Sunday Update - Week 27

Hey All.  My eyes are full of grit and I'm kind of brain fried.  And the coffee is working its magic sloooow this morning.  But here we are...

After a few days of marathon editing, the end is in sight.  As of the time of this posting, I have 5 pages of edit notes spanning the last 72 manuscript pages left to go.  Considering I wound up with 19 pages of edit notes, I'm gonna say it's a definite possibility I will be finished by tonight.  I don't think there's anything major left to do.  Could be wrong.  Like I said, I'm brain fried.

In other news, the paperback copies of Up Wish Creek arrived.  I was going to set up a Goodreads contest, but I discovered I never set up a paperback page for that book.  That has to be done first and right now, it's on a back burner.  Monday, I'll do that and set one up for Natural Causes.  Then I'll set up a contest for UWC.  Once the NC copies arrive, there'll be a contest for one of those, too.

Speaking of contests, Deb Salisbury will have a copy of Blood Flow headed her way once she confirms her address via besanderson at gmail dot com.  It's a copy with the original cover, which I still think is totally cool.  I just had to change it to match the ebook cover, which I changed to be more 'in line' with what readers are expecting to see on a political suspense cover these days.  Anyway, congratulations Deb!

New Cover

Original Cover

I didn't do any reading last week because of the looming deadline thing.  I fully expect to be reading tomorrow.  First up, Silver James' latest Harlequin - Claiming the Cowgirl's Baby.

I managed one good morning of fishing.

And lastly, not but leastly, we saw the first fawn of the year last Sunday.  Since then, we've seen two others - twins.  Here's the single:

That's not the back of her mother, btw.  Mom's off to the right.  That's her older sister - a 2016 model.

Well, that's it for me this week.  Whazzup with you?

About Me

I've been playing around with the layout of B.E.'s Writerly Space this morning, and trying something new - PAGES!  They're all static, but they'll have information some day that will point you in the direction you want to go.  Right now, the only one that's not 'under construction' is the About Me page. 

Go take a look and let me know what you think.

And don't forget to follow the blog over there for a chance to win a scrumptious kringle. 

Want to Win?

If you want the chance to win a book, stop by Tabula Rasa.  I posted a snippet from a book I love and I'm offering you the chance to snag a copy.  All you have to do is comment.

Also, since the winner of my 1000th post contest never got back to me, I'm going to use that fundage to pay for a contest over at The Killer Chicks tomorrow. 

Yes, I am everywhere.

Better Late Than Never: A Contest Winner

Back on New Year's Day, I promised y'all a contest.  Well, I forgot about it.  Then last week, some little spark of memory puttered it's way into the conscious part of my brain and poked me hard.  So, I wrote myself a note to draw a name for the 1K Post contest.  And here we are finally getting around to it.  (Good thing I looked at my note this morning, eh?)

Without further ado, or distractions, or whatnot...  The winner is:

Ava Z.

Congratulations Ava Z!  I just need you to email me with your choice of ebook (under $10), and I'll have it sent as a gift to the email address you provide.  (Just please get back to me by the end of the month - otherwise I'll forget again and you'll never get your prize.)

Thanks again to all the people who participated.  And thanks to all the lovely commenters and followers I've had over the years.  You're all awesome and if I could give every one of you a prize, I would.

Guest Post over at The Guide

This morning, published author JB Lynn stopped by The Unpublished Writers' Guide to Survival and did a guest post:  This Book Will Never Sell.  Stop by and... what the hell... enter for a chance to win a prize.

My Baker's Dozen Submission

A friend of mine told me in a private email that I was allowed 24 hours to wallow over my not making it into the Baker's Dozen, so I did.  Now that the proscribed hours are up, it's back to life.  And with a return to reality comes showing what I sent that didn't quite make the cut.

Here's how it would've looked if it made it onto the site:

Title: Djinnocide
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Jo Mayweather vowed years ago to free her fellow genies from those three little wishes that enslave them, but after a murderous being starts tormenting and killing her brethren, she learns there are worse things for an unlucky djinn to face—like an ungrantable wish.

No one ever asked me if I wanted to be a genie. I never even thought such a thing was possible. I was a modern woman living in the Roaring Twenties. Against my mother’s wishes, I wore my hair and my skirts short. I drank at speakeasies. I danced with gangsters. Hell, I even smoked for petesakes. After surviving for almost two whole decades, I had certainly aged too far to believe in fairy stories anymore.

My father, Reggie, he was the dreamer in the family. He was the one always looking for the next big thing and if he could steal it? Well, even better. Me, I spent years looking for the next big party. In fact, I’d been prepping for my own birthday extravaganza when the package arrived. The shipping label said ‘Constantinople’, but whether my thief of a dad could still be found there was anyone’s guess. Odds were he’d moved to the next port of call and his next score. At least he’d bothered to think enough of me to send a gift. After all, it’s not every day a gal turns eighteen.

“Marriageable age,” my mother mumbled at me that morning in lieu of a more sentimental greeting. She’d meant ‘well past the age of finding a husband’ if her previous birthday greetings were any indication. She wanted me married and out of the house before I could graduate high school.

The first paragraph is the logline and the next three represent the first 250 or so words of the book (less because I didn't want to stop mid-paragraph).  

If you're going to comment on the quality of the above, please remember 'If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all'.  I'm willing to put my work out there on MSFV for public shredding, but I don't need to get kicked in my own house.  Besides, mean comments don't make it past my internal nastiness filter to post to the blog.  So there.  =op

No Donuts for Me

I didn't get a confirmation letter yesterday and the announcement just posted that all letters have been sent, so it's official...

I didn't make it into the final phase of The Baker's Dozen contest over at Miss Snark's First Victim.  So, no donuts for me.

Ms. Squirrel best illustrates my feelings over this:

A little grumpy is allowed, right?  Not too grumpy, though.  I really only had a 19% chance.

And, since I did tell a few people I'd post my entry if I didn't make it, look for that tomorrow.  K?

ETA:  In the end, I decided the only person responsible for my own donut acquisition is me.  So I went and got a half dozen.  Mmmmm, donuts.

Baker's Dozen Submitted - Urp

Y'all might already know about Authoress' Baker's Dozen and the fact that the submission window for adult manuscripts opened this morning.  What you might not know - because I didn't know myself until this morning - is that I entered the contest this time.  Sure, I've tried entering before but I never managed to make the submission window.  Today, I woke up, got my shit together, and made it in!

I got the confirmation email this morning letting me know Djinnocide will be entry #14.

Here's hoping I get some good responses.  Hell, I'll settle for some not so good responses.  The only thing I really don't want is crickets.  I always feel bad for the people who get crickets.  So, keep your fingers crossed the crickets stay away.

And now... the nausea begins.  Oh, and it came with a friend - Self-Doubt. 

:urp:

Good thing I got that prescription for Prilosec yesterday.  I haven't started taking it yet, but it should help with my indi-stress-tion. 

Stuff and a Winner

We had 13 comments for the big drawing - 6 from the original post and 7 from the Last Chance post.  Thank you all for throwing your hats into the ring.  You are all dipped in Awesomesauce.  Too bad even though I wish all of you could win, there can be only one.  The Custom Random Number Generator at mathgoodies.com tells me that the winning comment is  #7 - the first comment on the Thursday 5/10 post.

Congratulations, JB Lynn, your 'Swaglicious' comment got you the awesome Swagness.  Thanks for being a loyal follower of The Writing Spectacle.  Email me with your snail mail address and I'll get your stuff out on Monday.

Now, on to other news... Well, I don't really have much.  I drove up to Fort Collins to rescue the kid (and the remainder of her belongings) from college.  And of course, all the dollies were taken, so we carted everything by hand from her 7th floor room out to the parking lot.  4 trips... well 4.5 since she carted one load while I cleaned.

It doesn't look that bad going from the red dot to the green dot and back, but trust me.  It was a haul - especially carrying the microwave.  Ugh.  At least we weren't like the guy we shared an elevator with who was carrying a mini-fridge out.  That would've killed me.

In other good news, I saw a bald eagle yesterday.  He was hanging out on a pole alongside the road.  Shocked the crap out of me.  I mean, I know there are eagles somewhere in this state, but I never thought I'd see one in the farmlands.  The mountains, maybe, but never the flat scrubby part of Colorado.  He must've been lost or something.

So, what's on your radar these days?  Kids getting out of school?  Plans for summer?  What has you so tired lately?

And let's all give JB a round of applause.  Congratulations, JB.

Last Chance for Swag

Okay, I probably should've known better than to run a contest - because they never do well here at The Writing Spectacle - but I did throw one out there to celebrate reaching 30K pageviews on this blog.  If you haven't entered yet, you have until tonight.  And if you never do enter, here's what you're missing:

- a nifty plastic bookmark / keychain with a kick-ass message (I bought extras for myself and the Kid, I liked them so much)
- a couple trendy notepads - with cute sayings
- a totally cool purple & black metallic notepad holder with its own tiny pen  (gotta love the tiny pen)

So, if you haven't commented over there, comment here.  And as a special thanks for the people who commented on Thursday's post, if they comment here, too, they get an extra chance at the goodies.

Hey, it's my contest - I can stretch the rules if I want to.  (And no, running over to Thursday's post and commenting now won't get you anything special.  This only applies to comments made prior to now.)

Y'all have until midnight tonight.  Since I'm going to be out of town tomorrow, I'll post the winner either tomorrow night or Saturday.

Thanks again for stopping by.

-B.E.

Unexpected Milestone and a Contest

I rolled over 30 thousand page views this morning!  Thank you all for your support.  In honor of this milestone that I didn't even know I was close to reaching, I think I'll have a drawing.  Leave a comment on this post - one per person, please - and I'll throw all the names into a drawing next Thursday (5/10/12).  Whoever wins will get... Oh hell, something fun and quirky*.

* Since I just thought this up on the fly, I haven't a clue as to what exactly I'm going to mail.  Probably something that'll fit in a Priority Mail flat rate box.  Which pretty much leaves this to U.S. residents only - unless I get a wild hair to ship up to Canada or elsewhere overseas.  You never know, so comment away.  =o)

Contest Entry

This morning I entered Janet Reid's latest writing contest.  The contest is to write a story in less than 100 words that has the following five words in it: Even, Tramp, Shuffle, Lair, and Epic - with extra points fro using the phrase 'Til death do us part' somewhere in it.

My entry isn't up yet (ETA: It's at 8:58am.), but here's what I came up with:

“Til death do us part.” I couldn’t believe the tramp kept a straight face. Death would part them soon and she knew it. After the ‘kiss the bride’ thing, they’d race down the aisle – him to his epic fail and her to merry widowhood. The guests would shuffle to their post-wedding debauchery. But her? Her plans left no room for partying. Not until after. Her prey might even enjoy his last minutes in her lair. The others did. If I had my way, this was her last conquest. No more dead grooms for her.

Not bad for first thing in the morning, if I do say so myself.  I'm probably not going to win, but it was a good exercise for the ol' writing muscles.  

Have you ever entered a spur of the moment contest like this?  How'd you do?  You've got until midnight tonight to enter this yourself.  If you do, leave a comment so we can check out your entry, too.  =o)

Miss Snark's First Victim

If you haven't seen it yet, there's a wonderful blog called Miss Snark's First Victim wherein a person calling herself Authoress talks about this writing thing we do and also hosts contests to help her fellow writers get a little farther down the road from unpub to pub.

Just recently she held a 'Secret Agent' contest. The first fifty people to send her the opening 250 words of their novel get those words posted to her site and critted by a yet-to-be named literary agent - as well as random readers. Last time around the 'secret agent' turned out to be Kristen Nelson. She'll offer up the name of this round's agent on Monday. From the responses to her last contest (which she posted on Friday), she's doing some really positive things for the writing world.

I haven't read all the posts on her site yet, but from what I've seen so far, the posts are intelligent and the critter comments are helpful (without being snotty). So, if you're still in this pre-pub boat, head on by and pick up some pointers on making your work shine.

Thank you for your work Authoress. =o)