Category Archives: Podcasts

Correction: Riverfront Playhouse Looking for Writers

Correction: the email address at the bottom of yesterday’s post was incorrect. Please use the link in today’s post to send your inquiries and submissions. Thank you.

Riverfront Playhouse is calling for submissions for Playwrights’ Night Out. Deadline 10/15/2021.

Thank you for making the effort to do something that could be exciting and rewarding. Comedy, tragedy, drama, whatever you want. Only six 20 minute shows will be chosen and you will be part of the rehearsal process. There may be more shows if some show take only ten minutes.

Give us what you have.

YOU MAY BE PRODUCED!

Rules for Playwright’s Night Out

1.      No author will direct his or her own play.
2.      All plays are 20 minutes or less.
3.      All plays are for readers’ theater only. Lines should not be memorized to allow for changes in the rehearsal stage of production.
4.      Try to avoid frivolous cussing.
5.      Try to keep your cast less than 20.
6.      Please make at least one edit of your play before submission.
7.      There will be no costuming.
8.      Keep props to a minimum.
9.      This is sort of a table read on stage. Listen for vocal nuance, facial expression, body movement during rehearsals.

Contact Jennifer Levens for more details at  theatermaven2@gmail.com

 

Writers Forum is open to submissions for the blog or the newsletter.

Type of Material and Guidelines for e-newsletter and Website Submission: 1.) Your articles on the art or craft of writing. 2.) Essays on subjects of interest to writers. (200 words can be quoted without permission but with attribution.) 3.) Book or author reviews. 4.) Letters to the Editor or Webmaster. 5.) Information on upcoming events, local or not. 6.) Photos of events. 7.) Advertise your classes or private events. 8.) Short fiction. 9.) Poetry.Please submit copy to the editor at writersforumeditor@gmail.com . Electronic submissions only. Microsoft Word format, with the .docx file extension, is preferred but any compatible format is acceptable. The staff reserves the right to perform minor copy editing in the interest of the website’s style and space.

Riverfront Playhouse Looking for Writers

Riverfront Playhouse is calling for submissions for Playwrights’ Night Out. Deadline 10/15/2021.

Thank you for making the effort to do something that could be exciting and rewarding. Comedy, tragedy, drama, whatever you want. Only six 20 minute shows will be chosen and you will be part of the rehearsal process. There may be more shows if some show take only ten minutes.

Give us what you have.

YOU MAY BE PRODUCED!

Rules for Playwright’s Night Out

1.      No author will direct his or her own play.
2.      All plays are 20 minutes or less.
3.      All plays are for readers’ theater only. Lines should not be memorized to allow for changes in the rehearsal stage of production.
4.      Try to avoid frivolous cussing.
5.      Try to keep your cast less than 20.
6.      Please make at least one edit of your play before submission.
7.      There will be no costuming.
8.      Keep props to a minimum.
9.      This is sort of a table read on stage. Listen for vocal nuance, facial expression, body movement during rehearsals.

Contact Jennifer Levens for more details at  theatermavin2@gmail.com

 

Writers Forum is open to submissions for the blog or the newsletter.

Type of Material and Guidelines for e-newsletter and Website Submission: 1.) Your articles on the art or craft of writing. 2.) Essays on subjects of interest to writers. (200 words can be quoted without permission but with attribution.) 3.) Book or author reviews. 4.) Letters to the Editor or Webmaster. 5.) Information on upcoming events, local or not. 6.) Photos of events. 7.) Advertise your classes or private events. 8.) Short fiction. 9.) Poetry.Please submit copy to the editor at writersforumeditor@gmail.com . Electronic submissions only. Microsoft Word format, with the .docx file extension, is preferred but any compatible format is acceptable. The staff reserves the right to perform minor copy editing in the interest of the website’s style and space.

Writing Podcast: The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Welcome to the next installment of Writing Podcast at Writers Forum.

Another great podcast I regularly listen to for writers is The Creative Nonfiction Podcast. I found this podcast a few years ago when I was looking for podcasts on nonfiction writing that might help me with my memoir. The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, or CNF, as host Brendon O’Meara likes to call it, was one of the first hits on my search. This is a weekly podcast in which Brendon interviews a nonfiction writer each week.

I’ll be honest. When I first hit ‘play’ on the podcast, I wasn’t sure I was going to like it. Brenden seemed a bit too brash for my tastes. A little bit too hip.

However, I really wanted to hear the author he was interviewing.

I’m glad I stuck around. Brendon’s persona during the interviews is totally professional. He asks penetrating and engaging questions, and then backs out to let his guest answer the question. I’ve tried to listen to too many podcasts in which the host seems to like the sound of his/her own voice too much. CNF is not like that at all. I have never come away from a CNF episode without learning something and being encouraged in my own writing.

Brendon is passionate about helping writers find their voice. Check out his podcast. I think you’ll be glad you did.

Writers Forum is open to submissions for the blog or the newsletter.

Type of Material and Guidelines for e-newsletter and Website Submission: 1.) Your articles on the art or craft of writing. 2.) Essays on subjects of interest to writers. (200 words can be quoted without permission but with attribution.) 3.) Book or author reviews. 4.) Letters to the Editor or Webmaster. 5.) Information on upcoming events, local or not. 6.) Photos of events. 7.) Advertise your classes or private events. 8.) Short fiction 9.) Poetry

Please submit copy to the editor at writersforumeditor@gmail.com . Electronic submissions only. Microsoft Word format, with the .docx file extension, is preferred but any compatible format is acceptable. The staff reserves the right to perform minor copy editing in the interest of the website’s style and space.

Writing Podcast: Writing Roots

Have you ever listened to a writing podcast?

If you haven’t yet, you might want to look into this convenient trove of writing advice and inspiration. ‘Podcast’ might sound like a foreign high-tech word to some, but it’s really nothing different from listening to a radio talk program, except that you can listen to it at your own convenience instead of having to be at a radio at the right time to catch a broadcast.

Podcasts are also portable. You can listen to them anywhere you can take your digital device. I had to drive to Sacramento and back today for work, and I wasn’t at the mercy of whatever radio broadcasts I could pick up along the way. The podcasts that I regularly listen to are downloaded on my smartphone. I just had to connect it to my car stereo. You can do that with Bluetooth, or with old fashioned wires if you are so inclined.

The podcast I wanted share with you first is called Writing Roots. Writing Roots is hosted by Ley Esses and Leigh Hull, and every week they bring you informative and entertaining advice on the craft and business of writing. They are currently running a series on myths about writing. The latest episode is on the myth ‘Said is Dead.’ You can listen to the latest episode here. Previous episodes over the last few weeks have discussed the myths ‘Write What You Know,’ and ‘Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover.’

The links in the above paragraph will take you to their podcast website, but you can listen via most services you might already use for podcasts. I listen on Podbean. They are also available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, Google Podcasts and others.

Ley and Leigh pack a lot of information into a short podcast. Episodes are less than fifteen minutes long, which is very short for a podcast, and they do not waste your time. They get right to the meat, and serve it up strong.

They are affiliated with AspenHouse Publishing, an ‘assisted publishing’ house. They are geared to helping you self-publish your book. Their website’s FAQ tells us:



Assisted publishing is all the convenience and professionalism of a traditional publishing house combined with the freedom of self publishing. We’re here to offer as much support as you like, but you maintain all the rights (and profits) of your work after you’re out there for the world to see.

Give the Writing Roots podcast a listen! I bet you will be glad you did.

Writers Forum is open to submissions for the blog or the newsletter.

Type of Material and Guidelines for e-newsletter and Website Submission: 1.) Your articles on the art or craft of writing. 2.) Essays on subjects of interest to writers. (200 words can be quoted without permission but with attribution.) 3.) Book or author reviews. 4.) Letters to the Editor or Webmaster. 5.) Information on upcoming events, local or not. 6.) Photos of events. 7.) Advertise your classes or private events. 8.) Short fiction 9.) Poetry

Please submit copy to the editor at writersforumeditor@gmail.com . Electronic submissions only. Microsoft Word format, with the .docx file extension, is preferred but any compatible format is acceptable. The staff reserves the right to perform minor copy editing in the interest of the website’s style and space.

March 4 is National Grammar Day

National Grammar Day

March 4 is National Grammar Day in the United States. Established in 2008, it is a yearly celebration of the nuts and bolts of the English language.

In honor of National Grammar Day, author and podcast host Mignon Fogarty has a piece on the Top Ten Language Myths.

Who is Mignon Fogarty? Form her website:


Mignon Fogarty is the founder of the Quick and Dirty Tips network and creator of Grammar Girl, which has been named one of Writer’s Digest’s 101 best websites for writers multiple times. The Grammar Girl podcast has also won Best Education Podcast multiple times in the Podcast Awards, and Mignon is an inductee in the Podcasting Hall of Fame. Mignon is the author of the New York Times best-seller “Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing” and six other books on writing. She has appeared as a guest on the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and the “Today Show” and has been featured in the New York Times, Business Week, the Washington Post, USA Today, CNN.com, and more. She was previously the chair of media entrepreneurship in the Reynolds School of Journalism in Reno, NV. She hates the phrase “grammar nazi” and loves the word “kerfuffle.” She has a B.A. in English from the University of Washington in Seattle and an M.S. in biology from Stanford University.

You can read a short piece on her Top Ten Language Myths at her blog, Grammar Girl: Quick and Dirty Tips, or you can listen to her podcasts on them for more details. I will post a link to a playlist of them below, but first, I will give you Grammar Girl’s Top Ten Language Myths, in reverse order:

  • A run-on sentence is a really long sentence
  • You shouldn’t start a sentence with the word ‘however’
  • ‘Irregardless’ is not a word
  • There is only one way to write the possessive form of a word that ends in S
  • Passive voice is always wrong
  • ‘I.e.’ and ‘e.g’ mean the same thing
  • You use ‘a’ before words that start with a consonant and ‘an’ before words that start with a vowel
  • It’s incorrect to answer the question “How are you?” with “I’m good.”
  • You shouldn’t split infinitives
  • You shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition

Be sure to read Mignon Fogarty’s explanations for these, or even better, listen to her podcast episodes for more details. You can listen to the Grammar Girl episodes for each of these top ten at the playlist that Mignon Fogarty has posted exclusively to Spotify. You can also find each of the episodes wherever you might already listen to podcasts, such as Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or Podbean.

Come on back and post your thoughts on these language myths in the comments.

 

Writers Forum is open to submissions for the blog or the newsletter.

Type of Material and Guidelines for e-newsletter and Website Submission: 1.) Your articles on the art or craft of writing. 2.) Essays on subjects of interest to writers. (200 words can be quoted without permission but with attribution.) 3.) Book or author reviews. 4.) Letters to the Editor or Webmaster. 5.) Information on upcoming events, local or not. 6.) Photos of events. 7.) Advertise your classes or private events. 8.) Short fiction. 9.) Poetry.Please submit copy to the editor at writersforumeditor@gmail.com . Electronic submissions only. Microsoft Word format, with the .docx file extension, is preferred but any compatible format is acceptable. The staff reserves the right to perform minor copy editing in the interest of the website’s style and space.