SHALLA Magazine: Winter Blooms pocket-edition is out now!

SHALLA Magazine: Winter Blooms pocket-edition

By Shalla DeGuzman

Order it here!

https://www.createspace.com/3410810


Or at amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Winter-Blooms-pocket-SHALLA-Magazine/dp/1449902057/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267057064&sr=8-3

Enter a literary realm both filled with the wisdom of nature and the angst of man. In A COW By Deepak Kapur, the story of a cow forces a man to face the madness in his life. While in Anthony Kendrick's poem Departure, you feel the emptiness in leaving a memorable place.

Famous authors such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Dickinson,

Henry David Thoreau and Shakespeare personify nature so well, you'll

think it can drop by for lunch and a cup of tea. That's why we're

including their work in this issue.

But as always, we like to mix it up so you'll also find genre work

like Christopher J. Dwyer's Scars and Salvation: One and

something so rated G, it's got a baby and a mommy going on a high

seas adventure in their bowl of soup!

Why? We just love words!

May you rediscover the beauty of words and of nature with our SHALLA Magazine: Winter Blooms pocket-edition.

Best!

Shalla DeGuzman, Editor

http://www.shallamagazine.com/

http://www.shalladeguzman.com/

http://twitter.com/SHALLAMagazine

Who are the very talented authors & poets featured in this SHALLA Magazine?

Murray Alfredson

Dan Campbell

Nabina Das

Richard Fein

Isabelle Ghaneh

Carole Hall

Deepak Kapur

James Keane

Anthony Kendrick

Angel Lombard

Jack Phillips Lowe

Jenni Meredith

Suchoon Mo

Christopher Mulrooney

Nikhil Parekh

Shawn Proctor

Nanette Rayman Rivera

Linda Leedy Schneider

Ray Succre

Christopher Woods

Steve Wheeler

& more...

***

Looking for a publisher? A literary agent?




Listen to my interviews with literary agents and a publisher!

And they're all looking for clients like you...



Links to our podcasts are here:  http://shalla.podomatic.com/  (Click where it says PLAY, the PLAY button is above and to the left of my picture for each one )



SHALLA CHATS with the VP and Editorial Director at Sourcebooks, Todd Stocke (Sourcebooks, Inc http://www.sourcebooks.com/ )



SHALLA CHATS with literary agent Kelly Sonnack (The Andrea Brown Literary Agency http://www.andreabrownlit.com/ )



SHALLA CHATS with literary agent Jennifer Unter (The Unter Agency http://www.theunteragency.com/ )

Learning how to write a query letter? Here's a sample Query Letter from Charlotte Dillon

now how to write a Query Letter?


Yes, if you're writing a novel and you'd like a literary agent, an editor or a publisher to read it, you need to write a query letter?


What's a query letter? It's a one page, single spaced letter saying who you are as an author and what you're book is about (in a way that entices the lit agent, editor or publisher to ask you to send it in to them).

 This Sample Query Letter is especially brought to us by author Charlotte Dillon.

Charlotte Dillon


Home address
Phone number
Email address
Website address


Date
Editor's name
Editor's title
Publisher's name
Publisher's address

Dear Editor's Name,
A COWBOY'S WILL is a completed 57,000 word contemporary romance set in Louisiana. This story is targeted for the Harlequin American line.
Grady Reid was a good man, and somewhat of a matchmaker. He was also the closest thing to family Cody Lawrence had. When Grady died, he left half of his cattle ranch to Cody. Grady left the other half to his only grandchild, Blair Taylor from New York. They would each get their half, but only if they spent a month together on the ranch. Problem was, a month could seem like a lifetime when two people were so different, and disliked each other as much as Blair and Cody did.
I have been writing for over a decade. Romance is my first love, though I've spent a lot of years doing freelance writing to pay the bills. Over the years I've completed a few other romance novels, some historical. I've been a member of Romance Writers of America, Southern Louisiana Romance Writers, a number of on-line writer's groups, and of a wonderful critique group where I was fortunate to work with a published author while I was still green and had tons to learn.

If you are interested, I will gladly send you either the first three chapters of this story, or the complete manuscript. I have enclosed a synopsis and a SASE for your reply. If you prefer, you can send an e-mail. Thanks very much for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,



Charlotte Dillon


Who is Charlotte Dillon?


Charlotte Dillon is an author. For more on her and her work, please visit her website http://www.charlottedillon.com

Links to our podcasts are here:  http://shalla.podomatic.com/  (Click where it says PLAY, the PLAY button is above and to the left of my picture for each one )

SHALLA CHATS with literary agent Kelly Sonnack (The Andrea Brown Literary Agency http://www.andreabrownlit.com/ )

SHALLA CHATS with literary agent Jennifer Unter (The Unter Agency http://www.theunteragency.com/ )

SHALLA CHATS with the VP and Editorial Director at Sourcebooks, Todd Stocke (Sourcebooks, Inc http://www.sourcebooks.com/ )

NEWS

Shalla Chats With Literary Agent Jennifer Unter


by Shalla DeGuzman

is now onsale at amazon too. You can get it for 99 cents there, but it's posted free at podomatic for now, for as long as we have space for it, but at amazon, it's there forever.

http://www.amazon.com/Shalla-Chats-Literary-Agent-Jennifer/dp/B0037DQZWE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1265552419&sr=8-2

From the Album Shalla Chats With Literary Agent Jennifer Unter

SHALLA: Tarzan of the Apes, finding critique groups

Where to find Tarzan of the Apes

by Edgar Rice Burroughs for FREE

Project Gutenberg, of course!

You can even listen to an audio recording of it at Librivox

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6532

Of course, you can always buy it

Tarzan of the Apes (Signet Classics)

How to find a good critique group:


Now, a good critique group can really help even if each writer writes a different genre. In my case anyway, I get a different perspective in looking at my work.
What's a bad critique group?

Jealousy is never good. And worse, if someone likes your story so much that they start writing a story just like it. Stay away from those.
Luckily, I found a nice critique group with members writing from different genres. Everyone's respectful of everyone else's work and the critiques were honest.

We took turns reading our work, and then each one in the group took their turn saying what they thought of what was just read.



Make sure not to take anything personally, I've learned that from writing so much. Sending subs to magazines helped me with that one. You send in your submission and then it can get rejected. That's just how it is. You get rejected enough times (while receiving acceptance here and there) you learn, it's just part of the whole game.



Now that I'm an editor, I see it from one more perspective as well. Sometimes, it's a good piece of work, really, but considering the magazine's specific number of pages it just can't be fitted in the issue, therefore it must be rejected. Oh well. Although, I've made an executive decision on this one, SHALLA Magazine publishes them online with the probability of being published in print in the future.



But I digress. Where did I find my critique group? At the public library. So check your public library and see if there is a writers group. In my case, the library funds and operates it. And they even have tutors, who'd read my work and help me edit it, all for free. Tutors are volunteers, writers from the community. I'll take that.


How to find a local Critique Group

Avatar Movie Review

It's a good movie. James Cameron is so talented. Titanic is still my favorite though--but that could be because I saw Avatar past my bedtime and with the 3-D glasses, and the 3-D animation… well, okay, I may have dozed a little in the beginning of it. But I woke up the second half and was sitting up straight and could not take my eyes off of the movie, as if I got a shot of cappuccino and it was only 11am outside.

I like the message in Avatar. Respect nature. Respect others that may not look or think like you. Great lessons for children to learn and for many adults to remember.

And I built an a-store, that's an Amazon Associates Store

--oh, why not?

http://astore.amazon.com/welovshadeg-20

SHALLA: Writers Conferences

Okay, so I went to a writers conference and here's the breakdown...

If you're looking for a literary agent or a publisher,

attend a writers convention!

I met so many literary agents, and of course I had a copy of my synopsis and my manuscripts... I have written a children's picture book, which received a lot of interest and requests for submission.

They're looking for children's books that are silly, funny, no rhymes necessary…

If you're interested in getting your children's book published, check out this group you can join: Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCWI)

Regional

I also interviewed literary agents and even a publisher! And they're all looking for clients. And these are podcasts, yes, you can actually hear me asking the questions and them answering…

Links to our podcasts are here:  http://shalla.podomatic.com/  (Click where it says PLAY, the PLAY button is above and to the left of my picture for each one )

SHALLA CHATS with literary agent Kelly Sonnack (The Andrea Brown Literary Agency http://www.andreabrownlit.com/ )

SHALLA CHATS with literary agent Jennifer Unter (The Unter Agency http://www.theunteragency.com/ )

SHALLA CHATS with the VP and Editorial Director at Sourcebooks, Todd Stocke (Sourcebooks, Inc http://www.sourcebooks.com/ )

NEWS

Shalla Chats With Literary Agent Jennifer Unter


by Shalla DeGuzman

is now onsale at amazon too. You can get it for 99 cents there, but it's posted free at podomatic for now, for as long as we have space for it, but at amazon, it's there forever.

http://www.amazon.com/Shalla-Chats-Literary-Agent-Jennifer/dp/B0037DQZWE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1265552419&sr=8-2

From the Album Shalla Chats With Literary Agent Jennifer Unter

Foundry Literary Media's literary agent Stephen Barbara has an online class, it's $125 but if she covers the type of genre you're writing it may be helpful to you.

And congrats to Laura Rennert from the Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

Buying, Training, and Caring for Your Dinosaur (Library Binding)

~by  Laura Joy Rennert

 

is now selling at amazon.com

Here's a helpful Guide to Literary Agents

Visit Amazon's Shalla DeGuzman Page

Here's a Writers Conference coming this summer!
 

 

***********************************************************

 

Look what SHALLA found... OWL WHO LAUGHS BLOG LIKES US... :)

Dear OWL WHO LAUGHS,

Thank you for the compliments!

Cleo and everyone at SHALLA Magazine thank you for your kindness...

(Here's the wonderful blog post

http://owlwholaughs.blogspot.com/2009/12/acceptance-in-shalla-magazine.html )

We at SHALLA Magazine always do our best to make it a win-win situation for everyone.

Now, we're putting together more magazine issues, is yours out already? I'll personally make sure your work is featured the best it can be… well, we always do... now, who can OWL WHO LAUGHS be…

Oh, and I'll make sure to tell Patricia Maxwell (aka Jennifer Blake), how you called her the "greatest and most legendary romance novelist of all."

Best to you and to http://owlwholaughs.blogspot.com/ !

Your SHALLA Magazine Editor, Publisher, Cheerleader

Shalla DeGuzman

*

And for those who'd like to read my interview with the legendary Jennifer Blake...

SHALLA CHATS romance novelist Jennifer Blake

"Writing Best-selling Romance”

by Shalla DeGuzman

http://shalladeguzman.com/shallachats/authors/Jennifer_Blake.php