Love letters ~ Where your fellow writers are getting published and winning contests, plus Writer to Writer

Literary agent Cassandra Rodgers will
speak at How to Get Published, Saturday,
Oct 15, in Burlington. See here.

Hi, Brian.

After attending your seminar on query letters in Kitchener last month, I sent out several query letters to literary agents for my nonfiction children's book. Today I received a reply from one of the agents requesting to see my full book proposal! 

I wanted to thank you for holding the workshop and for all your guidance and advice. Fingers and toes are crossed that the agent will like my proposal! I'll keep you posted.

By the way, I brought a draft chapter of the book (on bumblebees)  to another one of your workshops, which was on editing and revising. You gave me some great advice then, too. Thank you!

Best wishes,

Dana

danachurchwriter.wordpress.com

Note: I’ll be showing people how to make their query letters work at four upcoming How to Get Published workshops on Oct 15, 22, and 29, in Burlington, London, and Caledon (in Bolton). Check out the details of all three workshops here, and on Jan 28, 2017, in Toronto (see here). On Nov 5, I’m offering the Revising and Editing workshop in Midland (see here), and on Nov 19, I’ll lead a Writing for Children and for Young Adults workshop in Mississauga with Anne Shone, senior editor, Scholastic Books, as my guest speaker (see here). 

Hi, Brian.

Hope the new semester is going well and that the students are the usual keen and gifted bunch.

I have a “Facts & Arguments” essay in the Globe & Mail. It covers a day in my life many years ago when I found myself unemployed for a while. Some commenters are advising me to get psychiatric help. Sigh.

The good news, I suppose, is that at least they're reading my stuff!

Cheerio,

Sally B

Check out Sally’s piece,"My spa day turned into a nightmare" here.

For information about submitting a Facts & Arguments essay to the Globe & Mail, see here.

P.S. I've noticed that many people who lurk in the comments sections of newspapers and journals and post nasty comments seem in need of psychiatric help themselves. ~Brian

Hi, Brian.

One of my short stories has made it to the semi-finals for the John Kenneth Galbraith Literary Award.

Mary Steer

Brian:

Just letting you know that my short story "Blood Moon" has made it to the semi-finals of the John Kenneth Galbraith writing contest. Who knew?

Peggy

Best of luck to Mary and Peggy!

For information about the John Kenneth Galbraith Literary Award and its $2,000 prize see here.

Hi, Brian:

An Unusual Thrill on Parliament Hill
from DC Canada

Very good news!  I've signed a contract with an DC Canada Education Publishing in Ottawa.  for a 15-book children's reading series.  Over the past year, I was working on the kind of books I used to use as a reading teacher to teach kids to read. 

Initially, I sent one manuscript with illustrations. I've had so many rejections in the past with other manuscripts that I was expecting another rejection, but instead I got an e-mail back asking for my resume. Then they asked for two more manuscripts. After that, they sent me a contract. Both sides signed and we're off! I've sent in the 15 manuscripts and the illustrations (there are 120 of them). The publisher says they will be published in 2017. It's been a really nice experience so far – they are wonderful to work with. 

Thank you for all of your help. I've learned so much from your writing courses and workshops.  My advice to writers is keep writing, keep taking courses to get better and keep submitting your work. You never can tell when something will click. 

Thanks again.

Oksanna Crawley

For information about submitting to DC Canada, see here.

Note: I’m leading How to Get Published workshops on Saturday, Oct 15, in Burlington with literary agent Cassandra Rodgers of The Rights Factory, on Saturday, Oct 22, in London with Stacey Donaghy of the Donaghy agency, and on Saturday,  October 29, in Caledon, at the Bolton Public Library, with Martha Web of the McDermid Agency. Details of all three workshops here. And also on Jan 28, 2017, in Toronto, again with Stacey Donaghy (see here). 

Then on Saturday, November 19, I’ll lead a Writing for Children and for Young Adults workshop in Mississauga with Anne Shone, senior editor, Scholastic Books as my guest speaker (see here).  ~Brian

Writer to Writer

Hi,

My life has been what some would call very colourful, provocative and full of crazy situations and stories.  I have been told many, many times when I regale people with stories from my past that I should write a book about it.  I'm looking for someone who might be interested in collaborating with me in this effort, so if you are interested in maybe making your mark as a writer, I would be happy to tell you more.

Email me at: darlenegoodwin@rogers.com

Darlene

See Brian’s complete current schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Algonquin Park, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, St. John, NB, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.