Extra! Extra! LLL is News in New West

Writers, Literary Agents, and Publishing Pros Lunch in Denver

A group of female publishing industry professionals meets monthly in Denver.





CO LLLers Doreen Orion & Carleen Brice,
who have also attended the VA LLL.

The Faulkner-Wisdom Competition: A Great Place to be Discovered

A hot tip from new LLLer Laura Brodie, author of the just-released novel The Widow's Season:

Here is a contest that all literary ladies should know about: The Faulkner-Wisdom Competition, sponsored by the Pirate's Alley/Faulkner Society of New Orleans. This annual competition welcomes entries from around the country (and internationally) in seven categories: Novel, Novella, Novel-in-Progress, Short Story, Essay, Poetry, and Short Story by a High School Student.

In the past, prizes have ranged from $7000 for Best Novel, to $1500 for Best Short Story by a High School Student. Winners are flown to New Orleans in November for the society's annual conference, called Words & Music, a Literary Feast in New Orleans, which features panels with famous authors, meals at great restaurants, and brief manuscript consultations with an editor and agent.

The festival is open to all members of the public, and anyone can have a manuscript excerpt read by an agent and/or editor, followed by a consultation (usually about ten-fifteen minutes) for a fee. Each year a few writers sign with agents, often writers who never entered the contest-so it does happen!

I learned about this contest after two VMI English professors, David Rachels and Kurt Ayau, won Best Novel for their jointly-authored manuscript. I won Best Novel-in-Progress in 2005, and that category only requires that you offer 50 pages of a novel, and a synopsis of the rest. Check out the website Faulkner-Wisdom Competition for more information and contest deadlines. Usually the deadline comes in late March or April, but last spring the deadline was extended until June 1. Good luck to all!

FREE PIE at B&N (Oh, and Mollie Cox Bryan will be there, too.)

Not only will Charlottesville Literary Lady Mollie Cox Bryan be signing her new book Mrs. Rowe's Little Book of Southern Pies at the Charlottesville Barnes & Noble this Saturday, July 18th from 1 to 3 pm, she will also be HANDING OUT PIE.

Need I say more? I think not.

"Steal This Text": Plagiarism in Our Brave New (Digital) World

Oh, that cut-and-paste function is so tempting! Waldo Jaquith (yes, he's my son) was reviewing a book for The Virginia Quarterly Review and noticed jarring variations in the writing style.

Further investigation revealed equally jarring similarities between several Wikipedia entries and the author's text.

The author is Chris Anderson, the editor-in-chief of Wired magazine. The book, in a delicious irony, is entitled Free: The Future of a Radical Price.

The ensuing hoo-ha is available for your perusal at the VQR blog.

As you'll see from the comments posted there, the defense for this behavior is essentially: Hey, this stuff is available for free online, what's the big deal?

It is in that freewheeling spirit that I now present my brand-new novel, Moby Dick.

Faith Andrews Bedford's Book: Made for Mothers Day

LLLer to sign her latest book: Little Girls in Matching Dresses: And Other Tales of Mothers, Daughters and Grandmothers at New Dominion Book Store, The Charlottesville Downtown Mall, Wednesday, April 29th at noon.

From Faith's press release:

Faith Andrews Bedford, a long-time favorite with Country Living's readers, captures the magic of childhood and home in a moving collection of essays. For years, the readers of Country Living have treasured her evocative stories, featured in her beloved bi-monthly column, "Kids in the Country."

Little Girls in Matching Dresses is a beautifully presented celebration of mothers and daughters that will touch the heart of all who read it. Just in time for Mother’s Day, this enchanting collection brims with warmth, wit, and grace and paints treasured portraits of mothers and children – and of creating new family traditions, following old ones, and seeing the world through a child’s eyes. [...] These vignettes take us – charmed and captivated – to the wondrous world where children eagerly explore their surroundings, where lessons are taught by gentle example, and where the strength of family is instilled in the rituals handed down over the years.

Faith is also an art historian and author of several books on the American Impressionist Frank W. Benson. In addition to appearing in Country Living, her essays have also been published in Reader's Digest, Victoria, several of the Chicken Soup books, and numerous anthologies as well as in many other magazines and newspapers.

LLL-apalooza at the Virginia Festival of the Book

On Friday, March 20th, 26 members of the Literary Ladies Luncheon (okay, maybe some were guests -- I can't keep track of EVERYthing) gathered for lunch at Bashir's Taverna on Charlottesville's Downtown Mall.

At table #1 were (from left to right) Erika Raskin, Diane Nelson, Debby Prum, Jeanne Siler, Johanna Smethurst, Susan Wright.







Table #2: That's Kathy May who has sneakily leaned out of the photo, Karen Kostyal, Mary Cail, Linda Kobert, Elizabeth Howard, Kathy Pond, Susie Langenkamp.









Table #3: Polly Lyman, Laura Rydin, Sandy Houseman, and Lisa Provence.











At Table #4, Charlottesville LLLers mingled with visiting Denver LLLers. Deborah Clarke Grosvenor, Doreen Orion, Fran Cannon Slayton, Stefanie Newman, Jocelyn Johnson, Rachel Unkefer.






Yours truly and Bella Stander.








And there's Bashir himself, at the serving table.







Throughout the Festival, LLLers were busy appearing on panels (or moderating them), and attending the multitude of events offered at the Festival. (And let's hope there were lots of power-schmoozes.)

Jennifer Elvgren, Debby Prum (standing) and Fran Cannon Slayton are at their presentation, Great Beginnings: How to Hook an Editor on the First Page. (That's Fran's forthcoming novel When the Whistle Blows displayed on the table.)







At the panel Book Review Superstars, emcee Bella Stander awarded each superstar (Louis Bayard, Alan Cheuse, Michael Dirda and Bethanne Kelly Patrick) a laudatory golden garland. Michael Dirda is receiving one as Alan Cheuse watches.

New Book Deal for Jenny Gardiner

Last year, LLLer Jenny Gardiner landed a new agent. Now she has more good news to share:

"My humorous memoir, PARROTHOOD: Twenty Years of Caring for a Vengeful Bird Determined to Kill Me, will be published by Simon Spotlight, spring 2010, in HARDCOVER!"

Photo by Jen Fariello.

Here's the Publishers Marketplace announcement:

Author of SLEEPING WITH WARD CLEAVER Jenny Gardiner's PARROTHOOD, pitched as "Marley & Me with parrots," about a disgruntled African Gray parrot and the owner who loves her despite the bird's best efforts to quite literally bite the hand that feeds her, to Emily Westlake at Simon Spotlight Entertainment, by Holly Root at Waxman Literary Agency (World English).

Big congrats all around! (And who says publishers aren't acquiring books?)