New Caption Contest & Coaching Drawing

Published: Tue, 03/03/26

Updated: Tue, 03/03/26

Dear WriteByNighter,

Our free coaching drawing last month proved to be a lot o' fun, so we're gonna do it again.

This time, we're giving out four freebie 30-minute sessions with a WriteByNight writing coach... and a fifth winner will get a full hour!

Here's how it'll work: You reply to this message with a brief summary of your project and (optional) a sample page or two.

I pick four names out of a hat, and then match you four winners with a writing coach who works in your genre. You and that coach schedule a 30-minute call (phone or Zoom, your choice), during which you can do any one (or all) of three things:

1. Read some pages aloud and receive immediate feedback;

2. Brainstorm ideas together for your plot/characters;

3. Discuss any process obstacles you're butting up against

Reply by Monday the 9th at noon Eastern, when I'll draw the winners.

As for the caption contest, the funniest one wins a full 60-minute session with a writing coach! If you're a current WBN coachee, your next session'll be free (minus any prep). Same deadline.

Reply to this email to get your entry in!

Some Questions About Books

We've got primaries today in Texas, North Carolina, and Arkansas. If you're going to the polls, don't forget: Vote out your incumbents! Republican or Quisling, it's time to wipe this slate clean and start over.

Question: What's your favorite novel about electoral politics?

Asking the following for no particular reason. Other than the fact that we're about to get deeper and deeper into a war that 72 percent to 86 percent (depending on how the poll is worded) of Americans don't want, which never seems to matter, regardless of which party -- as if there's a difference between them -- is in charge.

Question: What's your favorite anti-war novel?

Sunday's mass shooting hit far too close to home for far too many of you. I won't say anything cloying about it. If you were affected in any way, I'm very sorry. Austin will always feel like WBN's real home. (OK, that's a little cloying. But it's true.)

Question: What's your favorite (non-war) novel about guns?

See? I made it about books.

WBN-Related Events & News

If you're in or around Las Cruces and El Paso, longtime WBN coach Tom Andes will read from and sign his new detective novel, Wait There Till You Hear From Me, at Coas Books, March 7, 12:30 p.m.

On March 27, Kvartira Books in Brooklyn will celebrate the launch of Sunlight Trapped in Stone, the new poetry collection from WBN's Natalya Sukhonos. White Rabbit's Books on the Upper West Side is hosting a launch the very next day.

Might Could, a new poetry collection from Anna Lena Phillips Bell, has just come out. What a cool cover, huh?

Every morning I read the "Today's Deals" email from Publishers Marketplace, and occasionally I see a cool piece of news about a current or former WriteByNighter. Yesterday I was pleased to catch the following:

Former publisher and book club host Mary Taggart's LEFT UNSAID, in which 10 years ago, a woman told a lie that fractured her family; once a celebrated mommy blogger, now widowed and estranged from her adult children, she returns to the family cottage in Maine hoping to repair the damage; there, she uncovers secrets her husband kept and rekindles feelings for the man she once betrayed, to Nia Smith at Blank Slate Press, in a nice deal, for publication in February 2028, by Michelle Jackson at Jackson Literary Agency (world).

Congrats, Mary! We can't wait to read it.

Help with Spanish-Language Novel

A fellow WriteByNighter is hoping to find someone who can help her dad move his Spanish-language novel toward publication. "It's challenging enough to navigate the English language publishing industry," she writes. Amen to that.

She's looking for "someone with the technical Spanish needed to help improve a manuscript." Ideally you'll also have experience writing query letters in Spanish.

Please reply to me with interest and experience and rates. Thank you!!

David Duhr
Co-founder, WriteByNight

P.S. If you know someone who might benefit from today's message, please feel free to forward this email along. Go on, help a writer out.

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