The Writer Mama Back-to-School Giveaway

I participated in The Writer Mama Back-to-School Giveaway last year--and I'll be checking back in this year too!

Here's all the details:

September 1 - 30: The Writer Mama Back-to-School Giveaway was a huge success last year. You don’t have to be a mama, just a writer. This year there'll be more books to give away and more thought-provoking career questions for you to answer to qualify to win. Participants last year commented on how much they learned both from answering the questions as well as from each other. Don’t miss it!

To see a list of the prizes, go here.

Just to give you an idea, giveaways include:

1. 2009 Deluxe Writer’s Market by Robert Brewer

2. 1-yr subscription to WritersMarket.com
3. 1-yr subscription to Writer’s Digest magazine

4. Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market 2009 by Rachel McDonald
5. Guide to Literary Agents 2009 by Chuck Sambuchino
6. Writer’s Digest Weekly Planner by the Writer’s Digest Editors
7. First Draft in 30 Days + From First Draft to Finished Novel by Karen Wiesner
8. Page After Page + Chapter After Chapter by Heather Sellers
9. WGF: Plot & Structure + WGF: Revision & Self-Editing by J.S. Bell
10. Writing the Breakout Novel + Workbook by Donald Maass

Using (Minor) Adversity to Breathe Life into Fiction

Picture this scene:

On the back porch of a house in a suburban Texas neighborhood, one small, brown snake lay curled around itself in the warm afternoon sun. A twelve-year-old boy spies the snake and alerts his brother and cousins. Soon, five children clamor around the reptile, pointing and hollering loud enough to attract the attention of the two middle-aged moms—my sister and me—who are inside the house. We shoot out the front door and run full-speed to the backyard.

“Josh, is its head triangular or round?” I ask, thinking that it looks round.

The group consensus is that it has a round head—it’s probably a garter snake—but I don’t want a snake in my yard, even if it’s not poisonous. I grab a shovel and a bucket.

Who am I kidding? The snake isn’t going to cooperate. It’s going to lunge, and I’m going to scream and fling the shovel.

We need a container with a larger opening for some wiggle room. I put down both the shovel and the bucket and pick up a cooler. “Let’s try this. Wait . . .” I peer at the drain spout. “Remember, the plug came off. That’s a pretty big opening. Do you think the snake can squeeze through here?”

“No,” my sister answers, “but even if it can, we’ll find something to plug it up.” She picks up the shovel.

Five barefooted children huddle around us like we need their help. Okay, I had asked my son if he thought it was poisonous. Now I remember that I’m the adult and responsible for their safety. I make swooping arm motions. “Y’all get back.”

I’m still worried about the opening in the cooler. I want to stuff it with a plastic bag, a stick, something. But there’s no time.

My sis has slid the shovel across the cement. Oops. The area isn’t smooth and she’s not able to slide under the snake easily like a spatula lifting a brownie.

The snake quickly slithers toward safety in the grass. Like a mother bear, my sister protects our young and attacks the reptile.

Whack!

She strikes, but misses.

I shriek, which helps so much.

She charges the snake into the grass.

Whack!

Another miss.

Another whack!

And another.

We no longer see the snake, so I suppose I can stop shrieking.

Whew! Hopefully, it has hightailed it to Austin by now. I really don’t care where it is—as long as it’s not on my property.

As the scene unfolded in my yard, I knew this little drama was worth it because someday it would play a small role in my fiction.
~~~
Adversity.

So when you face trials, even small ones, instead of getting upset, grab a piece of paper and jot down notes. With a simple change of your attitude, you can allow “all things to work together for good. “ Not only will you make lemonade out of your lemons, you’ll find that you have great stories to tell.

Seems like I’m adding to the list every day. Oh, well. They’re only inconveniences, like a snake on the back porch, but they’re going to become conflicts for my characters.

Join me in using adversity to breathe life into our fiction.

~Roxanne~

Writing Contests for Writers Ages 5–105

Writing Contests for Kids (Ages 5–19)
Molly, an ambitious twelve year old, created a writing website for homeschoolers, listing details about dozens of writing contests for kids ages 5–19 in chart format. You can even sign up for a free deadline reminder.

Writers Digest (WD) Writing Contests
WD Fiction Competition
Deadline: 11/3/2008
The WD Popular Fiction Awards is now accepting entries. Compete and win in all 5 Categories! The Grand Prize-Winner will receive $2,500 cash. Click here for guidelines and to enter online.

WD Poetry Awards
Deadline: 12/19/2008
WD is now accepting entries for the 4th Annual Writer’s Digest Poetry Awards. Whether you write rhyming poetry, free verse or haiku—as long as your poems are 32 lines or fewer, WD wants them all! Winners names will appear in the August 2009 issue of Writer’s Digest. The 1st- through 50th-place poems will be printed in a special competition collection, published by Lulu.com. Click here for details.

The WD Short Short Story Competition
Deadline: 12/1/2008
Writer’s Digest is now accepting entries for the 9th Annual Short Short Story Competition. WD is looking for fiction that’s bold, brilliant...but brief. Click here to check out guidelines and to enter online.

Travel Writing Contests
Do you know about unique travel destinations where you live? Use your insider’s knowledge to enter travel writing contests. Entice people to travel to your locale.

Journeywoman.com offers a newsletter featuring tips and stories written by traveling women for traveling women and told from first person point of view. Two stories each year receive a monetary prize. The contest deadline is December 31. For details, click here.

Transitions Abroad offers a yearly contest with different categories for travelers, expatriates and students. Click here for details.

52 Perfect Days. Do you live in a place that is:
*** outside of the tourist hub?
*** in an interesting and less discovered parts of the United States?
*** off-the-beaten-track?
*** an undiscovered section of city, or a relatively unheard of town or experience?
This writing contest is for you. The theme of this writer’s contest is “Undiscovered America.” All entries must be received by October 31, 2008. For contest details, click here.

Traveler’s Tales offers their second annual Solas Awards for Best Travel Writing and a yearly $1,000 Grand Prize for Best Travel Story of the Year. The deadline for the Solas Awards is September 21, however, stories submitted after the deadline are entered in the following year's contest. They offer awards in many categories covering the full scope of travel writing, from adventure to funny, spiritual, women's, food related, memoir, destination, and more. In addition, all entries will be considered for Travelers' Tales books. For details, click here.

Rob Eagar: Free Audio Teaching Session

Rob Eagar is the founder of WildFire Marketing who helps authors, speakers, and publishers spread their message and sell more books through innovative marketing strategies.
I signed up for Rob's mentoring program this summer--and I've learned more about building my author platform in the past two months than I have in all the conference workshops I've taken or books I've read.
Rob knows his stuff.
Rob's offering a free audio teaching session: "Turn Media Interviews Into Book Sales"

In this teaching session, Rob Eagar spells out how to maximize book sales and platform growth once you've already booked a radio or TV interview…even if you write fiction. Here's a peek at some of the important issues that he covers:

1. How to prepare for an interview.
2. How to set proper goals and determine real results from your interview.
3. How to control an interview – even with a difficult host.
4. Specific techniques to help your interview boost your book sales.
5. Plus, Rob shares a secret most interview hosts don't want you to know...

Go here to listen to Rob's 34 minute free audio teaching. You can also get a written transcript.

Leaving a Writing Legacy

This week, I’m giving a speech about the legacies we leave our children. It’s made me think of what kind of writing legacy I’ll leave. If you’re new to writing and not yet published, you may think it’s too early to consider a writing legacy. You’ll worry about that after you’re published. I disagree, and here’s why:

There are published authors who regret having certain books in print. They may regret the format of the book. Perhaps they self-published or published with a less reputable publishing house and the manuscript didn’t receive the editing needed. Perhaps the book was the first of the series and wasn’t marketed well. Now the rest of the series—along with the author’s dreams—seems dead on arrival.

Perhaps the author regrets the content of the book. Maybe she rushed into print at the first opportunity—and wouldn’t 99 percent of all unpublished writers do the same?—but the author didn’t research as well she should have and mistakes are in print. Or perhaps she regrets writing steamy paranormals now that she’s writing inspirationals.

So, think carefully about publishing opportunities and establish boundaries and priorities from the start.

Jane Austen left a fabulous legacy that most of us would trade our IRA’s to have. Yet, she had no idea that, almost two hundred years later, her novels would be held in high esteem or even that she was leaving a writing legacy. Austen was writing popular fiction of her day.

According to Wikipedia, “Austen’s works brought her little fame and only a few positive reviews.” Come on, Jane Austen! It’s hard to believe she wasn’t revered soon after she was published. But that encourages me. You never know about my books or yours . . .

Let’s all write to leave a legacy we can be proud of—and one without regrets.

~Roxanne~

Finding Your Writing Process

“One hasn’t become a writer until one has distilled writing into a habit, and that habit has been forced into an obsession. Writing has to be an obsession. It has to be something as organic, physiological and psychological as speaking or sleeping or eating.”—Niyi Osundare

Are you aware of your writing process? How does understanding the steps it takes from idea to final draft improve your writing? It is an efficient aid to
* Organize your ideas.
* Sidestep writer’s block and procrastination.
* Employ your writing time productively and creatively.

My Process
Idea: When a topic pops into my mind, I write it down. Often the idea ends up in my “Writing Ideas” file. When I feel dry, I enjoy flipping through my ideas to jump start creativity. Once I decide to pursue a certain topic, I move onto research.

Research: Research is how I brainstorm with myself. I enjoy exploring the idea, other people’s opinions, the target audience, and the publication. This includes googling the topic and buying books or magazines on the subject or checking them out from the library. I use amazon.com to buy used books. With the cost of gas, $3.99 shipping is a bargain. If I target a particular publishing house, I review their website and read the descriptions of the books they routinely publish.

For example, I’m writing a Bible study on the book of Esther. I’ve bought every scholarly book and commentary, plus books for the everyday person. First, I read the book of Esther myself, then note parts of the text that catch my interest or reveal fascinating, repeated ideas. I highlight out of the ordinary, generally unknown information, or statements or ideas that grab me in the scholarly and general books. Why write the same old yadda, yadda?

Organize: As I write, I keep all my research books at arm’s length and organize all my research into paper and computer files broken down by topic. Often my research overwhelms me, so I outline what to cover in the article or chapter. Sometimes this is the hardest part for me, finding the creative framework to drop in all my inspired thoughts, plus the supporting research. Once I’ve decided how to present the information, this pattern often reveals what research to leave out.

First Draft: I begin serious writing, following my outline, incorporating my ideas and research, plus keeping my target audience in mind. I try to give myself ample time to work on my article or chapter. I have a number of comfortable places where I write to avoid distractions. I focus, but also take breaks.

Re-vision: When I was a beginning writer, I felt emotionally chained to every word I wrote. Now I see every draft as evolving, subject to change. My critique group provides objective feedback. They help me re-vision, see the article or chapter from a fresh point of view. Besides reviewing the editorial mechanics, they ask me questions, “Tell me more,” or they help me sort out all the fascinating research by telling me things like, “You’re losing me here, Scoti. Put this information in a sidebar.”

Final Draft: I trust my critique group members and take their comments seriously. Writing a final draft is recursive—it often requires going back and forth between the previous steps. Revising involves changes such as clarifying a point, reorganizing paragraphs, deleting superfluous information, adding details, or strengthening the opening hook, subtitles, sidebars, or the final paragraph. Finally, I love a word count. It helps determine the most important ideas I want to present to the reader.

Author Interview with Trish Perry

Trish Perry is the author of The Guy I'm Not Dating, Too Good to Be True, and her most recent book, Beach Dreams, a fun summer read. To sneak a peek at Beach Dreams, you can read an excerpt here.

What got you started along the writing road?
I was working on my Psych degree at the university (I went back as an adult), and I thoroughly enjoyed my classes. When some of my courses required writing on my part, I started getting encouraging feedback from my professors. And I realized how much fun I was having with the various writing assignments that came along. That led me to start taking as many Creative Writing courses as I could, and I absolutely loved them. My long-term plans started to change, and by the time I got my degree, I had decided to wait for graduate school and just write and submit for a few years. I never went back to Psychology!

What are some obstacles for you along the writing road?
I was in the middle of raising my kids while I was at college—I had an adolescent daughter and a brand new baby boy. I never considered them obstacles to my writing, but I certainly put them before my writing. So I didn’t get nearly as much writing done as I would have liked back then. But the timing was God’s. If I had written enough to land a contract while my son was still a toddler, I couldn’t have met contract deadlines and participated in the after-publication marketing required of most authors.

Who has helped you along the writing road? What keeps you motivated along the writing road?
My writing friends, both local and online, have been fantastic in providing critiques and encouragement, and by helping me spread the word about my books. My readers are especially encouraging—when a reader tells me how one of my books touched her personally, I feel as if I’ve been given a total energy boost! Very motivating.

What's next for you on the writing road?
I’ve just started writing the next book in The Beach House series, which we hope to release in June 2009. The tentative title is Sunset Beach. As with all of the books in the series, the setting will remain the same, but all of the characters and their stories will be new.

And I’m writing a monthly humor column, “Real Life is Stranger,” for the Christian Fiction Online Magazine (http://www.christianfictiononlinemagazine.com/berzerk_stranger.html). The column addresses true, outlandish events that we’d never get away with in our novels.

Trish's Web site and blog: Go here


Other bloggers involved with Trish's blog tour: Go here

**Take part in Trish's contest**

Participate in a special contest related to Beach Dreams (prize: a beach bag filled with a few goodies) by posting a response to the following prompt: How has God used a mistake you made - big or small - for his purposes? The example may be serious or funny, complex or simple, and you may or may not have realized he was even using it at the time it occurred. Tell your story, reference that you are participating in this tour, encourage your readers to play along, and link to Trish’s book on Amazon. We’ll have a Mr. Linky up on http://blogtourspot.com for you to add your post and read the other entries. All entries must be received by 5pm CST on August 22. Trish will judge the entries and declare her favorite.

I haven't posted my entry yet, but I've got several mistakes that I could choose from. What about you?