Officially participating in Alex Cavinaugh's A-Z challenge. Check it out here http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com.
On to the blog for A.
Agents. Yes all those wonderful amazing people out there who bury themselves in mountains of words in the hopes of finding that one amazing manuscript. I thank them from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to slush through all those words, especially since I have thrown my hat in the ring.
Here's my problem. I love to create this art I call a story. It's fun. I even love critiqueing my stories and others. I spend my time making those pages shine to precision and hate it when they don't come back with red. And then comes the part I CHOKE on. The Query. I get it to a point I think it's good, and it's not so bad I suppose. I have gotten some personal rejections from my query, but no requests. And so I start again, I revamp, go to the sites, get it critiqued by some wonderful people on QT and AW, and try again. All I can hope is that this time I don't find I've fallen flat on my face, and somewhere that one agent will see my story and want to work with me.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Blogfest! Let's have fun!
Brenda Drake is hosting a blogfest. Definitely worth checking out. http://brenleedrake.blogspot.com/2011/03/show-me-voice-contest-with-agent.html
Here's my first 250 words for my MS Broken Paths. It's YA fantasy, and I've tried to add some internal dialogue as suggested below.
Well I worked a bit more on it. What do you think? New one in bold, old just after.
The darkness wrapped around her, the chorus of crickets no more than a buzz of background sound as Tiani searched the tree line, gasping for breath. The thundering of her heart pounded in her ears. She'd never run for so long. The spiny branches of the trees reached through the darkness to catch her, to stop her from succeeding. She couldn't fail. Not this time. Not when she was so close. She would prove them all wrong. The darkness lightened as a soft glow spread over the mountain ridge and she cursed inwardly, sweeping the sweat soaked strands of her auburn hair from her face and tucking them behind her ear.
"Ehlrin." The word was little more than a whisper. Any louder and she might be heard by the Halyn following them. If they find us we’ll just have to fight, but can we win? Tiani shook her head, refusing to let the thoughts cloud her mind. “Did we lose them?”
The tree above her rustled and Ehlrin landed beside her, his blonde hair plastered to his forehead and his green eyes roving over the mountainside. “No.”
If they could just survive this contest a few more hours, retrieve the winner’s cup, and make it back before the Halyn stole it, they’d graduate and rise among the Hindori’s elite. The hope crashed away as she looked through the dark trees.
They’d looked all night and hadn’t found the cup. Much longer and that chance would be lost. The only other option was beating the Halyn in a fight, and with personalized training and three years more experience that wasn’t likely to happen.
The darkness wrapped around her, the chorus of crickets no more than a buzz of background sound as Tiani searched the tree line, gasping for breath. The thundering of her heart pounded in her ears. She'd never run for so long. The spiny branches of the trees reached through the darkness to catch her, to stop her from succeeding. She couldn't fail. Not this time. Not when she was so close. She would prove them all wrong. The darkness lightened as a soft glow spread over the mountain ridge and she cursed inwardly, sweeping the sweat soaked strands of her auburn hair from her face and tucking them behind her ear.
"Ehlrin." The word was little more than a whisper. Any louder and she might be heard by the Halyn following them. Please don’t let them find us again. “Did we lose them?”
The tree above her rustled and Ehlrin landed beside her, his blonde hair plastered to his forehead and his green eyes roving over the mountainside. “No.”
The Halyn wouldn’t let her and Ehlrin win easily. If they could just survive a few more hours, retrieve the winner’s cup, and make it back before the Halyn stole it, they’d graduate. If they ever found the cup. Their only other option was beating the Halyn at their own game, and that wasn’t likely to happen.
Tiani stared at Ehlrin’s face, seeing the anguish there. I could handle not making it past the academy, but… She dropped her gaze and searched for some words of comfort.
Here's my first 250 words for my MS Broken Paths. It's YA fantasy, and I've tried to add some internal dialogue as suggested below.
Well I worked a bit more on it. What do you think? New one in bold, old just after.
The darkness wrapped around her, the chorus of crickets no more than a buzz of background sound as Tiani searched the tree line, gasping for breath. The thundering of her heart pounded in her ears. She'd never run for so long. The spiny branches of the trees reached through the darkness to catch her, to stop her from succeeding. She couldn't fail. Not this time. Not when she was so close. She would prove them all wrong. The darkness lightened as a soft glow spread over the mountain ridge and she cursed inwardly, sweeping the sweat soaked strands of her auburn hair from her face and tucking them behind her ear.
"Ehlrin." The word was little more than a whisper. Any louder and she might be heard by the Halyn following them. If they find us we’ll just have to fight, but can we win? Tiani shook her head, refusing to let the thoughts cloud her mind. “Did we lose them?”
The tree above her rustled and Ehlrin landed beside her, his blonde hair plastered to his forehead and his green eyes roving over the mountainside. “No.”
If they could just survive this contest a few more hours, retrieve the winner’s cup, and make it back before the Halyn stole it, they’d graduate and rise among the Hindori’s elite. The hope crashed away as she looked through the dark trees.
They’d looked all night and hadn’t found the cup. Much longer and that chance would be lost. The only other option was beating the Halyn in a fight, and with personalized training and three years more experience that wasn’t likely to happen.
The darkness wrapped around her, the chorus of crickets no more than a buzz of background sound as Tiani searched the tree line, gasping for breath. The thundering of her heart pounded in her ears. She'd never run for so long. The spiny branches of the trees reached through the darkness to catch her, to stop her from succeeding. She couldn't fail. Not this time. Not when she was so close. She would prove them all wrong. The darkness lightened as a soft glow spread over the mountain ridge and she cursed inwardly, sweeping the sweat soaked strands of her auburn hair from her face and tucking them behind her ear.
"Ehlrin." The word was little more than a whisper. Any louder and she might be heard by the Halyn following them. Please don’t let them find us again. “Did we lose them?”
The tree above her rustled and Ehlrin landed beside her, his blonde hair plastered to his forehead and his green eyes roving over the mountainside. “No.”
The Halyn wouldn’t let her and Ehlrin win easily. If they could just survive a few more hours, retrieve the winner’s cup, and make it back before the Halyn stole it, they’d graduate. If they ever found the cup. Their only other option was beating the Halyn at their own game, and that wasn’t likely to happen.
Tiani stared at Ehlrin’s face, seeing the anguish there. I could handle not making it past the academy, but… She dropped her gaze and searched for some words of comfort.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Show Your Love contest
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.
http://ldstorymakerauthors.blogspot.com/2011/02/show-your-love.html
Evjoy the contest.
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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