by Mardie Schroeder, Past President, San Diego Writers and Editors Guild

In olden days, writing surfaces were so rare that they were often used more than once. "Palimpsest" originally described an early form of recycling in which an old document was erased to make room for a new one when parchment ran short. Fortunately for modern scholars, the erasing process wasn't completely effective, so the original could often be distinguished under the newer writing. De republica, by Roman statesman and orator Cicero, is one of many documents thus recovered from a palimpsest. Nowadays, the word palimpsest can refer not only to such a document but to anything that has multiple layers.

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Learn Something New at the 6th Annual How-To Festival In partnership with California Coast Credit Union, the Library is hosting its 6th Annual How-To Festival online on May 22. A curated collection of how-to videos created by Library staff and community members will premiere online and will remain available for later viewing. Round up your family and learn something new together, like How-To Make a Banana Dog, How-To Meditate for Busy People, or How-To Create a Kokedama. There is something for everyone and all ages!

Free Seed Distribution at All Open Libraries Spring is a great time to start a new vegetable garden! All open Libraries now have seeds available for the public to grow their own healthy food. Available seeds include melons, carrots, squash, and more. This is made possible through a generous donation from Vlada's Seeds for Life and the Ahern Seed Company. Visit your local branch today to get your free seeds and inquire about available gardening books.

Take a Library NExT Course in May Library NExT is a series of workshops on STEAM topics for elementary, middle, and high school students. Sign your student up for a course specifically aimed at grades 3-5, 6-8, or 9-12. Upcoming topics include Medicine and the Heart, Physics of Fidget Spinners, Intro to Python Programming, Screenwriting, Wellness in the Digital Age, and Beginner's SketchUp. All classes are virtual and held on Zoom.

Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage The Library celebrates the rich heritage, cultures, experiences, contributions, and resilience of our Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander-identified (AAPI) communities. Join us in the celebration by checking out our diverse program offerings or reading a book from our staff-created AAPI Heritage Month book list. Program highlights include Cooking Around the World on May 3, Storytime with Señor Chon on May 14, Polynesian Paradise Dancers on May 20, and Hmong Culture & Craft on May 26.

SD Access 4 All: Reducing the Digital Divide in San Diego Together with the City of San Diego, the Library is taking action to close the digital divide that leaves residents without internet access. Through the SD Access 4 All program, the Library is offering outdoor computer labs, public WiFi, and mobile hotspots for library card holders to check out in select locations. The mobile hotspots are easy to use and allow you to connect your laptop, tablet, and other WiFi-enabled devices to the internet.

Listeners' Advisory: The San Diego Public Library Podcast Episode two of Listeners' Advisory: The San Diego Public Library Podcast is out now and the theme is books! Learn about the new reader's advisory service Matchbook; meet the creative team behind the Library's first children's book, Odi's Library Day; and discover some great reads from the hosts of the Library's web series, Read More. Listeners' Advisory is available anywhere you get your podcasts.

Media Literacy Series: How the Media Covers Race From police shootings of unarmed Black people, to the recent rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans, to debates over the ongoing crisis at the U.S. border—stories about race and race relations have dominated recent headlines. Join the Library on May 10 for an open and honest discussion about how journalists approach these difficult issues, how newsroom diversity impacts coverage of race, and what role the media should play in creating more equitable, inclusive communities.

Digital Resource Spotlight: SimplyE Developed by the New York Public Library, SimplyE is a free, open-source e-reader app that allows the library to bring together a collection of eBooks and audiobooks from cloudLibrary and enki Library to make them accessible all in one place. Search the Google Play or Apple app store for "SimplyE." To begin using the app, open it and log in with your full library card number and PIN.

Author of the Month: Lilita Zvejnieks Hardes A Memoir of Home, War and Finding Refuge - Biruta's Story is a heartwarming story just in time for Mother's Day. On May 8, join first-generation American, Lilita Zvejnieks Hardes, as she presents a loving tribute to her mother in this compelling, well-researched memoir about her journey for refuge as a young Latvian war refugee during World War II. Fleeing Latvia, Biruta's path takes her through Nazi-occupied Germany as she searches for peace, love, and a place to call home.

The Library Shop's Curbside Caravan Returns for One Last Encore Tour The Library Shop is back in May for its last Curbside Caravan Tour! The Shop will be visiting 11 Library branches and stopping by Verbatim Books in North Park with a convenient, safe, and socially distanced pop-up shop curbside. Check the schedule and visit the Caravan to pick up a new book or literary-themed gift. All proceeds support the Library system.

Financial Wellness Webinar: Managing Your Retirement Accounts As part of an ongoing collaboration with California Coast Credit Union, the Library is excited to offer a series of financial wellness webinars. On May 12, financial experts from California Coast Credit Union will explore account solutions designed to fit your life, whether you are planning for retirement or looking to grow and preserve your wealth.

Pitch Your Book Contest Query Letter Advice From Voyage YA Editor-in-Chief Racquel Henry! I initially learned to write a query letter from Literary Agent Carly Watters at P.S. Literary Agency. After 6 years of querying my YA novel off and on, I’ve stuck by these tips and used them to write the query that eventually landed me my agent! I’m sharing these tips below and hopefully, they’ll help you too! Break your query into three sections: The intro The book pitch The bio/wrap-up Query letters should be one page. Address the agent or editor by their full name or use their first name. (I know the inclination is to be formal, but you may not always know the agent’s preferred pronoun.) Intros can include info such as: where you heard about the agent (mention if you took a workshop with them, or saw them at a conference, etc.), why they might be a good fit, the title of your novel, the word count, and genre/category. Many agents also like comp titles, and this would be a good place to put those as well. The pitch should be the focus of the query. Agents and editors will be most interested in the project itself. Therefore, the pitch section will be the longest section. The pitch should also make three things clear: who your protagonist is, what the conflict is, and what the stakes are. Try your best to avoid introducing too many characters—the leads of the story should be the center of attention. Keep the intro and bio section brief. We have additional query letter resources listed on our Book-Pitch contest page here. And you can also see samples of successful query letters here and here. Happy query letter writing! Learn More Add to Calendar

Thank you for your registration for the First Page Slam on May 24th. I'm not sure that we gave sufficient instructions on next steps for members like you who indicated an intent to participate and have your first pages critiqued. Here's what you need to do next, if you have not already - Your first page must be submitted by May 17th to be considered. First pages will be critiqued in the order in which they were submitted. Last year we had more submissions that we could do at our meeting, so some people lost out. Get your submission in right away so you can be sure you get a place at the meeting. If you do not have your submission critiqued at the meeting, you will still receive a written critique. All submissions must be made by May 17th, 2021 to penn@pennwallace.com in Microsoft Word format. Use New Times Roman 12-point font, 1-inch margins, double spaced, indent first line of paragraph. DO NOT put any identifying information on the page. These need to be anonymous.

We are accepting the next round of books,  open to ALL authors and publishers, http://nycbigbookaward.com 

We are requesting applications by June 30th, with books to follow. 

Book submissions come from all parts of the country, and abroad.  Winners announced Fall 2021.

Thank you for your consideration.

-gabby

NYC Big Book Award

[twitter] www.twitter.com/GabbyBookAwards

[LinkedIn] https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielle-olczak-ba928b127 

https://www.nycbigbookaward.com/

From Goodreader

April 14, 2021 By Michael Kozlowski 4 Comments

Amazon is launching a new system the iOS Kindle app called Kindle Vella, in the next few months.  It is a new way for authors to share serialized stories with readers, one chapter at a time. Authors can self-publish Kindle Vella stories in a serial format, one short 600–5,000-word episode at a time, using the same Kindle Direct Publishing platform that have always used in the past.

Kindle Vella stories will be able to be purchased right on the iOS app, using tokens. The first few episodes of every story will be free so that readers have a chance to check out a new story and see if they like it. Readers will then purchase and redeem tokens to unlock subsequent episodes. The number of tokens required to unlock an episode is determined by the length of the episode. Amazon will have different bundle options for readers and will be sharing the details soon. Authors will earn 50% of what readers spend on tokens, which are used to unlock a story’s episodes. Authors will also be eligible for a launch bonus based on customer activity and engagement.

This service is available now for authors in the United States and readers when it launches in a few months. It remains to be seen if tokens will be sold right on the Kindle for iOS app, because Amazon does not actually sell books on the app, since they don’t want to give Apple a percentage of every book sold. I have reached out to Amazon to clarify on how users can buy tokens, and will update the story.

Kindle Vella will have a social component, where readers can talk to the author, using author notes. Readers can leave a Thumbs Up for any episode they like. Once a week, readers who have purchased Tokens will receive a Fave to award to the story they enjoyed most that week. Amazon will then feature stories with the most Faves in the Kindle Vella store.

One of the most interesting things about the Vella program, is that it provides a fresh approach to storytelling and provides a revenue model for new and existing authors to make money. Serialized novels, can easily be written, a few pages here and a few pages there, once published, readers can give feedback and authors can tell their readers, what feedback they are using, for feature chapters. Ideally, this will help chart the future direction of the overall story and catter it towards what readers want to see. Ideally, once a Vella has been completed, the author can likely spin it into an ebook and sell it on Amazon.com. Although, if they do this, they will have to remove the story from Vella. The serialized and social approach is similar to Toronto, Canada, based Wattpad, except they don’t pay writers.

Note: Amazon will shut down Kindle Vella in February 2025.

Michael Kozlowski

Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times.

by Rick Lakin

On Sunday March 28, 2021, William Barrons, aged 95, sat at his computer for six hours and finished his 17th book, Cadillac Commands, the 13th in his series San Diego Police Homicide Detail. The next day, as his publisher, I visited Bill and picked up his last manuscript. I put the book up on Amazon on Friday of that week. The following Monday, his daughter called me and told me that Bill passed away.

Born in 1926, in Cadillac, Michigan, Bill was the oldest boy of fourteen kids.  He survived the Great Depression and joined the Marines the day after he turned 17.  He could hardly wait to go fight those nasty Nazis and Japanese.  Bill served 2½ war years in the Marines, got married, went to college, had kids, and re-joined the Marines in 1949 - in time for the Korean War. Bill was commissioned a Marine Second Lieutenant but was a Platoon Commander only for a short while as his wife nearly died and he had to resign to care for his family.  He became a Telephone equipment engineer with AT&T in Chicago, then was a kitchen and home remodeling designer for 22 years.   Bill retired at age 69 and began to research and write novels. He became a long-time member of San Diego Writers and Editors Guild. At the age of 95, he was still at it!

Rick Lakin is the publisher at iCrew Digital Publishing. 

Visit his website at williambarrons.com

Dear Local Author:  

As one of our most loyal and cherished constituencies, the library values your opinion and would like your help with this important community outreach project. The San Diego Public Library wants to know what you want your library to look like. We are working with the San Diego Public Library Foundation to complete a Library Master Plan and are seeking broad public participation in a Community Survey that asks: 

• What you need from the Library,  
• How can the Library serve the community,  
• What services, technologies, and programs would help you and your community. 
  
  Please visit the survey webpage and complete the survey online. The survey is open February 17 to April 17 and is available in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Tagalog, and Vietmanese, in addition to English. If you have questions or would like to get more information, contact the Library Foundation at office@supportmylibrary.org or call (619) 236-5849. 

Kind Regards,

Local Author Exhibit Staff
Humanities Section, Central Library @Joan Λ Irwin Jacobs Common
City of San Diego
San Diego Public Library

 

  

THE WRITERS’ WORKSHOP

 387 Beaucatcher Road

Asheville, NC 28805

www.twwoa.org *  828-254-8111 *    writersw@gmail.com 

Writing Workshops, Poetry Contest

The Writers' Workshop of Asheville NC is offering online classes for beginning and experienced writers. Each class meets on Saturdays, 10-3:30 pm, with a lunch break. Registration is in advance only, at www.twwoa.org. Classes are $80/75 members, and financial assistance is available for low-income writers in exchange for volunteering.

 For more info, see www.twwoa.org, or contact writersw@gmail.com. [These workshops have happened. The email address may no longer be valid.]

April 17: Finding Your Poetic Voice with Bruce Spang

May 1:  Writing Your Memoirs with Karen Ackerson

May 15:  Writing From The Top Of Your Head with Nina Hart

May 29:  Screenwriting Workshop with Nathan Ross Freeman

June 12: Fiction Writing And Revising with Karen Ackerson 

Poetry Contest Deadline Extended to April 15.

For Awards and Guidelines, go to www.twwoa.org.

April 10th marks Encourage a Young Writer Day, and to celebrate, Caitlin Stewart, Resource Coordinator at the Center for School, College, and Career Resources in Reno, Nevada, rounded up some of her organization’s favorite writing resources to help inspire the world’s next great writers. She shared those resources with the Guild. If you know of a student interested in a writing career, please share this message with them.

The first guide details the steps young people can take to become a professional writer, an overview of career concentrations and related jobs, and the skills they’ll need to be successful:

How to Become a Writer – https://www.learnhowtobecome.org/writer/

The second resource is a go-to guide for students that walks them through what they need to know to improve their writing skills in college. It details various writing styles and lists available writing tools and apps:

Writing Guide for College Students – https://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/college-resource-center/college-writing-guide/ 

The last guide Caitlin shared was created with help from four experts in English language and writing. It breaks down common essays students will encounter in school, how to nail the research and outline process and keep their writing on track. It also lists common writing mistakes and how they can avoid them. You can read more here:

Student Guide to Academic Writing and Research – https://www.accreditedschoolsonline.org/resources/student-writing-resources/ The link in this url is broken. Perhaps you can find a working link to a similar source.

The Center for School, College, and Career Resources believe that by sharing these guides, they can help aspiring writers cultivate a love of writing.

From Alyssa Johnson: I have been writing for the past few years and have taken part in conducting a Writing Resources Guide: https://edubirdie.com/blog/writing-resources