The Craft of Writing

Kathleen Allen-Weber

Ann McCutchan

Choosing the Writing Life: Art and Practice with Kathleen Allen-Weber & Ann McCutchan

Saturday, September 12, 10a.m. – 5p.m.

Whether you are thinking about becoming a writer or living the writer’s life but desperate for a booster shot, this six-hour intensive workshop offers the ideas, tools and inspiration for turning desire into flow, and flow into finished manuscripts. Team-taught by essayist, journalist and three-book author Ann McCutchan, a professor of creative writing at the University of North Texas, and licensed therapist and writer Kathleen Allen-Weber, Ph.D., “Choosing the Writing Life” addresses the three critical components of the writer’s way: awareness, commitment, and practice.

Topics include:

• developing self-knowledge
• building technique
• seizing ripe opportunities

Don’t miss out on this workshop. To register for, click here!

Summer Writing Retreat Submission: James Bernsen

Overlooking the Sull Ross Campus in Alpine, TX

James Aalan Bernsen attended the “Something Novel” class at the 2009 Summer Writing Retreat in Alpine. He is working on a novel in between his work as a public relations consultant. A veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, James has a blog on his deployment at www.aalan94.blogspot.com

Bottlecap Alley

by James Aalan Bernsen

Andy Mitchell was chronically out of touch with his universe. It was a strange state to be in, but it seemed his lot in life. He missed the universe and it passed by him unseen. It probably happened somewhere after he turned off onto a back road near Navasota, Texas.

Being chronically out of touch with your universe creates some interesting, if not problematic, effects on driving. Road signs, for example, vanish in the blur that is the outside. Towns too, disappear. All the people and all the problems of the world cease to be when you’re out there, alone and free, driving down a winding country road – narrow and pale, the color of faded jeans.

But some forces in the universe transcend all dimensions, explode through all existent reality, and cut like knives into the heart of our being, forcing themselves ungraciously onto our troubled souls. Forces like time, physics and the sleek, black Ford of a Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper, like the one who had just pulled out behind Andy.

But let us go back before all that, to the fleeting moment in the life of Andy Mitchell when he could look deep inside the well that is his soul and still, with

“Glimmer Train” Short Fiction Deadline Is August 31

Got a short story in you? Check out Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers.

Deadline: August 31, 2009

Prizes:

• 1st place wins $1,200, publication in Glimmer Train Stories, and 20 copies.
• 2nd-place: $500 and possible publication.
• 3rd-place: $300 and possible publication.

Reading fee: $15 per story.

Results post on October 31, 2009. Winning story will be published in Issue 77.

Other considerations:

• Open only to writers whose fiction has not appeared in any print publication with a circulation over 5,000. (Entries, of course, must be unpublished.)
• Stories not to exceed 12,000 words.

To submit, click here.

August Meeting Is TONIGHT!

Tonight is the Writers’ League’s monthly happy hour and meeting. Tonight’s program in Austin is “Legal Mumbo Jumbo: The Ins and Outs of Contracts” with a media attorney and CPA. Details are here.

And don’t forget the happy hours in Austin and Houston:

• Doc’s Motorworks in Austin (5-7 p.m.)
• Cafe Express at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (5:30-7:30 p.m.)

Hope to see you there!

Added Member Benefit

Writers’ League of Texas members now receive a $50 discount off the price of the 2009 Austin Film Festival conference badge or producer badge. Members will need to call the AFF office (512-478-4795) and speak with Alex McPhail in order to register with the discounts.

*Discounts are not valid with any other discount or promotional price offered by the Austin Film Festival

Film Pass-$42 (no discount)
Lonestar Badge-$95 (no discount)

Weekend Badge-$200 (regularly $225)

Conference Badge-

• Through September 28th: $300 (regularly $350)
• After September 28th: $325 (regularly $375)

Producers Badge-

• Through September 28th: $535 (regularly $585)
• After September 28th: $600 (regularly $650)

Call the AFF at 1-800-310-FEST(3378) to find out about discounted hotels and airfare. For information about the events included in each registration level please visit the AFF website at: www.austinfilmfestival.com

Subscribe to Footnotes

Footnotes is the Writers’ League’s weekly email newsletter. It’s the best way to keep up on all the goings on in the Texas writing community. To subscribe, email the office at wlt(@)writersleague.org, and put “subscribe” in the subject line.

*Remove parenthesis from the email address – they’re there to foil spambots.*

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 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.

An Evening With Roy Blount Jr.: An Elegantly Hilarious Success

WLT’s Spring Benefit, featuring Roy Blount Jr., one of America’s best loved humorists and authors, was an entertaining and successful evening.

Roy Blount Jr., president of the Author’s Guild, spoke at length about Google’s controversial Book Search. His words were straightforward and enlightening, and helped clear up a lot of questions regarding the program’s effects on publishing.

Mary Gordon Spence, much loved here at the Writers’ League, was our fabulous and funny emcee—thanks Mary! Thank you, St. Edwards University and Barnes & Noble Booksellers, for your contributions to the benefit.

Proceeds benefited the Writers’ League of Texas—a hearty thank you to those who attended!

Jacqueline Kelly’s Book Launch Party on Tuesday!

Well, our Writers’ League members are certainly cranking out the books! Our friend Jacqueline Kelly’s first novel, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, will be officially launched on Tuesday, May 12, at BookPeople in Austin. The party starts at 7:30 p.m., so come on out and support Jackie and pick up yet another great read!

As some of you may recall, Jackie met her agent at a past Writers’ League Agents Conference. Her book was just released from Henry Holt this month, and it received a starred review in Publishers Weekly: “Callie’s transformation into an adult and her unexpected bravery make for an exciting and enjoyable read. Kelly’s rich images and setting, believable relationships and a touch of magic take this story far.”

Way to go, Jackie!