| SPARKS: News & Notes from
Tiny Lights: A Journal of Personal Narrative
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Greetings!,
No one has to tell you that everybody and everything is coming out of hibernation now that spring has arrived! Whether you're writing like crazy or still rubbing winter sleep from your eyes, this issue of Sparks will give you a boost. Read the latest issue of Searchlights & Signal Flares, a new Guiding Lights article by Rebecca Lawton, Author of Junction, Utah, and check out some events that will wake up the writer in you. And if you are one of the characters you're writing about, don't miss this little video about ways of seeing yourself:
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Love who you are, and Keep Writing!
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Ninth Annual Point Reyes Writing Retreat
June 7 - 9, 2013 * 6 PM Friday - 2 PM Sunday
* $180 ($170 Members)
Join Patti Trimble and Susan Bono for our ninth annual foray into the wilderness of words! This weekend writing retreat-at the remote Life Boat Station on the tip of Point Reyes-has an easy pace and community feeling. Morning workshops on poetry and essay, afternoons, participants can write and wander, and in the evenings, potluck, discussion, reading, and more writing. Sunday ends with an inspiring reading of new work. This class is open to anyone who enjoys writing about (or in) nature. Bunk accommodations included at the Point Reyes Life Boat Station.
Call for more details (415) 663-1200 ext. 373 or register online at www.ptreyes.org.
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Tiny Lights is pleased to be part of Rebecca Lawton's blog tour, a "tree-free, car-free book tour, facetime-free book tour" that's taking her on a journey to find new readers for her debut novel, Junction, Utah. Becca's book is a story of wild rivers, even wilder hearts, threatened territory, and the courage it takes to defend what you love. Like her collected essays, Reading Water: Lessons from the River, her novel is full of adventure, river lore, and heart. We thought these musings on performance venues would make a perfect Guiding Light for you!
Here's a picture of what turned out to be the perfect place to read!
About Guiding Lights:
The act of writing may be a solitary one, but the tools for navigating personal essay and memoir are meant to be shared with others. May these thoughts from our community of writers and editors help illuminate your path. If you have your own notes on craft and process, please send to editor@tiny-lights.com. Reprints are welcome, and we'll credit previous publications.
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Searchlights & Signal Flares
Tiny Lights' Online Writers' Exchange
It seemed like such a cut-and-dried question, but you won't want to miss the juicy answers our writers offer this month to
Read the revelations of Norma Watkins this month's featured writer,
along with:
Norma Watkins has a Ph.D. in English and an M.F.A. in creative writing. She's a wonderful teacher who would make moving to Fort Bragg worth it. (She teaches up there at College of the Redwoods.) Her memoir, The Last Resort, came out in 2011, and won a gold medal for best non-fiction from IPPY and from the San Francisco Book Festival. There's good reason for that. If you need any more convincing, you can visit her website and her blog. If you want to hear her voice, you can listen to this Tiny Lights' podcast.
YOUR TURN, WRITERS: Add your voice to the conversation! 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. How important is community? (05/15/13) If you could achieve one goal in 2013, what would it be? (05/300/13 What do you wish you could write about? (07/15/13)
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Your Muse/Your Time: Accessing the Story Within
An Artists Colony at Emandal Farm  August 23rd-27th, 2013
How's it going with your muse? Are you happy in a world of your own, or are you both feeling a little restless? Could you use some company or a change of scene? For 5 glorious summer days, you and your muse can have a room of your own, splendid meals, and ample time to write, wander and reignite your creative fires. Best of all, you'll be an integral part of a community of writers, artists and photographers with opportunities to mingle and share work in progress. Writers of all genres and levels welcome.
Susan Bono facilitates our writing program. Our massage therapists will be available. Emandal is located 140 miles north of San Francisco in the heart of Mendocino County, near Willits. Contact us for more information, or to sign up.
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Conference Dates: July 25-27, 2013
DEADLINE EXTENSION: Fellowships & Scholarships
Deadline: May 15, 2013
Applications for Short Fiction Master Class
May 30, 2013
Conference Participant Contest
Deadline: May 15, 2013
Master Class in Short Fiction with Peter Orner Author of two novels and winner of two Pushcart Prizes, Orner was a Guggenheim Fellowship recipient. In describing his workshop in Short Fiction, he noted, "Short stories are a kind of high wire act in prose." He will focus on some of the elemental things that make stories vital: what gets us in the gut and the heart, as well as the head.
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. More info.Carmen Gabriela Etcheberry-Freund Memorial Fellowship
This fellowship, which pays full conference fees, is offered to an applicant 60 years old or older who resides on the Mendocino Coast (Westport to Gualala and inland to the Anderson Valley). More Info. Mary Bradish Memorial Scholarship
The Mary Bradish Memorial Scholarship is offered to talented women writers of limited means who are aged sixty or older. More info.
MCWC Scholarship Grants
Donations from Friends of Mendocino Coast Writers Conference provide MCWC Scholarship Grants for writers of all ages. More info. MCWC Participant Writing ContestConference attendees are encouraged to enter the annual writing contest. Cash prizes, publication, and opportunities to read at the conference! More info. Selections will be made and winners notified by May 31.
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Writing It Real Spring Contest
Contest Reading Period March 30, 2013 - June 21, 2013
At Writing It Real, we believe the writing is in the revising. In that spirit our contests are about receiving detailed response to a draft and having our entrants send revisions in for consideration by a guest editor, who chooses three place winners.
Submit 2500 words of prose or up to three poems to our contest, and Sheila Bender will respond in detail via email within a week of receiving your entry. Then you may revise the work (revisions may exceed the initial word limit) and resubmit no later than June 21, 2013.
For details go to Writing It Real.
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Want to be rewarded for reading?
Levonne Gaddy, author of "This Restless Life: A dream chased through California parks in an RV" is sponsoring a contest with prizes that include 2 nights at the San Francisco/Petaluma KOA and a one-day tour of the wine country or a $400 Amazon.com gift certificate. 2nd and 3rd place prizes also.
Contest Deadline: May 30, 2013
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Flash in the Pan
Online Quarterly @ Tiny Lights
We're prospecting for gold again.
Send us your flashes.
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 throughout the year on the Tiny Lights website. Send your jewels to editor@tiny-lights.com.
Go to:Flash in the Pan
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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
Jennifer Gennari
"Creator & Critic: Balancing Between Writing & Revising"
May 16, 2013 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Petaluma Community Center, 320 No. McDowell Blvd.
$15 at the door
Writing requires accessing your creative side, getting the words down, telling the story. And yet, before submitting you need to be your work's first editor. We will free write and then revise, learning to switch hats from writer to editor. For the first half, we'll review techniques to get into character and turn off your inner critic. The second half, we'll talk about revision and editing. I'll review the top ten bloopers to avoid and talk about the essential elements of heart and story.
Jennifer Gennari is the author of MY MIXED-UP BERRY BLUE SUMMER (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2012), an ABC Spring 2012 New Voices title. Called "a realistic account of a family coming together under stress" by Publishers Weekly, the middle-grade story is about that first summer when civil unions are legalized in Vermont. School Library Journal says, "This strong, vibrant novel looks at a complicated issue without didacticism or platitudes, but with the level of complexity it deserves, staying true to the heart of the protagonist."
For Info: www.thewritespot.us
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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.
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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.
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
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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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