Happy holidays

Happy puja holidays to all WIPers past and present. This year's batch: don't forget to write your final stories over the holidays. Story clinic when we rejoin after the break.

Caferati Listings mailing list: from Peter Griffin

Caferati - Calcutta
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-CalcuttaCaferati-Calcutta@googlegroups.com
Today's topics: Introducing: Caferati Listings (beta)

From: "peter griffin"

Hello. This is to inform you that we have now started a new mailing list, Caferati Listings <http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Listings>. Unlike most of our newsgroups, this one doesn't require moderator approval to join. And it is a send-only list, so you you will not be subjected to endless replies, debates and chatter. To subscribe go to http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Listings and sign up. (Or mail one of us, and we'll send you an invitation.)

About Caferati Listings

Since we have access to a bunch of writers, we get a lot of requests to help publicise contests and submissions to anthologies, list job openings and stuff like that. Some of these we post to our forum, or forward to our local groups. This can get tedious when done piecemeal. So we decided to create a separate newsletter devoted to just that task. Caferati Listings will send out information about interesting writing opportunities, paid and unpaid (provided we think they're cool) and events. This includes:

• Contests, online or in print.

• Calls For Submissions from publishing houses and the media, online or in print.
• Information on literary events and festivals that seek participation fromoutside their own geographical area.
• Job opportunities for writers, full-time, part-time, freelance, retainer-based or one-off assignments.

Frequency

Emails to this list will never exceed one a week. More likely than not, it will be a comprehensive monthly mail, unless something very juicy, but with a very short deadline crops up. You can also choose not to receive any emails, and only visit the group's home page whenever you please. (Just remember to bookmark it, hm?) You can adjust those settings when you sign up, or later, by visiting the group's page.

Privacy

Caferati's editors are the only ones who will have access to the email address you use to subscribe to Caferati Listings. We will never sell, rent or lend this list to any other person ororganisation.

Submissions to Caferati Listings

You are invited, nay, urged, to send in information about contests, events, writing opportunities, calls for submissions, literature festivals and the like. You need not be the person behind whatever it is you're submitting. You're welcome to send us tip-offs and links as well. In the case of tip-offs, we will credit the first person to send in a particular item. Like so: "Via: Salman Naipaul, yourURL" (if you send us one). Please let us know if you do not want to be credited. Mail editorsATcaferatiDOTcom, and use the words "For Listings -Submission" or "For Listings - Tip" in the subject line to ensure you get past our spam filters. (Do NOT mail the group directly. It is, as we said, a one-way mailing list, so your mail won't reach us or Caferati Listings subscribers.) Make your submission brief, and do include URLs where those interested can get more info.

Ideal submission:

Name of event or opportunity
Brief explanation
Rewards
Conditions / restrictions / deadlines
URL for more information, if necessary
Your name and URL

Conditions for Submissions

Do NOT send us email with attachments. We won't open them. If there is any kind of entry, admission or application fee, please state that clearly. Likewise with deadlines, and any other restrictions or conditions. For unpaid writing opportunities, please state why you think the opportunity is worth the application. If you submit a paid job opportunity, please state clearly the experience, qualifications and/or certifications you consider mandatory, contact details for queries, and the preferred method of, and deadline for, application. If you're including a "more information" URL, please link directly to the relevant page or permalink. Don't post a parent site site link and expect people to go search. If you're expecting us to hunt and then list your submission, we have two words for you. Ha. Ha.

Caferati's editors reserve the right to refuse to include your submission, and to not give you any reasons for refusal. Listing events or opportunities will be free for as long as we can manage it. However, if this list becomes insanely popular (we wish!), and begins to take up large amounts of the time we set aside to earn our livings, we may consider charging for submissions, particularly where the person or organisation making the submission stands to make money. This will be with plenty of advance notice. And if we do so, paid submissions will be in a separate, clearly marked section.

Strictly local events

For information on Caferati's own local read-meets and other strictly local writing-related events and opportunities, please check if we have your city covered in our list of local newsgroups (URLs below the signature line), and subscribe to one of those. Just to make this clear, you don't have to be a Caferati member to subscribe to Caferati Listings <http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Listings>.

Of course, for those of you who aren't, we would be thrilled to see you on our free Forum <http://bwc-network.ryze.com/>, currently hosted on Ryze<http://www.ryze.com/>.

http://caferati.com/ListingsAnnouncement.htm

Thank you.

Annie Zaidi, Manisha Lakhe, Peter Griffin--for Caferati

<http://www.caferati.com/> http://www.caferati.com

Blog: http://caferati.blogspot.com

Forum: http://bwc-network.ryze.com

News for members: http://groups.google.com/group/CaferatiUpdates

Announcements of contests we run, endorse or partner:

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Contests

Local Groups in India:

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Ahmedabad

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Bombay

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Bangalore

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Calcutta

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Delhi

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Hyderabad

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Jaipur

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Jodhpur

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Kanpur

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Lucknow

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Madras

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Nagpur

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Pune

Local Groups elsewhere:

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Dubai

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Singapore

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-BayArea

http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-London

Submissions wanted

Submissions wanted from past and present WIPers for the Blabberwocky journal (see TT Metro for today) of stories of not more than 100 words. This will be an extremely high-powered deal with stuff from Terry Pratchett, Julian Barnes and Benjamin Zephaniah. Submit to me or sudiptoDOTsanyalATgmailDOTcom. You have till September 20.

Midsemester examination question paper

Here is the question paper of the recently concluded mid sem test, in case anyone feels like breaking their head on it.

Answer any ONE question. Where you are asked to complete a passage, your contribution should be at least as long as the given text.

1. This is a flat factual description of a street scene. Rewrite it, adding emotional colour in the form of scents, sounds, metaphors, and figurative language. Your additions should contribute to the vividness of the scene. Note: Do not introduce action or main characters.

It was a wide street with skyscrapers along it. The cars were mostly private, a few taxis, some buses. People were walking along, looking at the shops. The shops were smart with big windows and window displays. There were some beggars. The traffic island had a little garden on it. On the corner there was a café. There were tables on the street where people were sitting under umbrellas. College had just given over and kids were going home. Office goers were returning, carrying leather briefcases and looking for taxis.

Or

2. Choose one of these plot outlines and finish it.
a) A girl is born blind. She is very intelligent, but her parents feel guilty for the way she is and overprotect her, not letting her go to school for fear she won’t be able to handle it. She spends most of the time on the roof, listening to an old tape-recorder and a selection of Rabindrasangeet. Next to their house, unbeknownst to them, an ex-convict has rented the rooftop room. He’s trying to rehabilitate himself, but no one will give him work. He wonders why he always hears music, and one day he spots her swaying alone in her little room on the roof. He calls her over and lends her a Rabindrasangeet tape. Invent what happens next.

b) A businessman’s car breaks down on the Mehrauli Road, in a very dark and deserted part of it. He tries to flag a car down but has no success. It’s late at night and the following day is a national holiday. He can’t get a connection on his mobile phone. He starts to walk north along the road. After a while a car stops. It’s full of young people coming back from a party. They’re all a little high, and they expansively agree to drop the businessman off at his Gurgaon home. They set off, but soon they seem to be lost. The young people aren’t bothered. They bring out food and wine and have a picnic on the car’s bonnet. The businessman’s watch now says two am. He’s really worried and a little out of his depth. Invent what happens next.

Or

3. Create a plot outline using one item from each of the following sets. The item from category (a) should be your dominant mood, (b) should figure in some way in the story, (c) should be your main character (d) should be your setting. You may add other elements and characters as necessary:

a. Rage, love, resentment, gratitude,
b. A chain, a box, a mirror, a ball,
c. a housewife, a vagrant, a fireman, a painter,
d. a condemned house, a laboratory, a train compartment, a riverbank.

Or

4. Complete the following dialogue:
‘Did you see that?’
‘What?’
‘That guy winked at me!’
‘He didn’t. Stop imagining things, Sonia, and read your book. There’s still five hours to go before we land at Dum Dum.’
‘You’re such a spoilsport, Mahua,’ Sonia pouted and looked out of the window.
Mahua sighed. ‘It is just possible, Sonia, that every guy in the world isn’t destined to fall automatically and hopelessly in love with you.’
‘And what would you know about it? All you ever do is tie guys in knots with your intellectual fundas. Guys don’t like brains, sweetie. It makes them go all awkward and spill their Coke.’