Hold on to your divine blush, your innate rosy magic, or end up brown. Once you’re brown, you’ll find out you’re blue. As blue as indigo. And you know what that means. Indigo. Indigoing. Indigone. – Tom Robbins
Good ways to waste time: Via Neil Gaiman’s blog, a website that shows the before and after shots of photos that have been retouched. Granted, most of the girls look pretty good anyway (like Halle Berry), but it’s amazing to see the difference a computer program makes. I will never look at those fashion magazines in the same way again. Ever.
McVane has a great interview up at Revision 14, and my friend, John, has posted some transcripts from the writing workshops at the Writers of the Future gathering. It makes good reading.
Writing Opportunities (courtesy of FundsforWriters):
Travel Markets (for those of you who get around and like to write about it):
http://www.evmediakit.com (Endless Vacation)
guidelines@touristtravel.com (send for guidelines)
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CALL FOR NEW PLAYS BY WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS OF THE SOUTHEAST
http://www.WomenPlaywrights.com
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NO ENTRY FEE – The Women Playwrights� Initiative (WPI) will produce a full-length original play written by a woman playwright living in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, or Virginia. The first 15 pages of no more than two scripts may be submitted electronically to julesgee@cfl.rr.com or postmarked no later than November 1, 2005. A workshop process will begin with the winning playwright in Spring 2006, with a fully-staged production to follow in Orlando. For more information, please call Julia Gagne at 407-273-9723, or email her at julesgee@cfl.rr.com.
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RAINMAKER AWARDS IN POETRY
http://www.apsu.edu/langlit/Zone3.htm
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NO ENTRY FEE / NO DEADLINE – The entrance fee is a one year’s subscription to Zone 3: one year (two issues) for $8; two years for $15. A maximum of three poems should be submitted for the Winter 2005 issue of Zone 3.
First place $500
Second place $300
Third place $100
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RALAN’S SPECTRAVAGANZA CONTEST 2005 (AKA CLINCHER CONTEST)
http://www.ralan.com/
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$20 ENTRY FEE – Current listings for over 500 speculative & humor fiction, poetry, nonfiction & art markets. Over 820 categorized writing links. Dead markets. How to submit & mss format. Contests.
Now open for entries to a 500-word “Clincher” (end of a 2-6k word story) contest. 1/3 of fees supports Ralan.com. Prizes in 2003 = US $1,000, 2004 = US $750. Judges are Sheila Williams (Asimov’s) and Stanley Schmidt (Analog). Deadline August 31, 2005. The top five winners will also have the entire story published on THE SPECTRAVAGANZA web site.
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MISSOURI ARTS COUNCIL SEEKING GRANT PANELISTS
http://www.missouriartscouncil.org/fy07panelnominationform.doc
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For those of you in this region of the country, the Missouri Arts Council seeks people interested in serving on a grants panel. You do not have to have a background in grants. You might be a writer, artist, nonprofit member, teacher or business person, and the MAC needs people in every category to help decide who receives their grant funds. This is the best way to learn how grants work and how to put in for your own downstream. The partnership ideas are just fabulous and the educational process unmatched. Take advantage of this if you can. Deadline September 9, 2005. Residents of neighboring states welcomed, too.
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NEBRASKA ARTS COUNCIL – INDIVIDUAL GRANTS
http://www.nebraskaartscouncil.org
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The film competition, as a pilot program, has $12,000 allocated for awards, with one $5,000 Distinguished Artist Award available. The literature competition, which has been a part of the IAF cycle since its inception in 1990, will be awarding $25,000 to Nebraska writers. The deadline for submission of materials is November 15, 2005. The application form and guidelines is posted online on the “Programs/Fellowships” page.
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LEF FOUNDATION NEW ENGLAND CONTEMPORARY WORK FUND
http://www.lef.org
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Deadline: September 23, 2005 (Letters of Inquiry) – LEF New England’s Contemporary Work Fund supports innovative work of strong creative merit in all contemporary art disciplines (excluding filmmaking, which is supported through LEF’s Moving Image Fund.) Contemporary Work Fund grants are targeted primarily to the creation of new work and to projects that foster artists’ creative development. Grants are awarded for individual artists’ projects and to organizational programs that foster the creative development of artists living and working in the six New England states. Individual artists must apply through
a nonprofit organization that agrees to take fiscal responsibility for the grant; some sponsoring organizations may offer additional support services. Organizational applicants apply directly for projects that provide creative opportunities for individual artists to develop and share new work.
The foundation will also consider supporting a New England artist working with a cultural organization outside of the
region. In addition, the foundation will review proposals for the presentation of work by artists from outside the
region for the benefit of New England artists and audiences. Grants range in size from $5,000 to $25,000, with the majority of grants awarded in the $12,000 to $15,000 range.
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WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE (UK)
http://www.literaturetraining.com/scripts/WebObjects.exe/literatureTraining.woa/wa/showEvents?id=5198
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The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, Buckinghamshire are now advertising a writer-in-residence post for an emerging writer for 7 – 13 year old children, able to demonstrate to a variety of audiences how a writer works and inspire a love of reading and creative writing. Location: Great Missendon, Buckinghamshire. Deadline September 9, 2005.
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MILITARY SPOUSE
http://www.militaryspousemagazine.com/WritersGuidelines.htm
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Military Spouse magazine provides unique entertainment and insight into current events relevant to a military spouse’s daily life. We are a bimonthly publication with a circulation of 75,000. Freelancers contribute 75 percent of the editorial content. Pays $100-$400 according to assignment.
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FREELANCE RADIO WRITERS (MULTIPLE POSITIONS)
E-mail: info@itoors.com
http://www.itoors.com
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Radio/broadcast writers, songwriters, stand up comedians, poets, journalists. iToors is the world’s most listened-to travel podcast. (A podcast is a radio style program delivered to a portable music player). We are seeking 10-15 very talented freelance writers to write scripts that take people on themed walking and driving tours of the world’s major cities. Our immediate need is for people to do the themed New York City and Paris (and some major US cities) podcast writing. The most important requirement is an incredible ability to write for the ear (in other words for listened rather than reading). We prefer comedians, songwriters, poets, and broadcast writers who understand how to write for an audience that LISTENS. Please listen to one of our iToors at http://www.itoors.com then email us with a sample of any writing you have done for the ear. If you do not have any samples, please write us a 2-3 paragraph sample of what you would write for iToors. Tell us what city you live in and what hobbies/topics you have/prefer.
Write ONE Sample (2-3 paragraphs) specifically written for this application that is representative of what you would write for us. The topic should be something you are very familiar with and passionate about. If you are not sure what to write about, consider these examples: a food tour of Paris, a film tour of New York City, a trail of John Steinbeck in Monterey, California; an architecture tour of Chicago; and so on. * The sample you write for us should walk a fine line between documentary and drama. It should have the reality and factual truth of a documentary but the characterization and drama of a narration. It should avoid clich�s or the expected content. In other words, if you were writing about Scotland, we don’t want to hear anything about Haggis, bagpipes or rain. We don’t want to hear about anything “nestled in the hills.” We want to hire immediately, so the sooner you get your samples
to us the sooner we can hire you! We pay based upon a point system that combines experience with amount of work. Typically projects range from $500 to $5,000.