Hear ye! Hear ye!
I am pleased to announce today is the official release date for
Story Sprouts: CBW-LA Writing Day and Anthology 2013, a collection of stories by members of the Children's Book Writers of Los Angeles created during a one day creative Writing Day workshop this past June.
It is a BIG accomplishment for our group, founded in 2010 by Nutschell Anne Windsor of The Writing Nut, and I am so excited. The book comes complete with 10 writing exercises, a bunch of writing tips and techniques, prompts, and - best of all - a glimpse at the talent of 19 published and aspiring children's book authors.
We've been highlighting those authors on our Facebook page for the past month, so take a look!
Nutschell spearheaded the workshop and our board members collected the anthology entries, which I then compiled and edited for the book. I also took her fantastic workshop presentation and translated it into a narrative form so that writers could follow along from home.
If you like to writercize, chances are you will be a fan of the exercises and prompts. And if you love to support and discover new talent, this is the place to look. I was floored by the stories that came out of three hours of writing and revising, from story seed to complete product!
Each author contributed two pieces - one poem or short prose "On Writing," and one short story based on a photo prompt and exercise called Shopping for Story Ideas. Our writers played with voice and point of view during revision exercises.
Our Launch party is this Saturday, so if you are in the L.A. area, I'd love for you to attend and support these great writers! (Details at www.cbw-la.org)
After the launch, we will be going on an around the world BLOG TOUR, so if you are interested in obtaining a complimentary copy for a fair review on your blog, or if you'd like to interview Nutschell or me, please leave a comment here and we'll get in touch!
Thank you for your readership and support!
And - I will see you tomorrow for a very fun Weekly Writercize! ;)
Hello Writercizers!
It's been several full moons since my last post, and I felt like stopping into say hello.
As always, life has been a whirlwind of busy. Including a ton of time writing, which is always good! I still have a Chicken Soup giveaway to take care of, so watch for that in the coming days. I also have some writing news to share with all of you, and some blogging news to share as well!
Writing News first:
1 --- My writing group, Children's Book Writers of Los Angeles (or CBW-LA for short), is preparing to launch a new book! It will be fantastic for all writercizers out there - as well as English students, aspiring authors, published authors, teachers, writing groups and more! Late last year, we had a concept to create an anthology created out of a one-day writing workshop, complete with writing exercises. It would be a Writing Day Anthology. The idea was all of us have manuscripts we love, but ultimately want to publish as a stand-alone book, so by taking ideas sprouted in the moment, we could encourage our writers to exercise their minds, get published and have some fun.
It was a wonderful experience, and very successful! As the group's Publications Editor, I had the honor of compiling the pieces, doing some minor content edits to help the stories flow better, and writing the narrative around the anthology! The book includes ten writing prompts, photos, character types, all the hand-outs from the workshop on four short literary types - Picture Book Manuscript, Flash Fiction, Poetry and Essay - and descriptions and thoughts on the writing craft.
Our authors completed two published works each - one On Writing, and the other a fictional piece based on a photo prompt. There are some outstanding, creative brains in our midst and I am very excited to announce the Anthology, entitled STORY SPROUTS, will be released on October 29, 2013! I encourage you all to buy a copy when it comes out - available on Amazon in digital or print form - and I will keep you posted here with the link and a giveaway. In the meantime, follow our Facebook page for updates.
We are patting ourselves on the back at the moment for a whole new approach to the anthology, so we'd appreciate some pats on the back from you as well. ;)
And, if you have not met Nutschell Anne Windsor yet, aka The Writing Nut, check out her blog! She is the co-editor of STORY SPROUTS, and she designed the exercises and the workshop. She is also the incredibly smart, talented, creative, resourceful founder of CBW-LA. It has been an honor to work with her on this very important project.
2 --- My creative nonfiction work about building an orphanage in Benin, West Africa is well underway and I hope to have the first draft completed by the New Year. In the meantime, I am planning a two-week research adventure in Africa the end of next month. Wahoo! This will be a FUNNY book, something we've coined the humorous humanitarian, and the critique group response was strong.
Blogging News:
I have decided to attack this blog again in manageable spurts, so I would like to post a Weekly Writercize. I am not ready to re-launch the WeekendWritercize competition yet, but I am looking forward to a weekly interaction with the blogging world.
So, what day should I post my Weekly Writercize? What's your preference? Shall we make it Wednesday for good alliteration? Over the weekend? First thing Monday morning? I'm up for any day but Tuesdays, so send me a shout-out with your preference.
