Bookmark This: Fun Web Finds

Today’s featured links are fun photos and facts to lift your spirits!

Qwiklit.com has compiled a great set of photos of famous authors, including Harper Lee, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the late Chinua Achebe.
25 Rare Photos of Famous Authors
 

Even Hemingway, Kipling, and Kerouac didn’t make it on the first try. Keep going, writers! You’re in good company.
Famous Rejection Letters
 

And for the biggest book lovers of us all, check out Flavorwire’s gallery of vintage librarian photos:
25 Vintage Photos of Librarians Being Awesome

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Member Monday: An Interview with New Member Karen Nourizadeh

by Tqwana Brown

Karen Nourizadeh is a writer, yoga instructor, wellness expert, inspirational speaker and media contributor based in New York City, where she has been living for the past 22 years. After leaving Corporate America and a job as an attorney, Karen embarked on a journey to help people heal themselves, mentally and physically, through the spiritual and physical practice of yoga. Karen is completing her first work, Follow Your Heart, a memoir detailing her struggles and path, one in which she needed to shed her fears and others’ expectations in order to reveal her true self and fulfill her destiny.  Through her story, Karen hopes to inspire others to shed their own fears and realize their  potential in order to create a magnificent life.

Welcome to the NYC Chapter of the WNBA-NYC! How did you become involved with the organization?

I learned about WNBA-NYC Chapter through Twitter!

Tell us more about what you’re writing?

I’ve just completed my first non-fiction book, a true tale of inner transformation by a ‘recovering attorney’ (me), inspired by yoga and a 10 year old Indian boy.   I have an agent in NYC who has submitted the manuscript to several major publishers and I pray!  I also write for several blog sites – Elephant Journal, MindBodyGreen, and On Fire At Fifty.  I write on topics of nutrition, exercise, spiritual inspiration, as well as the role of women in today’s world.

What are some things you’re learning on your journey to being published? What advice or suggestions can you offer to other inspiring writers?

It is a long journey which requires patience, passion, tenacity and consistent effort.  I never imagined how much I would re-write and make edits, but much of the magic is in the re-writes.  Write authentically from your truth or heart, not what you think others might want to read.  If it’s your truth, your heart, your vision, others will want to read it. Making connections, references, referrals to agents and publishers is always helpful and can aid in speeding up the process. So join organizations to network and don’t be shy!  I am going to the Writer’s Workshop in Woodstock the weekend of April 19, 2013  to inspire myself through other authors’ experiences and works.

What’s your favorite word?

Possible.

What are you currently reading?

I just finished reading Rita Gigante’s, The Godfather’s Daughter and Thunderstruck by Erik Larson.  I have ordered Wild, by Cheryl Strayed and Man on Wire, by Phillippe Petit.

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Member Monday: Member Updates!

Emily Albarillo has been appointed member coordinator for the NYC-Metro chapter of the Editorial Freelancers Association, and is looking forward to a year full of fun and educational events for chapter members. For more information on the EFA: http://www.the-efa.org.

Diana Altman is reading from her short story The Farm, Wednesday, March 13, at 6:00 PM at The New York Society Library‘s Open Mic Night. Reservations required. Cost $10. Tickets and information here.

Julia E. Antoine, writing under her pen name, Ju Ephraime, re-released her paranormal romance, The Man in The Black Top Hat, on December 19, 2012. She also released her second paranormal adult romance on December 21, 2012. Find all her books on Amazon.com or on Envisionschoolpublishing.com.

Deborah Batterman answers the question so many writers ask themselves—and more—via an interview on Carl Purdon’s blog, Fiction, Lies, and Carpal Tunnel: “What drives me to keep doing this, day after day, week after week, year after year?” Find her at www.deborahbatterman.com. (Also check out Deborah’s report on WNBA-NYC’s Facebook workshop!)

Barbara Brett published the e-book version of her novel  Between Two Eternities on Smashwords.com, and it is now available directly from all e-book vendors. The book was originally published by Avon. You can find all of Barbara’s books on her website: www.brettbooks.com.

Talia Carner‘s novel, Jerusalem Maiden, will be taught in Ethnic & Cultural Literature at Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan.  The novel is a story of a young woman in a strict religious society who struggles between passion and faith. Find her at www.taliacarner.com.

Jennifer Cunningham-Lozano, WNBA-NYC’s newly appointed Corresponding Secretary and owner of AAPA Concepts, is available for web design and social media projects. Recent projects include Book Blog www.areadingjournal.com. Designs range from simple brochure sites to complex WordPress designs.

Linda Epstein, Associate Agent at The Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency, is teaching a workshop, Writing a Top Notch Query, at Hofstra University on March 13 at 6:00 PM. Registration is still open.

Anna Olswanger‘s Greenhorn, an illustrated children’s novel, tells the story of a young Holocaust survivor who comes to a Brooklyn yeshiva in the 1940′s, where his obsessive attachment to a mysterious box excites the curiosity and unkind attention of the other boys. Anna is also the author of Shlemiel Crooks.

Anne-Marie Sutton has posted her book trailer on YouTube. Newport RI – Discover Fun & Mystery promotes her Newport Mystery Series. The third book, Keep My Secret, is due out this spring. Find her at www.newportmystery.com.

Valerie Tomaselli, WNBA’s National President, reports that her company MTM Publishing’s latest book on women’s history, Women in American Politics by women’s history expert, Doris Weatherford (CQ Press), received recognition on Booklist’s Editors’ Choice: Reference Sources, 2012 list. See also, A History of the American Suffragist Movement by the same author.

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Feature Friday: The Count

VIDA is a grassroots collection of people across the country, driven by the mission to explore “critical and cultural perceptions of writing by women.”  Founded in 2009, VIDA seeks to build a public forum through which the literary community can engage in conversation about the reception of women’s creative writing.  To that end, in 2010 VIDA started “the count,” which had a simple objective—to count the rates of publication of men and women in some of the country’s top literary publications.  They wanted to see if there really was a gender gap; if the perception of gender discrimination had any basis.

The results were a disturbing confirmation of the gender gap in the surveyed publications, prompting an enormous response from the literary community.  The community’s responses to the data were both positive and negative, but the numbers were irrefutable—in almost all of the publications they “counted,” women were underrepresented.

Photo Credit: VIDA, at http://www.vidaweb.org/the-2011-count

In 2011, VIDA did the count again, and their findings were quite similar to the 2010 findings.  For example, The Atlantic published almost 3 times as many articles by men as by women, as did The New Yorker and The Nation.  While such statistics are most certainly more complicated than a simple count might suggest, the numbers give us a place to start in the conversation.  And the benefit of having this count, of course, is that it sparks a discussion, an examination of the reception of women’s literature across the country.

So what do you think? Will the 2012 count produce similar results?  What can be done to close the gap?

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Looking for a Few Good Book Reviewers!

The New York Bookwoman, WNBA-NYC’s fantastic monthly newsletter, is looking for book reviewers!  Not only do book reviewers receive a free book, they get some quality online exposure too.  Most New York Bookwoman book reviews are also posted here on the blog, and there is a chance that your review could also be picked up by the national edition of The Bookwoman.  It’s a first come, first served basis, so don’t delay.

For a list of the books they have for review, please click here.

And if you have read a great book recently, or even a dreadful book that you feel compelled to write about, they’d love to hear about it.

Here’s how it works:

• Choose a book you’d like to review from the above list
• Please list three or more books in order of preference
• You will have three months to send in your 300-400 word review

Offer available to members in good standing. Join or renew here.
The New York Bookwoman cannot guarantee publication of your review.

If interested in writing a book review, contact the New York Bookwoman Coeditors Linda Epstein and Rhona Whitty at newsletter@wnba-nyc.org.

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