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SPAWNews, August, 2002

CONTENTS

- EDITOR'S NOTES: Responses to "Why do we create?"
- ARTICLE: How to Write a Promotional Article
- LITERARY QUIZ: Match these quotations with the writers who said them
- CONTESTS & AWARDS
- EVENTS FOR WRITERS
- QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
- ARTICLE: Keeping Viruses and Spam Far away
- LETTERS
- ANSWERS TO LITERARY QUIZ

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EDITOR'S NOTES

Last month my column was "Why Do We Write?" At the end, I asked readers to tell us why they create. The responses were so interesting and inspiring that I decided to share their comments instead of writing a column myself. Here they are:

* * *

Why do we create? Why do we love? Why do we breathe? Why do we wake every day to endure life's trials and joys? Because we want to live and breathe a better breath than the day before. To create is to be human and to prove that we are alive to others and to ourselves.
A painter paints to bring life to the blank walls of existence that surround him. A poet writes to tell the world there is a better thought that could be thought than what we originally believed in our lifetimes. A writer writes because there is a voice in his or her head that has a life of it's own and it takes him or her on a journey everyday. The journey all writers and artists are so lucky to possess. Why do we create? How could we not?

-Melissa Bertolino

* * *

I write because it is the control I hold over a life that is often filled with sadness, fear and longing. At the keyboard I am in charge, spilling out words to form ideas, dreams, sorrow and joy. I write to release the grief from the death of my son. As my heart dispenses over the pages, I gain an understanding of self. Most of the time I write with the hope that somewhere, at least one other person will read my words and say, "Aha. Yes! She knows. She really does know." I then am a success.

-Alice J. Wisler

* * *

You ask why I write: Writing, for me, is really not that much fun, but I like stories and occasionally a good story will come into my head, or at least a tantalizing nugget of one. It will rattle around in there, teasing me in the least expected times, until I just have to find out how everything will end, or work out (often I know the end, just not the beginning and middle). I write to tell myself a story, and when I'm done it's exciting to see if anyone else likes the story, too.

-Bob Broten

* * *

I WRITE

I write out the pain
because it hurts too much
to keep it inside.
And it never makes anything
better
to tell anyone
when it's still there
and real.

So I write the pain
from my shadow
and lay it in the light
of white blank paper

Till joy-
a little brook-spills
sweet and fresh
against the thirsting
empty places
where the hurting was

And I smile
again
and go on living.

-Kathleen Roxby
* * *

Thanks, Melissa, Alice, Bob, and Kathleen.

-ME

* * * * *

ARTICLE:

* * * * *

LITERARY QUIZ: Match these quotations with the writers

The following quotations are from women writers. Do you know who said them? The answers are at the end of this newsletter.

1. We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection.
2. Writers are the moral purifiers of the culture.
3. Many writers do little else but sit in small rooms recalling the real world.
4. The writer of originality, unless dead, is always shocking, scandalous; novelty disturbs and repels.
5. The writer is either a practicing recluse or a delinquent, guilt-ridden one; or both. Usually both.
6. Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.
7. I try to be immediate, to be totally present for all my work.
8. Writing does not exclude the full life; it demands it.
9. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living.
10. Writing is the only thing that...when I'm doing it, I don't feel that I should be doing something else instead.
11. I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means.
12. I shall live badly if I do not write, and I shall write badly if I do not live.

Authors
(not listed in the same order as above quotations)

Maya Angelou
Simone de Beauvoir
Rita Mae Brown
Willa Cather
Joan Didion
Annie Dillard
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Anaïs Nin
Katherine Anne Porter
Francoise Sagan
Susan Sontag
Gloria Steinem

* * * * *

CONTESTS & AWARDS

The San Luis Obispo NightWriters Short Story Contest
Deadline: August 31. Open to all. Prizes: $100, $75, $50 plus honorable mentions. Limit 500-words. Entry fee: $10. Story must begin with the words "Life is full of surprises." FMI and full rules, e-mail: gowrite@netzero.net or (805) 528-1885.

Arizona State Poetry Society Contest
Deadline: August 31. Entry fee: send SASE for rules. Prizes: $25-$100 in various categories plus publication. Submit original, unpublished poems. FMI: Joseph Harris, 2131 E. Geneva Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282. Web site: http://www.azpoetry.org.

Ann Durell Fiction Contest; Dutton Children's Books
Deadline: August 31. No entry fee. Prizes: $7,000 advance against royalties. Submit original, unpublished manuscript, 100-200 pages, suitable for readers ages 8-14. One entry per person. FMI: Dutton Children's Books, 345 Hudson Street, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10014.

PMA Benjamin Franklin Awards
Deadline, First Call: August 31. Publishers Marketing Association's competition for excellence in publishing during the year 2002. Entry fee: $65 per title, per category for PMA members; $140 for non-members. FMI and contest rules, e-mail: info@pma-online.org.

Boston Review Short Story Contest
Deadline: September 1. Prizes: $1,000 and publication. Entry fee: $15. All entrants receive a one-year subscription to Boston Review. Submit unpublished stories up to 5,000 words. FMI: Boston Review Short Story Contest, E53-407 MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139. Web site: http://bostonreview.mit.edu.

DIY Book Festival Awards
Deadline: October 1; checks and money orders must be received by September 15. DIY awards program honors the top independent and self-published authors and entrepreneurs in the book world. Grand prize for the DIYBF Author of the Year is flight to New York, hotel accommodations and $1000 cash. Other prizes include $500 and software. Categories are nonfiction, fiction, children's books, how-to, E-books, and comic books/zines. Entry fee: $50. FMI, entry forms, and contest rules: http://www.diybookfestival.com.

San Diego Writers' Cooperative 4th Annual Writing Competition
Deadline: November 1, 2002. Prizes: First place each category $100; 2nd $50; 3rd $25. Entry fee: $9. Submit unpublished work of any genre or topic. FMI and rules, e-mail: info@sandiegowriters.org.

Palm Springs Writers Guild Writing Contest
Deadline: Jan 31, 2003. Now open to everyone! First Prize, $500, second, $250, third, $100. In addition, first prize winner will be published in August, 2003 issue of 'Palm
Springs Life' magazine. Not to exceed 3,000 words. Must be double-spaced, original, and unpublished. Min. type size, 12 point. Entry fee: $15 per entry, payable to OPSWG. Mail entries to Original Palm Springs Writers Guild, P.O. Box 947, Rancho Mirage, CA 92270. For full entry rules, send an e-mail to SMITHBENT@aol.com.

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EVENTS FOR WRITERS

East of Eden Writing Conference, Salinas, California, August 23-25
Held at the National Steinbeck Center. Contact: East of Eden, 1125 Miguel Ave., Los Altos, CA 94024. E-mail: eastofeden@southbaywriters.com. Web site: http://www.southbaywriters.com.

Maui Writers Conference, Maui, Hawaii, August 29-September 2
Contact: Shannon Tullius, P.O. Box 1118, Kihei, HI 96753. Phone 888/974-8373. Web site: http://www.mauiwriters.com.

Arroyo Grande Village Book and Author Festival, Arroyo Grande, CA, August 31
Event takes place on the village green at Short & Nelson, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Booths range from $40 for one author sharing a booth to $150 for bookstores and publishers. FMI, e-mail: Anemelee@thegrid.net.

California Writers Club, "The Writers Way" San Rafael, California, October 12
Event takes place at Marin Headlands on Rodeo Beach from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Conference, featuring a day of workshops and panels, is open to writers of all levels of experience and genres. Registration by August 15: $75. FMI and registration forms: http://www.marinwriters.org or send SASE to CWC Marin, P.O. Box 645, Forest Knolls, CA 94933. E-mail: cwcmarin@aol.com.

* * * * *

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

To whom it may concern:

My name is Deanna Swingholm. I am 14 years old. I am looking for a way to get my book of poetry entitled, "In the Real World" published. Would you please give me some advice on how I can get it published? I would appreciate it. Thanks.

-Deanna

* * *

Dear Deanna,

Thank you for your letter to SPAWN. And congratulations on completing a book of poetry.

First, you have to decide what you want to do with your poetry books. If you want copies to give to friends and family as gifts, you might consider having 25 or 100 copies printed through a print-on-demand company, short-run digital printer, or a copy center. In this case, you would design the book yourself and pay for the copies.

If you want to go the traditional publishing route, where a publisher takes care of the cost and details of publishing the book, I suggest referencing the 2002 Writer's Market or Poet's Market. These books list hundreds of publishers, their contact information and the types of books they're currently looking for. W.W. Norton publishes poetry, for example, as does Vista Publishing, Loft Press and Cloud Peak. (Note: The 2003 Writer's Market is scheduled for publication in September).

You might also look at books like yours in bookstores to see who is publishing them. Contact those publishers. If you can't find their contact information in the books I mentioned above, perhaps you can locate them on the Internet.

Good luck,
Patricia

* * * * *

ARTICLE

* * * * *

LETTERS

-Pat Cuellar

* * * * *

ANSWERS TO LITERARY QUIZ

1. Anaïs Nin
2. Rita Mae Brown, Starting from Scratch
3. Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
4. Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
5. Susan Sontag, in New York Times
6. Willa Cather
7. Maya Angelou
8. Katherine Anne Porter
9. Anne Morrow Lindbergh
10. Gloria Steinem
11. Joan Didion
12. Francoise Sagan

* * * * *

Small Publishers, Artists & Writers Network
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Ventura, CA 93002-2653

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Small Publishers, Artists & Writers Network
P. O. Box 2653
Ventura, CA 93002-2653