Let me start by telling you that many people you see behind the check-out desk at the library are not “librarians,” as in they have not completed a master’s degree in library science. You didn’t know librarians had master’s degrees, either? Next I’m going to tell you that librarians don’t read all day long. That’s not true, either?!
In my 20 years as a writer, I think only once have I written something on speculation (and that was before I accumulated hundreds of clips). I recently approached a new publication with an article idea but the editor would like to see the complete manuscript (1,000 words) first. I’m assuming she means on speculation. I’ve emailed her back asking her if this is what she means. In the meantime, what are your thoughts about writing on spec? Someone advised me to draw up a little “on spec” contract so that the editor has a time limit for making a decision to accept the piece or not and that if they decline, I’m free to pitch it elsewhere.
As a gray-haired, solo, full-time RVer, and a woman to boot, I am used to getting a lot of media attention as I roam around Canada and the United States lecturing and signing my five adventure-travel books.
This Week:
We got pretty nervous when Hurricane Rita was taking aim at the Texas coast last week. We’d already turned around and driven back to Maine when Hurricane Katrina hit and threatened the gas supply. We finally got up the nerve to venture out again…
More comments on book returns…
Try challenging fifty mostly unpublished members of a writers guild by giving them three months to write, revise, and submit from one to three 1500 to 2500 word stories, and commission an artist to design and produce an original cover in time to meet a goal of publishing a 250-300 page anthology within ten months. Do that and the book world will look at you like someone who has sniffed too much print head cleaner.
A student in my “Write For Dollars” class asked this question, and I was unsure of the answer. I told her I would “check with the expert.” At a recent garage sale she purchased several letters that had been written between husband and wife during World War II. She wants to use portions of these letters in a creative nonfiction story, but does not want to alter the principal characters’ “real” names. Her question: Is this legal? Is it ethical? Does she have an obligation to consult or discuss her plans with family members of the deceased couple prior to publishing? Would family members of the couple have a right to reclaim these letters once their existence was made public? (They were sold by a son who is estranged from the rest of the family.)
“There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk,” writes M.F.K. Fisher, one of America’s most beloved food writers. My own belief in this communion didn’t so much evolve as simply hatch, breaking open like a crusty baguette, the year I worked in my first restaurant. When a friend loaned me Elizabeth David’s An Omelet and A Glass of Wine, I was inspired to articulate how good food is an essential part of life.
This Week:
