SPARKS: News & Notes from
Tiny Lights: A Journal of Personal Narrative
Announcements (Click and Go)
18th Annual Personal Essay Contest
Searchlights & Signal Flares: "How do you grow as a writer?" Featured Writer: Theresa Sanders
A Leap Day Speakeasy
Greetings!,   

Yes, today was the official deadline for
 Tiny Lights' 18th Annual Writing Contest.Thanks for all the amazing essays that have already found their way here!  But in case you're interested in the extension we offer Sparks readers, a February 21 postmark will now do the trick. (For those of you who are wondering at the earlier extension date, I didn't realize Feb. 20 is President's Day). Don't miss this last chance to win!

If you need some ideas for creative growth, read this month's Searchlights & Signal Flares. And for a reminder that good things can get even better, a short video:

ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN - LEON RUSSELL  (11/18/1964) HQ 
ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN - LEON RUSSELL (11/18/1964) HQ

Keep rocking and writing!  

  Susan Bono, Editor

 Tiny Lights
18th Annual Personal Essay Contest 
flash_girl
ADJUSTED DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 21 postmark!
(When I extended the deadline, I didn't realize Monday Feb. 20 is President's Day! Give yourself until Tuesday!


You have a story in you, waiting to be given to the world. Tiny Lights is looking for essays that feature a distinctive voice, discernible conflict and an eventual shift in the narrator's perspective.

Prizes for essays up to 2,000 words will be awarded as follows:
  • First Place: $350
  • Second Place: $250
  • Third Place: $150
  • Two Honorable Mention Prizes: $100 each.
Three FLASHPOINT prizes of $100 are also offered for work up to 1,000 words.
artwork by Judith Stephenson 
Writing Istanbul

Istanbul, Turkey

w/ Sheila Bender, Susan Bono & Yesim Cimcoz

 

Writing Istanbul Conference: May 11-15,  2012

3-day optional trip to Ephesus, Selcuk, Pamukkale: May 16-18

 

The Spice Market, the Blue Mosque, dervishes, Turkish baths, ancient ruins, and more!

 

Experience these wonders in the company of writers.

Give yourself and your writing a whole new perspective.

Build a bridge to another culture. 

See what we have planned on Yesim's Writing Istanbul website!  

 For rates and and registration   

For questions and  information: sbono@tiny-lights.com

 


Searchlights & Signal Flares 
Tiny Lights' Online Writers' Exchange
  
signal tower

I don't know about you, but I want a simple, painless way to become a better writer--a pill, maybe, like the ones they show on TV that promise to burn fat without changing your eating or exercise habits. I could have asked Alice, who found a way to grow with a bottle that said, "Drink me." But instead I asked some very smart writers to respond to this question:

   How do you grow as a writer? 

 

Read what Theresa Sanders this month's featured writer, has to say on the subject, along with our other contributors:

Ana Manwaring
Becky Povich
Catherine Crawford
Clarice Stasz
Claudia Larson
David S. Johnson
Elaine Webster
Sara Baker
Susan Bono





This Month's Featured Writer: Theresa Sanders
    

Theresa Sanders is joining us as a regular columnist for Searchlights in 2012. She lives in suburban St. Louis, Missouri with her husband, and is the mother of four grown children, her greatest joy and accomplishment. An award-winning technical writer and consultant, she managed a documentation and training department before turning to her first love, creative writing. She contributes frequently to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and is completing a novel. Theresa welcomes email at: TheresaLSanders@charter.net.


  
WRITERS: It's your turn to shine in Searchlights. Go to the  Searchlights & Signal Flares Guidelines page to find out how.  Here's the next question:   
  What are you looking for when you write?
 (Deadline 3/15/12)
   
Send Searchlights submissions with bio (and title!) to editor@tiny-lights.com

 
Speakeasy Literary Saloon
Leap Day, February 29
7-9 p.m. 
Aqus Cafe, Petaluma, CA 
 
On this rare night, an assembly of stellar talent!
Celebrate Leap Day with featured authors:

Jonah Raskin
Jean Hegland
Patti Trimble
Joy Lanzedorfer
Timothy Williams
 
Bring a piece of your own writing (5 min.) for a chance at one of two open mic slots!

Information about the performers and Directions to Aqus.

Flash in the Pan Online Quarterly

  

broom mightiercover

 

Coming Soon!     

 The Twenty-seventh Flash in the Pan!

   (Now in its seventh year! Even when it's (still) late, it's solid gold!) 

 

Guidelines   

    
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.
Go to:Flash in the Pan



   

 

Read issues at www.echapbook.com  

See www.echapbook.com/submissions.htm  for submissions guidelines.

    

Contact Publisher Jo-Anne Rosen:  echaps@wordrunner.com   

 


 

 

 

 

Make a wish and  

       SUBSCRIBE 

to the print edition of Tiny Lights

 

   

 

  Sonoma County Events

Petaluma Readers Theatre Presents

Sweet & Sour

Stories, poems & essays on the foibles & fables of relationships

 

Featuring work by:

Simone Wilson, Armando Garcia Davila,  

Susan Swartz, Judith Moorman, Susan Bono, Robin Beeman,  

 Nancy Long, and Karen Eberhardt-Shelton

   

4 performances:

 

Opening March 10 at the Occidental Center for the Arts,

 

March 22 at the French Garden in Sebastopol,

 

March 23rd and 24th at Petaluma Art Gallery.

 

For information about Petaluma Readers Theatre 

 

broom mightiercover
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

 

broom mightiercover


Tiny Lights Recommends:


       Sonoma County Free Bookmobile 

Help bring free books to Sonoma County residents.  

 

 
 ***************
Walking With Your Muse: weekly writing practice classes in Santa Rosa with Margaret Caminsky Shapiro: 707-575-8820
www.handwritingonline.net  

 

******************

WRITERS FORUM, PETALUMA  

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.

Call 778-4380 (Petaluma Community Center) or visit www.thewritespot.us for  info.  

 $15 at the door

 

********************

 

Online Classes with
Ken Rodgers
                                  
********************* 

                  OCCIDENTAL CENTER FOR THE ARTS


For reservations, or more information call: OCA   707 874 9392. OCA is located in Harmony Village in downtown Occidental at 4008 Bohemian Hwy. 


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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!

islandSusan Bono, Editor
Tiny Lights Publications
P.O. Box 928, Petaluma, CA 94953

(707) 762-3208
www.tiny-lights.com