What a great May we’ve had in the club. As
you’ll see in this issue, our club members have brought home some big honors
this month for their writing. All the hard work and discipline does
pay off. I’m especially happy for Dawn Prater. After the harrowing
year she’s had, she deserves some fantastic news.
The OWFI conference was great. It was a relaxing
and exciting weekend spent learning more about our craft, seeing old friends,
making new friends, and networking with other writers and professionals
in our field. Though I was tired when Sunday came, I drove home renewed.
Just spending time with other writers makes me more determined than ever
to write.
In response to a member’s request, I’ve found a
great article on copyrighting. It’s a bit long, but covers the basics
and then some. Vicky Hinze’s article on creating a novel notebook
will be beneficial to most of us. I heard Merline Lovelace speak on a similar
topic and thought it might interest you.
Paw Prints articles for June are due June 5th.
Happy May to all,
I'm wonderfully excited this month about so many
things that are happening within our group. Dawn carried off four
prizes at OWFI including first place in the confession category, while
Kelli brought home a first place in the novel category. Way to go,
girls!!! You made us all look good. I can't wait to hear about
all the great workshops I missed.
Karen Anderson continues to work hard for our October
conference. She's convinced several professional writers' journals
(like Writers' Digest) to provide us with copies. She also has our
speakers set, the bios in, and a zillion other things done. Kudos
to Karen.
Remember all, our contest deadline is August 2 so get
busy on your entries now, polish them up, and be ready to send them in.
We have published judges for every category, so the feedback should be
good. See you at the meeting.
President
Vice-President and Program Chair Secretary Treasurer Historian/Reporter Paw Prints Editor OWFI Representatives Research Librarian (Honorary) |
Linda Goodnight
Pat Millette Doris Novotny Karen Anderson Elaine Carmen Wells Kelli McBride Linda Goodnight and Kelli McBride Lorraine Stone |
Member News And Reminders
This month we have lots of club news – and all FANTASTIC!!
First, the conference and contest are coming together
beautifully thanks, in large part, to Karen Anderson. Not only will
we have complimentary copies of Writers’ Digest to hand out, but Karen
has also got Romantic Times to send us free issues as well. I’ve
registered our conference and contest with several web sites and it looks
like that’s paying off. Our first contest entry was from Tuscon,
Arizona! Elaine and I passed out lots of flyers at the OWFI conference
and hopefully those with prove fruitful.
In last month’s meeting, PAWS held a contest based
on characterization. Doris Novotny and Kelli McBride tied for 1st
place, but all of the entries were well written.
Linda Goodnight has been a busy bee lately.
Her latest confession story is now available in the last ever issue (May)
of True Life Stories. The full manuscript of As Long as the Canary
Sings has been requested by Zondervan Books, Hopkins Literary Agency, and
Kirkland Agency. Hopkins also requested a partial manuscript of the
category novel, Katt’s Cowboy. Redemption Mountain won first place in OKRWA's
Soon To Be Published Contest. The prize is a paid fee to the national
RWA convention in Chicago. BIG APPLAUSE: As Long As The Canary
Sings is a Golden Heart finalist in the RWA national contest. This
is a HUGE honor. The winners in the different Golden Heart categories
will be announced at the convention. This ceremony is telecast over
the internet, so if you have access make sure to tune in.
Last, but not least, we have wonderful news from
the OWFI front. Again, PAWS has been represented well in the OWFI
contest. Dawn Prater took home 1st place in Confessions, 2nd place
in Feature Article and SF/Fantasy/Horror Novel, and 3rd place in SF/Fantasy/Horror
Short Story. Kelli McBride took home 1st place in Contemporary Romance
Novel. The Evan Marshall Agency requested Janice Imel send them her
mystery novel. Considering how new and small our club is, taking
home 5 awards – all in the money – is incredible. Of course, we’ve
done so well in the past, we almost expect to bring home something.
And I know that many of our talented writers don’t submit to the contests.
I can only imagine how many more prizes we’d bring home if everyone entered.
May Meeting...
Bring plenty of paper because,
Elaine Wells and Kelli McBride will be doing a recap of the 1999 OWFI conference.
They'll have notes to share of the various workshops they attended and
of course a list of all the
PAWS members who walked away with contest winnings.
The meeting, as always,
will be held the third Monday of the month at 7p.m. at the Catholic church,
so be sure to plan on attending. Visitors are always welcome.
What is a novel notebook, and why do you, a creative
genius need one?
A novel notebook is simply a binder in which you
organize and store all the information pertinent to a single novel.
Why do you need one? Because the more organized
you are, the less time you spend searching for things you can't remember
where you put, and the more time you spend creating. In other words, more
fun time and less frustration.
One of the most important legal concepts that a freelance writer must become familiar with is that of U.S. copyright law. Many misconceptions exist regarding this topic, especially on the Internet. The Internet itself poses some tricky problems regarding copyright, not all of which are settled under U.S. law. This article will address some of these basic concepts and will give some practical advice for freelance writers on protecting their work.
Do you have trouble getting those elusive 25 lines
on a page when you use MS Word? Here’s what a writer on my RWA Link
shared with us: Set one inch margins at top, and sides and .75 at
bottom. (This will give you a one inch margin in printing). Set headers
at .6. Set line spacing at [26pts], at least, which is theoretically
equal to double, but gives exactly the right amount of lines per page.
Make sure your paragraph format is set with widow/orphan protection off
(under paragraph formatting “Line and Page Breaks” tab).
And voila! You have 25 lines per page consistently.
Not all books need dark moments, but properly used,
this point of crisis can intensify the conflict and at the same time, initiate
its resolution.
Think of the dark moment as the time when the protagonist
reaches rock bottom. All seems lost. This will usually precede the climax
(where the major plot problem is resolved), and thus take place near the
beginning of the final part of the book. This is when all the torturing
you've done has its greatest effect. But, just as Mommy always tells Tot
during the spanking, the torture is meant to build character. The protagonist
should experience despair, and then through courage come out of it with
redoubled determination and greater wisdom.