Contests and World Building

Check out this awesome series of posts on World Building. You won’t regret it as Rebecca has great resources listed as well as lots of food for thought – and improved writing.

Sorry it took so long for me to post!

Launch of Escaping the Tiger

“Escaping the Tiger” packed Reading Reptile Bookstore with 250+ for the book’s launch party Saturday night! Partiers showed up for a signed copy of the book including yours truly. The cookies, fudge, and Laotian food was an attractive bonus, but they didn’t last. I guarantee this book will stick with you.

I read the first six chapters Saturday night and if I hadn’t had to be alert Sunday, I would have continued reading until I was done. It’s that good.

I’ll be back in a day or three with a finished review and then an author interview!

One more at Shooting Stars

Go to Suzette Saxton and Bethany Wiggins’ site and make sure you sign up for prizes galore including a 40 page critique. I can’t express how much I want to win this prize.

I just endured another Flogging the Quill critique and I don’t know what to do. Last year a resounding 2/3 of readers disliked my opening hook (in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest) because it dropped them into the action too fast. They wanted to be submersed in the culture before being subjected to a body in the orchard. Ok, 2/3 of around 30 respondents is statistically valuable, so I re-wrote my hook.

Ray at Flogging the Quill and the only other critiquer make great suggestions and comments – I am not bucking what they’re saying as I always preferred my first hook. The problem is, what do I believe – the statistics or the professionals? I just don’t know what to do about this book. It’s impass time again and I don’t know if I’m interested in working the hook again without further professional input. I’ve spent 16 years of my life on this novel and without professional (but free help as I have no money) I’m done. Finite. Zai jian!

Contest Listings

Janet mentioned last week that she didn’t know where I found some of these contest listings.

Check out V.R. Barkowski and Carolina Valdez Miller’s blog for an answer to that question. You’ll end up reading all night.

Weronika Janczuk Is On Fire!

I sent you over there just a few days ago for one contest. Check her out here, she’s got another one going! I do have quite a few friends interested in juvenile literature, so I strongly recommend they give it a go as that’s where her focus is.