Another View of Rewriting

A quote from Author Peter Murphy:

"Rewriting is like scrubbing the basement floor with a toothbrush."

One of my writer friends who doesn't like to rewrite said that quote resonated because his basement has a dirt floor.

Rewriting

Here's a quote from Arthur Polotnik:

"You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke."

Agent April Eberhardt

April is enthusiastic when she hears about writers' projects.I had pitched my novel to her at the S.F. Writers Conference a couple of times. This year I attended one of her talks and found out that she has started her own agency.

website: www.aprileberhardt.com

email: april@aprileberhardt.com

She "specializes in high quality women's fiction: thoughtful, carefully crafted narratives by, for and about women." She understands both traditional and electronic marketplaces.

Check out her website and see if she might be a match for your work.

A Tribute to Stories, Writers, and Readers

Anne Ayers Koch is working on an outstanding book, a book of reflections on stories. Here is a peek from the preface where she quotes Martin Tupper in "On Reading" in 1838: "A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever."

Anne ended the preface with "Here's to some good friends!"

I'll let you know when her book is published so you can revisit good friends and enjoy her writing.

Pleasanton Poetry, Prose, and Arts Festival

Another year, another festival over. It was held at the Pleasanton Firehouse instead of the Pleasanton Senior Center.

David Alpaugh's workshop included his outstanding handouts. He encouraged writers to explore Duotrope's Digest, a free writers' resource listing over 3325 current Fiction and Poetry publications. It's an efficient way to search for markets. Find the list that fits for you, click on the detail button to find out which market is looking for what. Another plus is that Duotrope gives the payscale and the markets' average response times. It's easy to navigate, even for me.

There's a sign up for email notification of their updates.

Worth checking out.

First Sentence Quote

Prose says it perfectly in one sentence what we take hours, days, weeks, months, and sometimes years to get right.

"Your first sentence should make a promise that the rest of the story will keep." - Francine Prose

Imagination

Author Neale Donald Walsch emails daily inspirations and although today's is geared for a spiritual message, I think it works for writers too. "...that imagination is your greatest gift. Do not be afraid to use it."