Third Person Press–the indie publishing house run by Sherry D. Ramsey, Julie A. Serroul and me–is now open for novel submissions from Atlantic Canadian writers. Click over to read our submission requirements and guidelines. We hope to keep receiving submissions on an on-going basis. However, if we get inundated, we will close until we catch up. Before submitting, please check the TPP website to make sure we’re still open. Overview Writers from Atlantic Canada The first 3 chap

The other day while we were taking our evening walk, he told me about a “stupid mistake” (is there any other kind?) he’d made. Then he quoted the man who taught him carpentry, saying, “The sign of a good carpenter is the ability to cover up your mistakes and make them work.” This is a concept I’m familiar with. In art, we do this. You make a mistake in an oil painting, it’s no problem, just repaint it. That’s trickier in watercolor, but perfection is elusive at best, so you f

For the last week or so, I’ve been working on the novel I wrote in November during NaNoWriMo. Today I admitted to myself, that while effort has been expended [passive voice has been used], I’m flailing. I’ve been changing this, changing that, working obsessively on that all-important opening scene, but with very little strategy in mind. My novel’s in pretty good shape considering it was written in a month. I started at the beginning and moved through it in an orderly way. I u

The thing I’m most proud of after successfully finishing NaNoWriMo is that I made no foolish pledge to blog everyday during the month. The first five days I wanted to. It was a good feeling to complete my main course and then finish off with a little blogging dessert. But after day five, the novel filled me up. I got a lot of pleasure knowing that I hadn’t made a stupid public promise to blog the process! Now, having completed the month in fine form and having had a couple of

First, Chuck gives us a tool that will check your writing excerpt for readability. It gives an amazing level of detail. You will get a table with several grade level rating scales, so you can see what reading level the writing is geared toward. This information can be especially useful when writing YA. It also provides sentence information (percent of passive sentences!), word usage (number of adverbs!) (number of “to be” verbs!) and even what kinds of words your sentences st

According to news stories, Hemingway said he re-wrote the ending of this iconic novel 39 times, but I guess he underestimated. I love this story. Not, A Farewell to Arms, which I can’t remember ever reading. And not this story from a publishing point-of-view, because what is this really except the book version of re-packaging? The same as Nabisco making Oreo’s smaller or filling them with peanut butter or mint, because, well, because how could we possibly resist? I love this

A writer, an editor and a reader walk into an Establishment Pub[lishing] House. The affronted publisher asks, “What’s the story here?” The writer: “I’d like people to read what I’ve written.” The editor: “I’d like to edit fresh, original stories by real people rather than celebrities.” The reader: “I’d like to read the best fiction rather than what will sell whether it’s good or not.” The publisher: “Sorry, you’re not my type.” ***laughter***applause*** Thank you. Thank

A book launch reception will take place in Sydney, Nova Scotia on October 6 from 6:30 to 8:30 at the McConnell Library. Most of the 16 contributors will be in attendance. Several of our authors will read from their work, we’ll have refreshments, book sales and signings and music. If you’re in the area, please come down! Volume I of The Speculative Series, Undercurrents (released in December 2008) is also available online. Submissions are open for Unearthed, Volume III until

Do not give out your first drafts. Do at least one complete revision before submitting it to someone else. Use family members with caution. Because they know you well, relatives may have difficulty critiquing what is on the page, but may instead bring irrelevant knowledge about you into the feedback. They may be too close to be honest or overly critical without realizing it. This is not a hard and fast rule, as some husbands and wives or mothers and sons critique each other e

Third Person Press Third Person Press is excited to announce a call for submissions for Unearthed, Volume III in the Speculative Elements Series. This anthology of speculative fiction from writers who have a connection to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia follows on the heels of the phenomenally successful, Undercurrents, released in December 2008. Volume II in the series,Airborne, will be released at our launch on October 6, 2010 at the McConnell Library in Sydney, NS. Submi