27 Reasons Why Short Stories Are Rejected

These hot tips come to us by way of the Virginia Quarterly Review blog. (My son, Waldo Jaquith, is their Web developer.)

And while we're on the subject of the UVa's literary magazine, you should know that this is not your father's VQR. It has been souped up by young-pup editor Ted Genoways.

The latest edition (Spring Issue: Superhero Stories) features graphic novelist Art Spiegelman.

Plus, once again, VQR is a finalist in the National Magazine Awards (these are the Pulitzer Prizes of the magazine world), with three nominations.

So, whether you're looking to submit, or are hankering for a majorly good read, keep VQR in mind.

Okay, I'm done bragging now.

Do have a look at those 27 Reasons Why Short Stories Are Rejected. They are all useful (well, apart from number 24, which is absurd.).

LLL at VaBook - Sun. 3/30

Literary Ladies' events on Day 5 of the Virginia Festival of the Book.

SUN 3/30
11:45am Fifth Annual Celebration Brunch
The Charlottesville Chapter of The LINKS, Incorporated presents a tribute to the African-American Literary Tradition, featuring guest authors from the Virginia Festival of the Book, including Carleen Brice (Orange Mint and Honey).
Moderator: Tamyra Turner

LLL at VaBook - Sat. 3/29

Literary Ladies' events on Day 4 of the Virginia Festival of the Book. (Bella Stander's pals & Book Promotion 101 clients are in purple).

SAT 3/29
12pm African-American Voices
With Adam Bradley (The Collected Manuscripts of Ralph Ellison's Unpublished Second Novel), Carleen Brice (Orange Mint and Honey, Age Ain't Nothin' But a Number), Stacy Hawkins Adams (Watercolored Pearls) and Evans Hopkins (Life After Life).
Moderator: Tamyra Turner

12pm Publishing Day: Promoting Like a Pro
What it takes to publicize your book, online and elsewhere, and how to present yourself to media. Bella Stander (Book Promotion 101) with fiction publicist Lauren Cerand and book promotion specialist Kelly Powers (Obie Joe Media).
Moderator: Bella Stander

12pm Publishing Day: The Editor-Agent Relationship
Simon Lipskar (agent, Writers House) and Mark Tavani (editor, Ballantine Books) join in an informal conversation about the way they do their jobs, how that impacts the books they sign, and what takes writers from unpublished to published authors.
Moderator: Mayapriya Long

2pm Nice Jewish Boys Gone Wild!
Fiction and memoir with Marc Estrin (The Lamentations of Julius Marantz), A.J. Jacobs (The Year of Living Biblically), Adam Mansbach (The End of the Jews) and Peter Charles Melman (Landsman).
Moderator: Bella Stander

2pm Publishing Day: Managing Expectations
Clinical psychologist Susan O’Doherty (Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued) helps examine the goals, motivations, and expectations that come with being an author.
Moderator: Susan Tyler Hitchcock

4pm Echoes of the Great War
With novelists Nicholas Griffin (Dizzy City), Thomas Mullen (The Last Town on Earth) and Jacqueline Winspear (Maisie Dobbs mystery series).
Moderator: Bella Stander

4pm Great Books for Great Kids
Cynthia Cotten (Abbie n Stitches), Barbara Kanninen (A Story with Pictures) and Sarah Sullivan (Root Beer and Banana) discuss reading, writing, and publishing quality picture books and coping with today's tight picture book market. Hosted by Mid-Atlantic Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.
Moderator: Anne Marie Pace

LLL at VaBook - Fri 3/28

Here are listings of Literary Ladies' events on Day 3 of the Virginia Festival of the Book. (Bella Stander's pals & Book Promotion 101 clients are in purple).

FRI 3/28
10:00am Science Writing: Life Cycles
Jennifer Ackerman (Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream), Michael Sims (Apollo's Fire: A Day on Earth in Nature and Imagination), and Susan Freinkel (American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree).
Moderator: Susan Tyler Hitchcock

2:00pm Families Coming Together: Fiction and Memoir
With novelists Carleen Brice (Orange Mint and Honey), Emilie Richards (Touching Stars) and memoirist Kim Reid (No Place Safe).
Moderator: Grace Zisk

2:00pm Living on the Edge: Cons and Characters
Michael Sims (Editor of new edition of Arsene Lupin's Gentleman Thief), Nicholas Griffin (Dizzy City), and Dallas Hudgens (Season of Gene) explore clever rogues in tense situations.
Moderator: Jenny Gardiner

4:00pm Going Places: A Poetry Reading
Move across reflective landscapes with Margaret Gibson (One Body), Sharon Leiter (The Dream of Leaving), David Rigsbee (Cloud Journal), and Ron Smith (Moon Road).
Moderator: Jeff Coughter

6:00pm Dracula vs. Frankenstein: A Monster Mash of Fact and Fiction
With Paul Bibeau (Sundays with Vlad: From Pennsylvania to Transylvania, One Man's Quest to Live in the World of the Undead) and Susan Tyler Hitchcock (Frankenstein: A Cultural History).
Moderator: Jonathan Coleman

LLL at VaBook - Thurs. 3/27

Here are listings of Literary Ladies' events on Day 2 of the Virginia Festival of the Book. (Bella Stander's author pals & Book Promotion 101 clients are in purple).

THURS 3/27
12:00pm Race and Place: Memoirs
With Margaret Gibson (The Prodigal Daughter: Reclaiming an Unfinished Childhood), Evans Hopkins (Life After Life: A Story of Rage and Redemption), and Kim Reid (No Place Safe: A Family Memoir).
Moderator: Hilda Ward

2:00pm Across Time and Space: Fiction Capturing Personal and Public History
With Arthur Phillips, (Prague, Angelica), Anne Landsman (The Rowing Lesson) and George Robert Minkoff (The Weight of Smoke).
Moderator: Deborah Prum

LLL at VaBook - Wed. 3/26

The Literary Ladies Luncheon--VA and CO--will be well represented at the Virginia Festival of the Book. Here's a listing of Literary Ladies' events for Day 1. (Bella Stander's pals & Book Promotion 101 clients are in purple).

WED 3/26
12:00pm High Gloss: Making the Beautiful Book
With Susan Tyler Hitchcock (Geography of Religion: Where God Lives, Where Pilgrims Walk), Jon Lohman (In Good Keeping: Virginia's Folk Apprenticeships), and Anne B. Barriault and Kay Davidson (Selections from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts).
Moderator: Dorrit Green

4:00pm Opening the Vein: Pouring Life into Writing
The Moseley Writers, Jennifer Riesmeyer Elvgren (Josias, Hold the Book), Deborah Prum (Rats, Bulls, and Flying Machines), Fran Cannon Slayton (How to Hop a Moving Train), and Andy Straka (Record of Wrongs), discuss how real life experiences inform fiction and keep writing fresh in a marketing-saturated world.
Moderator: Andy Straka

4:00pm Life As We Know It: Novels of Change and Healing
With Virginia Boyd (One Fell Swoop), Therese Fowler (Souvenir) and Judy Merrill Larsen (All the Numbers).
Moderator: Mariflo Stephens

6:00pm Memoirs: Writing Our Lives, Writing Our Cultures
Elko Stillfried (Leaves in the Wind), Konstantina Dimitra Mahlia (The House of Many Faces), Beatrix Ost (My Father's House: A Childhood in Wartime Bavaria), Linwood Custalow and Angela L. Daniel (The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History). Hosted by Piedmont Council of the Arts, Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, and Senior Center.
Moderator: Faith Andrews Bedford

6:00pm Trying to Get it Right: Fiction About Marriage
Jenny Gardiner (Sleeping with Ward Cleaver), James Collins (Beginner's Greek), and Joshua Henkin (Matrimony) offer fictional perspectives of twenty-first century marriages.
Moderator: Jeanne Siler

Literary Ladies Awarded!

Charlottesville weekly newspaper The Hook won 6 first-place prizes at Friday night's Virginia Press Association awards in Roanoke. And two of those prizewinners were Literary Ladies Lisa Provence (headline writing) and Janis Jaquith (editorials). Hooray!

Full story: Hook Brings Home Bacon (16 awards)

L-R: Lisa Provence, Janis Jaquith & Hawes Spencer, editor of The Hook, whence this photo was lifted.