Volume 10, Issue 18
May 2, 2010

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FUNDS FOR WRITERS

Writer's Digest's 101 Best Websites for Writers
2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

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Our subscriber list is NOT made available to others. Use
information listed at your own risk. FundsforWriters gives
no warranty to completeness, accuracy, or fitness of the
markets, contests and grants although research is done to
the best of our ability.

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PAID SPONSOR OF THE WEEK
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Noble Row, a journal of contemporary fiction, art, and music
is now accepting submissions for its annual Short Fiction
Award. The competition is open to previously unpublished
short stories, 8,000 words or less. Winner receives $500
cash and featured publication in Noble Row. Up to 3 finalists
will also receive publication in Noble Row. What are we
looking for? Stories that are personal and engaging,
uncompromising in their vision, provocative, and
thought-provoking. In short, excellence. Deadline is 5/15/2010.

To enter online, please visit: http://noblerow.com/fictionprize

 
                 
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EDITOR'S THOUGHTS
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Read newsletter online at: http://www.fundsforwriters.com/FFW.htm
Read past issues at: http://www.aweber.com/z/article/?fundsforwriters

=====

FEEDBACK OR JUDGMENT?

You've written this story, and no one else has laid eyes on it.
You're dying to know if it hits the target, if it's readable.
You can't wait for someone to tell you whether it's good.

You hand it over to someone, with heart in your throat in some
instances, or simple nervous energy in others. You want to know,
but you don't. The ordeal is akin to turning in your paper to
the teacher. You'd love to see the A; hate to see the F.

Are you seeking feedback or judgment?

If you enter a contest, you are judged. You are deemed worthy
or not. You win or lose. We seem to think that the judgment
process is a credible one, when someone rates us against a set
of standards. The term JUDGMENT literally means:

criticism, discernment, mandate, rationality, sentence, verdict

The word has a very black and white feel to it. I believe that
too many of us seek judgment . . . then hate it when achieved.
We argue with the standards used, credentials of the judges,
and rules. The inflexible feel of the term sets us up for
failure. We become highly upset or crash and burn. For some
reason we take judgment as gospel.

We inflict that strife on ourselves.

FEEDBACK, on the other hand, has quite a different definition.
It's a response to an action. In this case, it's opinion
returned about your writing. Let's breakdown the word, though.
FEED means:

furnish, nourish, maintain, satisfy, stoke, strengthen, support

BACK means to return.

We can thrive on feedback, or accept judgment. If we look at
judgment of our work more in terms of feedback, we grow. But
we have to alter our attitudes in order to make that
differentiation. It's not yes or no, good or bad. It's a process.

Writers in critique groups use an internal selection process to
decide what critiques aid and which impede. They categorize
opinions as those that help and those that do not apply.

When you receive someone else's appraisal of your work, soften
your stance and open your mind. That's the only way you'll be
able to sift through the minutiae and determine what makes you
stronger.

The next time you get mad about someone's reply, remember it's
you who decides if that someone offers feedback or judging.
 
 

     Hope

MAY SPECIAL!

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you name it!

Purchase one or two to try them out - they're only $1.99.
 
Purchase all the Tweetebooks, all 35, for the discounted price
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Last month we offered Short Story Markets Tweetebook for free.
This month it's Airline Magazine Markets.

Tweetebooks are like potato chips! You can't stop at one.

www.fundsforwriters.com/tweetebooks.htm

=====

THE BLOG, THE BLOG!
http://www.hopeclark.blogspot.com

TWITTER ME
http://twitter.com/hopeclark

CONSULT WITH HOPE
http://www.fundsforwriters.com/ConsultHope.htm

I JOINED FACEBOOK
http://www.facebook.com/chopeclark

=====

MAKE TOTAL TOTALLY YOURS

If you enjoy our free newsletters, you'll LOVE our paid
subscription. TOTAL has all the flavor of FundsforWriters,
except with 75 grants, contests, markets, publishers and jobs
instead of 15. It's immense, it's exciting, it's chocked full
of opportunity. Take your freelance writing seriously and
consider the largest newsletter in the FundsforWriters family.

www.fundsforwriters.com/total.htm
 

  ~~~~~~****~~~~~~

WORDS OF SUCCESS

"I think I'd like to be remembered as someone who beat the
odds through just plain determination... that I persevered.
Because I think that being somewhat of a pest to life,
constantly plaguing and pursuing, will bring results."

--Sylvester Stallone

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SUCCESS OF THE WEEK
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Hi Hope,

Thanks to your newsletter, a short story I was having a very
hard time finding a home for has finally found a home at
Tales from the Velvet Chamber, which you had included in one
of your recent newsletters. The story will be included in
Tales from the Velvet Chamber: An Anthology of Revisioned
Fairy-tales and Myth.

http://talesfromthevelvetchamber.blogspot.com/

Thank you again for finding and relaying these unique
opportunities for us writers!

Persephone Vandegrift

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ARTICLE
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The Cost of Creating

By Kirsty Logan

Everyone I know has two job titles: the one they get paid to
do, and the one they wish they got paid to do. I'm a waitress/
writer. My girlfriend is a graphic designer/musician, and my
brother is a lighting tech/filmmaker. They do the former to
afford the equipment and studio time to do the latter, but as
a writer I don't need to pay for electronics or locations.

Writers don't really need tools to create their art. A paper and
pencil, a laptop, chalk and a pavement, a stick and an expanse
of loose dirt; anything can be utilised to put words together.
I'm sure it would be nice to write on thick sheets of handmade
paper with a Mont Blanc pen engraved with your initials, but a
ballpoint and a school jotter work just as well.

There is one tool that all writers need. These necessary parts
of the writing process - the initial drafts, the typing, the
submitting - all cost time. I have to work my day job to pay
for this time.

However, as writers we frequently squander time. If I wanted
to hang a picture I would buy a hammer as a tool to help me;
similarly when I want to write a novel I earn time. But I don't
wield time as effectively as I might wield a hammer.

Every week I work as a waitress to earn enough to buy a little
free time for writing, and then I spend my hard-won Wednesday
morning playing silly Facebook games and making unnecessarily
complicated plans for lunch. I do not spend all of my precious
minutes churning out beautiful, effortless prose and opening
acceptance letters from London publishers. Although I work hard
to earn time, I do not always take the best care of it. If I did
have a Mont Blanc pen engraved with my initials then I'm sure I
wouldn't use it to dig loose hairs out of the drain; if I had
thick sheets of handmade paper then I wouldn't use it to mop up
spills. But this is exactly what I'm doing with the only tool I
have: time. Spending an hour on social networking websites is
like letting decaying grass build up in the blade of my
lawnmower. What is the point in earning time only to waste it?

In writing this essay, I used several tricks to fool myself into
feeling productive. I haven't had my breakfast yet, which is a
conscious attempt to feel super-productive and say to myself,
"Look, you produce work before your day has even begun! Who
needs meager foodstuffs when you have the sustenance of words?
How wonderfully conscientious you are." I also have a numb rear
end, as I write at the wooden kitchen table and forgot to put a
cushion on the chair. Getting up to fetch a cushion would be an
admittance that my concentration has waned, so I must suffer the
numbness until I have written my final paragraph. And so on.

It's 9.30am on a Wednesday. My girlfriend is off designing
corporate websites to pay for new guitar strings, and my brother
is winding wires around his elbows to pay for camera hire. I
spent the weekend making coffee for strangers to pay for this
time. Writing this essay isn't as wasteful as playing FarmVille
on Facebook, but it's not improving that car-chase scene in my
novel either. I'm going to get some cornflakes and a cushion,
and then I am going to spend this time properly.

***

BIO: Kirsty Logan is a writer, editor, teacher, waitress, and
general layabout. She holds an MLitt (Distinction) in Creative
Writing from Glasgow University and won the 2009 Gillian Purvis
Award for New Writing. She has written three novels, all of
which will stay unpublished as they should not be inflicted
on strangers. Get in touch at kirstylogan.com

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COMPETITIONS
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2011 CHICKEN HOUSE CHILDREN'S FICTION COMPETITION
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/children/article7074710.ece
---
NO ENTRY FEE
Limit 80,000 words. Deadline October 29, 2010. The winner will
be the entrant whose story, in the opinion of the judges,
demonstrates the greatest entertainment value, quality and
originality suitable for the children's age group. The prize
is the offer of a worldwide publishing contract with Chicken
House, with a royalty advance of £10,000. The entrant must not
have previously published any book in any country, whether
fiction or nonfiction. The entry should be suitable for a
children's audience aged between 9 and 16. Picture books and
graphic novels will not be accepted and illustrations will
not be considered.

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"SCARE THE DICKENS OUT OF US" SHORT STORY CONTEST
http://www.clarklibraryfriends.com/
---
$20 ENTRY FEE / $5 ENTRY FEE FOR JUNIORS
First prize, $1,000 and a trophy.
Second prize, $500 and a ribbon.
Third prize, $250 and a ribbon.
Junior contest prize $250 and a trophy. Junior contest writers
must be age 12-18. We want ghost stories. Any genre, any tone,
any subject, whatever type of ghost story you can come up with.
The contest is open to published and unpublished writers alike.
All publication rights remain with the author. The ghost story
must be 5,000 words or less. Entry must be postmarked no later
than October 1, 2010. Entries accepted beginning July 1, 2010.

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PERFECTLY FORMED SHORT STORY COMPETITION
http://www.wbqonline.com/feature.do?featureid=505
---
NO ENTRY FEE
Perfectly Formed is our first short story competition, in
association with Pan Macmillan and the Arvon Foundation.
We're looking for the best short story of 2,000 words or less.
All our readers are eligible, as long as you're over 16 and haven't
had fiction professionally published before. Your short story can
be about any subject and in any fiction genre, be it drama, comedy,
crime, historical or modern - just make it punchy, original and
imaginative. Limit 2,000 words. Deadline July 1, 2010.

The winner will see their work published in the October issue of
Books Quarterly to our readership of more than a quarter of a
million, and online at www.macmillannewwriting.com,
www.arvonfoundation.org, Wbqonline.com and Waterstones.com. But
that's just the start. The winner will be invited to attend an
exclusive publisher's lunch with Will Atkins, Editorial Director
at Pan Macmillan, and author James McCreet to gain feedback and
ideas on where to take their writing career in the future. And
just to top things off, they will receive £200-worth of quality
reading from Pan Macmillan of their choice. To develop skills, the
winner will also receive a place on a week-long Arvon Foundation
creative writing course of their choice.

The prize includes all tuition, food and accommodation. During the
week, the winner will have plenty of opportunity to spend time
working on their own writing, as well as taking part in workshops,
readings, and a one-to-one session with a course tutor. The three
best runners-up will receive concise written feedback on their
entries, which will be published online, as well as winning £50-
worth of Pan Macmillan books.

 
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GRANTS
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SOUTH ARTS LITERARY TOURING GRANTS
http://www.southarts.org/site/c.guIYLaMRJxE/b.5473535/k.90E9/Literary_Arts.htm
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South Arts, with support from the National Endowment for the
Arts, offers writer fee grants for literary presentations. 
These grants support guest writers (fiction, creative nonfiction,
poetry) from outside the sponsor's state. Colleges, universities
and other school-based presenters are eligible to apply and grant
funds can be used to support fees for multiple writers. To be
eligible, literary projects must include a public reading and an
educational component. Deadline May 17, 2010 for projects taking
place between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011. The maximum request
is 50% of the writer's fee, up to a total grant request of $2,500.
South Arts' nine-state region includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina,
and Tennessee.

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OREGON INDIVIDUAL ARTIST GRANTS
http://www.oregonartscommission.org/grants/commission_grant_programs.php
---
The Commission recognizes the achievements of Oregon artists and
the contributions they make to the cultural health of the state
through its annual Artist Fellowship grants- non-matching $3,000
stipends to a select group of the state's most innovative creators.
The Commission will consider applications annually according to
artistic discipline. The 2011 Individual Artist Fellowships are for
Oregon artists working in the literary or performing arts.

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XERIC FOUNDATION
http://www.xericfoundation.org/xericapplycomicgrants.html
---
Self-publishing grants for comic book/graphic writers. Next
deadline September 30, 2010.

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FREELANCE MARKETS
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FLARE
http://www.flare.com/aboutus/guidelines
---
Read back issues of the magazine to make sure your idea fits
our general editorial tone and audience - working women between
the ages of 20 - 45. FLARE continues to be the magazine Canadian
women turn to for the latest information on fashion, beauty,
health and entertainment.

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THE SCOTS
http://www.scotsmagazine.com/guidelines.asp
---
A publication concerned with specifically Scottish topics. This
almost invariably means that the people, events or places written
about have to be in Scotland. There is a minimum of four months
between acceptance and publication: please take this into account
if an article is aimed at a particular issue. Prefers articles
with a word-count of around 1,000-2,500 words, but these limits
are not rigid. Does not buy material that has already been
published elsewhere. An s.a.e. with submissions is appreciated.

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FIRE RESCUE MAGAZINE
http://www.firerescuemagazine.com/about_us.html
---
Readers consist of fire chiefs, company officers, training
officers, firefighters, and technical rescue personnel.
Publishes hands-on, how-to articles that serve their "Read It
Today, Use It Tomorrow" mission. Features: $100--$400.
Departments: $100--$200, News items: $25-$50.
 
 

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JOBS
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WRITER-EDITOR
Location Washington DC
http://jobview.usajobs.gov/GetJob.aspx?JobID=87594403&aid=27015391-21410&WT.mc_n=125
---
This position is in the Deputy Comptroller for Public Affairs,
Communications Division, located in Washington, DC. OCC
publications are disseminated in print and electronically and
include handbooks, manuals, guidance, correspondence, briefings,
working papers, newsletters, annual reports, and many other
internal and external products. As a writer-editor, you will
provide a wide range of editorial expertise, including substantive
writing and rewriting, substantive editing, technical editing,
copy editing, graphics editing, proofreading, and editorial
production services. Deadline May 18, 2010.

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PUBLIC AFFAIRS SPECIALIST
Location New Hampshire
http://jobview.usajobs.gov/GetJob.aspx?JobID=87602975&aid=27015391-21410&WT.mc_n=125
---
As a Public Affairs Specialist, this position is responsible
for writing and editing information, such as briefing papers,
news releases, and materials about the nature and purpose of
the Forests programs, projects and/or mission. Deadline May
17, 2010.

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WRITER-EDITOR
Location Albuquerque, NM & Kirkland AFB
http://jobview.usajobs.gov/GetJob.aspx?JobID=87651238&aid=27015391-23410&WT.mc_n=125
---
Deadline May 21, 2010. Agency: Forest Service. Writes and/or
edits material for publications or related items. Reviews written
products and materials for conformity with standards of objectivity,
style, and presentation.

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PUBLISHERS/AGENTS
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ANGELA RINALDO LITERARY AGENCY
http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/AngelaRinaldi/
---
Looking for upmarket contemporary fiction, mainstream women's
fiction, thrillers, mysteries, suspense, literary historical
thrillers, gothic suspense, women's book club fiction - novels
where the story lends itself to discussion; literary fiction,
ethnic fiction. In terms of nonfiction, seeks: narrative non-fiction,
memoir, women's issues/studies, current issues, biography, psychology,
health/medical/wellness, business, career, cookbooks/food narratives/
wine, personal finance and books written by established journalists,
academics, doctors and therapists, love/relationships.

=====

FOX LITERARY
http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/fox/
---
Seeks: young adult fiction (all genres), science fiction/fantasy,
romance, historical fiction, thrillers, and graphic novels.
In nonfiction, wants: memoirs, biography, and smart narrative
nonfiction; especially memoirs and other nonfiction about sex
work, addiction and recovery, and pop culture.

=====

ADAMS LITERARY
http://www.adamsliterary.com/
---
Adams Literary is a full-service, boutique literary agency
exclusively representing children's book authors and artists.

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SPONSORS
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THE WRITERS' BRIDGE

Would you like to be cloned? The Writers' Bridge helps save
you time to write by providing article ideas, searching through
job newsletters, locating markets, and helping with queries.
We are currently offering a free 30-day trial.

Check us out at www.thewritersbridge.com

=====

 

The second annual Self-Publishers Online Conference connects
entrepreneurial authors and independent publishers with book
publishing resources on May 12-14, 2010.

* Enjoy presentations from 15 book-publishing experts.
(Dan Poynter, Fern Reiss, Mark Victor Hansen, & 12 more!)

* Participate in Q&A roundtables and online discussions

* Browse the virtual exhibit hall

...all from the comfort of your desk!

Live attendance is FREE with a Basic Pass!
(Or upgrade for audio downloads or CDs mailed to you.)

Register now at:
http://www.SelfPublishersOnlineConference.com

=====

9th year. Fifteen cash prizes totaling $5,000. Top prize $2,000.
Submit 1-3 unpublished poems on the theme of war, up to 500 lines
in all. Winning entries published online. Sponsored by Winning
Writers. $15 entry fee, payable to Winning Writers. Postmark
deadline May 31, 2010. Final judge: Jendi Reiter. Include cover
sheet with contact information. No name on poems. Submit online
or mail to: Winning Writers, ATTN: War Poetry Contest, 351 Pleasant
Street, PMB 222, Northampton, MA 01060. Winning Writers is proud
to be one of the "101 Best Websites for Writers" (Writer's Digest,
2005-2009).

More information: www.winningwriters.com/war

=====

If you're going to work with an editor, work with the best.
Have your writing edited by an award-winning, professional
writer and editor, someone who actually knows how to help you
prepare your writing for publication.  Richard Krawiec has
published novels, biographies, text books, plays, and a story
and poetry collection.  He won the 2009 Excellence in Teaching
Award from UNC Chapel Hill for his online writing courses. His
essays, feature articles, and reviews have appeared in major
newspapers and magazines across the US. The NY Times, LA Times,
Publishers Weekly have reviewed his work. His awards include
National Endowment for the Arts and NC Arts Council grants, as
well as nominations for the National Book Award, Best American
Short Stories, and Pushcart Prize.

Email: rkwriter@gmail.com  
Web - www.rkeditor.com

=====

http://www.fundsforwriters.com/adrates.htm 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BUSINESS STUFF
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

C. Hope Clark
E-mail: hope@fundsforwriters.com

140-A Amicks Ferry Road #4
Chapin, SC 29036

http://www.fundsforwriters.com

Copyright 2000-2010, C. Hope Clark
ISSN: 1533-1326

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