Word Pirates

There’s a book, “Toujours Tingo,” that showcases a bunch of unique foreign words that have no English equivalent. In some cases, we just start using these words in everyday English (think schadenfreude or ennui, coincidentally two of my favorite words). I often make up my own words for things. I love the English language and […]

n other news, starting November 1, the same day of the meeting, some of us are starting our month-long writing stint for National Novel Writing Month. We changed it slightly to be more along the lines of National Writing Goal Month, where we are undertaking a writing goal for the month and trying to finish […]

This morning, I was reading about Oulipo, a French school of poetry that tried to find new structures and patterns for poetry. Some examples:
Queneau’s Exercices de Style (Exercises in Style), in which he tells the same simple story ninety-nine times, each in a different style.
“Singular Pleasures” by Harry Mathews (the only American member of Oulipo) […]

American Short Fiction’s 2007 Short Story Contest is waiting for your entry. Don’t make it sad; enter!
The contest runs through December 1. First prize is $1,000 with publication; second prize is $500. Julie Orringer, author of the award-winning collection “How to Breathe Underwater,” twill judge. Winners will be announced March 31, 2008.

This site features 55-word pieces of fiction. I like the idea of that kind of challenge. I’m not sure of some of the pieces featured on 55 Fiction. But I think it’s something we should all try, even just to make ourselves do something juicy and hooky.
–Marcia

Stephen King said what I’ve been thinking about short stories for The New York Times last week. But, oddly, the Grumpy Old Bookman does an even better job of summing up King’s problems with the short story:
And [King] puts his finger very precisely on what is wrong with the modern short […]

Picture I took in the Mark Twain museum in Hannibal, MO. WPs, I thought of you.
~ Joy

Bay Area peoples, this week is Litquake. There appear to be more events than last year … and they are selling out!
Word Pirates will be representin’ (in the audience) at Opium Magazine’s Literary Death Match on Friday, as well as crawling along on the Litcrawl.
I am really interested in talks about humor, travel and food […]

Hi folks. I’m back from vacation. For yesterday’s meeting, we discussed the cancellation of the September meeting and discussed why that happened. All was forgiven. Then we talked about:

Possibly doing National Writing Month next November. Do some Word Pirates want to try to write a novel in a month? Let Joy know. Maybe we can […]