NJCWG - Jars of Clay Review

Would the person who offered to do a music review for my church's parent's newsletter (for our youth groups) please contact me ASAP. I need the review of a Jars of Clay CD by Monday!

Louise Bergmann DuMont
njcwg.dumont@gmail.com

Writing Op - Amazon Shorts

Looking for Something New to Read?
Amazon Shorts are never-before-seen short works from a wide variety of well-known authors, available only on Amazon.com. Try a new genre or a new author--there's something for everyone. Amazon Shorts are:

• New short-form literature from top authors for only 49 cents
• Delivered electronically; there are no printed editions
• Yours forever after purchase; save or print and read at your convenience

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How to Submit:
Amazon Shorts

Program Information

Amazon Shorts features previously unpublished short-form literature for sale exclusively at Amazon.com. Fiction and nonfiction pieces on a wide variety of topics are available in a digital format only for just $0.49. This is a great way for authors to maintain a more direct and frequent communication with their readers as well as promote their backlist.

Benefits of participation in Amazon Shorts:

• Access a powerful marketing tool to promote an author's backlist in a new and meaningful way
• Create an author profile page with biography, photo, and complete backlist
• Maintain author's visibility between published projects
• Establish a more direct and frequent communication with readers
• Introduce readers to unfamiliar writers
• Provide a new outlet to sell short fiction and nonfiction

Amazon Shorts on the site:

• Customers get instant reading gratification from favorite authors.
• Readers can easily sample new writers without investing much time or money.
• Shorts are available to customers via PDF, HTML, plain-text e-mail, and they are stored in customers' Digital Lockers forever. Shorts can be read immediately on-screen or printed out to be read later.
• Amazon Shorts will be promoted on the Books home page, presented as part of book search results, and recommended to book buyers.
• Full personalization features--customer ratings, reviews, recommendations--will be included.

Attention publishers, agents, editors, and authors: If you would like to participate in Amazon Shorts, please contact amazon-shorts@amazon.com.

Author FAQ

What types of material can I list as an Amazon Short?

Any previously unpublished short-form work (2,000 - 10,000 words, fiction or nonfiction) you've created that your readers would find interesting. An Amazon Short could be a single short story, an update on a well-loved character, a compelling speech, additional material that enriches your published works, or even your commentary on your work or other subjects. Some authors have chosen to treat this as a "laboratory" for experimentation with new genres, themes, etc. We are open to creative ideas for new work.

What if I want to contribute more than one piece?

Once you are accepted into the Amazon Shorts program, you are free to contribute as many pieces as you wish. We are especially interested in getting new material from you on a regular basis. Please allow a turnaround time of approximately three weeks from the time you deliver the material to the time you can expect it to appear on the site.

Can I sell my material elsewhere? Can I publish it later? Will I continue to own the rights to it?

Authors retain the rights to their material. However, we do require that all Shorts be exclusive to Amazon.com for a minimum of six months.

Can anyone submit an Amazon Short?

We are accepting work from a diverse group of authors. In order to be eligible for participation you must be a published author with at least one book currently for sale on Amazon.com. If you are an agent, author, publisher, or editor, and you would like to be considered for inclusion in this program, please contact us at amazon-shorts@amazon.com.

Does this material get reviewed by customers just as books do?

Absolutely. The digital content listed in Amazon Shorts is just like other media products that Amazon.com sells to customers and is subject to the same privileges and conditions that are afforded to books, CDs, and other media products.

Can authors promote their Shorts on their own Web sites?

Yes. Authors who have their own Web sites are encouraged to join the Amazon.com Associates Program. Through this program, you can use your own Web site to drive traffic to your Amazon Shorts as well as any books you have for sale on Amazon.com. This is especially worthwhile for writers who have active or well-frequented Web sites.

Hurricane Katrina

One of the advantages of having your own blog is that you can put on that blog anything you choose. I'm taking a moment here to address the needs of those who experienced Hurricane Katrina first hand.


Floodwaters pour through a levee along the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal near downtown New Orleans. (AP/Pool/New York Times)


Avis Ellis (foreground) walks through the rubble of her apartment building in Gulfport, Mississippi, one of the cities that suffered the worst damage from Hurricane Katrina. (AP/Dallas Morning News)


John Allen sits at his makeshift guardpost in front of the A. J. Produce Company in New Orleans, as police elsewhere tried to crack down on looters. (AP/Dallas Morning News)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Houston area is full of refugees from New Orleans, who only brought enough clothing for a couple of days (and officials are now saying it may be four MONTHS before anyone will be allowed back into New Orleans. The area is under martial law). More refuges continue to arrive. It is being said that this is probably the worst natural disaster in the history of the U.S.

The first thing they need is PRAYER but we can't neglect the physical assistance that they need. There are many relief organizations to help these people but each is strapped for funds. Except for Houston shelters and food banks, the various organizations do NOT want clothes or food. What they need is money or and gift cards.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is a list of some organizations that could use monitory donations:

Operation Blessing: 800-436-6348
America's Second Harvest: 800-344-8070
Adventist Community Services: 800-381-7171
Catholic Charities, USA: 703-549-1390
Christian Disaster Response: 941-956-5183 or 941-551-9554
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee: 800-848-5818
Church World Service: 800-297-1516
Convoy of Hope: 417-823-8998
Lutheran Disaster Response: 800-638-3522
Mennonite Disaster Service: 717-859-2210
Nazarene Disaster Response: 888-256-5886
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance: 800-872-3283
Salvation Army: 800-SAL-ARMY (725-2769)
Southern Baptist Convention - Disaster Relief: 800-462-8657, ext. 6440
United Methodist Committee on Relief: 800-554-8583

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Here are a few organizations that will accept monetary donations and/or gift cards. Some of the have Spanish speaking donation alternatives, internet donation options or other special ways to contribute.:

KSBJ, a local Houston radio station, is accepting gift cards for the refugees. www.ksbj.com

Red Cross - If you would like to make a donation to the Red Cross, please call 1-800-HELP-NOW or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish). Contributions to the Disaster Relief Fund may also be sent to your local American Red Cross chapter or to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013. Internet users can make a secure online credit card contribution by visiting www.redcross.org or www.houstonredcross.org.

West Houston Church of Christ is collecting gift cards (phone, gas, food, Wal-Mart, etc) in any denomination to be distributed to Hurricane Katrina victims in Red Cross shelters in Texas. The collection will extend through the month of September and cards may be brought (or mailed) to West Houston Church of Christ, 17100 West Road, Houston, TX 77095. For additional information, see our website www.westhoustonchurch.org or call 281-856-0001.

Project Noah - www.projectnoah.org
Starting as a lifeboat for the many homeschoolers and other families hurt by Tropical Storm Allison in June of 2001, Project Noah soon became a loving facet of the homeschool community with the mission to help homeschool families in crisis. They are now helping families whose children will be staying home from public school for the next two months due to Hurricane Katrina.

Writing Op - Christian Parenting Today

CHRISTIAN PARENTING TODAY
Christianity Today International
465 Gundersen Dr.
Carol Stream IL 60188-2489
Phone: (630)260-6200
Fax: (630)260-0114
E-Mail: cpt@christianparenting.net
Website: www.christianparenting.net
Managing Editor: Caryn Rivadoneira
Assistant Editor: Dawn Zemker
Contact: Raelynn Eickhoff, editorial coordintor
Issues: Quarterly

"Strives to be a positive, practical magazine that targets real needs of today's family with authoritative articles based on real experience, fresh research, and the timeless truths of the Bible. CPT provides parents information that spans birth to 14 years of age in the following areas of growth: spiritual, social, emotional, physical, academic."

Pays on acceptance
Byline given
Accepts previously published submissions
Responds in 2 months to manuscripts
Sample copy for 9 x 12 SAE with $3 postage
Writer's guidelines for #10 SASE
Paying Market

"Tell it like it is. Readers have a `get real' attitude that demands a down-to-earth, pragmatic take on topics. Don't sugar-coat things. Give direction without waffling. If you've `been there,' tell us. The first-person, used appropriately, is OK. Don't distance yourself from readers. They trust people who have walked in their shoes. Get reader friendly. Fill your article with nuts and bolts: developmental information, age-specific angles, multiple resources, sound-bite sidebars, real-life people and anecdotes and realistic, vividly explained suggestions."

10/8/05 - A Reason To Write Conference

Just a friendly reminder...

October 8, 2005
A Reason To Write Conference
THE most affordable, full-day, professional Christian Writers' Conference on the East Coast
For more information go to: http://www.louisedumont.com/ARTW.html
Tell your friends...

NJCWG - Next Meeting

Louise Bergmann DuMont
On Tour -- February, 2005 -- Charlevoix, Michigan
For NJCWG Members -- Next Meeting
(PLEASE check the blog the morning before you attend this meeting
since there IS a small possibility that I will have to cancel)
Monday, September 12, 2005
6:15-7:00 - Chat Time
7:00-8:00 - Lesson - Finding Your Writers' "Voice"
8:00-9:00 - Critiques

This Month in Writer's Digest

In this Month's Writer's Digest Magazine!

The Evolution of Self-publishingBy Brian A. KlemsAs technology improves, so do your publishing options. Here's a guide to what's new, what's available and why it's easier than ever to publish yourself.
The Fellowship of the WordJ.R.R. Tolkien's myth-making tales are most alive in their original form: ink and paper
Q&A: Copyright Before Submission?The editors of Writer's Digest magazine and books answer your questions.Q. Do I have to copyright my work first, even if it's a short story, before I send it off for someone to publish? --Philip Atkins
Crafting a First-person EssayBy Tom BentleyHere's a start-to-finish guide to writing an essay that gets to the point while packing enough emotional and personal insight to connect with the reader. PLUS: Resources for essay writers

Clichés to Avoid

What is a Cliché?

From the Dictionary
Cliché – A clever expression that has lost its freshness from overuse.

"A cliche is a literary feature that has been used so often that it has burned out and died." ~Jerome Stern

"Cliches are familiar phrases and expressions that have gotten a bad name because they have been overused by writers who were too lazy to think up new, original ways to express their thoughts. These same expressions, when used sparingly, can add humor to a piece of writing or can help a writer make a point succinctly and clear clearly."
~ Robin A. Cormier

Resources You Can Use to Clean Up Clichés

The Facts On File Dictionary of Cliches
The Meanings & Origins of More Than 3,500 Terms & Expressions
by Christine Ammer
Published: 2001 ISBN: 0816043566Dewey Number: 423.1

Cliché Cleaner
http://www.cliches.biz/clichecleaner/ccinfo.html

659 Cliches
http://www.gospelcom.net/guide/resources/frameforlinks.php?id=http://ppcl.chungnam.ac.kr/my/english/cliche-list.htm&referer=/guide/resources/idiom.php&des=Cliche

Editorial Changes

Info care of: Revolving Door at Media Bistro

August 31, 2005: Robyn Borok has been promoted to advertising director of Child magazine. She was the advertising director for Meredith Integrated Marketing
...AND...
Erin Quinlan has been named senior producer at Child.com. She had been with AOL CityGuide since May 8, 2004. (mb)

August 31, 2005: Claire Marin has been promoted to advertising director at More. She was previously eastern advertising director for the magazine.

August 30, 2005: Mark Cardwell has been named editorial director at ABC News.com. He had been executive producer of the digital group at Associated Press since October 1, 1995.

August 29, 2005: Jennifer Walton has been promoted to marketing director at Country Living. She was previously associate marketing director.
...AND...
Christine Rannazzisi-Gerstein has been promoted to associate publisher/marketing of Country Living. She was previously executive director/marketing for the magazine.

August 29, 2005: Kim Svoboda has been named K-12 education account manager at USA Today. She had been New England regional advertising manager at Harvard Magazine since May 20, 2002.

August 26, 2005: Suzanne Daley has been named national editor of The New York Times. She has been with the paper since 1978, most recently as the education editor.

August 26, 2005: Jeannie Kim has been named deputy features editor at Redbook. She was previously a freelancer.

Decrease in newsweekly sales at newsstands

Single copy sales of such as Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report dropped 3.4% to 16.6%, raising questions of "how general-interest publications can hold on to their audiences in a 24-hour cable news and Internet environment while competing against increasingly popular entertainment, pop culture and specialized magazines." Source: usatoday.com

New Mag - Aiports of the World

Article by: By Kevin May

Key Publishing is launching a new magazine to add to its growing portfolio of business titles for the growing air travel market.
The launch of Airports of the World follows a trial edition of the magazine earlier in the year to test the market.

The bi-monthly title will have an initial print run of 65,000 copies, target airline and airport staff and will cover issues as wide as equipment, security and future development plans.

Key Publishing already produces a raft of air travel-related titles including FlyPast, Airline World, AirForces Monthly, Air Enthusiast, Air International and Today’s Pilot.

Adrian Cox, managing director of Key Publishing, said: “Following the phenomenal success of our Airports of the World One-Off Special Publication in early 2005 we listened to our readers and discovered a huge demand for a new magazine devoted to the airport scene.

“With the wealth of knowledge provided by our in-house editorial team and top class contributors, coupled with Key Publishing’s ability to access areas within airports not open to the general public, ‘airports of the world’ is sure to meet this demand.”

The air travel industry has grown massively in the past decade since the rise of the no-frills airlines and expansion of tourist routes to Asia.

The government has also pledged to build or expand a number of airports in the UK to cope with what will be an unprecedented increase in passenger levels in the next 15 years.

Organic Life: food magazine launches

The new magazine from the Guild of Master Craftsman will hit newsstands on October 21st. "Content will include organic issues covering the environment, trade, health, keeping fit, alternative therapies as well as food." Source: mediaweek.co.uk

Organic Life, a new magazine from the Guild of Master Craftsman hoping to seize on the trend for all things natural, will hit the newsstands on 21 October. The 128-page title will go up against the likes of Olive, Delicious and BBC Good Food magazines and will have an initial print run of around 65,000 copies per issue.

The launch by the GMC, which also publishes titles ranging from photography to DIY, comes as the organic market continues its rapid growth, worth an estimated £1.5bn a year in the UK.

The magazine will also cover organic issues away from the traditional area of food, such as clothing, health and beauty.

The publisher hopes to fill what it calls “the considerable gap” between the top three food titles in the sector, Asda, Somerfield and Sainsbury’s magazines, which have combined sales of around 4 million copies, and the rest of the market.

Content will include organic issues covering the environment, trade, health, keeping fit, alternative therapies as well as food.

The GMC is also expected to back the launch with a major marketing campaign in October, covering trade press, direct mail and a partnership during the National Apple Day.

Last week’s release of sales figures for the food sector during January to June 2005 saw Asda, Somerfield, Sainsbury’s, BBC Good Food and Waitrose all record an increase in circulation year-on-year.

The market leader, Asda magazine, sells around 2.6 million copies per issue.

WordSmith Writer - Referals

Starting September 1, and running through the end of the year, The Word Smith Writer (formerly WordSmith Shoppee) be holding an intensive Membership Drive. Membership is FREE. The goal is to reach 1,000 subscribers by December 31, 2005. How? When you subscribe to the Wordsmith Writer e-Zine, mention my name (Louise Bergmann DuMont) as the person who referred you. For every referral I get one "entry". The one who gets the most referrals wins a prize. IF I win, the prize (see below) it will be shared amongst those who subscribed.

The Grand Prize: A gift basket full of books and other goodies for writers. One of the books will be Sally Stuart's 2006 Christian Writers Market Guide. That alone is a $24.99 value. The total value of this Grand Prize is estimated to be somewhere in the $80.00 - $100.00 range.

This is a GREAT newsletter. As a member of The Word Smith Writer you get information about conferences, workshops, events, teleconferences, teleworkshops, writers markets, writing opportunities, industry news and so much more. ...AND ALL OF THIS IS FREE!!! It does not inundate you with hundreds of emails the way some writer's lists do. You get only one email each month. You can read your newletter via the email or you can go to the web to read it. Peg Pfifer, the editor of The Word Smith Writer, is a gifted writer in her own right and she is an amazing editor. Please consider subscribing to the wealth of information contained in this publication.

So what are you waiting for? Register for The Word Smith Writer TODAY and use my name as a referal.

To subscribe. send an email to Peg Phifer at: mcphifer@earthlink.net

For a free copy of this month's newsletter go to: http://wordsmithshoppe.com/news050822.htm

Repentent Leader

Dear Blog Friends

Those of you who check the NJCWG Blog know that I post often - usually 1 - 5 posts per day. AND, you probably noticed that I haven't posted for the last week (last post 8/23/05).

This has been a very busy week. My office moved me from one facility to an other and I was packing boxes and trying to work via laptop at the same time. This past weekend was also the last week that my pastor (Pastor Fox) would serve our church. He and and his dear wife, Shirley, retired as of last Sunday. I know that this is good and right for them both they will be sorely missed. I would not have missed all the events we scheduled to "send them off" but again, took up some time. I apologize for setting the blog aside but you can be sure that I'm back and will renew my efforts to post market information, publishing opportunities and writing helps on a regular basis.

I will also take some time to answer the various emails many of you sent me and if I should miss any, please don't hesitate to contact me again.

ESPECIALLY FOR THE NJCWG
DO continue to check the blog before coming to the NJCWG meetings. There is a slight possibility that I will have to cancel the September 12th meeting. For now it is still "on" but check the blog messages just "in case" it becomes necessary.

Louise Bergmann DuMont
njcwg.dumont@gmail.com
www.cafemochalight.blogspot.com

Using Conflict to Create Drama

Using Conflict to Create Drama
Presented by Louise Bergmann DuMont
At the NJCWG – 08/22/05

Q: Do I really need conflict? Can't my characters all just get along?
Without conflict there is no story. Life without conflict is not 'real.'

Q: I have lots of action in my novel but I was told that there isn't enough conflict. Aren't conflict and action the same thing?
New writers often mistake the two. Conflict is not action but conflict is the reason most action occurs. Meaningless action scenes are not enough to carry a story.

Imagine a scene where one car chases another up and down the narrow San Francisco streets … but you (the reader) have no idea why they are doing this or who is in the two cars. Do you care about the chase? Now imagine a scene where a young child has been kidnapped. The father sees the child being abducted and initiates a chase through the same streets. All through the chase he must balance keeping up with the evasive car in front of him, with the safety of pedestrians, the safety of other drivers on the road, and the safety of the car that holds the kidnappers (because his child inside that car).

An action scene has no point and holds no interest without the insertion of conflict.

Q: If conflict is not the same as action, what IS conflict?
Conflict is when two forces are in opposition to each other. These forces can be emotional, mental, physical, spiritual, sociological, or elemental

Q: I've heard of Internal Conflict and Personal Conflict, but what are they and are there other kinds of conflict?
There are many kinds of conflict and they can be called many things. Below are a few kinds of conflict that have been grouped for the sake of explanation:

INTERNAL CONFLICT
Conflict with oneself. Inner turmoil. Moral dilemmas. Overcoming trauma. Psychological problems. Internal Conflict is not with other characters, though it can affect other characters. Internal Conflict comes across best when the reader feels they are in the mind of the character. This is because the reader can visualize the situation and they feel as if it was occurring to them..

PERSONAL CONFLICT
This is about inter-personal relations - conflict between two or more individuals. It is often between the hero and his friends or the hero and his lover(s). It does not involve larger issues like peer pressure or the rules of society, but rather, the problems the characters have relating one to another.

SOCIAL CONFLICT
Note: this is the conflict of choice.
Social Conflict can be between a parent and a child, between a doctor and a patient, between a hero and society, etc. Social Conflict occurs when you are dealing with issues that are larger than one-on-one relationships. Stories that deal with concepts like authority, injustice, persecution and assimilation are in the domain of the Social Conflict.

ELEMENTAL CONFLICT
Elemental Conflict is between man and his environment. The hero deals with a non-personal, elemental force of nature. It could be anything from a long dormant volcano (now spewing lava) threatening a troop of hiking boy scouts to a pack of run-amuck butterflies overtaking a mid-western state.

Q: What is the nature of conflict? Isn't a story about the characters?
Conflict is impersonal but a story's characters should not be. For example, people understand the concept of war, but they don’t see what it has to do with them unless your main characters convey their feelings and situation to the reader. That is when it becomes tangible.

Your reader must "feel" something when they read a scene. Lets take that war story scenario. People may be dying on every page of your manuscript but the war will seem abstract to your reader. All that changes when the reader "sees" the war through the eyes of the main character. When they watch a child die in the arms of the hero (as seen through the eyes of his fiancée) the reader is touched. They fee the pain the woman feels, they see the remorse she sees in the eyes of her hero, and they share the conflict that occurs when the nurse's peaceful ideals and the hero's duty to his country collide. Conflict becomes real when our characters bring us into the story's world through their conflicts.

Conflict needs meaning to be powerful. So the issues of the conflict must be important to the characters. When the characters are emotionally involved, the reader is emotionally involved. This happens if (and only if) the reader cares about the characters. How does an author make the reader care? By using universal truths to touch the reader.

When you’re writing a story about personal and/or social conflicts, you’re really pitting the will of your characters against each other. And through that use of will, the reader learns who they are and what they’re made of. In an internal conflict, the character's will is pitted against his or her innate nature. They may have a fear of heights and yet they go to the 81st floor of a building for job interview that will allow them to feed their family after being out of work for more than a year. In this case, the character battles their own nature to do something for the greater good.

Lack of internal conflict limits a character’s dimension. Single minded individuals are only common in bad fiction -- not in life. If you are human, you have conflict. According to scientists, reason and emotion are completely intertwined. When someone suffers brain damage to the emotion centers of the brain, they lose the ability to make logical decisions. We learn by our mistakes. If we did not fear negative repercussions, we would have no reason to restrain or re-train ourselves.


Q: So how do I do this? How do I create "good" conflict? Conflict where the reader cares about the characters?
To write a good story you need to know your character's fears, their needs and desires. Discover their emotional hot buttons and use other characters to push those conflict buttons. Conflict does not necessarily mean a grumbling hero, a glowering child or a defiant teen. Real conflict meant taking the hero’s (or heroine’s) worst fear, twisting it around, and then throwing it back at them at the worst possible moment and saying, “Think fast!”

Make your characters face their flaws and fears. Toss out pages filled with quiet stay-at-home evenings, long candle lit dinners, shopping, and sweet kisses. Fill your pages their worst fears come true and how they over came those fears. Confront your characters with hard choices - make them chose between good and evil. And for the sake of your reader, have them mess up occasionally before they triumph over the "big bad."

Contest - Funds for Writers

FundsForWriters.com Fourth Annual Essay Contest. This year’s theme is "They Actually Paid Me to Write."

Deadline October 31.

You can enter the paid-entry category and be eligible for the $150 first prize. Or, choose the no-entry-fee contest for the $50 first prize.

No limit to the number of submissions.

Essays must be unpublished, original and in English.

Winners announced December 1, 2005.

See contest Web site, http://www.fundsforwriters.com/annualcontest.htm, for guidelines and details.

The Word Smith Writer

Starting September 1, and running through the end of the year, The Word Smith Writer (formerly WordSmith Shoppee) be holding an intensive Membership Drive. Membership is FREE. The goal is to reach 1,000 subscribers by December 31, 2005. How? When you subscribe to the Wordsmith Writer e-Zine, mention my name (Louise Bergmann DuMont) as the person who referred you. For every referral I get one "entry". The one who gets the most referrals wins a prize. IF I win, the prize (see below) it will be shared amongst those who subscribed.

The Grand Prize: A gift basket full of books and other goodies for writers. One of the books will be Sally Stuart's 2006 Christian Writers Market Guide. That alone is a $24.99 value. The total value of this Grand Prize is estimated to be somewhere in the $80.00 - $100.00 range.

This is a GREAT newsletter. As a member of The Word Smith Writer you get information about conferences, workshops, events, teleconferences, teleworkshops, writers markets, writing opportunities, industry news and so much more. ...AND ALL OF THIS IS FREE!!! It does not inundate you with hundreds of emails the way some writer's lists do. You get only one email each month. You can read your newletter via the email or you can go to the web to read it. Peg Pfifer, the editor of The Word Smith Writer, is a gifted writer in her own right and she is an amazing editor. Please consider subscribing to the wealth of information contained in this publication.

So what are you waiting for? Register for The Word Smith Writer TODAY and use my name as a referal.

To subscribe. send an email to Peg Phifer at: mcphifer@earthlink.net

For a free copy of this month's newsletter go to: http://wordsmithshoppe.com/news050822.htm

Industry News

LUCADO TITLE DEBUTS AT NO. 12 ON NYT LIST. God’s Mirror (Integrity Publishers) by Max Lucado landed at No. 12 on the New York Times Hardcover Advice Best-Sellers list for Aug. 14.
INTEGRITY PUBLISHERS SIGNS ZIG ZIGLAR. Best-selling author and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar has signed a three-book contract with Integrity Publishers. Better Than Good releases in 2006. Integrity plans a strong marketing and PR campaign plus a 10-city media tour, retailer promotions, and consumer advertising to drive traffic to Christian-retail stores.
WATERBROOK SLEEPER HIT ON NYT LIST. First-time novelist David Gregory’s Dinner With a Perfect Stranger (WaterBrook) hit No. 30 on the Aug. 14 expanded New York Times best-seller list online. The novella has gained media attention from USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and more.
TYNDALE PARTNERS WITH DAYSPRING. DaySpring Cards is partnering with Tyndale House Publishers to feature its New Living Translation (NLT) in DaySpring’s Whiskers & Paws card line available in retail stores and e-cards on their Web site.
NAOMI JUDD AUTHORS NEW BOOKS. J. Countryman will release country music star Naomi Judd’s The Transparent Life in November, and Tommy Nelson will release her children’s book, Gertie the Goldfish and the Christmas Surprise, in October.
QUILL AWARDS - NBC and Reed Business Information (the parent company of Publishers Weekly) will present The Quill Awards, a national people’s choice book awards show, on October 22. You can vote for your favorites in 19 categories including Book of the Year, Debut Author of the Year and Lifetime Achievement. Visit the award Web site, Quill Awards, or a Borders Book and Music store to cast your vote between Aug. 15 and Sept. 15.

Writing Op - Christian Singles Website

From Focus On the Family

Focus' College Web site Expands to Reach Young Christian Singles
Dear Friend,

If you or someone you know is in their 20s, you recognize that decade as a time of transition: Transition from college to career; from their parents' home to the one they're making for themselves; from adolescence into adulthood. It's a time of adventure and discovery. It's a time of questions: "What's God's call on my life? Where am I headed? What will my contribution be, and how will I leave my mark?"

For all the excitement, there's plenty of anxiety and some serious hurdles to clear. That's why there's Boundless.org.

Boundless.org is here to encourage them not to languish. We offer practical suggestions and principled advice for making the most of the single years, while encouraging them to embrace the responsibilities and rewards of marriage and family in the season to come. At Boundless, we believe in living intentionally, by bringing your gifts, talents and resources to bear on every part of your life.

In addition to publishing three new articles each week, we're adding an HTML E-newsletter that will include links to the new articles, as always, plus mini articles exclusive to the email. This is a great time to sign up for this free service if you haven't already, and to use the "forward" feature to invite your friends and family to join.

Boundless.org is unique in its commitment to the single adult for the "long haul" Its goal is to establish a lifelong relationship with readers, equipping them along the way -- from singleness into married life and parenting -- while chronicling the unique joys and challenges of eacch season. Boundless' connection to Focus on the Family, with its unparalleled resources and ministries, makes this possible.

Boundless.org features stories, columns and reviews from a Christian perspective. Contributors to Boundless.org are renowned journalists from around the globe. They include Dr. J. Budziszewski, professor at the University of Texas at Austin; Roberto Rivera y Carlo, a fellow at the Wilberforce Forum at Prison Fellowship and contributing editor to Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity; and Candice Watters, founding editor of Boundless and columnist for the popular "Beyond Buddies" series on dating and relationships.

We're here to help singles make sense of this season and enjoy the journey. For a fresh perspective on age-old questions about faith and friendship, dating and entertainment, career, calling and more, check us out at www.boundless.org

NJCWG - Next Meeting

For NJCWG Members
Next Meeting - Tonight
Monday, August 22, 2005
6:15-7:00 - Chat Time
7:00-8:00 - Lesson - A Writer's Use of "Conflict"
8:00-9:00 - Critiques