Sticky Notes Blog

A blog of writing news, tips, and inspiration from Fat Plum

Ideas from the Pied Piper of public radio

Ira Glass, creator and host of This American Life, shares his Manifesto in producing great radio and chats with interested people (including you!). He's hoping to help radio beginners, people who want to create great radio pieces of their own, but his advice is useful for anyone with creative aims:

I bring all of this up to say that if you're someone who wants to make radio stories (or do any kind of creative work), you're probably going to have a period when things might not come too easily. For some people, that's just a year. For others, like me, it's eight years. You might feel completely alone and lost during this period -- God knows I did -- and I hope it's reassuring in some small way to hear that what you're going through is completely normal. Most people go through it. And there are things you can do during this period of mediocrity that will get you to the next step, that will drive you toward skill and competence.

Posted by Cindy on May 26, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Inspiration

Winner of McSweeney's Twenty-Minute Stories Contest

The winning story has been published online: "Untitled," by David Kennerly. It is so short and tied together that it seems a shame to excerpt any of it, but I post the first sentence to help draw you in.

He had always tried to be a gentleman, courteous, respectful in the most thorough way, and believed he was doing his utmost to continue this philosophy when he realized he was having a heart attack, there was no way he could land the plane anywhere else, and he saw the beautifully ordered expanse of backyards open up before him like a shining path, the center line composed of fences and lit by the glint of the sun.

Continue reading "Winner of McSweeney's Twenty-Minute Stories Contest"

Posted by Cindy on May 25, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Inspiration

Pick a book, not a pocket

Poets & Writers magazine shared this nice bit of news:

In January, Mexico City started a new program, "For a Quick Read on the Metro," that offers free books to riders of the city's subway. The program, designed to reduce crime on the subway and increase literacy among the city's 8.5 million residents, will distribute 7 million paperbacks, including books of poetry and fiction, through 2006.

If I could just get my book translated into Spanish...

Posted by Julie on May 19, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Diversions

1,000 Journals Project

Inspired by the way complete strangers exhange thoughts via bathroom graffiti, in 2000 graphic designer Brian Singer bought 1,000 blank journals and set them loose in the world, to be filled a page at a time and passed along. One of the journals is finally full and has been sent back to Singer. You can check out some of the pages on the website and see if one of the journals might be in your neck of the woods.

Posted by Julie on May 18, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Diversions

Making life harder to generate writing material

In a recent interview, David Sedaris explains how the easier his life is, the harder it is to write:

Apart from his performing life, Sedaris shares homes in London, Paris and Normandy with his partner, Hugh Hamrick, a painter. "It works best if I write from the viewpoint of someone who has to struggle. In the States I don't have to struggle. People are nice to me. Looking for a job, making myself understood at the post office, someone making my life difficult, that's what excites me."

(Link via Maud Newton.)

Posted by Cindy on May 17, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Inspiration

"Written from 12:26 to 12:47 (I got a phone call for one minute) in my awesome windowless office."

The third-place winner in McSweeney's Twenty-Minute Stories Contest has been published: Goodbye Ernie Flynn by Wendy Molyneux.

For three days now I have been followed by an ambulance. I first noticed it while I was driving home from a lecture I gave at a museum. I am not an artist or an art historian. I work for a company called Safety Net. We help employers figure out if any of their employees are shoplifting, embezzling, or planning heists. It is my job to teach the employees how to spot colleagues who might be stealing or planning to steal. I also teach the employees how to resist if any of their colleagues try to rope them into some sort of scheme. All of our teachings are based on Christian principles, but we don't tell them that. Not everyone believes the same way, and I accept that.

Posted by Cindy on May 07, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Inspiration, Online publishing, Recommended

When context clues aren't enough

We haven't yet seen one of these in person, but we're eager to: the Franklin Pagemark Dictionary, an electronic dictionary that does double-duty as a book mark.

From the product description:


An essential reading companion, this Merriam Webster electronic PageMark dictionary is ultra thin and lightweight so you can use it as a bookmark. A quick and easy reference for over 274,000 definitions, it lets you create your own word list for easy reference, and includes phonetic spell correction for over 80,000 words. Fun and convenient, it features a built-in crossword solver, word games, a clock and full-function calculator, plus a Rolodex databank to store names and phone numbers.

Sounds neat. But when they come out with the matching thesaurus, I'll be among the first to order.

Posted by Cindy on May 05, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Recommended

Tune in, Baby.

I just taped a bit with the Star 100.7 morning show in Pittsburgh, promoting my book BABY: An Owner's Manual. It will air either Thursday or Friday morning, and they'll be giving away copies of the book for Mothers' Day.

Posted by Julie on May 04, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: What's up with us

Call for entries: Glimmer Train's Summer Fiction Open

From the Fat Plum mailbag:

Competition: Glimmer Train's Summer Fiction Open.

Eligibility: Open to all writers, all themes, subjects, and lengths.
Your entries must be your own, original, entirely unpublished stories.
Multiple entries are okay, but, please, no simultaneous submissions.

First-place winner receives $2,000, publication in Glimmer Train
Stories, and 20 copies of the issue in which it is published. Second-
and third-place winners receive $1,000/$600, respectively, and
acknowledgement in that issue.

To submit your stories, go to our site, www.glimmertrainpress.com, log
in, and click on FICTION OPEN. Reading fee (payable by visa or mc) is
$15 per story.

Entries will be accepted through July 15th. Winners will be called by
October 15th. Top 25 list will be emailed to all participants by that
date.

(Please note that Glimmer Train and this competition are not affiliated with Fat Plum.)

Posted by Cindy on May 03, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Calls for submissions

Big Party for Small Publishers

From the Fat Plum mailbag: An announcement from the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses

THE BIG PARTY FOR SMALL PUBLISHERS
Council of Literary Magazines and Presses Celebrates 37 Years

@ The Mercantile Library / 17 East 47th Street, NYC

Literary Angels & Co-hosts: JEN BLUESTEIN / ELIZABETH BOGNER / CONSORTIUM BOOK SALES / DONADIO & OLSON / KIMIKO HAHN / HARPER COLLINS PUBLISHERS / GERALD HOWARD / GEOFF KLOSKE / JUDITH KRUG / ELLIS B. LEVINE, ESQ. / GLENNA LUSCHEI / DAVID LYNN / FIONA MCCRAE / SHEILA MURPHY / CONSTANCE B.SAYRE / IRA SILVERBERG / PAUL YAMAZAKI

Co-sponsors: ARCTOS PRESS / AGNI / AKASHIC BOOKS / THE ASIAN AMERICAN WRITERS' WORKSHOP / BALTIMORE REVIEW / BAMBOO RIDGE PRESS / BOMB / BRIGHT HILL PRESS / CALYX / COTEAU BOOKS / CURBSTONE PRESS / DREXEL ONLINE JOURNAL / FAILBETTER / FC2 / THE FEMINIST PRESS AT CUNY / FINISHING LINE PRESS / FOUR WAY BOOKS / FUTURE POEM / GIVAL PRESS / GRAYWOLF PRESS / HOST PUBLICATIONS / HUDSON VALLEY WRITERS' CENTER / IG PUBLISHING / LITERAL LATTE / LITMUS PRESS / MARSH HAWK PRESS / MID-AMERICAN REVIEW / TEN PENNY / THE NEW YORK QUARTERLY / THE NEW YORK THEATRE EXPERIENCE / ONE STORY / OPEN CITY / OTHER PRESS / OTHER VOICES / POOL: A JOURNAL OF POETRY / QUICK FICTION / RATTAPALLAX / SALMAGUNDI / SMALL SPIRAL NOTEBOOK / SOFT SKULL PRESS / TAMEME / TUPELO PRESS / VERBATIM / WHITE PINE / ZYZZYVA

CLMP promotes vitality and variety in the literary culture by serving independent literary publishing through technical assistance and advocacy.

MAY 10th, 2004 at 7PM

The Mercantile Library
17 East 47th Street, NYC

Tax-deductible contribution:
$60 ($40/employees of literary publishers, nonprofits, or under 35)

Click here to RSVP or make a tax-deductible contribution.
or RSVP to 212. 741. 9110 or tdidato @ clmp.org

Posted by Cindy on May 03, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Coming attractions, Publishing, Recommended