June Meeting

Our next meeting is June 7th at 7 p.m. Bring a novel chapter or short story to read aloud for on-the-spot round robin critiques.

Starbucks
101 N. Hurstbourne
(corner of Hurstbourne and Shelbyville)

Novelists, don't forget to bring your "cover copy!"

20 Worst Agents

I've recieved this from numerous sources. For those of you who missed it, our group merited a tiny bit of territorial comment flaming as a side-effect. I feel so special. Preditors & Editors is a great anti-scam resource. Anyone claiming otherwise doubtless has a beautifully restored historic home they want to sell you for pennies on the dollar in New Orleans.

Victoria Strauss and Ann Crispin run the Writer Beware scam watchdog agency. Two months ago, they published their list of the 20 Worst Agents. These so called "agents" make their money by scamming writers.

This list first appeared on the Absolute Write forums, and has been recopied widely across the internet. Barbara Bauer, one of the outed "agents," threw temper tantrums all over the internet (one is described here, by the highly professional, reputable, and respected Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden). Bauer's scare tactics and harassment have shut down Absolute Write. Therefore, like many others, I am reproducing their list here.


THE LIST (in mostly alphabetical order):

* The Abacus Group Literary Agency
* Allred and Allred Literary Agents (refers clients to "book doctor" Victor West of Pacific Literary Services)
* Capital Literary Agency (formerly American Literary Agents of Washington, Inc.)
* Barbara Bauer Literary Agency
* Benedict & Associates (also d/b/a B.A. Literary Agency)
* Sherwood Broome, Inc.
* Desert Rose Literary Agency
* Arthur Fleming Associates
* Finesse Literary Agency (Karen Carr)
* Brock Gannon Literary Agency
* Harris Literary Agency
* The Literary Agency Group, which includes the following:

~ Children's Literary Agency
~ Christian Literary Agency
~ New York Literary Agency
~ Poets Literary Agency
~ The Screenplay Agency
~ Stylus Literary Agency (formerly ST Literary Agency)
~ Writers Literary & Publishing Services Company (the editing arm of the above-mentioned agencies)

* Martin-McLean Literary Associates
* Mocknick Productions Literary Agency, Inc.
* B.K. Nelson, Inc.
* The Robins Agency (Cris Robins)
* Michele Rooney Literary Agency (also d/b/a Creative Literary Agency and Simply Nonfiction)
* Southeast Literary Agency
* Mark Sullivan Associates
* West Coast Literary Associates (also d/b/a California Literary Services)

SF Poetry Contest

PRIZES:

First prize: $15 and publication on SFPA's web site
Second prize: $10 and publication on SFPA's web site
Third prize: $5 and publication on SFPA's web site

We plan to archive the winning poems indefinitely, but authors may request removal from the web site after six months.

WHO MAY ENTER:

The contest is open to SFPA members and nonmembers alike, with the following exclusions. No members of the contest committee, no current SFPA officers or web site staff, and no family members of the judges may enter the contest.

CONTEST THEME:

Write a speculative poem of 14 lines or less on the theme of "mirror(s)." All forms welcome--haiku, cinquains, tanka, sonnets, free verse, etc., but poems must contain one or more of the following elements: science fiction, fantasy, horror, surrealism or straight science. Send previously unpublished poems only. No reprints.

SUBMISSION SPECIFICS:

Send a maximum of 5 poems per author. Paste each poem into the body of an email, one poem per e-mail. No attachments. Please include the word "Contest" in the subject heading, followed by the title of the poem. Include your full name and address with each poem. Send submissions to: contest2006@sfpoetry.com.

DEADLINE:

The deadline for receiving submissions is 11:59 EDT on June 30, 2006. Winners will be announced by August 1, 2006.

For our aspiring screen writers

Copied from a recent email:

The Austin Film Festival is searching for the best Sci-Fi script containing one or more of the following elements: fantasy, myth/legend, horror, science fiction, surrealism and fantastical storytelling. Enter your script into either Adult/Family or Comedy category, and you may also choose to be considered for the Sci-Fi Award. Winner will receive $2500, and much more. Please email dawn@austinfilmfestival.com, or check out our website.

Postmark deadline: June 1, 2006

Cover Copy

Half a dozen of us are working on novels right now. The longer they get, the longer it takes for us to summarize them. Therefore, I'm challenging all of our novelists to write a 250 word summary of their books. Treat it like the back cover copy - the teaser you use to generate interest.
Bring your summaries to the next meeting and share with the group.

May Meeting

Our next meeting is May 5 at 7 p.m. Bring a novel chapter or short story to read aloud for on-the-spot round robin critiques.

Starbucks
101 N. Hurstbourne
(corner of Hurstbourne and Shelbyville)

For up to date RSVP's and a new file upgrade feature, please visit our Meetup site.

Jim Baen's Universe

Baen Books is putting together an impressive looking electronic magazine of SF short stories. They're paying pro rates, but are also reserving two slots per issue for unknown writers. This is a fantastic opportunity to break into the market. Read their detailed submissions guideline page for more information.

Fun with Forensics

The University of Louisville's Continuing and Professional Education Program is offering a class titled "Fun with Forensics." Most of us have bodies in our books, so this could be a great opportunity. The course description reads:

Curious about forensic science? During this course, you'll gain some inside knowledge about the workings of forensic science and techniques you've seen on TV.

After exploring some of the basic scientific principles, you'll learn how to apply and authenticate them in realistic discussion scenarios and activities. You'll also learn types of common physical evidence, the process of fingerprint analysis, and basic types of blood stain and splatter evidence.

The 6 session class runs Thursdays 6 - 8 p.m. from September 29 - November 10, skipping October 6th. It costs $99

Theme Month - Oldest Work

We had a great meeting in September. Colin, Nolan, Lizard, Geoffrey, Cindy, and myself nearly filled the Vault to capacity.

Geoffrey recently found a 17 year old briefcase full of old novels he hadn't seen since the 80's (back when a 24 pin tractor feed printer was high tech!) He shared a chapter from one of his earliest novels. We all agreed he'd shown incredible improvement in the last 17 years. The really interesting part, though, was seeing what strengths he's had for the last two decades and what weaknesses he still shows today.

We decided this would be great fun for us all. Bring the oldest short story or novel first chapter you can bear to let see the light of day. As impartial third parties, we'll tell you what strengths you've shown since you first started writing and what weaknesses we still see in your work today. This should give you a pretty good idea what you need to work on and where, frankly, you can just coast.

We did not pick a month for this project. I think January sounds good, as December is a stressful month for everyone and might limit our time for real work. Suggest your month of choice in the comments.

Local Novel Finishing Month

Our September meeting was full of interesting theme ideas. The subject of NaNoWriMo came up - to gales of laughter. 50,000 words in a month is a lovely goal, but just isn't going to happen for us - especially not during the month of November.

It did inspire another idea, though. Most of us are working on novels, and most of those novels haven't had their fair share of attention lately. Instead of a National novel Writing Month, we proposed a Local Novel Finishing Month. The goal will be to write a chapter a week for one month with a final word count of at least 10,000 words. We'll meet once a week during that month, give each other mad crazy feedback, and hopefully push through to the end. For those more than 4 chapters from the end of their books, this will hopefully provide an inspirational kick in the pants to keep you just as productive after LoNoFiMo.

We couldn't settle on a month. November and December are swamped for everyone. January and March came up (February was ruled out because it was too short). Use the comments to let us know your preference.