What style? ALA, MLA, etc.

It's in American Sociological Association style. But I should be more specific about what I mean by editing: I just need someone with good writing skills to edit for comprehension, readability general style, and of course, spelling and grammar and such. So, issues of MLA, ASA, etc. shouldn't be of too much concern. I am preparing the manuscripts for reading by higher-ups, not for print yet.

Hi there! My dad is a retired PhD Sociologist who might be interested in reading and editing your stuff. He wrote a lot of papers/journal stuff/white papers. And he's retired, so he might have time. Let me know if you'd like me to ask him.

YG

Apparently April is the Nanowrimo of scripts and comic authors :-)

There's a kid's version: http://ywp.scriptfrenzy.org/

And one for adults: http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/

(I was told they were, and they appear to be, free. But I haven't explored too deeply.) :-) Lots of neat resources on there)

My husband is the Contest Chairperson for the Charlotte Writer's Club. He has to line up the judges for the contests they have. Well, he asked Daniel Handler to be the judge for the next contest and he said, "yes". The judges are usually paid but he declined any money. He just said he'd do it. How cool is that? :) This is the press release my husband wrote with all the info.:

Lemony Snicket to judge writing contest.

By Eric Wolf
Charlotte, NC 3/29/2011

Acclaimed writer Daniel Handler, known to young fans as Lemony Snicket, will serve as the final judge for the Charlotte Writers’ Club’s Elizabeth Simpson Smith Short Story Contest. This year the top prize for the contest is an Apple iPad 2. Deadline to enter is May 17, 2011 (postmarked) with winners announced by September 2011.

The Elizabeth Simpson Smith Contest features short stories on any subject of length between 1,500 and 4,000 words. Works must be unpublished - this includes prohibition of self-published works and any works that have been available for public consumption in any form. Complete details and rules can be found on the CWC websites at www.charlottewriters.com and www.charlottewritersclub.org. Click on Contests for general guidelines and in the subcategory ESS Short Story for details about this specific competition. Preliminary judging will be provided from within the club. Daniel Handler will choose among the finalists to determine the top three winners which, along with any Honorable Mentions chosen, will receive comments from Handler about their works.

Daniel Handler is the author of the literary novels The Basic Eight, Watch Your Mouth, and, most recently, Adverbs. Under the name Lemony Snicket he has also written a sequence of books for children, known collectively as A Series of Unfortunate Events, which have sold more than 60 million copies and were the basis of a feature film. His intricate and witty writing style has won him numerous fans for his critically acclaimed literary work and his wildly successful children's books. His current projects include two collaborations with illustrator Maira Kalman - a picture book titled 13 Words and a novel for young adults called Why We Broke Up, as well as a fourth novel for adults, the script for the long-awaited second Snicket movie, and a top-secret new series for children.

Established in 1922, the Charlotte Writers’ Club has been showcasing the works of Carolina writers for more than eight decades. Club members share tips on writing, getting published, and navigating the world of Internet communication and self-promotion. The club encourages writers’ growth through workshops, seminars, critique groups and monthly meetings featuring local writers as speakers. Currently meeting the third Tuesday of every month at Providence United Methodist Church, CWC begin their season of meetings each September and end it in May. The next meeting is scheduled for April 19th. For writers living in and around the Davidson area, the club offers another branch, CWC North. The next meeting of CWC North will be held at Congregation House on the Davidson College Campus on Tuesday April 5th. Details on times and programming at www.charlottewriters.com and www.charlottewritersclub.org.

That is so neat, but when I first read this, I thought that your hubby was AQ's Lemony Snicket. LOL! That's what I get for glancing at headings. I love those boxes! One of them was among my first ever finds and it sure did set the bar high! storm rider

Wow, how cool! Do you need to live in Charlotte to enter?

Do you need to live in Charlotte to enter?

No.

The rules are here.

I have a book deal! I'll be writing a book on HTML5 for mobile web applications. Full ms due July 31. Of course, I'm here on AQ instead of writing... Tsk tsk. But I'm excited. :-)

congratulations!

now get off AQ and get busy writing! j/k

Romana, who is supposed to be doing homework

That is so cool! Congratulations! Please let us know when you finish it. Also, if you need a technical reviewer, I'd be happy to help.

I'll let my editor know. I don't know if she's hired the tech reviewers yet.

Dave Martin is going on vacation.

I am posting this to try to force myself to rise to the challenge... I have been sorely remiss in recent years with my writing.

woohoo!

more adventures about my favorite characters!

well, aside from joe the blogger...

romana

Dave Martin is going on vacation.

I am posting this to try to force myself to rise to the challenge... I have been sorely remiss in recent years with my writing.

(gets popcorn and rushes back to the screen) OMG! Did I miss it? What'd he do? Where's the STORY? TELL ME!!!

you haven't missed anything. he hasn't posted the story.

too bad, he's one of my favorite writers...

romana

My cousin Mo Rocca won an Emmy. :) I'm just bragging about him because I'm so proud. :) He won it for writing the script for the Tony Awards ceremony. :) He's pretty humble and I didn't even know he was nominated but he texted me a photo of him holding the statue yesterday. :)

So now I not only have four published authors in my family, but one is award-winning. :) I think this means that I need to get moving and actually finish one of my novels. This is inspiring. :)

Congrats. I love him on NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. He's really funny. Think I saw him on Animal Planet once.

I could have sworn I saw him on Iron Chef, as a judge of coarse.

I could have sworn I saw him on Iron Chef, as a judge of coarse.

You've seen him doing just that! :) He's also on CBS Sunday Morning quite often.

Where are all of the Writer's on AQ!?

Busy studying apostrophes.

Thanks wassa.

He is ever helpful.

I'm here. Arizona.

Actually, busy studying candy-making in preparation for a writing retreat I'm going to in June.

Romana

busy studying candy-making in preparation for a writing retreat I'm going to in June

***WARNING*** The act of studying candy-making, has been know to add massive amounts of chapters to an Authors books, causing them to burst their bindings! ***END WARNING***

Busy studying apostrophes.

They are also studying sentence fragments.

A writing retreat! I've never been to one of those. What exactly does that entail?

They are also studying sentence fragments.

And also studying Dissociative Identity Disorder. :D

The writing organization I belong to has two retreats yearly, one in the PNW, the other in Arizona. We go for three or four days up into the mountains where it's cooler than Phoenix, and write. In the past there have been writing classes, as well as time to socialize and write. Mostly it's a chance to go someplace cool, get away from our families, and have uninterrupted time to write.

This year there aren't going to be so many classes, mostly free writing time.

The meals are always provided at the retreat, but we also have a pot-luck snack buffet table that everyone is expected to contribute to. Most of us bring chocolate in some form.

This year, the theme is Harry Potter. Harry's cousin "Harriet Plotter" is going to be our hostess at the "Hog-words" school of writing. Last fall I bought an unofficial harry potter sweet shop kit at Barnes and Noble, with all sorts of candy recipes in it. Now I'm practicing making candy, because...

I got a 10" square cake box and covered it with pink paper. Then I made a Honeyduke's logo on my computer and printed it out and put it through the Xyron machine and stuck it on the box. I'm going to bring a box of cockroach clusters, fudge flies, broomstick lollipops, chocolate covered mints, liquid-filled chocolate "love potions" and so on, all in a Honeyduke's box.

I'm also taking my wand and invisibility cloak, but hey, I'm sure they didn't know what big Harry Potter nerds my mom and I were when they planned the retreat.

giggle.

Romana

Does anyone have good advice for writing a synopsis. I am trying to help my 13 year old daughter get her book ready for submission and I am a bit stuck on the synopsis part of it. It needs to be a short one and her book is not very long anyway so I don't think that will be a problem. I'm just not sure where to start.