April 19, 2005
A WriterOnLine Publication

My dear readers,

On behalf of all the staff here at WriterOnline, I extend to you my most sincere, enthusiastic, and warmest thanks! Thanks for what? Thanks for voting for WriterOnline as one of the 101 Best Web Sites for Writers, as announced in the May issue of Writer's Digest. We were listed in the category, "Articles, Tips, and Discussion Boards," so with renewed vigor, we will bring you innovative and useful content.  And please do continue to keep us posted as to the types of articles you want to see.

Please welcome Jodi Rowland who joins our staff as Assistant Editor. Jodi comes to us from St. John Fisher College where she served as editor of the school's literary magazine, The Angle, for two years.  Jodi is a wonderful poet – in fact she's had some of her work published in an earlier issue of WOL – check it out here. We'll see if we can't coax her into writing some more for us!

How many of you out there are magazine writers? This issue is dedicated to you. Writing for magazines is a fun and exciting way to make a living as there's always the thrill of waiting for the reply on that query you sent out yesterday. And chances are, if you're really making a living at this, you've got lots of queries out there at any given time for which you anxiously await responses. But it can also be a real roller coaster ride – emotionally because of dealing with the rejection and uncertainty, and financially because you never know where your next job, and therefore income, is coming from. That brings us to the issue of simultaneous submissions, or "sim subs" as they're fondly known in "the biz." The debate on this rages on. There are those who say that to wait on a response before querying other venues is ludicrous in this day of economic uncertainty. Others cling to the custom of one query – one publication. How do YOU feel about sending out sim subs? Send me an email along with your comments to: editor@writer-on-line.com We'll publish the results in an upcoming issue of WOL.

Wherever you are, I hope you are having a stretch of weather as magnificent as we are. We have had over a solid week of perfectly stellar days: blue skies, light breezes, albeit a bit on the cool side. The only downside to this is that I'd rather be outside doing anything (even raking??) than inside clomping a way at the keyboard where I belong. I am secretly harboring a wish for a rainy day, at least a cloudy one, so I won't have to feel so guilty about romping around like a gazelle in my yard. But how about if we look at it like this, those of you who are following in my Jumping Jack tracks: we are clearing out the cobwebs and sucking down that clean spring air to lubricate the brain for a summer of great writing! 

So then, read on, enjoy, and until next issue, keep that ink flowing and those keyboards a'clacking (Despite the occasional romp)!

My warm regards,
Mary Anne Donovan

P. S. Have you seen Writer Online Learning Center lately? Just like here at WOL, the Learning Center has a whole new look, not to mention a new name. We have 25 courses, covering a broad range of interests and subject matter. New to the line up is Fiction Know-How, taught by Deborah Sutton. Check out the course description. Another cool course is Writing Poetry Inspired by Landscape or Place, taught by Jodi Rowland. Then, on the other end of the spectrum, check out Digital Communication Methods and Introduction to Technical Writing taught by yours truly.

IN THIS ISSUE

 

Hair quirks, or cowlicks . . . we all have ‘em, right? Whether you spend minutes at night, in Marcia Brady fashion, counting one hundred brush strokes, or you have hair gel issues like in the movie, There’s Something About Mary, you won’t want to miss out on this issue’s contest. For some inspiration, check out “The Curmudgeon Speaks: Our Crowning Glory: Having a Bad Hair Day,” where Pamela Beers shares her own hair quirks.

This Spring, along with your house and lawn work, take the time to tidy up your writing portfolio using Peter Bowerman’s “Seven Steps to Creating Your Commercial Writing Portfolio.”

Secrets don’t make friends, or so they say . . . that’s why Terri Relf tells all in “Psst! Wanna know the Secret of Getting Published?”

To learn a few catchy magazine-writing tips, sashay your way to Stephanie Olsen’s “Cut to the Chase.”

For more magazine related fun, test your matching skills on this issue’s Puzzle.

Who are pod people? Find out by reading Shelley Bueche’s News.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

Call For Submissions

Attention WriterOnline readers! We are actively seeking submissions in the following areas:

• Short stories: all genres

• Poetry

• Essays

• Articles: the mechanics of writing

• Articles: how-to

• Interviews with writers and authors

Writers whose works are accepted for publication receive a free subscription to JustMarkets, a daily markets-finder with the latest in market listings.

Please send all work to: submissions@writer-on-line.com

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Announcing New Web Site

Cornet Solutions, the parent company of WriterOnLine, announces the opening of a new site, Cornet Center for Business Learning.

For those of you business mavens, or cousins, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives, parents of business mavens, this site offers business related courses, documentation, books, and a monthly newsletter. Do check it out, and pass on the word! And look ahead for special offers just for WriterOnLine subscribers!

 

Contests

 

Gimme' a Head With Hair! Long, Beautiful Hair!!

Tell your life story: poem, fiction, or creative-non-fiction involving three instances of hair. Could be your hair, or anyone else's hair, but it has to involve hair – three times!! Like that time when you were 6 and you cut off all your own hair, and you had to live with this chopped up mess on your head until it grew in? Or when your best friend got gum stuck in her hair and while trying to help her get it out, your hair got tangled up in the sticky mess too? Of course, it doesn't have to be THAT dramatic, it could simply be a poetic musing about a warm spring breeze caressing your winter-stale hair. (What is this, National Hair Month??) More

 

Puzzle

 

Magazine Matcheroo!

This one's a real fun one. Match the article to the magazine! In the left column are five article titles. Your job is to match the article title with the magazine in which an article of this title would most likely appear. The titles are, shall we say, a bit obscure, so the fun part comes in deciphering the title and matching it to the appropriate zine! More

News

By Shelley Bueche

Magazine Launches Include

Of Libraries and Steinbeck

On Bull___ (hint: it starts with an s, ends in a t , and rhymes with ‘it’)

iPod, youPod--President George W. Bush pod’s?