Monthly Archives: July 2011

Yes! We will publish your novel… If…

Posted on July 30, 2011 | 4 comments

 You toil for years over your story.  It’s very intricate.  It’s brilliant

(I can say this because it’s not mine.  This just happened to a friend of mine Friday)

Your story is a three-part series. Every facet of book one is important to the next two novels, and they are all completely written (at least in draft form)

 You send it out, rejection here, rejection there, partial here, partial there, rejection, and then BAM!  A request for a Full Manuscript from an indie publisher.  The only chink is that they think it is too long, so you need to cut 25,000 words out of it before they will even consider you, and you only have two weeks to do it.  You toil and toil.  You edit till you drop.  Your beta partner reads madly right behind you watching for little plot chinks that don’t work.  Coffee if your friend.  Sleep is optional, but you do it.  You make your deadline.  (And I have to admit, the final draft minus the 25,000 words is AWESOME)

 You wait and wait, and after a few weeks, you get a response.  They are interested.  They just want you to change one little thing that they don’t like.  The problem is that one little thing is extremely important to the next two novels.  They said if she’s willing to change that, they’d read the revised version, and prepare to move forward.

 UGH!  I sat on the phone with her for an hour and a half trudging through how to make it work…  how to take this one facet out, or how to work around it.  A week ago, she was talking about how many of her friends changed their stories drastically just to get published.  Now here she is in the same boat.

 I’m wondering what I’d do.  Little changes everyone expects to make… but something drastic enough to affect your entire series? 

 Positive energy SHOOTING your way, Buddy!  I hope you make the right decision, whatever that is!

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Posted in General Writing Tips, Senseless Ranting

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Here’s another pitch contest!

Posted on July 29, 2011 | 2 comments

There’s another pitch contests going on.  So, I figure, why not?

This one is over at Beyond Words and the prize is a full manuscript read and critique by agent Victoria Marini.  Not too shabby.  So, of course I am throwing my hat in the ring.

 If you want to join in, you need to have a completed manuscript, because if you win, she will be requesting a FULL.  Pretty cool.

 The contest is for a two-sentence pitch, and the first sentence of your manuscript.  Of course, I was ranting about the last one, not liking my first 250 words hanging out there all alone.  Now, I am really not liking my first sentence hanging out there all lonely-like.  This is the way it all starts, though, so I am going with it.  Let’s hear it for the voice of a little boy!

Opening Sentence: Grown-ups fight a lot, Magellan thought, as he looked out over the crowd.

Two Sentence Pitch: A common boy unknowingly imprinted with the dangerous powers of the Great Goddess, shatters the galaxy as he knows it.  He travels back in time, hoping to change his destiny, before a jealous prince manipulated by Darkness murders him.

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Posted in Writing Contests

Technology is catching up to Science Fiction

Posted on July 25, 2011 | Comments Off on Technology is catching up to Science Fiction

Funny, when I started writing my novel a few years ago I came up with this neat little innovation…  these kids on my futuristic planet don’t carry books around to school, they have Datapads.  Imagine my surprise when the iPad became the “in thing” last year.  I just laughed it off.  It still fits in my story, and I don’t wave it around as an “innovation” but I found it amusing.

Today, on Circuitmart, there was an eight-minute video clip about “wearable robots”.  The military has contracted for a firm in the USA to create wearable exoskeletons that will be able to read the wearer’s intent, and increase their strength by twenty times.  Eventually, they speculate they may even be able to make people fly.  (They do other cool stuff, but I don’t want to bore you if you’re not into tech-stuff)

Now, my first reaction was: This is a bad idea… haven’t they read Science Fiction stories?  These things lead to no good!  One of the companies mentioned was even named Cyberdine.  (Very funny in a ‘spooky sort of way’ for all you Terminator fans out there)

Anyway, it made me think… for those of us who are Science Fiction authors, we need to really start reaching into the depths of our imagination as far as technology goes.  It was a lot easier to write in the 50’s when a simple computer was a dream someone had.  Now, all our dreams and wildest fantasies are becoming reality.

We are going to have to work harder to spark the interests of our readers.  Yes, you can say “go for the story… the story will drive them in!”  Well, yes, that’s a given, but in Sci-Fi, I think readers look for a little something “different”.

Story is always a given, but to make our worlds seem “futuristic” we are going to have to start working harder… and faster.  You might just come up with something cool, and someone will come up behind you and actually invent and market the darned thing before you even get published!

If you are into “tech stuff” you can watch the video about the robotic armor at the link below.

(Circuitsmart makes you watch a 30-second commercial, first, and the video will start afterwards)

http://www.circuitmart.com/mart/49531.shtml

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Stinking words you hate

Posted on July 22, 2011 | 4 comments

 

 

Dictionary.com had a spotlight on their home page yesterday to a quiz called “12 of the cruelest confusing words–  The English language can be cruel, can’t it?”

Everyone has those “stinking words” that they just cannot get right.  For me, it’s brought and bought.  I just don’t know why I can’t get them straight.  I am an educated woman, but these two words, as my beta readers can attest to, always seem to elude me.  For some reason, my characters always seem to have “brought” something from the store, or they bought a toy with them on a trip.  If given a chance, I will always reverse them.

Here’s the Dictionary.com definitions:

 

brought/verb–simple past tense and past participle of bring

bought/verb–simple past tense and past participle of buy

 

Now, after staring at them, I noticed something… Bring/brought  Buy/Bought…  Bring and Brought both start with a “br”.  Will knowing this help me in the future?  Honestly, probably not.  I don’t even think of these words when I am writing.  They just fly out of my fingers, and the spell check does not catch them, so I don’t even think about it.

 So, I am going to blame it on my fingertips.  I know the difference.  It’s my fingertips that refuse to type them right.

4 Comments

Posted in General Writing Tips

Just how good are YOUR first 250 words?

Posted on July 21, 2011 | 4 comments

 

This past week, I joined a very simple writing contest. 

Nothing flashy… just a pitch and the first 250 words of my manuscript.

 Now, no matter how this turns out, I did get something out of the experience…

 #1:  I read a few of the other entries, and was able to make some comments on them.  It was enlightening to see what else is out there being queried.  There is some really interesting stuff out there.  And ****GACK**** some of these authors are REALLY talented.  See # 2

 #2:  This contest called for the first 250 words of the manuscript.  YIKES. This is my challenge to you.  Read the first 250 words of your manuscript.  Not the first 300.  Not even the first 260.  THE FIRST 250.  Now, you might say, “The first 250 words of any manuscript aren’t good.  They’re just exposition.”  Well, let me tell you.  There are a few people in this contest who have KICK BUTT first 250 words. 

 It made me start thinking… How many agents/publishers might only read the first 250 words or so of a submission, and just move on if they are not INSTANTLY “wowed” by the work? 

The more I thought about it, the more I decided “Probably a lot of them.”  These people are REALLY BUSY. 

I read an interview with an agent who said they receive 10,000 queries a year.  Think that over.

 I, for one, learned something from this contest.  I am looking closely at my first 250 words again. 

When they were standing out there all alone, I didn’t quite love them as much as I did when they were attached to the next paragraph.

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Posted in General Writing Tips

Auntie B’s Book Club Blogfest Contest

Posted on July 19, 2011 | 12 comments

Well, I guess it’s time to jump into this blog thing head on.  My good friend Jenny Keller Ford clued me in to a contest for writers to tie into their blog sites.  So, I thought, “Hey!  I have a blog!”  Okay, so it doesn’t have over a thousand hits yet like hers, but give me time.  I figured I could at least give it a try, since I’m just finishing up my novel.  Why not????

Here’s the deal.  Brenda Drake is hosting a contest on her own blog.  Pure genius if you ask me.  Way to use your connections, girlfriend!  Anyway, It’s called Auntie B’s Book Club Blogfest Contest.  You can hit the link it you want to look at it.  I’m a bit behind.  I only have one day to get feedback.  This is a great opportunity to jump into the ring head on.

The contest is based off a 35 word Pitch, and then the first 250 words of your manuscript.   I have to submit my midnight on July 20th, so any feedback would be GREATLY appreciated.

Well, that being said, here we go!

__________________________________________________

Title: HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

Genre: YA Fantasy

Pitch: A boy with infinite power, but no memory of who he is, or what he can do, builds an army of friends to fight the coming darkness, while a jealous prince tries to kill him.

 

Excerpt:

Grown-ups fight a lot, Magellan thought, as he looked out over the crowd.  He wasn’t really listening to the argument going on between his father and the tall man anymore.  He had no idea what they were even talking about.  They just kept saying the same things over and over.

“It’s a totalitarian government!” his father said.

“It is nothing of the sort!” the tall man retorted.  “Give me one example of a person on that moon that wants freedom!”

They weren’t the only angry ones in the room.  There were a lot of people gathered around his family in the center of the huge chamber, and every one of them seemed mad.  They were all dressed in bright colors and fabrics Magellan had never seen.  The men wore crisp, clean uniforms, and the women wore long, flowing gowns like the ones his sisters dressed their dolls in.  His family’s drab, serviceable clothing stood out, and he felt a little embarrassed by how they looked.  His brothers and sisters didn’t seem to notice the crowd.  They were all huddled behind their mother, watching the argument with huge eyes.

Sometimes one of the people in the crowd would call out, agreeing with the tall man.  No one agreed with his father.  The only reactions aimed at his family were jeers and rude gestures.  Magellan sighed, and brushed back a lock of golden hair than had fallen over his eyes.  If someone gets mad at me, I just share a piece of candy with him and we forgive each other. 

__________________________

Well, that’s it!  Please let me know what you think!

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Posted in Writing Contests

Here we go!

Posted on July 17, 2011 | Comments Off on Here we go!

If I had to make a top ten list of things I though I’d never do, I have to admit, starting my own blog would probably be on it.  It’s weird, don’t you think?  Well, I guess not.  Lots of people do it.  Email is old school I am told.  So here I am jumping on the cyber bandwagon.  Here I come!

 First of all, maybe a little explanation on the “eye” that you will see as my Blog avatar.  For those of you who’ve read my novel “Hidden in Plain Sight” this might not seem too weird.  The book starts and ends with a vision of flames in Magellan’s eyes.  This is just a nod to my beloved work.   That’s my eye in the picture by the way.  I just love my photo editing software!  Not too shabby a job for one o’clock in the morning if I do say so myself!  I might think a little differently when I wake up in the morning.

 I’ll be fluffing up this sight a little bit, and then you might even get some words of wisdom from my demented brain.  I can ramble about word count, cutting scenes you love, changing points of view, bought vs. brought (which I just never get right)  Oh!  The topics are endless! 

Maybe this will be fun!  It’s somewhere else to vent other than on my poor beta partners (who I love… each and every one of you!)

 Good night! 🙂

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