Tuesday, October 28, 2008
October 2008 archive
I know, I know. Anytime I use “Michigan” and “goodie” in the sentence, I run the risk of being run out of Columbus by an angry mob of crazy Buckeyes. But since I am one, I’m deferring the mention of the state up north to let you romance writers know about a great contest with a very near deadline.
All romance writing contests are cool but this one is super-cool: it’s a final chapter contest as opposed to a first chapter contest. So if you’ve finished that novel, here’s your chance to get a foot in the door!
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The Best Part: You can enter electronically—now, if you’re ready. Visit the Mid Michigan RWA website (opens as a PDF) for all the details.
The cool stuff:
Contest Rules & Guidelines:
The Happily Ever After Contest is a last chapter contest. Enter the last chapter (and
epilogue, if applicable) up to twenty-seven pages of your manuscript, and a 1 to 3 page
judged synopsis of the entire novel, for a maximum of thirty pages. The entry must
include the final scene in its entirety. The same manuscript may not be entered in more
than one category. Choose the category that best fits your manuscript. All entries
must be uncontracted at the time of the contest entry Postmark/E-Deadline of
Saturday, November 1, 2008.
Whaddya win?
Categories & Final Round Judges:
Both an editor and an agent will judge each category. The partial list of judges is shown
below and will be updated on our website as we fill the remaining judges’ slots.
Short/Long Contemporary Series – Johanna Raisanen, Harlequin & Melissa
Jeglinski, Knight Literary Agency.
Single Title/Mainstream with Romantic Elements (young adult, women’s fiction,
etc.) – Holly Root, Waxman Literary Agency
Romantic Suspense – Miriam Kriss, Irene Goodman Literary Agency
Historical – Victoria Horn, Liza Dawson Associates Literary Agency
Paranormal (shape shifters, fantasy, sci-fi, time travel, etc.) – Chris Keeslar, Dorchester Publishing
Inspirational – Emily Rodmell, Steeple Hill Love Inspired
Erotica/Sensual Romance – Hilary Sares, Kensington Publishing & Laura Bradford,
Bradford Literary Agency
Excited now? Go visit the Mid-Michigan page for all the details. Good luck!!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Dirty Little Secrets…and a new obsession
I don’t like holidays much. I mean, I’m not a humbug, but holidays as an adult are far more different than holidays as a kid. I don’t know how mom did it, with three of us brats, a full time job and a house to run….she still had time to tie little hankerchief ghosts to the dogwood tree in our yard in the fall and plastic easter eggs on it in the spring. Everything was decorated and we had some type of acknowledgment of the holiday passing by on the calendar.
As an adult, I only see holidays=work. Yes, even Christmas. Especially Christmas.
But I digress.
I’m not all that crazy about Halloween. Doesn’t do much for me, really. Candy..I can buy that any time as an adult. Trick or treat…yeah, the first cute kid in a puppy costume who comes up to get candy is ok but when the dad comes up and puts a pillowcase out for candy, not so good. Pumpkins, bats, witches…don’t really get me wound up.
The one thing Halloween does well is gets out the ghost stories.
Anyone who knows me knows I’m afraid of the dark. Petrified. At summer camp I sleep with a light on in my room. At home I have night lights and carry my cellphone or iPod with me at night to illuminate everything. Always have been scared of the dark.
Dirty little secret: Funny enough, I’m obsessed with ghost & paranormal stories. Especially after having my own little encounter at Dauphin Island in Alabama a few years back. Not those crappy urban legends about the date night hook or Mary Jane’s grave (although I HAVE been to the one just outside of Danville…) that every town seems to have, but the real paranormal stuff. Haunted houses, haunted graveyards, evil cellars, Gates of Hell (been there, too, at Kenyon College). I’ve seen at least one episode of almost every ghost show known to mankind and can’t get enough. I have my doubts about the reality of some of them (the hubby doubts the reality of all of them…party pooper), but I am drawn to watching and reading about real hauntings with an unnatural obsession.
Last year, I was really into Paranormal State. You know, the A&E series featuring the group of kids from Penn State who research all things paranormal. I still like the show, but the more I watched, the more I realized that other than Dead Time (which I would love to be a part of sometime but would most likely wet myself during), there’s not much real ghostly excitement going on. Hard to do with 30 minutes (however, it’s a great show to watch on on-demand after school when Oprah has something terrible on, like Dr. Oz or a Kindle giveaway that I’m not a part of).
I wasn’t expecting much this year in terms of ghost shows, and I don’t know if they launched this one last week because of the proxemity to Halloween, but I now have a new (obsession) favorite paranormal show that I can’t get enough of: Ghost Adventures. It’s on the Travel Channel, 9pm on Fridays, and I’m telling you, this one scared me worse than any other.
Last night’s episode visited the Houghton Mansion in Massachusettes and was pretty darn scary, especially the footsteps on the stairs when the boys went up to the old electric chair. I made the hubby turn on the kitchen light and family room light when he went up to bed. (I really should watch this stuff during the day and save on electric). But last week’s episode is still messing with my brain. I’d never heard of Bobby Mackey’s in Kentucky, but my brain won’t let me forget it. The episode was so freaking scary I literally almost threw up. The hub and son were at a football game and I was alone with the dog (not much protection, she just wags). When Jason the boy genius came in the door, he said, “Mom must be watching ghost shows again. All the lights are on in the house,” and he was right. The whole scratching thing had me completely freaked out, not to mention all the other little tidbits (the well…don’t get me started). If you’re remotely interested in being scared out of your pants, you should check it out: Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel
Scary stories are the one saving grace for Halloween. I suppose I could like the holiday for that reason alone, especially with this new series. The good news is that it’s another beautifully sunny day here (thank goodness). Just the perfect day for a night football game at beautiful Ohio Stadium, which I’m on my way to in another hour. But believe me, I won’t go near Orton Hall on my way back from the game. You haven’t heard about the ghost who walks the hall there? I’ll save that for another day…lol.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Woohoo…A Contest…for a Sony eReader!
And what a prize this time!
This isn’t my own contest, mind you. This is a biggie from The Wild Rose Press.
How big, you ask? How about a Sony e-Reader? Here are the details…
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Sony eReader Giveaway!
The Wild Rose Press wants you to have a SONY eReader!
Between September 22 and December 15, 2008 – purchase any title from any of the following sponsoring authors and you can enter to win a free SONY eReader from The Wild Rose Press.
It’s easy to enter: once you purchase a book or short story from any of the participating authors email your order number to sonyreader@thewildrosepress.com.
We will verify your order and enter you into the drawing. If you purchase more than one tiitle, you can enter more than one time.For questions on this contest, please contact Rhonda Penders at rpenders@thewildrosepress.com.
Please put the words SONY eReader contest in the subject line. No purchase necessary.
Winners will be announced on December 16 in our chat, and on our web site the next morning.
Jean Adams (Champagne – Book due out in October)
Kim Amburn (Crimson Rose)
Clare Austin (book due out soon)
Clover Autrey (Faery Rose)
Carol Braswell (Crimson Rose)
Sharon Buchbinder (Champagne Rose, Last Rose of Summer)
Anne Carrole
Lynda Coker (Yellow Rose)
Wendy Davy (White Rose)
Tabitha Gibson (Sweetheart Rose, Champagne Rose, Crimson Rose)
Devon Gray (Scarlet Rose)
D.K. Harper (Champagne Rose, Last Rose of Summer)
Cierra James (Crimson Rose)
Paty Jager (Cactus Rose, Yellow Rose)
Jennifer Johnson (Champagne Rose)
Sylvia Kaye (Scarlet Rose, Yellow Rose)
Dayana Knight (Black Rose)
Renee Knowles (English Tea Rose)
Sharon Lanergan (English Tea Rose)
Liana Laverentz (Champagne Rose)
Hywela Lyn (Faery Rose)
Cara Marsi (Crimson Rose)
Bess McBride (Faery Rose, Last Rose of Summer, Vintage Rose, Champagne Rose)
Lily Rose Moon (Faery)
Skyhe Moncrief (Black Rose, Faery Rose)
Beth Morrow (Champagne Rose)
E.G. Parsons (Faery Rose)
Victoria Pitts-Caine (American Rose, White Rose)
Amber Polo (Champagne Rose, Faery Rose, Sweetheart Rose)
Sky Purington (Faery Rose)
Rynne Raines (Faery Rose)
Judith Rochelle (Yellow Rose, Crimson Rose)
Jocelyn Saint James (Last Rose of Summer, Champagne)
Jan Scarbrough (Faery Rose)
Tarah Scott (English Tea Rose)
Susan Shay (Yellow Rose)
Patti Shenberger (Champagne Rose, Faery Rose)
Robin Shope (book due out soon)
Linda Swift (book due out soon)
Margaret Tanner (Vintage Rose, Champagne Rose)
Sara Thacker (Crimson)
Pam Thibodeaux (White Rose)
Deborah Tompkins (Last Rose of Summer)
M.K. Trent (Champagne Rose)
Beth Trissel (American Rose)
Shereen Vedam (Faery Rose, English Tea Rose)
Lisa Wells (Champagne Rose)
Anne Whitfield (Vintage, Last Rose of Summer, Champagne)
Sandy Wickersham-McWhorter (White Rose, Faery Rose)
Patrice Wilton (Faery Rose)
Michelle Witvliet (Champagne)
You may also enter the contest by mailing a postcard to The Wild Rose Press, P.O. Box 708, Adams Basin, NY 14410. Write down the titles of three books or short stories by three different participating authors and we will put your postcard in the general drawing.
So what are you waiting for? I made it easy by linking right to Mandi’s Lucky Day 
Be sure to check out the other awesome authors on the list and good luck! Feel free to pass this along to any reader you know who’d be interested.
Happy Reading!
Beth
Thursday, October 16, 2008
feels so good….
…to have set writing goals that I finally achieved.
The Serious Writer girls are meeting today and, for the first time in a long time, I actually don’t have to fork over my five bucks in defeat for not meeting the goals I set three weeks ago.
I was on a destructive path toward emptying my retirement account to contribute to the kitty because I couldn’t get my act together on the writing front a few months ago. I’d make my goals (write a chapter, a scene, etc. etc. etc.) but never managed to make them, or, in some cases, even come close to touching them.
I think I figured out why.
The story I was working on during that time was a flash-in-the-pan idea for a contest entry on a sub-genre I like reading but really didn’t have a good idea for writing. I struggled with trying to cram an old semi-circle-plot-idea into a square hole story and it just didn’t work. Those characters didn’t talk to me in my sleep, didn’t tease me with bits of their lives while I walked in the morning, didn’t compel me to pick up a pen and, well, frankly–do anything.
But this time, I set the bar so low I could almost trip on it. I only pledged to do morning pages for the past three weeks. I know with school schedules, my time is not my own (but slowly getting there), but I wasn’t about to shirk writing. If I managed to eke out any real writing…pages, scenes, dialogue, etc., that’d just be a bonus–but not the goal.
It worked. I’ve gotten up progressively earlier and written every single day. My morning pages might start with a dream snippet or a brain dump, but with growing regularity, they’re honing in on my story. Slowly, ever so slowly, but surely. Three weeks ago I was getting up at six, and this morning I hopped out of bed for an hour-long walk at 4:30 before settling in at 5:30. I didn’t have as much to write (hence my dropping by the blog) and the story didn’t do much today on paper but I picked up a few more details on the story that I wouldn’t have if I weren’t morning-paging.
Still deliberating the goal to set today. Page output? Chapter to finish? Plot to arrange? Or more intense morning pages? Not sure, but what I am sure of is that I get to spend that five bucks on a well-deserved coffee and cookie with the SW girls and not in the kitty!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
happy writing…until reality steps in…
Two paragraphs into my morning pages, I had a brilliant thought about my heroine and the moments before she gets swept into the time-travel. The scene just formed in my head, spilled on to paper (today writing with a new mechanical pencil, .07 lead, instead of the usual fountain pen) and threatened to continue for at least another page or two, or until my hand completely cramped, whichever came first. I got out as much as I could until that dreaded realization hit me full-force.
Time to go to work.
Ack! Doesn’t that just stink? It’s the worst feeling for a writer or creative mind, to be in the middle of a creative flow where words assault you from every corner (this particular passage was almost all description, little narrative, plot or dialogue) only to have something external cut into your world.
The beauty of morning pages is that all my ideas are in one place (no small feat for any creative mind that likes to spread out, most of all me, who has a secret notebook addiction), so I can pick up the thought where I left off when I come back tomorrow. But can I pick up the writing, too? Or just the thought?
How do you deal with unwelcome intrusions of reality into your creativity? I’m already getting up at 4:45 to write, so getting up much earlier might not be a solution but I’m open to thoughts on what works for you…
Friday, October 10, 2008
when morning pages flow like water
I think you guys were an inspiration yesterday. For whatever reason, after I ranted about the pages, I went back, picked an idea and tried writing about it just to get something moving. I ended up with about a paragraph’s worth of “writing” (a real paragraph, not the two-sentence run-on that constitutes a paragraph in the mind of my 7th graders), and an urge to play with an idea for my heroine.
Twenty minutes later I reluctantly put away my notebook to head to school. Success!
Today while walking Omar (my girl dog with a boy’s name), I had a thought directly related to the heroine and something she said to the hero. Came home, grabbed the notebook and captured FIVE PAGES of writing. The first one is morning page stuff, dream notes, a song I woke up with in my head (do you ever do that?), and one line from my heroine to my hero in the first or second scene of the book: “Stop that! I hardly know you!”
Little does she know (time travel that it is) that they do, in fact, know each other. Quite well, as a matter of fact…lol.
Just stopping by to thank you and see how your writing is going today/this week. How’s the work coming?
Thursday, October 9, 2008
when morning pages are like pulling teeth
If you’re a writer, you’ve no doubt heard of Julia Cameron and her famous morning pages at some point or another. You know, those morning kick-starts where you sit down, half-sleepy and half-conscious and write out your soul on paper?
I did those for a while when the notion first came out. Did quite a bit, but decided I’d rather spend that time working on a novel or two. But in this last writing funk, I’ve gone back to the Beth-version of morning pages (after a walk with the dog so not true morning pages) and it’s gotten me back into writing.
Except for today.
I’ve written about half a page of MP so far, and not another word will squeeze out. And today, surprisingly, nothing about my story. Aggravating. Every other day, I’ll start by listing dreams or bits of whatever, and a story connection will somehow pop up, but today all I’m left with is a newly filled fountain pen and a half-blank sheet of paper. I know I’m supposed to just keep writing something, over and over, til I get where I want to be, but I can’t muster the energy.
What do you do when morning pages don’t work?! I’m open to all types of creativity-tappers. Not writing block-busters. I’m not there, yet. Just that bit of gas you need to get the brain synapses firing…help!
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
the beauty of refreshed perspective
I admit that the novel idea I’m working on now isn’t something “new”. Not really. It’s based (a bit loosely, as I’ve discovered since last night) on one of my favorite songs from the 70s, a one-hit wonder (my music fascination) that ends on a very sad note. All these years, as I’ve listened, I’ve always felt so sad for the title character and wished her to have a happy ending (no, I won’t tell you which song, at least not yet.)
I’ve wanted to rewrite her song into a story so she finds the happy ending she deserves. I’ve toyed with it, thought about it, talked about it (to the writing girls, who all understand–and love the song) but never really did anything about it because I haven’t felt able to tackle it.
Guess what I’m working on now?!
I also admit to being a bit afraid of the whole novel-writing process. I don’t know why I should be…I’ve finished three unpubbed(that shall never see the light of day) but none of them feel solid (even though one won a contest). I think my feelings of inadequacy lie in the rejection letters I’ve received and in the actual novel-writing process itself. It’s messy and uncertain, ugly and beautiful at the same time. I never get what I planned and I have a hard time with that.
Monday I signed up, on a whim, with Holly Lisle for her “How to Think Sideways” course. I devour everything she puts out…on characters, plot, setting, language, culture…so I thought this would just be a little boost in the process, a shot in the arm but not a full round of immunizations.
I think I was wrong (and I don’t admit that too often…just ask mom)
I did the first lesson last night and tried one of the techniques for brainstorming that she mentions. It’s something I’ve seen umpteen times and have always thought looked fun, but me in my perfection self is afraid to get messy on paper. I gave myself permission to be messy, to not know the answer or the plot before I started, and what I discovered was fabulous.
No, the novel is not plotted, no characters are fully developed, my setting isn’t even discovered (but this *may* be a time travel…the type of story that moves my heart most…historical and contemporary…like peanut butter and chocolate, is there anything better?), but I did discover a story element I might have missed with my traditional linear thinking, and I felt a freedom in the process that I haven’t felt in planning previous novels. It’s a good thing. Kept me up late, got me up early, and that’s what gets me writing.
I’ll talk more about Holly’s program soon, but if you’re interested, here’s a link to check it out. She’s registering right now for upcoming classes (I’m in the year-long…I need the extra time)
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
The value of writing colleagues
Over the years I’ve heard mixed reviews on the value of being involved in a writer’s group. Some say it’s a great chance to collaborate and commiserate, some say it’s an excuse not to write and dangerous to allow others access to your thoughts. To this latter group, I say…go back to your caves and continue writing on your parchment.
It’s no secret I’ve been in a word slump the last few months. So much so that when the Serious Writers (three of six, as it was) met at Donna’s a week ago Sunday for a quarterly (or so) brainstorming session on our newest WIPs, my initial inclination was to decline. I didn’t have a story to brainstorm, no characters to create, no plot to develop. True, I had been getting up and writing a rudimentary version of Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages for a few weeks but it was just rehashing of my previous day, odd snippets of dreams, random thoughts that had nothing to do with creating fiction.
But I said yes anyway. I’m so glad I did. I was a little embarrassed to admit I was there without a story (embarrassed why? I’ve been with these ladies for probably 8 or more years), but, as luck had it, so was Margaret (although she has the theatre story always running a low hum in the back of her brain). All the two of us did was help Donna think through some character and plot points for her new story-in-progress…and it was the best thing ever. The collaboration and fresh ideas gave me a spark on my next set of morning pages to ponder, which has now turned into the tiniest spark of a story. It doesn’t take much to get me writing…
So if you’re floundering in writing, having a hard time with motivation, creativity or any of the other authorly afflictions, consider joining forces with a few other SELECT writers and hashing things out. What’s the worst that could happen? You eat one too many chocolate covered pretzels? In the long run, your muse and your sanity will thank you. I know mine is!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Donald Maass’ THE CAREER NOVELIST…free…
Thanks to Carol Ann for sharing the link on the COFW loop to the free ebook copy of Donald Maass’ The Career Novelist
I had the pleasure of meeting Donald a few years ago at an all-day workshop and found most of his advice very insightful and helpful. I imagine The Career Novelist is no different. Even if the title doesn’t interest you, read it for the motivation and inspiration we all get from reading great books on writing.
The Career Novelist by Donald Maass
I don’t know how long it’ll be up…maybe forever, but with a great book like this, don’t take a chance. Check it out
It's pretty simple, really. I'm a writer who loves writing about writing, and sharing all the tricks of the trade with other writers. And when I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing. I have a hunch you know what I mean :)