Who Did Kathleen Ortiz Pick? Mystery Agent Winners!

Yesterday I wrote about the Perks of Fellowship for Novelists. Today we have a prime example of that over on Operation Awesome!!

MARCH MYSTERY AGENT REVEALED!! (And eight--EIGHT--winners from whom she requested manuscript pages)

Seriously, you guys have no idea the joy it gives me to see a) the talent of you writers, b) the generosity of our mystery agents, and c) the excitement generated when the two come together.

My mom asked me once if it was hard to support all these published authors we interview, or to watch other people earn what I really, really want. I told her it isn't. It's fun. Of course I hope it will happen for me someday, and I know hard work is the answer to that 'someday' time frame. But while I'm in the fox hole, I'm really loving my company.

Most of all, I'm grateful for you. Thanks for reading and participating with me in this decade of online writerly awesomeness.

p.s. I have a new article up on The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog: Research for the Novelist

The Perks of Fellowship for Novelists

Who Could Say No to Perks Like These?

I'm having a great 2011 so far. It all started in 2010, really. Someone wrote to me on the querytracker.net forum wondering if I'd be interested in forming a critique group with her.

Best. decision. ever.

Coming out of the writer closet and joining the online writing community (and this is true of any writing community, really) started a snowball of epic sugary goodness. Here are some of the perks I've enjoyed:

• Having my work read by people who GET IT!
• Getting feedback that makes my writing stronger.
• Feeling less insane because everybody else is going through similar struggles (and blogging about them).
• Getting to read riveting stories BEFORE they're published!
• Being involved in making said riveting stories even better.
• Reading and writing a review for a friend's book (better than a backstage pass).
• Moral support during the query process (and when I get there, the submission process).
• Interviewing literary rock stars and generally getting to know some amazing writer people.
• Living vicariously through the successes of others.
• Being asked to contribute to a couple incredible writing blogs.
• Cyber-meeting literary agents and seeing how truly nice/savvy they are.
• Helping to match agents to writers through super fun contests!
• Brainstorming sessions with writers who love the same kind of books I do. 
• Getting a kick in the pants when I slack on my wordage or editing--motivation to keep going.

Is it any wonder I'm always extolling the virtues of a writing group? And hey, you don't even have to sell your soul. 

This is why Fridays are AWESOME!

It's just like Christmas morning!

I'm in a really good mood (if a bit sleepy)! 


We are a week and a half away from the next Mystery Agent contest at Operation Awesome!! This time you need to polish your 25 word pitch for your complete middle grade or young adult novel! I know, we're mixing it up on you. But a Mystery Agent gets what a Mystery Agent wants, and this is going to be an opportunity to see some slightly different pitches from the standard one-liner!


I word-counted 25 words to bring you an example of an appropriate pitch:

Nobody knows how dark Abigail’s life really is. But a special school for the blind doesn’t help her blend. It only intensifies the ghostly voices. 

So start working on your pitch if you haven't already. I hope you win that coveted full request!


Michelle's blog tour locations today are here:  
Shannon O'Donnell - with giveaway - winner announced Sat
Ali Cross-  with giveaway - ends Jan 28th

If you haven't already bought her lovely book, Homework Helpers: Essays & Term Papers, you might get lucky and WIN a signed copy! But it's probably best just to buy it just in case and so you don't have to wait. ;)

 Anne Riley is giving away FIVE  COPIES of her book, THE CLEARING, which isn't even out yet! Go check out her blog for the deets!

I'm going crazy talking about queries and cyber stalking at both The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog and Operation Awesome! I hope you find both articles helpful, or at least entertaining. As always, comments are welcome and make me feel like a pretty princess. 

Next Wednesday, Lindsay (aka Isabella) is interviewing the New York Times Bestselling Author, Beth Revis on Operation Awesome and giving away TWO copies of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE!

And I have another mysterious and wonderful literary rock star coming to Operation Awesome very soon. That's all I can tell you. This message will self-destruct, so make sure you take copious notes.

Any other book releases, contests, or awesome articles you've seen today? Link in the comments!

Happy Book Birthday to my Critique Partner, Michelle McLean!

Woot! *throws streamers* Happy Birthday, HOMEWORK HELPERS: ESSAYS AND TERM PAPERS!! This awesome book bears the name of none other than my Operation Awesome partner in crime, Michelle McLean! She is an amazing writer, whether it's fiction or nonfiction. If you aren't following her blog yet, you need to get over there now! Not only is she having a big giveaway to celebrate her book debut, but her daily posts are some of the best writing advice I've seen on the web. She didn't get this nonfiction contract for nothing! This girl knows how to write a fun, conversational, spot-on how-to!


Lots of people are talking about her today, including these guys:


Christine Fonseca, 
Elana Johnson, 
Bethany Wiggins and Suzette Saxton, 
and Lisa Amowitz.


If you comment on each blog, that's how many entries you'll get in the big giveaway going on all week. And be sure to check back here next Saturday (not this one, but next: Jan 29th) because I'll have a brilliant (Seriously. I'm not exaggerating. This will change your writing life.) guest post by the skillful and delicious author.


Now for a few other nuggets of awesome around the blogosphere:

• WriteOnCon has invited Pippin Properties (amazing collaborative literary agency) to live chat with all their followers on Monday, January 24th, 5:00pm EST! You will not want to miss this! So do your research and tune in to ask your questions.

• Congratulations to Beth Revis, author of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, for debuting on the New York Times Bestseller List at #7! Must be a magic number and bodes well for this book b/c Kiersten White's Paranormalcy occupied exactly the same spot in its first week! 

• The fast-growing Best Damn Creative Writing Blog Ever now has a book club! Check it out and get in on the book discussion.

What's got you excited on the blogosphere today?

Paul McCartney, Prancing Poodles, and Girls Who Play Football: Ask Miranda

My first author interview of the new year is up on Operation Awesome today and it's one you won't want to miss!

Miranda Kenneally, author of the debut YA novel SCORE, has infused the interview with her awesome personality and even included some free verse from her upcoming novel. Here's the blurb:

What girl doesn’t want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn’t just surrounded by hot guys, though—she leads them as the captain and quarterback on her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys, and that’s just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university. But now there’s a new guy in town who threatens her starring position on the team…and has her suddenly wishing to be seen as more than just a teammate.

SCORE, my debut YA novel, will be released by Sourcebooks Fire in December 2011!

Add SCORE on Goodreads!   

Read an excerpt from SCORE

You read that right. A girl is the captain of the football team. I can't wait to read how the new guy is taking it!

The cover has been chosen, but we're not allowed to know which one it is yet. How's this for reader eye candy?



Now go check out the interview and ask her some questions of your own in the comments. Miranda will be around to answer questions today (Friday).

And please visit The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog to read my latest contribution: Memorable Query? Wrong Kind of Memorable and show some comment love. Thanks, guys! And...


HAPPY FRIDAY!!

The Most Influential Writers Ever

This is a lemming. What does a leader look like?

Guess what's happening at The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog..Period next week?

Oh you don't know? 

Fine, I'll tell you. ;-)

News from Tom Dhorman, the managing editor:

Cortnee Howard, the editor in chief, is hard at work compiling the internet's first official "twitter list" of the Top 100 most influential writers on Twitter. There will also be several "sublists" broken down by category (including things like YA fiction, poetry, romance etc). 

I'm very excited about this project, which is slated to launch on Monday. 

Spread the word and follow @BDCWB  and @Artlifefreedom on twitter to send suggestions. 

Who do you think is the most influential writer on twitter?

I'm gonna go ahead and say @kierstenwhite! I also love @staceykade and @gailcarriger. If you don't know, these are the authors of PARANORMALCY, THE GHOST AND THE GOTH, and SOULLESS, respectively.

And just for fun, tell me who you think WOULD be a twitter author celebrity if the internet had existed during their time. C.S. Lewis, for me.

Monday's Collection of Awesome

Mondays can be rough, what with the tearful goodbyes to the weekend and all. But this Monday has some special consolation prizes for the weary weekday warrior:

1. As promised, Amparo's putting on: An Awesome Thanks: 100 Followers Contest

-It's our way of saying thank you to our fabulous followers who helped spread the word so fast about the new Operation Awesome blog. Just follow and comment for a chance to win one of six prizes, including 10-page critiques, and a custom-made blog banner or button. You can be a new follower or an old friend. All are eligible.

2. I know you've missed them because I've been missing them, too: WriteOnCon gals are back!! And they've got a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT  via vlog.

-Also skip on over to Elana's blog to grab the new WriteOnCon button. The code is in the side bar.

3. If you've been wondering what to do with that book you wrote that's "good writing, but not unique enough to stand out in this competetive market", give this quick read a look: Rewrite Your Book

-It's my weekly writing tip over at The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog, inspired today by Mandy Hubbard.

The Allure of the REFRESH Button

Some very exciting things have been happening in my inbox lately. You'll see what I mean tomorrow (and the next day, and the next day, etc.) if you follow Operation Awesome.

If you can't get enough of the Operation Awesome ladies, there's also an interview about cultural considerations and writing with Amparo and Lindsay over at The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog today!

With all the excitement, the allure of the REFRESH button has been too much to resist.

But when I think about it (which I did, recently), I realize that this addiction extends beyond busy inbox days to ghost town inbox days as well.

Why?

Why must I know the second something comes in? Wouldn't it be better to get it all at once and have a set time to email? "NO," says the voice in my stomach. (You don't have a voice in your stomach, you say? Hmm. That head-voice thing is totally overrated!)

"No," my stomach growls, "because if you did that, you wouldn't be able to respond to the twitter DM or the interview answers, or the forum post, or the blog comment--until much, much later. And later is bad.

Very bad.

So instead I'm doing the cyber equivalent of tapping my friends' shoulders a million times:

Did you say something? No? Oh.
Did you say something? No? Oh.
Did you say something? Yes! *Furiously types an answer*
Did you say something? No? Oh.

Man, cyber me is annoying sometimes. I need to get a hobby. Oh crap. I have a hobby. It involves a computer 24/7. Sorry guys.

*Refresh*

My tummy wants Nutella.

Drowning in a Sea of Words

Aivazovsky, Ivan - The Ninth Wave

Oh, but what a way to go!

I've been uber-busy. Hence the lack of daily posts. So to my dear readers (there are 33 of you now! I'm so honored!) I must apologize. I promise I've been doing good things with my time and now I will share them with you:

• Writing for other people (generally causing a ruckus). I recently joined a collaborative blog you simply must check out. It's The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog...Period. I try to write fun, thoughtful pieces for them, but my latest ended up spurring quite the discussion in the comments. No matter how busy you are, you should always take time for a ruckus! Also, I recently wrote my first reader's report (summing up the strengths and weaknesses of someone else's MS in a page and a half), definitely an educational experience!
• Reading other people's pre-published work. I've mentioned this before and it is a fabulous use of anyone's time! You learn from others' beautiful prose as well as from their mistakes--or things that just don't jive with you as a reader. It's something like watching other people's kids. It teaches you what you DON'T want your kids to be like, if you can help it. (Unless you're watching your perfect neighbor's kids, in which case you are taking notes like mad!)
• Reading  published novels. Oh the joy of it. These are the words in which I could blissfully drown, relishing every moment of their suffocating....Okay, that metaphor isn't working for me anymore. But if you're a bibliophile like me, then reading is the way you relax. For my hubz, it's curling up on the couch or in bed and flipping on old seasons of Scrubs. He could quote JD and Turk all day long. ("Do you see what you get when you mess with the warrior?!") For me, it's the next book in The Immortals series, or Pride and Prejudice for the hundredth time. I can open that book up to the middle and get trapped in Austen's world. Same with any of the Twilight books. Riveting social conflicts! 
• Writing my own stuff: I'm working on an urban fantasy for YA that is definitely fresh, though I can't vouch for the writing yet. I'm 25% through the first draft. I'm sure it will take a few drafts before I can justifiably call it a masterpiece (maybe not even then).
• Raising a family. This is one thing that cannot drop from my priorities, no matter what happens, because childhood only happens once per person. And babyhood is as fleeting as Spring flowers, as every poet knows. My 3yo is now 3 and a HALF! My baby is almost a year old, and walking all over the place. Between reading/writing lessons for the former and care and feeding of the latter, I'm very lucky to have any time at all for my favorite self-indulgences (see above).   

As you can see, I've been drowning in a sea of words, and loving every minute of it. Even though I've been busy, I've still thoroughly enjoyed reading other people's blogs. I learn so much from you guys--and am extremely entertained in the process. 

Thank you for reading, but thank you even more for writing! Keep it up! The world needs your unique view!

Web Launch: The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog

It's finally up!!

The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog has moved to its own server, to make room for all the traffic they'll be getting under the new format. It's interactive! That's right. You can register a username and participate in discussions on every topic under the literary sun.

The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog is an informative, fast-casual news site featuring industry news, essays, interviews, and book commentary. At the BDCWB, we are committed to empowering writers in all stages of their craft. We are relevant. We are accessible. We are interesting. And we are here to preserve the printed word.

These people are professionals with...ahem...impeccable taste.

I have to say that because they're running one of my articles. Check it out:

Lists: Even Pantsers Use Them

and remember when they gave me an award for Best #Dearpublisher tweet?

But even before I got involved, it was clear this unique web site for writers is a class act. Just look at their Who We Are page! It pretty much sums up the innovative spirit and booklove bent that goes into everything they do.

So if you're getting excited to read and participate, I recommend you first stop by the Headlines page! So much literary goodness in one place!

And while you're at it, follow them on twitter for literary news and commentary of the day: @BDCWB  

See you there!

I Won an Award!! (from BDCWB)

You may not have heard of this award, but you are about to....

BEST #DEARPUBLISHER TWEET

 (My blog post on #dearpublisher is HERE.)

I'd like to thank The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog for gracing me with their mention.

Thank you. *curtsies* The now semi-famous tweet is HERE.

@BDCWB (twitter) is a blog after my own heart. From their "Who We Are" page:

We LOVE (!!!!!!….yes, seriously LOVE) writers and everything that they do.

To be honest, we are just a bunch of college nerds/English majors who have nothing better to do than obsess over writer celebrities. While we won’t spend too much time talking about John Grisham, we will spend an exorbant amount of time highlighting up-and-coming/literary writers who publish in magazines and small presses. We also love poets and creative nonfiction writers because they deserve some recognition too.

Their mission includes acting as a one-stop resource for writers who have no time to scour the webs for relevant industry news/buzz. They bring it all together in a delightfully absurd web site, complete with pictures of random dogs. In their own words:

We started The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog…Period because, quite simply, we feel like writer news, writer issues and writer resources are too spread out over the internet. There are thousands of scam websites, sites that are done for promotion and sites that are just too messy to wade through to ever be truly effective. Looking for a legit contest to enter? Done. Wanna know what your favorite writers and poets are up to? We’ve got you covered. Looking for well written articles about issues like self-publishing, what to read this month and how to improve your writing in general? You’ve come to the right place.

Oh, and...

He is not a random dog. His name is Rokki and he is our editor-in-chief’s Boston Terrier. He is also our mascot. 

In honor of this award, I shall write you all a little poem (if you liked "books have babies", you'll love this):

Rokki the dog
Is rockin the lenses
Chillin on his moo-bag
In the present tenses
Is he lookin at me?
Or is he lookin at you?
Cuz he's a terrier, yo
And he looks serious, too.

Okay, so apparently Boston Terriers wearing sunglasses inspire rap-ish poetry. Take note, dear readers. If you want rap, send me pictures of dogs in summertime eye wear.

Busy weekend ahead (meeting agent Natalie Fischer at the Ventura Book Festival tomorrow, grocery shopping, toddler birthday party, and squeezin some writing time in), so until next time, I shall bid you all adieu.

Adieu. To yu and yu and yu.

Okay, goodnight. *trips on her way out*