Things other people are doing

Today was supposed to be the day I answered some of those questions I got tagged with, but I've got a few bits and pieces that I wanted to pass on, so you'll have to wait until next week to find out what my favourite colour is :-)

Hands up if you're doing the A -Z challenge? Now, keep your hand up if you haven't got all your posts together yet. Well, if you need a hand with the letter P on 17^th April, Madeleine Maddocks of Scribble and Edit is running the Plotting Blogfest. (It's open to pantsers too!). So if you've got any tips or hints to share, and a post shaped hole on that day, go here for details and sign up.

If your brain is already overloaded trying to get those posts ready for next month, L. Diane Wolfe from Spunk on a Stick is running the Sad Songs Blogfest on Friday 30^th March. We all have those songs that move us, or threaten to break our heart. Here's where you can sign up to share them with everyone else!

Finally, Unicorn Bell is running 'A Picture Paints 1000 Words'. Go here to sign up, and between 26-28 March post a story of 1000 words or less inspired by one of the ten pictures shown. There are prizes for this one, too!

One more thing before I sneak off to bed with my dragon-tattooed girl, a blogging friend of mine, Kayeleen Hamblin, from Kayeleen's Creation Corner announced today that her husband Greg has left the writing closet and is joining us all in the light. He has a brand new blog, so if you have a couple of minutes, it would be great if you could drop by The Gregwriter and say hello :-)  

Behind the Curtain of the Magic Appreciation Tour

You may remember me telling you about Daniel Marvello's Magic Appreciation Tour a while back. I asked Daniel to come and tell us how it was going once it had been running for a few weeks as it's a model I'm interested in, and that I think may work for other genres. So, here he is :-)

I met Sarah through Rachael Harrie's Platform Building Campaign last year and we've stayed in contact since then. The Campaign was supposed to help us make new friends and build a following, and I must say it accomplishes that goal. Thanks for inviting me to guest post on your blog, Sarah!

Sarah asked me to share my experiences with an experiment I started a couple of months ago called the Magic Appreciation Tour and Book Sale. The "MA Tour" is a Web site dedicated to magical fantasy books and authors, and I'm "the man behind the curtain."

Why the Magic Appreciation Tour?

The idea for the MA Tour came about one day while I was thinking about unobtrusive ways to market my book. I needed to find a way to get my book in front of readers. However, every social network I'm involved with takes a dim view of self-promotion. As Joe Konrath says, "It's about what you have to offer, not what you have to sell." I didn't want to be that guy who never shuts up about asking people to buy his book.

While researching marketing options, I found an interesting site called the 99-Cent Network. However, the site has no particular market focus and finding books in a specific genre was painful. Their registration form didn't even have "fantasy" as a category! I was going to give them a try anyway after my book was done, but they switched to a paid model almost the day I registered. They wanted $25 per month to put my book on their site. At 99 cents, I'd have to sell 72 books every month just to break even on their fees. Scratch that idea!

What I needed was a place to offer my book that was specifically oriented toward the audience I wanted to reach, in my case, fantasy readers. It comes down to basic marketing theory: identify your audience and then find ways to reach them. I had no luck finding such a place, so I decided to create my own.

Creating a Venue

I knew I was in for an uphill battle. Attracting an audience to a brand new Web site takes effort and time. But I'm in this writing thing for the long haul. It's not like my book was traditionally published and has just six weeks to sell or be taken off shelves. It's out there and it will stay out there. Plus, more books are coming, and by the time they do, the MA Tour may have gathered some steam.

The basic premise of the site is that it is a resource for readers to find fantasy books. But not just any fantasy books. Taking marketing theory a step further, I narrowed the focus to books that contain magic (like mine.)  

I wanted the book listing page to reflect the best attributes of the book sites I've visited. The cover thumbnails are generous, a short blurb is right there next to the cover, and links are provided for readers who want to learn more about the author or buy the book. The author page lists all of the authors with a photo and bio, and it includes links to their blogs and books. I'm very happy with how quickly a reader can size up a book and then take action to learn more or buy.

But I needed more believers like me. I set up a basic Web site and started calling for authors through Twitter, Facebook, and Google-Plus. My efforts brought in a few authors, and those authors brought in more authors. I'm pleased to say we now have 19 authors and 30 books. That may not sound like a lot, but I think it's a great start.

How Authors "Tour"

In the spirit of the Platform Building Campaign and the various blog tour services, the "tour" aspect of the Magic Appreciation Tour is designed to help authors network with one another and share audiences. It has two tools to facilitate this: the author page itself, and the Post Exchange.

The author page is not only a resource for readers, but for authors as well. Authors can quickly see who else is touring and click links to visit their blogs. Like the Platform Campaign, we can follow each other and comment on posts to show support.

The Post Exchange is essentially a blog tour dedicated to MA Tour authors. An author submits a blog post offer and requests a blog post in exchange. I match authors up according to the type of post they want to do, and connect them via email. Once the post goes live, I add a link to either the book listing or the author listing on the MA Tour site.

The relationship between the site and the author blogs is symbiotic from a search engine standpoint. Author blog links to the MA Tour site give it more authority, and the site's links back to them give them more authority. That relationship will only get more powerful over time.

How Are We Doing?

I'm pleased with how the MA Tour is progressing. We are only in our second week, and we've had 20 Post Exchange submissions, which translate to 40 blog post pairings. Our authors are meeting, networking, and sharing audiences.

I've personally made several new author friends, which makes me happy. Being a magical fantasy reader myself, I've enjoyed finding new books to read by the participating authors. You could say that I'm my own best customer!

I don't know about the other authors, but I've yet to see a bump in sales beyond those I know are going to other authors on the tour. But these are early days. Like books themselves, the site will take time to gain traction.

What's Next?

Judging from the stats, readers have not found us yet. But that isn't a surprise. The site is brand new and the benefits from touring are rarely immediate. This kind of marketing takes time to bear fruit. Also, I'm just getting started with spreading the word about the site at other places where fantasy readers gather. Telling readers about a free resource isn't the same thing as telling them to buy your book.

From a site standpoint, the next step will be automation. Everything from registration to the Post Exchange can be folded into a membership site where authors have full control over their listings and can pick-and-choose their own blog post pairings. Automation would also have the benefit of replacing the manual processes I'm doing now. I hand-code every book listing and author listing, and I'm managing the Post Exchange in an Excel spreadsheet at the moment.

At the same time, my wife has expressed interest in using the MA Tour model for other markets. Once the system is automated, it will be fairly easy to run multiple sites like the Magic Appreciation Tour.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how the site is working out. We have authors, we have books, and we have participation. The rest is just a matter of time and perseverance.

If you'd like to learn more about the Magic Appreciation Tour, visit the Web site at www.MagicAppreciationTour.com. To learn more about Daniel Marvello, visit www.DanielRMarvello.com.

Musical Stories 30: Romance

So here it is, the last official issue of Musical Stories. I'll do a couple of special editions over the next couple of weeks and then we'll be moving on to our new feature, which I still don't have a name for. (Any suggestions welcome!). I'll be doing a post all about it soon, and asking for volunteers to submit, so watch out for that.

It seems fitting that we're ending with romance. After all, isn't love supposed to make the world go round? Whether you believe that or not, I hope you find something to enjoy amongst this week's selections.

The first story has been sitting on two lists for a while, this one and YA. I've included it today because I don't care how old you are, when you feel it you feel it. Boy, does this guy feel it!

The second one, perhaps as a counterpoint to the first, is proof that romance isn't the province of the young. True love is what remains when that first flush, that 'I-can't-bear-to-be-away-from-you' wears off.

The final entry for Musical Stories is one that is very special to me. It's not 'my' song, it doesn't remind me of anyone or anything in my past, I just think it is one of the most beautiful songs ever written, and although I've heard it sung by many different people, this is the singer I think does it best. This is another one of those songs that I have avoided using because I didn't think it told a full story but, thanks to Denise Covey at L'Aussie Writer I have the answer. It's a vignette. Denise says (and I hope you don't mind me quoting directly from your blog Denise):

"Vignette" is a word that originally meant 'something that may be written on a vine-leaf.' It's a snapshot in words. It differs from flash fiction or a short story in that its aim doesn't lie within the traditional realms of structure or plot.
(Originally from The Vine Leaves Literary Journal).

Thank you all for sharing my Musical Stories with me, and for all your comments and suggestions.


 Lyrics here


Lyrics here


Lyrics here

The Evil Genius Blogfest

The Golden Eagle over at The Eagle's Aerial Perspective is having her second blog birthday today, and to celebrate she's holding The Evil Genius Blogfest. The rules are simple: create a story,or non-fiction piece, in any format about an evil genius. It can be an already existing person from history or literature or you could, as I have done, create your own.

At 450 words, my entry is a little bit longer than The Golden Eagle's suggested limit of 400, but I hope you'll forgive me. Also, please bear with me. Humour is not something I usually tackle!
                                         

Handsome hero crept round the corner, punching First Anonymous Bad Guy in the face. Second Anonymous Bad Guy was no problem either. Handsome Hero back-kicked him without even turning round.

Handsome Hero made his way to the pool area, not even caring that he still had his shoes on. Rules were made to be broken. There she was, Plucky Heroine, bound to a chair, gagged . She'd held her own so far through this long adventure, but now it was time for him to rescue her from the clutches of Evil Genius.

He ran over to her, breaking another poolside rule, and began to work at the knots holding her captive.

“Mmmph,” she said.

“Sorry sweetheart?” He was still concentrating on the task at hand.

“MMMPH,” she said again, more urgently this time.

He looked up. There stood Evil Genius, a gun in his hand.

“I knew you'd come. This time Handsome Hero, it really is the end for you. I don't know how you escaped the ski lift of death, the roller-coaster of doom, or the runaway-driverless-subway-car of destruction, but no matter. You won't get away this time.”

From the corner of his eye Handsome Hero saw something move. Turning his head to look, he realised that the pool wasn't empty. There were several sharks swimming in it. Sharks? Really? Even as he'd stuffed the Shark repellent in his pocket this morning he hadn't thought he would need it. Sharks were so last decade. On the other hand, it would make this all a lot easier. He would be forced into the pool, then whilst Evil Genius was recounting every last step of his incredibly long and detailed plan to take over the world to poor, helpless Plucky Heroine, He, Handsome Hero, would despatch the sharks, silently climb out of the pool behind his nemesis and knock him unconscious. He sighed. It was a shame he had to get his hair wet.

“Stand on the edge of the pool,” ordered Evil Genius.

“I suppose you think you're going to make me jump in. No way that's happening.” Handsome Hero was pleased that he'd finally got some use out of the reverse psychology degree he'd taken all those years ago.

Evil Genius grinned an evil grin.

“Know why they call me Evil Genius?” He asked.

“No, why?”

Evil Genius raised his gun and shot Handsome Hero in the head. He watched as his enemy's lifeless body toppled into the pool.

“Because I learn from my mistakes.”

Plucky Heroine watched as Evil Genius walked away. She wondered how hard it would be to change her name to Evil Badass Sidechick.

Daniel Marvello and the Magic Appreciation Tour

If you're wondering what the poll on the right is all about, read this post for details.

 If you read or write Magical Fantasy in any of its many forms, here's something that will interest you. The Magic Appreciation Tour, brainchild of Daniel Marvello of The Vaetra Files, is a new website going live on March 1. I've used some of Daniel's own words to help me tell you about it.

What is it?
The Magic Appreciation Tour (MA Tour) and Book Sale is a website that helps fantasy readers find out about new authors and get great deals on Magical Fantasy books. Each tour will run quarterly.

The term 'Magical Fantasy' refers to any fantasy book that includes a force or power that readers would recognise as magic. The book might be considered an urban fantasy, epic fantasy, romantic fantasy or whatever. The critical element is that it has magic of some kind.

What's in it for readers?
It serves readers by collecting Magical Fantasy books in one place and displaying them in a format that makes it easy to find the books that interest them. It also gives readers the opportunity to learn more about the authors of those books.

Readers participate by visiting the book sale and author pages of the MA Tour website.

What's in it for writers?
It serves authors by showcasing their work on a site that is dedicated to their genre and by helping them form new supportive relationships with other authors.

The Book Sale page shows the cover and blurb for every participating book, along with links to buy, see reviews, and learn about the author.

The Author page shows a picture (or avatar) and a bio for every participating author, along with links to visit the author's blog, read interviews of the author, and read guest posts by them.

Authors participate by making their book available on the MA Tour site and by engaging with other participating authors through their blog and social networking during the tour. By pooling their social connections, authors help each other get the word out about their books and make new friends.
FAQ

Note that the MA Tour site does not actually sell books; buy links take readers to either Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords. Listing books on the MA Tour site is NOT a violation of the KDP Select terms, as long as the buy link goes to Amazon.

I've added links to Daniel's blog, and to the MA Tour site itself if you would like more information but, if you  have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and I'm sure Daniel will be happy to answer. I should add that Daniel didn't specifically ask me to blog about this, I just happen to think it's a really great idea, and one that I'd love to see take off. Also, the guy has an excellent blog photo :-)

Fourth Writers' Platform Building Campaign

I'm pretty sure that you've all heard the news by now but, just in case you've somehow missed the announcement, the Fourth Writers' Platform-Building Campaign is upon us. I was part of the last one, and it was a lot of fun. You have until 15^th February to sign up and you can do so here, at Rachael Harrie's blog, Rach Writes. . . This time around it's a mini campaign running until 17^th March, so it's a perfect way to try it out if you're new to the campaign, before the big one in the Summer. It's a great way to make new friends :-)

In other news, I found out yesterday that The Old Geezer's blog has been hacked by spammers, so if he's on your reader it might be a good idea to remove his blog. Ron, if you're reading this, I hope you're back with us soon.

After four weeks of waiting, Diva phoned the art college yesterday to ask when she might hear from them. You know what's coming next, right? Yeah, they didn't receive her application. So, it's back to square one whilst we wait for a new one to come in the post. So, please keep those fingers crossed for a few weeks longer!

Today's post is a short one, so I'll leave you with a new trailer for one of the most eagerly awaited films of the year. Enjoy!

It's a good job other people have great ideas

You know what is supposed to be here? My entry for Heather's competition* over at My Demon Spirits. In fact, I had planned to post it last Monday. However, you can't post what isn't written, and right now I've got nothing. Instead, I bring you a couple of public service announcements.

*The deadline mentioned in this post is 19th December, but Heather has kindly extended it to 31st December.

I'm pretty sure that you're all following SB Jones Publishing but, just in case you didn't realise, he released Guardian, the second novel in his Eternal Gateway trilogy, on December 15^th. Go here to see how you can tweet to be in with a chance to win a copy until December 30^th. Don't worry if you haven't read Requiem, the first in the series. SB is offering everyone a free ecopy from Amazon, also until December 30^th. You can download it for the Kindle, or for the Kindle app (if, like me, you still haven't got a real Kindle and you're pretending that your pc is an ereader).

This is a link toAmazon USA

This is a link toAmazon UK

Have you got a romantic 'short' just looking for the right home? Jami Gold on her Paranormal Author blog is offering a great chance for writers. I'll let her explain it herself, as she did in her post here:

Several editors from Entangled Publishing will be visiting my blog in the second week of January to take pitches for shorter length works.  They’re interested in stories with strong romantic elements that end in a “happily ever after” or a “happily for now.”  They’re looking for stories in the 10-60K word range and are open to many genres:

• Contemporary
• Historical
• Romantic Thrillers
• Science Fiction, Dystopian, Steampunk
• Paranormal and Urban Fantasy
• Fantasy

If you have stories already completed that would fit those guidelines, get them polished.  If you have ideas along those lines or if you’ve thought about attempting a short story, get writing.  (Another great thing about short stories is they’re quick to write and revise.)

The editors have promised they’ll make at least one request from those who pitch on my blog, and for the pitch that excites them the most, they’ll offer detailed feedback.

So, if this sounds like something you might be interested in, check out Jami's blog before January 10^th and make sure you get your chance to pitch. Good luck!

In the meantime, if you need me, I'll be here in the corner trying to turn a vague idea into a 500 word story.

And we're off!

It's 12:04 am. I might as well start while I'm feeling enthusiastic :-)

I'm registered as Sarah Pearson if anyone wants to find me. There are a few of us, but I'm using the same picture as my blog one.

This is going to become my theme tune, not just for NaNo, but until I get published.

I nabbed this from Sommer Leigh's blog Tell Great Stories. If you liked that, she has more here.

Best of luck to everyone taking part, officially or unofficially!

Broadening my horizons

Well, I've finally gone and done it. I've joined Twitter. Actually, I did it last week, I just haven't tweeted anything yet. Or told anyone I'm there, until now. So far, I'm following three people and watching two. (These are people who came up on my google account). I haven't really got to grips with it yet, mainly because the little bird on my task bar who is supposed to turn red when someone tweets only does it about one time in three. I'm sure I'll work it out soon though. I'm SarahPearson9 if you're interested, but I wouldn't bother just yet. I do have one follower though, Techie bless his heart, which is funny because he doesn't actually tweet either. Also, if he wants to say something to me he could just turn round. At some point, I'll try and work out how to put links on my blog. At some point.

Also, I'm on Goodreads. I joined ages ago, but I've just started using it in the last few weeks. It seemed a better idea than my 'books I want to read' page, which I never remember to update. Join me there if you like.

Lastly, who's doing NaNo this year? I wasn't going to. I was just going to use it as a challenge to write 50k words in November, but then Sommer Leigh of Tell Great Stories (who's running a series of great posts about it) asked me why I wasn't actually signing up. I don't actually have an answer, so I think I'll probably just take the plunge.

Before I go, I just wanted to let you know that I'm probably going to revert to the old comment system. I've had at least four people let me know that they were unable to comment on my last post. I've been looking at it and I can't see why, so it'll be all change again soon.

Update: Apparently, if you click on the actual post title, the comments box will appear. If you still have problems, could you please email me and let me know?

To finish, here's a little something I nabbed from Sarah Wesson over at Earful of Cider, who got it from I Can Has Cheezburger. This is just brilliant :-)

(Removed picture of two crows. Caption reads 'attempted murder.')

see more So Much Pun

Paying It Forward

If you're looking for this week's Musical Stories, they'll be up later. For now, I wanted to take part in the Pay It Forward Blogfest that Alex Cavanaugh, and Matt from the Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment have devised. The idea is that we each choose three blogs to introduce you to, blogs that we love, and if you don't already know them, feel free to check them out.

Once you've done that, Click on Matt or Alex's list above for a full list of blogs taking part if you fancy finding plenty more great new blogs.

If you're taking part in this, then you'll know how hard it is to pick just three. I've finally managed, and I hope you love them.

Linda G at Visiting Reality is funny and smart and has plenty of sass. Also, every week on hump day there are camels. How can you resist?

Michael Offutt from SLC Kismet is a man with opinions, which he's more than happy to share. I don't always agree with him, but he often makes me think. Plus, he has excellent taste in TV programmes :-)

Roland Yeomans of Writing in the Crosshairs writes the most beautiful prose, and has a wonderful imagination. On top of that, he's kind and supportive and will reach out a helping hand to anyone in the blogosphere who needs it.

So there you go, three out of hundreds. Please go and say hello if you get the chance.

South of Charm with Elliot Grace

I'm absolutely thrilled today to be bringing you an interview with Elliot Grace of So close, but ... This is the fourth stop on Elliot's tour for his wonderful book South of Charm.

This is an excerpt, courtesy of Goodreads:

We're huddled in the far corner of my bedroom. Arms wrapped around our knees in the dark. The approaching footsteps grow louder. Ominous thuds. Our mother, but somehow not. She's standing outside my door. We listen to the creak of the hinges. My sister clenches my arm. "She's coming," she whispers. "She's broken."

You can buy the book from Amazon UK Kindle edition

also from Amazon .com Kindle edition or paperback edition

Now let's see what Elliot has to say.

Describe South of Charm in your own words

While South of Charm doesn't really fit into the general selection of genres available, (something I'm actually proud to admit), I liken it to a coming of age story in the mold of King's Stand By Me, or McCammon's A Boy's Life. This is a story of small town innocence, of the drama surrounding a young boy and his sister, fallen victim to personal tragedy, and of a certain magic that only happens in neighborhoods where last names aren't necessary, and front doors are left unlocked after hours.

From starting to write, to getting published, how long did the process take?

I began South of Charm while laid off from my day job at that time, then continued on after being called back to work, for fear of losing the “groove” as my wife likes to call it. It took me three years to complete a manuscript worthy of speaking of. After signing with Wooster Books, revisions, rewrites, and final edits burned up another eighteen months, followed by six months of waiting. Needless to say, in this biz, patience is an absolute virtue.

Why was this the story you had to tell? It can't have been an easy one.

While I've played around with other story ideas, this was the one with the strongest character drama, the one I felt carried the best message of hope. This was the story that made my wife cry, which was most convincing of all.

Which character was the hardest to write?

Danny's mother proved the most difficult simply because her character demanded the most attention to detail. It took several re-rewrites to figure out her illness, her thought processes as her family crumbled around her. She's been the most challenging character I've dealt with to date.

Were there any favourite parts to write?

Growing up surrounded in athletic ventures, and now as a youth ball coach, penning the baseball scenes were a blast to write. I've since begun work on several new projects involving sports related themes, and enjoying every minute of it ;)

What, if any, advice would you give Danny?

What a great question! To be quite honest, following the end of Danny's struggles, and the respect demanded of him upon the final decision he makes, I think perhaps it would be me going to him for advice, as opposed to the other way around.

Being a regular reader to Elliot's blog, I expected this book to be well written and I expected it to tell a great story. I also expected it to be a cute MG book that would while away a few undemanding hours. You know what they say, two out of three ain't bad. This is not an easy book, but it is a rewarding one, and the characters will stay with you long after you've read the last page. I thoroughly recommend it. I also recommend this wonderful review from Anne Gallagher at Piedmont Writer.

Elliot's also holding a contest with some great prizes. Go here to find out how to enter and what you can win. The details are below his tour itinerary.

Thank you so much to Elliot for allowing me to share the fun of his book tour, and also for being my first ever guinea-pig interviewee.

Questions, questions

I received a few more awards recently, for which I thank the lovely people concerned. Since I recently had an award post, I'll save them for next week if nobody minds. For today, I've got a few questions for you all. Before I get to those, I just want to let you know that the fabulous Jen Daiker over at Unedited has interviewed Jen Violi. I mention this because Jen Violi's new book is called Putting Makeup on Dead People which I happen to think is a superb title for a book. If you pop over and say hi to one or both of the Jens you stand a chance of winning one of three copies. You know you want to win so that you can read it on the bus and tell people it's a 'how to' book. Or is that just me? Don't forget to come back after you've done that. I need your help.

Okay, first question. How many of you come back and read my responses to your comments? I love replying to you, but I understand that people are busy and there are too many blogs to read as it is, without coming back to the same post twice. Sometimes it takes me a few days to respond, although I do respond to them all. The thing is, I really do like replying to you so I was thinking either I could try and respond faster, the same day at least, or I could email a reply back to you. For those of you who email replies to comments on your own blogs, do you copy and paste the comment or is there something on blogger that will do it for you? There's no sense in me replying to your comment if you can't remember what you wrote! I'd love to get all your opinions on this one.

Now to my second question. Regulars among you know that I run my Musical Stories series on Fridays. It's been going for seven weeks now and I love it. Those of you with sharp eyes may have noticed that last Friday I didn't announce this week's genre as I normally do. The main reason for this is that it was going to be children's stories. I had two songs in mind (no novelty records!) but it turned out that one which I thought told a sweet story of a lullaby was actually a song about suicide. (Sing by The Smiths if you're interested, it's beautiful). Which leaves me with one, which isn't enough for a genre. So that one goes on hold until I come up with two more. So far we've had SciFi, YA, Crime, Literary, Chick Lit, War and Fantasy. Without getting into sub-genres, can you think of any genres I've missed? If not, would you like to see the series continue, repeating the genres but with different songs (obviously), or would you like me to think of something new? I should add that it won't be running this Friday as it's a special date for me, so I'll be posting something else, for one week only.

Last question. What do you guys think of author interviews? Recently, someone who I follow released a book and I wanted to interview him. However, he had an awful lot of followers on his blog (not something I usually think about after I've hit the follow button) and I didn't like to ask him because I didn't think he'd see it as an effective use of his time. So this is a two part question. Would you like to see the occasional interview on this blog and, if you are a published author, would you see it as a waste of valuable time to be interviewed by someone with a relatively low readership? I won't take it personally, I'm really interested. I'm not even sure I'd have the nerve to ask anyone anyway, but it's nice to have some opinions.

I'm really looking forward to hearing what you have to say and, for now at least, I'll be responding in the comments box :)

There are more good people than bad

Okay, to counterract the insane stuff I've been watching on my television, as parts of this country tries its hardest to destroy itself, I've got some fun things to report on.

Today, Jen at A book, A girl, A Journey passed a meme onto me. It's a fun one so I thought I'd give you lot a hint into my psyche by answering the questions. Incidentally, if you want a peek at her writing, you can read part of her first chapter at Blackbird in my Window. If you're not following Jen by the way, you should, she's lovely.

So, here are my answers:

Show us the cutest most adorable picture of your favorite animal.


(Picture of Giraffe removed).

Because giraffes don't get enough love.

You have five seconds to survive the Zombie Apocalypse. Choose one friend who would save your butt and tell us why you choose them.
Jen chose her husband and I'm going to copy her here. Except I'm going to choose my husband, not hers, because that would be weird. I haven't even met him. Although he looks rather cute in that picture on her blog (sorry Jen!) but no, my husband – well, partner (seeing as bigamy isn't allowed and I, uhh, haven't got a divorce yet. Don't hate me) - is the most awesome, all round together guy I know, and I don't doubt for a second that he will take care of us when the Zombie Apocalypse comes.

Share a quote with us.
'Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason'

Ralph Waldo Emerson (Thanks Claudia)

I know you had trouble choosing just one, let's have another.
Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain'.
If anyone knows whose quote that is, please can they let me know?

Using exactly 27 words tell us your life story.
Grew up, moved across the country. Married, had kids, moved back then back again. Went to uni, husband left. Found new love, started writing, penniless but happy.

Please do not throw your hands up in the air. This is not a stick up.
Not possible. One of my arms doesn't work properly :)

All the dead rock legends live again. You're standing in a fifty mile long line for:
Umm Does Elvis Costello count as a rock legend? Although, he's not dead.

Describe yourself using six words that start with the third letter of your middle name.
Natural, naïve (apparently), nerd, nocturnal, not neat.

What is your middle name? (This is for research purposes only. Your response will not affect your chances of employment.)
Lindsay

I'm not sure how many I was supposed to tag with this but the questions are fun, so anyone who wants to have a go at this one should do it.

Also, I received this award last week:

(Picture of Liebster award removed).

I'm really pleased. This is my first ever award and I received it from two people. The first was
Abby at Something to Write about, who awarded it to me last Friday. She's a fairly new blogger but has already become part of the community. The second, on Saturday, was Krista from I Take the Pen. I credit her with finally persuading me to try out flash fiction in a non-scary environment!

The rules of the award are as follows:

The Liebster Award (meaning “friend” in German) is meant to connect us even more and spotlight new bloggers who have less than 200 followers – but hopefully not for long. The rules are:

1.Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2.Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3.Post the award on your blog.
4.Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the Internet – other writers.
5.And best of all – have fun and spread the karma!

It was difficult to pick out five people for this, not least because three of the people I had picked out received it whilst I was too busy watching things burn to write a blog post, but here are five blogs that you should check out if you haven't already:

Claudia Moser, at The Story. Whatever life throws at her, she always does her best to come up smiling.
Lauren F. Boyd: My Path to Publication. She's working hard to get her work out there and is generously sharing her experiences.
Rebecca Bradley, at Life in Clarity. I love Rebecca, she's in a similar place to me, writing wise, and I feel like we have a lot of things in common.
Rebecca Kiel. She compares making jelly (by which I've just realised she, of course, means jam. Jelly is jello in America, right?) to writing and made me look at a blue square to make my climax hotter. How can I not love that?
Lastly, and I probably shouldn't do this because although she writes, it's not a writing blog and she doesn't often post but Neon Stitches is written (occasionally) by someone special :)

I hope you find something to enjoy among that little lot.

Free books from nice people

I want to share some competitions with you today, but before I do I'd like to mention a 'just for fun' contest that Krista at I Take the Pen started a few weeks ago. Every Thursday she posts an opening line or paragraph for you to finish in the comments. It's fun, and good practice for those of you who like to write flash fiction. I made it onto her hall of fame this week, yay! She also tells me she's going to use one of my musical stories to write something linking the three songs together, so I'm going to hold her to that. (Okay I'm not, because that would be mean, but I think it's a great idea).

Now, who would like free books? Or Amazon vouchers? Well sadly I can't offer you any at the moment but I can do the next best thing and that's to point you in the direction of people who are:

Over at The Story, Claudia Moser is offering an Amazon gift card for her very first giveaway.You have until July 31^st to enter this one. I know she'd love to see you, so why not go and say hello?

Medeia Sharif's début YA novel, Bestest. Ramadan. Ever. is being released this Summer. (It has a cupcake on the cover, you guys!) Also, next month her blog is two years old. She's celebrating by offering an autographed copy of her novel, another book of your choice from Elevensies, a group of YA and children's début authors, and a swag-pack made up of promotional material from the elevensies authors. There are three sets of these prizes on offer and this one closes on August 12^th.

As well as her own, Medeia has a link to another giveaway involving the elevensies. The 2011bookfeast is giving away 3 separate packs of books. This one runs until August 31^st and there will be another giveaway in the Winter. There's also a whole list of their authors, and I've already found some more new blogs to follow :)

ETA: I'm sorry for not checking the small print earlier. The bookfeast contest is open to US and Canada residents, (including overseas military installations), only.

One more for you. This one ends on July 25^th so go for it if you're interested! Over at My Writers Craze the prizes on offer for first place are Divergent by Veronica Roth, Graceling by Kristin Cashore and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. As well as that, the prize includes a $50 Amazon gift certificate AND a critique of your query and partial. As if that wasn't enough, there are also second and third prizes too!

I've linked to these competitions because they are from blogs I like and follow, (although I was lucky enough to start following one the day she announced the giveaway which was very nice timing!) I thought it might be a nice way of introducing people to other people who might not know each other yet. Share the love, that's what I say :)

Good luck to you if you decide to enter any or all of these!

I'm a winner!

Apologies for the late posting but I've been a bit poorly this week. Nothing more serious than a heavy cold, but unfortunately Techno caught it, whereupon it mutated into that most deadly of strains, man flu. I try to steer away from clichés – you know, what with trying to be a writer and all – but honestly, that man is nothing but a walking cliché right now.

So, enough of the excuses, on to more interesting things. Like the fact that I won a competition.

Jami Gold at Paranormal Author had a prize draw to celebrate her one year blogiversary, and I won. Yay! What's really great is that I get to choose the prize (within reason of course, I don't think she'll spring for an African safari for me and 45 of my closest friends, sorry guys).

I'm dithering between a 3000 word in depth critique, and a 25,000 word beta read. My new writing project has stalled right out of the starting blocks and the revisions for Looking for Lola (well, I couldn't keep on calling it Joe and the Angels, could I?) are not going well. So much so, that I pretty much haven't moved forward at all in the last week or so. That's why I'm so thrilled about winning this competition. It's motivation; a deadline, if you like. I definitely work better under pressure.

Normal service will be resumed next week when Techno will either be better or buried alive in the garden (right now, I'm not too bothered which). In the meantime there's this. You may have seen it, it's been around for a while but even if you have, take another look. I bet you smile!

I know I said I wouldn't but I did

Yes, I entered another short story competition. This one was different though. Run by Lesley Galston at Sloanwriter, it was a nice friendly competition. Maximum 500 words on the theme of 'fifty'. My entry placed fifth, and I promise you I have stuck to the theme, although you might not think so at first! If you go to Lesley's blog you can read the eight placed stories.

Just one more thing before you read my story. That other competition I entered? I have another reason, as if I needed one, for being annoyed with myself about my poor entry. The top eight entries have been invited to Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate where the winner will be announced. I found out today that Rebecca Bradley from Life in Clarity is going. I really like Rebecca's writing and it would have been awesome to be able to meet her. Ah well, maybe next year!

Anyway, here's my story. Feel free to tell me how I could have improved it but don't mention that flowers bud and THEN bloom. I spotted that stupid mistake as soon as I saw it on Lesley's blog. D'oh!

The Last Snows of Spring

Although it was almost the end of March there was yet no hint of Spring. Roger leaned forward and tried to catch a glimpse of the passing scenery from the car window, but in the pre-dawn dark there was nothing to see but his own eerie reflection. The man on his right pushed him roughly in the chest.

“Sit back,” the man shouted.

It was not his native tongue, but Roger understood the man well enough. After all, he'd had a long time to learn. He sat back.

“I wonder where we'll end up this time.” He turned to his left and spoke quietly to his friend Bernard.

“Who knows?” The other man gave a shrug that indicated he wasn't really interested in such matters.

Slowly, lazily the first hint of dawn tapped the sky with frost-dazzled fingernails. The snow outside became visible, and the road ahead was deserted. In another time this journey could almost have been pleasant. He wondered where he would be when the first green shoots of Spring deigned to make an appearance. What flowers would he watch bloom, bud and ultimately die? How long would it be before he could observe nature's annual miracle at work in his own garden? Not too much longer now, surely?

Roger felt the full throated roar of the car slow to a gentle purr and realised they were stopping. He turned again to Bernard. The Frenchman indicated with the merest lift of one eyebrow that he didn't know why. All became clear when the other two passengers alighted and fumbled with cold hands for cigarette packets. Moving a few feet away from the car, their chatter drifted idly towards the two men left in the back seat.

“Damn, I could do with one of those.” Roger muttered.

Bernard just laughed. “Soon enough my friend, soon enough.”

There was a shout from one of the men outside and the driver climbed out and joined them. After a brief conversation he returned to the car.

“Out.” He said, as he pulled the back door open. “You can relieve yourselves over there, ” he jerked his head towards a clump of snow-kissed bushes, “but don't go too far.”

As the two men hesitated he continued. “I suggest you do so. We have a long way to go.”

Roger felt it prudent to do as he was told and headed toward the bushes, Bernard following.

For a fraction of a second Roger didn't recognise the sound, so familiar yet so alien in this tranquil landscape. Then, as he felt the pain and saw Bernard collapse next to him, he understood.

Roger Bushell had no way of knowing that he was one of fifty men who were to become famous for being illegally executed for what they had done. He would also never know that he would live on in history as the mastermind behind what would forever be known simply as 'the great escape'.

I've been tagged

I had a post written about the WSJ piece on YA literature but over the past couple of days I've read so many excellent pieces on the same subject that said what I wanted to say, only better, that I pulled it. So I had this post shaped hole on my blog. Luckily the lovely Rebecca at Life in Clarity saved me by tagging me for my first meme. Yay I got tagged!

So, here are my totally honest answers, much as I wanted to change a couple :)

Do you think you're hot?

Not since about 1992. I'll settle for being warm instead.

Upload a picture or wallpaper that you are using at the moment

(Picture removed).

This is today's. I have about six that automatically change on a daily basis (my screen-saver is the same as my wallpaper right?) If I had done this yesterday you would have got a picture of Daniel Craig emerging from the sea.

When was the last time you ate chicken?

Last Friday, home-made curry. The last one I'll have for a while as I started a diet on Monday so no more creamy sauces.

The songs you listened to recently

Eliza Doolittle – Back to front.

I heard a snippet of this on Doctor Who Confidential on Saturday and just remembered to look it up and find out what it was about an hour ago. I've read about Eliza Doolittle but it's the first time I've actually heard one of her songs. I like it very much.

What were you thinking of as you were doing this?

Umm, my answers..and also whether a new player, Jordan Henderson, that Liverpool FC are supposed to be signing is going to be a good buy or not. (It's the last thing I was reading about before I started this).

Do you have nicknames? What are they?

Only from Techno. He never uses my name. That's as honest as that answer gets.

Tag 8 people

Okay, from what I can tell, 8 out of the 15 people who follow this blog haven't done this yet and they are:

Phil at A Time to Phil

Janice at Janice Horton - Writer and Novelist

Louise at Writer in Progress

Roland at Writing in the Crosshairs

Talli at Talli Roland

Debbie at Bluestocking Mum

Ellen at Pink Tea and Paper

Annalisa at Wake up, eat, write, sleep

I know one of you is on holiday in New York (Lucky lucky Ellen) and one of you is a brand new blogger (Hi phil!) but feel free to play if you'd like to :)

MYWYN Update 3

So, we're at the end of day 32 on the MYWYN challenge. When I last posted about this, on day 18, I was over 5,000 words behind. My total word count so far is 32,280. Yay, I caught up!

I had a major crisis of confidence this week. I wrote a long post detailing all the ins and outs but, as the post involves someone else and I haven't spoken to them about mentioning it on this blog, I've decided not to post it. I will say this though. The kind words and actions this week of one of our own have reminded me, as if I ever needed reminding, that the community I'm now part of, is a generous, supportive one that I'm proud to belong to. I also realised that, in spite of not being published, in spite of having a blog that's only two months old, in spite of not even finishing a novel (except one, but it's only 36,000 words long so it doesn't count) I am part of it and that rocks!

I don't know if there's any connection, but in the last couple of days my WiP, which I thought was going to idea heaven along with the last one, suddenly sprang to life again. I had been going to abandon it, but decided to trudge through, just for the experience of actually finishing something, when I realised what was wrong with it. It isn't an urban fantasy, it's an urban mystery. This was a bit of a shock, since the fantasy part was the kernel I started with, but suddenly it made perfect sense without it. Sometimes humans are just good or bad without supernatural interference. I know this means I'll have to do a major rewrite in the first five chapters, (well, four as I can drop chapter one completely), but that's okay. I'm back on the right path and I'm so happy!

On that chirpy note, I'll point you in the direction of Sally Jenkins, who's rounded up a couple of interesting looking competitions if you've got something that might be suitable. I actually thought about adding a bit to my finished short novel and entering it for the second one. Yeah, no. Good luck if you do though!

First I laughed, then I cried

After the post I wrote last Friday about finding critiquers, this post from The Intern on Monday was perfect timing.

Then yesterday, on AuthorCulture, I saw this video. Yet more proof that a small change in words can make a big difference.

This is a blog about writing, honest

Yesterday was mad around here. Techno has been suffering from toothache for days which, aside from the obvious, involves him doping himself up to the eyeballs, sleeping in odd places and at random times and asking me 'if it's not too much trouble' to cook him different things from the rest of us at stupid o'clock. Which of course I do because, well, I don't know why but I do. We have an emergency dental appointment today. I say 'we' because I have to go too. I'm hoping it will be better than last week's emergency appointment which seems to be what's caused this latest problem.

As well as poor Techno wafting around the place like the spectre at the feast, I had both the girls off school yesterday. They complained in the morning about not feeling well. Diva had a mock GSCE test that she was determined to go in for and kept trying to tell me she was 'fine'. I was vindicated when she threw up an hour later, at which point she stopped pretending she was okay and went to sleep. They're both fine today thankfully.

ETA Blue was sick in the middle of one of her mock exams. She insisted on staying to finishing it so they let her carry on in the nurse's office then sent her home when she threw up again. My poor little munchkin is now fast asleep upstairs.

Today is my birthday and the day I get to try a piece of the cake that the girls made for me on Sunday. The cake that they used crunchy peanut butter for the filling and that has been in the fridge for two days. It's the thought that counts.

Sorry this isn't a writing related post but things are going a bit wonky on that front for me at the moment. I'll probably witter on about that next time. In the meantime, so as not to get done under the Trades Description Act whilst referring to this as a blog about writing, I have some excellent links to share with you.

The beautiful Talli Roland is publicising this competition in which India Drummond is giving away five kindle copies of her new book Blood Faerie when it's released on June 1st. I also have to thank Talli for including the link to Kindle for PC in her post. After I downloaded it, I checked out Amazon and ended up downloading a ton of free ebooks.

This open letter from Adam Rex struck a chord with me, and I don't even write childrens books.

Six signs you're not ready to make a living as a professional writer made me laugh, in that uncomfortable 'It's funny because it's true' way. I think I'm only guilty of one of these, or maybe two, but I'm not telling you which ones!

Finally, I'm including this Interview of a Librarian just because. If you don't read any of the rest of it, read his last thoughts. Although, I suspect I'm preaching to the converted there.