graphs, lists and so forth. Thumbnail versions may be included in the body of the article.

Rights

All rights other than first electronic, non-exclusive 'anthology' (for collections of T-Zero: The Writer's Ezine works only), and non-exclusive archival rights (we keep back issues online) are and remain the sole and exclusive property of the author.

Formats We Will Accept

Plain text in the body of an email.

T-Zero: The Writer's Ezine is an HTML publication. This gives us access to a variety of options but it is also a limiting factor.

  • Underlining is used exclusively for links in HTML. Please do not underline in your manuscript. It you are including a link to a webpage for reference, please mark the link the following way: (WEB LINK) http://thewritersezine.com (END WEB LINK).
  • The less than (<) and greater than (>) signs are used to enclose HTML encoding. If you need to use brackets, please use the square [ ] ones instead.
  • Paragraph indentation requires time consuming insertion of multiple HTML symbols. Please separate paragraphs by inserting a hard, blank line between them.
  • Fonts need to be simple. No multiple fonts. We prefer standard fonts such as Times New Roman, Courier or Arial set at 12 point. If your subject matter requires something else, ask us first.
  • The curly (smart) quotes, apostrophes, the em dash (two hyphens together) and ellipsis … (three periods) become strange and exotic characters when copied from your word processor into email. Check your preferences or options to see if you can use straight quotes. 
  • Text formatting such as bold, italic, centering, bullet list, etc., should be noted in the text by using all caps in parentheses. For example, if you wanted to italicize the word submission, you would type: (ITALICS) submission (END ITALICS).

Editing

We expect you to run spell-check and to check your grammar and punctuation before submitting. We will not reject a submission for a few typos or errors, but will if there are an excessive number of errors.

Note: Since our reading audience is international, we do not require a specific version of English. Use the spelling appropriate to your region.

We will automatically correct obvious typos such as “ton” for “not” and may correct simple agreement problems. For anything beyond that, time permitting, we will return the submission to you with a request for corrections.

Getting to Know You

Fiction and Craft features published in T-Zero: The Writer's Ezine include brief third person biographical notes on the writers. For all submissions, please compose your own bio and include it to save our editors and yourself time later if/when your piece is accepted for publication. We suggest sharing a little about your background, occupation, geographical location and what inspired your story.

How and Where to Submit

We do not accept submissions via US mail. Email submissions only, to the appropriate department, in the body of the email. No attachments accepted.

Fiction should be sent to fiction@thewritersezine.com.

Craft Non-fiction should be queried first. Send query to nonfiction@thewritersezine.com.

Poetry: Due to the large number of recent poetry submissions, a temporary hold on further poetry submissions is in place until early 2008.

Include the type of submission (fiction, non-fiction) in the subject line.

Be sure to include your name and email address in the body of the email.

If you do not receive an acknowledgement that your submission or query was received within a week, please send a follow-up query with “Did you Receive?” in the subject line. In the body of the email, please include your name and email address, the title of the work submitted, and if different, the email address sent from. Do not resend the submission unless we request it.

Good luck!


T-Zero: The Writer's Ezine
http://TheWritersEzine.com
Copyright 1998 - 2007, Writopia Inc. All Rights Reserved

 

© Copyright 1998 - 2007, Writopia Inc. All rights reserved