Jamie Engle is an award-winning journalist and photographer. She is also a freelance writer and public relation specialist. She and Pauline Jones wrote Managing Your Book Writing Business. Their second book, Building Your Author Platform, is due out later this year. Jamie has lived in north Texas more than half her life, is married and has three daughters.

I've up a Google Group for those interested in joining an on-line critique group.

If you are interested, let me know and I'll send you an invitation to join the group.

Have too many books that you've already read and don't know what to do with them, try BookMooch.

In August's meeting Karolina, told us about BookMooch http://bookmooch.com/ .

BookMooch is a community for exchanging used books. BookMooch lets you give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want.

Give & receive: Every time you give someone a book, you earn a point and can get any book you want from anyone else at BookMooch. Once you've read a book, you can keep it forever or put it back into BookMooch for someone else, as you wish.

No cost: there is no cost to join or use this web site: your only cost is mailing your books to others.

Points for entering books: you receive a tenth-of-a-point for every book you type into our system, and one point each time you give a book away. In order to keep receiving books, you need to give away at least one book for every three you receive.

Help charities: you can also give your points to charities we work with, such as children's hospitals (so a sick kid can get a free book delivered to their bed), Library fund, African literacy, or to us to thank us for running this web site <grin>.

World wide: You can request books from other countries, in other languages. You receive 3 points when you send a book out of your country, to help compensate you for the greater mailing cost, but it only costs the moocher 2 points to get the book. John Buckman, who runs BookMooch, has lived in California, England, France and Germany, and was frustrated by the vast number of books that were printed in just one country and not available in the other countries (for example, many books are published in Britain and never made available in America).

Wishlist: you can keep a "book wish list" that will automatically arrive to you when you have the points and/or the book becomes available in our catalog.

Feedback score: each time you receive a book, you can leave feedback with the sender, just like how eBay does it. If you keep your feedback score up, people are most likely to help you out when you ask for a book.

How we pay our bills: We tap into Amazon's book database, and if you follow an Amazon link from our web site, we receive a commission from Amazon if you buy that book instead of getting it free from BookMooch.

Why "Mooch"?: dictionary.co.uk defines "mooch" as: "to obtain something without paying for it, or to borrow something without intending to return it" as in "You're old enough to get a job and stop mooching off your family." And so, the word fits this project: BookMooch is a way to get books without paying, and without any intention of returning the book. This is the American definition of "mooch" and one of two British definitions. The other British definition is "to walk or act slowly and without much purpose" as in "Stop mooching about in your room and do something useful!" which isn't an entirely appropriate definition for this web site, but it is funny so we'll just live with it.

Why create this?: if you're passionate about books, you know how emotionally difficult it is to throw a book away, even if you will never read it again. You want to find a good home for your books, have them find someone who appreciates them. Also, you may be interested in trying a lot of books out, and keep the ones that are great. It's a great crime to have a book disappear, out of print, for none to read. BookMooch keeps books in circulation, and finds new readers for them. If you're not interested in getting free books, you can donate to charities, the points you gain by giving your books away.

Who are we? BookMooch is conceived, designed, written and administered by John Buckman (pictured above). John also runs the online record label Magnatune as well as several other web sites with his wife Jan. The graphic identity of the site is by Claudy Niesen, and the illustration is by Andrice Arp.

Hello, I am the coordinator of author friendly book festivals, an innovative type that has branched this year to two others because of their successful results. It costs the author little or nothing to attend. All set ups are free. It is a volunteer event that benefits authors and the citizenry putting it on.

Oct. 24th - 2009, set ups from 7:30 a.m. until 9. There will be people to help you unload and set up and take down. The event goes from 9 a.m. until 5 pm. at the Convention Center in Duncan, OK, The Simmons Center.

Best Author Display awards will be given as well as large cash awards to the winners (5) of the 8th grade essay contests from all Stephens County, home schooled and public schools included in this. First prize is $250.

The Hampton Inn has a block of rooms at a discounted price, $89. ($101.06 w/tax) for an author and spouse, an extra $10. for two individuals sharing this double bed room. BOK is the code word to get this room rate.

If you would be interested in being a part of probably 60-70 authors, contact me for a name registration with your ph. number/ address/ email address and genre of book.

Tonya Holmes Shook shookum@pldi.net 580-439-6912

http://okwriters.blogspot.com/ more information about this book festival.

POETRY CORNER

Poetry Group
3rd Saturday
10:00 am
Emily Fowler Library
502 Oakland St
Denton, TX

Open Mic Night
4th Wednesday
7:00 pm
Recycled Books
200 N Locust St
Denton, TX

CONVENTIONS

Convention                   Month    Place                    URL             

ConDFW                   Feb     Dallas, TX       http://www.condfw.org/
AggieCon                 March   Bryan, TX        http://aggiecon.tamu.edu/
Dreamin' in Dallas       April   Dallas, TX       http://www.dallasromanceauthors.com/conferences/
Texas Frightmare         May     Dallas, TX       http://www.texasfrightmareweekend.com/lifetype/
ApolloCon                June    Houston, TX      http://www.apollocon.org/
Conestoga                July    Tulsa, OK        http://www.sftulsa.org/conestoga/
Armadillo Con            August  Austin, TX       http://www.fact.org/dillo/
Mythcon                  August  Norman, OK       http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon37.html
Bubonicon                August  Albuquerque, NM  http://www.bubonicon.com/
Fencon                   Sept    Dallas, TX       http://www.fencon.org/
     A comprehensive list of other conventions    http://www.fencon.org/links.html#calendar
World Fantasy Con        Nov     Austin, TX       http://www.worldfantasy.org/