Blog Love

Did you know that a thriving group of local bloggers covers everything from their personal journeys as expats to local politics to food and wine? I follow many of them and link to them from my own blog, Two Fools in Zürich. Not only do they provide insights about living in Switzerland, but some of them also offer a great opportunity to publish ("guest post").

If you're interested in guest posting, the key is to study the blogs, looking to see what topics they cover, the tone and style of writing, and whether they accept guest posts. (Hint: I accept guest posts and my blog covers food, wine, travel, expat life and Swiss culture.)

Here are a few of my favorite local blogs.

(Not) Weekly Roundup

Here it is: the (not) weekly roundup of links to stories and news for writers. If you find a story online that you think other writers in the group might like, be sure to send it to me (kathlyon at gmail dot com).

Short Fiction: Hot Dogs

Scrumpy hated the circus. He nearly pulled my arm out of the socket with the fuss he kicked up when we passed by. I was no big fan either. Their presence in our clean wholesome little town created a small rank cesspool  on the village green. I thought the mayor must have lost his mind to allow them to set up there but he had made a big public statement about the old fashioned quaintness of this kind of family entertainment and anyone who said anything to the contrary just looked like some kind of child hating jerk.

Lose the Flab: The Writer's Diet

It's too hot to move, almost too hot to think. But it's never too hot to procrastinate.

In order to avoid completing my first developmental editing assignment, I'm playing around with The Writer's Diet, a fun online tool that analyzes a sample of your writing for flabby prose. The tool identifies the overuse of "to be" verbs and passive constructions, abstract nouns and nominalizations, longs strings of prepositional phrases, adverbs and adjectives, and "waste words" (there is/are).

Just for fun I created a speech given by rotund little man to an admiring audience of townsfolk, who I imagine as all quite pleased with themselves. In addition to circuitous phrasing, nominalizations, and general pomposity, I gave him a pronounced fondness for speaking in capitals. His speech was scored "flabby" by the Writer's Diet, and I agree.

If you'd like to see the tool in action, you can cut and paste the text below into this link. Click on "See the full diagnosis" to get complete results.

The tool is not designed to tell you if your writing is good. Good writing, as the Helen Sword notes on The Writer's Diet, can use all of the elements tagged in the tool and can use them well. But more often, especially in academic or corporate writing, too many abstractions and passive constructions lead to some mighty snooze-worthy prose.

Curious about your own writing? Give it a try. To see my sample text, click on "read more."

Summer Reading

Summer is flying by, but we still have a few weeks left for a leisurely read. A good thing too, since I've been remiss in posting Wendy's review, which was sent in just as I left for the US a few weeks ago.

—Kathy

***

Anticipating the long lazy days of summer, I optimistically downloaded eight books onto my Kindle before heading west to the Island of Noirmoutier in the French Atlantic. Of the eight, there are three which I would recommend as great summer reading: good writing, interesting plot, not too heavy.

Show and Tell

We've all heard "Show, don't tell," but what does it mean in practice? Here's an example of telling (and of using the editor's bête noire, the manner adverb):

"I think we've gone off course or else I'm reading the chart wrong," Dahlia said nervously.

By you don't need to tell us that the character is nervous; you can show us.

Dahlia tapped a staccato beat against the chart table with a pair of brass dividers. "I think we've gone off course or else I'm reading the chart wrong," she said, gnawing at an already ragged thumbnail.

OK. Not great writing, but you get the idea. We're in the scene, observing the details, and we can draw our own conclusions.

Showing invites the reader into the story. Telling dumps information into the reader's brain. But of course you still need to tell some things. So what should you show and what should you tell? Writer/Editor Jason Black explains, 

You’re allowed to tell is anything that would be visible (audible, smellible, et cetera) to the reader if the reader were a fly on the wall in your scene, plus the viewpoint character’s inner monologue if you’re using that. All the stuff that’s directly manifest in the world of the story. Everything else, all the invisible stuff you want the reader to know, everything those flies on the wall would have to infer on the basis of what they observe, is what you need to show. Here’s the cool part: you show the invisible stuff by telling the visible stuff.

I'm a big teller in first drafts, and I always have to revise to show the story. How about you? Are you a teller or a shower?

—Kathy

Poetry: Goodbye, Dear Ladies

When we join plots, themes, thoughts and notation, out comes our own Swiss Confederation!

In sync we devise, scheme, and spin out a tale, with six, eight or more parts, we always prevail.

Our collected troupe crafts and composes each line, where evil and pure in our story entwine,

intrigue ensues quickly as features unfold, with narrations winsome or silly or bold.

Our narrator reads in a humorous tone, then we share hearty laugh or sometimes a groan.

Your Turn

Thanks to all of you for reading the blog over the past couple of months. I've had my say in over 40 posts. Now it's your turn.

Do you know of a resource that might benefit the group? Do you have a story to share about your writing or reading life? Do have a tale of woe or a success story about getting published? Have you written poetry, short fiction, or essays?

Don't be shy. Step forward and share it on the blog. (For right now, posting to the blog means sending your material to Ellen and me in an email.)

If you're comfortable with computers and email, please volunteer to help administer this site. In just the few minutes each month it takes to publish "Our Stories" and homepage blog posts, you'll be making a huge contribution to the writing group.

Heading west and signing off for now.

—Kathy

Wattpad: Social Writing

There's a new (well-financed) platform out there that helps aspiring writers connect directly with readers: Wattpad. The online social reading/writing platform already has over 5 millions stories posted, and millions of viewers visit each month. Investors see it as the YouTube of writing.

The service is free, and by joining Wattpad, writers can upload their novels a chapter at a time and get comments from readers. Some stories have had tens of thousands of views and comments. Readers get to have a participatory role in the creation of stories that's rare outside of writing groups and the publishing industry.

Weekly Roundup: The Craft and the Business

Conferences
This fall, local Zürich writers and editors from Nuance Words are sponsoring WriteCon Zürich 2012. I love the tagline: ". . . because everyone can write."


Contests

Flash your fiction with Writer Unboxed's 7 Sundays of Summer Flash Fiction Contest. Every Sunday a new image will be posted on Writer Unboxed. Just put your story (250 words or less) in the comments section. The competition deadline for the first week has passed, but it's not too late to add your story and then continue with the new image on Sunday, 8 July. 

After revving up with flash fiction, why not submit a somewhat longer story to the Writer's Digest Short Short Story Competition? The deadline is November 15. If you're a genre writer (whether romance, crime, young adult, or science fiction), check out the competitions in these categories (deadline September 14).

It's Better to Look Good

You've finished writing your novel, it's been revised and proofread to the point of perfection, and you're ready to send it out. Stop! Don't send your baby to the ball in raggedy jeans. Make her look pretty: Format your manuscript to professional standards. 

Weekly Roundup: The Craft and Business of Writing

Constance Hale wraps up  her New York Times series on writing with The Voice of the Storyteller.

Open Culture shares Kurt Vonnegut's Eight Tips on How to Write a Good Short Story.


In her Writers Don't Cry column, Susan J. Morris reminds us that "it's important to understand the tricks—and the traps—of first person narration."  

Morris also offers a few choice words on the powerful effect of punctuation and resisting the almost irresistible appeal of exclamation points, elipses, and em dashes.

And, Ben Yagoda explains why your editor may have been wrong to remove the comma following a sentence opening conjunction.

Children's book writer and editor Nina Hess reminds us that nerves and neuroses exist on both sides of the red pen.

Baltimore Sun editor John E. McIntyre points out the pitfalls of putting marketability before editing and answers the question of who is best equipped to tell an author she has spinach in her teeth.

—Kathy Lyon

What Does an Editor Do?

It seems like a simple question—what does an editor do? But there are many kinds of editing and lots of editorial titles (developmental, line, copy editor). 


The one thing all editors have in common is that they stand in for the reader, working with the author and the publisher to make sure the final text conveys the author's message as clearly and as seamlessly as possible. Good editing does not obscure or alter the author's voice. At the same time, good editing means that readers are not startled out of the story into an awareness of the text itself, whether by a sudden inconsistency in tone or by an unusual usage that does not serve the story or simply by numerous misspellings and grammatical errors. 

To keep things simple—and because many of us are working on novels or memoirs—I'll focus only on the stages of book editing for fiction and creative nonfiction.

Short Fiction: The Letter

It is right that we should part; I feel that deeply in my heart.

We are so different you and me; me and you. I have loved you for so long that even my vivid imagination cannot conceive of another person, another love in my life. We are intertwined like the twisted limbs of a rampant wisteria. At times abundant in uplifting bloom and at others with ill-formed whips waving aimlessly, desperately in the breeze; trying to form a lasting connection to grow along in tandem.

To continue is probably too hopeless; too painful. Yet we look at each other and we see a person who is akin to family. Someone we loved with every breath and someone who can bring us to rage.

Poetry: The Six Ages of Nature

Seasons come and seasons go
Yet the one thing that I know
Is how we look on nature’s gift
Depends on age for views to shift.

The small child is wild to touch and explore
Rolling in mud, grappling with the shore

A little older and nature must bend to our will
We’ll dam that creek, build a treehouse, yet still

Within a few years we’ve a billboard attention span
We want snow to ski and sun for our tan

As adults nature is no longer our friend
With the hard drive, stapler, phone and car we contend

But then a mature instinct takes flower
Our gardens, the season’s pure beauty gain power

’till finally with age wonders great and small we face
And appreciate within this bounty we have a place.

—Terri Martin

23 June

Short Fiction: Emotion

I saw him approaching the bus stop and envied him his air of golden assurance. From his neat haircut greying at the temples to his discreet cufflinks and polished brogues he gave off an aura of middle-aged success.

He sat in the bus shelter, placed his briefcase on his knees and slipped a photo from the front pocket.  Then his whole body language changed. His shoulders sagged and I caught a searing flash of raw pain in his eyes before he closed them. The low winter sun glinted off a tear in the corner of his eye. This he dashed away, then glanced swiftly either side to see if anyone had noticed. The chubby housewife nearby was busy trying to keep her many shopping bags from disarray. Meanwhile a teenage goth nodded into cyberspace to the pace of his blaring ipod.

Short Fiction: The Tube

She touched the little box in her pocket and smiled crookedly. Anybody watching Glenda would have noticed the immense sadness in her wide cornflower blue eyes or the droop of her thin shoulders, so at odds with the smile. Glenda knew, in fact, that she was quite invisible to the other commuters on the busy circle line tube, except for the two bearded men in dark clothing who were busy pretending not to look at her. They had been following her ever since she left her grim tower block flat at Elephant and Castle. It was clear to Glenda that they intended her to know that she was being monitored on this journey of vital importance to the sect.

Get Flashy: Say It in Six

I've been having fun today at Smith, brought to you by the creators of the six-word memoir. Can you really tell your life story in six words? Maybe. Some people can pack in quite a lot of meaning into six words. 


My goals were more modest. I came up with this and this. 

But I really loved this one, which is something I do at least once a day.


But if  six words are too few, you might want to try writing a story in six sentences. I thought this one was one of the best memorials I've seen for science fiction legend Ray Bradbury, who died on 6 June this year.

—Kathy Lyon

Short Fiction: Thanksgiving Day Parade, 1978

“Are you going out?” Aunt Mason sang out from the kitchen. “Dinner will be ready in an hour.”

Bodie hunched his narrow shoulders and hung his head to hide the blush rising up his neck, but he kept moving toward the front door.

Uncle Royce half levered his bulk out of a protesting Laz-Y-Boy. “You answer your mother now, Boy. And no sass.”

“Yes, sir.” Bodie slowed a fraction and said, “Going to see Leesha.” Then he just darted through the door, leaving behind the rising bellow from Uncle Royce’s chair and the shocked stares of the rest of the cousins.

Short Fiction: A Walk Around the Greifensee

Jim and Sue were often seen spending time walking on the path around the lake. They could drive by car to this lake outside of Zurich in ten minutes time. A walk around the lake took them less than 3 hours. Their record was 2 hours and 37 minutes. Having lived in the U.S. many years ago, they both enjoyed the fact that here there were no billboards and while at the lake, they both agreed to turn off their cell phones so as to enjoy the serenity and the sounds of the great outdoors.

Last week a couple Jim had met at his office agreed to join them for a walk around the lake. David and Sarah had come from quite a distance and when the two couples met at the parking lot at 10 a.m. David commented on the traffic in Zurich. “It was a hard drive, getting through the city, but here we are, looking forward to spending this great Spring day with you two.”

Jim and Sue’s eyes showed surprise as they watched David and Sarah pull backpacks out of their car and hang binoculars around their necks. “You never know when you might be lucky and see something special,” was David’s comment to Jim and Sue’s not knowing what to say.

Short Fiction: A Walk in the Morning

The plane landed on the uneven asphalt runway just as the sky was turning those magnificent colors she had always associated with sunset on a coast. Pinks, oranges, yellows, blues––the variety and patterns of the colors seemed to hold the promise of adventure for the next six days in Central America.

Karen had to admit to herself that she was a little nervous: There could be sudden coastal storms or disease-carrying mosquitoes or maybe even twenty-first century pirates. But Roger and she had decided months ago that this beach would be their destination––a warm climate away from the hectic pace of their jobs. For Roger, it offered a rich variety of tropical flora and fauna to photograph. Karen planned to enjoy the sun, walks on the beach and, generally, a peaceful week with Roger.

By the third day they had a routine. Roger got up early for his first walk of the day, camera in hand, and returned for a leisurely breakfast with her. Next, they would explore a new path, returning to the cabin for lunch and afternoons on the beach sitting or lying on the warm sand.

Help Me Test Drive My Design

I recently discovered an an amazing and affordable option for anyone looking for a custom graphic design, whether it's a logo, an icon, or a book cover.

http://99designs.com

It's called 99 Designs, and the concept behind it is called "crowdsourcing," which brings together groups to solve a specific problem.

Short Stories Don't Sell?

www.shortfirepress.com

Received wisdom holds that short stories don't sell. Many of the magazines and markets that once offered new writers a place to start no longer exist. And if your name is not Alice Munro, don't get your hopes up for getting a collection of your stories published.

Enter Shortfire Press, which launched in 2010 and specializes in short stories, publishing them in digital-only formats (Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, iPad, and PDF). You can download stories from the Shortfire website, or, if you have a Kindle, you can buy their titles from Amazon (US and UK sites).

Poetry: Perfect World

If it was a perfect world
We’d all have perfect smiles, perfect feet.
There’d be no sadness, no defeat,
No missing shoes or lost regrets
And certainly no misplaced bets.
Or was that debts?
I’m actually not quite sure.

If it was a perfect world
With plenty of food and lots to drink;
We wouldn’t see sorrow, or hunger or cold.
No need to worry about heating or gas,
Homes would be certain, no doubt of rent.
There would be no crying, no disdain;
We’d feel no emptiness, no loss, or shame.

If it was a perfect world
All would be exciting for a newborn child.
Questions asked would answers reach.
Seekers hunt for the known would keep
Curiosity ever on the breach;
Gladness at the forefront level,
Or was it glossy front page covers?
Oh Dear, It’s just not certain.

If it was a perfect world
I’d pray the world my soul to keep
But if I should die before I wake
Would I ask to be forsaked?
Should I really, after all?
Judgment is cruel
and I am really rather small.

If it was a perfect world
Would I see it, would I feel it?
Would I open up my eyes?
Or just turn and hide my fears
Behind my nightskirts or sisters shields?
Hope is elusive in shadowy form
While temptation teases us with haste.
Oh, do not let me force this pace
So I may miss it if I stop the chase.


—GBD
April 2012

Poetry: Together

He said it would be exciting
He said it was true
I sat by his feet with anticipation
Waiting to see it through

He stood proudly forward
One foot upon the rock
The adventure is just beginning
So please don’t stay upon the dock

I gathered my skirts around me
As a chill brushed across my face
I leaned close with ear turned toward him
So no word would escape

With a sweep of his arm he continued
Staring over the rushing flow
Perhaps it was his enthusiasm
Which electrified my skin so

He said it would be exciting
He turned and took my hand
I cannot wait to get started
When next to me you stand

So off we went embarking
On a tumultuous road therein
and never would I change the way
together we have been

—GBD

28 May 2012

Short Fiction: Sketches

She was lying on her back with one arm thrown over her face in the afternoon sun. An open sketch book sat empty and exposed beside her.  A pale pink Izod sweater was tossed carelessly on top of her book bag. Her bare feet twitched as the willowy stalks of grass took turns genuflecting against her skin.

‘I know another way to tickle your toes.’
She started at the sound of his voice.
‘What are you doing here?’

‘I could ask the same of you.’
‘I’m escaping.’
‘Well, I heard there are young females unattended in the commons so I thought I would offer my protection.’

‘From what’?
‘I could be a stalker who waited outside your class and silently followed you off campus to a secluded place’.

Short Fiction: A Disturbance in the Neighborhood

A disturbance in this neighborhood is nothing new, but tonight we actually woke up. We easily tolerate barking dogs, horn-tooting cars, and crying babies. These noises are forgivable. But now—since the new neighbors had moved in—new sounds disturb the familiar patina of neighborhood life.

They came quietly at first, not speaking our language and trying to fit in. But we didn’t let them. They must have felt unloved and unwanted.

One morning, loud screaming came from their kitchen window and then crying and then a big bang. What to do? Should we call the police? Should we go over and investigate—maybe even help? Typically Swiss, none of us wanted to interfere; no one ventured over. And things quieted down.

Later, in the supermarket, I saw the woman. She was hiding under a big scarf, but a blue-green bruise peeked through. I felt like holding her hand, hugging her, asking her to my house—but I didn’t. I wasn’t able to break free from my strict, socially molded corset.

—Susi Spinatsch

March 12, 2012

What I'm Reading Now

Write a lot and read a lot.

—Stephen King 

At our monthly gatherings I always want to ask what everyone is reading, but somehow there never seems to be enough time. In the hopes that you'll share if I do, here's what I'm reading now (or have just finished reading).

My current reading actually breaks out into three main categories: fiction, memoirs, and books on the craft(s) of editing and writing. OK. There's more nonfiction, too, but this post is already too long.

Fiction. I like genre fiction (SF, fantasy, mystery), and I love writers who play with genre tropes. My current list doesn't really reflect this, however. Just thought you should know. 

What Your Editor Needs from You

If you're still working on the first draft of your novel (or even the third draft), you can ignore this post. Just file it away until your manuscript is headed for the copy editor's desk.

Your copy editor is going to need your help in order to do the best job possible for your readers, for your publisher, and for you.

Here's what she will need:

1. A complete list of characters: their names and nicknames (spelled correctly), their physical traits and any key specifics about their histories and personalities, and any relationships between your characters (spouse, grandchild, sister). If your blond protagonist became a redhead halfway through the novel, and you forgot to go back and change all of the earlier references to hair color, your copy editor is going to need to know which one you want.

Poetry: Expat Trilogy, Part III

TIME TO GO ALREADY??

Just eight more weeks then out the door; in Switzerland, I’ll live no more
No more moist Kase firm and ripe, nor young ones treading the zebra stripe
Keine church bells ringing a joyful tune, in morning, evening, weekend, noon
No more Hoi!, Gruetzi! or Guten Tag!, but back to daily, work week slog
No TRAMs that rumble on metal feet, nor trains that whiz by sleek and neat
Or breads with seeds and fruits galore, on brimming shelves in nearby store
No Zwanzig Minuten on morning trip, or Blick am Abend to read so quick
Ixnay on stands with veggies fresh, or Wochenmarkt with sausage flesh
That hangs in lovely shape and size, enticing hausfraus with their buys
Of crisp produce, eggs, flowering blooms, mandlebrot and weiss mushrooms
No ancient church of wood and rock, where candles burn around the clock
Their hand forged locks to guard the space, watched oer’ by hero’s marble face
Zilch cows with ringing metal bells, which echo in Swiss hills and dells
No more Akkusative edict frame, like “der to den, die, das the same”
Zip Alp chateau with rock and tile, their fensters adorned in canton style
No hairpin turns on mountain road or trying to remember my postal code
And zero Roman Turms and walls, or monasteries festooned halls
Grossmunster no more to see or Zurich University
Adieu to Dolder and Poly Bahn, and sun on China Garten lawn
The Brockihaus I’ll shop no more, nor pop into the Globus Store,
My American girlfriends helped my stay, with coffee and workshops and trips away

This year soon over to “home” I go, it feels as if three months ago
I landed for a year abroad and wondered at the path I’d trod
In retrospect, I’ve become freed, as life brought to me folks I need
To inspire and nurture my poet’s voice, they cheered and encouraged my vocal choice
For my journey was outside and inside as well, a chance to discard an unflattering shell
To unknot my nitpicking habit of doubt, to climb from deep crevice and finally break out
And release old emotions I’ve tried to repress, and drop my perfectionist need for success
“Not good enough” to “I’m as good as I can be”, my thanks to der Schweiz for my new liberty

—Jocelyn Moore

March 2012

Poetry: Expat Trilogy, Part II

Homesick

Hustle, bustle, they’ve lots to do; Banking, museums, even a zoo,
This urban spot, I’m out of place; back in the Rockies is my kind of space
And form with snow on mountain peak; but that is not my life each week.
A mother’s call, the rush hour sound; cacophony is all around
With folks above, beside, below; tobacco stench and odors flow
Into my windows opened wide; Inviting air - not smells - inside.
The downstairs neighbor drunken roars, the upstairs neighbor midnight snore
Construction traffic rumbles by; and overhead Swiss airplanes fly.
So grey and rainy many times; with serenades by church bell chimes,

I long for views of miles away; of sage and summer native hay
Which ripen helped by substream flow; and sunny hours of daylight glow
The granite slant above Green Lake; the rainbow trout which rise to take
their meal on cold, wet, tabletop; the shy pronghorn which run nonstop
and dusky eye of mule deer fawn; the winter tracks outlined at dawn
reveal the path of moose and mouse; the tug of home and hearth and house.

But daydreams such are not to be; I’m “foreign” in a strange country -
Is who I am, my life for now; but then, I’ll take a final bow
And shake the dust from off my shoe; and look at home with eyes anew
The commonplace, the everyday; yet miracles for in their way,
I see my own and understand; the blessings of a native land.

—Jocelyn Moore

October 2011

Poetry: Expat Trilogy, Part I

Auf Wiedersehen Wyoming!

Passports, bank drafts, Visas and more, what to sell and what to store?
A dog, two homes, two cars, one truck, to rent or not to make a buck?
We handle the treasures, the junk and then, a goodbye hug and kiss for kin.
Home folks no more, we're "foreign" soon, and "der mittag" we'll say for noon,
excitement in our trepidation, a change in scene and job and station.
We're off to search for aquatic bugs tho' Wyoming on our heartstring tugs.
Our new abode an ancient land with modern features shaped by hand,
and chiseled out by glacial force, the mighty Alps are just as coarse,
and sharp as Rocky Mountain range, though short of elk and grouse and sage.
From hinterland to city life, Professor Thompson and his wife
with bus and train and bike, we'll go, the urban path - goodbye to slow!
We're off to the Schweiz with flags unfurled and "little things that run the world"!!

—Jocelyn Moore

August 2011

Read to Write: Screenplays

If you're considering writing a screenplay, you probably already know that it's a highly technical field with strict formatting rules. But just like writing in any other genre, you'll want to read lots of examples as you begin working in the genre.

IMSDb, an online script database, will help you get started.

Poetry and Prose in Amsterdam

If you missed the Zürich Writers Workshop last weekend, then you might want to register for The Amsterdam Creative Writing Weekend, which features both prose and poetry and runs 20–22 July. Registration is open now.

Getting into Print (or Pixels): One More for May

Ellen reminded me about another great publishing opportunity: Glimmer Train. The quarterly accepts unsolicited stories and reports "86% of the stories we accepted last year came to us directly from the writer. That’s exactly how we like it."

In general the press looks for previously unpublished stories and pays $700 on acceptance of a standard submission. There is no reading fee for standard submissions, but competitions require a modest fee (and pay out more). For more on submitting to Glimmer Train, see the guidelines.

An Anaconda Eating a Rat? From Idea to Publication

We talk a lot about how our ideas can become books. Here's the lowdown from Weldon Owen on how this really happens. Well, at least 74 percent of the time.

Show Me the Money

If you're exploring self-publishing, you've probably already noticed that it's not cheap, especially if you've decided pay for professional editing, cover design and book design. The good news is that now there is a way to reach out to friends and strangers for support. Kickstarter provides a platform for artists of all kinds, including writers, to raise funds through the magic of crowdfunding.

By offering a small benefit and sense of participation in the project, artists are able to raise thousands in small amounts, often asking for contributions as small as a dollar. Benefits can be an advance copy of a book, a special edition just for contributors, or some kind of experience tailored to the book's theme. One of the most successfully funded projects right now is a YA series, Wollenstonecraft.

This is the made up story about two very real girls – Ada, the world's first computer programmer, and Mary, the world's first science fiction author – caught up in a steampunk world of hot-air balloons and steam engines, jewel thieves and mechanical contraptions.  For readers 8-12. (Wollenstonecraft on Kickstarter)

In fact, this is a book I would support. If you have a story (or magazine or website) that you think others would like to see become a reality, check out Kickstarter.

Update 6 June: I've just learned that Kickstarter is restricted to those with a US address, US bank account and credit card, and a US driver's license. But there are also European crowdfunding sites: Indiegogo and Ulule. In Australia, check out Pozible. Find even more info on crowdfunding in this post.

Back to School?

I just came across a master's program in creative writing at the University of Edinburgh that I wanted to share. It's an online, three-year, part-time program leading to an MSc in Creative Writing. You can take a certificate at the end of the fist year if you decide not to continue. The cost is GBP 3000 per academic year, and the program starts in September.

I don't think that anyone needs a creative writing program to write professionally, but for some the academic setting is productive, resulting in both finished projects and industry contacts. Has anyone enrolled in (or graduated from) an MFA program in the States or Europe? How did it help (or not help) you?

Getting into Print (or Pixels): Three for May

We all already know about most of the local opportunities to make a splash in the small pond of our local English-language publications, but it takes some research and luck to find other opportunities. I will post opportunities to get into print (or pixels) as I find them under the "Getting into print" header.

All of the following accept unsolicited queries, and all of them use an online submission system called submishmash. It's pretty easy to use if you already know how to use Word and attachments.

First up, an opportunity to get your short fiction or poetry published (max 1500 words) with Monkeybicyle. This online magazine is also published in print twice a year. You won't get paid by this tiny literary magazine, but you will be in the company of some talented writers, including Matt Briggs, Annam Manthiram, and Aaron Burch.

Next [PANK] Magazine, a free online, nonprofit literary monthly, looks for emerging writers engaged in experimental poetry and prose. Their submissions page includes a great recommendation for all writers looking for a home for their work: "First, read [PANK]. If you don’t love what you read, it’s very unlikely we’ll end up in bed together." Perhaps it goes without saying, but this is not a paying gig.

Finally, the cottage industry that started as a tiny literary mag, McSweeney's. They don't care about your MFA or your clips, according to the submissions guideline for Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. They don't accept poetry, however. They do pay, but don't expect big bucks.

McSweeny's also accepts book manuscripts. Currently they are accepting cookbooks and poetry collections.

Great American Fiction Contest

The Saturday Evening Post has launched the Great American Fiction Contest. The Post's publisher says, "We are looking for stories with universal appeal touching on shared experiences and themes that will resonate with readers from diverse backgrounds and experience." The contest is a great opportunity for previously unpublished authors.

Stories must be 1500–5000 words, and the deadline for entry is July 1, 2012. Find out more here.

Getting into Print: Anthologies

If you haven't considered anthologies, you should. According to editor Candace Walsh, anthologies can provide a great way to get a clip and meet other writers. Walsh advises writers to check out anthologies in bookstores and see who is publishing them and then visit the publishers' websites for submissions guidelines and deadlines. (Hint: Follow the guidelines!)

Writer Abroad recently posted a list of upcoming deadlines for anthology submissions. Chicken Soup for the Soul and Traveler's Tales have posted current calls for submissions. Although they don't have any open calls currently, Seal Press frequently publishes anthologies on women's issues and is worth keeping an eye on.

Do you know any publishing with open calls for anthology submissions?

Welcome to Our Blog

The Women's Writing Group of Zürich is a support network for women writers, from aspiring novelists to published poets, and we've started a blog to provide resources, space to publish, and inspiration for our members.

On our home page you'll find posts about publishing opportunities, author interviews, and recent work from our members. (Our members' work is also archived on the Our Stories page.) You'll find resources on everything from grammar to self-publishing in the Writers Tool Kit, and exercises from previous Women's Writing Group meetings on the next tab.

If you're a member of the group and would like to guest post or share a story, please contact us.