Thought for the Month

"Reminding one another of the dream that each of us aspires to may be enough for us to set each other free." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery - The Little Prince

Hello Writers,

Time seems to escape me these days faster than ever so I do apologize for the lateness of this month's newsletter.

I chose this month's quote to remind me of an old friend. Over the decades I have read the work of Antoine de Saint-Exupery many times. For me it is the mark of great writing because on first glance it seems so simple and effortless and yet I come back to re-read it over time because it still holds new insights for me to take away.

Although we each have our own style of writing, it is often creatively rewarding to read the work of authors for whom time is irrelevant because they will speak to successive generations of readers and writers as though they were speaking for the first time.

May your month soar with inspired writing.

Sandra

Markets:

The Bridport Prize is an annual international creative writing competition for poetry and short stories. Deadline:June 30, 2007. Submission guidelines: http://www.bridportprize.org.uk/

Painted Bride Quarterly accepts up to 5 poems, fiction up to 5000 words, and essays and reviews up to 3000 words, in any genre. Submission guidelines: http://pbq.drexel.edu/issue76/index.php

Pomegranate Words offers distance learning classes in poetry and fiction, critiquing services, forums, contests, and other resources for teen writers. Submission guidelines:
http://pomegranatewords.com

The TenTen Fiction Competition seeks submissions of 1,010 words exactly. Deadline:July 1st, 2007. Submission guidelines: http://www.wordsmitten.com/fiction.html

The 2007 PRISM International Literary Nonfiction Contest seeks submissions. Submission guidelines: http://prism.arts.ubc.ca/contests/index.htm

Mak Rektor's International Short Story Contest seeks submissions of horror, thriller and gothic stories between 2,000 to 4,000 words. Submission guidelines:

https://www.rektorsrevenge.com/writingcontest.aspx

The Acorn-Plantos Award for People's Poetry is presented annually to a
Canadian poet based on a book published in the previous calendar year (in
the present case, 2006). Deadline: June 30, 2007. Submission guidelines: http://www.wcdr.org/wcdr/?p=431

The Surrey International Writers’ Conference Writing Contest seeks submissions in the following categories: SIWC Storyteller’s Award: short stories 3,500 – 5,000 words
SIWC Non-fiction Award: maximum length 1,500 words
SIWC Poetry Award: one poem per submission; 36 lines max.
SIWC Writing For Young People Award: short stories, maximum length 1,500 words.

Submission guidelines: http://www.siwc.ca/contest/index.php

Theatre BC's Annual Canadian National Playwriting Competition seeks submissions. Deadline: July 31, 2007. Submission guidelines: http://theatrebc.org/playcomp/index.php

Toasted Cheese accepts previously unpublished flash fiction, fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. The maximum word count for fiction and creative nonfiction is 5000 words; for flash fiction the maximum is 500 words. Submission guidelines: http://www.toasted-cheese.com/ezine/submit.htm

June 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:

Children's writer Rosalind Kerven, author of more than 50 children's books for publishers as diverse as Dorling Kindersley, British Museum Press and Frances Lincoln, has set up a publishing house called Talking Stone to produce her own seven-part historical fiction series, The Grim Gruesome Stories. The first title, The Cursed Sword, will be published in February 2008.

“I know there are many other experienced authors out there who will be watching closely to see if the 'author-led publishing team' model is one they could successfully follow.” said Kerven.

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Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, won the £30,000 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction on Wednesday for Half of a Yellow Sun (Fourth Estate). The Lizard Cage by Canadian writer Karen Connelly took the Prize for A First Novel.

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Warner Brothers Pictures has bought the rights to Terry Brooks' fantasy book series Shannara for film adaptation.

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New Zealand author Lloyd Jones has won the 2007 Commonwealth Writers'
Prize for overall best book for his novel Mister Pip. It is the story of a teacher who educates a small village's children by reading them Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.

The Commonwealth Writers' Prize for best first book was won by D.Y.
Bechard for Vandal Love, which follows generations of a French-Canadian
family afflicted with a curse that causes their children to be born
either giants or runts.

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Recently, a well-known literary agent confirmed his agency's '3-Second
Rule' which they use in evaluating any book submission. If the book's
cover doesn't grab them in 3 seconds they pass on it. Bookstore browsers spend an average of 8 seconds looking at the front cover and 15 seconds studying the back cover before deciding whether to buy your book. If your book cover doesn't instantly hook their interest and then convey the right message about you, your chance
to make a sale is gone. Publishers will often put several cover designs in front of focus groups to get some pre-publication feedback. It is certainly something we do at Windshift Press.

Home News:

Windshift Press is busy with Autumn publications and summer fairs and events. Work on the Autumn-Winter WP catalogue is underway. Some also dream of vacation time. August can't come soon enough.

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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