Are contests really worth it?

I recently entered my first contest and encountered a new species...contest junkies. Who are these chicks that enter every single contest out there, and what motivates them to continually enter?


My first encounter with these self proclaimed contest sluts (their words not mine) was on the RWA Pro loop, where writers were complaining about the GH scoring. Several writers complained that their ms had placed in 4 or 5 different contests, but still received a low GH score.


My question is this. Is it really worthwhile to enter the same ms in several different contests?


At what point do you say enough is enough?


Back to the contest I entered. I didn't final. Didn't expect to. I mostly entered for the three detailed critiques that I would get on the first three chapters of my ms. For twenty-five bucks that seemed worth it. When they announced the finalists, I recognized three out of the five in my category as having finaled in other contests.


Something to consider when entering a contest...there will be several other entries that have already won elsewhere.



After reading at least fifty emails on the Pro-loop about the GH contest, I would have to think long and hard about enetering the GH. With no feedback, authors that receive low scores or are in the bottom twenty-five percent are left very discouraged.



As one GH contestant put it--"I know they hated it, but I don't know why..."




I'm not completely turned off by contests. I still may occasionally enter one based on the type of feedback or who is judging, but next time around I'll be a little more savy.


What do you think about contests? Are they worth it...or not?

drop and give me twenty!

it's not about the paper.

it's not about the ice.

and it's definitely not about the glam.

it's about

AUTHORITY.

POWER.

CONFIDENCE.

damn. i'm talking about my kind of hero. why would a chick sweat a playah? a playah takes orders from the coach. i want the man who's in control. yeah, that's hot. the playah prances around on the field, does as he's told, unless he's rebellious, then he sits on the bench for a while and repeats the process. the coach, damn, bosses everyone around. playahs, assistant coaches, refs. take the above picture, for example. there are at least 30 playahs, 200+pound playahs listening to the coach. he's in charge. some of those guys are twice his size, but he's still in charge. yeah, that's really hot. authority, power, confidence. hero musts for me. oh yeah, the hero has to be HOT too. but, HOT is different for everyone. i personally have a thing for stocky jocks. and of course, leos. other chicks like tall dudes, smart dudes, bad-ass dudes. the cool thing about writing is - we're in CONTROL! we get to be the coach of all our characters. including the men.

so, what's your description of a HOT hero?

I Got Nothin'

I'm addicted to You Tube. Admitting it is the first step. Whatever.

I spend hours watching useless videos. HOURS. I don't watch tv. Why should I when I CAN WATCH IT ON YOU TUBE?

My latest find? ARTEMISBELL. She has been a member of youtube for 11 months. She has 322 videos. THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO VIDEOS. Can someone do the math?

ENJOY:



Wasn't that AMAZING? Oh, honey child, that's just the beginning. Look her up and laugh for hours. And the artwork on the wall changes. A LOT.

I told my boss I was going to video tape myself dancing just to make sure I don't look like this...because I think I can move BUT WHAT IF I CAN'T AND I LOOK LIKE THIS?

How does this help with writing? It doesn't...unless you need some comic inspiration.

Here's hoping next week I have something intellegent to write about...

Peace out.

P.S. We're keeping you in our thoughts and prayers, Angie, and we're here for you if you need us. Much Spankster love and support to you and your family.

Random musings

Writing a book is like selling a house. Everyone has an opinion on what you need to do to make it sell faster, but the truth of the matter is that you only need to fix the foundation, the rest is trimming. In the book world this means to beef up your writing, learn the skills necessary to make it in this business, but filter out the things that don't help you. There are a lot of ways to write a book and what works for one person might not work for you. You have to decide. Just b/c your favorite writer does things one way doesn't mean that you should too. You have to decide what will work best for you.

You don't want the comparison to the house. :)

sharing a man - wrong. reading a romance - right.

i have to say i’m a little fascinated by the whole polygamy thing going on south of us. it blows my mind that these chicks have no clue of what’s going on outside walnut grove. i certainly don’t mean that in a taunting way. they just don’t know anything other than what they’ve been taught. seriously, imagine if this was all you’d ever been exposed to?

now, if the table was reversed and the chick got to have multiple husbands, this place might be somewhere we all might want to visit. for research purposes only, right, chellie?

anyway, here’s what i propose: let’s send these chicks some romance novels. let’s start with a harlequin american or maybe an inspirational, then we can work our way up to a single title. the point is, these chicks need to see that a relationship is between two people—one man and one woman—only. and the best place to see that is in a romance novel.

can I get a spank that?

Research....sort of....

So. Tonight's a big night for me. Not because it's my birthday or an anniversary or because my 3 year old has finally realized she's outgrown her terrible two's. No. It's even better.

It's the UFC rematch of Georges 'Rush' St. Pierre (my future husband in my next life) and Matt 'The Terror' Serra (give me a break).

I'm trying to fit this blog in between the no-name fights while waiting for the main event. I know, I'm a girl and mother and should probably oppose violence and all that and I do, except if it's in the octagon. Then it's just fine.

I'm not going to go on and on about fighting but watching the fights tonight made me think about research and how jealous I am that Lori Foster wrote and published MMA books before it ever crossed my mind.

I have a love/hate relationship with research. I hate doing it. Time spent researching it is time I could have spent writing. However, how good would the writing have been if I didn't do my research? So that's why I love it.

It turns out to be time well spent if I can make a reader believe that my hero plays ball and knows how to play well. None of that he hit a grounder to third and scored a basket. Which is exactly what BB book #1 would have been if I hadn't spent endless hours walking around ball fields, chatting with players and schmoozing them with bribes of free lunch (btw, they always picked up the tab).

And it was such a hardship, let me tell you. Hanging out with all that testosterone just sucked. Really.

NOT.

And I've met some really great people, both in person and over the Internet. Forums are a wonderful thing for lurking and trying to understand the mindset of individuals involved in a specific trade that you are trying to understand.

For example: The Military. These guys have groups and sites and blogs galore that have been 100% helpful to me as I delve into their world and I believe their voices make my voice better. More believable.

And it's a hell of lot less scary than sitting down face to face with some retired bad ass just jawing to chew on me.

So, that's all I got this week. Nothing spectacular or mind altering, just another thing I love about doing what we do. The endless quest for knowledge that in the end makes our works of art all that much better.

I'm heading back to the living room to bite my nails and pray St. Pierre pulls this one off without getting hurt. I don't want anything marring that pretty face of his.

What's in a beginning?

What's important about a beginning, particularly the first line of a book? Everything. That first line has to pull the reader in and make them read the next line and the next. Writers anguish over that first line, hoping to make it compelling.

It needs to raise questions that the reader wants answered. Dean Koontz is one of my all time favorite authors. His word usage is often stunning. In his book "The Darkest Evening of the Year" the opening line is: Behind the wheel of the Ford Expedition, Amy Redwing drove as if she were immortal and therefore safe at any speed.

From that one line we know that the heroine is driving fast and maybe a bit recklessly. But why is she in such a hurry? Is she being chased or is she chasing someone?

In Kresley Cole's "A Hunger Like No Other" the first line is: Sometimes the fire that licks the skin from his bones dies down.
The visual from that one line is powerful. Who is he? What has happened to him?

That first line is so important but before you spend hours or days anguishing over that one line don't forget that the rest of the book has to come after it. And every page must keep pulling the reader forward until the end.

I find those first lines to be really hard to write. I'll write something and think that it's good and after a few days I read that line again and decide it's crap. So I have to write it again. Sometimes the first line comes after all the others then you find the perfect first line.

How do you come up with the perfect first line?

Writing the Synopsis

Many of us are getting ready to send off our manuscripts to editors or agents we met with at DID.

Along with that goes the dreaded synopsis. Let's face it, condensing your 300 + page novel into less than ten pages is tough.

When I asked the editor I met with how many pages she wanted for the synopsis ,she said five to ten, but I could go longer if needed. The longest synopsis she received was 100 pages long. (She was not impressed by this. )

\Obviously that person was clueless as to what a synopsis really is.



Some e-publishers don't even require a synopsis any more, but like it or not, most still do.

So on my quest to compose the perfect synopsis I did my research and thought I'd share a site I found on the Internet. This is long but worth the read.

http://www.bethanderson-hotclue.com/workshops/writing-the-tight-synopsis/

Until next time.

Happy Synopsis Writing.

infatuation

remember that rod stewart song from the 80s? i bet you're rockin' out just thinkin' about it. but that's not what this blog is about. it's about a book that i'm totally infatuated with, but it's turning to love - right now - i feel it. this book was absolutely enchanting. now that's not a word i use everyday, kind of like petticoat, but enchanting seems quite the appropriate adjective for how i felt about this book. the genre - women's fiction, which to me is the same as a romance, just sans happy ending - is a genre i read as much as romance and love as much as romance, but for different reasons. there are totally different emotions evoked from women's fiction than are from romance. and the journey is sometimes a little more ... whoa, holy crap, that's like real life! and man, women's fiction can totally get away with more telling and less dialogue. but it worked for this book. after all, it is storyTELLING. not storySHOWING.

ah, but this book ... it was one that i finished sunday afternoon yet i'm still thinking about it. that's how you know when a book is really, really good. because you continue analyzing it, wondering more about the characters' motives. it was like most of the stories i remember from college - the ones that make you think - hard. and i don't mean think, hmm, that was so interesting. no, it makes you think about these characters who aren't real, but came alive during the story - so much that you wanted to hang out with them and ask them a million questions. and makes you think because you end up questioning yourself, like what would i have done if i'd been in her situation. gosh, it actually gives me the chills. and being the critic i am, that doesn't happen with every book i read. in fact, my forehead did not crease one time, but i did flag one page when one of the characters used the 'f' word because i thought it was brilliantly placed and character-appropriate. and there were no questionable fashion choices or bizarre jargon. it was superior work. needless to say, it was a bestseller, which i normally don't even read. i guess as a struggling artist, i tend to support other struggling artists, but i was intrigued, infatuated, then fell in love.

ah, the book! one of the characters was so dimensional. and gosh, i haven't even made up my mind on the ending yet. i'm still trying to decide what i think about it. that is a damn good book to make me think this much and this deeply and wonder which way the author wants me to take it. but i learned that a reader will never know how the author intended a person to read it - that's the beauty of it. the art of it. that's exactly what a story should do: give each individual reader the opportunity to get something unique out of it. something that speaks to them.

so, i have added a new book to my favorites. and i know it's one of my favorites because i could pick it up and read it again, which i will probably likely do again soon. dang, it was good. i feel like the critic has been validated. amen.

Signs, signs, everwhere are signs

Was driving to work this morning and trying to think of a blog while dodging cars as I weaved in and out of traffic. Came across a railroad track and there was a big sign that we've all seen: Do not stop on tracks.

Duh.

What person in their right mind stops on a DART rail track? But we've all seen them, people in too big of a hurry to stop in the proper place of 12 feet instead of 3 inches from the car in front of them. Or maybe their momma accidentally slapped them with a stupid stick and they don't realize when a train meets a parked car it's not pleasant. Obviously what seems like common sense to me is an issue to others so we get signs. Like my Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner. I bought one of the first ones so I've had it awhile. Recently I've been seeing a sign on the bottles stating that this is not a body wash. I collapsed in laughter imagining someone hopping in the shower, not turning on the water, but pushing the little button and letting it "clean" him. What were they thinking?

Another of my favorites is on your hairdryer: Don't drop into water. Didn't we learn that in Kindergarten? They don't have these signs on hairdryers in Sweden. Apparently the Swedes learned this at a young age and don't have to be reminded every day.

Or as my hubby said, Europeans aren't as eager to sue as Americans. Like the McDonald's and hot coffee lawsuit years back. Coffee's hot, you spill it on you, you get burned. Double duh.

Which brings me (yes, I do have a point in my ramble) to query letters and agent/editor submissions. We as good little Spanksters have learned to write query letters correctly. We might not write the letter as interesting as the agent/editor wants, but at least we know not to compare our writing to God's. When I went online to look up the agent that requested me at DID, I found a list of do's and don't's for query letters. She stated some were in jest, but still. You don't have to have a writing degree to know a good majority of the rules. You might not write the query that grabs that agent/editor's attention, but hopefully you haven't been put on their "avoid this crazy nut at all costs" list.

So get out there and write query letters that will grab an agent/editor's attention, not give them chills. And one day you might go to a bookstore and see another type of sign, a good type of sign, one with your name on it.

Good Divas...Bad Divas...Someone needs a good spank!

Have you ever noticed how some divas give all us a bad name?

No self respecting spankster would be caught dead throwing a cell phone, spitting on a cop, or assaulting an assistant.

We have too much class.

That's what I love about romance writers. We have each other's back, lift each other up, and don't step on the little people on the way up the ladder of success.

(Okay, so I'm still on the bottom rung, but I promise not to step on anyone.)

This weekend at DID, I had the pleasure of meeting several multi-published authors.

What an amazing group of accomplished women. These ladies offered advice and encouragement freely, sometimes without being asked. They were friendly, approachable, and I left the conference feeling as though I could accomplish just about anything.

I'm proud to be a part of such a classy group. Romance Writers Rock!

post-DID

ahhh, biscuit (leos love praise). then he chased roses with a steak dinner (taurus women like to eat good food). then afterwards, i passed out on the couch as we watched LOTR for the hundredth time. biscuit didn't like that too much - me passing out - but i know it's just because we didn't get to spend much time together this weekend. however, DID was fantastic. i was worn out when i got home and it made me wonder how we did rwa last year ... for days! i also thought the workshops were almost better than some of the ones at national. perhaps it was just there weren't as many distracting questions as rwa? or maybe it was just on a smaller, more intimate scale?

on the PRO loop, they were talking about kresley cole's workshop - the sophomore stumble: eight out of 10 authors who get a first contract don't get a second one. wow. it just proves that once you make the first sale, the work is not done - it's just beginning. writing is not for the lazy or the weak. it's for those who can persevere and keep going, even when it gets tough. even when rejection comes and haters try to psyche you out.

i think for me, a profound thing that was perhaps just reiterated (by lori foster) is that we (romance writers) are the only ones who get each other. not our biscuits, not our nonwriting friends. fellow writers only. publishing a book is so much more than having good grammatical skills or a kick-ass idea. it's all freaking subjective. like lf said, it's got a lot to do with luck.

another thing that was reiterated for the gazillionth time is that each writer just has to do what's right for them. PANs, editors, agents all share helpful information that we learn from, but you have to take what works for you and what doesn't. what works for one author may not work for someone else. for example, plotting. not all authors plot. that doesn't mean it's wrong. i think the most important thing to remember is to do whatever it takes to keep the writing fun. if it's not fun then why do it?

anyway, i am happy to be associated with the spanksters. we're professional, we're focused, we're hot. well, we are. that was on the PRO loop too - never underestimate your worth.

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez!!!

DID is over and our girls walked away with smiles on their faces. Even me, who didn't do anything expect sit around offering moral support and staring at Lori Foster all day.

She probably thought I was some sort of weirdo but really, she has touched George, so she's pretty freakin' cool. She talked MMA and she cussed, which made her even cooler. I know, I have pretty high standards, right?

I'll leave it up to Christie whether she decides to share the 'PEN' incident or not. lol...

Shout out to all those at DARA (Dallas Area Romance Authors) that worked and slaved to pull this thing together for us. You did an AWESOME job!

Let the good times roll....

Oh the fun of pitching!

A Few Quick Pitching Tips


1. Be professional

2. Place your business card on the table where the agent/editor can refer back to it if they forget your name.

3. Write your books title on the back of the business card with a very short hook. This could be the “high concept.” Ex. The Simpsons meet Godzilla

4. The actual pitch should be short and sweet. Give them enough to whet their appetite without explaining the whole book.

5. Have a couple of questions to ask them.

6. Have another idea/project waiting in the wings if they ask for something else.

These are just a few tips. What tips for pitching do you have?