DENTON WRITERS LEAGUE
FIRST EDITION
July 2008
VOL. 19 NUMBER 7
DWL Home Page: http://byjoni.com/dwl
If you would like a copy of the newsletter e-mailed to you
instead of through the US post,
please contact George Avera-George
Avera-george.819471@verizon.net
or Joni Latham-bleuunicorn@verizon.net.
WHERE WE MEET AND WHEN
The second Saturday of every month, at the
Denton Library-Emily
Fowler Branch
- click here for map
502 Oakland St
Denton, TX
General Meeting 10:30 a.m.
Lunch at Noon at the
Evergreen Super Buffet
- click here for map
1006 W. University Dr
Denton, TX
NEXT MEETING: July 12, 2008
ATTENTION: The July meeting will be held at Hastings located at 2311 Colorado Blvd, Denton, TX. The meeting begins at 10:30am.
Click here for a map to Hastings.
Guest Speakers
August 9 - TBD
September 13 - Jeff Crilley
October 11 - TBD
November 8 - Cindy Vallar
December 13 - TBD
GUEST SPEAKER
P.N. "Pat" Elrod is the author of 23
print-published novels and more than 20 short stories -- not bad, considering
she published her first novel in 1990. She lives somewhere on another planet,
but maintains a convenient citizenship in the state of Texas for tax purposes.
She chills quite comfortably with her dogs, Sasha and Megan, and a full-size Dr.
Who TARDIS she once built when she had too much time on her hands. (We'll gloss
over the K-9 in her garage.) Her hair remains red nearly all the time, except
when it's on fire because of a deadline. Everything else is subject to rewrite.
Pat has co-edited a number of anthologies and plans to do more if the publishing
world can handle the workload. Her current projects include a new Quincey Morris
novel and a graphic novel script for the Vampire Files series. She has dozens of
other projects on the back burner; you'll see them here first!
In between the novel work, Pat is polishing her script writing skills. “I’ve
several original projects in mind for screenplays, including scripts for my own
novels. The story-telling demands are different for a visual medium, but that’s
right up my alley. When I write, I tend to run a film of the action in my head,
so doing scripts is just an extension of that for me.
Pat loves meeting readers of her books and guesting at sci/fi conventions all
over the country--when she has the time!
Visit her website at
http://www.vampwriter.com MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL TIME RENEW TODAY! May begins the new fiscal year for the Denton Writers
League. We will begin collecting the $15 membership fee in May for the
2008-2009 Membership Year. I
am including a copy of the membership form for those of you who need to update
your contact information. Membership forms are also available on from the
DWL website (the link is located at the top of the main page). For those
of you who have joined in the last few months, your membership will be
grandfathered for the new year. MEMBER'S SHOWCASE INSTANT WATER The sun shone upon a small patch of tilled earth, baking
it to a crisp. Marigolds blossoming around the edges wilted, and drooped. An old
woman stood with her left hand on her hip, and squinted through one eye. “That
garden ain’t gonna grow.” She turned a small cardboard box around, and peered at
the label on the front. Instant water. She tossed a dirty look over her shoulder at a near-by
bungalow, and wrinkled her nose. “Stupid late night T.V. shows... sellin’ mah
husband all sorts ‘a rubbish!” She gave her attention back to the box, and tried
to make out the directions on the back. Add water... She raised an eyebrow at the box, and snorted. “Yeah,
instant water all right. ‘Fool an’ his money be parted!” She ripped the shrink
wrap off the box, tore off the top and peered inside. A fine white, glistening
powder filled the box almost all the way to the top. “Looks like sugar...” She
turned the box upside down, poured its contents into the grass next to the
garden and tossed the container away. “Idiot husband. Gotta fall fer every scam
that comes along!” She hobbled toward the house, leaving a pile of glittering
white crystals behind. The sun continued to shine, oblivious of her disgruntled
unhappiness. Its rays drew moisture from the grass. Water vapor rising into the
air interacted with the crystals, and they began to vibrate. A rumbling rose in
a rapid crescendo and a monstrous tsunami erupted into existence, washing away
everything in a fifty mile radius. A small cardboard box washed up onto the edge of the devastation and lay
drying in the sun, its waterlogged type visible for any survivors to read.
Instant water, the label read. Add water to activate. Caution. Contains enough
for one medium lake. Handle with care.
To submit a member poem (under 125 lines), short story (under words 1500
words), or essay
(under words 1500 words), send to
joni1957@verizon.net . PROJECT FOR 2008-THERE'S LESS THAN A WEEK LEFT TO SEND IN
YOUR SUBMISSION. DEADLINE IS JUNE 30. The Denton Writers League is accepting submissions from local writers for a
new anthology.
POETRY CORNER
Poetry Group Open Mic Night FLASHING SWORDS COLLECTOR'S EDITION CONTEST Take a good look at this image (found at
http://flashingswords.sfreader.com/jpcontest/contest.htm). What do
you see going on here? Who is that girl? Why's she standing like that? Who are
those guys? Why are they doing what they're doing? What has happened, is
happening or is about to happen? Let your imagination roam, then write a story about what you see. Send it to
us at
flashingswordspress@gmail.com. Query letters are not required, however
submissions must have the author's name, title, word count, email address and
other standard contact information at the top. Submissions should be in Times
New Roman or Courier New, both 12 point, and should NOT be double spaced!
Submissions may be sent as an attached .doc or .rtf file if we know you. If we
don't know you, then please paste the story into the body of your email. We'll
contact you if it is chosen and ask for a .rtf or .doc at that time. Go to the website today
http://flashingswords.sfreader.com/jpcontest/contest.htm , to see the
image and read the rest of the submission guidelines.
by Crystalwizard
Submission Guidelines:
Any story, poem or other written work submitted must be your own original work.
You must own the copyright and all publishing rights. The author retains ALL
RIGHTS to his/her work.
Submissions are open to all genres except erotica, please keep it PG13. Also,
works promoting racial hatred or violence, sexism or homophobia will not be
accepted.
There is no minimum word count required. Short stories and non-fiction pieces
are limited to 7000 words. Poems are limited to 50 lines.
Submissions must be double-spaced using Times Roman font and saved in either RTF
or WORD format.
Send submissions as a RTF or WORD attachment to dwlsubmissions@verizon.net with
[SUB] title in the subject line. Snail mail submissions will be accepted for
those who do not have access to a computer but communications will be delayed to
due the staff not being able to contact the author by e-mail. Send snail mail
submissions to DWL Anthology, 810 Egan St, Denton, TX 76201. Multiple
submissions are acceptable but not simultaneous submissions.
Submissions will be accepted beginning January 15, 2008 and ending June 30,
2008.
There is no reading fee, but if your work is selected for publication, you are
required to become a member of the Denton Writers League since the Anthology is
a league project with the contents written by our members. The fee to join to
League is $15 a year. We meet the second Saturday of the month at the Emily
Fowler Library from 10:30am to noon.
3rd Saturday
10:00 am
Emily Fowler Library
502 Oakland St
Denton, TX
4th Wednesday
7:00 pm
Recycled Books
200 N Locust St
Denton, TX
ANNUAL CONVENTIONS
*******************************************************************************************************
CONVENTIONS
Convention
Month Place
URL
ConDFW Feb Dallas, TX
http://www.condfw.org/
Texas Frightmare Feb
Dallas, TX
http://www.texasfrightmareweekend.com/lifetype/
AggieCon March Bryan, TX
http://aggiecon.tamu.edu/
Dreamin' in Dallas April Dallas, TX http://www.dallasromanceauthors.com/conferences/
ApolloCon June Houston, TX
http://www.apollocon.org/
Conestoga July Tulsa, OK
http://www.sftulsa.org/conestoga/
Armadillo Con August Austin, TX
http://www.fact.org/dillo/
Mythcon August Norman, OK
http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon37.html
Bubonicon August Albuquerque, NM
http://www.bubonicon.com/
Fencon Sept Dallas, TX
http://www.fencon.org/
A comprehensive list of other
conventions
http://www.fencon.org/links.html#calendar
World Fantasy Con Nov Austin, TX
http://www.worldfantasy.org/
On-Line Writers resources
Author's Network-for writers about writing based in Europe, but interesting-
http://www.author-network.com/
Copyright Forms- http://www.loc.gov/copyright/forms/
The New Covey Cover Awards -
http://thenewcoveycoverawards.blogspot.com
Dallas Screen Writers- http://www.dallasscreenwriters.com/
Denton Public Library - http://www.cityofdenton.com/pages/library.cfm
Flashing Swords Magazine -
http://flashingswords.sfreader.com
Fort Worth Book Blog -
http://booksblog.guidelive.com/
Glimmer Train Press, Inc.-A quarterly magazine of about 260 pages of literary
fiction - http://www.glimmertrain.com/
How Stuff Works - Want to know how something works, try this link -
http://www.howstuffworks.com/
Lulu.Com - A Self-Publisher -
http://www.lulu.com/
MeetUp.Com - A place to find MeetUp groups in your area -
http://www.meetup.com/
Jeff Crilley's DFW Do-It Yourself PR Group -
http://freepublicity.meetup.com/1/
National Association of Women Writers - http://www.naww.org
National Writers Union - http://www.nwu.org/
Northeast Texas Writers' Organization -
http://www.netwo.org/
Para Publishing Website - a good writing, publishing, and promotion source -
http://www.parapublishing.com/sites/para/
Preditors and Editors-a resources to check out agents and publishers http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/
Printing for Less - Good prices and I understand good product -
http://www.printingforless.com/index.html
Ralan's Webstravaganza-speculative fiction resource http://ralan.com/
Society of Children's Writers and Illustrators - http://www.scbwi.org/
Texas Coalition of Authors, Inc. - http://www.texasauthors.org/
The Market List-the online resource for genre fiction writers http://www.marketlist.com/
The Novelist's Workshop-essays and advice on how to publish your book- http://www.monash.com/writers.html
Vista Prints - inexpensive business cards, postcards, etc -
http://www.vistaprint.com
Writer's Exchange - http://www.writers-exchange.com/epublishing/
Writer.com - on-line classes and other writer's information -
http://writers.com/
Writers' League of Texas - http://www.writersleague.org/
Writers Net-source for information for writers, editors, agents, and publishers - http://www.writers.net
Writing-World.Com - http://www.writing-world.com
Writing.Com - Community for readers and writers of all skills levels and
interests - http://www.writing.com
There are multitudes of writing resources available on the Internet. Go to any search engine and ask for writer's resources, writer's markets, writer's contests, writer's conferences, etc
DWL OFFICERS:
President Joni Latham (
joni1957@verizon.net) - 940/382-4865
Vice-President Kelly Christiansen
Newsletter George Avera (
george.819471@verizon.net) - 940/387-8315
