Great StoryTelling Network Newsletter
Volume 12, Issue 4 – 18 May 2016
How To Tell A Great Story
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Columnists’ Books|
Aneeta Sundararaj|
Ladoo Dog|
Website Makeover|
My Cholesterol Journey in Malaysia|
Eric Okeke|
Corruption, Stop it!|

Rohi Shetty|
200 Humorous Tweetable Quotations |
Dear [FIRSTNAME],

Thank you all for sending me your emails in response to our posts last time. In particular, Steven Choby shared a lovely story about his dog, Sissy. Thank you.

In today’s edition, I am sharing a story about why I can’t keep a diary. I also found a new resource about how to write an eBook in 7 days. If you’re interested, do follow the link under ‘Resources for Storytellers’.

Rohi shares asks if you’re a writer who doesn’t write and says that this piece is inspired by me. He also shares details of a contest in ‘Tell Everyone About…’. If you do enter to contest, do tell the organisers that you heard about it from Rohi.

Bill Keeth shares a story about Easter Monday 100 years ago.

Happy storytelling.
Aneeta Sundararaj

RESOURCES FOR STORYTELLERS
1000 REVIEWS: Review of The Moroni Deception by Jack Brody

Michael Chenault is an award-winning investigative journalist with the New York Times. One night, he is accused of murdering a complete stranger. After clearing his name, he discovers that the victim died in strange circumstances. When he receives information of another murder, his interest is piqued because the second victim is killed in identical circumstances. He decides that these events are worth investigating and embarks on an adventure that will take him to Salt Lake City, Utah. This forms the basis of Jack Brody’s The Moroni Deception. On the website for this book, http://themoronideception.com, it is stated that what Michael Chenault discovers ‘may not only determine the next Presidential election, but cause an entire religion to come tumbling down’.

What is this religion, though? For those who know little about the Mormons, Brody has thoughtfully included information at the front of the book. He explains that in the 5th Century, Moroni buried Gold Plates that contained the sacred history of the Americas. In the 19th century, one Joseph Smith said that Moroni appeared to him as an angel and reportedly directed him to the burial site of these plates. Joseph Smith then translated them and published The Book of Mormon. At the back of the book, Brody provides even more information about this movement and of interest is that Joseph Smith announced his candidacy for President of the United States in 1844. …

To read more, please click here.

A TO Z CHALLENGE – ‘D for Diaries’ by Aneeta Sundararaj

On Saturday, 13 February 2016, I read Mahendra Ved’s column in the papers about President Pranab Mukherjee’s colourful memoirs, ‘The Turbulent Years: 1980-96’. He wrote:

It is rare that a serving head of state, anywhere, writes political memoirs giving his own version and perspective of events where he has been an insider-participant.
This is a chronicle for other participants – friends and foes – to take note and students of present-day politics to digest. But he risks being accused of omission and/or commission.
…Mukherjee is not in the league of bloggers and best-sellers. By his own admission, he adopted ‘a conservative approach’, taking care not to touch an official document. He relies solely on his diaries, having added a page in them on each day of his six decades’ public life.
… These are the ifs and buts of history.
…What enhances the readability of Mukherjee’s book is the depiction of perpetual insecurity in which top Indian politicians live.

It’s the word ‘diaries’ that got me thinking. I know many, many people who keep diaries. Indeed, Salman Rushdie keeps a journal.

In my family, my grandmother kept a diary. My mother keeps a diary. And here’s a story about how useful my mother’s diary was in ascertaining the ‘truth’. A few years ago, one morning, when the post arrived, we got a ‘love letter’. This is what my father calls a speeding ticket. The date when we committed this offence was a Friday and somewhere in Butterworth. I was so relieved because it meant that this time, it was different. Usually, I am the one who receives these ‘love letters’ and it’ll be for my car. Since this ‘love letter’ was for Daddy’s car, it was only logical that he was the one who was speeding while driving to Penang….

To read more, please click here.

Are You A Writer Who Doesn’t Write? by Rohi Shetty

You know that if you really wanted to write, you would. So what is actually going on here? Why do you often do everything but write?

In a recent interview with Marie Forleo, Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, lists five reasons why you may want to be a writer but don’t write as often or as much as you want to.

  1. Fear of failure

This is the biggest cause of writer’s block. Gilbert says: “Irrespective of what we say, the real reason we don’t move creatively ahead is always and only fear.”

All of us are afraid of criticism and rejection. We feel we don’t have the talent and every time we sit down to write, we feel like an imposter.

Though fear is necessary and protects us from actual physical danger, it is the biggest foe of creativity. That’s because fear is nervy and can’t tell the difference between real danger and pseudo-danger.

The good news is that we don’t need to overcome fear. We only need to acknowledge it and not let it paralyze us when we write.

Fear often takes on the insidious form of the internal critic. When you write, it’s okay to let fear look over your shoulder, but don’t let it stop you or influence your creative choices.

Action step: Start with a “a shitty first draft.” Never stop to think or edit while writing. Write fast as if your creative life depends on it. It does. …

To read more, please click here.

Books Old and New Series – Centenary of the Easter Rising: Easter Monday, 24 April 1916

If, nowadays, an armed force of determined defenders made a stand against an infinitely stronger army of occupation there would be an almighty furore worldwide. Questions would be asked in the House. Representations would be made to the United Nations. Presidents Obama and Putin would lose no time at all in despatching trained mediators to the trouble spot. Political pundits would chunter on interminably within the hermetically-sealed newsrooms of Sky, the BBC and ITN.

This is not the way it was in Dublin on the morning of Easter Monday, 1916, when fewer than 900 men and women secured various strategically-located public buildings around the city. Chief amongst these was the General Post Office, from the roof of which a republican flag was soon flying. Then, at a few minutes past noon, Patrick Pearse (teacher, lawyer, romantically-inclined patriot and poet) strode through the front entrance towards Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street), where he proceeded to read to an audience of bemused onlookers the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.

A troop of lancers bore the brunt of the first fusillade of shots.

With its being a Bank Holiday there were more insurgents than British soldiery at this point, though reinforcements soon arrived. Then the city of Dublin became a war zone for just short of a week, at which point the same Patrick Pearse agreed to British demands for an unconditional surrender.

Retribution was fast and furious.

During the first two weeks in May…

To read more please click here.

TELL EVERYONE ABOUT

Prize: £50 to the winning entry, via PayPal & publication in the Verbolatry newsletter
Eligibility: Anyone over the age of 18, except contest judges and family
Topic: Writing/publishing
Genres: Humorous fiction, humorous nonfiction
Language: English
Types: Cartoon, Essay
Specifications:
Essay – 100 words min., 500 words max., in message body
Cartoon – JPG, PNG or GIF file, resolution 75dpi min., dimensions 900x1400px max., as attachment
Original, previously unpublished work only
One entry per author, regardless of type
Mention the category and title of your entry in the subject line
Include an accurate word count
Tell us where you heard about this contest (You heard it from Rohi Shetty, a columnist at ‘How to Tell a Great Story)
Send entry to: v3rbolatry(at)gmail(dot)com
“Early Bird” submission period*: 1 April 2016 to 31 July 2016 Last date: 31 August 2016
Results announced: October 2016 newsletters

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Hi Aneeta,

All of my Kindle books are available for free download from 3rd May to 7th May 2016, including How King Goldwish Became King Goldheart: An Illustrated Fairy Tale for Children (which is my personal favorite).

Here is the link to my Amazon Author Page: Rohi Shetty Amazon Author Page (Click on the book cover of each book to download it).

much metta,

Rohi

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How are people going to know about your resources if you don’t tell them? Here’s your chance – Send info about your stuff and we’ll post it here for free. Please keep the number of words to no more than 125. Send an email to editor@howtotellagreatstory.com with ‘Tell Everyone About …’ in the subject line.


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