There is a contest going to the end of February (ending soon) that is incredible. If your going to the LDStorymakers conference in May you'll want to enter. And if you're not you might want to think about it as they have fantastic prizes.
http://ldstorymakerauthors.blogspot.com/2011/02/show-your-love.html
Evjoy the contest.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Storymakers
The LDStorymakers conference is coming up here in Utah. http://ldstorymakers.com/conference_2011.php
This is a great conference. I went last year and it helped me out a lot with my writing.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
NIGHTMARE!!
Have you ever had a terrible nightmare and woken to find that it was real? That's been my life since Saturday. I know not terribly long, but it's left me mentally and emotionally exhausted. My wonderful husband who I love dearly came home on Saturday and told me "I quit. I couldn't handle work anymore." For a moment I thought he was kidding, and then I awoke to the realization that he wasn't. So now I have to figure out how to pay bills without any income. I have a job but it's sales and commision only and I just barely started. I'm not even sure what I'm doing yet. I don't know if I can sale anything. I got the job so i could learn, but being pressured like this certainly isn't going to help.
Sunday my husband who is just about to get his bachelors tells me "Oh, by the way, my final project for my last class is due today and I haven't started." I swear I could have killed him if he threw one more thing at me. I dragged him to his computer and made him sit down and work. He stayed there until he finished at 11 pm.
Monday I thought things were going to be fine, and then I awoke to find out our dishwasher and sink had busted and both had to be replaced. So I have spent the last two days fighting the demonic sink as I took it out and installed a new one. Every possible thing that could go wrong did, but I finally managed to tame the demon and force it to do my will.
(applause and shouts of joy)
Next time I'm calling a plumber (if I can ever get out of the starving author mode at least.)
Sunday my husband who is just about to get his bachelors tells me "Oh, by the way, my final project for my last class is due today and I haven't started." I swear I could have killed him if he threw one more thing at me. I dragged him to his computer and made him sit down and work. He stayed there until he finished at 11 pm.
Monday I thought things were going to be fine, and then I awoke to find out our dishwasher and sink had busted and both had to be replaced. So I have spent the last two days fighting the demonic sink as I took it out and installed a new one. Every possible thing that could go wrong did, but I finally managed to tame the demon and force it to do my will.
(applause and shouts of joy)
Next time I'm calling a plumber (if I can ever get out of the starving author mode at least.)
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Death to Ly
Often I critique others work. I go through making comments on what I like and what I don't. After doing this for a year and critiqueing 20+ full manuscripts as well as many partials I've come to know what I'm talking about and I've developed a few pet peeves.
Any word ending in LY. I wish death upon them. So often if the writer would take the time to get rid of them they would work so much better. Sometimes of course there is no way around these words but the less used the better.
ING - This is a passive thing. I want see, feel, hear, smell everything. I want to be so drawn into the book I forget its a book. The fewer words that end in ing the easier it is for me to slip between the pages and take flight in a new realm.
Authors who refuse to use that wonderful tool called SPELL CHECK. It's such an easy thing in most programs they even underline it in red when the word is wrong. It's a simple request to review your own work BEFORE sending it out to others.
And then of course there's my biggest pet peeve. The one that makes me stagger over everything. Compared to this all others can be forgiven and looked past. And that one I hear you ask. Well that one is...
TAGS
Yes. That's right. The he said, she said, asked, etc. Once in a while is fine but every time I come across one of these I think why didn't they describe an action, or why is that there. The sentence before this it tells us who this is by what they're doing.
Now you all know my pet peeves. I know I'm not the only one as I've had other critiquers point them out in my own work, and (hide my head) this morning while looking through a novel I haven't picked up for months I found several of them myself.
So while we are all at fault for these things at one time or another they're still my pet peeves and the fewer I find in a manuscript the easier it is to read.
But then maybe that's just the writer in me.
Any word ending in LY. I wish death upon them. So often if the writer would take the time to get rid of them they would work so much better. Sometimes of course there is no way around these words but the less used the better.
ING - This is a passive thing. I want see, feel, hear, smell everything. I want to be so drawn into the book I forget its a book. The fewer words that end in ing the easier it is for me to slip between the pages and take flight in a new realm.
Authors who refuse to use that wonderful tool called SPELL CHECK. It's such an easy thing in most programs they even underline it in red when the word is wrong. It's a simple request to review your own work BEFORE sending it out to others.
And then of course there's my biggest pet peeve. The one that makes me stagger over everything. Compared to this all others can be forgiven and looked past. And that one I hear you ask. Well that one is...
TAGS
Yes. That's right. The he said, she said, asked, etc. Once in a while is fine but every time I come across one of these I think why didn't they describe an action, or why is that there. The sentence before this it tells us who this is by what they're doing.
Now you all know my pet peeves. I know I'm not the only one as I've had other critiquers point them out in my own work, and (hide my head) this morning while looking through a novel I haven't picked up for months I found several of them myself.
So while we are all at fault for these things at one time or another they're still my pet peeves and the fewer I find in a manuscript the easier it is to read.
But then maybe that's just the writer in me.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Amazing giveaway
Amie Borst is having an amazing giveaway with 150 word critique and a possibly query critique from Elana Johnson. She's amazing with queries. If interested simply visit Amie's blog.
http://amie-borst.com/
http://amie-borst.com/
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