"The Dude Who Collected Lovecraft" in ChiZine, w/ Tim Pratt

In the spirit of Robert Bloch's "The Man Who Collected Poe" and Kim Newman's "The Man Who Collected Barker," my friend Tim and I collaborated on a story that was just published in the latest issue of the online journal ChiZine. Check it out:

The Dude Who Collected Lovecraft

Chizine is a great magazine, by the way. It's been around since 2000 (a dog's age in Internet time), pays 7¢ a word, and has these wonderfully brief submission guidelines for fiction: Dark. Well-written. 4000 words or less. (They pay ten bucks for poetry.)



My collaborator Tim Pratt won the Hugo award for his short story Impossible Dreams last year, and in 2005 had a story selected for Best American Short Stories. (Michael Chabon was editor that year, thus the momentary respite from decades of lockstep bourgeois realism in that prestigious series.) For a complex of marketing and demographic reasons, Tim also writes urban fantasy novels under the gender-neutral pseudonym T. A. Pratt.

Virginia Was Right...

In the course of my research for my second genre, Grantwriting, I came across this posting in the Foundation Center's online newletter, The RFP Bulletin:

A Room Of Her Own Foundation Invites Applications for Literary Gift of Freedom Award
Deadline: October 31, 2008

A Room Of Her Own Foundation ( http://www.aroomofherownfoundation.org/
is dedicated to helping women artists achieve the privacy and financial support necessary to pursue their art. To this end, the foundation annually provides an award of $50,000 to a woman
writer. The foundation's 2009 Literary Gift of Freedom Award will be given to an American woman writer who is a U.S. citizen and will be living in the U.S. during the grant period.
Acceptable genres for this grant are poetry, playwriting, creative nonfiction, and fiction.
Visit the foundation's Web site for complete program guidelines.
(Please note: The program requires an application fee.)

Gwen

Want to Help Clean Up the Planet?

Tired of picking up other people's trash from your yard, local parks, and public sidewalks?

Do something positive about it -- take The Eclectic Writer Early Earth Day Reader Challenge!

I've challenged my blog readers to answer the following question: What can we do throughout the year to change people's behavior so we can keep trash off the streets, out of the woods, and in the garbage cans.

My goal is to collect ideas and post them to The Eclectic Writer on Earth Day, April 22nd.

Think about it -- if everyone picks up on one thing they can do differently over the course of a year, we can make the world a cleaner place.

Visit The Eclectic Writer for more information and to submit an idea. You can post as a comment or email me at AnneWitkavitch@comcast.net.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Revista Mancha… is accepting submissions for its 2008 volume. Its deadline is May 30th, 2008. Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Previously published work will be considered.



Revista Mancha... publishes the unlimited possibilities (traditional to experimental) of fiction, poetry, essay, memoir, mixed genres, comics and graphic short stories, book and film reviews and critical essays in both Spanish and English idioms as well as Spanglish. Art includes photography and digital graphics. For the 2008 issue we are accepting film, hypertext fiction/memoir, e-poetry, musical compositions and any other work that might as yet be undefined to be included in Mancha… on an additional DVD.



Revista Mancha... is not only interested in the polished professional writer but also seeks to create a platform for unpublished writers/artists.



In order to receive the submission guidelines as well as notices regarding news, events, and updates, email - Editor - revistamanchapr@gmail.com



Art, film, hypertext, musical composition queries contact Melvin López, mijodelapalma@gmail.com, or René Peréz Martínez, reneperezmartinez@gmail.com



Revista Mancha… is published annually by Mancha de Plátano, Inc., a not-for-profit, philanthropic, arts and culture organization legally sanctioned by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and dedicated to developing and supporting a diverse, cross-generational,

cross-genre, cross-cultural literary and arts community in Puerto Rico.



For a copy of Mancha… forward a $12.00 money order or check made out to Mancha de Plátano, Inc. at PO Box 5844, Mayaqüez, PR 00681

****

Folks:

This is the bilingual magazine publsihed by Sonja Mongar (and others). She is the WestCONN contact in Puerto Rico for the upcoming winter residencies there. Perhaps Brian has a copy of the magazine so you can see it. Very cool.

Great News from Publisher's Weekly

Most of you will recall Daniel Asa Rose's thrilling talk at the January residency about his recent visit to China and the book that will come out of it. Newly posted on PW:

Rose Goes to Morrow
Morrow executive editor Henry Ferris prevailed over three other bidders for a new book by Daniel Asa Rose called Larry’s Kidney: (Being the Story of) How I Found Myself in China with My Black Sheep Cousin and His Mail Order Bride, Breaking Chinese Law to Get Him a Transplant—and Save His Life. Jennifer Joel at ICM sold North American rights. This wild romp conveyed by the book’s subtitle also includes some serious undertones about organ transplants in foreign countries, as well as the bonding that occurs between the author and his cousin, who Ferris describes as an amazingly outsized character. Coincidentally, Ferris received a kidney transplant eight years ago. Rose’s last book, Hiding Places, was published by S&S in 2000. Morrow’s pub date is sometime in 2009.

Daniel says: "Thanks to everyone who heard me out at the residency. You all were there when I was figuring it out on stage that day, and your questions really helped focus me. Then later, Don and I had a workout session in the motel and he magically directed me to see what it was I had by the tail. If that’s the kind of brilliance he brings to his students (and I know it is), you’ve got one hell of a teacher there. This school rocks."

Daniel, YOU ROCK! How lucky of us not only to have Don, but to have you in the program, too. Congratulations--we can't wait to read the book.

"Fire-Bringer" in Fantasy Online

The latest issue of Fantasy Magazine, a weekly online magazine, features my short story Fire-Bringer, which some of you may remember from the OMG workshop last semester. It's also a "sketch", of sorts of some of the themes of my thesis novel.

Check it out, and check out the submission guidelines if you're looking for a place to publish non-realist stories.

Anyone Planning to See Allan's Play?

Hi everyone - just curious if anyone plans to attend Allan's play on Friday evening. I may be able to make it, but looking to see if anyone is driving in or taking the train who would want to meet up in NYC. Please let me know tonight as I will not be able to access email or the internet tomorrow.

Thanks,
Anne

Summer Internship with Seth Godin

I discovered Seth Godin through my "Reading for Writers II" class (second genre-copywriting). In my opinion, he's a marketing visionary.

This internship is for high school or college students...not sure if grad school counts, but if it does, and you're interested in marketing/copywriting, Web 2.0 and the new economy....worth a look.

Click on blog post title above to goto link.

Cheers,

Carmen

Writing Tutors Needed

Thanks to Mary Ann Murtha for this link:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/fct/edu/575305198.html

New Kid on the Blog

Hi all, my name is AbdulMalik Negedu (Abdul, for short) and I'm the New Kid on the Blog.

Okay, I'm not quite a kid anymore, but there's one still inside me.

I just got offered into the MFA program so I am looking forward to learning from you all, with a few contributions myself.

Cheers

Abdul

Jim Daniels Reading and Workshop, March 12

Sign up now for Jim Daniels' poetry workshop! It promises to be a good one...

He will read from his work at 4:30 in Warner Hall Lyceum (ground floor) and will conduct a poetry workshop at 7:30.

Copies of some of his books, including his recent Revolt of the Crash Test Dummies, are available in the Midtown Campus Bookstore.

Students and faculty interested in participating in the workshop will be asked to submit a poem for discussion by March 10 and may sign up by calling 203-837-8876 or emailing clementsb@wcsu.edu. Seating is limited. (Six seats are reserved for MFA students, probably won't last long...)

Dim

Today my son realized someone’s smarter
than him. Not me or his mom—
he still thinks we know everything.
One of the other kids, Nathan, made fun
of him at the computer for screwing up
at the math game. Other kids laughed.
2nd grade. I’m never gonna be as smart
as him, he says.
I’m never gonna be smart
as half my students if we’re talking IQs.
He doesn’t want me to explain.
He wants me to acknowledge
that he’s dumb. He’s lying in bed
and taking his glasses off and on,
trying to get them perfectly clean
for the morning. I’m looking around
his dark room for a joke or some
decent words to lay on him. His eyes
glassy with almost-tears.
The world wants to call on him.
I take his hand in mine.


Jim Daniels won the Blue Lynx Poetry Prize for his book, Revolt of the Crash-Test Dummies (Eastern Washington University Press, 2007). Two other books were published in 2007: his third collection of short fiction, Mr. Pleasant (Michigan State University Press), and his eleventh book of poems, In Line for the Exterminator (Wayne State University Press). In 2005, Jim Daniels wrote and produced the independent film “Dumpster,” and Street, a book of his poems accompanying the photographs of Charlee Brodsky, won the Tillie Olsen Prize from the Working-Class Studies Association. In addition, he has edited or co-edited four anthologies, including Letters to America: Contemporary American Poetry on Race, and American Poetry: The Next Generation. He has received the Brittingham Prize for Poetry, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and two from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. His poems have appeared in the Pushcart Prize and Best American Poetry anthologies. He is the Thomas Stockman Baker Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University, where he directs the Creative Writing Program.

Taking Stress Out of Work/Life Balance

I will be presenting my workshop, Taking the Stress Out of Work/Life Balance" on Saturday, March 29th at the Women in Business event at the Rocky Hill Marriott in Rocky Hill, Connecticut. Keynote speaker is Susan Byciewicz, State of Connecticut Secretary of State. A number of other informative workshops are planned; this is also a terrific networking opportunity.

Check out the link to the website for more information on how to register.

Anne

Sell, Keep, or Toss?

Harry Rinker will read from his latest book,

"Sell, Keep or Toss? How to Downsize a Home, Settle an Estate, and Appraise Personal Property."

Tuesday evening, March 4
7:00 pm
Warner Hall, 1st floor

Free of Charge

DANBURY - Professional home appraiser and nationally known antiques and collectibles expert Harry Rinker will read from his book "Sell, Keep or Toss? How to Downsize a Home, Settle an Estate, and Appraise Personal Property," Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Western Connecticut State University.

Rinker is the author of more than 20 titles on antiques and collectibles, and his syndicated column, "Rinker on Collectibles," appears weekly in newspapers nationwide. He also appears frequently on television shows including "Oprah," "Today" and “Good Morning America."
The public is invited to attend the reading on the first floor of Warner Hall at the university's Midtown campus, 181 White St.

For information, call (203) 837-8486.