Resources

Writing Resources

• William Shunn Proper MS Format - Short Story
• William Shunn Proper MS format - Novel
• William Shunn Proper MS Format - Poetry
• Locus Science Fiction & Fantasy News​
• Mary Soon Lee's Speculative Fiction Page 
• Marth Wells, Publishing Information for Beginning Authors 
• Punctuation Guide Having issues with punctuation?
• Revising your MS - How to know when you are done. 
• Sample Cover letters for Poetry submissions
• Submitting to the Black Hole - an attempt to locate verifiable response time data as well as "horror stories" for markets that have kept (or are keeping) manuscripts far longer than one might consider reasonable.
• Tangent 
• The Writers Circle - Listing of helpful resources
• WritersNet -- agents with no reading fees 
• http://www.writers.net/agents.html
• Writing Contracts - SFWA​​

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Writing Queries (from Marth Wells, Publishing Information for Beginning Authors )

• Nathan Bransford: Query Letter Mad Lib the basic query letter formula.
• The Swivet: Dissection of a Query Letter
• Rachelle Gardner: How to Write a Query Letter
• Nathan Bransford: 101 Things in Queries that Catch My Eye
• Janet Reid: How to Make Sure Your Query is Instantly Rejected
• Query Wars Posts from Jennifer Jackson of the Donald Maass Literary Agency.
• Query Shark. Learn from others' mistakes.
• How I Got My Agent: The Query Letter by Rebecca F. Kuang

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Writing a Synopsis

• The Synopsis by Bookends, LLC. How to write a synopsis.
• Nathan Bransford: How to Write a Synopsis
• Writing a Synopsis: Part 1 and Writing a Synopsis: Part 2 by Gordon Carroll

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Pittsburgh, PA Speculative Fiction Organizations, clubs & groups:
PARSEC 
Pittsburgh's Premier Science Fiction Organization 

Science Fiction Book Discussion Group
The science fiction book discussion group focuses on classic, "hard," and/or award winning science fiction books. Meets at the Mt. Lebanon Library the 4th Wed of each month
Contact: Don Kirkwood   412-531-1912 dpitt75@comcast.net  
MtLebanon Library FB page
Search the Mt. Leb Library Events Calendar

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Associations
SFWA -- Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. http://www.sfwa.org/

Horror Writers Association
http://horror.org ​

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Conferences & Conventions
Confluence -- The SF/F/H Literary, Music & Art Conference for SW Pennsylvania       www.confluence-sff.org

LEXFA Convention Listings 
http://www.lexfa.org/conlinks.htm
 
Pennwriters Conference -- the New York style conference at a Pennsylvania cost.

PhilCon -- The Philadelphia Conference on Science Fiction and Fantasy   https://philcon.org/

NASFIC-- a SF convention scheduled only during years when Worldcon is held outside of North America 
http://www.nasfic.org/

Nebula Awards Weekend (SFWA) 
http://www.nebulaawards.com/

WorldCon 
http://www.wsfs.org/

World Fantasy Convention 
http://www.worldfantasy2010.com/

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More Writing Workshops
Alpha -- the Teen SF/F/H Writing Workshop 
http://alpha.spellcaster.org/

Clarion -- the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' Workshop 
http://clarion.ucsd.edu/

Hatrack Forums -- Orson Scott Card's Writing workshops 
http://www.hatrack.com/forums/index.shtml

NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month
http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/

Odyssey Writing Workshops Charitable Trust  
http://www.odysseyworkshop.org

Pennwriters
http://www.pennwriters.org/

Seton Hill University Popular Fiction Master's Degree Program 
http://www.setonhill.edu/academics/fiction/index.cfm

Sites that list speculative fiction markets

• Ralan.com www.ralan.com/
• The Submission Grinder
• SFWA - Where to submit
• Speculative Fiction Markets by Mary Soon Lee
• Speculative Literature Foundation
• Duotrope -- Markets for Fiction Writers  You must sign up and have a subscription to use the site. Recommended to help you find markets that pay more than .03 cents a word.  

Markets that pay at least .03 cents per word

• Abyss & Apex (webzine)
• Aliterate
• Analog
• Asimov's Science Fiction
• (Maryland-based writers only) The Baltimore Science Fiction Society Amateur Writing Contest
• Black Static (UK magazine)
• Buzzy Mag (on hiatus, webzine)
• Cemetery Dance (may be permanently closed)
• Chiaroscuro (webzine)
• Clarkesworld Magazine (webzine)
• Fantasy & Science Fiction
• Gobshite Quarterly
• Gothic.net (webzine)
• Interzone (UK magazine)
• K. Ferrin (website)
• Lightspeed Magazine (online magazine)
• Nowa Fantastyka (Polish magazine)
• Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show (webzine)
• Polyphony
• Strange Horizons (webzine)
• Daily Science Fiction ​
• Freelance Writing

Competitions/Contests:

• Fantasy & Science Fiction 
• Aerogramm Writers studio (A blog that Contains bi-monthly list of writing contests)
• L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest
  http://www.writersofthefuture.com/enter-writer-contest/

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​Podcasts
Pseudopod.org
The Sound of Horror 

Escape Pod
http://escapepod.org

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​Awards
John W. Campbell Best New SF Writer Award 
http://www.writertopia.com/awards/campbell

Hugo Awards
http://www.thehugoawards.org/

Nebula Awards
https://nebulas.sfwa.org/news/

Stoker Awards
http://horror.org/bram-stoker-awards/

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