Dallas Woodburn's Blog, page 29

Guest Post by Dee Barizo: 4 Tips for a Successful Freelance Writing Career

A career as a freelance writer can be a roller coaster of a ride; it is not uncommon for many freelancers to feel insecure in their jobs. After all, you might have one really profitable week or month and then the next month be wondering if you will make enough to pay your electricity bill. If you want your writing career to expand beyond just a part-time hobby and into a full-time business, these tips for building a successful freelance writing career will help you become more profitable and ...

Guest Post by Tisha Morris: A Writer's Guide to Feng Shui Your Workspace

One of the best things about being a writer is that there is virtually no overhead. All you pretty much need is a computer and some discipline. However, it is for this reason that a designated office space is often overlooked for writers, not to mention a feng shui-ed office space.

Whether writing fiction or non-fiction, blogs or books, a writer spends her day pouring herself out, emotionally and intellectually, onto paper and into the world. It can be a very vulnerable place. This is one reas...

Contest Looking for the Next Breakout Children's Book

Are you a secret storyteller? Now is the time to let your talent out in the open. The Times and Chicken House are on a mission to discover another great children's writer, whose book will be published around the world by Chicken House.

How to enter: Your full-length manuscript (no more than 80,000 words) must be received at The Chicken House by October 29, 2010. The address, submission criteria, terms and conditions and tips can be found at timesonline.co.uk/chickenhouse

The shortlist: The Chic...

Websites of Interest for Young Writers

Markets for young writers:

* Prufrock Press, Inc. is looking for the very best material by students (ages 8–16). Material may include cartoons, songs, stories between 500 and 1200 words, puzzles, photographs, artwork, games, editorials, poetry, and plays, as well as any other creative work that can fit in the pages of the magazine. http://www.prufrock.com/client/client_pages/prufrock_jm_ck_wg.cfm

* CyberKids is looking for stories, poems, articles, pictures, and other creative work. They do not...

Interview with Marcia Meier

Marcia Meier has been writing professionally since she graduated from college. She worked for daily newspapers for nearly twenty years, first as a reporter, then as a copy editor and assistant city editor, and finally as editorial page editor of the Santa Barbara News-Press. She left daily journalism in 1995, but wrote a Women and Business column for an Orange County magazine, penned a coffee-table book on Santa Barbara and has continued to write for newspapers and magazines ever since. She a...

Interview with Tracy Krauss: author, playwright, artist, teacher

Tracy Krauss has finished four novels and eleven full length plays, and has three other novels in the works. She is also currently working on an illustrated children's book based on a song her mother used to sing called "The Sleepy Town Express." In addition to writing, she is a high school teacher of Art, Drama, and English; she is also an artist and theatre director. "Life is pretty full!" she says. "I have four grown children, so I have more time for writing than I used to, but it st...

Chicken Soup for the Soul Calls for Submissions from Young Writers

Chicken Soup for the Soul is an amazing opportunity for writers to share their true personal stories with the world. I have published stories in eight Chicken Soup books and the experience has been great.

Now, the Chicken Soup editors are collecting stories by young adults in high school and college for preteens who are caught between childhood and the tumultuous teens -- a time when bodies are changing, friendships are forming, and everyone's just trying to find someone to sit with at lun...

Cheerios is Looking for the Next Big Children's Author - It Could Be You!

Cheerios is once again sponsoring its Spoonfuls of Stories New Author Contest. They are looking for stories geared towards readers ages 3 to 8 and no longer than 500 words. They can be written in either English or Spanish. (Spanish entries will be translated into English.)

Winners receive cash prizes and a publishing contract with Simon & Schuster. Not only that, but the published book of the grand prize winner will be included in specially marked boxes of General Mills cereal!

For more informa...

Interview with Gayle Trent

I am absolutely delighted to have Gayle Trent join us today! Gayle writes the Daphne Martin Cake Decorating Mystery series for Bell Bridge Books. The second book in that series is Dead Pan. Both Thorndike and the English publisher BBC Audiobooks will be releasing the first book in that series, Murder Takes the Cake, in large-print, hardcover format in the coming year. Gayle also writes an embroidery series under the pseudonym Amanda Lee for NAL/Penguin. The first book in that series is due to...

Guest on "Your Book is Your Hook!" Radio Show

I am thrilled to be a guest this week on the fabulous radio show "Your Book is Your Hook!" hosted by the inspirational Jennifer S. Wilkov.

The show will air LIVE on Tuesday, May 11 at 9 a.m. EST. Here is the link to listen: http://www.womensradio.com/articles/Your-Book-Is-Your-Hook%21--Write-On%21-For-Literacy-and-Bestselling-Author-and-U.S.-Air-Force-Lt.-Colonels-Tips--Never-Fly-Solo/5132.html

I also wrote an article for Jennifer's blog about how I went from writing a book to starting Write On...