Pitch Contest Now Open

Music City Romance Writers’ annual PITCH contest is now open! Whether the "pitch" is for back cover copy that you plan to self-publish, or that oh-so-perfect query letter blurb, we want to help you get it right!

 

Contest Information:
·    Enter 200 word max. This would be the back cover copy or pitch letter blurb.
·    $15 entry fee
·    Accepting a max of 100 entries only, so get yours in soon!
·    There will be time to revise after round one.
·    All genres accepted.
·    Published and non-published authors accepted, as long as the entry is not published.
·    Judged fully by PAN members, three judges per entry.
·    Top 10% move on to the final round.
·    All final round entries will be seen by all final round judges.
·    Terrific panel of final round judges!!!
·    Deadline to enter: 11:59pm CST April 15
·    Finalists announced: May 5
·    Winner announced: June 1

Final Judges:
·         Suzie Townsend, New Leaf Literary
·         Pam van Hylckama Vlieg, Foreword Literary
·         Lauren MacCleod, Strothman Agency
·         Barbara Poelle, Irene Goodman Agency
·         Holly Root, Waxman Leavell Agency
·         Elizabeth Poteet, Assistant Editor, St. Martin’s Press

See website for the great list of prizes to be won, along with additional entry details. www.mcrw.com. For questions, please contact the PITCH coordinators at pitchcontest@mcrw.com.

Of Tough Love and Good Advice

I came across a blog post about bad reviews, professional irritations, and learning to let go by Dani Collins a month or so ago, and her frank, honest advice hit me in ways I needed to be hit. I bookmarked it, and reread it again today. The whole post is fantastic, and I recommend it to anyone who's been in this crazy publishing business long enough to get discouraged and need a kick in the pants. She doesn't sugarcoat things, but I prefer my advice bitter to the taste; if it's hard to swallow, it probably holds an uncomfortable truth. What stood out to me the most, both on the first reading and again tonight, is her last point for what to do if the world of publishing as gotten you down:

8. Quit
Publishing, that is. If you really enjoy writing, write. If you want to publish, accept that there will be things about this job that you can’t control. It is a job, by the way, and people get downsized every day.  [Dani Collins]

Some people may find this discouraging, but I LOVE IT. For me, it puts the business of publishing fully into perspective, as a business. I live in a world of writers, and so often we talk about writing as a passion, a compulsion, and an art form. It's all of those things, but it's also a job. I don't know anyone outside of the writing world who 100% loves their job. It's the nature of work; even if you're doing something you love, there will be aspects of it you don't. Writing is no different. There are good parts and bad parts and those differ for each person. I truly believe anyone can write, because writing in its most literal form is putting words to paper (or program). Those words don't have to be structured, sensical, or even spelled correctly to fulfill the most basic requirement of "writing." If you want to publish, however, you have a lot of work ahead of you.

Reblog: Undead Resolutions

New Year, new you. That's the goal, right? Join me at The Otherworld Diner to explore what resolutions the undead would make, if given the chance.

Zombie Resolutions:

1. Brains! Eat more of them, but choose judiciously. Humans holed up in a McDonald’s are probably eating the food served there. Skip the trans fats and target those who’ve taken shelter in Whole Foods.
2. Don’t lose weight; keep all limbs firmly attached. Your excitement at seeing your goal weight on the scale will be hampered by the realization it took the loss of 2 arms and a leg to achieve it.

Read more...

Of Contests and Celebrations

I'm bad at posting details as they happen, so here's a recap:

• In early August, the wonderful Kristin Anders sent me a link to an anthology call. A zombie anthology call. Zombie romance, to be exact. In other words, she dangled catnip in front of my nose and I couldn't resist.
• I ran right up to the deadline, writing, fully rewriting, and then revising my short story. I actually finished it at Dragon*Con, staying up until the wee hours in the hotel lobby with only my laptop, a drunken stormtrooper, and an enthusiastic bunch of bronies for company. These were my muses, people, and I was grateful. Story sent. 
• I didn't hear anything for a while, and given the publication time frame, soon decided the story had been rejected. "No Response Means No" is common in publishing (I'm not saying Riverdale Ave Books is a No Response Means No publisher, just that I hadn't necessarily expected to hear anything back, so I wasn't surprised not to). No hard feelings, just wasn't for them. On to the next story. 
• At the end of October I got an email I truly did not expect. Lori Perkins - author, agent, fabulous editor of Hungry for Your Love, and the originator of the follow-up anthology call - loved my story. She decided to include it in the anthology. I was over the moon. Still am. 

That brings us to today. I'm so excited to announce my short story, PIED PIPER OF THE DEAD, is included in the zombie romance anthology Still Hungry for Your Love. The anthology contains 15 short stories total, and these authors are top notch. Lori did a fantastic job deciding what to include (no easy task, I'm sure, as the call received over 250 submissions), and I am so humbled and grateful to be included among them.

To celebrate the release, I'm at The Otherworld Diner with a contest and a chance to win a digital copy of Still Hungry for Your Love...and maybe a few other goodies as well. 

Thank you for celebrating with me, and I hope you enter the contest.

Of Goodreads and Great Reads

While working on my reading homework (yes, it's homework...homework of the best possible variety!), I went to track my upcoming reads on goodreads and noticed a trend.

This is the trend

Nothing at all against children's books, but I think the Littlest Kraken has managed to abscond with almost ALL of my reading time. Children's books currently average of 6 to 1!  And I don't track how many times I read each story (the goodreads system doesn't allow enough integers to accurately record how any times I've read Bubbles, Bubbles), I just enter the first time a new book is read. I think it will be cool to one day look back at the list with the Littlest Kraken, when he's older and possibly no longer a sea monster, and see which stories stick with him throughout his childhood. But still, 6 to 1. Sigh. 

Sure, let's read it again. The 817,830,923rd time's a charm.

Not that I'm complaining (except about Bubbles, Bubbles). I love reading to TLK. It's one of our rituals, and he *loves* books already, so I can count at least one thing I'm doing right. I just wish I was blazing through my TBR pile as quickly as we are his. 

Anyone else out there a fan of Bubbles, Bubbles? Is there some deep and meaningful symbolism I'm missing here? If baby Cookie Monster insists on eating soap, does that mean it's cookie flavored soap? It's possible I'm over thinking this...