Fun Friday & Mystery Agent News

It's finally friday. Time for a few funnies:

Also, Operation Awesome have another fabulous Mystery Agent contest on the 1st of October. This one isn't a one-line pitch contest. Your pitch can be 2-4 sentences long. There will be 50 places available, and the winner gets a 50-page partial request.

Here are the details:

Single Title Romance
- all subgenres in the 100,000 word range
- no inspirational

Young Adult and Middle Grade
- all subgenres

Fantasy and Science Fiction
- all subgenres
- for Adult or Young Adult readers

Commercial Fiction
- including women's fiction, chick lit, historical fiction and high concept mainstream commercial fiction.


Happy Friday.

Doctor Who Shows What Rejection Feels Like...

The waiting is over. An email sits in your inbox holding a thousand promises:

You open it and read:

Was that a rejection? You read it again:

And the sadness rains down on you:

The hurt kicks in:

But you don't quit.

Rejection is part of the process.

No. You send out the next query:

Because next time it might be something that makes you do this:

Never give up.

Happy Friday.

Normal Service Is Resumed

Finally Blogger has stopped being a diva!

Today I'm just going to say please hop over to Operation Awesome. Why? We have an interview with the uber-awesome Lindsey Leavitt. Lindsey is author of the Princess For Hire series and Sean Griswold's Head.

Finally, I have some funnies to end the week:

Have a wonderful weekend.

Are You Hanging Up Your Stocking On The Wall?

It's Christmas Eve!

You know what that means?

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

I know there are lots of bloggers taking breaks now, but I just want to wish everyone Merry Christmas.

I'll be back on Monday the 3rd of January.

Cakes, Interviews And Winners

Yay it's Friday.

First up is an Operation Awesome announcement:

You may have heard of Leah Clifford. Not only is Leah one of the awesome YA Rebels, but she is the author of the forthcoming A Touch Mortal.

Here's the Goodreads blurb:

Eden didn’t expect Az.

Not his saunter down the beach toward her. Not his unbelievable pick up line. Not the instant, undeniable connection. And not his wings.
Yeah.
So long happily-ever-after.
Now trapped between life and death, cursed to spread chaos with her every touch, Eden could be the key in the eternal struggle between heaven and hell. All because she gave her heart to one of the Fallen, an angel cast out of heaven.
She may lose everything she ever had. She may be betrayed by those she loves most. But Eden will not be a pawn in anyone else’s game. Her heart is her own.
And that’s only the beginning of the end

Leah is going to be a guest on Operation Awesome this Sunday (19th) in a fab Q&A session. So stop by and write you question for Leah in the comments. She'll be popping in through the day to answer them.

Now the Matched contest results.

A huge thank you to everyone who entered. I wish I'd more copies/money to make everybody a winner, but I hope to have more contests next year.

Enough stalling, time for the winners.

Regina and Falen (Sarah Ahiers).

Congratulations to you both. There should be an email from me (asking for you shipping address) waiting in your inbox.

Now for something sweet.

Knowing how much everyone loves a bit of cake (and judging by the requests for a photo, we all share that sweet tooth), I present the goddaughter's Mickey Mouse birthday cake:

I did nibble on a few of the cuttings after carving, but what's a girl to do when she put chocolate chips in the batter?

Books: The New Fitness Craze?

Imagine the scene. You are watching TV when you see an infomercial for the latest fitness craze...

Want to tone up for the holiday season?

Tired of costly gym memberships you'll never use?

Want a workout that's fun, easy and costs nothing?

You need BOOKWEIGHTS!

Bookweights is the revolutionary new workout sweeping the writing community. What do you need? Two books of similar size and weight.

But how does the system work? Let me break it down for you:

1. Hold a book in each hand.
2. Inhale.
3. Exhale and lift your arms over your head.
4. Inhale and lower.
5. Repeat until you have performed the desired number of reps.

(Image link)

Reached a plateau? Then beef up the size of your bookweight. The dictionary and thesaurus combination works well. There's also the added bonus of learning new words when you rest between sets. 

You build up the body. You build up the mind.
But wait. Join up today and you can work your abs as well for no extra cost. Simply pile up some books, lay on the floor, rest your feet on them and crunch your way to your dream abs.

And the cost? It won't cost you anymore than your trip to the bookstore. :)

Don't forget to check out my new contest to win a UK copy of Matched by Ally Condie. It's open until the 15th of December.

Small Print: Bookweights are not suitable for novella's, picture books or short story collections. 

Book Thoughts: Nightshade City

So I told you all yesterday I was spending time with rats. Now I don't ordinarily like to spend time with rodents...they have a bit of a bad, squeaky reputation. But these rats are different.

Check out the cover details:

Deep beneath a modern metropolis lies the Catacombs, the kingdom of remarkable rats of superior intellect. Juniper and his maverick band of rebel rats have been plotting ever since the Bloody Coup turned the Catacombs, a once-peaceful democracy, into a brutal dictatorship ruled by decadent High Minister Killdeer and his vicious henchman, Billycan, a former lab rat with a fondness for butchery. When three young orphan rats--brothers Vincent and Victor and a clever female named Clover--flee the Catacombs in mortal peril and join forces with the rebels, it proves to be the spark that ignites the long-awaited battle to overthrow their oppressors and create a new city--Nightshade City

I've not read a book with animals as the main characters for a while, unless it's to the goddaughter, but Nightshade City reminded me why I loved them growing up. After hearing Hilary talk about the book on her blog I knew it was something different. So when I heard the book had been released early in some places I went online and got it.

My verdict? I love it. I'm still reading, but so far Juniper, Vincent and Victor, even the evil Killdeer (boo) and Billycan (hiss) are so cleverly drawn it's hard not to care what happens to them. Now, you know I never talk spoilers. All I will say is that I love spending time in Nightshade City.

Plus, Rick Riordan recommends this book:

                                "Expect great adventures in Nightshade City."

Say no more.

The official release date is October 1st 2010, but it's available now on Amazon.com and The Book Depository. Oh, and Hilary will be a special guest over on Operation Awesome towards the end of this month. Squee.

Happy Friday everyone. :)

Guess The Character - Day Two: The Big Reveal

Thank you everyone for commenting on yesterday's post to guess what Ava looks like. It was so much fun seeing the different reactions to her. Thank you to Jen for hosting the fun. :) 
So what does Ava look like?

Brown haired, brown eyed. Ava pays little attention to fashion and would rather spend her time reading or doing something else useful. Unlike Poppy, the willowy blonde, she's less certain of her looks having spent years being berated by her mother for not being pretty. She's loyal, shy, and kind hearted but has a fiery streak and is prone to sarcasm (as you may be able to tell from her inner dialogue). Her voice was there from the start when I started her story and, even now, I love to go back and add snippets of her sass into my revisions.

Who was the closest?

Lots of you guessed brown hair and brown eyes. Pretty much most people got she was the opposite of Poppy. Here's some of the guesses that hit the mark.

Vicki:  "She's a bit of a rebel--not wanting to play the same obvious game Poppy excels at. Slightly awkward since she's making up her rules as she goes along.Brown eyes and big feet (don't ask me where that one came from! Maybe I'm just being silly now)"  Me: She doesn't have big feet though. lol.

Roland: "Brown hair simply done. Brown eyes. Medium height. A quiet reserved person might less discerning might overlook for the obvious flirts like Poppy."

Jen:  "Ava is a very good looking girl, she's one that doesn't realize it because Poppy is so disgustingly obvious about hers."

Here's an image I found of her from later in the story (with a bit more attitude, and no less sass) :

Photo by satin_shirt (cc) 

Thanks again to everyone for stopping by and guessing. I'm looking forward to working my way around to meet the other characters.

Guess That Character Blogfest - Day One

Today is the day. Jen over at Unedited has worked hard to organise her first blogfest. I'm so happy to be a part of it. So here's the deal. Entrants post a snippet of a character, without any description, and you lucky people get to guess what they look like on just voice, action and personality.

Descriptions will be revealed tomorrow. And by that I mean I'm going to try and scan the picture onto the computer...again! Either way there will be a picture of my character on here. Promise. :)

Here is a snippet from my MS:

Hanging over an upstairs balcony - waving like a mad woman - stood Poppy Montgomery. Her blonde hair tumbled over her shoulders as she draped over the guardrail. Poppy reminded me of a fantasy woman. The kind who should have a theme song playing and a wind machine blowing every time they walk into a room.

“What you doing down there? Come inside,” Poppy pouted her full lips.

Could she make herself any more obvious? I rolled my eyes, trying to contain my disgust.

“Better go see what she wants,” he sighed. “She’ll stand there all day if I don’t. Guess I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, sure,” I replied. I examined a loose thread on the hem of my t-shirt, watching from under my lashes as he walked away.

Idiot, running after her like that. Although, he didn’t really need to chase her. Poppy pounced on him from the beginning - as had most of the other girls. If she’d been a cat she’d have peed on him to mark her territory. It made my blood boil how easy he’d taken her bait, it seemed clear she loved the attention.

Damn. What the hell are you talking about Ava? Why did I care so much anyway? I don’t even know the guy.

I don’t care.

There you have it. So what does Ava look like? Have fun guessing...I'll see you tomorrow for the big reveal.

And don't forget to check out the other entrants via Jen's blog.

Spreading The Awesome!

I had a whole other post idea for today until I saw this on Lisa and Laura Write:

Launching WriteOnCon with a BANG - Query contest with Joanna Stampfel-Volpe.

Here is a peek at the squeesome news.

"In the meantime, one of our star panelists, über agent Joanna Volpe of Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation, has generously offered to get this party started with a mega query critique contest. And some of you (ahem) have some new and improved queries that we're sure will catch Joanna's eye."

So, feel free to hop over to LiLa's blog and check it out. I know I am :)

Another of my favourite things to do on a Friday is to check out posts I may have missed from around the blogosphere. There are great links worth checking out over at Adventures in Children's Publishing. Then it's over to Seeing Creative for Stina's Cool Links Friday. As well as the others I frequent...but this post would be way too long.

And finally.

With the release of Mockingjay so close I can taste it, The League Of Extraordinary Writers are having a contest where two people can win a copy of the book. I know I can't wait till the 24th of August for my last Katniss and Peeta fix.

Yeah, yeah I know there's Gale too, but this Brit gal is Team Peeta!

Happy Friday. :)