Beware of Some Writing Contests!

In my quest to find writing contests for you to enter, I was searching the Web and came across a lot of fake contests. Mostly they were the kind where you send them money and never hear from them again. That is, of course, bad enough. Some, however, I find much more crushing to the soul of a writer. These are the ones where contest really appears legit with its massive Web site and 100s of poems written by many different authors. Some poems are terrible, but others are downright beautiful. As you read it, you wonder if this author would be the next Emily Dickenson.

About eight years ago, when I first started writing poems, I entered a poetry contest like that. I was told that my poems were wonderful, and they were posted immediately. What I found out pretty soon was that it was a poetry mill, where they churn out products to make you spend a lot of money buying your poem in book form or on a nice piece of framed paper so that you can show family and friends how legitimate you are now that you are published. I’m sure the Web site even hopes your family and friends will want to spend large quantities of money buying your poem in a leather-bound anthology with a thousand other suckers’ poems in there.

Please check over writing contests’ Web sites carefully before you submit. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if it is legitimate, especially when you are so excited about your writing and perhaps new to the game. Sometimes if you Google the name of the site, you’ll come up with blogs and other sites complaining about them. Look over the complaints to see if this really is a contest, you want to enter.

As for myself, I’ll continue to look for legitimate writing contests for you to enter, but please remember I’m human too!

Dialogue

I hear you call my name
I cannot bear this night
I must have my dialogue
to know where I continue
where future meets past
I have a spark
tell me you see it.

The stars reach down
and speak
diamonds and rubies.


Linda Suddarth

Discuss.

I Must Sing

Why do I live?

Because of the rings around Saturn.
Because the Welsh must sing.
Because of Fragonard and
the lady perpetually on a swing.
Because Mozart, existed I exist;
he is the color of violets in the spring.
Live because of the eternal
nature of the sweet ring
of familiarity. I know you darling
angel light unashamed—bring
your joy to crack and melt
the dusty veil I held thin
around my soul. Mozart changed
the world and now I must sing.
How can I do otherwise honestly?
Through trials, journeys, despair, war
little birds and Mozart still sing
and I hear them better than before.

Linda Suddarth


Please Discuss.

"The quickest way to a man's heart is through his chest cavity with a sharp knife."

Jamie Miller

True Friends

"True friends stab you in the front."

Oscar Wilde

Did the Bard work alone?

This is a hotly debated subject in the scholarly world, in part, because we never like to think anyone as wonderful as William Shakespeare might not have created everything we think he did. A new computer software program at the University of London, which was designed to catch plagiarizing students (this should even more upsetting to Shakespeare purists!), purports to prove that at least one of Shakespeare’s plays, The Reign of King Edward III, was written in collaboration. The majority of the play appears to be playwright Thomas Kyd’s creation.

Discuss!

Reference: The Huffington Post, 10-13-09, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/13/william-shakespeare-compu_n_318589.html.

A Good One

The last time somebody said, "I find I can write much better with a word processor. " I replied, "They used to say the same thing about drugs."

Roy Blunt Jr. (American Writer and Humorist)

Writing Contest

The 10th Annual Writer's Digest Short Story Competition is accepting entries! They are looking for fiction that's bold, brilliant ... but brief. Send them your best in 1,500 words or less. The deadline is December 1, 2009. The grand-prize winner will receive $3,000 (that's $2—or more—per word).

Scared and Alone

Scared and alone.

I cry out,

But the night

Swallows me

From within.

It is stronger

Than me.

I become

One with it.

Accepting the night

Frees me

To look at my soul.

Please discuss.

Trap Door

If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door.


Paul Beatty (American Poet)