The Word Runs Through It Hi Dave, We’re almost at the end of the year – do you believe it already? This will be our last edition for 2014 and we finish with the 5th installment of “Far Beyond the Brilliant Sky”. I somehow get the feeling that Hettie won’t be celebrating Christmas with a feast. You’ll also find out new ways to discover and read books and why the Marquis de Sade and certain authors are currently making headlines. We’d like to wish each and every one of you a wonderful holiday season. We’ll be back with the next edition on the 13th of January 2015. FEATURED POST by REBECCA BURNS Far Beyond the Brilliant Sky: Part 5 Far Beyond The Brilliant Sky: Part 5 Hettie is all fired up. Still no Frank and Connor feels her wrath. Does Connor know where the elusive Frank is? In case you missed them…Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 Read the Full Post & Leave a Comment LITERARY ROUNDUP Words for the Wounded Third Writing Competition All money raised from the following two competitions will go towards helping the recovery of wounded service personnel. The Independent Author Book Award is for self-published fiction or memoir of at least 45,000 words, published within the last four years. The first prize is a professional press release by Palamdes PR. The Fiction, Memoir or Poetry Award is for fiction or non-fiction of up to 400 words with a theme of your choice. £400 in prizes will be shared by the top 3 winners.The closing date for both competitions is the 11th of March 2015. New Perspectives Long Play Competition Writers who are from or based in the East Midlands are invited to submit a full-length play that is either original or based on an adaptation. The winning playwright will have a public reading of the play, up to 6 months dramaturgical support from New Perspectives and £1500 on a decision to produce the play. The closing date is the 9th of January 2015. Benchmark Writing Competition This is a national writing competition which we is being run as a fundraiser for Willow Burn Hospice in County Durham. Earlier this year Rachel Cochrane produced an online radio drama “Benchmark” which was inspired by “In Loving Memory” plaques on benches. The “Benchmark” writing competition follows on from this. If you had a bench dedicated to you, what would it say on the plaque (30 words max), where would it be and why have you chosen that place (200 words max). First prize is a good quality hardwood bench with a personalised plaque. The closing date is the 19th of January 2015 Sentinel Annual Poetry Competition 2014 Entries are being accepted for original, previously unpublished poems of up to 60 lines in any style and on any subject. First prize is £700 and the closing date is the 21st of December 2014. Writing Short Fiction Competition Tips and Winners Writers who have won prizes or commendations in UK fiction competitions and those giving advice on entering competitions are listed on the site along with their details. You may want to get in touch to get a tip or two on winning that next competition. FAVOURITE READS The Palace of Curiosities The Palace of Curiosities by Rosie Garland Some of you may know Rosie Garland as the singer in the post-punk gothic band “The March Violets”. Embarking on a new career as a writer, Rosie shows wonderful imagination in “The Palace of Curiosities”. We are immediately immersed in a Victorian London that shows the harshness and cruelty towards outcasts. The separate stories of Eve “The Lion Faced Girl” and Abel ‘The Flayed Man” who cannot die, show how the “grotesque” are exploited for gain. When their two stories intertwine as attractions in “The Palace of Curiosities”, they discover things about themselves they don’t even understand. A curious, yet captivating story. Read the Book Also visit our selection of favourite books and tell us your top choices. INTERESTING TIDBITS The Debauchery of Marquis de Sade on Display A somewhat unusual exhibition “Attaquer le Soleil” (Attacking the Sun) at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, marks the bicentennial of the Marquis de Sade’s death. It doesn’t illustrate Sade’s writing but rather draws a parallel of the lasciviousness that Sade represents with artwork that portrays an “exaltation of passions” and the “vertigo of excess”. Intending to destabilize, the exhibition is a maze of solemn, dimly lit rooms filled with varying art forms from film clips to paintings, illustrations, photographs, engravings and sculptures – all characterizing an impressive variety of wickedness and erotica. Not for the faint hearted, but if you’re interested, you know where to go. Discover Books By Where They Are Set If you’ve ever been in a certain place and wondered what stories took place there, wonder no more. Squirl is coming out with an app that connects locations with the stories that transpired there. You fill in your reading preferences and when you go by a location, an excerpt from a book pops up on your mobile device straight to the part of the story that takes place in the location you’re in. You can then buy the book at the closest bookstore. Authors and publishers can also add locations to the app giving them added exposure. IRENE Fixes Poets’ Broken Records With IRENE, a new technology that preserves audio, poetry lovers will soon be able to hear influential poets read their work in recordings that were previously thought too deteriorated to save. Poetry researchers at Harvard University are using IRENE to restore recordings by taking 3D photographs of old records and digitally converting them into audio. These digitized recordings of Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Marian Moore and Muriel Rukeyser to name but a few will form an audio poetry treasure trove. Click Lit: A New Way to Read It starts with a new book “Find Me I’m Yours” where the reading journey doesn’t end with the ebook but encompasses 33 standalone websites, an online video series, an Instagram account and printed magazines. It’s a way to take in a story both online and offline capitalizing on the fact that people read things differently and on multi-platforms. When you finish the book, the experience can live on. A three-year project that’s finally come to fruition, will Chick-Lit become a viable model for authors? NEWS PICKS Raymond Chandler’s Estate Refuses Production of His Unpublished Work You don’t normally associate a comic libretto with Raymond Chandler, yet an unpublished one written by the master of crime fiction has recently been discovered by Kim Cooper while researching her book in which Chandler featured as a character. Cooper wanted to produce the opera “The Princess and the Pedlar” but Chandler’s estate refused permission stating that it’s a “curiosity” and not representative of Chandler’s work. Court Records Prove George Orwell’s Honesty in Writing The genuineness of Orwell’s recounting a “true” experience in “Down and Out in Paris and London” has been questioned over time. Was he really down and out? Doubts have now been dispelled by a University College London researcher who discovered court records in the London Metropolitan police archives that give “unambiguous external confirmation that Orwell did indeed carry out, more or less as described, one of his down-and-out’ experiments”. Which is the Real Account of Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood”? “In Cold Blood” is depicted as “true-crime” writing but Capote’s portrayal of a 1959 family murder in rural Kansas has been called into question by the investigating agent’s son, Ronald Nye. The files kept by Nye’s father tell a different account and Nye will publish his own book setting the record straight. After 80 Years, Get Ready For A New Ayn Rand Novel “Ideal”, the never before published novel by Ayn Rand, hailed as the “godmother of libertarianism”, will be in stores next summer. Written while she was in her 20’s, it’s about a movie actress accused of murder who turns to her fans for help. First written as a novel then a play, the new book will contain both. INTERACTION Submitted Writing We are currently accepting writing submissions for short stories, novels, poems, plays and scripts. If youd like to submit your own writing, you can always do so here. YOUR WORDS Add Your Words Special thanks to Rebecca Burns for her 5th installment of: Far Beyond the Brilliant Sky If youd like to contribute an article or write a book review, please visit Add Your Words. SIGNING OFF WITH: John Green “Maybe our favourite quotations say more about us than about the stories and people we’re quoting.”
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 22:28:48 +0000
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