Competition at Laurel’s Leaves and Other Links

This is a neat competition. Send Laurel your persuasive scene or story – up to 700 words – and you might win a free critique of up to 15 pages of your ms. The deadline is TODAY, so move fast. I apologize if I missed posting this earlier! Good luck to all ye who enter!

And in other news, check out the publishing statistics here. It made me feel much better about my lack of short stories, at least. ;D

Addendum: Check out Nathan Bransford’s talk on book pitching. The link will take you to Janet Goldstein’s site where she has a recording of him posted.

The Sandy Finalists

I’m still floored about this. I got a call from the administrator of The Sandy Writing Contest last night. I’m a finalist! Woot! I have a week to get my ms polished up as best I can.

Alas, as many of you know, my thumb drive with all my updated files died a week ago today. And I now have comfirmation – my drive will not return as a zombie. Which means this will likely be my last post this week. I have seven days to re-do three weeks of work. I’m REALLY sorry to do it to you. I will try to slip in stuff if I can.

My name is Victoria and I am addicted to blogging. LOL Have a great week guys, and thanks to everyone for helping me come this far!

Query Questions

I’ve struggled with this query letter more than I can say. Does anyone have any comments or suggestions?

Liu Jie fears losing family members more than anything, so he raises an army when his nephew, the Ron Emperor, requires protection from Yellow Turban rebels. With the help of Aiyu, an orphaned boy Jie saves, the rebels are destroyed. However, Jie does not believe they were the Emperor’s true threat. He suspects the Imperial Chancellor intends to usurp the throne.

Rather than waging war and risking the lives of thousands, Jie attacks the Chancellor during a chance meeting. The attack fails and Jie, his family and Aiyu flee, continuing their struggle to survive amidst drought and warfare.

During battle, Jie’s wife sacrifices herself to save her son and Aiyu, whose secrets cost her life. Aiyu confesses his mistakes and rather than lose yet another loved one, Jie adopts Aiyu, fulfilling their mutual desire for family. However, bitter loss continues to overshadow Jie until he must choose between the safety of his family or his Empire’s survival.

MOURN THEIR COURAGE is a 95,000-word fantasy based on Chinese folktales collectively called “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.” Though adapted for film, comics and video game serialization, there are no modern English novelizations of this treasure. MOURN THEIR COURAGE may interest fans of Eric Flint, Cindy Pon and Guy Gavriel Kay and is similar in setting to Kay’s “Under Heaven,” due April 27th.
I have published fiction in several online publications and am a member of the Wuxia Society and The China History Forum Online, where I contribute book reviews. I am also an active book reviewer on two blogs.

Saving an orphan launches Jie on an epic journey where ghosts are guides and heroes are traitors. I invite you to experience MOURN THEIR COURAGE. Thank you for this opportunity. I look forward to hearing from you.

Pitch Descriptions

The following links were tossed around on the Agent Query SF/Fantasy author’s group today and I thought I’d share. The first one helped me redefine my pitch, so check out this link.

This is a list to some great, practical advice if you’re about to go pitch.

An Answer

If you’ve seen my post called Praising God, you know I’ve had some self-doubt (and lack of faith issues) recently. I wanted to share the devotional that came up this morning and filled me with a renewed sense of hope and purpose:

“He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.” Philippians 1:6.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming. ;D