Upcoming Market Books Bookstore Events...

To celebrate the recent release of the 2009 editions of our Market Books, I, along with editors Robert Brewer and Chuck Sambuchino, will be appearing at two local bookstores to discuss writing and publishing with aspiring authors. Here's the scoop:

• Wednesday August 20 (tomorrow) at 7 p.m. we'll be at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Rookwood Pavilion.

• Wednesday Aug 27 at 7 p.m. we'll be at Books & Co. @ The Greene.

Robert, Chuck and I (with the help of our three assistants) produce 10 Market Books annually, including CWIM, Novel & Short Story Writer's Market, Poet's Market, Writer's Market, Guide to Literary Agents, and the upcoming brand new Screenwriter's & Playwrights Market. We can answer any writing- or publishing-related question you throw our way covering any genre, fiction or nonfiction, children's or adult, agent and queries, etc. (Don't we sound smart!)

If you live in the Cincinnati or Dayton area, we'd love to meet you. (We'll have free beer and free cupcakes. Just kidding. Come anyway.)

Robert's Poem-A-Day Challenge for National Poetry Month...

April is National Poetry Month and to celebrate Robert Brewer (poet, Writer's Market editor, and Poetic Asides blogger) challenged himself to write a poem every day of the month--and he wants other poet's out there you to join him.

Robert kicked of his Poem-A-Day Challenge yesterday. The goal is to simply get poems on paper without worrying so much about quality as just doing the writing. For those who'd like to join the PAD Challenge but need a little kickstart, Robert is offering a poetry prompt each day on his blog. For more inspiration, view the comments on Poetic Asides posts and read the poem's submitted by poets who are participating in the Poem-A-Day Challenge.

If you're not a poet you can still celebrate National Poetry Month by reading poems (kids love em!). Here's an Amazon list of children's poetry books to give you some ideas--heavy on the Prelutsky, of course.