Next Noble Pen Meeting

November 29th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Philip Roth, now approaching 80, announced that his is done writing novels after a career of over 50 years.

Amazon lists their editors’ top picks from 2012.  They also offer lists by category, such as Kindle publications.

Christopher McManus wrote in the Annals of Improbable Research about the psychological and medical conditions found in fictional characters, from Dracula to Snow White, with a long bibliography from more serious journals.

Education

Here’s an article on how to get published, and another on how to get your book publisized.

Publishing is a business. Writing may be art, but publishing, when all is said and done, comes down to dollars.  ~Nicholas Sparks

Most writers have totally unrealistic concepts of how publishing works. ~Jim Harrison

To read a book, to think it over, and to write out notes is a useful exercise; a book which will not repay some hard thought is not worth publishing.  ~Maria Mitchell

A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it. ~Mark Twain

Upcoming Schedule

Nov 29th

Aimee
Tyree
Ciuin

Dec 6th

Nick
Tyree (unless someone needs slot)
Ciuin ?

Dec 13th

Open slots

Dec20th

Open slots

Dec27th

Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

November 29th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Most employers are giving their people a four-day weekend to work on their writing.   So as to not interfere with that, we will not meet on Thanksgiving Day.

Please check the review schedule as given below and let me know if it needs to change.

-//-

Welcome to Janice, who found the group.

Victories

Tyree got a lot of good research info about the airplane used in his story.  He had a good trip to the Memphis ComiCon and talked with three publishers who asked him to submit.  His proudest moment there was when Mickey Zucher Reichert, a major writer of SF&F, told him she loved his book she had bought in a prior meeting.

Dylan found a beta reader for his weekly serial.  He finished a story.  His work sold enough on Amazon that he got a check.

Nick finished an edit pass on his sci fi story.

Ciuin presented at two conferences and was asked to write two articles on presentation of Romani in museums.  One would be in a scholarly magazine that will look very good on a resume.  She visited the Holocaust Museum in Skokie where she gave them several historical corrections to their displays and met the curator.  She will write something for their use.  And she got the long-awaited feedback on Petty Theft from her editor, with several good suggestions.

Education

Writers Digest offers some lists:

What Bestsellers Do Differently Than Everyone Else

Top 10 Ways to Stay True to Yourself in Publishing

Top 10 Pieces of Advice for Writers

And, finally, a lighthearted look at distractions from writing.

Upcoming Schedule

Nov 22nd

Thanksgiving – no meeting

Nov 29th

Aimee
Tyree
Ciuin

Dec 6th

Nick
Tyree (unless others need slot)
Ciuin ?

Dec 13th

Open slots

Dec20th

Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

November 8th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Random House and Penguin are negotiating a merger.  Together, they control a quarter of the US book market.

Victories

Dylan reports that an anthology came out that includes his submission.

Shannon’s Fangs For Nothing arrived in its first print edition.

Aimee was ready to start writing for NaNoWriMo at 10 pm on Nov 1.

Education

Writers differ in how they go about revisions – do you go back frequently or wait until the draft is done?  Rachel Scheller  describes four approaches.

Read what several famous writers said about revisions.

And here’s some revision advice from the University of North Carolina.

Half my life is an act of revision. ~John Irving

I don’t write a quick draft and then revise; instead, I work slowly page by page, revising and polishing.  ~Dean Koontz

Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing. ~Bernard Malamud

Upcoming Schedule

Nov 8th

Dylan, double slot (conclusion of BAM)
Aimee

Nov 15th

Tyree
Nick
Open slots

Nov 22nd

Thanksgiving – no meeting

Nov 29th

Open slots

Dec 6th

Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill