A Few Markets to Share

I just offered these to another freelancer looking for markets possibly paying for stories from an African perspective and markets accepting religious topics. Thought I'd post them here in case anyone else is interested:

http://www.africanvoices.com/c-submn.htm

http://www.charismamag.com/guidelines.php

www.christianitytoday.com

http://www.essence.com/essence/writers_guidelines

http://aar.slu.edu/submsinf.html

http://writersmarket.com/Search/consumermagazine_display.aspx?marketid=1947&ManuscriptId=0

http://commonties.com/blog/submit-a-story/

Enjoy!

~BabyBlogger

Keyboards Aside...It's Party Time!!!

So what, it's the middle of the day and you still have 10 pages to write. Every now and then, ya gotta live a little. Sooooooooooo...

Party at Caveman's House!!!!!!

And, yes, the rumors are true. I was asked to leave (well, not exactly asked...more like TOLD), but not before I did a little snooping through his diary, his blog, his email, listened to his answering machine, eavesdropped on his roommate, short-circuited his electricity, listened to his iPod, fiddled around in his bathroom (couldn't resist flushing!) and pretty much busied myself with all of his business. Hope he's ready when you get there, but if not, you know what to do...

And tell him BabyBlogger says, "No hard feelings, but I still believe the bearskin rug was one heckuva fashion statement (and he didn't have to put me out, it was ONLY a suggestion! lol)"

Have A Story To Tell?

Found a great site, thanks to Lavinia's post at AbsoluteWrite. An interactive blog, Common Ties wants to publish your personal stories (and the pay looks pretty good if accepted). Enjoy reading the stories there and then submit, submit, submit!

~BabyBlogger

New Friends

If you use MySpace, you may want to add the following to your list of friends:

Writer's Digest Books http://www.myspace.com/wdbooks
Writer's Market http://www.myspace.com/writersmarket
Writer's Digest http://www.myspace.com/writersdigest
CWIM's Alice Pope http://www.myspace.com/alice_cwim

Or I suppose you could just drop by from time to time and take a look around even if you don't MySpace. ;)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

~BabyBlogger

P.S. if you have a MySpace devoted to writing, please comment and list your page. We'd love to add you too.

News From Blue Mountain Arts

I received their first newsletter for writers today and would like to share a little info with you all.

First of all, BMA has (or is in the process of?) introducing a new line of cards. The Thoughts of Life (TM) line features shorter verse on the front of the card...like 10-12 lines and then just a few lines inside of the card. So if you're interested in submitting to them, keep this in mind.

Also, the deadline for Father's Day submissions is 3/19/07. My impression was that everyone goes through a 2 year market review process, so I'm not sure how the deadline thing works. I mean, if it takes up to 2 years for full acceptance, why is there a seasonal deadline? If anyone knows the answer to this we are, of course, interested. If you're interested in submitting for Father's Day, also bear in mind that they're looking beyond cards for dad, but are also interested in cards for stepdads, in-laws, sons, husbands, etc. As well as cards that can be sent to any man (i.e. cards for your next door neighbor who is a dad, but not your dad nor fills that role for you in any way...just a generic Happy Father's Day wish for any other male/dad). I would think dad's to be, godfathers, uncles and foster fathers would be good to write for too.

Lastly, the newsletter also announces their semi-annual poetry contest is now open for submissions. The deadline is June 3oth and all information for the contest and more is featured on their website.

Happy writing to all of you!

~BabyBlogger

ON A DEEPLY PERSONAL NOTE

Yesterday morning, I received a phone call that my son was in an accident. He'd played a show in Hollywood the night before and he and the band spent the night at my mom's house so as not to have to drive home late at night. Well, Sunday morning it was pouring down rain and the car he was riding in lost control, went into another lane, was hit by another car there and knocked into another lane where it was struck by a second and a third car before flipping over one and a half times. His car went from the diamond lane all the way over to the right shoulder of the freeway where it landed on its right side (his side) halfway through the second flip.

Praise God with me please, because my son was the one to call me! Yes, he is perfectly fine. He, his friend who was driving and the other cars that they hit (and were hit by) are perfectly fine (the rest of the band was following them in another car and were, thankfully, not involved in the accident). The car he was in is totaled, but they all walked away without injury!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God honors prayers and I just wanted you all to know this and praise Him for He is awesome, incredible, merciful and full of grace!

A couple of years ago, some of you may recall, my son also walked in on our house being burgularized. He came face to face with two strangers in our home (and he was alone) and was able to escape from them (they headed towards him when he walked in presumably to do harm), again, by the grace of God! So, remember to pray for your children, nieces, nephews, their friends and everyone you love, because God really does listen.

The effectual fervent prayers of the righteous availeth much. James 5:6

What's Up? No, I mean really...what is "up"?

Found this little bit of cleverness online and thought I'd share it with all of you. Enjoy!:

English is a Crazy Language!

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present .

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither fromGuinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this .

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is "UP."

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report ?

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car . At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP ! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. I f you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP

When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP

When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP , for now my time is UP, so............ it is time to shut UP ..!

The Process of Progress

I've been hard at work on my book for new women entrepreneurs. In doing so, I've also sought a little advice on conducting email interviews for some of the special women I plan to feature. One site, Poynter Online, I've found to be quite helpful in providing tips for such interviews. Of course, the face to face or even telephone interviews are still the preferred method, but many writers are finding that the email interview is just as effective. Has anyone any experience in this arena? If so, we'd all love to hear your thoughts, comments and tips if you'll be so kind as to share.

To coincide with the book, I've also started a website (which I'll unveil to all of you once it's fully functional) where I'll also be able to feature my greeting cards. You may recall that I'm preparing to launch my own line in the near future. Since my joy at having my work accepted by Blue Mountain, I do admit I've had to fight the urge not to submit every card I've written since to them and other companies. Every time I write a new card, I think to myself, "Money now? Or continue working on my long term business goal?" For now, the latter is winning. ;) Hopefully, I'll have the line ready to present to the public in June. Thus far, I've been learning a lot about the business and am looking forward to what lies ahead. I think I've shared a few articles on the subject before, but here's one that I reviewed lately offering advice to new greeting card owner wannabes that you may find interesting too.

And speaking of cards, my proud sponsor for this journal entry http://www.wedding-needs.com/baby_shower_invitations.asp is offering some of the sweetest baby shower invitations that I've seen in a long while. If you or someone you know is expecting a new baby, be sure to check them out before making a decision on shower invitations or birth announcements. If you've found that special someone you want to spend the rest of your life with, but you're not quite at the baby stage just yet, http://www.wedding-needs.com/baby_shower_invitations.asp also offers advice on wedding planning and budgeting, including hosting an inexpensive wedding reception! This site has it all, including engagement party and wedding invitations, place cards, thank you cards, anniversary invitations, announcements for all of these occasions and a variety of gifts too. In fact, I'm heading over to http://www.wedding-needs.com/baby_shower_invitations.asp as I've yet to find a gift for a 75th wedding anniversary celebration I'm attending next month. That's right, I said 75 years! Woo hoo!!! Every married couple should be so blessed to live AND love for 75 years. Takes work, patience, strength and a whole lotta effort, but I hope all of you enjoy at least that long with the one you love.

Gotta go, but great writing success to all of you this week and thanks for tuning in.

~BabyBlogger