February/March/April Promo No. 1

From now through April 15 (tax day, yes; but also spring break time, give or take), all educators will receive a 20% discount on any of our manuscript consultation, editorial, or pre-publication services!

(That's up from our usual 10% discount, FYI.)

If you're a teacher who's in need of: some feedback on a writing project; a line edit or proofread; or help polishing a query letter or finding an agent or indie press, click the button below to chat!

Catcher in the Wry

Since the last time I wrote to y'all, Bob Uecker died.

I mean, a ton of people have died since the last time I wrote to you... it's been more than three months. (Sorry.) And it's not like Uecker's death comes as a huge shock. Dude was 90.

But I can't think of my baseball-obsessed childhood without hearing his voice. As radio announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers, my hometown team, Bob Uecker tucked me into bed hundreds of summer nights and talked to me until I drifted off to dream (about baseball).

He also became a cultural icon, and not just in Milwaukee. Ueck was a regular on the Tonight Show (Johnny Carson version), starred in some super-fun '80s Miller Lite commercials, and had a memorable role in Major League.

He also wrote a book, Catcher in the Rye, full of his signature humorous anecdotes about his time as a big league catcher. As a kid I read it multiple times, obviously. (I note, too, that it's suddenly a rare book? Good luck finding a mass market paperback for less than $100. Unless you break into my mom's attic.)

Why am I spending so much page space on this? It's because Uecker also played a role in my becoming a writer.

For this old, old blog post,  I wrote about my childhood attempts at writing stories about baseball, and Uecker's influence in them. An excerpt:

"So it's no surprise that many of Uecker's catchphrases, and even his rhythms, show up in [those stories]. Lots of pitches were 'right down Main Street.' Fly balls were accompanied by 'Get up, get up and get outta here... Gone!'"

The post closes with this passage about my long-suffering novel: "Early in Chapter 2, a bunch of characters are sitting around a bar listening to a Brewers game on the radio. It's 1987, and Robin Yount is at the plate. Bob Uecker is calling the play-by-play."

In honor of Ueck, take a minute today to think about your writing roots.

And then reply to this & tell me about 'em!

Some Quick/Awesome  Reads

This story, "What Luck," by WBN's very own Tariq Shah, is great.

My own writing coach, Tom Andes, has a few new stories you ought to check out, including "That's My Final Offer," "Deadhead," and "I Guess I Better Not."

My bestie Drew Nellins Smith wrote a fun piece for the Boston Globe about his mini obsession with bootleg copies of Salinger's uncollected stories. (removepaywall.com, wink wink.)

February/March/April Promo No. 2

Speaking of quick/awesome reads, my plan from many weeks ago was to offer a discount on anything non-book-length. February being the shortest month and all.

But now that most of February is bye-bye, I'll keep this one open through tax day as well: From now through April 15, all beta reads, critiques, and workshops of your short fiction or nonfiction (and hell, let's throw poetry in there) are 15% off!

Email me some sample pages and your word count (or send the full piece) and I'll come back with some options for reader(s), approach, and rates.

You know how they say summer bodies are made in winter? They say the same about short fiction and nonfiction (and hell, let's throw poetry in there).

Happy New Year!

I know it's weirdly late to ask what your writing goals are for 2025, but I'm weirdly OK with that.

We're well past so-called Quitter's Day, the day by which most New Year's resolutions have fallen into the shitter. That's the second Friday in January. Here we are at the third Thursday of February. Are you still on track? And/Or is it time to set some new goals? (Because it's never too late to do that.)

Reply to let me know what you'd like to accomplish with your writing in 2025! I'll run some of my favorite answers in our next newsletter.

WriteByNighter News, Winter Edition

Victoria Pannell & Thorir Sigfusson's middle-grade novel The Bird Caper has won a B.R.A.G. medallion from IndieBRAG! Check it out in paperback, e-book, or audiobook now. (And then take another peek at The Big Dream, which the pair has recently re-released, with a brand-new cover.)

Sophia Pavlou's Angels Deployed has won the International Impact Book Award in the Family/Young Adult category. Congrats, Sophia!!!!

Virginia Ledesma's The Trouble with Chance is newly available in hardcover (as well as in the original paperback and e-book).

Rachel Fleishman's TED talk, "Can Medical Storytelling Save Lives," is available for your viewing pleasure. In it, Rachel talks about how her passion for writing and storytelling dovetails with her experiences as a health care professional.

What Am I Reading? What Am I Writing?

I don't even remember what I was reading last time we talked! I finished Carson McCullers's The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and Patti Smith's Just Kids, but I feel like I've already covered that ground.

I've started Beta Vulgaris by Margie Sarsfield. I'll report back when I get deeper into it. For now all I'll say is that the book came with a packet of beet seeds! Not an everyday occurrence. I like it.

As for writing, I had a great session with Tom about my latest version (out of about 44) of Chapter 1, and we'll soon meet to discuss Chapter 2. Meanwhile, I'm about 500 words into Chapter 4. Suddenly, for the first time in more than a year, I have some momentum.

Oh! And I'm trying a new thing. When I write, I have a tendency to pause every so often to reread the previous few grafs and then, inevitably, I distract myself trying to smooth them. And then poof, there's goes my train of thought.

Now when I catch myself doing that, I switch the font to any of the various wingdings options. To reread what I've written now takes an extra step, and that extra step is usually enough to keep me from doing it. Forward motion only!

Just make double-extra sure that your software is capable of translating the wingdings font back into real words, or that you have another program (PowerPoint, for me) that can handle it. Otherwise all you'll be left with is a bunch of gobbledy-gook and sadness.

What are you reading?! What are you writing?! Reply to let me know.

The Yaks Are Backs!

Our January episode should be up [checks watch] any month now. But in the meantime, December's is worth a listen! 

In it, we share our favorite reading experiences of 2024 and discuss "stupid politicians, detachable wieners, and tunneled teeth."

Oh yeah, and we're on Spotify now! So... look out, world! Spotify!

Writerly Quote of the Week

"Seriously — is writing really all that difficult? Yes, of course, it is; I know this personally — but is it that much more difficult than other things? Is it more difficult than working in a steel mill, or raising a child alone, or commuting three hours a day to a deeply unsatisfying cubicle job, or doing laundry in a nursing home, or running a hospital ward, or being a luggage handler, or digging septic systems, or waiting tables at a delicatessen, or — for that matter — pretty much anything else that people do?”

-- Elizabeth Gilbert, in a disappeared Bookish.com essay