ARC and Reviewers

Last week my editor informed me that the ARC (advanced reading copy) of my book, IT HAPPENS IN THREES, is just about ready to go to reviewers.

Being new to this industry, I asked, "What does that mean?"

Reviewers are (for the most part) influential readers that will post a review of your book on the internet and/or newspapers and other print media.

Authors many times make a personal contact with a reviewer that they like so that reviewer will agree to read their book. This often works better than just sending out review copies cold.

There are also many online reviewers that will accept an electronic version of the book. You can get great blurbs and endorsements from reviewers that will help in promotion of the book. Many authors love to get blurbs, but it is not mandatory.

Final copies can also be sent to reviewers after the publication date. There are some big name reviewers that will ONLY look at an ARC.

This is all good information!!

Writing Prompt Response

Sorry it took so long. Sometimes life just bites, and recently I've been bitten. Unfortunately, it wasn't a love bite. :-)

Not to worry... I'm back on track. Here's my writing prompt response.

She never expected to find. . .

She never expected to find an envelope of diamonds and a 9MM when she pulled up the floor board.

Writing Prompt

Time to put on the creative thinking cap. Here's your latest writing prompt.

She never expected to find. . .

Writing Groups

What are your thoughts on writing groups/organizations and critique groups?

Personally, I have found most to be very helpful. I joined RWA and NHRWA back in 2003 and from the moment I went to my first meeting I found a great support group. There I was, this wannabe/inspriring writer and there they were, this group of professional, experienced, and new writers all there to help each other out.

What exactly do you get from these groups?

I guess that depends on what you want. My NHRWA group has a monthly meeting where they share the latest information from RWA, talk about/create special events that help us all move forward in our goals, and have a speaker who discusses a topic to help with your writing craft or getting published.

In addition to that, NHRWA has a writing critique session at the end of the meeting so anyone who has a chapter they want to read and share to get feedback/input can do so. The best part of that is if you've actually read something you're inspired to leave there and go write more. Heck, even if you didn't bring anything you'll probably be inspired to go home and write.

I also have a group of people I met in one of my college courses, including the teacher, who we now get together to share our work, critique each other, and brainstorm. Sometimes you just stall, but when you get together with these folks they're there to help.

Most of all, I believe these groups give you encouragement. There could be 5 or more people at a critique session all writing different story ideas, but everyone participates and gives feedback. It's even interesting to see 5 people all writing that same kind of story (mystery for example) but their voices and their styles are completely different.

Let me end this cheering for these groups by saying that I value these people and their opinions, but more than anything I cherish their support and friendship.

Last Week's Writing Prompt Response

Sorry for the delay in sending an idea. Hopefully you all came up with something exciting. Here's my off the cuff shot.

Prompt:

When she entered the motel room...

My sentence:

When she entered the motel room, Angel stopped short, covered her mouth and nose with her free hand and attempted to keep the contents of her stomach down as the stench that washed out of the room assailed her.

One of those weeks AND good news

Sorry for neglecting my blog. Sheesh! It's been one of those weeks. Work has been wicked busy. The psychology class I signed up for turned out to be a dud so I dropped it. Hate that!

But the good news is that my publisher just sent me the pre-proof for my book!!! Yippee!

Now I get to see what they've done for edits and make my own. I love this process!

I'll send out my reply to last week's writing prompt shortly.

Writing Prompt

Time for another boost of creativity. Here's this week's writing prompt.

When she entered the motel room. . .

Show vs.Tell

I'm sure some of you writers attend writing critique groups, or maybe you belong to an online critique group, perhaps some of you have sent work to an editor. At some point on your path to becoming a published author you've probably had someone use the phrase "show, don't tell".

Do you really know what that means?

The best way to explain this is to show you. :-)

Tell:
Carol was walking on the beach near the ocean.

Show:
Sandals hooked to a finger, Carol inhaled the salty air. She strolled, the warm crystalline sand sinking beneath her feet, and scrunching between her toes. When she turned in the direction of a seagull's squawk, water-laden air wafted against her face, and lifted her hair from the back of her neck.

See the difference? The "telling" was flat without emotion. In the showing I never told you Carol was walking on the beach, but instead I drew you a picture with the words and from them you could gather she walked on the beach near the ocean.

Showing pulls your reader into the story, let's them see, feel, experience what your characters are going through.

Why don't you try this? Use the same example or show me. . .Cold, Anger, Scared

Discussion Topics

As you can see I've been doing most the talking on this blog. But, hey, I can talk with myself anytime. :-)

I wanna hear about some writing topics that are of interest to you. Let me know and we'll start a blog conversation.

In the meantime, I'll keep posting whatever pops into my head.

Response to weekend writing prompt

The prompt was:

Believing his sincerity. . .


What did you come up with? Or were you too busy enjoying the long holiday weekend to think about writing? Okay, not that I blame you. I just came up with this a minute ago.

Believing his sincerity when he’d said he loved her had been Jane’s biggest mistake. It had almost cost her life.

Let's see what you did.

This Week's Writing Prompt

Believing his sincerity. . .

Okay, this one should be easy to grab that reader's attention. Good luck!

Weekend Writing Prompt Response

You've had the weekend to come up with something. Anything grab your attention? Were you able to hook your reader?



Remember, the prompt was:


As she applied pressure to the brakes. . .

My hook:

As she applied pressure to the brakes, the airplane pulled to the right, and another explosion ripped the air.



Hm. Does it leave you in suspense? Make you ask questions? Make you wanna read more? Who applied brakes? ANOTHER explosion? Did the plane stop? Did it explode into pieces? Did the person applying the brakes survive? Was the person flying the plane the pilot?

Hackers and Your Writing

The idea for this blog came from Charlotte Phillips blog http://charsbookreviews.blogspot.com/

Charlotte recently had an experience with a virus attack. About two weeks ago I went through the same thing.

Luckily, I have everything backed up, but that day+ wasted was pure torture. It got so bad that at one point I couldn't see anything on my screen. I actually contemplated throwing my trusty laptop away and getting a new one. HORROR! - love the little thing. When the red fuzz of anger cleared from my brain, I took a deep breath, and went to task. I defragged, did a chkdsk, and was finally able to see my screen. Then I was able to run an antivirus software...actually several. After all that (hours and hours) I was finally able to use my computer again.

What is with these people? Do they think it's fun and games to destroy people's work?

How do you prevent these things from happening? Do you constantly run an antivirus application? It slows your other applications down (painfully so at times) and that's only part of the issue. Don't forget about spyware. So now you have to run a spyware killer application too? Oh, and if you run on a wireless network...that's another can of worms. You have to make certain it's secure so no one else can use it or get on and see what you're doing. BEEN THERE!

Does anyone have some great suggestions on how to prevent these things from happening? Any great articles or tools to recommend?

For all you writers out there...if we can't beat the hackers and prevent their damage...we can make sure our writing gets saved. I recommend the Microsoft Home Server. It's a small, headless machine that you hook up to your network, then all your computers can use the Home Server to get backed up on a regular basis.

Widgets and Marketing

Thought I'd share with you some recent cool findings. With IT HAPPENS IN THREES being my first book to be published (January 2009), I've been spending a great amount of time researching marketing. Recently I came across "WIDGETS".

So here I am, this computer geek, but a cute one, and I'm doing research on the internet and I just happen to run into these neat things called "WIDGETS". What exactly is a widget?

A widget is a third party tool that takes information you give it (like your blog or RSS feed) and makes it accessible to other places/people by creating this usually customizable look and feel. Then you take this widget and put it on your website or blog or wherever you can. From there anyone who sees it can do the same. It's like social networking with a tool.

Anyone who downloads my BLOG widget can put it on their desktop and see my latest BLOG headings. WAY COOL! In case you haven't noticed them...there are 2 different ones in my BLOGS now. I really like the purple one from www.springwidgets.com. Very easy to create and put where I want.

Now, if you're PUBLISHED author try http://www.adaptiveblue.com/widgets_books.html. They'll create a widget for your books that will link back to Amazon or B&N which will of course help with your marketing and sales.

Check out widgets! And if you recommend one, let me know.

Weekend Writing Prompt

Take the weekend and play with this prompt. See if you can come up with more than a great starting sentence. Try for a paragraph. Don't worry, I'll do the same.

Here's the prompt:

As she applied pressure to the brakes. . .

Writing prompt Hook Sentence

So the last prompt was

The maze stopped being fun . . .

I completed the sentence this way.

The maze stopped being fun when Sari turned the corner, her hand sliding against the mirrored wall coming up wet and sticky with blood.

Thoughts? Thought provoking? Make you want to read more?

Share what you came up with.

Next Writing Prompt

Hopefully the last writing prompt got you motivated, jazzed, or at least inspired enough to write one sentence, paragraph, start a new story. Either way, let's keep those creative juices flowing. Here's your next writing prompt.

The maze stopped being fun . . .


Good luck and let me know what you come up with. Remember, hook that reader.

New SpringWidget

Get this widget!

IT HAPPENS IN THREES

Writing Prompt and a Hook

Remember the Writing Prompt I put in the previous blog.

The moment the limousine took off . . .

My take on the writing prompt.

The moment the limousine took off, tires squealing, locks engaging, a dark voice whispered her name, and Charley, heart thumping in her chest, went completely still, willing him to go away, willing this to be a dream. A bad dream.


So I sent this opener to my author friend Nora LeDuc (www.noraleduc.com) for her opinion. Nora thought the sentence met the criteria of a good hook because it introduced forshadowing, danger or action, and asked a question.

What did you come up with? Did you hook the reader in that very first sentence?