February on the Six Questions For. . . blog

Below is the schedule of postings for February 2010 on Six Questions For . . . Because of the better than expected response from the editors I contacted, I’m posting three time a week this month. Hey, the wonderful answers provided don’t help anyone if their hibernating on my laptop. :) Enjoy.


2/1—Six Questions for J.W. Wang, Editor, Juked
2/3—Six Questions for Wendy S. Delmater, Editor, Abyss & Apex Magazine of Speculative Fiction
2/5—Six Questions for Six Questions for Rick Rofihe, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Anderbo
2/8—Six Questions for Kaolin Fire, Founding Editor, GUD
2/10—Six Questions for Katherine A. Patterson, Senior Editor, AlienSkin Magazine
2/12—Six Questions for Six Questions for M. Bartley Seigel, editor & founder, PANK Magazine
2/15—Six Questions for , Robert Neilson, Editor, Albedo One
2/17—Six Questions for Jay Faulkner, Editor, With Painted Words
2/19—Six Questions for Camille Gooderham Campbell, Managing Editor, Every Day Fiction
2/22—Six Questions for Kimberlee Williams, Managing Editor, Vanilla Heart Publishing
2/24—Six Questions for E.S. Wynn, Editor, Weirdyear
2/26—Six Questions for Stefanie Freele, Fiction Editor, The Los Angeles Review

http://sixquestionsfor.blogspot.com/

If you stop by, leave a comment for the editor. I'm sure it will be appreciated, and the name recognition won't hurt if you submit to the publication in the future.

Agent Contest

Kidlit Contest

Mary Cole, one of the agents at Andrea Brown Literary Agency is having a contest.

Show her the first 500 words of your completed middle-grade or young adult novel!

Click the link above and HURRY!! Contest ends on January 31st.

Nonfiction Catagory

I'm coming in to say how proud I am of all three editors at Apollo's Lyre:

Jim Harrington and Earl Staggs tied in 7th spot in the Nonfiction article catagory at the 2009 Preditors and Editors Voting Polls.

Charles Mossop came in 8th spot.

All three editors are exceptional in their catagories and wanted to share the good news.

The award (which makes it three if we separate them) can be seen here:
Awards

As the rest of the final results come in I'll update everyone.

In the Fiction catagory, Apollo's Lyre came in 14th out of 24 spots. There's always next year.

We'd like to thank everyone who voted for us.

Lea Schizas

Outline? Me?

In the February issue of The Writer, Chuck Leddy writes, “Instead of relying on, and blindly following, some plot outline, [John] Dufresne asks you to embrace the challenges of finding what your novel is about as you write it.”  [Chuck Leddy in his review of Is Life Like This?: A Guide to Writing Your First Novel in Six Months, by John Dufresne. The Writer, February 2010.]

In a separate article, Steve Weinberg quotes Gay Talese, who says, “Before I sit down at my typewriter, I have charted a course from scene to scene, character to character, and chapter to chapter. The end result is an outline that looks a lot like a director’s storyboard.” [Gay Talese in “Outlining: The Writer’s Road Map,” as reported by Steve Weinberg in his review of Now Write! Nonfiction: Memoir, Journalism, and creative Nonfiction Exercises From Today’s Best Writer and Teachers. The Writer, February 2010.]

For writers, this may be the equivalent of the eternal “the chicken or the egg” argument. As shown above, many authors prefer to outline a story and others don’t want to know what’s going to happen in their story until they reach the words "The End."

I don’t outline, but I don’t write novels either. I wrote a novelette that I gave to family and friends as a Christmas present this year. It grew from a flash piece that wasn’t accepted by any editors. The story ended up as chapter four in the book. I didn’t have a plan when I started writing. I simply created a storyline that took me to the scene depicted in chapter four. That turned out to be the easy part of the book. Perhaps it was because I had an ending point or goal to reach. Hmm... Did I just provide a valid reason why I should create an outline first? Naah.

How about you? Do you outline or not?

Agents and the Novice Writer

“Just as in every other profession, you need to show your potential employers (agents and publishers) that you know what you're doing and that you're good at it—BEFORE they'll take a chance on you.” -- Rob Pernell in To Have and Agent or Not to Have an Agent—That is the Question.

In this article, Mr. Pernell states that having an agent rarely helps a novice writer, and many publishers won’t deal with unagented authors. Why? Because they don’t know if the author is serious about being an writer. It takes time and money to finalize and promote a book—things agents and publishers won’t waste on untested talent. So does the novice author give up? No, says Mr. Parnell.

To show you’re serious about writing, there are other things you can do. Write short stories and get them published. Enter contests. Again, the best option may be in the areas of short stories and memoirs. Novel competitions are a possibility, but they’re going to be full of entries from MFA graduates who have received “power” critiques from professors and peers of their work. Submit an excerpt from your novel for publication, again a highly competitive option. Research and write non-fiction articles about writing techniques. Start a blog, one that is professional and attracts lots of followers. Once published in these areas, you can provide a resume that says to an agent/publisher that you are a serious writer who is in it for the long run.

So don’t pooh pooh other forms of writing because “I want to be a novelist.” Everything you write will lead you to your eventual goal—a book with your name on the cover flying off the shelves at Barnes & Noble.


This post is duplicated on my personal blog.

Preditors and Editors Voting Polls

Apollo's Lyre and several of its writers are in the Preditors and Editors Voting polls. Below are the catagories and names we invite you to vote for. We appreciate your support:

Fiction ezine
Apollo’s Lyre
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/fictionzine.shtml

Poetry Zine
Apollo’s Lyre
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/poetryzine.shtml

Nonfiction Zine
Apollo’s Lyre
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/nonfictionzine.shtml

Short stories
"A Song for Andre" August Apollo's Lyre, by David J. Rank
At the Fork in the Road, Mark Chorna, October
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/shortstory.shtml

Nonfiction article
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/nonfiction.shtml
Write Tight by Earl Staggs
Worlds Apart by Charles Mossop
Finding a Story Idea: An Example, Jim Harrington, August

Ezine editor
Lea Schizas – Apollo’s Lyre
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/zineeditor.shtml

Thank you for your support.

Happy New Year!

Everyone at Apollo`s Lyre would like to wish you and your family health, happiness, and success in 2010.