Birth of a Novel #8 and Some REALLY Good News!

Since this really good news is just dying to bubble over, I'll spill it first. Remember my post last Saturday about Sophia Chang's blogaversary giveaway? Weeelll, I won the critique! Sophia emailed me this morning with the details. I've been scrambling to assemble the perfect 25 pages of MS to send over. I think I'll skim over it once more to cut down on accidental typos and such to provide a cleaner copy for the two criters to read. (And to make sure that all the Japanese terms and weird notes of mine are properly explained and aren't in the way.) Fyi, I'll be submitting the prologue and beginning of Novella #2 from the Across Time series I started last year.

In other news, I worked more on editing Victor's Crown. I think I'll make one more pass at it this week and then off it goes! I'm very excited to see what happens.

Also, sometime this week I'll be submitting another twit fic to Nanoisms (especially since my one last week wasn't accepted. Oh well.).

I was also rejected for The Story Within Week One contest. The winning entry is quite beautiful and I have no regrets having lost to it. I'm still brainstorming for the next entry. The theme is Dialogue.

Until next time!

And so it Begins

After handwriting the entry in my journal while the car jostled my pen, my heart raced quite fast. I was satisfied with the result, amazed at my own depth of brilliance and ready to send it on its way.

Five minutes ago I put the final touches on my entry and sent it off to week one of The Story Within Contest. I'm on a dizzy high after writing and completing a less than 200 word story and from lack of sleep.

Of course this may also have something to do with visiting the Rembrant exhibit in Raleigh. I found a painting there (not by Rembrant, btw) which is begging me to write a story about it. I took a picture of it. Perhaps I'll post up a picture of it and of another picture I took of yellow, dead grass which might be combined into the inspiration.

I fear that if I go on I will not make much sense, so I shall stop it here. My eyelids are drooping to the rhythm of the pouring rain outside.

Until next time!

Birth of a Novel....#7?

I've quite lost track of where I should be in the Birth of the Novel blog chain posts. All I know is that I'm not quite done with it yet because I'm not quite done with my NaNo novella. I keep adding a little bit here and a little bit there, but distractions in the form of magazines and editing submissions have pulled me away from a steady writing pace. However, I can report that, however slowly, novella #2 is inching towards the end. All I have left is to write a chase and crash scene.

In other news, I'm putting the finishing touches onto Victor's Crown (it so needs a new title) and once done I'll submit it to Intergalactic Medicine Show. If they don't like it, I'll submit it to Andromeda Spaceways. And if that doesn't work, then I'll pick another magazine to submit it to.

I've also submitted my first twitter fiction story to Nanoisms, and I plan to keep submitting one a week. I hope to get a few published. (I mean, getting paid to write tweets?!)

The final distraction, I mean, submission opportunity I found this past week was The Story Within contest I mentioned in yesterday's post. I still haven't drafted my entry for this week yet. Bad me! My excuse? I've been progressively getting sicker. Today culminated in almost total suffocation. I don't know when I'll be able to breathe properly without waking up with a bone dry mouth. Oh and I could do without the sneezing. Most definitely without the sneezing.

Until next time!

Links Saturday

Ok, ok. I know the schedule says that Saturdays are when I'd be posting in depth discussions on writing or some other topic related to writing. However, I don't have anything that comes to mind to discuss, so I'll link to you another blog which has an interesting discussion. And I've discovered so much juicy information these past few days that I had to share it. I've learned more about writers, writing and publishing in the past month on Twitter than I have in years previous. I think I made a good choice to dive in (even if Mom thinks I'm crazy [Yes, I do love you, Mom]).

Before the long discussion, another giveaway to report! Sophia Chang is giving away a book and a 25 page critique over at her blog to celebrate her blogaversary. Head on over to enter! (And tell her I sent you. ;) )

Another goodie. "The Story Within" (Penguin books) author Laura Oliver is judging a weekly contest based around writing prompts. Each week will have a different winner and the weekly winners will be entered in a drawing for the Grand Prize: a 2 hour consulting (critiquing?) session with Laura Oliver. So, put on your thinking caps and head over to Laura Oliver's site to read the prompt. Week one entries are due on the 18th! (It's only 250 words or less so I think it's perfectly possible.)

For those of you considering self-publishing, you might find this article informative. It's not just writers seeking traditional publication who have to be careful of scams. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/12/self-publishing-cons_n_1203007.html

And now onto that writerly discussion post I mentioned in the first paragraph. I found it particularly enlightening. (Excerpt below.)

The Business Rusch: Why Not?

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

On TV’s most popular drama series, NCIS, the main character, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, walks through the office, and if he hears a stupid statement, he slaps the speaker on the back of the head. Now, this is fiction, mind you. In any real office, military or not, he’d probably be fired, brought up on charges, or forced to have sensitivity training.

But that’s not my point.

My point is: I can relate.

I walk past writer after writer after writer, and as I hear what comes out of their mouths, I want to slap some sense into them. Because words don’t seem to be working.

Which is odd, considering that writers use words as their stock in trade.

The biggest problem writers have as a class isn’t that they work too cheaply, which I wrote about last week, or even that they don’t understand business, which I write about almost every week, but that they think too small.

Huh? you think to yourself as you read this. My last novel clocked in at 140,000 words. I invented an entire world. I don’t think small.

Oh, yes, you do. Every damn day. It’s the rare writer who actually has ambitions—real ambitions—and stands up for them. It’s the rare writer who not only dreams of glory (bestseller lists, millions of dollars, fame, lasting acclaim, or whatever) but actually works toward those dreams.

Click here to continue reading. It's a long post, but well worth the time spent reading it.

One last goodie. I must applaud these indie bookshop owners for all the time invested in creating this video and if I lived in Canada anywhere near them, I would be hopping in the car to visit. Enjoy!



Until next time!