Parisian Phoenix Publishing

I am currently in a race against time to make Jane Friedman’s The Business of Being a Writer my October writing craft book review. Time got away from me. But this serves as the main text for my class next semester at Northampton Community College so I thought now is a great time to read it. I’m only a few pages in and I am very enamored with some of her advice and how she writes it.

Want to read all the old annotated reviews of craft books I have evaluated? Check out my Substack.

In addition to challenges listed in a recent newsletter where I discuss alternatives to NaNoWriMo (read that here), Chill Subs has recently thrown another novel writing month challenge into the ring, with First Draft November. Chill Subs has been building a platform for writers looking for markets where they can submit their work, and I have talked with several people who use their service and have had good results. First Draft November has its own presence here on Substack, which is how Chill Subs plans to disseminate information about their challenge. Find them here.

There is also a (paid) 30-Day Draft Challenge advertised by Curtis Brown Literary and Book Bash November, a private rebrand of NaNoWriMo by the Behind Our Eyes Writers with Disabilities group.

And if you are local or near the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, I have spoken with some of the members of our writing group that used to meet at the Easton Area Public Library for monthly writing workshops. One loyal member of that group asked if we could approach the Mary Meuser Memorial Library about meeting at their facility. It’s literally two miles away from the downtown Easton library. That request tickled me as I am the president of the board of trustees of Mary Meuser Library and nothing would please me more than to host a writing group at my library. If this is something you might attend, please let me know. I could try to host something in November, but I thought starting in February might be smarter.