Beth Wins May Contest!

Yay! Beth! Email me your snail mail at:

iindiacarolina@gmail.com

Don't forget the two i's!

You've won my goody bag books from the Romancing the Rockies conference and if you'll tell me what new release you're dying to read, I'll throw that in too. Congratulations!

From Draft to Craft

The best advice I've ever heard for finishing a draft is this: turn off your internal editor. And many of you have joined the incredible romance vagabonds in VaNo to do just that. Sooo, now that you've completed your word count for the day (you have, right?), I'm going to ask you to do the unthinkable. Turn ON your internal editor.

What??? You just figured out how to turn it off and now you're supposed to turn it on? What if the switch is faulty and gets stuck in the on position? Just grab a crow bar and whack it off again.

What I'm talking about is taking our WIPs and changing them from drafts into well-crafted books. Books that editors will buy and readers will read. How? Truthfully, I don't know. That's why I'm reading as I revise/craft. The most useful tool I've found so far is from a fellow romance writer, Margie Lawson. There's a link to her website on my blogroll. She's put together two fabulous editing guides called Empowering Character Emotions and Deep Editing. I'm using them to rework my manuscript along with a number of other resources. These include:

Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction

by Patricia Highsmith

Creating Character Emotions

by Ann Hood

Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook

by Donald Maass

Plot and Structure

by James Bell

And of course I'm reading my favorite authors.

So I've set a number of personal goals in units of work rather than pages, since I'm out of the drafting stage. A number of these goals are aimed at helping me germinate my next manuscript while crafting my current WIP. Here's what I want to accomplish by June 30th.

1. "polish" 10 chapters (each chapter =1 unit) 10 units
2. rework villain character development and replot kidnap 3 units
3. Major revisions to 4 chapters (each chapter=2 units) 8 units
4. Finish reading deep editing materials 1 unit
5. "deep edit" 23 chapters (each chapter =1/3 unit) 8 units
6. Print out hard copy manuscript and review for any errors 1 unit
7. Read 3 medical thrillers (next manuscript may be a medical thriller) 3 units
8. take Lisa Gardner's class on romantic suspense (no units)
9. Read my two "how to write suspense books" 2 units Total = 36 units

I've added my own "progress meter" to track my crafting.

We've touched on this topic before in the blog about scenes. Where are you in the craft versus draft process? How do you refine, revise, and craft? What resources can you share with us so that our team came crack the NYT list? Okay--so we can get a contract. We could start there I suppose.

Heroes: May's Contest

My favorite hero is Atticus Finch. Why? Because he has Integrity with a capital I, and because I'm a sucker for good fathers. That's about as sexy as you can get in my book. Of course it helps that he was portrayed in the movie of To Kill a Mockingbird by the devastatingly handsome Gregory Peck. And that he peopled my favorite book. But anyhoo, he is my favorite hero.

While at the Romancing the Rockies conference, I received a "goodie bag" full of books. Now of course I've reserved one or two for myself. But the rest will comprise May's contest booty.

Tell me who your favorite fictional hero is and why. Winner (chosen by random drawing) will receive the remainder of my goodie bag books. Winner will be announced Tuesday, May 29th. Good luck everyone!

Bonus Points: Why I Love My Day Job:
Children Singing

This morning was a bit slower than usual, so I had the treat of spending extra time with my patients. My reward: Two little girls sang He's Got the Whole World in His Hands for me despite the fact that they both had strep throat. Croaky-- but adorable.

Tell me why you love your "day job" (whatever that may be) in addition to who your favorite hero is and I'll enter your name in the drawing twice.

Pitching in the Rockies

Happy Mother's Day!









Warning-lengthy post. This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Romancing the Rockies conference in Denver. Wow! What a fabulous experience. CRW is not my RWA chapter (I'm in Arizona) but let me tell you, they made me feel like it was!

I had the lovely surprise of receiving an honorable mention for Twist of Fate and was awarded not only a certificate but a big hug from the presenter, whom I had only just met.

When I went downstairs Saturday morning to pitch my very first pitch ever in my life to- hey no pressure- Margaret Marbury, executive editor of Mira, I was flipping like a pancake. The CRW crew talked me down. I'll tell you all about my pitch experience as soon as I can. Right now gotta go catch a plane. Back later today with all the dirt on pitching.

I'm home. Let's continue this by starting with the pitch outcomes (you guys know I couldn't tell a story without jumping around if my life depended on it). Four pitches, three requests. That's right- I said four pitches. How did I get four pitches? By attending a small, well-run conference. Lesson number one: Small conferences rock when it comes to pitching opportunities.

Lesson number two: Practice with a friend. Practice with a friend. Practice with a friend. Leigh and I started rehearsing our hooks turned pitches on Thursday. Kept practicing Friday. Then I got up early and practiced solo on Saturday. This made a huge difference in the final product and no doubt the outcome. Working with Leigh was ideal because she's not only a friend but a CP. Since we've read each other's entire manuscripts we were able to help each other boil the heart of our stories down into a few precious sentences.

We also practiced answers to questions we thought we might be asked. To pitch or not to pitch that is the question. Whether 'tis better to have a cozy, chat or use a spiel. I chose a spiel and it worked well for me.

Oh, dear. While attempting to add the photo of my card for Beth, I deleted the bottom half of the post and cannot seem to recover it. Ah well, it was mainly about how nice the editors and agents are.

Here's the spiel again for those who wanted it:

Hi, my name is (real name)(extend hand). First let me say thank you for taking the time to meet with me. I really appreciate it. I wanted to mention that I'm an Avon FanLit finalist and that the book I'm pitching today recently placed second in both the Sheila and the Great Expectations contests. Twist of Fate is more than a secret baby reunion story. As the name suggests, it has a great twist.

After a thirteen-year separation, starry-eyed Dr. Gwen Andrews and cynical Dr.Christian Benson face off on Stranded, the latest, greatest, reality TV series. The lush island setting ignites the flames simmering between them, and their passionate past resurfaces, braiding old desires with new respect.

Bring on the secret baby, Chrissie, now a delightful teenager with her father’s crazy tiger-eyes. Christian snaps…and he’s not the only one. Nor is Gwen the only one with a secret. There’s an eco-terrorist on the island, bent on destroying Stranded. When he kidnaps Chrissie, Gwen and Christian must stand together. They must learn to fight for what matters. They must learn to forgive.

Don't forget to visit Leigh's blog for more pitching tips and notes on Kristin Nelson's advice on email queries. Just click Leigh's name on my blogroll.

Break every rule. Braid every Rainbow.

I suppose it's no secret that I'm hooked on reality TV. Right now, American Idol is feeding my addiction. Which brings me to my point, sort of. Last week Blake Lewis, you know, the guy with the duckling hair-do and pants that don't fit, broke the rules.

After a heart-rending but poorly received rendition of When the Stars Go Blue the previous week, Blake had some ground to make up. Bon Jovi was the new "mentor". Here's what Bon Jovi had to say about Blake's decision to use his own arrangement of You Give Love a Bad Name. "This is a song a lot of people know, and they don't want it messed with. Are you sure you want to roll the dice like this?"

Blake replies, "Oh, yeah."

And right there, I could see that Blake had reached a turning point. He knew he might be going home and he decided to trust his own voice. He messed with the Bon Jovi song. He pantomimed, he beat boxed (is that what you call it?), he turned his voice into a computer, he sang his heart out, and he rocked the house. He made it into the final four. Go Blake!

What does this have to do with writing? Everything.