Query Tips for 2013

Writer's Digest has another great bit of writing advice called , The 10 Dos and Don'ts of Writing A Query Letter. For those of you still jazzed about your New Year's resolution to kick start your writing career, this is a good article. Author Brian Klems outlines 6 dos and 4 don'ts to make sure your query letter doesn't doom your submission to the slush pile. Most of them are common sense or common courtesy, but it's always good to go over the basics. To Brian's list I would add one more, make sure you have written something worth querying!

Rain Rain Go Away!

Great haiku Deb! I'm still waiting hopefully for some more of our talented Richmond Writer friends to join in the fun. Until then, here's another weather inspired haiku...

 

Rain, rain go away

Seriously! Go Away!

Enough is enough!

Haiku by Deb Dudley

Although I have only embraced the idea of being a writer for a few years, I have always found comfort in the written word. I enjoy all forms of writing and deeply respect my fellow writers. Sometimes I grab one idea and twist it for months, and sometimes the words come in the form of a whisper. To be honest, writing haiku would not jump to the top of my 2013 resolutions, yet I’m not completely turned off to any style of writing. Up until 2011, I never considered haiku or creating anything related to September 11th. Yet on the 10th anniversary of that tragic day, I heard a whisper and I wrote it down. It is my only haiku. It's called Patriot Day. I don't foresee another haiku in my future, but only time will tell. My 2013 resolution is to write with an open heart and mind. Best of luck with your projects and resolutions in the new year.

May the words be with you.

Patriot Day

Leaves yet to descend

Four birds doomed by evil thoughts

Scar sleeping eagle

 

Originally published on Deb's website, http://www.debdudley.com/twp-blog.html   1/7/13

Bob Frost

I love Hazel's idea to create new Haiku this month (as well as her own original Haiku!) I hope our Richmond area writers will heed the call to create. They're all so talented, I can't wait to see what they come up with. In the meantime, here's my own humble Haiku:

Frost on winter's lawn

Glistens in the morning sun

Unsigned masterpiece

 

 

Haiku to you!

Happy New Year, all!

I feel like I slid at top speed into 2013 and buzzed by several bases, so here we are into the second week of January already.

I swear, it wasn't procrastination....

Here's the obligatory question: New Year's Resolutions, anyone? For myself, I have only a couple, one of which has something to do about not being late... how am I doing with that? LOL!

Anyway, here's a resolution I am much more excited about: haiku!

This little verse form takes many shapes, but a common English form is 17 syllables in three lines of five, seven, five. Wikipedia has a great discussion of haiku:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku_in_English

I'm challenging myself to write one a day - impossible, you say? Probably, but it's good to have a goal.

The value of this challenge is that I'll be writing, or trying to write, something every day. And because the best haiku is concise, meaningful and rhythmic, emphasizing sound and visual imagery, it will push me to be imaginative and efficient in my writing.  I can't think of a better exercise to push my writing forward.

I admit to an ulterior motive: I will be illustrating each haiku in a small nature journal. So this exercise will also require me to draw a little something each day. Great multi-tasking!

So, I challenge each of you to haiku (drawing optional)! Here's one to start us off, inspired by holiday memories and faded bouquets:

Not all remainders,

Detritus of revelry,

Are bones left on plates

New Opportunity for the New Year!

Virginia, and the Richmond area in particular, is home to many talented children's writers. For any of you talented writers who happen to have a book coming out in 2013 and would like to receive a review of your printed brilliance on the JenningsWire website, please send me a review copy. Just email me at BrianRock@brianrock.us with a description of your book, and I'll reply back to let you know how to send me a review copy. I believe Virginia is often underrated in the New York dominated world of publishing and I'd like to do my part to help promote my fellow authors from the commonwealth. I look forward to seeing many great books from area authors this year!