Postal Poetry

Looking for a new poetry project?  Visit Postal Poetry and learn how you can submit your postcard poem as a individual or collaboartive work.

Editors Dana Guthrie Martin and Dave Bonta created Postal Poetry as a new grassroots art project.  Be sure to take some time to peruse the current select works and introduce yourself to some new artists.

Pennwriters Online Auction Begins Wednesday, October 1

This week Pennwriters will launch a new fundraising auction at eBay offering goods and services for writers.  Bidding opens Wednesday, October 1st and closes Friday, October 10th.

Goods and services to be auctioned include the following:

Manuscript review by Tim Esaias, multipublished and award winning writer. Tim is a satirist, poet and writer of short fiction, living in Pittsburgh. His poetry has been translated into Spanish, Swedish, and Chinese; and his fiction has appeared in thirteen languages. He is adjunct faculty at Seton Hill University in the Writing Popular Fiction M.A. program.

Non-fiction book proposal review by Mary Joe Rulnick, author of The Frantic Women’s Guide to Feeding Family and Friends: Recipes, Shopping Lists and Tips for Every Dinner of the Year (Grand Central Publishing, formerly Warner Books). She also co-authored The Frantic Women’s Guide to Life: A Year’s Worth of Hints, Tips, and Tricks. She is a Parenting Publications of America award-winning writer and has written extensively about home, family and women’s issues across the United State and Canada. She is a regular feature writer for Pittsburgh Parent Magazine and Family Digest Magazine.

Copyedit of the initial three chapters of a manuscript by Ayleen Stellhorn, a former book and magazine editor and currently a professional freelance copyeditor and proofreader for nonfiction craft and hobby publishers. Ayleen also copyedits educational reports for ETS and is a lay editor for the Littlestown Area School District. She holds a degree in journalism and uses CMS, APA, and AP styles in her work.

Basket of Joyce Carol Oates autographed books including: Naughty Cherie; Sexy; The Grave Digger’s Daughter; Freaky Green Eyes; Wild Nights, Big Mouth & Ugly Girl; After the Wreck I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away.

Join us and support Pennwriters!

Pennwriters is a non-profit organization supporting writers at all levels.  Proceeds of the auction will be used to provide more offerings to the Pennwriters community.  For more details about the auction items, and for links to the auctions (when available), visit the Pennwriters website.

Tell Your Tree Story

Flame Tree, Santa Barbara 2008

Attention writers (and blogging writers): take a side step from your usual writing routine and flex your writing muscles to tell us a tree story.  Regardless of whether you are a published author, an aspiring-to-be-published author, or a simple lover of the writing craft, blogging is an excellent way to promote your work.

The Festival of the Trees is a monthly blog carnival featuring trees and forests which has been published every month for over two years at a variety of host blogs.  The Festival of the Trees 28 will be hosted at Arboreality  on October 1, and I would like to share a little “art and arboreality”.

Many of us have specific, personal stories about a tree or forest from our lives. Blogging is a great medium for short story-telling, so that’s what I encourage this month: photoblog, videoblog, break out the crayons, sing a song, write a poem, whatever moves you: tell us a story about a tree or forest from your life. Or make one up. Or do something even cooler. (And then send me the link.)

Submission deadline is Saturday, September 27, 2008.  Submit your blog posts to me via email at jadeblackwater [at] brainripples [dot] com, or use the blog carnival submission form.

If you are a writer without a blog, you are welcome to email me your submission and I can include it with my post.

Happy writing, and spread the word: please feel welcome to invite others to participate!

To volunteer to host an upcoming issue, visit The Festival of the Trees coordinating blog.

September Pennwriters Board of Directors Meeting

Join me and your fellow Pennwriters this month for the Board of Directors meeting on Saturday, September 20th in Brookville, Pennsylvania.  All Pennwriters members are welcome to attend.  This is an excellent opportunity to get involved with your organization and connect with our network of writers.

Contact Area Representative Jade Blackwater for more information.

Pennwriters Presents Guest Star Abby Zidle

Pennwriters members: join us on Monday, August 11, 2008 for this week’s Pennwriters Presents Guest Star Abby Zidle, a Senior Editor for Pocketbooks at Simon & Schuster.  Have your questions ready for Monday morning, or begin posting your questions over the weekend.

Pennwriters Presents is an online weekly program exclusively for Pennwriters members.  Each Monday Pennwriters features a Guest Star author, editor, or agent who is available online for Question & Answer with all Pennwriters members.  Join us in the Pennwriters Yahoo discussion forum every Monday for Q & A with a writing expert from 9am-9pm EST.  For more details, contact our Pennwriters Internet Activities Coordinator Nate Hardy.

Beta Readers needed

Hey fellow writers,

I’m experimenting with the new Internet model of publishing. In September I’ll be launching my first interactive project under a larger author’s cooperative. Because this is a totally new thing, I’m having as many people as possible take a look at a short excerpt of the project and let me know what they think. If any of you can spare about ten minutes of your time to take a look, the URL is:

http://www.suelangetheauthor.com/textileplanet/TextilePlanetwithcss.html

Send comments to me at suelange1@verizon.net

Thanks!

Sue Lange

Pennwriters Valley Forge Writers’ Critique Group Meeting this Wednesday

This is your friendly reminder that our Pennwriters Valley Forge Critique Group is meeting this Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at the Valley Fair Barnes and Noble on Swedesford Road.  Valley Forge is located just outside Philadelphia proper near King of Prussia.  Our Valley Forge writers’ group is facilitated by Coordinator Suzanne Kimball.

New members are always welcome – we have lots of chairs.  For more details about this and other regional writing groups, be sure to visit our critique group page, or contact us with questions.

To learn more about Pennwriters or to apply for membership, visit our Official Pennwriters Website.

Pennwriters at Saucon Valley Farmer’s Market

July 6–Saucon Valley Farmer’s Market, Hellertown, PA–Four Pennwriters members found themselves selling their books at this year’s Power of the Pen Day at Saucon Valley Farmer’s Market. The weather was great and the crowd friendly. The event gave us an opportunity to let area consumers know about our organization as well as our work. Shelley Goldberg, The Market’s Representative sent us a wonderful message the following day:

“Thank you for sharing such an awesome day with the Saucon Valley Farmers’ Market. Your energy and talents were appreciated by all.
In peace & friendship,  Shelley Goldberg”

The organizers were most gracious and seemed anxious to have us back next year. That would probably be a good thing for Pennwriters and hopefully we’ll be able to do that. Thanks go to Jack Hillman for getting us organized. Here we are under the canopy, smiling and enjoying the day.

Pennwriters in attendance (left to right) Jack Hillman, Carol Haile, Pam Garlick, and Sue Lange. Also pictured Larry Diebert (non-member)

Meet me in Philly?

Or thereabouts… I will be visiting the Philadelphia area in September for a few days in order to attend the Pennwriters Board of Directors meeting.  I would like to take this opportunity to organize a small meet-and-greet to connect with other Area 6 members.

Want to join me?  Contact me via email at jadeblackwater [at] brainripples [dot] com to RSVP so I can arrange a date and location that works best for everyone.  See you in September!

National Book Club Conference in Atlanta, GA

Attention writers and readers: the 2008 National Book Club Conference (NBCC) will be held in Atlanta, GA August 1-3, 2008.  That’s just a week away!

According to the NBCC website, their mission is:

“to create the world’s largest book-club meeting once a year, to promote the value of reading and formulating book clubs among adults and in the nation’s public school systems for the purposes of advancing literacy, broadening youths’ minds and knowledge through reading and dialogue.”

The NBCC is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization committed to sharing literature each year to help connect readers with authors.  If you’re one of the lucky attendees, be sure to drop us a note and tell us about your experience!