The Fabulist Flash

Issue 22
ISSN: 1554-0804

Walt Whitman's Tomb Mousepad

In This Issue:

1. This Week
2. The Writer's Bookshelf
3. Featured Article
4. A Writer Tidbit
5. About The Fabulist Flash

1. This Week

Welcome to Issue 22 of The Fabulist Flash. Forward it to all your writing friends.

I've experienced another milestone in my life, celebrating another birthday. Thanks for all the friendly wishes of luck and happiness, by the way. They're greatly appreciated.

Birthdays are a time of introspection for me, what with the start of a new personal year. I set goals for myself based on age. You know, by the time I'm this or that age I hope to have accomplished this or that. For the first time in many years I'm actually ahead of my goals and it feels great. No resting on laurels though, instead I'll expand and adjust and add some new and creative things to my list.

My book, 50 Fabulous Gay-Friendly Places to Live, is beginning to take shape. I'm not feeling on solid ground with this project, yet and I had a small meltdown last week. I hit a wall of realization: 110 thousand words. Some friends recommended I remember to breathe, to walk away from the project for a bit, and to stop looking at the big picture and concentrate on smaller pieces. I appreciate their excellent advice and it's made a world of difference. I've been remembering to breathe more, I'm taking the dog for longer walks more frequently (he's happy about that!), and I'm looking at smaller pieces each day. After all, 2000 words a day is much more inviting than a huge total. I've got lists and emails and processes going. I continue to collect information and data and filling in the holes by taking small bites and working on small chunks IS much more inviting. It's an amazing amount of work and I have to remind myself that I really can do this, one word at a time.

I've been feeling a need for more personal, career support so I attended The Henderson Writer's Group meeting this week. The group is a decent size. The members are pleasant and supportive. They're also from many different walks of life and write in many different genres. It's great to be surrounded by writers who both understand the process and, because of the safe environment, aren't afraid to be critical of each other. If you've got March 3-6 free in your calendar and you're looking for an excuse to visit Vegas The Henderson Writer's Group is holding their annual writer's conference that weekend. Check out the details at www.hendersonwritersgroup.org.

This week's feature article, Grammar and Punctuation go together like Beans and Rice. by Joanne Seiff, takes a fun look at a recurring theme all writers need to keep in mind.

Until next week,

Gregory
=================================================================

Gregory A. Kompes is a freelance writer and photographer. Learn more about Gregory and his work at www.kompes.com
=================================================================

2. The Writer's Bookshelf

The American Directory of Writer's Guidelines, 3rd Edition: A Compilation of Information for Freelancers from More Than 1,400 Magazine Editors and Book Publishers
by Brigitte M. Phillips, Susan D. Klassen, Dorris Hall

A review by Gregory A. Kompes

The American Directory of Writer's Guidelines is an excellent companion to Writer's Market and an essential reference book for freelance writers. Some of the included publications do cross-over, but for the most part, their different.

The nice thing about The American Directory of Writer's Guidelines is that it provides both contact information and writer's guidelines for the listed publications.

Another thing I like about this reference book is the organization. It has publications organized alphabetically and then has the lists of categories in the back. It's much easier to find publications.

The downside of The American Directory of Writer's Guidelines is that it isn't updated annually. This makes using it a little more difficult because you have to do a cross reference to see if publications still exist, if the contacts still work there, and to make sure the pub hasn't moved. Of course, every query sent should be verified in this way before you send it, so you should be doing these things anyway.

For this title and others of inspiration to writers visit The Writer's Bookshelf.

3. Featured Article

Grammar and Punctuation go together like Beans and Rice.
by Joanne Seiff

Beans and rice, bacon and eggs, bagels and lox, peanut butter and jelly.there are some things that are just meant to go together. Grammar and punctuation are the couple that students and even professionals love to hate. Yet, getting your grammar and punctuation right can mean important things for a writer's career.

Many editors and agents remark that if they receive query letters with mistakes in them, they won't even respond. While this is discouraging, it makes sense, too. Editors have enough work on their hands in selecting and editing work to fit their publications. They want writers to submit their best work. Then, a good editor can make a writer's work even better by editing for clarity, doing great layout, and adding perfect graphics.

What does that mean for writers? It's important to write several drafts of a piece before sending it out. Give yourself time to go back and proofread your work. Use all the software tricks to check grammar and spelling, too; but, remember you are smarter than your word processing program. Catch all those homonyms and errors that your computer missed. It helps to have an educated and helpful reader around. Ask someone to proof your work for you. If your reader finds lots of mistakes, it's up to you to fix them. If you don't have a reader, take time to read your work out loud. You'll catch mistakes by yourself this way. Don't embarrass yourself by sending out anything less than your best!

If all of the above is old news to you, here's another angle on grammar and punctuation. Many writers insist that rules are meant to be broken-grammar and punctuation are infinitely flexible, they say. Well, that is true only when you know how far you can bend the rules before they snap. Your copy could be impossible to understand. English is spoken by millions of people across the world. We use different spellings, dialects, idioms, and grammar systems. The Queen's English is not the same as American Standard English, and Canadians', Australians' and New Zealanders' English all vary. For this reason, it's important to work as closely within "the rules" as you can. There are always exceptions, but if most of your work is pristine, the occasional idiom will not throw your reader, no matter what sort of English they speak.

If all this makes you think of the most anal English teacher you ever had in school, think again. The teacher is inside of you now! Take charge of your apostrophes, commas and semi-colons. Buy yourself The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, an oldie but goodie. Strunk was E.B. White's professor at Cornell. Then White became a professor at Cornell and author of Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little. He knew a thing or two about writing. Follow up The Elements of Style with a grammar exercise book with the answers in the back. Give yourself a refresher course every so often. Try to catch mistakes in your reading. Newspapers, magazines, and even books sometimes need editing. Practice while you read. If you read in any language, you'll be building up your passive understanding of how grammar and punctuation work. When you're ready to write, you'll be amazed at what you know.

About The Author
=================================================================
Joanne Seiff is a freelance writer, educator and designer. The Kentucky Foundation for Women has just awarded Joanne a grant to work on an essay collection, Knitting is Good for You, about knitting as a means to intellectual growth. She hopes to find a publisher for her book project soon. She may be contacted by email at joseiff@yahoo.com.

4. A Writer Tidbit

Here's another self-proofreading tip I learned during my tenure at an NYC PR firm. Read your work backwards. Yep, start at the end and look at each word. You'll be amazed at the mistakes you catch this way.

5. About the Fabulist Flash

ISSN: 1554-0804

The Fabulist Flash is dedicated to helping freelance writers find resources and inspiration.

When you forward The Fabulist Flash to your friends please do so in its entirety.

If someone forwarded you this copy and you'd like to begin receiving The Fabulist Flash in your own inbox go to www.FabulistFlash.com to join the mailing list.

We’re open to ideas and suggestions for future issues. Let us know if there’s something you’d like to see or learn about, what you’ve enjoyed and would like to see more of, or just want us to know you think The Fabulist Flash is fabulous. Send your comments and ideas to editor@fabulistflash.com.

-------------------------------

Interested in being a guest columnist? Published Guest Columnists receive $25 for their 500-600 word article, plus a byline credit. Visit The Fabulist Flash Writer Guidelines for more information.

-------------------------------

The Fabulist Flash mailing list is maintained through Café Press. You're receiving this newsletter because you signed up for The Fabulist Flash through a click box. If you no longer wish to receive The Fabulist Flash see the instructions at the end of your newsletter for removing your name from our mailing list. You can also contact Café Press customer service at: 1515 Aurora Drive / San Leandro, CA 94577 1-877-809-1659

The Fabulist Flash NEVER lends, sells, or distributes its email subscriber list to anyone.

Contact The Fabulist Flash:

Email
Editor@FabulistFlash.com

Snail Mail
Gregory A. Kompes, editor
The Fabulist Flash
PO Box 570368
Las Vegas, NV 89157

Best Sellers
=================================================================
This Week's New York Times Best Sellers