Between the Covers

So you want to write a novel...

To me that sounds like a lot of hard, thankless work and definitely something that would interfere with my obsession with The Daily Show, but if you're going to do it, now's the time. Apparently November is National Novel Writing month. What, you don't believe me? Click here! they have a website and everything.

And if you need a more local kick in the pants to get writing, check out Nova Southeastern University's National Novel Writing Month Kickoff Meeting from 2-4 p.m. on Sunday at the Alvin Sherman Library, Research and Information Technology Center at NSU, 3301 College Ave., in Davie. Call 954-262-5477 for more information.

Writing seminars during the Miami book fair

So we know Miami Book Fair International,  which is sneaking up on us at an alarming rate (alarming for me, anyway), is all about reading. But it's also - surprise! - about writing. The Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College is offering some shockingly good writing seminars  on Nov. 14 - the Friday the street fair opens - featuring two of the authors who will be appearing: memoirist Honor Moore (at right) and poet Andrei Codrescu.

Moore will teach "Shaping Memory into Memoir," noon-2 p.m. $50.

Codrescu will teach "Writing Poetry with Andrei Codrescu," 3-5 p.m. $75. Class size is limited to 10 people, so you'd better get a move on signing up for this one.

Also on the schedule: "Publishing Boot Camp: Everything You Wanted to Know About Publishing But Were Afraid to Ask" with superagent Sandy Dijkstra, 3-5 p.m. $50.

For more information click here or call 305-237-3940.

Meet Edwin Black

Edwin Black (IBM and the Holocaust) kicks off the free 2008 Author Series for the Circle of Friends of the Alvin Sherman Library, Research and Information Technology Center at Nova Southeastern University.

Black, author of 58 works in 14 languages, will discuss his latest book, The Plan: How to Rescue Society When the Oil Stops - or the Day Before at 6:15 p.m. Thursday at the library on the university campus at 3301 College Ave. in Fort Lauderdale.

The series continues on Oct. 16 with Margaret Ahnert (The Knock at the Door: A Journey through the Darkness the Darkness of the Armenian Genocide and Nov. 18 with Holocaust survivor Irene Zisblatt (The Fifth Diamond).

Wanted: story ideas

The Florida Center for the Literary Arts invites aspiring writers to Pitch-o-rama during the Writer's Institute this weekend. From 4 p.m.- 6 p.m. Saturday May 10, writers can pitch their ideas to a panel of literary agents and other industry professionals. For free. You'll get instant feedback and free advice and please, listen to it. If they say your idea stinks...it does. Move on with your life.

You get 30 seconds to make your pitch, so don't ramble. Think Hollywood. Comparisons work. I don't know this for a fact, but I would not be surprised to learn Boca writer Steve Alten sold his first book Meg on the basis of two really great words: "Jurassic Shark." (The concept, alas, was better than the actual book.)

The fun begins in Room 2106 at the Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus, 300 NE Second Ave. in downtown Miami. It's first come first served and sign up begins at noon.

For a list of do's and don'ts at Pitch-o-rama, click here.

Write now

There's still time to sign up for the upcoming Writers Institute, which is sponsored by the Florida Center for the Literary Arts. Think of it: four days of creative writing workshops! Surely you can whip that manuscript into shape in four days with all this help. There are workshops in nonfiction, fiction, playwriting, poetry, publishing and revision, as well as seminars specifically geared to teens and a Spanish language workshop.

But wait - there's more. There will also be daily lunchtime readings and lectures from such writers as Connie May Fowler (over to your right), Rick Moody, Nick Flynn, T Cooper, Felecia Luna Lemus and Micol Ostow.

For a schedule and prices on the workshops - they range from $35 for one workshop to $500 for the full schedule - and registration information, click here.

Whose festival this is I think I know

My love for poetry has been well-documented on this blog. I love it so!

And so I am pleased to remind you that the works of Robert Frost will be celebrated April 9-13 at the Key West Robert Frost Poetry Festival, which includes films; readings; workshops; a poetry on the water event (sonnets on the high seas, or at least on a catamaran, WITH drinks); and poetry contests (deadine is March 24, so get writing and mailing). Also probably more drinks after that.

Also the former editor of Modern Haiku, Dr. Lee Gurga, will be there, so you are NOT going to want to miss this. For more information on the cost of various events and rules for the contests, click here.