American Idol for Writer's

Trying to explain the process of getting a book published to a non-writer is like speaking Latin to a duck.  I'm sure you've been there.  The conversations are all the same, usually going something like this:

"How's the books coming?"

Big sigh. "It's coming.  I'm editing still."

"Really? How long you gonna edit that thing?"

Laugh. "I know. My cps are--"

"You're what?"

"Oh, sorry, my critique partners are looking it over now. Maybe I'll be done editing when they're done editing."

"Then you'll get it published?"

Laugh again. "No, then I send out a query letter."

"What the hell is a query letter? Is that even a word?"

"I know, I know.  It's a letter to entice an agent into requesting your manuscript."

"What? You don't just send your book somewhere?"

Sigh. "It's not a book yet."

I could continue this lovely back and forth for you, but you know where it's going. 

From now on, I think I'm just going to say writing a book is like trying out for

We write a "book", who hasn't right?

Then we send out the query letter, putting our best before the judges in an attempt to stand out.

Feedback goes something like this...

or this...

We're hoping for this

When that happens, we might get a full request, which must be something like this

But we're not there yet folks.  We're about here...

and then here

and then here

and hopefully

I know there's a lot more after this, but I think this is as far as my brain is willing to project.  Especially when I'm back here...























So good luck to all my fellow contestants!
I hope to see the confetti falling on you soon :)


(And I apologize for picking on the guys here, but the male contestant pictures were just so much better than the girl contestant pictures, I couldn't help myself! Thank you American Idol!)

Liebster Blog

Thanks so much Lillie!  And congratulations on passing 100 blog followers :)

Five things my daughter came up with about me:

I like to do gardening (I'm not very good at it).

I like to play soccer.

I love my family.

We have two dogs (Keyser and Mowgli) and two cats (Eywa and Oreo).

When I read my daughter her bedtime story, Oreo comes in and sits on me to hear it too.

Sharing the love with 10:

Leigh Covington

Kelley at Between the Bookends

Cassie at Reading Writing and Lovin' it!

Joshua at Vive le Nerd

Jenny at Jenny's imaginary World

Jade at Dream Write Publish

Amber at Unyielding

Angela at Live to Write

J A Bennett

Emily at Get Busy Writing

AND I JUST HIT 100 FOLLOWERS!!!  WOO HOO!!!!   THANK YOU!!!!!

Interview Day

(If I could do a comment bubble coming out of my head, this would be my answer:   

"Uh, Gerard Butler is way hotter than Leonardo DiCaprio?")

I am doing my first blog interview! Yippee!  

In the spirit of the Get Fired Up Blogfest and the Help a Fellow Bogger Blogfest, Cassie is offering blog critiques. I've said it a million times before, Cassie is awesome!  She's given me amazing edits as a cp and super helpful tips on improving my own blog. She's just an incredible person all around :) THANK YOU CASSIE!!!

And today, she's spotlighting me  :)   

Hop over to Cassie's blog Reading Writing and Lovin' it! and comment, then get the details of how you can get Cassie's feedback and a chance to be in the spotlight!

 

WOOO HOOOOOO CASSIE!

Cassie is awesome!  

She got a full request from the Cupid's Literary Connection contest going on now :)

Another fabulous writer getting closer

Good luck Cassie!!!!!!

Congratulations Stephanie!

Yay Stephanie!  

Stephanie entered the Can You Hit a Perfect Pitch blogfest and won! 

Check out her blog at http://stephanieevelanddiaz.blogspot.com/ and read about Extraction, it's awesome!  

She's on her way!  So glad to have her as a cp :)  She is an amazing writer and critique partner!

Best of the Best

With the inspiration of Melissa Sugar-Gold's blogfest, my Best of the Best this time focuses on blogging.  

I've been writing for a while and those close to me knew I had been working on a "book".  As the months ticked by, they asked less frequently (some stopped asking altogether), and I think they started doubting I had actually put words to paper.  So I started a blog to give people I knew a place to read my story.  Proof, if you will :)

Then I realized blogs need to be more than what my original plan entailed *shock and awe*.  I've been throwing stuff on here for a few months now, evolving as a blogger, and in need of a blog makeover.   A huge thanks goes to Cassie (she's offering up blog critiques right now!), who, as always, pointed me in the right direction :)  And thank you to all the blogs I follow, I've tried to pick up on your lead!

Best of the Best--blogging:

Anne R Allen's blog How to Blog

Jane Friedman's Blogging for Writers

Vickie Motter's Navigating the Slush Pile What I've learned from Bloggingrned-from-blogging.html

Top 10 Blog Writing Tips

Chris Brogan's 23 Essential Elements of Sharable Blog Posts

Matthew Stibbe at Bad Language How to blog like a pro

About.com's 15 Tips to Increase Blog Traffic

Check out my writing links above for more helpful links to blogging well :)

Get Fired Up

Melissa Sugar-Gold is hosting this awesome blogfest with amazing prizes over at Have You Heard?

The idea behind her blogfest is to help fellow bloggers improve.  

I'm fairly new to the blogging world, and am ready for a blog face lift.  Any ideas, suggestions, or tips on what helped your blog would be greatly appreciated :)

I love an award :)

  

Thanks Kelley! 

And thank you Leigh! 


You ladies have awesome blogs and give wonderful comments, thank you, thank you, thank you!  Awards totally make me smile :)

And I think I'll go for fives here:

1. I have to plug my nose when jumping in a pool, a lake, the ocean, whatever.  No matter how much I've practiced, my nose is not built to withstand water.

2.  One of my favorite non-chocolate snacks is dry Cheerios.  I eat them in pairs.

3.  I'm a painfully slow reader, I read in my head the same speed I read aloud.  In school, when we had to read a section and then wait while the others finished, I cheated every time.  I'd read the topic sentences and bold typed stuff and hope I got the gist of what was going on.  There's no way I was gonna be last :)

4.  I hate being last.

5.  It snowed a foot here in the past twenty-four hours, not usual for this part of Washington. 

And the awards go to

Jess at Falling Leaflets

Joshua at Vive le Nerd

Lara at Motivation for Creation

Jenny at Jennys Imaginary World

Crystal at Reading, Writing and A Little Bit of Nonsense

and even though I know Cassie has these awards, she needs them again :)

80's crush

Thanks Nicki, Suze, M Pax for the fun blogfest!

Oh, there are so many choices...the 80's were the start of my boy crazy days :)  My room was covered in magazine posters of Corey Haim, Kirk Cameron, Ralph Macchio, and Scott Baio.  But these are the real hunks of the 80's that still stand out in my head:

Emilio was probably my first crush

Then I realized I wanted the guy with the car (and the hair and the money...)

But Robert Downey Jr. closed out the 80's as a big time hunk that is even more of a hunk today :)

I can't wait to hop around and have some seriously hunky 80's flashbacks!

Can You Hit a Perfect Pitch?



Title:  My Protector: The Calling

Genre: YA post-apocalytpic

Word Count: 70,000 words

Pitch:  When Eri develops the calling—an internal link to the man-eating beasts plaguing the planet—she must learn to control it or gain skills to fight before ending up in the belly of a beast.

150 words:

Going to the river alone is forbidden.  Knowing this clear-cut rule of our people wasn’t enough to stop me from stepping off the gravel path and walking deep into the vacant field.  I no longer controlled my body.

Adrenaline thrummed inside me as I drifted closer.  White-hot anger burned in my belly, if it was even anger churning there.  I had never felt anger creep through my veins before.  Whatever this was, it pulled me toward the unknown.

I didn’t belong out there.  I knew better.  I should’ve run in the opposite direction, back to our village.  But I couldn’t turn away.  With each step into the darkness, the foreign emotion intensified, guiding me forward.  I surrendered to the aggression.  I had no choice. 

The warning bell struck, ringing through my insides.  My people had fled for safety into the closest shelter possible when it sounded the first time.

Not me.

Contest Description:

On January 15th post a two sentence pitch (no more than 35 words) along with the first 150 words (if it falls in the middle of a sentence, go to the end of that sentence) of your finished Young Adult or Middle Grade manuscript to your blogs.

To participate, sign up on the linky at  Brenda Drake Writes...Under the influence of coffee

Good luck!

Squirrel

I usually start out my day checking emails and such, then pop over here to reply to comments and then SQUIRREL!  I'm reading fifteen blogs and forty-five minutes have passed.  What was I doing?  Oh yeah, needed to write a post for the week.  Get that done, go back to edit for my critique partners, one of my kids cries, fix their boo boo, walk by the laundry room and SQUIRREL!  What was I doing?  Two loads of laundry later, dishes done, and cat box cleaned, I return to my computer and finish reading for one of my cps, open up the next batch of chapters, ahhh my desk is such a mess and SQUIRREL!  What was I doing?  My desk is now beautiful and one of my kids is hungry so I fix them both lunch and wow I need to vacuum but the vaccuum needs to be emptied and how come nobody ever sweeps the front porch?  Another hour and a half pass and I finally return to my computer to finish the chapters, go to email edited work to cp and YAY I have an email from my sister and SQUIRREL!  What was I doing?  Six emails later and a half hour of cyber browsing and oh I better check my blog to see if I need to return a new follow, and maybe I can read two more chapters before I really have to eat.  I open the next story and SQUIRREL!

Maybe I need one of these

I think it's time I give myself a schedule :)  Maybe one of those kitchen timers with a loud ding too, I have a cute chicken one, but I think it's in my daughter's room, her room is such a mess, maybe I should help her organize it, oh my pantry could use that too, and what am I cooking for dinner tonight, oh yeah I need to go to the grocery store...

Great Comments Award

Thanks Cassie Mae!  Your blog is awesome and that's why it's so easy to comment on your posts :)  Hop over to her blog and check out her insightful and hilarious posts!  And don't forget to sign up for her blogfest too :)

Finding comments on my posts is so exciting!  I look forward to opening my blog and reading what people say, it makes my day.  I appreciate all the thoughts and giggles supporting me along with the rest of the writing bloggers out there! 

These are some fantastic commenters and their blogs to follow :)

Kelley at Between the Bookends

Trisha at WORD + STUFF

Laura at Daily Dodo

Bethany at Rookie Riter: Trying to get it write

Lynn(e) Schmidt at The Submission Process

Thank you and keep the comments flowing!

Best of the Best

Over the holidays, I was asked on a few different ocasions what I was writing about.  I love to talk about writing.  I love it even more when someone is interested enough to ask me about it.  But to briefly sum up the thing I've been bleeding my heart and soul into for over a year (I don't want to say how long it's really been)? 

My response usually goes something like, "Um, well, there's this girl and these beasts, and the Protectors, and there was a meteoric rain that destroyed the planet, um..."   

My brain spasms, my mouth sputters incoherancies, I feel like a failure because now my writing sounds like a bunch of hooey.

This should be simple. After all, I'm the one who made it up.

Try as I might, I cannot clearly state the gist of my manuscript.  In light of this, and the several blog competitions/contests coming up on the subject, I have dedicated this week's Best of the Best to writing a clear pitch/logline and hopefully soon I will be able to write one myself :) 

Best of the Best--pitch/logline

Nathan Bransford's How to Write a One Sentence Pitch

Writing Killer Loglines by Stina Lindenblatt

Story Sensei's Elevator Pitch

Amie Kaufman's Catch My Pitch

Janice Hardy's Here's the Pitch

Hallie Ephron's Crafting Your Pitch

Query Tracker's Writing a Logline/The One-Sentence Pitch

Michelle McLean's How to Write a Hook Line or Logline

Christopher Lockhart's The Construction of a Logline




I hope these help if you've found yourself in the same situation I continue to stumble into :)











Is it Getting HOT in Here? blog hop

Is it Getting HOT in Here?  blog hop

  

February 14th

with Cassie Mae (writer extraordinaire and blogmaster guru) at Reading, Writing, and Lovin' it! 

Those kissy scenes are challenging to write, but I love reading one when it's crafted so well it feels like I'm standing beside the characters, watching with inflamed cheeks as sparks fly between the two lovebirds. 

Please share one of your favorite kissing scenes from a book you've read, from your own WiP, make one up, or write about one of your own memorable kisses.  Then hop around to feel how sweet, romantic, or downright steamy other characters are getting smooched!

To Enter:

1. Add your link to the linky links at the end of this post.
2. Post your kiss story February 14th and don’t forget to grab the Is it Getting HOT in Here? blog hop picture!

3. You don’t have to follow us, but it would be awesome if you do!  We’ll follow you back ;)

The Prize:

2 lucky kiss stories will receive a 14 page edit from both Cassie Mae and me :) 

You can sign up any time before the blog hop begins.  Feel free to spread the word! We'd love to have lots of participants!  Don't forget to steam up your Valentine's day with all the other kisses!