Next month's meeting of the Latino Authors & Writers Society will be held a little early (date-wise), it will take place July 20th. The guest speaker will be our very own Suzanne who will discuss a writing process she teaches to both prose and poetry writers (it's a way to generate more material). And don't forget that the guest speaker for September will be literary agent Kathleen Ortiz. Also, keep an eye peeled for news about the 2012 writers' conference!

East Harlem Latino Book Festival

MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Please visit 1petition.com and sign the petition for THE FIRST ANNUAL EAST HARLEM LATINO BOOK FESTIVAL

www.ipetitions.com

It's a great way to promote Latino literature and literacy!

This is petition for THE FIRST ANNUAL EAST HARLEM LATINO BOOK FESTIVAL. Join the movement! Sign now!

New writing gigs...

Hey, I almost forget to tell you...

I'm also currently writing articles about Latino literature for Salsa magazine on Facebook, and I'm also writing fish article (yes, fish articles!) for the Brooklyn Aquarium Society's newsletter.

2012 Latino Authors & Writers Conference

Ho, Ho, Ho. I hope everyone is having a great holiday season! As for me, my dreams are filled with images of sugar plums and my 2012 Latino Authors & Writers Conference! This year's conference was a blast and now I'm thinking about the fun we'll all have next year! I'm thinking about the guest speakers, the sponsors, supporters and partners, and I'm thinking about the great Salsa band that will play at the end of the conference! Wow, I love it! Hope to see you there!

My Poets and Writers Event is next Saturday! I've got a dancer coming, guest speakers, poetry, writers, continental breakfast, raffles... Keynote Speaker is Judge Edwin Torres; author of "Carlito's Way." There will also be a fundraiser for an independent film, "Woven," about the interactions between an Ethiopian family and American family. One of the Writers/Producers, Salome Mulugeta, will make the presentation. Please come out and support. Bring a friend, it's only $25.00 per person.

http://www.poetsnwriters.com

Woven

Poets and Writers Event October 1st!

New York Supreme Court Judge Edwin Torres (Ret.), author of

"Carlito's Way," as well as other books and novels, will be the Keynote

Speaker at my Poets and Writers Event next Saturday!

Boo-Yah!

Iolanthe

If you'd like to attend the opera Iolanthe and my daughter who is performing in the opera, you can buy a ticket at www.savoy.org . There will be 4 shows in all: May 26 & 27 and June 10 & 11. The May shows are on a Thursday and a Friday at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, PA. The June shows are on a Friday and Saturday at Longwood Gardens (if you don't have a car, or live far from this area, I don't suggest trying to make the Longwood Garden shows). Even if you can't make it, you can still support the Savoy Company by making donations (which are tax-deductible) to the company.

Great Books for Sale

You know, this conference has a lot of my attention and getting it together and ready is taking up a lot of my time, but I love the concept so much!

I just wanted to encourage avid readers to visit the site and check out the books by some of our authors, the books are fantastic and you would, of course, also be supporting a Latino(a) author. As we get closer to the conference date, we hope to add the works of more attendees, supporters, etc.

Thank you.

Editing

EDITING

I still argue that in the brouhaha that is publishing, we
often forget about the reasons that traditional publishing
existed to begin with, and why writers didn't just publish
themselves from the outset.

Traditional publishers fund works out of their pockets,
and they beat a dead horse in terms of preparing a book
for release. This has been true since Gutenberg printed
the first Bible. So I believe traditional publishing will
continue for many years to come.

Yes, I tend to lean to the . . . traditional side. (Bet you
thought I was going to say right or left, huh?) However, I've
self-published as well. I've seen good self-publishing and bad.
I've seen good agents and bad. I've marveled at good traditional
works and bad.

Nothing in publishing is perfect.

However, two items get overlooked, in my opinion, when it
comes to do-it-yourself publication.

1. Platform
2. Editing

The Steve Laube Literary Agency has quite the informative
blog, and lately they've run a series called, "A Defense of
Traditional Publishing." The latest post of April 26 addressed
"Content Development."

http://www.stevelaube.com/in-defense-of-traditional-publishing-part-three/

A reader cursed me (yes, I'm a "biatch") for advising her to
slow down, complete her book, and edit it to death before
considering the publisher, the movie, or the television
appearances. The point I tried to make was that editing
isn't a simple proofreading job before you forward the file
to a publisher.

Steve Laube explained the multiple editing tasks under a
traditional roof.

ACQUISITIONS EDITOR - Finds, acquires, negotiates the project.

LINE EDITOR - Performs the actual content edit (also call the
"line" or "substantive" edit).

CONTENT EDITOR - Reads for accuracy, balance and fairness,
cogency of argument, adequate treatment of the subject matters,
and conformity to the original book proposal.

COPY EDITOR - Scours the manuscript for accuracy in grammar,
citations, and factual content.

PROOF READER - Fine tunes punctuation and other nit-picky details.

Yes, there's room for self-publishing, especially if you
have a platform to die for, and a following that would
purchase anything you held up in your hand. But if you
are venturing into the publishing world alone, wouldn't
you want these people in your court?

by Hope Clark - http://www.fundsforwriters.com

The Latino Authors & Writers Conference

Hi. Well, the conference is on schedule and rolling along at full steam! We have four great agents joining us, guest speakers, a wonderful Mistress-of-Ceremony... and so much more! I want to thank all of the people, organizations, agencies, and corporations that are helping to make this possible. i also want to say thank you to all of the Latino media that's promised to do a story about us. In fact, Philadelphia Spanish daily, Al Dia, is doing a story about the conference and is interviewing our guest speaker, Dr. Hector R. Ortiz!

Wow, so it's really happening and I'm really proud of all the work (and money!) that's gone into it. It's gonna be a blast!

"Meet the Author"

Went to a "Meet the Author" in Philly on Saturday. The guest author was Hector R. Ortiz, author of "The Creative Energy of Positive Thinking." It was a very interesting and informative evening. I'm considering asking him to speak at my conference! I bought a copy of his book and he autographed it. I also had the opportunity to introduce myself and network with the president of Taller Puertorriqueno, and another lady that was head of another Latino organization. I handed out business cards and received very positive comments about the conference. Now I'm looking forward to next month's event, "What it means to be Afro-Latino in Philadelphia: Stories from El Barrio." This is going to be a photo-documentary by photographer Sandra Andino, and it promises to be interesting as well.

Vote for me!

Host with the Most!

Arnaldo L.

The New Year!

Well, it's a new year and I'm really hoping for great things to happen in 2011! I'm looking forward to getting this conference up and running, I'm hoping that this Fantasy novel I've written gets published by a major publisher, I'm going to try and get more short stories published, and I'm working on an artsy coffee-table book with a friend that I hope gets published too! All in all, I'm going to be working on a lot of projects and I'm hoping they all do well! Happy New Year!

FELIPE RODRIGUEZ - Cada Navidad.wmv

The Blizzard of '10

Wow, did anyone expect all of this snow and wind? True blizzard conditions, and my son and I celebrated by walking about 11 blocks and getting a bucket of fried chicken from the fried chicken place on Merrick Blvd! It was crazy! We couldn't see 5 feet in front of us, the snow was already knee deep in places, and the crystalline snowflakes stung our faces like chinese throwing stars. What fun!

Anyway, I also finished a short story for a Wordhustler contest in which the winner gets his/her story made into movie. I think it's one of the best I've ever written. I've also finished the first of a trilogy of Fantasy novels... I think this one's pretty good too. Let's not forget the writers conference I'm putting together for next year, hard at work on that too! Anyway, have a Happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

New Novel finished...

Well, I've finished my latest novel. It's a departure from my previous novel which was basically a crime story. It involved cops, a serial killer, realistic New York City scenes... this new novel, which is actually a collaborative effort between my son and I is a FANTASY novel. The working title is "The Father & Son Chronicles" and I actually had a lot of fun writing it. I'm planning on making it a trilogy, but if it continues to be so much fun (and if people are actually reading it) I may keep going. It has knights, barbarians, dwarves, elves, assassins, monsters, gods, kings, queens... it just keeps going and going! Anyway, I'm hoping it gets picked up by an agent and then a major publisher like Tor. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

30 years and counting...

Right at this very moment, my family and I are preparing for the celebration of my 30th wedding anniversary. Well, to say just my anniversary is wrong of course since my wife sure had a lot to do with it! You know, the years just went by in a blur, and all I can really remember is being happy. I married the woman I loved, my high school sweetheart in fact, and we had some great times before and after the kids were born. Now don't get me wrong, we had plenty of tough times... there were days we didn't eat because there was no money, there were those weeks and weeks when all we could afford to eat was boxed (instant) macaroni & cheese because they were three for a dollar, there were the days in winter with no heat and no hot water, and those sweltering days in summer with no air conditioning and only hot water coming out of the faucets... We were young and too proud and stubborn to ask for help... but we preservered. We raised three beautiful children, I'm close to retirement, and we have a wonderful granddaughter.

Hello one and all! Just wanted to drop a note in my blog here to let everyone that reads this (yeah, all 2 of you!) know about the writer's conference I'm hosting next year. It's slated for October 1st, 2011 (it's a Saturday) in New York City as part of the Hispanic Heritage Month celebration. There will be networking, classes, agents, goodie bags, and more! So if you're a Latino author or writer, mark this date off on your calendar and plan to join us!

Granta names 'best young Spanish-language novelists'

Extending its celebrated selections of rising literary stars into the Spanish-speaking world, journal tips 22 young authors for the future

The future Ian McEwans and Salman Rushdies of the Spanish-language literary world have been named by Granta magazine in a list of the best young Spanish-language authors writing today.
From Argentinian author Federico Falco to Chilean poet and novelist Alejandro Zambra and Spain's Pablo Gutiérrez, the literary magazine unveiled the 22 writers to make it into its list of the best of young Spanish-language novelists in Madrid this morning. Running since 1983, when the literary magazine included Julian Barnes, Martin Amis, McEwan and Rushdie in its list of the best of young British novelists, Granta's "best of young novelists" series has tipped a host of future writers for stardom, from Edwidge Danticat to Jonathan Franzen, but has never looked outside America and the UK before.
A panel of judges including acclaimed Argentinian film director and writer Edgardo Cozarinsky, award-winning novelist Francisco Goldman and journalist Isabel Hilton, along with the Spanish edition of Granta's editors Aurelio Major and Valerie Miles, chose the Spanish-language writers, who also include Peruvian short story writer Carlos Yushimito del Valle, currently finishing his first novel, and Argentinian poet and short story writer Matías Néspolo, whose first novel, Siete maneras de matar a un gato (Seven Ways to Kill a Cat), is due out in English from Harvill Secker.
"From Borges to Bolano, the Spanish language has given us some of the most beloved writers of the 20th and 21st centuries," said Granta. "But as the reach of Spanish-language culture extends far beyond Spain and Latin America, and the US tilts towards a majority Hispanic population, it is time to ask who is next in this exciting tradition."
Granta said that fiction from the 22 authors, which will feature in the new editions of Granta and Granta en español next month, would give readers "an unprecedented insight into the world of Spanish letters". Of the writers selected, eight come from Argentina, six from Spain, two each from Peru and Chile, and one from Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia and Uruguay. Five of the 22 writers are female.
Granta's best of young Spanish novelists:
Carlos Yushimito del Valle
Matías Néspolo
Alberto Olmos
Antonio Ortuño
Andrés Felipe Solano
Santiago Roncagliolo
Elvira Navarro
Andrés Neuman
Patricio Pron
Carlos Labbé
Oliverio Coelho
Rodrigo Hasbún
Sònia Hernández
Andrés Ressia Colino
Samanta Schweblin
Pola Oloixarac
Javier Montes
Federico Falco
Pablo Gutiérrez
Andrés Barba
Alejandro Zambra
Lucía Puenzo
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

The NYC Pitch Conference

What can I say except... wow. I went to the 2010 NYC Pitch & Shop writers conference and I had a great time. I met some very talented people who also happened to be very nice and a lot of fun. I wish it didn't have to end so soon, but I have to admit I was exhausted by the time it did end. I was lucky because the editors of two publishing houses indicated that they wanted to see more of my manuscript. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Anyway, like I said, it was a wonderful time and I could feel my atrophying creative muscles come back to life. It was great!