Sunday, March 17, 2024

Kudos to Natalie, Nella, Denisha, Barbara, and Jeff ~ for getting short pieces published, landing an agent, and on the upcoming publication of your new novel

If you’ve had a story (or a book!) published, if you’ve won or placed in a writing contest, if you’ve gotten yourself an agent, or if you have any other news, send me an email so I can share your success. As writers, we’re all in this together, and your good news gives us all a boost. 

Also, be sure to let know if you're looking for a writers' group or beta readers; a notice in Quick Brown Fox, will help you find them. 

Email me at: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

 

Hi, Brian.

The dopamine/rewards center of my brain is VERY excited to share with you that I’ve just signed a contract with a literary agent. Officially, as of yesterday, T.E. Bean is represented by Katharine Sands at the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency in Manhattan. 

My novel, THE INFINITE MATTER OF KAT WATBURN, which I workshopped with you online and at two in-person retreats before having you assess the first draft, has found its champion! No. More. Bloody. Querying.

Thank you so much for helping me get here, Brian. The role you play in supporting authors cannot be overstated. My gratitude for all you do is infinite.

Jeff Renton (T.E. Bean) 

www.instagram.com/tebeanwrites

Note: We have a writing retreat coming up in just three weeks at the historic Sherwood Inn, in Muskoka. Details here.

For information about submitting to Katharine Sands and other agents at the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency, see here.

 

Hello, Brian.

On February 6th, The Globe and Mail printed my essay in their First Person section. It's a look back at my high school girl's hockey team and how I brought the team picture back to life. Here's the link for it here.

And then Reader’s Digest Our Canada magazine printed my story about my 90-year-old dad and another ski day with him. I've attached the article below, which will appear in the March issue. It is such a shame Reader's Digest is closing their doors. Apparently, readership is more online these days versus in print. They have been a wonderful platform for many writers to get their stories out to Canadians.

In closing, I have been working my way through edits on my fiction novel, and on November 1, 2025 BWL Publishing will release my third book, Jillian of Banff X O. If you haven't yet read Summer of Lies (available here) or its sequel What About Me? (here), you have time to catch up with Jilllian's tales before release date.

I hope you are still climbing walls and enjoying the crazy weather Mother Nature throws at us. Take care.

Barbara Wackerle Baker

For information on submitting a First Person essay to the Globe and Mail {and a few other great places to submit}, see here.  

And here's a video of me climbing a wall. (This is from a year ago; I'm better at it now :-).... 



 

Hi, Brian.

I wanted to share my news, Amazing Stories has accepted my story, “Duck Duck Duck.” I cannot deny that there is something very cool about having a story in the same magazine that published some of the SciFi greats such as H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Ursula Le Guin and Isaac Asimiov to name a few.

Thanks for your support,

Denisha

For information on submitting to Amazing Stories {and a few other great places to submit}, see here

 

Brian,

I am pleased to let you know that my story from class, “The Quiet One,” has been accepted for inclusion in the 40th Anniversary Anthology of the AICW (Association of Italian-Canadian Writers).

I really appreciate the guidance you have offered over all these years.

Nella Cotrupi

 

Hi, Brian.

I signed up on your new Substack page (here) for your postings to show up in my inbox. Great feature! 

Things have been going well after taking your courses/workshops. A poem of mine was published in a poetry journal back in December and I recently won second in the Flash Fiction Magazine contest. There's even a Live Zoom event I get to participate in later this month. 

I don’t know if you remember, but you and I had a session where you edited this piece (my husband gave me a gift certificate). It's a light story about elderly Mr. Lau, a retired, grumpy man who has a difficult visit at the dentist's and ends up escaping before the dentist examines him further.

You had some good things to say about it, I made the changes you suggested as well as a few of my own, including giving the character a first name (Edwin) and changing the title of the story from "A Good Day for Mr. Lau" to "A Necessary Rebellion." 

I'm very excited about it and wanted to thank you for your help. 

Thanks Brian!

Natalie J. Chan

Note: New courses are starting soon. Check them all out here.

***

See information about all our upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and weekend retreats here.

Note: You can now get new postings on Quick Brown Fox delivered straight to your Inbox as I publish them. Subscribe to the new Quick Brown Fox page on Substack here:  https://brian999.substack.com/

Also, you can get an email about twice a month about what’s coming up in terms of writing classes, workshops, and retreats, plus providing links to the other material on the Quick Brown Fox blog. For that, add your name and email in the Sign-Up box at the top of the righthand column. ~Brian

 

Saturday, March 16, 2024

“They’re not antisemitic – they just don’t like Jews” by Brian Henry

One of the speakers at the “pro-Palestinian” protest in front of Beth Avraham and Yoseph of Toronto Congregation (known as the BAYT) screamed at us counter-protesters that (despite the awkward optics of protesting at a synagogue) they’re not against Judaism. 

For the sake of argument, I’ll grant them that: it’s just Jews they’re against. Especially Zionists, meaning Jews who live in Israel. And Jews who believe it’s okay for Jews to live in Israel. And Jews who might consider buying a home in Israel.

Which brings us to the “pro-Palestinian” crowd’s March 9 protest against the “Great Israeli Real Estate Event” at the BAYT….

Read the rest here.

 And read more of Brian’s essays here {and scroll down}.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Six great place to send your short fiction and nonfiction and your gothy novellas ~ and some of them pay

You can now get new postings on Quick Brown Fox delivered straight to your Inbox as I publish them. Subscribe to the new Quick Brown Fox page on Substack here:  https://brian999.substack.com/

You can also get an email about twice a month about what’s coming up in terms of writing classes, workshops, and retreats, plus providing links to the other material on the Quick Brown Fox blog. For that, add your name and email in the Sign-Up box in the righthand column. ~Brian


Latitude 46 Publishing ~ Call for Submissions

“We have our next anthology lining up and we are looking for SUPER CANUCK stories! Submit your best stories about rural superheroes, backwater supervillains, and tales of characters or communities at a crossroads.”

For this anthology, they’re looking for stories from across Canada, not just from northern Ontario. Word count 500–3,500 words.

Deadline April 21, 2024. Full guidelines here.

Latitude 46 also publishes books and is looking for manuscripts. Mind you, their mission is to publish distinctive literary works by established and emerging authors with a connection to northern Ontario and narratives about the unique landscape and culture of the region – both fiction and nonfiction.

Submission guidelines here. 

 

Amazing Stories Magazine was started in 1926, making it the first science fiction magazine in the world. It’s currently putting a call out for science fiction stories. 

“These tales of the extraordinary and "the impossible will be first released exclusively to our Patreon subscribers, before being shared free with the wider world on our website two weeks later.

“Our goal is to feature works from writers who are passionate about inspiring readers with both real science and real people. 

We are looking for stories that not only entertain but also encourage readers to reflect on and critique contemporary society. These stories should, at times, address significant topics such as social norms, religion, nationalism, racism, politics, and various forms of sexism, all within a science fiction context. 

A sense of humor is often welcome. We want to publish writing that is both thought-provoking and enjoyable to read.

“Science Fiction can be a powerful tool for both exploring the future and for imagining the kinds of futures we might like to live in.  Join us and help us create the future!”

Pays $20 US for a short story or longer and $10 US for flash fiction, reprints, and poetry.

Submissions page here

 

In 2019 The Globe and Mail
produced several short films based
on First Person pieces, including one
from Barbara Wackerle Baker

The Globe and Mail wants your first person essays

We want you to write for us! The daily First Person essay (formerly called Facts & Arguments) is a great forum for you to share your own experiences, viewpoints and writing flair with other Globe readers. Whether you are young or old, female or male, newly arrived in Canada or deeply rooted here, we want to be inspired by your unique perspective.

A few things we look for are an original voice; an unexpected view; an unfamiliar perspective; humour; vivid details that show us rather than tell us; anecdotes that illuminate a wider theme.

A successful First Person essay may be funny, surprising, touching or enlightening – or all of these. It may present a slice of life or a powerful experience that changed you in some way. It may be a meditation on something that matters to you. It goes beyond a rant, and it is deft in moving from the particular to the universal.

Above all, an essay should be personal rather than political. It must be true, not fictional.

Here are some recent essays we thought were very successful:

·  My Bionic dog: We had made a pact: 'You take care of me, I'll take care of you' (here)

·  Before my ADHD diagnosis I was alive, but not living (here)

·   My bad neighbor made being a jerk into an art form (here)

Essays should be no longer than 1,000 words.

Don't send a piece that's appeared in any other print or online publication, but feel free to submit an essay on a topic you have blogged about.

Seasonal essays should be submitted a month or more before the event.

There is no payment if your essay is published. The Globe assumes first-print rights and electronic rights for unsolicited submissions; writers retain copyright.

Guidelines here.

 

Gramarye is the Chichester Centre for Fairy Tales, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction’s journal for folklore, fairy tales and fantasy. It comes out both in print and in e-format.  Gramarye is designed to appeal to both academics and the interested public and has been published since 2012.

Gramarye is seeking articles, book reviews and creative writing relating to literary and historical approaches to fairy tales, fantasy, Gothic, magic realism, science fiction and speculative fiction.

Word count guidelines:

  • Short fiction – max. 3000 words (one story or several).
  • Poetry – max. four poems to a total of no more than 4 pages/240 lines.
  • Long (c.8,000 words) or short (c.3,000 words) articles. Word counts include referencing and citation.
  • Book reviews: c.1,000 words
  • Long (c.8,000 words) or short (c.3,000 words) articles. Word counts include referencing and citation.
  • Book reviews: c.1,000 words

Long poems, traditional forms, flash fictions and experimental creative writing are all equally encouraged.

Full submission guidelines here.

  

Three-Lobed Burning Eye is an online magazine of speculative fiction, publishing stories of horror, wonder, and the weird. 3LBE launched in 1999 and beginning with issue 20, began to offer audio readings, ebook formats, and online (responsive) format for mobile devices. Each issue features three stories. 

“We like narrative voices that are full of feeling, from literary to pulpy, with styles unique and flowing, but not too experimental. All labels aside, we want tales that value imagination in character, narrative, and plot. We want to see something new and different.”

Full submission guidelines here.

 

Lovely Creatures by KT Bryski
published by Psychopomp

Psychopomp seeks goth novellas and short nonfiction pieces.

Novellas must be 20,000–40,000 words.

Pays $750 US advance and 25% of net receipts.

They’re looking for:

stories where grief or loss play a leading role

stories that feature the afterlife or the underworld

stories that involve the journey through death/the journey of the dead

stories that involve death personified (Death!)

stories that take place in, or utilize a multiverse

stories that involve time travel (esp. those that involve time travel plus a previously mentioned theme)

origin stories (especially as they relate to previously mentioned themes)

stories where the characters slowly lose their sense of reality

goth

space, but make it goth

a story within a story within a (within a story that’s [within a story] within a story) story….

stories where things that are not usually personified ARE personified (planets? galaxies? time? …bones?)

creepy meta-horror

amazingly original ghost stories

sci-fi that hits on any of the above themes – they’re very VERY open to it

Full novella guidelines here.

Nonfiction pieces should be 1,000–2,000 words, but that’s flexible.

They’re looking for “rad, gothy, death-focused essays and blog posts ESPECIALLY about media, entertainment, culture etc. and personal stories.”

No need to write the whole thing first. Pitch them.

Pays $50 US

See guidelines for nonfiction articles here.

*** 

See Brian Henry’s upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and weekend retreats here.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

You're invited to a “How to Get Published” workshop in Niagara-on-the-Lake

“How to Get Published”

~ Everything you need to know

Saturday, May 11. 2024
1:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Grace United Church, 222 Victoria Street, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario (Map here)

If you've ever dreamed of becoming a published author, this workshop is for you. We’ll focus on the process of submitting to an agent or publisher, and show you exactly how to write a query letter that will get a “yes.” Bring all your questions. Come and get ready to be published!

Special Option: Participants are invited to bring a draft of a query letter you might use to interest an agent or publisher in your book. You don't need to prepare anything, but if you like, email me a draft of your query prior to our workshop (and bring 2 hard copies to the workshop).

I’ll critique several queries, perhaps half a dozen during the workshop so that we can all see what works, what doesn’t, and how to make it better. Also, I’ll stay after the workshop ends to help one-on-one with more queries. ~Brian

Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada’s most popular blog for writers, teaches creative writing at Ryerson University, and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Windsor to Charlottetown. But his proudest boast is that he has helped many of his students get their first book published and launch their careers as authors. 

See reviews & reflections on Brian's classes, workshops, and retreats here.

Fee: $31.86 + 13% hst = $36 if you pay in advance by mail or Interac
or $35.40 + 13% hst =
$40 cash on the day of the workshop

To reserve a spot now, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

See all of Brian’s upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and weekend retreats here.