An Austin organization worth exploring

Badgerdog Literary Publishing

“Our vision is to identify, acquire, and revive reputable, defunct literary journals in an effort to strengthen the infrastructure of the American literary tradition, fostering the growth of every next generation of writers.”

So cool!

http://badgerdog.org/

2009 Agents Conference Photos Posted

Flickr donated a Pro account so we’re able to post all the pictures from the Conference. If you got any good pix please let me know and we’ll post them too. Giant thanks to Candice Munoz for being our event photographer for the weekend. She’s just starting her photographic career, so email the League if you want her contact information!

Kristy’s Magical Discovery

It’s vacation time at the League office! Amanda just got back from a trip to visit her parents, Cyndi is off to celebrate her sister’s birth on Monday, and I’m flying to Vegas Tuesday to celebrate my 10th wedding anniversary (July 30th, 1999). We’ll be back refreshed and whole on August 3rd!

My new book club was lots of fun. The next book is “The Dancing Wu Li Masters” by Gary Zukav but I’m sneaking in “An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales” by Oliver Sacks in between assignments.

Bloggin’ the Book Tour

Could this be the future of book tours? Jeff Salamon at the Austin American-Statesman writes: “In a tweet a couple of weeks ago from the Texas Writers’ League conference, I professed befuddlement at the notion of a ‘blog talk radio show,’ and also felt befuddlement about the notion of a ‘blog book tour,’ which someone mentioned. Apparently, these are for real. Scroll down on this page to see one author’s jam-packed virtual book tour.”

That looks like like one promising list of book blogs. Even if you’re not plotting a virtual book tour, they’re worth checking out.

P.S. Thanks for the shout-out, Jeff! And be sure to bookmark Jeff’s “Litcetera” column for your weekly reading!

2009 Writers’ League of Texas Manuscript Contest Winners!

Every year, the WLT hosts a manuscript contest for unpublished fiction, creative nonfiction, children’s, and young adult book writers.

The winners of each category meet individually with an agent during the annual WLT Agents Conference (each June in Austin).

Annnnd the winners are:

Children’s Literature – Nikki Loftin (Austin, TX) for Raymond Mahaney, Soccer Failure

Historical Fiction - Elizabeth Haltom (Austin, TX) for Gwendolyn’s Sword

Mystery - Janice Hamrick (Austin, TX) for Death on Tour

Mainstream Fiction - Holly Wonder (Austin, TX) for Janet Carmody: Stuck in Foreplay

Narrative Nonfiction - Sunny Haralson (Austin, TX) for Beauty Tips for the Bereaved

Romance - Donna J. Cummings (East Hampton, NY) for Lord Midnight

Science Fiction/Fantasy - Mary Ann Loesch (Leander, TX) for Nephilim

Thriller Action – Adventure - Cecilia Jones (Austin, TX) for Traveler

Young Adult - Danielle Jimenez (Laredo, TX) for Virgin in Running Shoes

The guidelines for the 2010 contest will be posted in the Fall on the WLT website (www.writersleague.org) and winners will be announced at next year’s Writers’ League Agents Conference in June.

Kristy’s Magical Discovery

There have been a lot of discoveries at the League since I last posted.
#1 Amanda discovered that she’s 30. Happy birthday, Amanda!
#2 We all discovered how amazing our interns are. Thanks a ton to Amanda S., Rebecca, Sara, and Beth for rocking the conference!
#3 I’ve discovered what I can tolerate. My home was burglarized two days before the conference and I survived. Yay for resilience!
#4 I’ve joined a (lay) science book club and am reading The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow. I’m taking a sabbatical from fiction.