Ways to Increase
your Word Power - Angela Burt - UKP 9.99
How To Books - ISBN 1857037162
Breaker Breaker & Other Stories - Trevor Reeves. Square One Press, New Zealand. NZ$24.95
Breaker Breaker
& Other Stories is Trevor Reeves’ first short fiction
collection, although the twenty stories that comprise it are not
new, most having been published in print or online magazines in
the UK, USA, and Trevor’s native New Zealand.
Trevor has been a serious writer since the early 1970s, when he
published three books of his poetry and, as founder of Caveman
Press, gave many writers their chance to appear in print. His
name, as editor and publisher of the highly-regarded Southern
Ocean Review, will be familiar to many of our readers.
My favourite stories are The Christmas Party and Day at the Beach,
each involving sexual hiccups of one kind or another (what does
that tell you about me?) but from the opening Breaker Breaker,
a disturbing account of a truck driver and his problem son, right
through to The Watsons, an amusing mini-fable of how a full-blooded
Maori obtained an English surname, this is an eclectic selection,
always highly readable but at the same time exposing the uncomfortable
things that lie behind the lace curtains of society.
While Reeves’ ultimate messages are international, their
flavour is inevitably New Zealand but in my view this is a bonus.
Many of these stories feature Maori characters and, due to Reeves’
empathetic portrayal, I gained a great deal of insight about their
lives that I probably would never have discovered otherwise.
Breaker Breaker & Other Stories is obtainable from Square One Press, PO Box 2143, Dunedin, New Zealand at NZ$ 24.95 or see website www.book.co.nz
David King
Writing Competitions - the way to win - Iain Pattison and Alison Chisholm Writers Bureau Books - UKP 9:99 - ISBN 1 903119 01 4
After reading
Iain Pattison's book Cracking the Short Story Market, I couldn't
imagine that he would be able to find anything more to say on
the subject. He and Alison Chisholm tackle a different aspect,
that of competition writing - and winning. Both Iain and Alison
are keen competitors as well as judges and they have organised
competitions, so they can view the subject from all sides.
Poetry and short story competitions have never been more popular
and whether the prize does no more than cover the cost of paper
and stamps or is into the hundreds of pounds, they are well worth
entering. They make you write when you feel more like lounging,
give you a deadline, a theme to set you thinking perhaps, and
if you are offered a critique, you will get an unbiased opinion
- a cheap way of finding out what needs attention. Best of all,
agents and publishers keep an eye on competition winners and many
a short-listed entrant has found it was a step onwards and upwards.
Iain points out that writing a short story for a competition can
allow imagination and creativity free rein. Editors of women’s
magazines know exactly the kind of short story that satisfies
their readers and so this market is limited. On the other hand,
competition judges look for a story that has original plot, setting
and characters.
It is pointless
entering something that has been the rounds of magazines, or what
has failed in other competitions - it might easily have been the
same judge.
His list of do’s and don’ts include - do obey the rules;
do write something new designed with that competition in mind;
don’t send the same story to more than one simultaneously;
don’t send something that has been published in the small
press, an anthology or anywhere else.
Alison explains her method of selecting a winning poem. There are few opportunities for getting poetry published, and competitions offer the best chance because organisers often compile anthologies of short-listed poems, whereas the small press, the other possible outlet, is only able to print a small proportion of those submitted. Alison suggests building up a file of special poems, so that, after a final revision to ensure that every word is the most apt, you have one or more ready to submit.
There are fewer competitions for articles but the book contains a list of sources (including Internet sites) and tips on styles and what a judge expects and what may tickle his fancy.
Writing Competitions, the way to win, is crammed with advice and it is written with such enthusiasm by two of the most hard-working entrants and judges that you cannot fail to be inspired to enter.
Jean Currie
Buy the Book! Writing Competitions
Ways
to Increase your Word Power - Angela Burt - UKP 9.99
How To Books - ISBN 1857037162
If you get
confused between ingenious and ingenuous, psychiatry and psychology
or sensual and sensuous, this book will set you straight. Are
you fascinated by the origins of words, or unsure of the meaning
of foreign phrases commonly used in English? Do you fancy including
a few teasers in the pub quiz you’re compiling? If your answer
is yes to any of these questions, then this book is for you.
Angela Burt has been an English teacher and an examiner and has
a wealth of knowledge and experience to share.
The first two units explain the difference between a dictionary
and a thesaurus. The first gives the meaning of words, the second
offers alternatives, similar but not identical. If you don’t
score highly in the tests in this section, you are recommended
to buy the best and most up-to-date dictionary you can afford.
The third unit, ‘People’ gives an alphabetical list
of words describing behaviour, appearance and so on. Many are
familiar, sly and smug for example, but others, such as iconoclastic,
otiose, or sybaritic might have you scratching your head. You
may think these are not words you would use over a cup of tea
with a friend, but the odd one tossed into a conversation would
certainly impress - as long as it was used correctly!
The list in ‘Occupations’ gives suffixes used to indicated
job titles -
-ain (captain) -an (publican) -ant (accountant) and so on. ‘Animals,
Birds, and Insects’ lists relative adjectives (pavonine =
like a peacock) group terms (a business of ferrets), and names
for male, female, their young, and their homes.
‘Sexist and Non-Sexist Language’ offers guidance on
how to avoid the pitfalls, and ‘Eponyms’ features words
such as bloomers, decibels, sandwich, which came from the people
who made them famous.
‘Confusables’ is invaluable, giving instances of words
with different spellings and meanings which are often misused
- amoral/immoral, childish/childlike, complement/compliment.
Many of the examples given in ‘Americanisms’ and ‘Foreign
Words and Phrases in English’ are in everyday use, but there
are some less familiar. ‘Word Roots’ gives Latin and
Greek derivations that show how knowledge of the basics can help
the understanding of a strange English Word.
A fascinating book for writers, students, those who first language
is not English, and anyone interested in increasing vocabulary.
Jean Currie
Buy the Book! Ways to Increase Your Word Power