Friday Fun

Hi Ape-Friends! It's me, Yvie again, here to set you on your path to a fun filled weekend.

I got some exciting news this week, too.

Wait, let me back up.

Did you know I have a hairless tummy? It's true, I do. And you know what a hairless tummy is good for? Tattoos.

Yep. That's right.

So I decided to get one.

Yes, there was a prize involved, and I may or may not have won a copy of Emily White's Elemental, but that's beside the point, because I can't read.

What's really awesome, is just how badass I look with my new tattoo with my mom.

All right! Onto the fun!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

In Which Break Free...er...Breaks Free...

So the other day I got second place on a blog contest, over at the awesome Lisa Amowitz and Heidi Ayarbe blogs. Second place won some awesome books, which, as stated, is awesome! Because seriously, I could always use more books. Right? Right.

The grand prize was  a blog banner design and a partial request from Lisa's sweeeet agent Victoria Marini. It was originally just going to be a 5 page crit from Victoria, but she was all, pshaaa, I'll read a partial. Because she's cool like that.

Anyway, Sandra, the chick who won the grand prize had some exciting news. Victoria was already reading her full MS, so that meant I got to have the partial request!

Super awesome great news for a Friday!





BUT! And it was a big but, Victoria had already seen my Glimpse of Another Shore during my first query rounds AND during a Secret Agent contest I participated in last year.

I sat down and thought about it really hard. Yes, I'm still revising Break Free, but also, I'm on the last legs of the revisions. And almost everything that needs to change is from the middle to the end. The first 50 pages only brought me to chapter four, I think, and those first couple chapters had been revised TONS, both by myself and critiqued by no less than 7 other people.

So after spending close to 8 hours on Friday giving those 50 pages a microscopic line edit, I made the decision to send Break Free out into the world.

I'm kind of freaking out a bit.

Here's the thing. I don't usually worry about my MSs once I'm querying them. Because if I've reached that point, I've also reached the point where I feel like I can't do anything more with them. I can feel confident in their query and their sample pages.

And though I'm confident about Break Free (I LOVE that MS) I'm also worried about it because I haven't reached the "there's nothing more I can do" stage. At least not with the stuff past those first 50-75 pages.

Sigh.

Anyway, really what it comes down to is I'm nervous for Break Free's baby steps into the big wide world, but also excited. Because this part of the writing business is always very exciting to me. I love querying and the accompanying roller coaster.

So, there you have it. That's a microcosm of what's been going on in my world.
How about you? What's been shaking?

.

Emotion Flash Fiction Blogfest

Finally! We've reached Day Three of the I'm Hearing Voices Blogfest.

Rules for the final day:

Emotion Flash Fiction: Emotion is the engine of a story. Pick an emotion and in a flash fiction piece of 250 words MAKE us feel it! We want to connect with your character. This will be a challenge in 250 words.

Friday’s Prize—

• From Angela: A full manuscript critique.
• From Cassie: A full manuscript critique.

Right? Yeah, pretty awesome.


So, without further ado, here's my flash fiction piece!

She felt no fear.

The beginning held only resignation. Lita had been expectant. Hell, she’d smoked her first cigarette at twelve.

“As you can see…” The doctor’s bald head reflected the light. He smelled of antiseptic. “This is the healthy lung tissue. And these shadows…” He gestured to the xray with a flat palm. His wedding ring flashed in the light. “Is the cancer.” 

“Not long then?”  She’d always been blunt.

“I’m sorry Ms. Mercer.”



She walked up the driveway. Her life hadn’t been long enough. She’d miss stupid things like sushi and singing over the radio. Where was her happiness? She had no flashing ring on her finger.

Everyone had to feel this way - hardwired survival instinct. It wasn’t fair, to never be satisfied, to always be left wanting.

Inside the house, silence and darkness greeted her. A neighbor had been looking after her dog TJ. She’d have to make permanent arrangements, now. It’d be easy, he was a good dog.

She sank into the couch.

“I’m going to die,” she announced to her drapes, her silent TV. They didn’t answer. Not that she’d expected the darkness to evaporate.

She reached for her cigarettes and lighter. Her hands shook. She pictured the x-ray and the cancer covering her body like a wraith.

The lighter sparked and the fire obscured the dark.



Later, after the sirens left behind a charred ruin, she found she couldn’t quite express to the officer why she’d felt the need to erase the shadows.





There you have it!


And don't forget to sign up for the Teenage Heartthrob blogfest on March 5th! It's easy, and lets you post pics of fun celebrities from your childhood.
.

Dialogue Introduction Blogfest

All right. Today is Day Two of of the I'm Hearing Voices Blogfest.

Rules for today:

Dialogue Introduction: Have two characters introduce each other using only dialogue—no backstory, no internalization, just dialogue between the two. Max 250 words.

Wednesday’s Prize—

• From Angela: A query critique and first 20 page critique.
• From Cassie: A query critique and first 20 page critique.

So I wrote up this scene. And then I realized I had two characters introducing two other characters, which isn't quite what the rules for today state. They really should've introduced themselves. But I kinda liked my mistaken scene and figured I'd give it a go anyway.

So here's my Dialogue Introduction scene:

“Oh, Karen!”

“Stacy!”

“It’s so nice to see you again It’s been forever!”

“I know! It really has.”

“This is my friend Sheila.”

“Nice to meet you!”

“She’s a marine biologist. I know, right? Seriously. She has an actual PHD. Oh she’s blushing, I’ve embarrassed her. Sorry, Sheila. Don’t worry, Karen knows what I’m like.”

“It’s true, I do. And this is my fiancé Josh.”

“You got engaged?! No way!”

“I did! He asked me at the game last Sunday! It was on the magatron, and later that night we saw it on the news. Can you believe it? Look, here’s the ring.”

“Wow! Josh has good taste.”

“Yes he does. Yes you do, darling. Though I helped him pick it out, of course.”

“Of course.”

“You know what it’s like.”

“I do.”

“Well… We’re actually late for lunch with Josh’s parents.”

“Oh, of course. We’re on our way to a gallery showing. But it was nice to see you again!”

“Definitely! We’ll have to get together soon and catch up.”

“Yes. I’ll call you.”

“Sounds good!”

So there you have it!

There's one more day to this epic blogfest and that's for Friday, so there's still time for you to join in.

Characters On The Couch Blogfest

Hi All!

Today is Day One of Three of the I'm Hearing Voices Blogfest.  Rules for today:

Have one of your characters answer the following questions (to make this work to your benefit, choose a character who is the hardest for you to write :) Max 250 words (Not including the questions—only the answers).

1. What is your biggest vulnerability? Do others know this or is it a secret?
2. What do people believe about you that is false?
3. What would your best friend say is your fatal flaw? Why?
4. What would the same friend say is your one redeeming quality? Why?
5. What do you want most? What will you do to get it?

Monday’s Prize’s—

The Color Code by Taylor Hartman

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

All right, so onto the fest!

I used my MC from Break Free, Kiel Reaux:

What is your biggest vulnerability? Do others know this or is it a secret?

Bees. Hands down. Or anything related to bees, like hornets and giant skin-meting wasps. Seriously, if I could, I'd stomp every bee into the ground. And hell no, other's don’t know this. Why would I ever tell them? Bad boy image ruined.

What do people believe about you that is false?

False? Hell baby, everything you see on Kiel Reaux is homegrown awesomeness topped off with great hair. Nothing about me is false. Wait, okay, I just thought of something. Technically, I swallowed this spell-stone. It gives me some weird magical powers. So, I guess that’s false. BUT IT WAS NOT ON PURPOSE. It’s important to know this. OK, I mean, yes, swallowing the stone was on purpose. BUT – and pay attention now – the magical side effects were not intended by me. And that’s what’s important. Intention.

What were we talking about?

What would your best friend say is your fatal flaw? Why?

I talk too much. Clearly. Do you know how many times my mouth has gotten me in trouble? A lot. But do you know how many times it’s gotten me out of trouble? Three. Yeah. So there’s that.

What would the same friend say is your one redeeming quality? Why?

Seriously? I mean, why don’t you ask my friends? There’s the kid, or Lala or… OK, well, anyway, the kid would probably mention how I’m the best person with a knife in the three cities. And that is a fact. Lala…I don’t know what she'd say. Maybe about how I make her knees weak with just a glance. Yes, ladies, I am that good.

What do you want most? What will you do to get it?

Freedom. I’m not even joking now. Freedom. And I will do anything…anything to get it.

All right, so there you have it!

I'll be back on Wednesday for part 2 of this three part blogfest.

What about you? Are you participating?

And please don't forget to sign up for the Teenage Heartthrob Blogfest, hosted by Me, Emily White and Vic Caswell. I want to see pics of those celebs that tantalized teenage you!

.

In Which I Announce Winners

Not much to say today, since it's the Friday before Christmas and the blogosphere has really been dead this week.

So I'll make this quick:

The winners of copies of Catherine Stine's Fireseed One are:

Lindsay!

TL Conway!

Congrats! I'll send your information over to Catherine and she will be sending out the books.

Have a happy Holiday all!

Harriet Birthday Suit says remember to dress warm!

In Which We Launch Fireseed One!!

You know, there are things you may not know about me. Wait, scratch that. Probably you at least suspect this about me if you've been reading this blog for any length of time, or are friends with me on FB.

I like food.

I like food like a lot.

Not only do I eat a lot of nummy food a lot of the time, but I also spend a good portion of my time cooking and baking and creating nummy food. If you've checked me out on pinterest, you would see that 5 of my 15 pinterest boards revolve around foodstuffs. That's almost as many as my writing boards.

So what would I do if there were, say, limited foodstuffs, due to climate change?

Well first, I'd freak out. But then, when I heard that maybe...maybe there were some cults, running around the hotzones of what used to be America... well. That would sound just fine. Just fine.

You'd better believe I'd join a food cult. Hell, I'd probably lead that mother effing food cult. TRY AND STOP ME.

BUT. But. If you like food as much as me, well. There's plenty of room in my food cult. As long as you bring me something good to eat.

Today we launch the book Fireseed One by Catherine Stine! It's a YA futuristic thriller, complete with illustrations. Actual pictures, guys.

Check out her blog here and you may find other bloggers celebrating with additional giveaways!

Buy Fireseed One on iBook for your iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch here

Buy Fireseed One for Kindle here

For Nook users Catherine is offering a special launch party discount! The Fireseed eBook is officially $2.99, but during this party, you can buy it for only $1.50, directly from Catherine! Email her at kitsy84557@gmail.com and she'll send you a link to Paypal, and then the eBook.


Here's a synopsis of the book:


What if the only person who could help you save the world was your very worst enemy?


The year is 2089. Temperate climate has replaced Arctic ice, and much of what is now the United States is a lethal Hotzone, cut off by an insurmountable border from its northern, luckier neighbors, Ocean and Land Dominion. It is rumored that roving Hotzone nomads will kill for a water pellet or a slice of insect loaf, and that the ZWC, a dangerous Hotzone activist group, has infiltrated the border to the northern Dominions.


Up in Ocean Dominion, all eighteen year-old Varik Teitur wants to do is party on Snowangel Island with his friend Audun and flirt with college girls he dreams of joining next year in his quest to become a doctor. Instead, he inherits a vast sea farm, following the death of his father, famous marine biologist Professor Teitur. Five weeks later, ZWC member Marisa Baron breaks into the farm’s secret seed vault and a fellow activist poisons the farm’s agar crops, the world’s food source. In order to save the last agar seedlings Varik is forced to journey to the Hotzone in search of Fireseed, a plant his father supposedly developed with magical hybridization properties.
Varik takes Marisa along. Aside from being a terrorist, she’s the beautiful, estranged daughter of Melvyn Baron, the biggest real estate mogul in Land Dominion, and the professor’s old rival. Oddly, she knows lots about Fireseed, and what Hotzone land Professor Teitur bought to test the crop, before becoming embittered and trashing the project. No one except Varik knows whether Fireseed ever existed off the drawing board. Might the refugees in Vegas-by-the-Sea have answers, or the bizarre Fireseed cult in the Chihuahua desert? Varik, the reluctant hero, must risk burning in the Hotzone, as his mother did, to save the ailing agar, and the world.
 
Sounds awesome, right?
 
You want a copy right? Yeah you do.
 
SO!!! Let's give away some free copies!!
 
That's right! You can win One of Two copies of Fireseed One today on my blog!
 
How do you enter? Easy! Fill out the form below!
 
Rules:
You must be a follower of my blog.
 
That's pretty much it. BUT!!! You will get extra entries if you help promote Fireseed One's launch today.
 
Blog. Tweet. FB. Whatever you choose. If you do one (or all) of those things, you will increase your chances to win a book.
 
Deadline is end of day Thursday (Dec 22nd) so spread the word and fill out this form!  I will announce the winners on Friday Dec 23rd and Catherine will send your book out asap.
 
Sounds great, right?
 
Hells yeah it does. It sounds just fine.
 
CLICK HERE FOR THE ENTRY FORM!
 

In Which We Launch Tangled Tides!!

Yes, I know all us americans are doing either two things right now, recovering from our food comas, or shopping, but other important things are happening on this blackest of fridays...

Karen Amanda Hooper’s young adult novel, TANGLED TIDES, is officially being released into the world today. I’m joining the celebration by fighting in the war--the underwater web war between the sea creatures!

Karen’s story contains battling merfolk, selkies, sirens and gorgons. She says she loves all of them, but she wants everyone else to choose a side, so…

I CHOOSE SELKIES!!
 
 
 

 
 
Wanna learn more or join in on the fun? Go check out the details at Karen’s blog.
 
Karen is giving away a signed copy of her book and some other sea creature themed prizes. To enter, join the underwater web war on Twitter. Tweet which sea creatures you’re rooting for and why. Include the hashtag #TangledTides and you could win.


Karen will be on Twitter all day celebrating and answering questions, so stop by and say hello. @Karen_Hooper



Summary of the story:

Yara Jones doesn’t believe in sea monsters—until she becomes one.

When a hurricane hits her island home and she wakes up with fins, Yara finds herself tangled up in an underwater world of mysterious merfolk and secretive selkies. Both sides believe Yara can save them by fulfilling a broken promise and opening the sealed gateway to their realm, but they are battling over how it should be done. The selkies want to take her life. The merfolk want something far more precious.


Treygan, the stormy-eyed merman who turned Yara mer, will stop at nothing and sacrifice everything to protect his people—until he falls for Yara. The tides turn as Yara fights to save herself, hundreds of sea creatures, and the merman who has her heart. She could lose her soul in the process—or she might open the gateway to a love that’s deeper than the oceans.



Amazon
Rhemalda Books
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads
 
 
Bam! So support Karen! Because she's an awesome chick with an awesome book!

In Which I Make A Decision

So, after a week or so of contemplation (and a lot of crazy amounts of work at the day job which doesn't look like it will be slowing at all for the rest of the month) I think I've come to the conclusion that I'm not going to participate in Authoress's Baker's Dozen auction. I just don't have time to get my MS where I want it to be.

I mean, what if I was selected as one of the people in the auction, and an agent requested a full or something and my MS just wasn't up to snuff? That would be a wasted opportunity. I'd rather just take my time and make sure the MS is as good as I can make it and just query normally. Cuz I like querying anyway, and there's no reason to rush things.

I thought briefly about entering Glimpse. But a few of the agents on the list of participants have already seen my query or the MS or still have the MS, so it would kind of stink if I took up a spot for only a few agents when I could just query them. Also, I haven't yet made the change to Glimpse that I want either.

This also means I can let Break Free sit a bit before I start on line edits. It also means I can give NaNo much more of my attention, since I haven't yet started my outline or query (or really even come up with a stable plot)

The new NaNo website is supposed to roll out today. I'm excited to check it out.

How about you? Are you doing NaNo this year?

In Which I Participate In A Contest

As mentioned on Thursday, Shelley Watters from Is It Hot in Here or is it This Book? is having a followers contest where you post your pitch on your blog today or yesterday, and enter in a chance to win a full manuscript request from SUZIE TOWNSEND.

Yeah, that's right.

The pitch could only be 140 characters (ie twitter) so I had some advanced thesaurus usage to get mine down 16 characters, but here it is!

Title: Glimpse of Another Shore
Genre: YA Fantasy
Wordcount: 56,000

Pitch: In a land where one family member must join the navy in the war effort, Pier rescues a sea serpent and finds a way to save his home from war



There's a linky on her blog if you're interested in seeing the rest of the entries, otherwise you can check the comments on her blog tomorrow for all the entered pitches.

Now I'm off to play some racquetball, where my racket "Wesley Crusher" and I are planning on dominating.

See you Monday!

In Which I Promote A Contest

Hey All -

Shelley Watters from Is It Hot in Here or is it This Book? is having an awesome followers contest on her blog where the prize is:

A FULL MANUSCRIPT REQUEST from SUZIE TOWNSEND! True story.

So head on over to her blog - and check out the rules. Last day to participate is April 2nd (which is when I will be posting my pitch here)

Check it out!

DL's Whodunnit Mystery Contest

Have you heard? (no, the bird isn't the word)


The awesome DL Hammons is hosting a Whodunnit Mystery contest which is like a stupendous mix of a How to Host a Murder AND a scavenger hunt!

For reals, it's awesome.

You can win gift cards FOR THE WHOLE YEAR (seriously) so pop on over and start playing! You still have over a week to solve the murder!

In Which I Announce Winners

All right! So today is the day I announce the winners for my "clean my bookshelves" giveaway drawing! Yay!





So, without further ado, The winner of Prize Pack 1 is:





SIMON LARTER!!


And the Winner of Prize Pack 2 is:







GryphonFledgling!!

Yay! Good times!

I had a pretty good response for this, so it may be something I will do again in the future (the next time I need space on my shelves)

I will be emailing the lucky winners soon.

Sarah, out!

In Which I Give Away Free Books

So I bought a new bookshelf at Ikea and organized some of my books. I sold a few bags to Half-Price Books, but I kept out any that were writing related to offer up as prizes to blog readers.

Yeah, that's right, today's post is a drawing for free stuff!


see more Lolcats and funny pictures


Boosh!


I'm offering two prize packs.

Prize pack 1 includes:




Walking On Alligators: A book of meditations for writers
Word Painting: A guide to writing more descriptively
A blank journal, unlined.


Prize Pack 2 includes:




Chicken Soup for the Writer's Soul
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Romance Writing
A blank journal, unlined.



As stated, these are used books, but they are in very good condition and in the case of the journals, they're brand new, they've just been sitting on my bookshelves.


What do you have to do to win one of these prize packs?

Fill out the form! It's super simple.

You can enter through Jan 31st and I'll post the winners on Feb 2nd.

Easy peasy.


SUPER AWESOME GIVEAWAY FORM

In Which I Give A Shoutout

The awesome Maria Zannini is having a follower contest where one person will win a FULL MANUSCRIPT Critique and a runner up will receive a 3 chapter (or 20K word) critique.

AND! If she gets 200 followers by 1/26/11 she will add A THIRD PRIZE!

At the time of this writing she's already at 178 followers, so jump on over, click that follow button and then fill out her form!

Trust me, she's awesome.

In Which I'm Honorably Mentioned

As the title suggests, I snagged an Honorable Mention in The Sharp Angle's contest fittingly titled "The Awesome".

The contest involved sending in the first 500 words of your novel and Lydia would pick the one which had the most potential as a grand prize winner (props to Anne over at Piedmont Writer for first attracting my attention to the contest).

She had something, like, 83 entrants. Which is a lot.

The best part about "The Awesome" is that everyone who entered got a critique on their entry.

I've been in a bit of a worry mood the last week or so. I don't know why, I've just been stressing over my beginning of Glimpse. So when I got the critique (which was pretty glowing) and then snagged an Honorable mention, well it really helped turn my attitude around.

Leave it to the writing blog community to turn my frown upside down.

In Which We Have Winners!

Yay! Monday morning contest winners! What could be more fun than that?
Well I suppose if everyone who entered won a prize like my last contest, but I am low on money currently so unfortunately that was not an option for this one.

So, since I'm sure everyone is excited to see if they won, onto the results!

I just stuck all the entries into Excel and then used a random number generator formula to pull up the top three entries. Yay Excel!



The Third place winner, now proud owner of incense, incense stump, stick pencil and micro journal from the MN Renfest is:





HOLLY RUGIERO!!


The second place winner, now proud owner of a leather stamped journal, complete with home-made paper and stretchy binder clasp from the MN Renfest is:





KRISTY SWEETLAND!!


And finally, the first place winner, owner of a new leather stamped journal, with homemade paper and leather binding from the MN Renfest is:





LOLA SHARP!!


Yay for all the lucky winners! I will be contacting you shortly via the email address entered on the form.

Thanks to everyone who entered! If I ever get rich, you'll all get a prize. Until then, you'll have to wait until I hit 300 followers.

In Which I Host A Contest

Contest contest contest time! wOOt!

I'm now at 207 followers (at the time of writing this post) which is so totally awesomesauce. Every single one of you are spectacularly cool, wonderful people and so I want to reward that with fun prizes!

Onto the deets!


The Rules:

• You must be a follower


• You must fill out the Official Contest Entry Form!
  


• Promotion of the contest will earn you extra entries, but not as many if you're just a follower (promotion is good and fun, but mostly I just want people to be able to enter and still have a decent chance at winning.)


• If you provide me with a poem you have written, preferably one that is humorous and/or written in haiku, OR a micro fiction piece of 50 words or less, you will receive extra entries. YAY humorous poems and micro fiction!


• Contest open to all peeps. I will ship internationally if I need to. Just trying to spread the love

The Results:

• Will be announced September 13th. Everyone needs a little excitement on a Monday morning, amiright?

The Prizes:

• The prizes were all purchased at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Huzzah!

Third place:

• mini handmade suede journal with handmade paper


• a stick pencil


• an incense stump


• incense consisting of pumpkin, lilac and a few other scents that I can't remember. All suitably nummy and personally chosen by moi.
  

Second Place:

• A small sized handmade journal with handmade paper. Stamped Leather cover, with metal hooks and stretchy binder clasp

First Place

• A medium handmade journal with handmade paper. Leather stamped cover with leather tie closure
  

So there you have it! The form for entry is embedded below for ease of use. Good luck to all the entrants!

Official Contest Entry Form!

In Which I Seek Your Opinion

So we hit renfest for about 2 hours on Sunday. It was beastly hot (90 and humid) so we only stayed for about 1.5 hours, just enough to get some food and book it. Which is why it's awesome to have season passes.



And yet, I somehow managed to drop about $300. Crazy right?

I plan on doing full renfest posts, with pictures, once the season is done, so I'll show you what I bought then.

Of course, part of what I bought were prizes for my 200 followers contest. There will be 3 winners.

However, I would like your opinion:

What kind of contests do you like to enter?
Writing contests?
Plain ol' drawings?
Drawings with a little creativity thrown in?

I'm pretty open (and the prizes pretty sweet), though I'm leaning away from a full fledged writing contest just because I'm so bloody busy right now.

So let me know in the comments. I'm planning the contest for sometime next week, hopefully, so there will be pics of the renfest, writing related prizes then.

Huzzah!

In Which I Return

Hi all!

I'm back from vacation, all limbs intact. This is just a short post. I'll be in training for this week for work and since the commute is at least 1 hour one way, I will have less interwebs time than I normally would, so I can't promise I'll have posts for the rest of this week.

HOWEVER, before I went on vacay, my followers rolled over the 200 mark, which means CONTEST!

I'll have more details later, but I plan on picking up a fun prize at the MN Renaissance Festival, which is where I'll be spending every Saturday until October.

Anything exciting happen in the last week?