| SPARKS: News & Notes from
Tiny Lights: A Journal of Personal Narrative
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Greetings!,
Time spent in honor of something or someone you love is never wasted, even if that effort is not always appreciated, a topic we explore in this month's Searchlights & Signal Flares. If you decide you have enough time to watch this video, consider the countless hours of thankless work that went into creating it. But is that any reason not to have done it?  | | The Grand Rapids LipDub (NEW WORLD RECORD) |
So carry on. That's what you're meant to do. Keep writing! Susan Bono, Editor
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Sign up NOW!
7th Annual Point Reyes Writing Retreat
June 17-19 ˇ 7 PM Friday - 4 PM Sunday
$265 ($245 Members)
Facilitators: Patti Trimble & Susan Bono
There's still time to join our annual foray into the wilderness of words! This writing retreat is for anyone who enjoys writing about (or in) nature. This year we are at the dramatic and fantastic Life Boat Station on the remote tip of Point Reyes. Now in its seventh year, this retreat has developed an easy pace with short workshops on poetry and essay, time to write and wander, friendly discussions and readings on writing in the natural world. Accommodations are provided at the historic Life Boat Station. The group promises to be a little smaller this year--which will add to the delights of this enchanted location! For info or to register: Point Reyes Field Seminars.
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Searchlights & Signal Flares
Tiny Lights' Online Writers' Exchange 
They say a writer's job is a lonely one, but that's not the worst thing you can say about it. Trudy Martin, this month's featured writer, joins
in daring to discuss what may be the greatest job hazard for writers,
"How do those close to you view your writing?"
This Month's Featured Writer: Trudy Martin
Trudy Martin says, "I tell my kids I was first published at age ten when I wrote a little piece for Play Mate Magazine for Children, but it was really just a letter to tell other kids about my pet magpie. Actually, I didn't write much until after I retired in 1980 and my family encouraged me to write some of my history. After a year or so of writing and tossing everything in the waste basket, I discovered a writing class at Napa Valley College which has helped me immensely. I am now writing my memoirs for my grandchildren and great-grands. My life has been filled with wonderful experiences: growing up on a ranch in Montana with four siblings, traveling with my Navy husband in the U.S. and to as many parts of the world as we could. Memoir writing is great in many ways: the more you remember, the more you remember. It is truly therapeutic, and provides a wealth of material for other fiction and nonfiction!"
Which is more useful to a writer, suffering or joy?
(Deadline 6/15/11) Extended deadline for Sparks Readers
Send Searchlights submissions with bio (and title!) to editor@tiny-lights.com
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Flash in the Pan Online Quarterly
NOW ACCEPTING WORK FOR
THE TWENTY-FIFTH FLASH
What is a Flash in the Pan? It's life caught in the blaze of a match, a beam of moonlight, the glare of a home-made explosion. These pieces of first-person non-fiction prose (500 words or less) are like potato chips--you won't be able to stop with just one. Our gems are posted quarterly in January, April, July and October on the Tiny Lights website. A select few appear in the hard copy editions of the magazine. Send your jewels to editor@tiny-lights.com.
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New Writing It Real Contest
In honor of parents, in honor of children, in honor of friendships:
Please send us unpublished essays up to 2500 words or up to five unpublished poems on parents, parenting, children, friends--the subject can be yourself as parent, friend or child or your parents or others who have held that role in your life, your children, your siblings, your friends. Sheila Bender will judge the entries. She will also offer you feedback on the strengths of your writings and on what you might work on next. A good value for the money!
Our contest deadline is June 30th. Guidelines Contest fee is $15 dollars for those who subscribe to Writing It Real and $45 dollars for new subscribers (includes a year's subscription to Writing It Real magazine). 
First place: $100 and a half-hour consult by phone and email with Sheila Bender (a $120 value)
Second place: $75 dollars and a half-hour consult with Sheila
Third place: $50 and a half-hour consult with Sheila. In addition, we'd like to publish the winning essays in Writing It Real with the permission of the authors.
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We're pleased to report
The Writing It Real
Writers Conference has been scheduled!
Sign up now for next year's conference
at the COD Ranch in Oracle, AZ:
March 1-4, 2012
Sheila Bender, Meg Files, and Jack Hefron hope you'll come and enjoy the space they'll have for writing, group work, hiking, time alone, hot tubbing, as well as great food and even massage appointments. They look forward to bringing the Writing it Real spirit to the SW.
If you are interested, email Writing it Real to put your name on the list of those who are thinking about coming. We'll be promoting the conference early so people can get the best rates on airfares to Tucson or Phoenix and the best deals on transportation to the ranch.
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Petaluma Readers Theatre
Call for Manuscripts for our September production Mysteries & Miracles Submission deadline: June 15, 2011
We are seeking factual, inexplicable, wondrous events that happened to you or someone you know. We will vocally animate your tale, bring it to life, and make it jump off the page!
Guidelines: Mail hard copy to: Petaluma Readers Theatre
40 4th St. PMB 235
Petaluma, CA 94952
2 to 8 double-spaced pages
Times New Roman 14/16 font
coversheet should have author, title, contact info, no author's name on manuscript
NO EMAIL SUBMISSIONS, but questions may be directed to info@petalumareaderstheatre.com.
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS The September 2011 FICTION ANTHOLOGY e-chapbook
is open to submissions of "mini-collections" July 1 through August 21. No fee to submit from 1 to 3 short stories on theme of LOSS
(4 to 5 authors will be published). Payment to be announced.
Detailed guidelines: www.echapbook.com/submissions.htm. Contact Publisher Jo-Anne Rosen: echaps@wordrunner.com Quarterly online publications of fiction, memoir or poetry
each featuring one author. Read more at: www.echapbook.com
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Aqus Summer Solstice Speakeasy Literary Saloon @ Aqus Cafe, Petaluma CA. Gather for a drink, a bite & words with hosts Susan Bono & Ransom Stephens. Tuesday, June 21, 2011 7-9 p.m. @ Aqus Admission: $5 (free with meal or book purchase) to benefit Aqus & literacy organization Programme: Mysterious Littérateur Cara Black Literary Lioness Kat Meads Satirical Genius James Warner Word Diva Stefanie Freele Archaeological Suspense Digger Avi Jacob Sweeny ATTN: WRITERS! Bring a short piece of writing and enter the drawing for the 2 open mic slots (4 min. each)! |
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Marlene Cullen hosts this series of writing workshops on the third Thursday of the month from 7-9 p.m. at the Petaluma Community Center.
June 16: Victoria Zackheim Turning Our Personal History Into Fiction Victoria Zackheim is the author of The Bone Weaver and the editor of three other anthologies, The Other Woman: 21 Wives, Lovers, and Others Talk Openly About Sex, Deception, Love, and Betrayal; For Keeps: Women Tell the Truth About Their Bodies, Growing Older, and Acceptance; and The Face in the Mirror: Writers Reflect on Their Dreams of Youth and the Reality of Age. She teaches Personal Essay in the UCLA Extension Writers' Program and is a 2010 San Francisco Library Laureate. Victoria can be reached at www.victoriazackheim.com. Call 778-4380 (Petaluma Community Center) or visit www.thewritespot.usfor info. $15 at the door |
A Unique Offer from Writer/Photographer
Tony Johnson
Tell Me A Story
Everyone has a story. Stories shape our lives and give them meaning. If you tell me a story, I will record it digitally, along with using photography to reveal what is important to you. This recording and these images will be a celebration of your life and provide a wonderful gift to those you love.
To see samples of my work and obtain further information, please go to http://tonyjohnson.zenfolio.com/ , then go to the Tell Me a Story link at the top of the page.
TonyJohnsonPhotography/InnerLandscapes e-mail: tonyjohnsonmail@yahoo.com
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Iota Press is a letterpress shop and literary studio in Sebastopol.
Along with the usual enchantment and shenanigans, Iota's Slow Print Cooperative has morphed into a quarterly offering of little books. "Almost a journal. Nearly a magazine. Kind of a trip." $30 per year for 4 chapbooks. $10 single copies.
Location: 925-c Gravenstein Hwy in South Sebastopol (next to "Beekind").
Contact: Eric Johnson....823-6152 Our latest works online at: www.iotapress.com
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Tiny Lights Recommends: Sonoma County Free Bookmobile Help bring free books to Sonoma County residents.
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For reservations, or more information call: OCA 707 874 9392. OCA is located in Harmony Village in downtown Occidental at 4008 Bohemian Hwy.
******************************** : Insights, activities and open-hearted inspiration for attracting the creative life by authors Rebecca Lawton and Jordan Rosenfeld. www.writefree.us****************************************
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Since 1995, Tiny Lights has been celebrating the power of personal voice with a biannual journal devoted to short essay. The annual essay contest, which offers $1500 in prizes, provides the material for the summer issue, while the winter issue is by invitation only.
The online component of Tiny Lights is designed to catch what can't be contained in the pages of the newsstand editions. Lights Online provides a venue for additional voices, information about Tiny Lights and resources for writers of personal essay. Sparks: Email News & Notes is our free monthly electronic newsletter.
Subscriptions to the print edition of Tiny Lights, which includes original art:
$10 per year (2 issues)
Current issue: $5 each
Back issues: $3 each Checks payable to Tiny Lights Publications, P.O. Box 928, Petaluma, CA 94953
Or take advatage of our new PayPal feature!
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 Susan Bono, Editor
Tiny Lights Publications
P.O. Box 928, Petaluma, CA 94953
(707) 762-3208
www.tiny-lights.com |
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