Category Archives: Writing Contests

YATopia Micro-Synopsis Writing Contest

Posted on August 9, 2011 | Comments Off on YATopia Micro-Synopsis Writing Contest

There’s a Micro-Synopsis contest going on over at YATopia

Here’s the Scoop From the Yatopia Blog Site:

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A Micro Synopsis competition is no small feat – it’s HUGE! And a real test of a writer’s ability to use economy of words.

So YA agent John Cusick from S©ott Treimel NY (can check out his tweets here and an interview with him here), wants you to woo him with not a one page synopsis, but a THREE SENTENCE synopsis that covers the set-up, story and ending (you don’t have to give away a twist/ending – but a taste of it to spark interest).

Your name
Your email
Promo link (blog post preferred,

Genre
Age Group (open to MG, 8 – 12, & YA, 13 – 18, only)
Word Count

The manuscript must be complete and ready for querying. John is open to nearly any genre, but says High Fantasy (dragons, dwarfs and elves) and Vampires are a hard sell at the moment, so you probably won’t get a request if you enter a MS in one of those areas.

There’s no limit on the number of entries (yes you can enter multiple times if you have more than one MS), but you MUST be a follower of the blog.

The all important prizes! The winner will get a full MS request and two runners up will get a request for the first 30 pages of their MS.

Remember this is NOT a pitch contest, so don’t just condense your query. The contest will be open until midnight 11 August. So start shrinking your synopsis!

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A 35 word pitch for the past one was hard enough.  I’ll see what I can do with a three-sentence synopsis.  Who knows?  Gotta chew on this one a bit.

Get your groove on and Good Luck!

UPDATE:  Okay… Here’s what I am going with…

Overwhelmed by the power given to him by the Great Goddess, Magellan Talbot kills hundreds of people before he erases his memory in hopes of saving the galaxy from suffering a similar fate.  Undaunted, the Goddess surrounds her champion with friends who will unknowingly protect him as she maneuvers him toward the threat he was created to thwart. Without his memory, though, Magellan is vulnerable, and the Goddess must protect him from unknown enemies seeking to smother him.

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Hey! I was a Semi Finalist in that Pitch and First 250 Words Contest!

Posted on August 5, 2011 | Comments Off on Hey! I was a Semi Finalist in that Pitch and First 250 Words Contest!

This was pretty cool!

On July 19th I entered a contest.  Click here to see the blog post.  I didn’t really have high hopes.  It was my fist time out there.

On July 21st, I blogged about how good some of the other writer’s first pages were in Just how good are YOUR first 250 Words?

And YES!  The other entries were really good!  (Better than mine… which was the good learning part of this contest for me)

Anyway, imagine my surprise when one of the judges picked me as a semi-finalist based off my 35 word pitch!  I was so excited!  Here was my pitch…

A common boy unknowingly imprinted with the dangerous powers of the Goddess, must find a way to change his fate, and the fate of the galaxy, before a jealous prince manipulated by Darkness murders him. 

(Thanks, by the way, to my friend Jenny Keller Ford who helped me out with this.)

I tanked in the next round tough.  As I expected, my first page didn’t measure up to some of that great work that is out there.  The judge said “I really liked the pitch on this one. The opening paragraphs didn’t grab my attention though. It just wasn’t exciting enough.”

That’s okay, though.  I was really excited to be up there and have her say something positive about my pitch.

The great news is, before I went into this contest, I was fine with my first page.  As you saw in my earlier post… I realized when I chopped out my first 250 words, I saw that they weren’t as strong as I thought they were.

Guess what?  After this weekend, my fist 250 words are going to KICK BUTT.

I am really glad I decided to jump in head first and give that contest a try!  I cannot believe I almost went to query with an opening that might just have killed my story!

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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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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!

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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. 

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

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