| SPARKS: News & Notes from
Tiny Lights: A Journal of Personal Narrative
|
|
|
|
Greetings!,
In this month of groundhogs, Fat Tuesday, and valentines, we have some extra sweet treats for writers like you!
Enjoy a new Searchlights & Signal Flares posting, the Twenty-eighth Flash in the Pan, and a video that might get you collecting (or creating) your own love letters!
 | | Jeanann Verlee performs "40 Love Letters" |
Spring is on the way, writers! May your writing blossom!
|
|
Searchlights & Signal Flares
Tiny Lights' Online Writers' Exchange
Navy recruiters used to get a lot of mileage out of the slogan, "It's not just a job, it's an adventure!" Is that how you view your writing life, or does a darker description come to mind? We got to wondering what satisfactions, if any, keep you coming back to your computer or journal, so we asked the question, Read the revelations of Lakin Khan, this month's featured writer, along with  Lakin Khan puts her characters through their paces in a small but thriving town in Northern California. Her characters are/should be misbehaving themselves in a novel set on the Mendocino Coast; at times she shuns them to work on a "A Bestiary of Sonoma State," a compilation of nature essays set on the Sonoma State University Campus. She's the Fiction Director of the Napa Valley Writers Conference (on FB: www.facebook.com/napawriters and writes a blog, Rhymes with Bacon. She would love to hear from you at lakhan@sonic.net
YOUR TURN, WRITERS: Searchlights needs your insights! Go to the Searchlights & Signal Flares Guidelines page to find out how to send a light. These are questions only you can answer: What is your favorite writing tool? (03/15/13) How important is community? (04/15/13)
|
Mendocino Coast Writers Conference
Offers Young Writers Full Scholarships
Five Under Twenty-Five
Full-tuition scholarships are available for up to five young writers who live or attend school in one of five Northern California counties: Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, or Sonoma. Applicants must be between the ages of 16 and 25 at the time of the conference, which takes place July 25-27, 2013. The scholarship covers conference fees only ($525) and does not include travel and lodging expenses.
Awards are made on the basis of merit. No entry fee is required. The scholarship application has three parts--a writing sample, a brief cover letter, and thoughts on what the applicant hopes to gain from attending. Judges will read and evaluate writing samples based on literary quality, and appropriate use of grammar and punctuation. School grades and transcripts will not be considered. The applicant's actual writing and dedication to the power of the written word are what matter.
The application window is March 15 - May 1, 2013. Selections will be made and scholarship winners notified by May 31.
|
|
Flash in the Pan
Online Quarterly @ Tiny Lights
FINALLY!
The Twenty-eighth Flash featuring:
5 A.m. Revival by Paige Kaye
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 |
Writers Forum of Petaluma
presents
Frances Lefkowitz
"Tips and Techniques for Writing and Publishing Memoir"
February 21, 2013 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Petaluma Community Center, 320 No. McDowell Blvd.
$15 at the door
Tips and Techniques for Writing and Publishing Memoir and Personal Essays
Frances will talk about both the writing and the publishing aspects of memoir, and why it took her more than ten years to get the book into print. Bring your questions and a pad of paper, because we just might have time to do a few fun memoir-writing exercises, as well.
FRANCES LEFKOWITZ is an award-winning writer and editor who writes fiction and nonfiction, and publishes in magazines and literary journals, including Health, Martha Stewart's Whole Living, The Sun, Utne Reader, Tin House, Poets & Writers, and more. The former Senior Editor of Body+Soul, she is now the book reviewer for Good Housekeeping. She also teaches workshops in memoir and personal writing at libraries, bookstores, and retreat centers, including Memoir Journal's Master Classes and The Sun magazine's writing retreat at the Esalen Institute. She has appeared at LitQuake, Why There Are Words, the AWP annual conference, and other literary events.
For Info: www.thewritespot.us
|
Tiny Lights Recommends: Sonoma County Free Bookmobile Help bring free books to Sonoma County residents.
*********************
For reservations, or more information call: OCA 707 874 9392. OCA is located in Harmony Village in downtown Occidental at 4008 Bohemian Hwy.
********************************
|
|
|
|
|
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.
Print editions of Tiny Lights, which includes original art:
Current issue: $5 each
Back issues: $3 each
Checks payable to Tiny Lights Publications, P.O. Box 928, Petaluma, CA 94953
|
|
 Susan Bono, Editor
Tiny Lights Publications
P.O. Box 928, Petaluma, CA 94953
(707) 762-3208
www.tiny-lights.com |
|
|
