Word Pirates

Bitch magazine is looking for pieces about “Green.”
When I saw the word “Green,” I first thought of naive and inexperienced. What comes to mind for you? It would be an interesting exercise to take one word like this and turn it into an idea.
Words are powerful beyond their literal meaning, so […]

Via Miss Snark I learned about Instant Query Letters Software.

As a writer, “Instant Query Letters” is the kind of easy-to-use software that you NEED to be assured that you have a complete, highly professional Query Letter to introduce your articles and books with. And just in case you’re absolutely computer illiterate, you can definitely feel […]

From a newsgroup list I’m on:

CAB/NET, a new journal of writing, is accepting submissions for its first issue. The guidelines are available on our website: here.
We are especially interested in work that takes a substantial risk and writing that blurs the boundaries between genres (poetry, fiction, essay, etc). We accept submissions year round. We […]

Last night’s meeting did not follow the typical Word Pirate’s schedule. It became more of an informal meeting about our writing goals.
Because the group was smaller, the Word Pirates had a fieldtrip to a sushi joint in downtown Petaluma where they ate shrimp tempura and unagi. They talked about writing in general — the […]

Meeting at Joy’s house

Just a reminder that tomorrow night is our meeting at 7:30 p.m.

“Looking back at what and how I write, I seem to begin a new play with two people of completely opposite nature and temperament, put them in an intolerable situation, and let the sparks fly. The extra ingredient, and very important, is that they must both emphatically believe that their way of life is the […]

I have a story about a trip to Mexico in my head that I’ve been meaning to write for a long time. Maybe Word Pirates can help me with that. But for any of you who have either written about Mexico already, or can write up 1500 words about it before April 25, The Mississippi […]

I just discovered Other Magazine in San Francisco. “Pop culture and politics for the new outcasts.”
I haven’t gotten ahold of an issue in person, yet. But check this out:

Now reading for issue #10, the Monkey/Ape Issue.
Send us your hominid escapades! We’re going to be over-analyzing primates of all stripes in science, pop culture, […]

I don’t think I have ever entered a writing contest in my entire life. But last week I found one that required about six minutes of effort on my part, and the prize was $50. I entered it and lost. But why should my six minutes of hard work go to waste.
So I submit […]

Hi Word Pirates! We have officially launched our website. What do you think?
If you look to your left, you will notice we have a calendar with all the dates of the meetings flagged. Click on the date and you can see the details. (The meetings are all going to be at my house at […]

Our first Word Pirates meeting was held at Joy’s house. Ten people showed up.
The prompt: Inspired by Aimee Bender, we each brought in a book that we like. We opened the book to a random page and picked the fifth line down. Then, we copied the line onto our page and wrote for 15 minutes […]