Quiz Yourself on Some Writing/Publishing Terms

DO YOU KNOW YOUR WRITING/PUBLISHING TERMS?

This past Montrose Christian Writers Conference in July, we had a lot of fun on Wednesday evening playing a Jeopardy-type quiz game with faculty and conferees called the Odd Ducks’ Dilemma. One of the categories on the quiz board was entitled WRITING/PUBLISHING TERMS, which the contestants who were seasoned writers had no problem answering. But the newbies to this business got stumped several times.

In this blog post, we have the list of the writing/publishing terms included in the conference quiz game. For you who are more experienced, this little quiz will be old hat for you. It’s a 20-question matching quiz to sharpen the writing/publishing part of your brain. So, take a few minutes, grab a pen and paper, and let’s go:

1. _______GENRE   A. $ EARNED AFTER BOOK IS OUT

 

2. _______MANUSCRIPT SUB. B. YOUR NAME PRINTED W/ARTICLE

 

3. _______ QUERY LETTER C.  SUMMARY OF BOOK ON COVER

 

4. _______ COVER LETTER D.  UNDERLYING MESSAGE

 

5. _______ PROPOSAL E.  CLEVER BEGINNING OF STORY

 

6. _______ CRITIQUE/EDIT F.  CATEGORY

 

7. _______ REJECTION  G.  “PLEASE LOOK AT MY WORK”

 

8. _______ CONTRACT H.  ALL ABOUT YOU & YOUR WORK

 

9. _______ MARKETING/PROMO I.  “DOES NOT MEET OUR NEEDS”

 

10._______ PITCH   J.  SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT YOU

 

11._______ HOOK     K. SENDING IT TO THE PUB. CO.

 

12._______ STORY LINE   L. “ENCLOSED PLEASE FIND …”

 

13._______ THEME    M.  $ FOR NOT BEING PUBLISHED

 

14._______ PLOT      N. EARNED BEFORE BOOK IS OUT

 

15._______ BLURB     O. ESSENTIAL REVIEW OF WORK

 

16._______ CREDITS   P. OF THIS A WRITER DREAMS

 

17._______ BYLINE   Q. LIST OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS

 

18._______ ADVANCE   R. ACTION IN YOUR STORY

 

19._______ROYALTY  S. WHAT YOUR STORY IS ABOUT

 

20._______KILL FEE T. THE EDITOR’S INTEREST PEAKS

 

Well, how do you think you did?  Here are the answers:

1. F
2.  K
3.  G
4.  L
5.  H
6. O
7.  I
8.  P
9.  J
10.  T
11. E
12. S
13. D
14. R
15. C
16. Q
17. B
18. N
19. A
20. M

If you missed this year’s Montrose Christian Writers Conference, you missed a real treat. Next year’s conference is scheduled for July 16^th-21st, and we’ve already gotten verbal commitments from some of the faculty: film actor and best-selling author Torry Martin, fiction expert Barbara Scott representing Gilead Press, award-winning B.J. Taylor representing Guideposts and Inspiring Voices, Gloria Penwell representing Bold Vision Books,  Carol Wedeven doing a picture book WIP, Cathy Mayfield doing a WIP Teen Track, fiction author Mike Dellosso, and Don Catlett will be back with updates about blogging and social media and private mentoring sessions.

Watch for more updates as I connect with more best-selling authors, agents, and editors to make next year’s MCWC a double dynamite conference!

Keep on writing!

Marsha, Director

 

More shameless promotion

Read Full Post »

JUST SAYIN’ (A WRITERS’ LUNCHEON & A CONFERENCE)

For you who have attended any Susquehanna Valley Writers Luncheons in Mifflinburg, PA, and/or any Montrose Christian Writers Conferences, Montrose, PA, may I assume you are looking forward to them again?

I have some details about both events, so either mark your calendar or watch for more specifics as time moves on:

THE SUSQUEHANNA VALLEY WRITERS GROUP LUNCHEON

www.susquehannavalleywritersworkshop.wordpress.com/

Now organized by Kathie Mitchell and Bonnie Swinehart, the luncheon here in the Susquehanna Valley has been moved to March of 2017. The exact date has not yet been set; however, the luncheon will be held at the Carriage Corner Restaurant in Mifflinburg, PA, where it’s been held the last few years.

 

THE 2017 MONTROSE CHRISTIAN WRITERS CONFERENCE

                    (Check out the details of this past conference if you were unable to attend:

http://www.montrosebible.org/OurEvents/tabid/113/page_550/1/eventid_550/58/Default.aspx

Get ready for another week next July of heart-warming praise and worship times and challenges every morning and over 40 workshops and WIPs.

Faculty verbally committed at this time:

TORRY MARTIN

JEANETTE LEVELLIE

CAROL WEDEVEN

DON CATLETT

CATHY MAYFIELD

(We’ll have about 16 award-winning authors, editors, and agents on next year’s faculty!)

Classes tentatively planned:

MAJOR MORNINGS – fiction, collaborative writing, promotion, promotion, nonfiction

WORKS-IN-PROGRESS – TEEN TRACK, fiction, picture books, poetry

OTHER CLASSES – marketing, working with an agent, using the right words, self publishing, social media, blogging, public speaking, gift books, magazine articles, character development, the story arc, public speaking

 

If you have any requests for topics to be presented, please let me know, and we’ll try our best to include those in next year’s conference.

Keep on writing and watch for updates!

Marsha

http://www.marshahubler.com

http://www.horsefactsbymarshahubler.wordpress.com

(More shameless promotion)

WHOLESOME, SAFE BOOKS FOR TWEENS

SNOW, PHANTOM STALLION OF THE POCONOS

 

Dallis Parker copes with bullying at school by dreaming about owning Snow, a wild Mustang, who most folks believe doesn’t even exist. Then she actually touches the horse, and her life is changed forever.

http://www.amazon.com/Snow-Phantom-Stallion-Marsha-Hubler-ebook/dp/B013GUF078/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449523382&sr=1-1&keywords=Snow%2C+Phantom+Stallion+of+the+Poconos

Read Full Post »

How About Haiku Poetry?

What is Haiku Poetry?

If you’re a poet at heart, then you’ve probably tried all different kinds of poetic forms including the fun subgenre and smallest literary form: Japanese Haiku. If you aren’t familiar with Haiku, enjoy learning about this interesting form and try your hand at it.

Without getting extremely technical, traditional haiku can be defined as of poem with 17 syllables in three lines or phrases of 5, 7 and 5 respectively. Although haiku poems are often defined as having only 17 syllables, the term “syllables” does not always mean the same thing; therefore, some Haiku forms have more or less than 17 syllables. (To learn more about more complicated forms of haiku, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku#Syllables_or_.22on.22_in_haiku ) But for the sake of convenience and introduction, we’ll consider the three-line/17-syllable Haiku poem.

The best-known Japanese haiku was written by Matsuo Bashō (1644 –1694), the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku. His poetry is internationally renowned, and within Japan many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsuo_Bash%C5%8D )

One of Basho’s most famous Haiku poems is called “Old Pond.” Let’s look at it in the Japanese language, which, of course, has the conventional 5, 7, 5 pattern: fu-ru-i-ke ya (5) ka-wa-zu to-bi-ko-mu (7) mi-zu no o-to (5) Translated into English, we see the syllabication isn’t there, but the short and poignant meaning is:

old pond . . .

a frog leaps in

water’s sound

See how simple, yet descriptive, this poetic form is?

Here are a few general rules to apply as you go on your Haiku trek:

1. Avoid the use of personal pronouns.
2. If you use personal pronouns like I, don’t capitalize them.
3. Use sentence fragments.
4. Work on an eye-catching first line.
5. Save the “punch” for the last line.

(For more details go to: http://www.ahapoetry.com/haiku.htm#comego )

Please forgive my importunity, but here are two Haiku I wrote years ago:

 

“The Deer”

A rack and a tail

The blast of a gun echoes

And he lives no more

 

 

“Peaceful Valley”

Sparkling cool waters

Trickle down dark mountain paths

Serene wilderness

 

So, there you have what Haiku is all about in a brief synopsis. Go ahead, try it; I think you’ll enjoy playing with words and creating a work of art in such a short form in such a short time.

Marsha

http://www.marshahubler.com

http://www.horsefactsbymarshahubler.wordpress.com

(More shameless promotion)

WHOLESOME, SAFE BOOKS FOR TWEENS

SNOW, PHANTOM STALLION OF THE POCONOS

 

Dallis Parker copes with bullying at school by dreaming about owning Snow, a wild Mustang, who most folks believe doesn’t even exist. Then she actually touches the horse, and her life is changed forever.

http://www.amazon.com/Snow-Phantom-Stallion-Marsha-Hubler-ebook/dp/B013GUF078/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449523382&sr=1-1&keywords=Snow%2C+Phantom+Stallion+of+the+Poconos

Read Full Post »

Fun Moments at the 2016 Montrose Christian Writers Conference

DUCKS! THE PARADE OF PUPPETS! THE ODD DUCKS’ DILEMMA

and MUCH MORE FUN!

Writers’ conferences are not all hard work, listening to lectures, and studying the details of writing and publishing. Check out these fun times we had at the 2016 Montrose Christian Writers Conference held from July 17th to the 22nd at the Montrose Bible Conference Center, Montrose, PA. Watch for details concerning next year’s conference coming in a little while.

Read Full Post »