Beautiful Vowels

Take a quick peek at this BBC News article about a new fiction book that manipulates the use of vowels. Entitled "Euonia", the only word in the english language that contains all five vowels, the author has divided the book into five sections, each section using only one vowel in every word. The article quotes from each of the books sections - it's quite a feat. The comments are fun to read, too.

Use These Words ...

The second issue of Use These Words is on the horizon, and they're accepting submissions until January 1, 2009. All you need to do is use all of the following words in a poem (up to 5 poems), and email them to usethesewords(at)gmail(dot)com.

• Pillow
• Tantrum
• Silver
• Roof
• Vacant
• Atlas
• Break

Don't forget to send a brief contributor's note.

First Edition Publishing - No Fee Contest

First Edition Publishing - New Fiction, New Writers is currently looking for no-fee contest submissions for their monthly contest for possible publication in upcoming issues.

"Whether you've written a short story, poem, complete novel, script, play or book review we want to hear from you. We run a monthly competition in each of these categories that is completely FREE to enter. Our team of judges will pick the best each month, and we will publish a selection of them in the next available issue of First Edition Magazine. There are cash prizes for the very best in each category. No matter which category, if chosen you can boast that your work has been published and read by tens of thousands of people, and you may even win some cash if you're the very best!

Categories we are looking for:
# Short Stories
# Serialisations of Complete Novels
# Poetry and Prose
# Plays and Scripts
# Reader's Reviews"

Storyscape Journal Seeks Outside the Box Submissions

Storyscape Journal, The Literary Journal of Champions is seeking submissions. According to their site:

"Storyscape, a new literary journal that is story-centered, asks for your submission. We want your:

Short story, long story, overheard story, invented story, true story, false story, poetic story, oral story, historical story, crafted story, stolen story, visual story.

Just captivate us with the strength of the story. The premise of the journal is to expand the notion of what stories are while shaking up the labels we use to define them. To this end, we've come up with 4 sections of the journal: Truth, Untruth, We Don't Know and They Won't Tell Us, and Stories without Words. You label your own piece, which means you decide what 'the truth' means to you. All we want is to lean back, relax, and listen to your story.

We now have a rolling submission policy. The next issue will be published online in winter of 2009."

We e-mailed the editor, Anne Hays, for some clarification on the kinds of stories listed above and we got a very speedy response! It turns out that they have shortened the list to invented story, true story, overheard story, visual story, poetic story, audio story, found story, and given story. Their website will reflect this change soon.

Here is her answer to exactly what kind of stories move them:

Our actual categories/genres for the pieces are simply, "Truth," "Untruth," and "We Don't Know and They Won't Tell Us." The listed suggestions above are simply meant to convey that we are looking for a wide variety of storytelling methods. It's definitely not meant to limit people's options in an any way!

Here is an example of something we loved: In our last issue, Kimiko Hahn wrote two pieces specifically for us. In one piece she rewrote the same poem three times while changing and lengthening the ending. In her other piece, she interspersed attempts at writing a poem with diary entries in which she pondered the creative process, and where her work was heading. I was happy she sent these specific pieces, rather than simply sending us one solid "traditional" poem, which, if you look at our suggestion list of categories, we do potentially publish.

Our vision for this journal seems to be so outside what people think of when they think of "stories" that we are constantly re-explaining the vision, and looking for better ways to encourage creativity. At the end of the day, as is the case with all journals, the pieces in it speak louder than we can in terms of what we'd publish. Check out Chris Haske's piece in our current issue--it's totally genius. Or look at Amber Boardman's. And we are absolutely looking for people to push the envelope harder. What does that cliche even mean? We are looking for people to rip the envelope up into shreds and create new envelopes.

See Storyscape's submissions page for further information on how to submit, and thank you to Anne Hays for her responsiveness and clarity.

Bantam Spectra No-Fee Short Fiction Contest

Bantam Spectra, a division of Random House, Inc., is holding a new no-fee short fiction contest for science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers:

"Presenting a new short fiction contest for unpublished writers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

For its third edition of Spectra Pulse, Bantam Spectra is allowing unpublished writers to get their work featured alongside some of the most well-respected names in science fiction and fantasy.

One lucky winner will receive $100 and have his/her story published in the Summer 2009 issue of Spectra Pulse, Bantam Spectra’s exclusive magazine distributed at Comic-Con San Diego and select conventions and bookstores (available July 2009)."

Check out the site for submission details and official rules

Deadline: 1/31/09, winners announced April 2009

How to Speed Read

Who wouldn't love to read faster? Check out Wired's wiki on how to do just that. They even include a link to a site called SpreedNews.com that actually helps you learn to speed read by reading the news in quick short phrases. It's a super-fun, super-quick way to get the day's news and gauge and improve your reading speed! Warning: Do it in short spurts. I did it for way to long and walked away with a bit of a headache. Or maybe I just needed to eat.

Save 30% on Selected Writing Reference Books

Writers Market / F&W Publications is offering the following discount on reference books such as the 2009 Writer's Market and other selected publications:
Use coupon code "T6REF" to receive

We've put together our Top 6 Essential Writing References that we think belong on every writer's bookshelf. Use coupon code "T6REF" to save 30% on these selected titles from Writer's Digest Books now through November 5!