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.

Impossible. Impassible. Possible.

I'm over on Operation Awesome today with some more Buffy post fun. Feel free to hop on over. 


Until Friday, I leave you with this:

Sometimes we stare at the blank page and think writing anything is impossible. But nothing is impossible. A blank page is a canvas for the possible. You just need to find the right key. 

Blog fail!

Apology time. I failed at blogging last week.

Some things happened. Everything is okay now, but I was called away from blogging, writing and reading. I'll be making my way around the blogosphere, but I might be playing catch up over the next few days. But, for now, I leave you with this:

How was your week? 

Watching Willow Watts: If I could Be Anyone, I'd Be...

Talli Roland's new book, Watching Willow Watts, is now available on Kindle and other ebook platforms. To celebrate, Talli has organised this 'If I Could Be Anyone, I'd Be...' party! 


How does it work?: All you do is come dressed as that one person you've always admired, longed to impersonate, or just plain envied. All you need to do is post a photo of your chosen one (dead or alive) along with an explanation why you've picked that person. Easy, right? 


Who would I be? I'd be Katharine Hepburn.

Why? Hepburn was a woman who never gave up on her dream. Or sacrificed her principles to please others. Despite her early success, her brash personality and unconventional behaviour initially turned audiences away. But she masterminded her own comeback, buying the film rights to The Philadelphia Story and sold them on the condition she was to be the star. She went on to become one of the most acclaimed actresses in the world by determination, hard work and talent. 


Hepburn reminds me never to give up on my dreams. We can all control our own destiny if we work hard enough.


"The thing about life is that you must survive. Life is going to be difficult, and dreadful things will happen. What you do is move along, get on with it, and be tough. Not in the sense of being mean to others, but being tough with yourself and making a deadly effort not to be defeated."

Katharine Hepburn

Who would you be? 

YA fiction + TEEN MOVIES = AWESOME

I don't usually post on Tuesday, but I wanted to spread the word about the debut post of an awesome new blog.  

  

What is Reel YA?

Reel YA is the place where YA fiction and teen movies unite.

What can you find there? 

Amparo will be sharing guest posts, interviews, books/movie reviews, and all the news related to YA.

Want more info? Head on over to Reel YA        

Read For Relief

I'm back! *waves* My blog break was a little longer than I'd planned, but I'm refreshed and ready to catch up with all your blogs! 

Speaking of blogs, I happen to know today is the launch of Read for Relief.

Read for Relief has been set up by a awesome east coast writers Erin Bowman, Caroline Richmond, Traci Neithercott, and Sarah Enni. Their aim is to help communities devastated by Hurricane Irene. 

How? With an auction for some fantabulous items like:

• Query critiques from agents (Jim McCarthy, Joanna Volpe, and Sara Crowe, to name a few)
• Partial critiques from editors (like HarperTeen editor Erica Sussman)
• Group critiques (the gals of YA Highway are offering a great one!)
• Signed ARCs (like LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR by Stephanie Perkins and BORN WICKED by Jessica Spotswood)
• Signed first edition hardcovers (like ASHFALL by Mike Mullin and VARIANT by Robison Wells)
• And much, much more!

And Operation Awesome are donating to the cause. How? All seven of us are donating a thirty-page critique as an auction item. Want to know more? Want to bid? Donate? Head over to Read for Relief. 

So how was your summer? 

WriteOnCon Ninja Agents

I've crawled out of my writing cave to remind everyone that WriteOnCon starts tomorrow!

I've issued a warning to the family that, unless it's an emergency (or Alexander Skarsgard happens to be in our backyard) I'm not to be interrupted if I'm on my laptop. Although this doesn't apply to my CP's of awesome/blogging friends. I'm pretty sure we'll all be in the same place for the next three days!

This year there are Ninja Agents stalking the forums. Here are the details:

This program will take place in the forums–so you must be registered and using the forums to participate. If you haven’t already done that, go HERE.

Here’s what you’ll do:
1. Post your absolute best, polished query letter or writing sample in the appropriate critique threads in the forums. (Please look carefully and ask questions if you’re unsure about where to post, and make sure you follow all our forum guidelines)
2. Don your thick dragon skin, cross your fingers, and keep checking your forum posts, because our Ninja Agents will be sneaking around, leaving feedback on whatever strikes their fancy–which could very well be YOUR QUERY.
3. Pray you’ve perfected your work enough to generate a request. Some agents may be requesting from the posts they read.
4. Remember your manners. Please don’t engage in hurtful behavior toward an industry professional because of feedback they might leave on your query. Remember, publishing is SO SUBJECTIVE.

That’s it. That’s all there is to it. All you have to do is use our forums the same way you should be using them anyway (because they’re AWESOME) and you could have a super-cool Ninja-Agent critique your work. And even if they don’t comment on your work (they promise they will try to comment/critique on as many as they can) you can learn SO much from the comments they leave for others.

So how do you know when to look for them?

Watch the @WriteOnCon twitter feed for when we tweet: “A Ninja Agent just entered the forums!” That’s how you’ll know exactly when they’re there. But really, the best part about the forum is that you can go read the feedback whenever your schedule allows.

What the Ninjas will do:
1. Each Ninja Agent will be in the forum for at least one hour (some have multiple slots). You won’t know who, and you won’t know when…that’s the beauty of a ninja. They strike when you’re least expecting it.
2. Ninja Agents have been encouraged to leave feedback—as detailed or as vague as they want—on as many queries as they can. They can also request from the queries they read.

The Ninja-Agent Program is open for business starting on Monday, August 15, one day before the conference begins. That’s when we’ll open the main conference forums and let you start posting your work. This will give you time to get your writing in tip-top shape and in the forums before Tuesday, when our first Ninja will arrive.

Hope to see you there!