Dr. Tom
has returned from his two-month writing retreat in Wyoming and will begin his Monday night workshops on Publishing on October 5.
This workshop will meet every Monday night for seven weeks from 6 - 8 p.m. in Maumelle at the Jeff Odom Community Center, 1100 Edgewood Dr, Maumelle, AR 72113.
You may bring your query letter and synopsis to Tom for individual help.
Topics covered will include: Publishing Options, their Advantages & Disadvantages • How Publishers Choose • Agents • Your Right Market • Self-Publishing • Subsidy/Co-op • Run-on-Demand • Small Presses • "Traditional" Publishing • How to use Catalogues & Published Market Reports to Your Advantage • Writer's Resume • Query Letters • Manuscript Preparation • Understanding Your Contract • Legal & Aesthetic Negotiations • Legal & Publishing Vocabulary • Networking in the Industry & More. . .
If you live in Central Arkansas, this is your opportunity to
learn how to get that book into the world!
Dr. Tom Eaton, VWS Associate Director,will launch his new book Stories from Mission County at the Ozark Creative Writer's Conference in Eureka Springs, Oct. 8 - 11.
Tom, a literary western writer, will be a presenter at the Ozark Creative Writer's Conference and will discuss how to incorporate landscape as living character in fiction in a talk he calls Supernatural Affection & American Gothic - Landscape as Spirit in the Western Motif.
In his academic life, Tom has been named one of three peer reviewers for the University of Arkansas (FS) Arkansas English Journal, a publication for teachers of English. In addition to teaching for the Village Writing School, Tom teaches at Ouachita Baptist University. He has served since 2007 with the National Council of English Education and became a Board Reviewer in 2011 with the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.
In his western life, Tom is hard at work on his next collection of short stories, due out in 2016 from High Hill Press, A Western Gothic Wake.
Coming workshops in Central Arkansas include:
PUBLISHING, offered on Monday nights from 6-8 beginning Oct 5.
CREATIVE WRITING 1 and 2, which will be offered as all-day Saturday workshops beginning in January.
ABOUT YOU!!
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Help us design a better writing program! Take our survey! Six Questions 30 Seconds
You will automatically be entered into a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card.
Thursday, September 24 5:00 p.m. Village Writing School (177 Huntsville Road)
Alison and Jessie will give you a sneak preview of their presentation for the Ozark Creative Writers' Conference on Cool Tools for Writers.
Jessie will prepare tacos.
Rogers/Bentonville TUESDAY, October 6 6:30 p.m. Panera Bread
1320 SE Walton Blvd, Bentonville
We are excited to welcome Brad Volz, a professional marketer turned writer and communication consultant. His passion for helping others has grown into a thriving blog and new business.
The common themes are learning, helping people, sharing good ideas and earth stewardship. Visit his blog, Writing to Freedom, for the latest in stories that inspire and connect.
Brad's topic for his evening with us will be
Don't Hesitate, Just Start!
From the Director . . .
Why Silver Writers are Good Writers
The Village Writing School has students of all ages, from high school up. But often, people retired from other careers ask if they can really learn to write.
Silver Writers ROCK
Here's why:
They have stories.She was about twenty years old and over coffee, she bemoaned her dilemma. "I just don't know what to write about." Silver writers don't have that problem. Their problem is which story to write first.
They have rich experiences. A lifetime is a broad canvas and most silver writers have lived in multiple places, traveled, known many people, raised a family, had a successful career, been a part of pivotal moments in history, stood up for their ideals in myriad ways, failed at things, lost loved ones, made bad choices. All those experiences bring depth and authenticity to their stories.
They understand life. Silver writers have an understanding of what's important, of the inevitability of consequences, of the potential in a human being for change and growth. These are all great themes in literature. Silver writers have lived them.
They have time. Silver writers don't have to fight for every writing minute or write for an hour before they go to work.
They have focus. Silver writers understand that goals—even something as big as a book—are achievable if one shows up regularly and takes baby steps.
They have motivation. In my fifties, it occurred to me that I'd better get going on these books I'd dreamed of for decades. Unlike younger people, to whom time seems endless, silver writers know a window of opportunity when they see it.
They are publishable. When asked if there is an age limit to being marketable as a first-time author, New York literary agent Jeff Kleinman, speaking at our PUBLISH!! conference, replied, "When you're in your coffin, it's too late." He went on to name successful first books that were written by 70- and 80-somethings and explained that to begin at an older age can actually be part of a writer's platform. With the aging of America, a first-time baby boomer writer has a wide audience who relates to him and his decision to pursue his dream, albeit late, of becoming a writer.
If you've got a story, we can get you started and keep you encouraged.
Our new workshops are beginning.
It's not too late for you. It's just time for you.
Village Writers ~~ Stronger & Better Together
Gail Pierce Larimer
Like It or Not?
The dictionary tells us that the word like is a verb that means to enjoy something, to approve of something or to feel affection for someone.
I really like the color of that sofa.
Considering all the boys in my class, I like Bill the best.
Also, it is proper to use like as a preposition. In this case like is followed by a noun or a pronoun in the objective case that is not followed by a verb.
Betty looks like her mother. (In this example, like means similar to.)
So far, so good!
But in today’s American vernacular the word like has taken on a whole new meaning. In casual speech how often do you hear something like this?
Do you run ten miles a day like I do?
The car won’t start like the battery is dead.
In these two cases like is used as a conjunction, replacing the word as in the first example and the words as if in the second. These uses of like are now commonplace in the spoken word, yet they are not quite acceptable as Standard English in the written word.
Like it or not? As a writer, it’s your call. In casual writing or when placing a sentence in quotes and attributing it to one of your characters, like as a conjunction may be your choice. But be aware of the overall tone of your writing. Is this a somewhat formal manuscript? If so, it’s best to stick to the old rules of grammar—at least for the present!
See CMS: Paragraphs 5.181 and 5.220, Glossary of Problematic Words and Phrases, like, as.
The novelist will tell you what it felt like.
-- E.L. Doctorow
Meet a Village Writer - Aurora Huston
After a career in the visual arts and design, Maumelle writer Aurora Huston decided to write a memoir of her remarkable journey as an "authentic morphologist." Visit her blog here (not quite finished but still beautiful) to get inspiration for your own metamorphosis.
Aurora left the postwar Philippines as a three-year-old and has navigated a multicultural life ever since. When she showed up one afternoon at the Village Writing School with her album of photos and her story, we couldn't encourage her enough. She will be working with Dr. Gary Guinn in our mentoring program, as she crafts her story into the lovely memoir it deserves to be. She even left Eureka with a possible agent. Proof that writers are stronger together.
Eureka Springs
Maumelle/Little Rock
Rogers/Bentonville
Fayetteville
Sharon Laborde's novel Deadly Séance: A Dr. Emily Goldman Mystery is being considered for a Kindle Press publishing contract!
Please go to the link to read a sample and nominate it! If Dr. Emily’s new adventure is chosen, you will receive a free e-book copy when it is released.
Share the link with your social network and ask that they share freely.
A small Southern college is shocked by the brutal murder of an eccentric student obsessed with Richard III and the occult. As rumors spread, Dr. Emily Goldman, Prof...
So many great ideas in Saturday's workshop. Here Marian discusses the awesome foam boards she had made at Kinkos and how to target different audiences for the same book.
We partied with Marian on her birthday and wished her many happy book sales (and no returns).
The MISSION of the Village Writing School is to foster a vibrant literary community in Arkansas and
to provide resources for ALL writers who seek to improve their craft.
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WE GROW THROUGH YOUR SUPPORT
THANK YOU TO OUR 2015 FRIENDS: David Auernheimer, Tandy Belt, Wendy and David Carlisle, Jean Elderwind,Crow Evans, Alice French, Valerie Fondetti, Linda Harrison-Gracia, John & Nancy Grosella, Gary Guinn,Nancy Harris, Kate Lacy, Shirley Lamberson, Gail Pierce Larimer, Judith McCartan, Richard Schoe, Shiva Shanti, Greg Sherar, Cris Senseman, Ken and Debbie Smith,
Maryanne Humm Van Dyke, Judith Ulch, Brent Wendling
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Publisher: Alison Taylor-Brown
Editors: Alice French & Jessie Rex
