Here is the schedule of upcoming meetings. It is also on the sidebar.

February 5

February 19

March 4

March 18

April 1

April 15

May 6

May 20

June 3

June 17

~ Joy

Last Tuesday’s Word Pirates meeting was a humdinger. For the first time in 2008, the group met and shared tales about Christmas and other holiday adventures. After that, we covered the following:

1. Personal writing goals for 2008. The Word Pirates went around in a circle and shared what they would like to accomplish in 2008 with writing. Some of us had ambitious goals, some of us had modest ones, and that is okay as long as we keep rowing along.

2. Goals for the group in 2008: In addition to normal operations, we are going to concentrate on giving one-on-one feedback for those sending out work for publication, sharing markets with each other, and planning a second Word Pirates reading. Oh, and we are going to look around for one more possible member.

3. Prompt: Marcia presented her prompt: Write something inspired by your dreams, either childhood dreams, reoccurring dreams, or a dream you especially remember. We talked a bit about the role the unconscious (dreams) plays in creative development, and then wrote for 20 minutes on the prompt.

Ross also e-mailed us some links to check out.

Pseudopod, the horror podcast (and a darn enticing market) can be found here – they’re a sister site to Escape Pod and the still-forthcoming fantasy-based PodCastleThe particular story that I mentioned was “Blood, Gridlock, and PEZ,” by Kevin Anderson.

A couple other good podcasts are Mur Lafferty’s I Should Be Writing and Adventures in Scifi Publishing, both of which offer plenty of inspiration and perspiration for would-be writers.

And of course, here’s the link to the Night Shade page, which has been keeping me up nights lately.

See you at the next meeting, Tuesday February 5, 2008

~ Joy

“The Atlantic Monthly” has posted some of its book reviews from as far back as the 1800s online. While I wish they had given us access to more than just a smattering of them (as well as access to ones where they were unimpressed by a work that time has elevated to a classic), it is interesting to read contemporary reviews of works of books such as “The Scarlet Letter.”
-marcia

A racy little digest read about bad girls.

“I’m working as a translator and interpreter now,” I boasted.

“That’s a rather obvious metaphor for someone who lives his life through others,” she observed.

“I’ve been in love with you for 10 years,” I swooned.

“Well, you’re a complete idiot then,” she said, “but if you want to go down on me, be my guest.”

~ Joy

Hm. Maybe this is how I should decorate my walls. I must have an old dictionary I can use somewhere…

~ Joy

I haven’t had a chance to fully check it out for myself, but this looks like a cool place to find ideas for where to submit your writing: Duotrope’s Digest, “a database of over 2050 current markets for short fiction, poetry, and novels/collections.”

Check it out and tell me what you think. I’ll do the same …

–Marcia

Word Pirates!

Hope you had a great holiday and are excited to start the writing year off right with a Word Pirates meeting. We are moving the meetings from Thursdays to TUESDAYS. So from now on, we will meet the first and third TUESDAY of the month at my new house in Petaluma. We will keep the same meeting time to between 7-7:30. Got it?

So, the next meeting will be on TUESDAY January 22, 2008 at 7 p.m. at my house in Petaluma.

Also, we want to talk about our writing goals for 2008. I know, everyone hates resolutions this year, but Marcia says we all have to have some kind of goal or hope about writing. It doesn’t need to be a concrete list, but at least something you want to do involving writing. Marcia is the boss of Word Pirates.

Please let me know if TUESDAYS are not going to work out for you after all before this is set in stone.

Thanks,

Joy

The reason I like Jeffrey Eugenides is that he has written two books that are complete visions, richly drawn, and utterly unlike each other in story and style. Not many writers can do that. So I figure if he takes 10 years to write something unique from his other books, he is still doing more than most writers–even the best of them–do. But I guess other people are impatient with his slow pace of writing, according to this interesting interview with him.

The interview really is worth a read–there’s interesting stuff about Eugenides wanting to be a monk and his wife wanting to tie strings around dragonflies. Here’s a bit about writing:

He pauses. ‘Generally people conduct their lives almost utterly through their imagination of themselves and who they want to be. But you start as a writer in college and you continue writing and some of your classmates stop, or they never publish a book, and you wonder, is it just luck? Did something happen to them? Or did they just not stick with it in some way? And I think the only thing I’ve ever had on my side, more than a flashing ability or a talent or anything like that, was a determination not to quit. Tenaciousness is what got me to publish a couple of books, I think.’

For his 35th birthday, at a time when he was despairing of ever completing Middlesex, his wife made him the gift of a sociological study of artistic creation plotted against age. Novelists, it suggested, generally reached their peak between 35 and 40. ‘I was right in the zone.’ A fine encouragement to finish the book, then, but as someone who has written only two books in 15 years it did give him pause for the future.

‘I’m aware of those age considerations. They didn’t worry me when I was young, but they worry me greatly now. I don’t think the imagination dies, and you gain a practical ability in writing – I think I’m getting better at it – but what you start to lose is sheer mental and physical energy. I think what happens with writers is they run out of their material and start repeating themselves.’

Eugenides laughs. ‘I write so slowly, I’m not worried about repeating myself. I’m worried about getting old before I write what I have in myself to write.’

Ok so I have four more years until I peak. Better get writing.
~ Joy

Novelists Inc. (a nonprofit representing novelists) is pushing for legislation to require used-book sellers to pay a percentage of sales to publishers and authors for any book re-sold within two years of its original publishing date. You can read some discussion about it here.

To me, a law like that sounds like it would lead to more books being thrown away and pulped. Used books are a great way to keep people reading, which helps the industry as a whole.
I can understand that used-book sales don’t count toward an author’s sales numbers and that it must be maddening to see a “Buy This Used for $4″ link on Amazon right alongside the full-price new version of your book. It’s important that people buy your book. But isn’t it important that people read it? (And maybe buy your next book in hardcover because they just can’t wait)
-Marcia

Each year Lake Superior State University releases a list of words and phrases that should be banished. Some are terms that are overused in the media or popular culture. Others are words that have been mutated from their original meaning to represent something else. Regardless, this compilation is necessary, even if non-binding.

Among the words on this year’s list are surge, organic, and webinar. Thank God on that last one. Webinar a horrible word that embarrasses me when heard or read.

Also on the list were a pair of writer-related words. One I can rationalize. The other is unjustified. The first is author/authored. The list does not condemn the word in its proper use but rather using it as a verb. I have employed it as a verb, and I’ll probably do so again, because I enjoy words that can be used as both a noun and verb, especially in the same sentence (example: “I am going to go fish for fish.”). That said, even my heavy Oxford dictionary fails to list author as a verb, and hence I understand this inclusion to the list. I object to the damning of wordsmith. I’ve always been fond of this term and see no reason for its eradication. After all, writers manipulate languages the way a standard smith manipulates metal. Wordsmith is a sane marriage of shorter words and deserves a spot in the common vernacular.

I love the pliability of the English language. Contorting words and phrases to suit my intentions is a delight I derive from writing. Considering this, perhaps I should be offended that a body exists with the design of removing terms that wordsmiths have worked diligently to generate. On the other hand, webinar simply has to go, and I’m happy that an authority of any stripe has ordered an excommunication.

~ Robin