Thought for the Month

"The tragedy of our time is that we are so eye-centered, so appearance besotted - Jessamyn West - author

Hello Writers and Readers

In a season of award shows and red carpet appearances I am reminded of how external many of our judgments of people have become. We often just accept what we see and do not look for character. Yet, a writer must communicate the whole personality of a character in their writing be they a real-life hero or a fictional one.

As you work on your 2008 projects I invite you to dig deeper. No gardener or writer has been disappointed by digging deeper.

Enjoy February, this precursor to Spring.

Sandra

Markets:

Kenyon Review announced the first annual Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest, for writers under the age of thirty. Deadline:February 15,2008. Submission guidelines: http://www.kenyonreview.org/

Passages North seeks submissions for two forthcoming competitions. Deadline:February 15,2008. Submission guidelines: http://myweb.nmu.edu/~passages/

Yemassee seeks submissions for its current poetry competition -The Pocataligo Poetry Contest. Deadline:February 15,2008. Submission guidelines: http://yemasseejournal.org/contests.html

Grain seeks submissions for several forthcoming contests. Submission guidelines: http://www.grainmagazine.ca/contestcat.htm

The P53 Open Awards Contest seeks submissions in several categories. Submission guidelines:http://www.press53.com/Contests.html

Glimmer Train seeks submissions for a whole year of competitions. Consider bookmarking this site as we may not remember to include it every month. Submission guidelines: http://www.glimmertrain.com/writguid1.html

CutBank seeks submissions for both poetry and fiction competitions. Submission guidelines:http://www.cutbankonline.org/contests_new/index.html

The Ledge Magazine seeks submissions for its forthcoming fiction competition. Submission guidelines: http://www.theledgemagazine.com/Fiction%20Awards%20Contest.htm

Potomac Review announces the return of their Annual Poetry Contest. Submission guidelines: http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Orgs/humanities/PotomacReview/pcsubmissionguidelines.html

The Southeast Review seeks submissions for its forthcoming fiction, nonfiction and poetry competitions. Submission guidelines: http://southeastreview.org/

Modern Haiku announces the Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Award Competition for 2008. Submission guidelines:http://www.modernhaiku.org/issue38-3/spiessawards2008.html

Poetry International seeks submissions for their forthcoming poetry competition. Submission guidelines:http://poetryinternational.sdsu.edu/Prize.htm

February discount of 25% to all newsletter subscribers

Manuscript Evaluation -Treat yourself or a writing friend/relative to a manuscript evaluation from a publishing professional. This could include advice on a short story before submitting it to publishers or an evaluation of your novel or non-fiction book. Ask for details by e-mailing Windshift. Please put 'manuscript critique' in the subject line.

Publishing News:

Raincoast Books

Raincoast Books will close its publishing operations after the spring 2008 season. Raincoast is the Canadian co-publisher of the Harry Potter series, distributing these books as well as the titles of fifty domestic and foreign publishers to the Canadian booktrade. Raincoast will cut its workforce by ten to fifteen percent and focus on its role as Canada's "pre-eminent book distributor."
The company's domestic publishing operation hasn't been profitable since it was created in 1995, and the recent appreciation of the Canadian dollar has caused further problems.

Oscar Nominations: Books Score Big

Movies based on books are among the major Oscar nominations. The awards ceremony is scheduled for Sunday, February 24, 2008.

No Country for Old Men, based on the Cormac McCarthy book, has been nominated
for best picture, best director (Ethan and Joel Coen), best supporting
actor (Javier Bardem) and best adapted screenplay. Altogether the film has
garnered eight nominations.

There Will Be Blood, based on Upton Sinclair's novel Oil!, has won
nominations for best picture, best actor (Daniel Day-Lewis), best
director (Paul Thomas Anderson) and best adapted screenplay. There Will
Be Blood also has eight nominations.

Atonement, based on Ian McEwan's novel, won nominations for best
picture, best supporting actress (Saoirse Ronan) and best adapted
screenplay and garnered seven nominations overall.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, based on the memoir by Jean-Dominique
Bauby, has been nominated for best director (Julian Schnabel) and best
adapted screenplay.

Other movies based on books that have major nominations include Charlie
Wilson's War (Philip Seymour Hoffman, best supporting actor) and Into
the Wild (Hal Holbrook for best supporting actor).

In related news, Charles Ferguson's documentary No End in Sight: The
American Occupation of Iraq has been nominated for best documentary feature
based on the book No End in Sight: Iraq's Descent into Chaos.

London's Victoria & Albert Museum is among the events that will mark next year's fortieth anniversary of the first presentation of what was then the Booker Prize for Fiction. So if you are in London this Spring try to catch this exhibit.

Home News:

Despite the current weather we are having on the coast, the WP office staff are beavering away on plans for Spring events and new books to publish.

Sandra Janssen is doing a series of book and publishing talks throughout the Spring, the first of these being held at the Beacon Gallery. Magnolia Court, Bowser, BC on February 20th at 7:00. Titled How To Be An Author,the talk will focus on the role of the author as marketer of his/her work in this increasingly competitive book selling market. Gone are the days when your publisher did all of the marketing. Being an author is a full-time promotional job which many authors have not yet realized.

Note: While every effort is made to check the markets suggested in this newsletter, writers must use their own judgment when submitting their work.

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