Operation Awesome Mystery Agent Contest Today!!

Head over and enter your one line pitch - prizes are a full or partial request or a query crit!

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Operation Awesome Mystery Agent Contest Today!!

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Blog Chain - People I Couldn't Write Without

This topic was chosen by the lovely Sarah who wanted to know:


Do you work with critique partners? How did you find your crit pals, and what influence have they had on your work?

Oh yes. I have crit partners. Probably too many LOL but I've met so many awesome writers over the years and we pretty much all exchange manuscripts at least once in a while.

My very first group I found by googling. I met some great people on there, learned a TON. I was a very VERY newbie writer. Had finished one book, paid an editor to go through it, gotten a few good suggestions from him, but it wasn't until this group (and one awesome lady in particular, Jeannie Ruesch) got a hold of it that I actually started pulling that poor manuscript together.

I can't believe how much she taught me. Stuff I'd never heard before. The adverb rule, POV tricks/rules/no-nos, ways to show different sides to my character - for all those who have read Treasured Lies, the pea scene was suggested by Jeannie. If she hadn't taken me under her wing, I don't know where I would be right now. I think I've mentioned before that I once wrote a scene where I had FOUR povs going on in ONE paragraph. Yeah...Jeannie was the one who explained why that was bad LOL

My other critters I met through QueryTracker. Toni Wilson (we are often called the eTwins by our QT friends) - I send everything to her. I mean literally everything. She often crits my emails before I send them LOL

Kristal Shaff and Cole Gibsen - again, these amazing women read pretty much everything I write. And I've learned so much from each of them. They are all awesome with things like plot flow, word choice, motivations, plot holes (and Kristal and Toni in particular are great at pointing out when I'm going overboard on the romance LOL). These women ready all my stuff and they are so incredibly sweet about reading my pages over and over again. I think they know my stories more than I do sometimes LOL

I met Elana Johnson through QT and joined a crit group with her and the absolutely wonderful Christine Fonseca. Elana is amazing - she will tell you how it is and she doesn't let you get away with anything. I usually get my pages back thinking "yeah, I knew she'd mark that." :D I'm slowly learning to just remove it before she has to mark it up LOL

Christine is amazing with emotions - I can go way overboard with them sometimes...and sometimes I don't have enough. She keeps me on track with my plot and characters and their motivations and personalities. She is also a fellow Non-fiction writer and is my main critter for all things NF (though Toni reads some of that stuff for me as well) :) It's so wonderful to have someone I can send those pages too. I don't know what I'd do without her.

And I also have my amazing Operation Awesome gals. I joined their group not too long ago (actually...I think it's been a year or so now!) It's been wonderful having a fresh group of eyes and learning from each of them - both from their crits of my work and from my crits of their work. They are an incredible group of women and I am so lucky to be a part of their group.

When I lived in Utah I was very privileged to be part of a live group with Bethany Wiggins and Bonny Anderson. I still send them pages and am always thrilled to read theirs, though I miss seeing them face-to-face :)

I have several other friends and readers that I send my pages too. They are all priceless to me. I would never be able to make it down this road without them.

Who are your critters and how did you meet them?

Be sure to see who PK shreds paper with and stop by Tere's tomorrow to find out about her crit pals :)

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Blog Chain - People I Couldn't Write Without

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Mystery Agent Contest at Operation Awesome!

Time for another Mystery Agent Contest!! Head over to OA with your one line pitches. First 50 entries will be accepted. This time around our agent is looking for:

YA


• Urban Fantasy 
• Paranormal Romance 
• Contemporary 
Women's Fiction
Commercial Fiction
Multicultural Fiction

Good luck everyone!!!

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Mystery Agent Contest at Operation Awesome!

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Follower Appreciation Celebration at Operation Awesome!

I'm over at OA today spilling the deets on a giveaway of awesomeness! To show some love for our Operation Awesome followers, we are giving away SIX fantastic prize packs. Winners will be announced next week, so stop on by and enter by leaving a comment!!



We will also be holding another Mystery Agent contest on Sept 15th so get those pitches polished!

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Follower Appreciation Celebration at Operation Awesome!

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A Link and a Mystery Agent Winner :D

A good friend of mine sent me this link this morning - I love reading success stories like this :)



Kathry Stockett, Author of THE HELP

(awesome story, she's hilarious, and I love her attitude, though I'm really not too impressed until rejection numbers reach the triple digits. THEN I sympathize) ;-)



Annnd I'm over on OA today announcing the winners of our August Mystery Agent Contest so if you entered (or just want to know all the deets), head on over!

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A Link and a Mystery Agent Winner :D

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Coming Soon - OA Mystery Agent Contest!

New Mystery Agent contest coming up on Monday over at Operation Awesome! Get your one line pitches ready! Our fabulous new agent is looking for:

Young Adult fiction, Women's fiction, literary and commercial fiction, and pop-culture non-fiction. She is very interested in acquiring Young Adult (contemporary, sci-fi/fantasy, thriller and horror ), Middle Grade (fantasy, light sf/f, mystery, and contemporary with a hook) commercial women’s fiction ( urban fantasy, romantic suspense and romance). Above all, she is looking for anything with an engaging voice, compelling narrative and authentic characters. She is unafraid of debut authors.

So head on over to OA bright and early Monday morning! The first 50 entries will be accepted :)

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Coming Soon - OA Mystery Agent Contest!

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Books and Merchandising

On Friday over at Operation Awesome, Katrina put up an awesome post on merchandising and books. She talked about all the cool stuff you can get with some books (all the Harry Potter products, Arwen's necklace from LOTR, etc.).

I've bought a couple items from favorite books, among them:

The silver ring Jamie gives Claire in Diana Gabaldon's OUTLANDER





and a set of perfume from Jessica Verday's THE HOLLOW





I love stuff like this. It is so fun to have something real from a story you love. Even more fun when it's from one of your own stories. Like my gorgeous TREASURED LIES necklace :D (made by the awesomely talented Bonny Anderson - go check out her store HERE!)





And, the Team Zenn necklace I made for Elana Johnson's POSSESSION release giveaway (Team Jag has a "jag"ged lightning bolt pendant to go along with the "Vi"olet beads and silver butterflies.)





Having something tangible you can use to help market your book is both lucrative and just plain fun. Is this something you've ever thought of doing with your own books?

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Books and Merchandising

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Mystery Agent Contest at Operation Awesome!

Coming up on Monday!!! Don't miss it. Our awesome mystery agent will be accepting 50 entries. You need to have a 25 word pitch ready :) While our MA does have a preference for adult fiction, YA is also accepted. All genres but especially mystery, thriller, paranormal, romance, and suspense.Only pitch FINISHED novels :) So don't forget to head to Operation Awesome bright and early Monday morning!! (May 2)

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Mystery Agent Contest at Operation Awesome!

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Mystery Agent Contest at Operation Awesome!

Operation Awesome is hosting our March Mystery Agent contest RIGHT NOW!!!! Go enter! The first 75 entries will be accepted, so hurry and enter your 140 Tweet pitch :) Head to Operation Awesome for full details.

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Mystery Agent Contest at Operation Awesome!

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What's Up Wednesday

Lot's of fun things going on!

Today is the last day to enter to win a signed copy of Leah Clifford's A Touch Mortal over at OA so hurry and enter if you haven't yet!

My awesome amazing friend Christine Fonseca has a sneak peek of her new book 101 Success Secrets for Gifted Kids posted! Here is the link if you'd like to read a chapter from this awesome book, and here is the post from her blog announcing it :D

We have another Mystery Agent contest coming up at Operation Awesome!!! We will start taking entries on March 1st. Here are the rules:

1) Entry limit: 75 entrants.

2) Pitch length: 140 characters. Think Tweet. Since we're talking 140 characters, Title and Genre don't have to be part of the pitch -- add them on to the comment somewhere.

3) Genres: YA (especially thriller, cyberpunk, horror, historical romance); MG; women's fiction; romance (especially with a strong, female heroine).

So get those Tweet Pitches ready to go!!

Hope everyone's Wednesday is going well. Does anyone know of any other cool happenings around the blogosphere? Post them in the comments!!

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Tons of Wednesday Awesomeness!

All right....we've got some fun stuff going on this month!!!

First off, thank you all so much for all your support during my Blog Tour. It was a blast! And...I've got a bonus day for you :D Today I will be joining the lovely ladies at the QueryTracker Blog so head on over and say hi!

I will announce the winner of the super, huge Grand Prize Blog Tour Giveaway Basket TOMORROW!!

And over on the Operation Awesome Blog, we have a whole month of follower love planned to celebrate reaching 300 followers and because it's Valentine's and all :D We just had our Mystery Agent Contest, so stay tuned for the winner. And maybe for a little extra fun for all the participants.

We'll also be having awesome giveaways ALL MONTH LONG so keep an eye on the posts :D

Annnnd somewhere along my blog tour, I hit 500 followers :D So, I'm thinking we need to do something fun to celebrate. Stay tuned next week for a special treat :D

I hope everyone has an awesome Wednesday. I am once again stuck in my house with my children who are having a SECOND snow day in a row. They are thrilled....I am less so LOL So, because I need a little smile (and I need to get my butt in gear and get back to work on my novel) here's a little Jackson Pearce with a little tough love to make you smile today :)


How is everyone else doing out there today? Anyone else snowed or iced in? Anyone making progress on those projects?

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Tons of Wednesday Awesomeness!

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Product Placement

--Blog Tour kicks off tomorrow! Getting a jump start over at the fabulous Christine Fonseca's blog with an interview. Go check it out! :) And the awesome Amparo over at the OA is having a contest to win a copy of my book and some fun swag....winner announced tomorrow! Go enter!

I've been answering a lot of questions lately about promotion...what I'm doing to help promote my book specifically. Now, my book is a non-fiction book about writing, so when it comes to promotional items I did writing type stuff: bookmarks, pens, that kind of thing. But it got me thinking about the fun promo stuff fiction authors get to do.

- Jessica Verday has perfumes that go along with the characters in her Hollow books (her MC makes perfumes)
- Beth Revis has some awesome Godspeed swag for Across the Universe
- You can get jewelry with the Mockingjay design from the Hunger Games series
- You can get jewelry depicting the different years for the House of Night series
- You can get everything under the sun Twilight and Harry Potter

So I'm curious....when writing your books, do you ever do "product placement"? Do you have your MC wear a favorite necklace that you know would be a cool promo item if your book ever hits the shelves? Do you design a special logo for your MCs rebel alliance that you know would look on awesome on everything from T-shirts to coffee mugs?

It's not something I used to think about when writing, but with the growing necessity for authors to promote their own books, and especially over the past year or so as I've been focused on promoting my own book, it has become more present in my mind as I write.


Does it ever cross your minds?

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Product Placement

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Exciting Events This Week!

Coming up on Thursday, the release of my book Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers!! (unless you want to order from Amazon...they are already shipping :D (clink link on sidebar if you'd like to check it out))

It's going to be a fun couple of weeks coming up. On Thursday, to coincide with the release of my book, my blog tour will be launching with a little help from some awesome friends. The first stops on the tour will be at the amazing Elana Johnson's, the fabulous Christine Fonseca's, the wonderful Lisa Amowitz's, and a little something will be going on over at the Operation Awesome blog.

If yo look up above, there is a tab set up for the Blog Tour. For a complete list of all the stops along the tour, check out that page. As the posts for each stop go live, I'll set up the links so you can follow the tour. There will be several giveaways (books and fun swag) and I'll have a list of those with links under the Blog Tour Giveaways tab.

Also! We'll be doing a Grand Prize Giveaway at the end of the tour. One commenter from the whole tour will be chosen to win a huge basket of books and swag! To enter, all you have to do is comment....the more stops along the tour you comment on, the more entries you get :) More details to follow!

So stay tuned!! The fun starts Thursday!

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Exciting Events This Week!

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Leah Clifford on the OA

Come to the OA today!!! We have the fabulous Leah Clifford stopping by to answer all your questions! Don't miss her!

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Leah Clifford on the OA

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Mystery Agent Contest at Operation Awesome!

Welcome to December!!!





To kick off this lovely month right, we've got a brand new Mystery Agent Contest over at Operation Awesome. Here are the details:

All YA and adult subgenres except for Christian fiction, erotica, MG, and picture books.

Please include title/genre in the comments.

The first 50 one-line pitches posted will be considered.Mystery Agent will choose one winner.

The winner will have Mystery Agent's full attention when they send their full MS. Yep, you heard me right -- YOUR FULL MS! So don’t forget, please have your manuscript ready to send before you pitch.

We will post when the 50 slots have been filled, so even if there are 50 comments, go ahead and leave yours unless you hear otherwise from us. We'll have actual comments or questions in there as well, so not all of those 50 comments will be entries.

Good luck to everyone!!!!

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Mystery Agent Contest at Operation Awesome!

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Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Blogging :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! My house is destroyed...and my kids are home for another two days before heading back to school....at this point it would be easier to move :D Though we did get our Christmas tree up this weekend. Since we were in the middle of moving last Christmas, we didn't get to do the big tree with all the trimmings, so I am enjoying getting everything all Christmased up :)

But, vacationing children and their destructive tendencies or no, tomorrow the routine must begin again...or I'll never get back into gear LOL

OOooo how did everyone do on NaNo!!? 

I'm over on the OA today - stop by and say hi! :)

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Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Blogging :)

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On the OA Today

I'm posting over on the OA today about the Occupational Hazards of being a writer :) Come say hi!!

NaNo stats for the day: (it's getting harder! Only 1660...but close enough and still ahead over all so iz all good)

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On the OA Today

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Friday Funnies

I found this on Timothy McSweeney's site via the awesome Janet Reid - and holy crap, I laughed till I puked :D Enjoy!

How to Put Ona Sports Bra.BY ANNA LEFLER- - - -

1. Approach the sports bra with confidence, secure in the belief that you will wear it.

2. Holding the sports bra open by its bottom edge, peer into it and locate the medium-sized opening in the center of the cavity. This is your target.

3. Take a moment to ask yourself the following questions: A. Am I naked from the waist up? B. Have I removed my glasses?If the answer to either is "no," make the necessary adjustments and return to Step 1.

4. Snake your right arm through the right armhole as far as it will go. Repeat for left arm and left armhole.

5. Assume power stance: feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent. Hook your thumbs into the sports bra's bottom-edge elastic and pull it out in front of you as far as possible. (Note: do not let go.)

6. In one, deft motion, pull the elastic toward you and over your head. If you have martial arts training, this would be the time to release your battle cry, or kiai.

7. You should now be standing with arms pointing skyward, the sports bra encircling you at chin level, binding your biceps to your ears.

8. Remain calm. Visualize yourself wearing the sports bra while engaged in a pleasant activity, such as not watching Jersey Shore.

9. Cross your arms in front of your face, grasp the bottom of the sports bra and begin tugging it down to your chest. This process should take 2-25 minutes and can be streamlined by the removal of one of your arms (advanced yoga practitioners only).

10. If you have followed steps 1-9 correctly, the sports bra is now strapped across the rise of your bosom, compressing the breasts downward to the point that you can see your pulse in your areolas.

11. Resume power stance (see Step 5). Holding firmly to the bottom edge of the sports bra, pull it away from your body in a downward arc until it grazes your kneecaps. Then, with a scraping motion, drag the sports bra upward along the front of your body, capturing all excess flesh in its path.

12. When the bottom elastic reaches the desired altitude on your rib cage, release it. Then, while holding the top of the sports bra away from your body with one hand, plunge the other hand into the sports bra to distribute and align its contents, which should include both of your breasts.

Note: If you are unable to locate two (2) breasts in the sports bra, do not become alarmed as they are likely nearby. Remove the sports bra (see "How to Take Off a Sports Bra") and return to Step 1 of these instructions.

How are my NaNo peeps doing? And my non-NaNo-ites!? How's life?

If you're looking to redo your blog or just like pretty banners, head to Kristal Shaff's blog for a chance to win a custom-made bog banner!! And don't forget to check in at Operation Awesome - as soon as we hear back from our mystery agent, we'll make the big winner announcement :D

NaNo Stats: I'm up another 1630 words :) Didn't quite hit my daily goal but definitely on target over all! :)

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Thankful for Crit Partners Day

In honor of Thanksgiving this month, every Tuesday is going to be devoted to spreading a little love and thanks for those who help make my writing life not only bearable, but successful and enjoyable. Today is spreading some thankful love for CPs day (a la Christine Fonseca) :)

I have been trying to come up with adequate words for a couple days now, and I just don't think it's going to happen. My crit partners aren't just helpful readers who give my manuscripts the shredding they deserve. They have all become very dear friends.

I couldn't have a "Thanks to CPs" day without thanking Jeannie Ruesch, the very first writer to really take me under her wing. I met Jeannie in my first formal critiquing group quite a few years ago. She took my very first novel and spent an incredible amount of time showing me the ropes, letting me in on all the little "rules" I'd never heard of (like killing adverbs, keeping to one POV instead of jumping between four or five in the same scene...or paragraph (no joke...4 in ONE paragraph...I was THAT bad), showing instead of telling, and all the other little intricacies that come along). Though we no longer crit each other's work, I will be forever grateful that she took so much time from her own writing to really set my feet firmly on the right path.

My new group, the incredible ladies at Operation Awesome - I've only been with you a few weeks (though Kristal has been a long time CP and very good friend of mine for years - I am so thankful for all your help and support), but I already feel like I've known you forever. You welcomed me into the group with open arms and made me feel right at home. You are an amazing ensemble and I am honored to be a part of your blogging and critting group. I look forward to reading your stories and to everything I'll learn from you as you read mine.

My YA partners, Christine Fonseca and Elana Johnson - Both of these ladies have been more than CPs for me - they are dear friends. I can't even begin to tell the two of you how much I've learned from you. Not only do you work tirelessly to help me find the exact right words for my stories, you are always there with a comforting shoulder and willing ear to laugh and cry and angst and vent with me. I don't know what I'd do without either of you. Christine pulls double duty as she crits both my fiction and my non-fiction. Being a writer who does both is a bit of an interesting twist, and brings its own barrel of fun. I don't know what I'd do without having someone to share that strange journey with. I spend a good part of every day chatting with Christine about every - not only writing, but about life. She supports me in every way and is truly one of the best friends I've ever had.

Toni and Cole - you ladies are always ALWAYS there for me, at the drop of a hat, to read everything and anything I have, no matter how many times I've sent it to you :) Not to mention being there for everything else. I don't know how many times I've whined to you over the years, about everything under the sun, but you are always there with comforting words and steel toed boots to give me a swift kick in the right direction :) You are both crazy, talented writers and my life would be seriously bleak without you. Toni is another dear friend with whom I talk every day - we check in with each other several times a day and I think she knows every single deep dark secret about me :) And she likes me anyway :D

My QT family - what an amazing group of writers I have the privilege of knowing. It's been incredible watching everyone grow and succeed and it's been a true honor to have been a part of your journey.

I'm starting to get all misty-eyed LOL My crit partners are so much more to me than just a group of people who look over my work. Each and every one of them holds a special place in my heart and I look forward to many more years of red ink and shredded manuscripts :)

I am more thankful than I will ever be able to express :) Muaaah! Love you all :)


As for NaNo - after some first day jitters, I pulled myself together and actually managed to go a little over my goal for the day! Which will be helpful because I have no doubt there will be days (and many of them) when I'll fall short :)



How is everyone else doing? And while we're at it, have you spread any CP love today? :)

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Agent Contest and Blogfest and NaNo, Oh My!

Today's the day! Break out those one-line pitches and head to Operation Awesome for the MYSTERY AGENT CONTEST!!!! This is not just for YA/MG - our awesome mystery agent is on the look out for adult fiction also, so hurry on over!!!

And don't forget to showcase those logline/hook line/pitch lines for Steena Holmes's epic blogfest! Head to her blog for details - the blogfest starts TODAY!

Now if that's not a little fun to brighten your Monday, I don't know what is :D

And lest we forget....IT'S NANO TIME BABY! Dunn dunn dunnnnn (hehe) How are those words coming? My potato man is all warmed up and ready for me to drop some pages in his box - here is is for your viewing pleasure :) Good luck to all you NaNo-ites out there!



So, how is your Monday morning going?

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Agent Contest and Blogfest and NaNo, Oh My!

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