The New Operation Awesome

The New Operation Awesome

After a fun Mystery Blogger contest series

 and some reorganization behind the scenes, 

here's what the contributor list at Operation Awesome looks like:

Katrina Lantz
Lindsay Scott (also writes as Isabella Morgan)
Kell Andrews, represented by Kathleen Rushall of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency,DEADWOOD released Nov 2012 from Pugalicious Press
Angela Townsend, represented by Jill Corcoran of The Herman Agency, AMAROKreleased Nov 2012 from Spencer Hill Press
Michelle McLean, represented by Krista Goering of the Krista Goering Literary Agency,TO TRUST A THIEF released Jan 2013 from Entangled Scandalous
Kristal Shaff, THE EMISSARY coming 2013 from Month9Books
Angelica R. Jackson
Becky Mahoney, represented by Sara Crowe of Harvey Klinger
Max Gladstone, represented by Weronika Janczuk of Lynn C Franklin Associates,THREE PARTS DEAD released Oct 2012 from TOR. Sequel TBR Oct 2013 from TOR.
Abby Annis
Kellie DuBay Gillis
Wesley Chu, represented by Russel Galen of Scovil Galen and Ghosh Literary Agency, THE LIVES OF TAO coming April 2013 from Angry Robot
Toni Kerr, YA novel, DESCENDANT, is due to be published by Pugalicious Press in Nov of 2013
Robyn Russell (also writes as R.R. Russell), Author of THE VENTURE BOOKS by R.H. Russell (available now) and WONDER LIGHT by R.R. Russell (Sourcebooks, Spring 2013)

ALUMNUS:
Amparo Ortiz 

If you missed the contest and want a few laughs, check out the 3 truths and a lie by each new member. 

I had a lot of fun getting to know our new bloggers in this way, and I hope you enjoyed it, too! 

The new schedule:

BOOKS BY OPERATION AWESOME:

Critiques from awesome authors and other bookish fun

MYSTERY BLOGGERS #5-8 are up for three truths and a lie. Come play. It's fun, and if you guess right you could win a critique from one of them.

Mystery Blogger #5 was saved by the Heimlich Maneuver THRICE... or was she?


Mystery Blogger #6 sold underwear w/ Michael Jordan... or did he?


Mystery Blogger #7 sent a nude pic in response to an editor's form rejection... or did she?


Mystery Blogger #8 beat down a query-rejection-papier-mâchéed piñata, post-book deal... or did she?

GUESS THE LIE RIGHT AND YOU'RE ENTERED TO WIN A FREE CRITIQUE.

Fun, right? I'm loving it!

The first four Mystery Bloggers were revealed yesterday:

Mystery Blogger #1: Angelica R. Jackson

Mystery Blogger #2: Becky Mahoney

Mystery Blogger #3: Max Gladstone

Mystery Blogger #4: Abby Annis

These four are new contributors to Operation Awesome. From now on, everything awesome they do will be attributed to their involvement with us. Or not.

In other news...
Lissa M. Basso's A SHIMMER OF ANGELS was released yesterday and it is beautiful!

On goodreads

Kristal posted a 9-page sneak-peek over at Operation Awesome!!!!

Enjoy! And follow @Month9Books on twitter because y'all are going to love their line up of new releases this year and next. 

99cents for RaShelle Workman's trilogy EXILED!

First of all, if you haven't met four of our new bloggers at Operation Awesome, head on over there and say hi to Angelica, Becky, Max, and Abby!


Now I have something else awesome to share:

RaShelle Workman's EXILED trilogy is available for 99cents on amazon kindle!




You're welcome. And if you ever see a deal like this, let me know, too. I'm all about the ebooks right now as it makes it easier for me to squeeze reading in while nursing or lying in bed at night without waking people with paper sounds. :)

Tomorrow at Operation Awesome, we'll run the last half of our MYSTERY BLOGGER critique contest! So head over there Wednesday, Jan. 30th, to guess which fun facts are lies and enter for a chance to win a critique. 

Free Critiques for Good Lie-Detectors

Squee! I can't even describe how excited I am about this! Operation Awesome is getting 8 new bloggers. What does that mean for you? FREE CRITIQUES! Call it hazing, or a welcoming ritual, but our newbies have agreed to critique for a lucky winner who answers correctly: which one is the lie?

MYSTERY BLOGGER #1-4

THREE TRUTHS AND A LIE CONTEST

• Don't forget to enter Michelle McLean's book release giveaways (5 days of them with incrementally awesome-r prizes. :)
• Amparo talked this morning about having a faux Braveheart moment. Find out what she means here.
• Month9Books' A Shimmer of Angels SHOW US YOUR WINGS CONTEST is ongoing! A Shimmer of Angels is released TOMORROW!

Even though I'm not eligible for the contest (since I just took a job with them!) I participated anyway. The prospect of creating Jude Law with angel wings was just too good to pass up: 

• Offer your own critiques of excerpts at Miss Snark's First Victim

Sometimes Mondays ROCK!

Hugo Awards Season: How to Vote

One of my favorite authors, Max Gladstone, has written a post all about the Hugo awards. 

I suggest you go read it.

Go ahead. 

I'll wait.

Didn't do it? Well, you can lead a horse to water...

No, I'm not insulting you. Never mind. Here's how you become eligible to vote:

1. Register for World Con before Jan 31 2012, by filling out this form.  Click “Submit.”  This will take you to a page where you can select the kind of membership you want to buy.  If you don’t plan to go to World Con this year in person, you want the “Supporting Membership ($60),” which is the last option on the next page.   Fill out the form, and click “Buy Now,” which will take you to a PayPal payment processing page.
2. Receive a Hugo Voter PIN.  World Con will send this number to you.
3. When you have received your PIN, use this electronic form to nominate works for the Hugo, and there you go!  You’ll receive more instructions from the award administrators from that point on.

Who would you vote for if you could?

I'd definitely vote Max Gladstone's THREE PARTS DEAD for Best Novel. I'm reading it right now and loving every page -- and I'm not the only one:

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone.  I talked a lot about this novel at cons last year, pretty much on any panel where someone asked how important it is to stick to strict genre categories, because this proves that good story trumps any kind of marketing category.  Write a good book, the publisher will find a way to sell it.  This one got marketed as urban fantasy, with the hot chick with a weapon on the cover.  But it’s also a post-apocalyptic fantasy with gods that’s also a legal thriller.  It’s pretty much unlike anything you’ve read. -Carrie Vaughn

and

Best Novel (nominations): 

The Killing Moon/The Shadowed Sun by N.K. Jemisin
Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone
Seer of Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier
A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge  

-from the Book Smugglers

Haven't read THREE PARTS DEAD yet?

THE BLURB:

A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart.

Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis’s steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot. 

Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who’s having an understandable crisis of faith. 

When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb’s courts—and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb’s slim hope of survival. 

Set in a phenomenally built world in which justice is a collective force bestowed on a few, craftsmen fly on lightning bolts, and gargoyles can rule cities, Three Parts Dead introduces readers to an ethical landscape in which the line between right and wrong blurs.  

-Goodreads 

ENJOY! Let me know if you vote and which books you elevated in the world's estimation!

Blog Chain: Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Amparo asks:

It's a new year, and some writers have taken it upon themselves to switch things up. *points at self* It might be the genres you write in or your revision process. It might be your main character's voice. What's one thing you've chosen to change in your writing this new year? Why do you wish to change it? If there's nothing you're going to change, why do you think it should remain as is?

This year I'm changing my one-WIP-at-a-time rule. Inspired by the productivity of some of my critique partners (you know who you are), I realized the only thing holding me back is me. Not this one project. Not anybody I'm waiting to have read my stuff. Just. me. 

I'm excited to be working on two projects seriously, a third project first-draft-ly -- and I'll also be starting a new adventure as an editorial assistant for Month9Books. 

The editorial staff have been excellent, and in case you haven't noticed, they have a beautiful variety of books coming out in MG/YA speculative fiction (which happens to be my very favorite kind). 

Enter their contest for A Shimmer of Angels swag going on now.

Because of the very basic work I'll be doing with Month9, I'm going to be learning a lot about the pieces and parts of a novel -- and that can only be good for my personal growth as a writer. Not to mention all the amazing books I get to read pre-publication. #jobperks

My study of style has been ongoing for several years now, but my study of structure has only just begun in earnest this year. I've talked a good game about outlining, but I'd always believed in a sort of blind outlining where you just feel things out. I rejected formulaic outlining as being somehow... well, 'formulaic.' That word has all kinds of negative connotations for writers. As it turns out, having a formula only gives you walls to push against, rules to break. And that's good. 

That's the biggest change I have made so far this year, and I'm going to keep moving in that direction because the results already have been delightful good fun. 

Voice-wise, I'm still trying to get rid of my rhetorical questions disease. (It's particularly bad in first person POV.) And I've got to stop beginning every other sentence with a conjunction. Seriously, Katrina, it's epidemic. 

And now I'm talking to myself. (Shoot, did it again with the conjunction.)

What will you change about your writing this year to improve your craft? Or your marketing? Or your... quit it with the conjunctions again, Katrina. 

Blast! 

And goodnight.

Please check out Christine Fonseca's post yesterday, and tomorrow (today, actually, as it's midnight) check out Lisa Amowitz's blog for her biggest change of the year.

The Power of Positive Customer Reviews

I buy a lot of e-books these days, as well as buying paper books online at retailers like amazon and thebookdepository. Do you know what my decision process looks like?

Ooh, shiny cover art.

That blurb is a little meandering, not so punchy. I bet the writing is that way, too.

support this artist

Better check out the reviews.

Holy cow, this person read for three straight days and is still thinking about the book a week later! Maybe I should read it! I definitely should. I WANT!!!

And that's the power of positive customer reviews. Do you share your thoughts on books in the various retail spots? Here are some big ones to consider, especially if you want to support your favorite authors:

Goodreads
Barnes and Noble
Amazon

If you have a favorite book and review-sharing site to add, please give it a shout-out in the comments. By sharing our experiences with books, good and bad, we can help other readers sift through the mountains of books released every day to find the real gems.

Plus, you get to support an artist. And that's reason enough.

(I also contribute to an incredible review blog called Afterglow Book Reviews.)