In one word—terrified, okay, maybe that’s not entirely true. I was also happy, elated, honored, but terrified sure was up there.

I hadn’t known the competition even existed until Erin Kellison, my crit partner, emailed me the announcement. After reading the email, my stomach tightened, and my heart rate reached dangerous levels. I knew my manuscript, Dark Future, was perfect for the contest, and for some reason that scared me all the more. Being the fearless and intrepid person that I am, I decided not to enter. I had too many legit reasons. The Brava line was too sexy, too bold. What would my mother think? With over five hundred entries, the chances of me becoming a finalist were nil at best.

I entered anyways.

A few weeks later, I received an email from Megan Records asking me to call her with my contact information. I emailed her instead, and immediately went in search of my mobile phone. My phone was ringing before I even got downstairs. Megan told me I was one of the ten finalists. I don’t remember much after that. Soon there was a flurry of emails. Bios needed to be sent, headshots taken and web sites launched. And of course, I had none of these things.

I spent a few sleepless nights researching the other competitors and realized I had some stiff competition…a lawyer, a housewife, multiple mothers, and many, many contest finalists. My palms got a little sweaty, and then I reminded myself that hey, I’m a multiple contest finalist too, (a winner of the Revel Your Inner Vixen), but this didn’t help the sweat rings under my arms.
One thing is for sure, even if I get booted out during the first round, this competition has put a fire under my rear end, and because of that I am one step closer to being a published writer.

Please visit me at kckleinbooks.com, and don’t forget to vote. You can cast your vote beginning on Oct 11th on the RT website at RTBookReviews.com.

KC

Bookmark This

I gave up Twitter and Facebook for Lent.

*taking a deep breath and wiping sweat from my brow*

When I told my husband he had an interesting reaction. He said, “Aren’t you just going to be hurting your platform by doing that instead of helping?”

To which I said, “I don’t think so. I’ll still be blogging.”

Bu then I sat back and thought about all the tweeting I do with agents and other authors and began to wonder, am I hurting myself more than helping?

Well regardless the choice has been made and I intend to stick with it.

Do you think taking a break from social networking would hinder your career as a writer? Would you be able to give it up for a full 40 days and 40 nights?

Bookmark This

Marybeth is an aspiring novelist currently working on her second novel. For more information visit her website www.marybethsmith.com. She also has a blog Desperately Searching for my Inner Mary Poppins where you can keep up on her moments as mother, wife and writer..

---

1. Useful links to terrific articles and pointers from agents etc.

2. An Agent’s Wish List

3. Fab Writing Tips

4. Checkpoints when writing scenes

5. Brainstorming Techniques

Some of the links contain links to more useful writer’s resources.

Happy Reading, Girls!

Bookmark This

Today, one of the word prompts was  Skin, and we had everything from an artist painting his masterpiece on a woman’s body, to a pregnant girl being massaged by her mother for relief. In my piece, suddenly the voice of a psychopathic sixteen-year-old boy took over, who has just skinned a cat, and would like to skin girls some day. Ouch.

But  the point is that I’ve discovered that group writing without exchanging critiques can be quite a pleasant experience, and very helpful. It is very stress-free and people give and receive advice or share problems. Exactly what I would look for in a group of writing friends. We plan to introduce critiquing, but gently, and only for those who want it.

Any of our readers have an experience with writing groups?

Bookmark This

Many of us writers out here in cyberspace frequently feel lost.  We seem to circle around the same bonfires, again and again.  The steps. Write your novel, edit your novel, query your novel.

Or: Write your short story, poem, essay.  Edit. Query.

Write. Edit. Query.

It doesn’t seem easy to get lost.  Seems like a simple enough process (if not a simple achievement) and still….

We blog we write we facebook we twitter we network and we hope for the day that all of our work comes together in the beautiful dream that is the journeys end.  Publication.

I know there have been several times since I started this trip that I’ve felt lost.  I forget where I am going and where I am and where I started.

How about you?  Do you feel lost on this adventure?  How do you get back on the right road?

Bookmark This

In a quest to self-educate, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott, sits on my bedside table.  It is a library copy, and I admit here in print that I have bent down at least five page corners containing sentences or whole paragraphs I want to reread and remember.  A casualty of the 8:30-5:00 schedule is the lack of an endless supply of yellow sticky notes with which to mark significant pages; but I get some credit for not using a highlighter, right?  By the way, the book is stunning; for me because I’m trying to write, but for everyone, because the author is funny, self deprecating, brutally honest, and she spells it all out in language that makes you want to holler, “Exactly!”

So anyway, I’m plowing along and marking these inspirational comments because they are real and they teach and they guide, and then I turn to page 193 and read a quote that stops me dead.  The author didn’t write it.  She, like everyone who writes, once struggled (although she’ll tell you that it’s always a struggle), and before she was published, Lamott submitted a short story to “an important magazine editor.” Loving and kind soul that he must have been, he sent her back a note that said: “You have made the mistake of thinking that everything that has happened to you is interesting.”

Whoa.  Big swallow.  My blog—multiple posts between February 6th and now—all about me.  I am experiencing, I believe, a minor crisis of faith here, so please bear with me.

You know–I had no conscious plan in February to start writing a blog.  It poured out of me as a result of the trauma from the elimination of my position the previous day, and the first essay made me feel whole and slightly accomplished and in a strange way relieved; like discovering the last portion of a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle, stuck way under the couch with the dust bunnies during a good spring cleaning–and I’ve kept on.

I look back at some of my entries and think, “Yuck,” or “Does anyone really care?”  To my credit, sometimes I think, “Wow, I wrote that?”  In some regard though, it almost doesn’t matter, because I am so completely in love with the effort, the unexpected words that bubble up out of me day after day.  There are mornings that I approach the computer with nothing less than trepidation, because I’m not sure there is anything left in me to write.  But so far, something always spills out of my fingers and when I’m done I think; “At this moment anyway, this is me on the page as best as I can get it, as honestly, and clearly as I know how to write.”  I’m not writing what I think my three readers want to hear…I’m just reporting if you will, the things that apparently swirl down there in my Swiss cheese of a soul.

Of course, I hope in some regard that this practice is helping me to improve at my craft, but hear this.  I’m simply grateful that I am doing it.  Lamott comments on that horrific response from the editor with the following: “Now needless to say, I was mortified.  But the note ended up only helping me because it didn’t stop me.”  Turning to another folded corner I read this:  “Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises.  The thing you had to force yourself to do—the actual act of writing—turns out to be the best part.”   I’m with her.   Of course, results matter; but even harsh criticism is worth it because the thinking, the imagining, the creating, the formulating, the editing, the revising, the massaging–even the hair pulling, it’s this giving birth to writing that the author so succinctly points out, is “the best part.”  So I hope you like me, but even if you don’t–taking a bent page out of Anne Lamott’s book, I’m not stopping either.

Liza Carens Salerno is a freelance writer and former corporate professional whose position was eliminated in an economic downsizing.  Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe Magazine, Adoptive Families Magazine and Writer’sDigest.com.  She has spent the last several months focusing on her writing and blogs at www.middlepassages-lcs.blogspot.com.

Bookmark This

Sarah is writer looking for an agent. She is currently working on novel # 4, editing novels 2 and 3, and querying novel # 1. For more insight to her work, visit: http://legendoftheprotectors.wordpress.com/ or http://legendoftheprotectors.blogspot.com/

---

My editor advised a detour from the novel to explore the backroads. She suggested I take background situations and build short stories around them. The result would be a better understanding of the characters, finished work for literary journals and contest submissions, and . . . a needed break from the tedium of the novel.

In the next six months I crafted over ten stories. Several pieces were flash fiction of between 250 & 1,000 words.  The others were in the 2,500 – 3,000 word range. They were sent to journals and contests, and because there was a variety of material, I had the ability to send out a new story if I received a positive rejection that turned down the submission but invited future work.

I went back to the novel with a renewed interest and fresh ideas about structure. Certain character traits came to light as I wrote the short pieces, leading me to approach the novel-length story from a different angle. It developed a beginning, middle, and end that made sense in under 90,000 words. I had a finished, polished manuscript within the year.

That’s the “writing life” part of the story. Now for the “marketing” part. After a few of the stories were accepted for publication, I added to my agent query, “Stories based on the lead characters have been published online and in anthologies,” giving credibility to my writing and my characters .

At a recent conference, an agent suggested that I post the unpublished stories on my website and then do promotion to drive readers to the site. She noted a recent client who did this. The traffic numbers helped to build a selling point for the publisher pitch, showing that readers were already familiar with the characters and would be inclined to buy the book for more of their story.

The first of my RITA & SYLVIE stories posted last month at www.gingerbcollins.com. It’s the initial step in a campaign that began as a detour and will hopefully serve as the path to agent representation and publication of my first novel.

BIO

Ginger B. Collins writes short fiction and creative non-fiction. Her work appears online and has been published in Freckles to Wrinkles, Silver Boomers, and the newly released Scratch Anthology of Short Fiction. She recently completed her first novel. Read excerpts at www.gingerbcollins.com.

In her blog, OFF THE TOP OF MY RED HEAD, Ginger applies a past career in sales, marketing, and PR to her new role as author, sharing links and writer resources while exploring subjects like social media, agent search, and writer platforms. All writers are invited to follow the blog and share experiences. http://coppertopcollins.blogspot.com.

Ginger and her husband, Melvin, are avid sailors, and would be content to spend life onboard, cruising coastal waters and exploring land from the shoreline in. Until then, they winter in the Southeast and summer in Atlantic Canada.

Bookmark This

We’ll give you the next two weeks to send in your trailer to ifyougiveagirl@gmail.com and put Book Trailer in the Subject line. They will be posted Sunday August 23rd.

No contest…no critique…just getting the word out about your novel and peaking interest in you as a writer.

Want to know what a book trailer is? Check out these:

Authoress’s trailer at the top of her blog misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com.

Dark Slayer: Christine Feehan Book Trailer

Storm Of Visions: Christina Dodd Book Trailer

All these trailers are property of their owners.

Bookmark This

I write my novels with a partner – three with my husband and now two with a friend I have known for over 20 years. So it’s not surprising that the question most asked at my book signings is “how do you manage to write with someone else?”

First, let me say why I like to collaborate. The process of writing is intrinsically a lonely one. You have to sit down in front of a completely blank page (or computer screen) and conjure up characters who will, if you do your job right, come alive as if you’d literally given birth to them. The plot lines you create for these characters must be both imaginative and believable. That’s really hard. Being able to bounce ideas off a writing buddy is, for me, a way to expand my creativity – especially when I hit a blank wall on a plot point or some issue related to a character’s personality. It’s also a wonderful motivator. There is something about knowing you have to get words down on the page because your partner is waiting that’s a great kick in the pants. And best of all, when you are lucky enough to have your novel published and your publicist books you for speaking engagements on TV or radio appearances, there is someone to lean on should you find yourself tied up with butterflies just before going on.

Okay, so once you decide to develop a partnership, how does it work?

I have heard a few writers who collaborate liken a writing partnership to a marriage. And now that I have written with both my husband and a woman friend, I can say that that’s not a bad analogy, except for one thing – since my real life marriage of 38 years is, I believe. uniquely compatible, there were far fewer preliminary matters to deal with as there were with someone I didn’t know nearly as well. Joel (my husband) and I have practiced medicine together, written nonfiction medical articles and books together, gone to business school together and run a consulting business together. We’ve had plenty of experience working out division of labor issues, so we very naturally fell into what have become our specific roles as novelists (for example, he’s a better editor, I’m better at writing the first draft, he’s good at the story’s overview, I enjoy managing all the little details as the plot unfolds). I will admit that the first book was the hardest – we had only been married 12 years! There was some push and pull as to whose version of a scene was best. However, once we had that first book sold, we learned that the publisher’s editor takes her red pen to your prose anyway and often scenes we’d agreed on between ourselves required yet another rewrite anyway. Now the process is much smoother.

Because it’s been so easy with my husband, I assumed it would be equally easy with any writing partner. Not true. Although Linda and I had been colleagues and friends, it really isn’t the same as living with someone on a day-to-day basis for many years. Not only that, we were trying to write together long distance- Linda lives in LA, I live in Florida. The time difference as well as the miles between us added additional stress. Friendship is a good way to begin a writing partnership. but if you’re not careful, it can end it too. So here are a few things we wish we had discussed before we started our first book and which, I think in hindsight, would have avoided the various difficulties we encountered along the way.

It’s probably a good idea to have a written document with agreed upon items stipulated formally.  Think of it as the equivalent of a prenup – hopefully the relationship won’t break up, but if it does, you’ve clarified “who gets what” so that it doesn’t have to be acrimonious.

1. How will you share the money you make from the book? I recommend 50/50 unless it’s clear from the start that this isn’t an equal partnership. I am assuming that your novel’s copyright will be in both names.
2. How will you share any expenses that arise while you are writing (for example: new software for writing, web making, video, etc)?
3. How will you share marketing expenses above and beyond what your publisher may pay once the book is sold? These days except perhaps for the very top sellers, publishers expect authors to take on more of the marketing costs themselves
4. Who will have the final word on contract negotiations? This can be very tricky because you both want to sell your novel, but one of you may be more willing than the other to hold out for a better offer or want to negotiate better terms such as keeping certain ancillary rights. If you don’t agree to present a united front, it puts you both in a weaker bargaining position.
5. Agree that you will meet deadlines. That means finishing your assigned chapter or completing rewrites or edits when you say you will. This is a place where lots of partnerships go awry. And that’s why #6 and #7 are so critical
6. Agree that you will let your partner know if personal life issues are keeping you from meeting your obligations.
7. Agree to talk about problems. Here’s where the marriage analogy comes in. My husband and I agreed from day one that we would talk through our disagreements and that we would never go to bed angry. A writing partnership should have a similar agreement, That way you don’t let upsets simmer, so that you start resenting each other.

Finally:

1. Don’t forsake your friendship for your work relationship. Because Linda and I both had full time job and family responsibilities, we tended to communicate in work mode only, trying to get tasks related to our writing done in between the rest of our lives. Frankly it took my husband’s pointing this out to make me realize that we’d stopped talking about anything else. Now we try to make time to catch up on mutual friends and other non-writing related topics. It’s really helped to strengthen our friendship and our writing partnership. We ‘re now ready to start working on novel #3 in our new Sammy Greene thriller series.

BIO: Deborah Shlian is a physician, healthcare consultant and recruiter, as well as author of nonfiction and fiction (medical mystery thrillers). Novels co-written with her husband are: Double Illusion, Wednesday’s Child and Rabbit in the Moon. Rabbit in the Moon won this year’s Gold Medal for the Florida Book Award, the Silver Medal for ForeWord Magazine’s Mystery Book of the Year, an Indie Excellence Award and was named a National Best Books Award Finalist by USA Book News. Check all the Shlians’ writing on their website at hpttp://www.shlian.com

Novels co-written with Deborah’s friend and colleague, Linda Reid are: Dead Air which is the first in the new Sammy Greene thriller series to be released in December in hardback and eBook format and Devil Wind which is the second in the Sammy Greene series and will be released in early 2011. Check out their writing on the new website: http://www.sammygreene.com

Bookmark This