Sept 10

The de Groot Foundation is passionate about investing in writers and the literary arts.
https://degrootfoundation.org/ https://degrootfoundation.org/courage-to-write-grants/
https://youtu.be/0Ck-NPqf2c8?si=PPWkeN0KRn_Vpe3g That’s Elle doing fonts.   The font. Is everything. 🤩 OMG. She’s brilliant. It’s like she’s inside my head!

I haven’t participated in any of his calls yet, but I enjoy this guy’s newsletter [the Social Media Escape Club], and have signed up for the call this aft (there’s one spot left!) and for the website revisit next Thursday. https://substack.com/inbox/post/214898593
https://gingerpress.com/
https://www.savannahgilbo.com/blog/romance-structure

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Sept 9

The endangered poweshiek skipperling butterfly
fyi, https://dlitreview.com/free-entry-writing-opportunities-in-september-2026/
Btw, I did it - Tender Fruit is published at last https://susanwadds.substack.com/p/tender-fruit-98b

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Sept 7

Yapping!
Substack is changing, a lot. (Substack TV!)   

Literary Agent + Director of Operations @roseclifflit; open to queries, and details

https://www.forewordretreats.com/

 

Sept 3

Prairie Fire is accepting submissions. Sept 1-Nov 30. https://www.prairiefire.ca/submissions/

Owl Kids is accepting submissions. Our submissions portal is currently open until September 30, 2026. https://owlkidsbooks.com/submissions/

Top Free-Entry Writing Opportunities in September 2026: https://dlitreview.com/free-entry-writing-opportunities-in-september-2026/

Book reco: Saltwater — Katy Hays

Amazon self-publishing alternative: https://www.ingramspark.com/

 

Sept 2

As per rejections, I guess this is a preemptive one (!) from ECW Press. It certainly is efficient: Thanks for considering ECW Press as your potential publisher. This email confirms your submission has been received, and our editors are giving it careful consideration. We receive a huge volume of submissions, so unfortunately we can't reply to every one. If we're interested in learning more about your project, we'll be in touch. If you don't hear from us within three months, please assume the book wasn't the right fit for our list. (sent May 22nd)

I LOVE LOONS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMgrpIdHwjk
https://www.cbc.ca/books/literaryprizes/a-season-of-crows-by-larah-luna-9.7141248
 

August 27

https://jamigold.com/2012/11/write-romance-get-your-beat-sheet-here/

Love this in the lead-up: Last week, I ran a workshop called “Lost Your Pants? An Impatient Writer’s Guide to Plotting a Story.” I jokingly referred to it as my “plotting for pantsers” class, but it was really more about how to plan our stories at a high level to keep both our freaking-out inner editor and our diva muse happy.
https://storytellingdb.com/story-genius-method-lisa-cron/
Just told Claire that 4 of us are writing romance, possibly influenced by her (I was, for sure). Her response: “My advice: don’t cross genres, and think Heated-Rivalry-level sex, nothing tame.”

 

August 24

Désirée entered (and won) the contest for her poem and artwork to appear on a walking path on the Pembina Hills Arts Council website, though the call was found on their Instagram 
   

August 19

Great podcast: https://www.alieward.com/ologies
Racism and bullying in academia: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/14/jason-arday-found-dead-after-resigning-from-cambridge-over-plagiarism-claims

https://www.ynharari.com/book/nexus/
Cory Doctorow describes the term "reverse centaur" as someone who, because of technology, must work at an impossible pace. https://www.cbc.ca/books/cory-doctorow-s-new-book-about-life-after-ai-tops-the-canadian-bestseller-list-for-nonfiction-9.7253926

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August 19

https://www.bradsmithbooks.com/allhat.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test
Referencing this Kate Bush song in my marketing post, and damn, it’s still lovely. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJM3-9SbgT4

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August 12

From Char Wilkins' Substack:
I wanted…to be pretty 
   2. Because…I wanted to be liked 
   3. It was…(time of life/season) in grade school, high school, college, yesterday
   4. When I didn’t have it, I…covered my body, didn’t look people in the eye 
   5. Most days, I….rise before the sun, fix tea and a jammy biscuit 
   6. A dream you once had…dreamt I was falling through a dark tunnel couldn’t stop my fall
   7. Underneath my want was…I wasn’t good enough to be loved 
   8. Something you saw this morning…the flutter of delicate wings​

His instructions are simple and clear, Write a single, short sentence to each of these 8 prompts about a desire; don’t try to be too writerly; use everyday language. 
   1. I wanted… 
   2. Because… 
   3. It was…(time of life/season) 
   4. When I didn’t have it, I… 
   5. Most days, I….
   6. A dream you once had…
   7. Underneath my want was…
   8. Something you saw this morning…
   Next he shows us the Pantoum form: all 8 responses will be used twice in a mixed-up order! Will the meaning shift? Will it make sense? Must it? I didn’t know the confines of a structure could be magical, revealing, fun. Here’s what happened to my 8 responses when they were re-ordered.

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https://www.nickbantock.com/Gryphon/Griffin_and_Sabine.html
https://www.whenwordscollide.org/
https://clocky.com/

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/741770/health-for-all-by-jane-philpott/9780771011726
https://greatplainspress.ca/books/take-your-baby-and-run/
 

August 11

https://cahava.com/submit
https://pencilmagazine.com/

 

August 10

Poet Désirée Penner turns hearing 'no' 194 times into viral discussion - PembinaValleyOnline.com - Local news, Weather, Sports, Free Classifieds and Business Listings for the Pembina Valley, Manitoba

Désirée talks rejection in an Imperfect Conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWiNWySzpRM  (I remembered to press record!)

https://agentalert.substack.com/subscribe
https://www.arts.on.ca/grants/recommender-grants-for-writers

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August 7

Romancing the Beat - Gwen Hayes, and Writing the Romance Movie by Billy Mernit. I have two more books I haven’t read yet at home, so will have more to recommend or not soon.

Save the Cat Writes a Novel - Jessica Brody.

Free Save the Cat resources! https://savethecat.com/all-free-writing-resources
Also the book, free.
Anyone interested, you can check out Nokbox. Great resource. NOK stands for Next of Kin. I have one but haven’t filled it out yet but it’s on the list!!     

here’s another thing to consider for ‘final pages’ - https://support.apple.com/en-us/102631  - adding a legacy contact for your iPhone so someone can legitimately access your phone.

    https://www.pixnpieces.com/blog/add-legacy-contact-for-your-phone

    https://sabrinasorganizing.com/how-to-add-legacy-contact-to-your-digital-accounts/
       https://nreyn59.substack.com/p/the-conclusion-to-the-story?r=3x6y13
there’s the v good marion roach smith system - memoir is what you have become because of what you went through - and this is a way to streamline your content.

https://nreyn59.substack.com/p/an-accidental-tourist

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August 4

Got a blind date w a book book and it was this one: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62960288-the-almost-widow
If Only Love https://www.shelleysaywell.com/blog
Claire read one of my short stories in its early days, and came back with some really helpful questions: 
   What feeling do you hope the reader is left with at the end of the story?
   What do you want the reader to feel about the narrator?
   What’s the arc they go through in the story?
   Are they changed by the end of it?
   What’s the message of the story?
   These questions are really helping me reshape my stories a bit to give them more depth.
   Also, here’s a list of character development questions I find really helps me understand my characters:
   Name
   Role in Story
   Goal
   Physical Description
   Personality
   Occupation
   Habits/Mannerisms
   Background
   Internal Conflicts
   External Conflicts
   What/who do they love, and how do they show it? 
   What is their greatest fear?
   What are their prejudices and biases?
   What are their strongest instincts?
   What are the things they notice first in others?
   Epiphanies
   Notes

From the preface of Craft in the Real World, by Matthew Salesses (a gift from Claire): “… no mention of race is supposed to mean a character is white. I didn’t have to ask why the white writers in the room never identified the race of their white characters. I already knew why: they believed that white is literature’s default.”

That internal defiance I mentioned is called Pathological Demand Avoidance (and it sucks).

https://substack.com/@desireepennerart
https://open.substack.com/pub/urbanlemonade/p/the-lemonade-stand?r=1jtohh&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer

https://mastersreview.com/short-story-award-for-new-writers/
When starting any new endeavour, Claire suggests you answer these three questions: Why this, why me, why now?
 

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