Rallying the Troops: Friday's the Last Day for Crit for the Cure!

This is it! Tomorrow is the last day to enter Crit for the Cure. You donate to a really good cause AND possibly win a free submission package critique or full manuscript edit. Doesn't matter if you donate $5 or $50 I will bust my butt to help you make your manuscript the best it can be.

EVERY dollar counts. A donation as small as $5 helps disseminate much needed information to women and families in the community that can help them learn how to detect breast cancer EARLY, thus making it easier to treat. Larger donations can provide access to services for patients in need of transportation assistance or can even cover the cost of mammograms or treatment.

My daughter, Calliope, and I are gearing up for Saturday's race!

Tutu for the Cure?

But we're still a long way from our goal! We need your help.

Here are the deets: Click the Komen button below or follow this link to read about our family's race goals and make your donation directly to Komen via our family/team page. Then enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below!

The prizes:
Anyone who donates will be entered into a raffle to win a thorough (line and global edit) submission package critique. Submission package includes your pitch for online contests/twitter, query, 1 page synopsis, and the first ten pages of your manuscript.

Anyone who donates $50 or more will be entered into that raffle ten times and will also be entered into a separate raffle to win a global critique of your full manuscript (90k or less, YA or NA manuscripts only please on this raffle.)

The raffle closes on Friday, October 4th at 11:59PM. That's the night before the race. The winners will be announced after I cross the finish line on Saturday morning. :)

Oh, and once you've donated, you can tweet about the giveaway and earn extra points that way, too. :)

Know that you're making your donation directly to Komen, which means it's tax deductible and fully secure. The only thing you're entering via me personally is the raffle. You can find more info on my editing services via the tab on the top of the blog.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Questions? Hit me up via Comment below! Let's Cure This!!

The Top Ten Things I Learned at WriteOnCon 2013

If you follow me on Twitter you may have gathered by now that I am a HUGE fan of WriteOnCon. For those who don't know, WOC is an online conference for writers of KidLit from picture books through New Adult. And? It's FREE. It's also a great place to see what other writers are up to or even for readers to just check out what people are writing these days. There was some amazing stuff in the forums this year.

Like all writing conferences, I've come away feeling overwhelmed with all I've learned, appreciative of the insights of our community, and inspired to get back to work! Here are the top ten things I learned at this year's WriteOnCon...

10. Jessica Spotswood's questions to consider when creating sibling relationships was a fantastic exercise for this only child.

9. There are actually writers of modern YA fiction who have no what humanoid elves are. 0.0

8. I loved this quote from Neil Gaiman shared by author Dianne Salerni:  

"Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong." ~ Neil Gaiman

7. Though there are definitely exceptions, there's a lot of support in the industry for New Adult that wasn't there six months ago.

6. That your debut year, a time when it's probably pretty easy to become self-absorbed, is a great time to pay it forward. (via Caroline Starr Rose)

From the keynote: A Writer's Manifesto

5. So, I sort of already knew this, but it bears repeating: Pete Knapp is awesomesauce.
And when you write a great novel, you don’t merely show what courage looks like but allow the readers to experience it. It’s no wonder that among the highest praise a reviewer can offer to a novel is that it is “courageous.” The strength of these stories isn’t that they are fulfilling but that they are empowering.

4. There is a home for every well-written pitch: While Suzie Townsend and Kathleen Ortiz were flat out sick of retellings and superheroes, the gals at Spencer Hill Press were all about them. And sometimes you may be rejected, simply because the agency is already representing a similar book.

3. Chuck Palahniuk once wrote an excellent editing post about eliminating thought verbs that joykill your narratives and that every editing writer should read.

2. Live pitch readings are less bitter and more sweet when there is pie involved. (Mackenzie Brady & Duvall Osteen)

1. Seeing your characters through the eyes of an illustrator is wicked awesome.

Created by L.L. Tisdel--view her incredible portfolio here.

If you missed the conference, check out these links anyway. The content is still there for your perusing, and they keep the boards up year round. Also, if you attended, please consider donating HERE so this conference can remain FREE.

What were your Take Home messages from this year's WriteOnCon? What are your goals for the next few weeks to implement those lessons?

Thursday's Children: Inspired by Gratitude

Thursday's children is a blog meme where writers blog about what inspires them. Click here to find out more and join us!

Last week my Thursday's Children post was overshadowed by big BIG news! After two manuscripts and endless queries, I'm still overwhelmed by the concept that I have an agent. More than that, I know I don't deserve all the credit. I had an impressive team of beta readers, some platinum CPs, and an all-star cast of rejecting agents who helped get me and my book, IMPERFECTLY FINE, to the place where we earned a contract.

My beta readers especially are AMAZING. "Hey can you read a 300 page manuscript for me this weekend?" The answer was almost always yes and their insightful feedback was priceless. And unlike CPs, who were also getting crits from me, my betas didn't ask for anything in return. 

So thank you so much to everyone who has supported me on this journey so far. You guys rock my Red Sox and you bet your butts you'll be finding your names in my acknowledgements someday. 

And to my cheerleaders who haven't had a chance to read or are waiting for Skylar to hit the shelves, you get me through the days where I want to quit. Love you, my BH familia.

Most of all, I'm thankful to my incredible husband who puts up with me through good writing days and bad and occasionally watches the kid so I can go to Starbucks and actually get something done. He's my favorite cheerleader of all. ;)

For now, though, I've got a huge ass edit letter from Thao to tackle. I'll be in the Bat Cave if anyone needs me. :)

Who are you grateful for along your writing journey?


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