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Creative Writing Blog, Articles, News, and MoreThis 'Creative Writing Blog' is utilitarian, meant to show at a glance what's new to the site. If something strikes me, I write a short note about it. If I add a page
to the site, or update existing pages, they're all listed here. All the creative writing tips and articles remain here until they are bumped off by newer items, so checking back regularly
will keep you up to date on changes, and permanent articles can always be found through the sitemap or internal links. Every time I update the Creative Writing Contests page the link shows up here, and this is also where I add some of the tidbits that I post on Twitter. While this is primarily a blog about writing fiction, I also post time sensitive book news or author announcements that I don't want to turn into permanent web pages
because the information or opportunity is likely to change. For more creative writing news and information, follow me on Twitter. Please help Be-a-Better-Writer.com Grow. Link to this page or click below to LIKE it and share this no-frills creative writing blog with your friends: If you have an RSS reader, be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed at the bottom of the left column for automatic updates whenever I add something new. Return from the Creative Writing Blog to the Home page
Jun 01, 2013Short Story and Creative Writing Contests and CompetitionsShort Story and other creative writing contests and competitions with big cash prizes like the ones below can provide a real step up for writers. Writing competitions can jumpstart a career. Continue reading "Short Story and Creative Writing Contests and Competitions" May 26, 2013Lee Kvern Wins First Prize in 2012 Hazel Hilles Memorial Short Fiction AwardLee Kvern wins First Prize in 2012 Hazel Hilles Memorial Short Fiction Award Continue reading "Lee Kvern Wins First Prize in 2012 Hazel Hilles Memorial Short Fiction Award" May 06, 2013Pursue your creative writing dreams with creative writing tips, help, and resources from novelist Pearl Luke.creative writing website with creative writing tips and ideas, writing prompts, writing activities, character name generator, and more to help anyone write better. Apr 29, 2013Where to Read Short Stories OnlineRead short stories online. Links to high quality online fiction, the best new literary fiction online offered by the Book Trust, publishers, universities, and quality online journals. Apr 18, 2013Mentoring RatesMentoring Rates--services and rates for writing feedback, assessment, and courses Apr 18, 2013Writing Contests: How to Win More, Spend LessApproach creative writing contests with winning attitude and adequate preparation. Know what editors want in a winning story. Avoid the frustrating experience of rejection and non-responsiveness. Continue reading "Writing Contests: How to Win More, Spend Less" Apr 16, 2013Space and Punctuate Dialogue Correctly: Creative Writing Success TipsCreative Writing Success Tips: How to Punctuate Dialogue Correctly. Creative writers: Learn these few rules of punctuation to write dialogue with clarity. Continue reading "Space and Punctuate Dialogue Correctly: Creative Writing Success Tips" Apr 16, 2013Creative Writing Quotes.Creative Writing Quotes to inspire Creative Writers. Quotations about writing, words, paragraphs and motivation. Apr 16, 2013681 Cliches to Avoid in Your Creative Writing500 Cliches to avoid in your creative writing. Writing that relies heavily on cliches is considered poor or lazy writing. Editors may reject creative writing on the basis of too many hackneyed words and phrases alone. Continue reading "681 Cliches to Avoid in Your Creative Writing" Apr 16, 2013Creative Writing ActivitiesOriginal creative writing activities for the classroom or workshop. Apr 16, 2013Sitemap for Be a Better Writer and Pearl Luke.comSitemap for Be a Better Writer and Pearl Luke Continue reading "Sitemap for Be a Better Writer and Pearl Luke.com" Apr 12, 2013Participles: Bothersome VerbsParticiples: When to use them, when to avoid them in your creative writing Mar 19, 2013DEADLINE APRIL 30TH, 2013, Mystery & Mayhem Cozy Awards, Prize: $250http://chantireviews.com/contests/cozy-mystery-novels-writing-contests-mystery-and-mayhem-mm-awards/ Manuscripts (completed) and Published Novels, including Continue reading "DEADLINE APRIL 30TH, 2013, Mystery & Mayhem Cozy Awards, Prize: $250" Dec 25, 2012Creative Writing Degree Programs in Canada and the United StatesCanadian and US Creative Writing Degree Programs Continue reading "Creative Writing Degree Programs in Canada and the United States" Dec 17, 2012Creative Writing Contest Creative writing contest. The Hazel Hilles Memorial Short Fiction Prize is open to anyone writing in English. Deadline September 18,2012 Dec 11, 2012ADVENTURE MEMOIR December 6 BOOK GIVEAWAY at BookClubBuddy.comISLAND BORN by Frank Burnaby is an unforgettable adventure memoir about how the author and his wife stopped their sailing adventure to have their baby on a deserted island! This book would make a great Christmas gift! I am particularly delighted to see ISLAND BORN now available, as I first became aware of it a few years ago when the author asked me to do a manuscript evaluation. I had trouble putting it down and was so impressed with the story that I asked my literary agent if she would take a look at it. She also loved the book, and she offered to represent Frank. I was thrilled for him. But, oddly, the agent was unable to place the book. Publishers liked the story, they said, but they believed it would be difficult to market. The author discusses this in an INTERVIEW about the book and makes their comments available on his website. So I highly recommend this fascinating adventure memoir about how the author and his wife had their first son on a deserted island in the Indian Ocean! About the author: As a youth, Frank Burnaby says he survived his parent’s good intentions when they enrolled him in military school in the seventh grade. There he learned to disassemble and reassemble his rifle with his eyes closed, and to pull weeds for not having a mirror shine on his shoes. He spent his high school years at a boarding school in New Jersey. In 1969, after a stint at San Francisco State University film school, Frank boarded a freighter bound for North Africa. Hitchhiking across Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, he made his way through India and South East Asia, to remote islands in Indonesia by native boat, and finally on to Hong Kong where he taught English. Landing back in New York City he drove a taxi at night, and studied acting at Herbert Berghof Studios. He found work as an actor and was offered the principal part in a travel adventure feature film, but instead of pursuing an acting career he opened a vegetarian taco stand, which thrived on the edge of the meat packing district. Drawn to the sea and his dream of sailing to a tropical wilderness, he took a job as an apprentice shipwright in a Los Angeles marina. Soon after, he set off with his soon-to-be wife, Gayle, to purchase a small vintage sailboat in England. He was 27, and she was 17. The ensuing five year voyage, eastward across the Indian Ocean, and their experience living on an uninhabited island changed his life forever. This is the story, Island Born. To read more about this book and enter the draw, please visit Island Born at BookClubBuddy.com and follow the directions at the bottom of the page. DRAW ENDS midnight December 12, 2012 Continue reading "ADVENTURE MEMOIR December 6 BOOK GIVEAWAY at BookClubBuddy.com" Nov 23, 2012November 22nd BOOK GIVEAWAY at BookClubBuddy.comThe Village of Many Hats is an endearing children's book and would make the perfect stocking stuffer. Written for ages 7 to 10, it will be enjoyed by a wider age group, and will be particularly enjoyable and heartwarming for adults who read with their young ones. I read it on the plane, all the time wishing I were reading it with my grandson, who will love it. The Village of Many Hats is a novella told from the point of view of nine-year-old Gina. She and her family live in Silverado, a mountain village, which used to be prosperous but has now fallen on hard economic times. Gina's sister, Sara, is ill with a heart condition, and the book is about how the village pulls together to assist with this crisis and others, and how they show their kindness to Gina, as well, who suffers not only loneliness and worry, but guilty feelings of being overlooked. In the author's words, "It takes a village to raise a child and to care for families in crisis." It is impossible to read this book without understanding the value of a caring community. It's a thought-provoking read for children and adults! To read more about this book, please visit The Village of Many Hats by Caroline Woodward, at BookClubBuddy.com and follow the directions at the bottom of the page. Continue reading "November 22nd BOOK GIVEAWAY at BookClubBuddy.com" Nov 17, 2012November 15th BOOK GIVEAWAY at BookClubBuddy.comWith Reconciliation, Dorothy Speak's third collection of stories, I feel as if I have discovered this author all over again, with the same degree of guilty pleasure I experienced when reading her novel The Wife Tree (Random House, 2001)--guilty because when I recognize myself in her characters it is often through their flaws, as they act in ways I understand, but wish I did not. The characters in this collection are strong, sometimes selfish, sometimes unkind, but always fascinating. However they act, whatever befalls them, it's easy to admire them because they carry on and persevere. Dorothy Speak writes that she feels most comfortable among friends, because she "believes the only reason to be alive is to connect with others." Reading Reconciliation, one will recognize the compassion and acceptance with which Speak observes those around her. BCB: In addition to writing, what else are you passionate about? Dorothy Speak: Nature, tennis and good films (usually foreign). BCB: What do you think readers would be most surprised to learn about you? Dorothy Speak: That I’m shy. BCB: What’s the best decision you’ve ever made, and why? Dorothy Speak: To leave my government job and become a writer. There is little latitude for independence and creativity in bureaucracy. I am lucky I had the liberty of abandoning a good salary to pursue my true calling. To read more about this book and enter the draw, please visit Reconciliation at BookClubBuddy.com and follow the directions at the bottom of the page until November 20, 2012. Continue reading "November 15th BOOK GIVEAWAY at BookClubBuddy.com" Nov 09, 2012November 8th BOOK GIVEAWAY at BookClubBuddy.comNovember 8th BOOK GIVEAWAY at BookClubBuddy.com INTERSECTING SETS: A Poet Looks at Science by Alice Major. This smart book of essays won the Wilfrid Eggleston Award, and I like what the prize jury said about it: "For the elegance and precision of its language, the encyclopedic reach of its knowledge, and the daring of its thought, this book is a winner. "Every page offers fresh insight and challenging intellectual vistas, yet the text never loses itself in a fog of abstraction. There’s always someone or something – a cat named Pushkin, a bird on a credit card, an old man walking, walking, reciting his poems—to ground the conceptual universe in the sensory world. "Measured against the writer’s intentions and the pleasure it offers to readers, this book is practically perfect." - Jury Comments, Wilfrid Eggleston Award Alice Major has published nine highly praised poetry collections, three of which have been shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award, given annually for best book of poetry by a Canadian woman. In 2009, she won that award for The Office Tower Tales. She has also received the Stephan G. Stephansson Award (for Memory’s Daughter). For Intersecting Sets: A Poet Looks at Science, she has received the Wilfrid Eggleston non-fiction prize by the Writers Guild of Alberta and a National Magazine Award gold medal. She was born in Scotland and grew up in Toronto, before coming west to work on a weekly newspaper in the Cariboo. She arrived in Edmonton in 1981 and has made her home here ever since. During that time she has also contributed extensively to the writing community. as president of the League of Canadian Poets, president of the Writers Guild of Alberta and chair of the Edmonton Arts Council. She has also worked on the boards of local groups like the Stroll of Poets Society and Edmonton’s Litfest. From 2005-2007, she served as first poet laureate for the city of Edmonton. During that time, she wrote poems on subjects from potholes to hockey playoffs and served as an ambassador for her art form, and founded the Edmonton Poetry Festival. In June, 2012 she was inducted in the Edmonton Arts and Culture Hall of Fame. To read more about this book, please visit Intersecting Sets: A Poet Looks at Science at BookClubBuddy.com and follow the directions at the bottom of the page. Continue reading "November 8th BOOK GIVEAWAY at BookClubBuddy.com" Oct 19, 2012TRACIE'S REVENGE AND OTHER STORIES by Wade Bell. October 18th BOOK GIVEAWAY at BookClubBuddy.com.If you enjoy hard hitting literary fiction, the short stories in Tracie's Revenge and Other Stories are exceptional. We see characters act in ways or have thoughts that few people would admit to in life. "Tracie's Revenge" is about a young woman who daydreams that her husband will die at the sawmill where he works so she can have his truck and life insurance. She's no criminal, just a young mother married to a man upon whom bill collectors call often: If the phone call was from someone collecting a debt, it would mean Gene wasn't at work. They always went there first to look for him and phoned him at home as a last resort. He wouldn't be in the bar or any other place in town where they could find him. He'd be driving around the country roads with a bottle of rye and his shotgun. (copyright Wade Bell) A number of the stories are both shocking and memorable. To read more about this book and enter the draw, please visit Tracie's Revenge and Other Stories at BookClubBuddy.com and follow the directions at the bottom of the page. ALSO FEATURED THIS WEEK: LOVE ANTHONY, fiction by New York Times bestselling author LISA GENOVA. Enter by October 23RD for your chance to win a copy of either book. Oct 11, 2012OCT 11th BOOK GIVEAWAY: TWO BOOKS up for grabs this week!36 CORNELIAN AVENUE by Christopher Wiseman. October 11th BOOK GIVEAWAY at BookClubBuddy.com. In clear, quick-moving colloquial poetry, Chris Wiseman explores how the Second World War affected his family and his neighbours, and how the experience toughened the frightened women and children into survivors, waiting for their men to come home. About the Author Christopher Wiseman has a daunting list of literary accomplishments. He founded the Creative Writing Program at the University of Calgary, and was first Founding Vice-President, and later President of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. Only last month, he received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal from the Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta, and in 2010, he was elected to the Order of Canada for his writing, mentoring, editing and many other contributions to Canadian literature, as both a poet and professor. I asked him about his reaction to these honours: Christopher Wiseman: My reaction to being elected to the Order of Canada was surprise. I had won awards before - Alberta Order of Excellence, the Writers Guild Poetry Award, the Alberta Literary Arts award, the W.O.Mitchell City of Calgary Award, a Teaching Excellence Award at the UofC, etc. They had all been wonderful, but not totally from left field. I knew I might possibly be lucky enough to win one or two of them, but the Order of Canada (2010) was a huge and unexpected honour, as was the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal(2012) as these are national awards that put me in a company of extremely distinguished Canadians. I still wonder if they made a mistake giving these awards to me, but I am so pleased and humbled, and delighted to have them, in the name of poetry and teaching and literature, and on behalf of all my poetry students at UofC, from whom over 150 books have been published since I knew them as my eager students. I am unbelievably lucky. To read more about this book and enter the draw, please visit 36 Cornelian Avenue at BookClubBuddy.com and follow the directions at the bottom of the page. ALSO FEATURED THIS WEEK: The Secret Keeper, fiction by New York Times bestselling author Kate Morton. Enter by October 16th for your chance to win a copy of either book. Continue reading "OCT 11th BOOK GIVEAWAY: TWO BOOKS up for grabs this week!" Oct 04, 2012October 4th BOOK GIVEAWAY: The Whirling Girl by Barbara LambertCormorant Books (Feb 1 2012) As a child, botanical artist Clare Livingston was enthralled by her uncle’s tales of lost civilizations. Now, after years of estrangement, she has unexpectedly inherited his property in Italy. She travels to the hill town of Cortona, hoping to find the meaning of this disturbing gift, left her by the uncle who fled his family when she was a teen. Instead she is swept up in a world of archaeological intrigue where new friends and lovers reveal suspect aims. About the author Barbara Lambert has won the Danuta Gleed Award for Best First Collection of Short Fiction and the Malahat Review Novella Prize, and been a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Prize and the Journey Prize. The Whirling Girl is her third published book of fiction. I asked Barbara a few questions about herself and her writing: Q: What charms you? A:The remarkable complexity of human beings, and the music of Mozart. There’s a theory that the ancient Etruscans lured their prey into nets with music. Q. What is your creative process? A:Notebooks, file cards, pencil stubs, the back of grocery lists. Pulling to the side of the road while driving, likewise scrabbling in my pocket for a bit of paper while on a hike. But I figure this is the patchwork background of any writer’s life, stitched together by long hours at the desk – in my case generally starting early in the morning, and rarely continuing beyond noon. I love my new MacBook, but in moments when things aren’t working there can be something softly helpful about taking my fountain pen and notebook outside, or into another room, to get things flowing in a freer less self-censored way. Q. In addition to writing, what else are you passionate about? A: My amazing and widely-extended family. And – well – the future of the world. The environment, in other words. The need to embrace alternative ways of thinking that will enable us to save this miraculous thing, this tiny dot in the firmament that has somehow sprouted this complex life system. To read more about this book and enter the draw, please visit The Whirling Girl (http://www.bookclubbuddy.com/2012/thewhirling-girl-by-barbara-lambert/) at BookClubBuddy.com and follow the directions at the bottom of the page. Draw ends October 9,2011 You might also like this interesting INTERVIEW with Barbara Lambert. Continue reading "October 4th BOOK GIVEAWAY: The Whirling Girl by Barbara Lambert" Oct 04, 2012The Taste of Ashes by Sheila PetersThe Taste of Ashes by Sheila Peters Caitlin Press (March 15, 2012) Isabel Lee’s early life in rural BC was forever changed by a brief but powerful love affair with a young Oblate priest from Guatemala. Now a recovering alcoholic, Isabel struggles to pull the tattered fragments of her life together and repair the damage to her relationship with her estranged daughter. Once idealistic and hopeful, Father Àlvaro Ruiz now has his own demons to confront. Tortured at the hands of the Guatemalan authorities and unable to escape the wounds of his past, Àlvaro returns to Canada seeking sanctuary, a broken man with a tenuous grip on his faith. Isabel’s and Àlvaro’s stories slowly weave back together and they are eventually faced with their greatest challenge yet: can they bring themselves to forgive and help each other find a way into their daughter’s damaged heart? About the author: Sheila Peters' work has been widely anthologized, and has been published in several Canadian literary journals, including Event, Prairie Fire, Grain, The Malahat Review, and Descant. Creekstone Press published her first book, Canyon Creek: A Script in 1998 and Beach Holme Press in Vancouver published Tending the Remnant Damage, a collection of linked short stories, in 2001. The weather from the west came out in 2007 and now The Taste of Ashes, a novel, has been published by Caitlin Press. I asked Sheila a few questions about herself and her writing: Book Club Buddy: Why do you write? Why do you believe writing matters? Sheila Peters: I write to explore how I think and feel about things; it’s only when I’m writing that I go into the zone where distractions disappear and I feel connected at some deep level to being in the right place in the world. BCB: What do you enjoy most about writing? Sheila Peters: Once I’ve created the substance of a story, I love fine tuning it, polishing it, playing with both the ideas and the words to dig deeper. BCB: What quality do you most value in yourself or others? Sheila Peters: Speaking out on social justice and environmental issues. On the flip side, I admire those who see people clearly but are non-judgmental – something I’m working on. BCB: In addition to writing, what else are you passionate about? Sheila Peters: Reading, of course. Literary fiction, mysteries, travel writing, good journalism. I live in the mountains and I love hiking, snowshoeing – that wonderful feeling when you emerge from the trees into the high alpine – not much beats that feeling. To read more about this book please visit The Taste of Ashes by Sheila Peters at Book Club Buddy.com You might also like this interesting INTERVIEW |
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