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Drawing on my fine command of the English language I said nothing. -- Robert Benchley |
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FREELANCE WRITERS GUIDE Copies of the NWU Freelance Writers Guide are available from the DC Chapter for $15 plus $4.60 for postage, or call to arrange to pick one up at the office. NWU SHIRTS Advertise your NWU membership and help support the Union's programs with a T shirt: 3 styles are available for $15 each plus $1 postage - A black t shirt with "metaphors be with you" on the front and the NWU logo on the back. - A gray T shirt with "got contract" and a cartoon character of a startled writer on the front and information on the Grievance and Contract division on the back; - The mustard yellow t shirt bearing the NWU logo in blue and the UAW logo in green. All are currently available in medium, large and extra large. If you are interested, please send a check payable to NWU for $15 for each T shirt to NWUDC, 1757 N Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036, and we'll see that you are dressed in union style.
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LABOR NIGHT AT THE NATIONALS Tickets are now available for Labor Night at the Nationals - second annual and first in the new stadium. July 11, 7:30 pm. Tickets are $10, $1 of which benefits the Metro Washington Council Community Services Agency. Send a check for $10 times the number of tickets you want, payable to NWU, and mail it to the Chapter, NWUDC, 1757 N Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036. Don't forget to include your name and address so we can send you your tickets in early July. If we get 50 NWU members and friends to buy tickets, we get the union's name on the scoreboard. Free publicity for your union plus a fun night of baseball and labor solidarity. Order your tickets now. SAVE
THE DATE: HOW TO NEGOTIATE A BOOK CONTRACT
 SEND US NEWS OF BOOKS, TALKS AND WEBSITES HAVE A NEW BOOK, a website or about to give a talk in our area? Be sure to send a note about it to us and we'll get it up on our website. Email STORIES ABOUT
How NWU-DC Beat the Master Business License NWU-DC members went toe-to-toe with big money and lobbied DC Council against needless fees and big brother intrusion in our profession. In July 2003, we triumphed. In 2004, we worked with labor and community to endorse our chief community ally on the council and oust the sponsor of the license scheme. When the challenger won, we won. |
NATIONAL WRITERS UNION HITS AMAZON BOOK ON DEMAND SCHEME
Instead of competing on a level playing field with other POD companies such as iUniverse or Lightning Source, Amazon is flexing its muscles as the dominant retailer of books sold online. This could hurt authors who self-publish through POD by limiting their choice of printers to Amazon's own company. Publishers use electronic files of books sent over the Internet and printed on demand at retail sites to save on printing, inventory, and shipping costs and to reduce the risk of over- supply (unsold books) and pulping costs. With POD, publishers can sell books at lower prices to gain more sales. With domination of the POD supply chain, there would be little restraint on Amazon's capacity to impose monopoly pricing on fees it could charge for the use of BookSurge's POD services or on the discounts it could demand of self-publishing authors and publishers for access to Amazon's share of the on-line POD market - a share that, with this new BookSurge imposition by Amazon, can only grow. Some POD publishers and websites are already saying they will have no choice but to buckle under to Amazon's new policy because they need access to Amazon's giant market. Nevertheless, other writers concerned about Amazon's new POD restrictions are taking their business elsewhere. Where is the Justice Department's Anti-Trust Division when we need it? The National Writers Union/UAW Local 1981 strongly opposes Amazon's new restriction on the print-on demand market and calls upon Amazon to immediately withdraw this monopolistic intrusion, or face our call for investigations by the Justice Department and Congress.
NOTES
SPECIAL ELECTION OF NATIONAL OFFICERS Notice has recently been mailed from the New York office of the National Writers Union of the opening of nominations for four unfilled officer positions: First Vice President, Second Vice President (External Organizing), Third Vice President (Internal Organizing) and Trustee. IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE NOTICE BY REGULAR MAIL BY MAY 5, please contact the National Office (212-254-0279 or nwu@nwu.org) to be sure they have your proper address. Other important information will be mailed in the future, and we don't want you to miss it. - NWUDC Steering Committee SAVE
THE DATE: HOW TO NEGOTIATE A BOOK CONTRACT
NEW BOOK ON WOMEN'S STRUGGLE FOR POLITICAL POWER
From J. Ellen Foster's address to the 1892 Republican Convention to Nancy Pelosi's 2007 election as the first female Speaker of the House, women have worked to influence politics at every level. Well before most could vote, women campaigned for candidates and lobbied to shape public policy. Men welcomed their work, but not their ideas. Even with equal suffrage women faced many barriers to full political participation. The fifteen case studies of women’s struggles for political influence in this book provide the historical context for today’s political events. Starting with an overview of when and why political women have been studied, the three sections of the book look at different ways in which women have broken barriers, practiced politics, and promoted public policy. These engaging and accessible stories are even more important in today’s political climate, when a woman can finally be a front-runner in a presidential race.
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| BOOKS BY NWU AUTHORS |
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 LORETTA SCOTT HAS WRITTEN Yes I Can, a true story of a soldier/nurse, woman, and wife/mother who went to war and her undying courage and the Supreme Being that enabled her to weather the storm, before, during and after Desert Storm. A rich book about heroic courage and perseverance to survive the war after the war.  Lola
“Akua” Thompson: Having been a counselor for the past 5 years working with youth in the Washington, DC area, Lola has learned how important it is to share ourselves with the young people around us to help improve our communities and breathe hope into their lives. $14.95 paperback Soroma Company P.O. Box 1634, Temple Hills, MD 20748 (240)354-2630 [U.K. paper 11.95:]
POSITIVE OPTIONS FOR REFLEX SYMPATHETIC
DYSTROPHY (RSD): SELF-HELP AND TREATMENT by Elena Juris.  Greed and Good:  Tales From the Seven Seas: Karen Morris Collection. Publish America Children's novel, 60 pages packed full of Humor and Suspense stories: Learn how Marlowe the Bear outsmarts the old lady for breakfast; why the ostrich is superior to mankind, everywhere! Take a voyage around the world with Tales From the Seven Seas! Listed Price: $12.95  North Korea, South Korea is a short, accessible book about the history and political complexites of the Korean peninsula. "As John Feffer's new book shows, Bush administration crisis mongering about North Korea is no more believable than its intelligence on Iraq. Feffer's analysis is the most reliable, balanced report available on the Korean 'threat.'" - Chalmers Johnson, author of Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire  After 9/11, Kristin Henderson's husband ships out with the Marines, a Lutheran military chaplain headed for the war on terror. She's a Quaker pacifist -- he's not. In search of peace, she hits the road with her German shepherd, Rosie, crossing America in an old Corvette. From the start of this fast-paced memoir, published by Seal Press, Kristin's on a heartbreakingly funny adventure in how to give your life meaning even when you don't like the road you're on. As she explores the back roads of a changed country, she worries about her husband and questions her belief in nonviolence, just as she earlier questioned her belief in Christianity.  A DEPARTURE FROM THE SCRIPT, by Rochelle Hollander Schwab
won the Lambda Literary Foundation's Self-Published Book Award
(women's books). In this "A delightful novel
about family, marriage and |
 In We Will Be Heard noted political scientist Jo Freeman chronicles some of the struggles of women in the United States for political power. Most of their stories are little-known, but Freeman’s compelling portrait of women working for change reminds us that women have never been silent in the political affairs of the nation. From J. Ellen Foster's address to the 1892 Republican Convention to Nancy Pelosi's 2007 election as the first female Speaker of the House, women have worked to influence politics at every level. Well before most could vote, women campaigned for candidates and lobbied to shape public policy. Men welcomed their work, but not their ideas. Even with equal suffrage women faced many barriers to full political participation.  WHISKEY IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN: In these 44 poems Browning examines the joys of the female body but also the torments. Venturing beyond the personal landscape, Browning fearlessly navigates the political: raised in an activist family, she marched against the Vietnam War at age five and at nine, campaigned for George McGovern for president. In a voice Martín Espada calls "tough and funny and smart," these poems alternate between the heartbreaking and the hilarious. Whiskey in the Garden of Eden can be ordered online or contact editor@WordWorksDC.com. Mary Shomon's latest book, The Thyroid Hormone Breakthrough: Overcoming Sexual and Hormonal Problems at Every Age was published in late 2006 by Harper imprint Collins. Shomon's agent is NY-based Carol Mann. Shomon, a patient advocate who also runs the Thyroid site for the New York Times-owned About.com network, has done six books with Harper Collins since 2000.  BOATS, BIKES, AND BOXING GLOVES: ADVENTURE WRITER IN THE KINGDOM OF SIAM Adventure writer Antonio Graceffo began his eight month long odyssey by living with forest monks, studying kick boxing in Thailand's last Muay Thai Temple. He rode his bicycle to Burma, walked to the top of Chiang Mai's tallest peak, and was the first to attempt to trace the Doi Saket River to its source. A departure from his standard, self-serving brand of humorous, if narcissistic and somewhat offensive, adventure writing, he spent time with the Akha Hill Tribe and documented the plight of a marginalized people. From a canoe trip down the Maekok river, to accompanying tribal people on a hunting trip with cross bows and muzzleloaders, the book is funny, informative, and meaningful.  THE MONK FROM BROOKLYN: AN AMERICAN AT THE SHAOLIN TEMPLE Antonio Graceffo was lucky enough to be one of the few, and this is the chronicle of his experience. Antonio has twenty-five years of experience with martial arts, so it is with a knowing eye that he observed the training at the temple. But it is his background that gives him a very unique perspective. An Italian-American from Brooklyn, New York, and a former investment banker, Antonio was educated in some of the best universities that Europe and Asia had to offer. His articles are informative, humorous, and irreverent. He doesn't pull any punches writing about the filthy conditions and the diminished mental capacities of people who spent a lifetime learning to kick, but never bothered to learn to read and write. The title says it all. Put a Chinese-speaking Italian-American, from Brooklyn in the holiest of Buddhist temples, and watch the racial harmony flow.  THE DESERT OF DEATH ON THREE WHEELS After studying at the Shaolin Temple during the SARs crisis and then living in Thailand for eight months learning the art of Muay Thai, adventure writer Antonio Graceffo decided to rest his body. So, he chose to cross the Taklamakan Desert - on a three-wheel bicycle. Not the "rest" he expected! Then, he accepted an invitation to play in the world famous Elephant Polo tournament held in Thailand. Many amazing and unexpected things happen during these two adventures! This is a must read for anyone who enjoys real-life aventure stories.  Angela M. Peabody was born and raised in Monrovia, Liberia. Her mom, who was mayor of Marshall, Liberia, and her dad, a very popular politician helped to shape Angela's world, and her interest in reading and writing. By the sixth grade, she had won her first award for writing, and had recited publicly the Liberian Declaration of Independence, a 30 page document, all from memory. This set the stage for her imminent career in broadcast journalism, as a major celebrity in Monrovia, before being exiled to America. Her love for writing had remained intact, and Ms. Peabody set out to pen a novel that was based on the true coup d'etat of her beloved Liberia. She is currently undertaking her second writing project, a biography of a native of Sierra Leone, whose rags to riches story is remarkable, who currently resides here in the states, and who asked Ms. Peabody to write her biography after reading the first release of Exiled in hardcopy (2003). Now, Angela excitedly releases a second edition paperback of Exiled, with a few additions, changes and twists that readers will find exhilarating. The book Unconditional Love was born of Exiled's lead character, Madia Tailgate. The contents truly support the title, with 12 inspiring poems written by Ms. Peabody and her life shattering story of surviving the coup d'etat in Liberia, 25 years ago. Readers will be on the edge of their seats, absorbing every word, experience, tragedy and triumph, and will then look for more from this very talented author who's future is extremely bright. |
Susan Elizabeth Pattishall: "A twenty-first century satire on the vital side, Witchgate is the story of spying without trying. Narrated in the first person, it takes the reader into the imaginative wanderings of a witch's mind. With realism and fantasy, the author and Sebastiana, the witch, take you to matters that depict the slapdash side of the 1980s to the present. Showing mystic intuition that is definitely realistic, witch identification is not always respect for the netherworld. It is a secret world of intense, counterclockwise awareness. The story is almost a spy's handbook."  TO KNOW YOU Jeanne Eck A portrait of Egyptian daily life, the people in Egypt, their faith, and culture, viewed through the heart of a western woman. In October 2000, I visited Egypt as a tourist. As soon as my feet touched her ancient soil, I knew I had come home. I fell in love with not only the people in Egypt, but the ebb and flow of Egyptian daily life. Four months later, I packed up my life in the United States and moved to Cairo. I didn't know the language or the rules a single midlife woman would be expected to live by in a predominately Muslim country. I went anyway. Each day I embraced the opportunity to observe the melding of Egyptian daily life with her magnificent history and modern culture. I had promised family and friends, many of whom were horror-struck by my decision to relocate to Egypt for an undetermined amount of time, that I would stay in touch. It was too time consuming to write individual letters, so I wrote one. From the responses I received, I knew that when I shared my observations about the culture and the people in Egypt from my heart, I touched the hearts of others. My experiences, the lives of the people in Egypt I met, my laughter, my pain, and how I chose to deal with it evolved into I am Happier to Know You.  IDENTITY CRISIS (Quiet Storm Publishing 2005). Attorney-turned-author Debbi Mack has written the first in a series of hardboiled mystery novels featuring lawyer/sleuth Stephanie Ann "Sam" McRae. A domestic abuse case turns deadly, when the alleged abuser is killed and Sam's client disappears. When a friend asks Sam to find Melanie Hayes, the Maryland attorney is drawn into investigating a complex case of murder and identity theft, that has her running from the mob, breaking into a strip club and forming a shaky alliance with an offbeat private investigator to get to the truth about Melanie and her boyfriend. With her career and life on the line, Sam's search takes her from the blue-collar Baltimore suburbs to the mansions of Gibson Island. Along the way, she learns that false identities can hide dark secrets, and those secrets can destroy lives. "IDENTITY CRISIS grips you from the first page. - "Roundtable Reviews  Poetic Voices Without Borders is an edgy collection that transcends regional as well as cultural borders on many levels. Nearly 150 poets, including Karren L. Alenier, John Amen, Antler, Grace Cavalieri, Alfred Corn, Jim Elledge, Jewelle Gomez, Joy Harjo, Peter Klappert, Lyn Lifshin, Marta López-Luaces, Jaime Manrique, E. Ethelbert Miller, Richard Peabody, Myra Sklarew, Gloria Vando, and many others, provide superb work that ranges from the individual to the collective we, from the sublime to the provocative, from the social to the political, in a variety of styles.  DISCIPLINED MINDS by Jeff Schmidt:The hidden root of much career dissatisfaction, argues Schmidt, is the professional’s lack of control over the political component of his or her creative work. Our system of professional education and employment abusively inculcates an acceptance of politically subordinate roles in which professionals typically do not make a significant difference, undermining the creative potential of individuals, organizations and even democracy. Schmidt details the battle
one must fight to be an independent thinker and to pursue one’s
own social vision in today’s corporate society. ot JOHN DINGES - THE CONDOR YEARS: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents (The New Press 2004), by John Dinges. OUT Feb 2 . . . FOREIGN AFFAIRS: "Dinges' account includes much new disturbing information and some remarkable revelations, particularly about the relationship of the United States to the Latin American intelligence agencies responsible for the Operation Condor assassinations and other systematic human rights violations . . This is a remarkable book and a major contribution to the historical record" |
JOSHUA BERLOW Send us your website and we'll post it.  DIANE DIEKMAN - A farm girl's memories of life in the Hidewood Valley in 1963  At Berkeley in the Sixties: The Education of an Activist, 1961-1965: PUBLISHERS WEEKLY - Only 16 at the time, jO Freeman entered Berkeley in 1961, when the nascent social and political activism of the '60s was percolating. In prose that is by turns pedantic and moving, Freeman revisits her journey through those swirling, exciting and disillusioning times. Using her own diaries and letters as well as FBI files and other documentary sources, Freeman switches back and forth between her recollections and her more measured observations as a scholar reflecting on these times.  ALSO BY JO FREEMAN : A ROOM AT A TIME: HOW WOMEN ENTERED PARTY POLITICS. Explores women's entry into party politics from the mid-19th century to the mid-1960s. Women did not wait for suffrage to become active in politics. By the end of the 19th Century, women were specializing as feminists, reformers or party women. The book won the Leon Epstein award in 2003, for a work "that makes an outstanding contribution to research and scholarship on political organizations and parties." JOSHUA BERLOW, INSANITY FACTORY A mostly true account of an involuntary mental hospitalization, demonstrating that the profit motive plays a defining role in psychiatric treatment. The narrator was hospitalized after claiming that there was a new incurable venereal disease, before anyone had heard of AIDS. After release from the mental hospital, the narrator has various adventures: life in an urban commune, telemarketing for a gargantuan publishing company, travel to New Mexico, working in a delicatessen, and studying physics. Insanity Factory is a modern coming-of-age novella that includes a recipe for brown rice burgers!  HOW WE SLEEP ON THE NIGHTS WE DON'T MAKE LOVE by E. Ethelbert Miller Publisher: Curbstone Press, 2004. Author of seven previous collections of poetry, award-winning author E. Ethelbert Miller gives us a rich variety of poems dealing with love, family, racism, and the joys and vicissitudes of daily life. . . "On nights when we don't make love, it might be helpful to have some of E. Ethelbert Miller's alluring and captivating poems nearby. As intimate as they are seductive...they should be just as enticing even on nights when we do make love." - Edwidge Danticat. ROBERT L. GIRON'S translation of Jesús Gardea's posthumous poetry collection entitled "Canciones para una sola cuerda / Songs for a Single String" (Gival Press) was one of three finalists in the 2003 Crown Violet Award for Poetry/Literary Prose; the prize is sponsored by Barnes and Noble and the Texas' League of Writers.  THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS has published the second edition of Linda Rabben's first book, "Brazil's Indians and the Onslaught of Civilization," for classroom use. The first edition came out in 1998 and sold out over a five-year period; the second edition is updated and contains two new chapters.  IMAGINING EACH OTHER Blacks and Jews in Contemporary American Literature Ethan Goffman Imagining Each Other explores Black-Jewish relations by examining the complex ways the two peoples have portrayed each other in recent American literature. It illuminates dramatic alliances and conflicts and dilemmas of identity and assimilation, and addresses the persistent questions of ethnic division and economic inequality that have so encompassed the Black-Jewish narrative in America. Focusing primarily on the 1960s and its aftermath, the book reveals how Jewish and African Americans view each other through a complex dialectic of identification and difference, channeled by ever-shifting positions within American society. WHY BOTHER? - Living in a culture that has reduced their role to that of compliance and consumption, Americans increasingly react with anger, anxiety or apathy. In this highly readable short book, journalist and social critic Sam Smith takes on this crisis not as a political issue but as a personal one: how does the individual survive in such a place? Smith confronts directly despair and survival, approaches to personal rebellion, speaking truth to power, suicide and false faith, the loss of democracy, and what to do when nobody cares whether you do it or not. RECOMMENDED READING |
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GERARD
COLBY, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL WRITERS UNION - Recently,
Amazon announced that it is requiring on-demand publishers and
authors to use its print-on-demand division, BookSurge, if they
want to sell their titles as print-on-demand on Amazon.com.
SARAH
POSNER HAS A NEW book : God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and
the Republican Crusade for Values Voters. God's Profits examines
the unholy alliance between a new breed of corrupt televangelists
and the Republican Party, which is eagerly courting "values
voters" in the nation's largest megachurches. Author Sarah
Posner exposes the activities of Kenneth Copeland, John Hagee,
Rod Parsley, T.D. Jakes, and other politically connected, skillfully
marketed, and increasingly influential religious leader s. Preaching
the "prosperity gospel" - the notion that faith and
tithing alone can ensure financial security - both in their churches
and over the airwaves, these charismatic leaders scam the gullible
even as they enjoy unprecedented access to top Bush Administration
officials.
hing"