=====================================================
T h e B a h a m a s W r i t e r - I s s u e # 1
=====================================================
Release date: Monday, November 26th, 2001

Welcome to the first issue of The Bahamas Writer. Please feel
free to forward it on to anyone you know who's interested in
writing.

Submit your articles, stories or writing tips for consideration
in upcoming issues. Although there is no payment for submissions
to The Bahamas Writer, this is an excellent way to promote your
writing worldwide. We can also include your email address and/or
provide a link back to your web site.

See the end of this newsletter for unsubscribe information.

Want to print out this Newsletter?
Here's a super little printing utility that will allow you
to print 2 or 4 pages to a single 8.5" x 11" piece of paper.
It saves you paper, space, and money...

click here: http://www.fineprint.com/

================== CONTENTS ===========================

1. Story Submission: "Let's Read a Story, Grandpa!"
2. Writing Tip - Sweet Dreams
3. Article: The Plight of Bahamian Writers
4. What's New: Eight Sections Completed
5. Coming Soon: The Bahamas Writer Forums 

=======================================================

This Newsletter is maintained by Gavin Knowles:
http://www.bahamasb2b.com/bahamasb2b/FastSites/index.html

=======================================================

1. Story Submission: "Let's Read a Story, Grandpa!"

I am pleased to welcome writer Art Montague from Ottawa, Canada,
who has submitted the first guest story to be featured in the
first issue of The Bahamas Writer. Art says of his little
grand-daughter: "If, this Christmas, I must choose between
purchasing a book or video for K.C., I'll go for the book.
Between us, I already have! "

"Let's Read a Story, Grandpa!" - by Art Montague

K.C. is three and one-half years old. In a world of television
and computers, nothing holds a candle to her love for books.

K.C. has a library card. She's had it for two years now and at
least once every couple of weeks, she borrows a whack of books
and plugs through them. Normally this is not a big deal. A lot
of people read.

K.C., however, can't quite read. She's close. She knows the
alphabet, she can put together words and pictures by
association, rather as if the words were pictographs in their
own right, and she's beginning to grasp that the conjunction of
some letters in the alphabet are words, words with meaning.

Read rest of story at Art's Place click here:
http://amontague.homestead.com/Christmas.html

"Let's Read a Story, Grandpa!" is an original, unpublished essay
in Art Montague's collection entitled "Travels With K.C."
Another, "Rainy Day Rainbows", was accepted into "Chicken Soup
for the Grandparent's Soul" - scheduled to come out in April.
Links to other K.C. adventures can be found at Art's Place:
click here: http://amontague.homestead.com/ 

=======================================================

Note: You may distribute this Newsletter. Feel free to post it
to your website or BBS if you like. However no part of this
Newsletter may be reproduced in whole, or in part, without
keeping the links within this newsletter active.

=======================================================

2. Writing Tip - Sweet Dreams

Dreams can give you inspiration! Keep a pad and pen next to
your bed, to write them down. If I wake up in the middle of the
night with an exciting or interesting dream on my mind, I know I
won't remember it in the morning, so I reach for my pen and
write a couple of words or sentences in the dark, then go back
to sleep. The next day, when I decipher what I scribbled,
sometimes the dream isn't as eventful as it seemed in the "heat
of the night". However, occasionally it has potential and I
toss it in my "Ideas" file for later.

- Fay Knowles,
http://www.bahamaswriter.com

=======================================================

3. The Plight of Bahamian Writers

There are few writing opportunities in the Bahamas for our
published writers, let alone aspiring ones.

When I quit a secretarial job in 1991 "to work as a full time
freelance writer", I advertised my writing services in the local
newspapers, but only received one response - and that was from a
friend! For a limited time only, he hired me to write
advertising copy for his business.

Fortunately, shortly after that I heard about a freelance
writing opportunity in a shopping mall - again through a friend.
In a small metropolis like Nassau, it's often the same old story
of "who you know".

Resulting from the mall job, I did receive writing assignments
from Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and a couple of local
restaurants.

PR work can be challenging and rewarding if you can get it, but
many of us long to see our work splashed across glossy magazines
or featured in special sections of newspapers.

Sadly, there are few "glossies" here in the Bahamas and the
newspapers seem pretty well covered with their in-house writers
or regular contributors, many of whom I'm sorry to say are
non-Bahamians. These publications seem to have no problem
obtaining work permits for the newcomers.

Now, before you non-Bahamian writer friends of mine rush here to
the sun, sea and fun, please consider all of our Bahamian
writers who deserve the first chance!

More needs to be done to help the Bahamian writer gain a
foothold in the publishing world. Perhaps a School of
Journalism could be established in Nassau, like the Eugene
Dupuch Law School, which enables students to study law here
instead of abroad.

Not only do we need more job opportunities for writers in the
print media, but also in broadcasting. We have several radio
stations, but only one television station - and that's
government run.

Of course, there are those Bahamians who studied abroad and have
returned to good jobs in the writing field, but as Nassauvian
Allyson Sweeting, who received a B.A. in Communications at De
Paul University, Chicago, says, "Wages are generally low for
people trying to make a living off writing here at home and too
many editorial jobs (or other hierarchical writing positions)
are withheld." (By the way, Allyson is a really talented young
writer and can be reached at sweetings@coralwave.com).

We do have some gallant little book publishers in the Bahamas,
as well as a few not so little, but most of the time we
Bahamians have to fork out our own bucks to get published here.
I suppose local publishing companies just don't have the funds
for promoting Bahamian authors.

I've noticed many of our writers have a tendency to rush off and
self-publish. I'm not against self-publishing, as many
self-published books have become best sellers, but personally I
feel we should first try to get published with a major
international publishing house.

I once sent a query to a local newspaper. The response was that
they'd like to see my article, but was I offering it "gratis"?!
Needless to say, I didn't send it to them.

I submitted it instead, along with lots of great photos, to
another newspaper, which published it minus the photos in their
Editorial "Commentary" section. As a result, I received no
payment and I lost interest in submitting material to the local
market, turning my sights again on foreign publications.

Unfortunately many Bahamian writers don't seem to be aware of
the great potential of international markets.

On the other side of the coin, however, more and more Bahamian
writers are gaining access to the Internet. This will enable
them to do research at great length, hone their craft, find
markets and submit work to international publications by email.

Eventually we might have a dearth of Bahamian writers who have
gone off into cyber space to happily write for publishers around
the world. Maybe then, our local publications will beg them to
come back, give them responsible writing positions and at last
pay them what they deserve.

Author: Fay Knowles,
http://www.bahamaswriter.com

=======================================================

4. What's New: Eight Sections Completed

Eight sections of BahamasWriter have now been completed, plus
I have some more Works in Progress.

I was asked why I didn't finish my website before putting it on
line. Well, first of all, my son Gavin who designed and
maintains the site for me said "just do it"! Secondly, I
wouldn't have been this far along with the site if compiling it
off line. My excuse would have been "Time Management" and
"Writer's Block"!

I hope you'll be patient with me. I'm working hard on getting
the sections of BahamasWriter completed. It won't be long now!

- Fay Knowles, The Bahamas Writer

View sections completed click here:
http://www.bahamaswriter.com

=======================================================

5. Coming Soon: The Bahamas Writer Forums

We are currently working on the installation of The Bahamas
Writer Forums which will offer writers a place to ask questions
and discuss writing in general. 

- Gavin Knowles, gavin@fast-sites.net
http://www.bahamasb2b.com/bahamasb2b/FastSites/index.html 

=======================================================

I hope you've enjoyed this issue of The Bahamas Writer.
If you have any questions or comments relating to this
Newsletter or BahamasWriter.com please feel free to Email
them to me at:

Copyright © 2001 The Bahamas Writer. All rights reserved.
You may distribute this Newsletter. Feel free to post it to
your website or BBS if you like. However no part of this
Newsletter may be reproduced in whole, or in part, without
keeping the links within this newsletter active.

=======================================================
To unsubscribe completely, please click the link below:
http://www.bahamaswriter.com/unsubscribe.htm