MORE BITS & PIECES #128

REASONS TO KEEP WRITING - JOSEPH CAMPBELL, age 83, an American mythology professor, writer, and lecturer best known for his work in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast and covers many aspects of the human experience, and his philosophy is often identified with the phrase he coined: "Follow Your Bliss". His massive four-volume work The Masks of God covers mythology from around the world, from ancient to modern. Where The Hero with a Thousand Faces focused on the commonality of mythology (the “elementary ideas”), the Masks of God books focus upon historical and cultural variations the mono-myth takes on. At the time of his death, Campbell was in the midst of working upon a large-format, lavishly illustrated series entitled ‘The Historical Atlas of World Mythology’. Campbell's widest popular recognition followed his collaboration with Bill Moyers on the PBS series The Power of Myth, which was first broadcast in 1988.

FILED BY AUTHOR - A marketing site where authors can set up a free page. There
are over 1600 mystery authors listed, both classic authors and current. URL: http://www.filedby.com

BIG LIFE IN A SMALL TOWN CONTEST - Deadline: July 6, 2009. Entry Fee: $10. $200 First Prize - $125 Second Prize - $75 Third Prize. Looking for true stories of life in small towns and villages across America. Think strong characters, realistic scenes and correct point of view. Guidelines: http://www.communityvoicemedia.com

CHEERIOS SPOONFULS OF STORIES CHILDREN'S BOOK CONTEST - Deadline: July 15th, 2009. No entry fee. Cheerios® is searching for the next great children's book author. Limit 500 words. Encourages aspiring authors to write & submit an original story for a book for children ages 3 to 8. Grand Prize of $5,000 cash will be awarded. In addition to the cash prize, Grand Prize winning story submission will be offered to a reputable Children’s Book Publishing company for possible future publication. Two First Prizes of $1,000 each. $1,000 First Prizes will be awarded as checks made payable to each of the two First Prize winners. NO professional writers, such as a novelist, magazine, blogger or newspaper writer who writes books or articles for pay, or have authored a work of fiction that’s been published or is about to be published in exchange for payment. Guidelines: http://www.spoonfulsofstoriescontest.com/registration_form

INKWELL MAGAZINE - interested in memoir, literary essays and interviews of prominent literary figures. Submit up to 3 unpublished poems, or fiction/nonfiction pieces, max. 5000 wds. Reading Period: Aug. 1–Nov. 15, any year. Paying Mkt, negotiate. Guidelines: http://www.inkwelljournal.org/submissions.htm

ISLAND MAGAZINE, Australia - quality short stories, poetry, extracts from forthcoming novels, and articles and essays on topics of social, environmental and cultural significance. Manuscripts must be accompanied by SASE. Poems/$60, short stories/$100, articles/reviews/$100/1000 wds. David Owen, Editor island@tassie.net.au Guidelines: http://www.islandmag.com/contributions.html

LEGION MAGAZINE, Canada - has a national readership composed of members of The Royal Canadian Legion and their families, as well as serving members of the Canadian Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the general public. Areas of coverage include military history, military and veterans affairs, policing issues, issues of concern to senior citizens, health, recreation, humor and current affairs. 1500/2200 wds. First North American serial rights. $150/1200. Contact page: http://www.legionmagazine.com/en/index.php/contact-us

EMMY MAGAZINE - readers include the members of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and other television industry professionals. Articles must appeal to the TV pro while being understandable to the enthusiast. $1000/1200 for feature articles. Guidelines: http://cdn.emmys.tv/emmymag/writersguidelines.php Also see Editorial Calendar.

ENTREPRENEUR MAGAZINE - focuses on busy small business owners, and helps them to analyze what is going on, the issues, news, trends. They also look for human-interest stories about people who are involved in interesting business, or who have founded a new and interesting business or brand. Contact list: http://www.entrepreneur.com/contactus/editorialcontacts/index.html

FUNNY TIMES - Humor, Politics, Fun, columns, stories, & cartoons. Pays $50 for humor 500/700 wds, $20-30/cartoon for One-time Print Rights, POP. Muliti-subs, simultaneous subs & reprints OK. Editorial & seasonal lead time: 6 months. RT: 2-3 months, longer during holiday season [Oct-Dec]. Guidelines: http://www.funnytimes.com/submissions.php

SAY GOODBYE TO SPAM FOREVER - http://www.digiportal.com/products/homehome-office.html

GAME DEVELOPER MAGAZINE - readers work in medium and large-sized North American game development companies and will include professional programmers, animators, sound designers, producers. We do not target the hobby or amateur game development market. Begin your column with a brief description of what your game was originally intended/visualized as, before the coding began. Explain the type of game, the goals of the game, the intended audience, and any specific technologies or features that you wanted to build into it that would set it apart from the competition. Features pays authors $150/published pg., rounded to the nearest 1/4 pg. Guidelines: http://www.gdmag.com/postmort.htm

GOLDENSEAL MAGAZINE - published by State of West Virginia, Division of Culture and History. Documents the state's rich cultural background and recent history. Welcomes non-fiction manuscripts on WV folk-life, traditional farming practices, industry, commerce, holiday, community celebrations, immigrants, music, crafts, herbs, architecture, religion, politics, medicine, sports, railroading, and similar topics. Query by snail mail. 3000/ wds. $0.10/cts/wd. Guidelines: http://www.wvculture.org/goldenseal/contrib.html

GO KINDLE YOURSELF - Amazon has created a self-service platform that lets any blogger enroll and distribute their blog to Kindle users after accepting Amazon's terms of service. Just like the big newspapers, Amazon keeps 70% of the proceeds, and they have sole power to set pricing (which for most blogs in either $1.99 or $0.99 a month.). Personally, I would not pay to read anyone’s blog. I can’t imagine any information that is so proprietary that the information cannot be retrieved somewhere on the Internet or at a library with a little bit of time and research. If you, however, have a blog and are interested, this is the sign in page: https://kindlepublishing.amazon.com/gp/vendor/sign-in/185-5815515-8441649

But a WARNING: Amazon's new open "Kindle Yourself" invitation to bloggers unfortunately also made it easy for people to register and claim blogs that do not belong to them. In the same vein, read: http://booksquare.com/digitalpiracyredux