Monthly Archives: January 2020

Unsolicited Writing Advice!

2020 Housatonic Book Awards are now open for Submissions

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If you published a book in 2019, ask your publisher, editor, or publicist to nominate it for the Housatonic Book Award! The Awards are sponsored by Western Connecticut State University’s MFA in Creative and Professional Writing program, and categories for this year’s award include Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, and Middle Grades/YA.

Past winners include Sean Thomas Dougherty, Leslie Jamison, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Matthea Harvey, Tawni Waters, A.B. Westrick, Jennifer Dubois, John Katzenbach, Brandon Brown, Ann Jacobus, Peter Peter Andrew Selgin, Joel Brouwer, Victoria Chang, Dick Lehr, Shanti Sekharan, Beth Ann Fennelly, and other amazing writers. Authors can also self-nominate.

The awards will be presented at the residencies that the award winner will attend. Each award carries a $1000 honorarium and $500 travel stipend in exchange for appearing at the residency. Entering a title implies the author’s willingness to attend the WCSU MFA residency indicated in the description for the award. The honorarium is awarded in exchange for and after the completion of appearance at the appropriate residency.

Deadline for submission is June 15, 2020. Click here for more information.

Unsolicited Writing Advice!

New Keynote Speaker at Liberty States Fiction Writers Conference April 4, 2020

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Mark Your Calendar for the
11th Anniversary
Liberty States Fiction
Writers Conference
April 4, 2020

Holiday Inn in Clark, NJ

Our 2020 Conference is dedicated to Indie Publishing, but we have something for writers at all stages of their careers and whether traditionally published, small press, hybrid or indie.

Keynote Presentation

Two Hour Presentation

MORE POWER, MORE OPTIONS, MORE CONTROL
OVER YOUR PATH TO SUCCESS
Mark Leslie Lefebvre

Writers have never had more power, more options, and more control over their careers, over carving their own unique pathways to success. The growth of digital publishing opportunities continues to expand, and a combination of technology and creativity are allowing writers to explore brave new worlds of writing that have never existed before.

Mark Leslie Lefebvre, who has been writing since he was thirteen, and first discovered his mother’s Underwood typewriter hidden in the back of her closet, had his first short story published the same year he started his journey through bookselling. Not only is he a former President of the Canadian Booksellers Association, and founder of Kobo Writing Life, but he has more than twenty books published and has embraced hybrid publishing opportunities at all levels.

By exploring a brief history of publishing, the digital revolution, trends within both traditional publishing and indie publishing, and using examples from his own three decades of experience as a writer and with coaching and supporting thousands of authors, Mark will take you on an entertaining, informative and inspiring tour that will demonstrate the power that you have to forge a successful writing and publishing career.

Explore with Mark how there has truly never been a greater time to be a writer.

About Mark Leslie Lefebvre – Mark’s first short story appeared in print in 1992, the same year he started in the book industry. He has published more than twenty books under the name Mark Leslie that include thrillers and fiction (Evasion, A Canadian Werewolf in New York, One Hand Screaming), paranormal non-fiction (Haunted Hospitals, Spooky Sudbury, Macabre Montreal) and anthologies (Campus Chills, Tesseracts Sixteen, Fiction River: Feel the Fear).His industry experience include President of the Canadian Booksellers Association, Board Member of BookNet Canada, Director of Author Relations and Self-Publishing for Rakuten Kobo, Director of Business Development for Draft2Digital and Professional Advisor for Sheridan College’s Creative Writing and Publishing Honours Program. Mark lives in Waterloo, Ontario and can be found online at http://www.markleslie.ca.

Unsolicited Writing Advice!

It’s not going to write itself, sweetheart

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How many of you out there have made New Year’s resolutions? Oh really? Suckers! You know they don’t work. Better, I’ve heard to set goals, as those taskmaster resolutions are like backing you into a wall, making you change or else! Seriously, who can go to bed one night in the old year, and wake up in the next completely changed? You’re still in the same old bed in the same old body. But what you CAN do is set yourself on the right path toward something, as incremental change has a hell of a better change of becoming permanent, that expecting a volia! moment and realistically, no change at all.

So you want to finally finish that book, right? DEFINITELY a task that isn’t pulled out of a hat. Slow and steady is always going to get the job done, but only if you set your mind in the right place at the onset. Tell yourself right now–no INSIST — that you are a writer — and primarily, writers write. Start to take yourself seriously, and then everyone else will. Set parameters and make sure they’re respected. You write from xx to xx o’clock, then stick to it. A closed door means I’m working, and don’t let anyone open it unless the house is burning down. And then do something for yourself, to keep that ball in motion, to keep those creative fires lit, to keep you going until you finally type THE END.  Let your species seek out your own.

I’m talking a Writers Conference, and I’ve got one for you right here, especially if you live in the Philadelphia/New York metro area. The 11th Annual Liberty States Fiction Writers Conference, located in beautiful Clark, NJ, a skippy tra-la right off the Garden State Parkway. This year we’re having a focus on self-publishing, and even if you’ve never thought about it, come on out anyway. We’re having scad of traditional representation, too. I’ll be having more about it in future posts, but for right now, click here for more info.

Then get that butt in the chair and keep writing!