Blogging Agents

Many of you are reading agents’ blogs. Why? What are you getting from these blogs? Are these agents you’d actually submit to or are you just interested in what they have to say?

For me, it’s a little of both. I know Nathan Bransford doesn’t represent romantic suspense, so I won’t be submitting to him, but I do respect him as an agent and enjoy his posts. However, I don’t necessarily get to him every day.

How about you? How many agents’ blogs do you follow and do you read them all on a daily basis? If an agent does or doesn’t have a blog, will that affect your agent search? Will you feel more comfortable with an agent you’ve gotten to know through their blog or do you think they’re wasting valuable time blogging?

Fun Friday

Here's a new puzzle for you. I couldn't resist this one. The dog reminds me of so many of us, leaping over hurdles to get our books published. Enjoy!

Let's Play Part 2

Sorry for the late post, my internet was down most of the day...

Let’s continue on our journey of creating Joni’s character using “The Writer’s Brainstorming Kit” by Pam McCutcheon and Michael Waite. But keep in mind, when you pick a card, if it doesn’t work with the story that’s unfolding, you can always pick another one. Nobody’s going to hold you to the original choice. This kit is about brainstorming and opening up the creative mind, not blocking it with rules or restrictions.

I’m going to change the game. You know a bit about Joni, about as much as I do. Wouldn’t it be fun to see what everyone creates from the same cards? I’ll pick the cards and write out the choices with the categories, but you make the selection and develop the rest of her character. We’ll compare notes on Monday.

The next card I picked was for the internal conflict. Loyalty. These were the options: earn another’s loyalty, prove another’s disloyalty, prove your loyalty, find who has betrayed you, find loyalty in something.

For external conflict, I grabbed the strength card. Choose from: your opponent is much stronger than you, your strength has been challenged, your strength has been taken away from you, others are jealous of your strength, or others misjudge your strength.

And finally, for growth/realization, the rescue card came up. Your choices are: if you want to be rescued, you have to do it yourself; you are in a prison of your own making; you must let your guard down sometime; walls do not make a prison; or rescue isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Well, there you have it, an example of how to create a character using this wonderful tool. Leave a little blurb about the Joni you created in today’s comments and I’ll post them on Monday. See you tomorrow for Fun Friday.

Let's Play Part 1

Yesterday, I talked about the book “The Writer’s Brainstorming Kit” by Pam McCutcheon and Michael Waite. Today, we’re going to use the kit to create a character. I’ll choose 7 cards to represent these categories: role/pursuit, trait, goal/motivation, internal conflict, external conflict, and growth/realization.

Let’s begin.

First of all, I’ve decided my character is a 34 year old woman named Joni.

The first card I drew was Judgment. Under the role/pursuit category, I needed to select a job for my character. My choices were: analyst, appraiser, arbiter, bard, commentator, confessor, critic, deity, editor, executioner, gossip, judge, jury member, law enforcer, lawyer, magistrate, mediator, minister, public defender, referee, reviewer, scientist, tax assessor, umpire, witness.

I chose: reviewer. Just for fun, let’s make Joni a book reviewer.

My next card was Zenith. The following traits were listed: confident, skilled, competent, fashionable, ambitious, successful, accomplished, focused, determined, majestic, secure, content, driven, detached, regal, dedicated, commanding, goal-oriented, powerful, stubborn, unbending, unscrupulous, domineering, elitist, ruthless.

Oh, that Joni. While she’s skilled and confident, she’s also unbending and ruthless. Tsk, tsk. I’d had high hopes for her.


What’s her goal/motivation card? Known. The goal choices were: explore the unknown, guard the secrets of the unknown, obtain assistance from the unknown, make the unknown known, or ensure you are no longer unknown.

Joni loved to read and decided to blog about her latest discoveries. Every day, she reviewed books released by debut authors. She was doing readers a favor. Why should they waste their time and money on newbies unless they proved to be fantastic writers? She would be their eyes.

As Joni’s readership grew on her blog, so did her need to reach more people. She guest blogged and held contests to draw people to her site. But it wasn’t until local journalist Mark Denali interviewed her on his talk show that Joni saw stars. And dollar signs. She may have failed to become a published author, but this would be different. Her reviews would bring her the fame she deserved.

Stop by tomorrow for the next part of our character development. What do you think so far?

The Perfect Tool For All Writers

When plotting out a novel, have you ever come across writer’s block and needed to brainstorm you way out? Are your stories starting to all sound the same? Would you like another way of fleshing out characters?

Pam McCutcheon and Michael Waite have come up with the perfect tool for writers. It’s a package consisting of “The Writer’s Brainstorming Kit: Thinking in New Directions” and a deck of cards.

Here’s what Pam McCutcheon says about the kit: “The ideal situation is to find a better way of brainstorming with yourself. That’s what The Writer’s Brainstorming Kit is all about—a way of using random concepts to trigger new associations in your mind, to break out of your conventional linear mode of thinking and take flight in new, unexpected directions.”

This is a great kit to get you started with a story, creating an entire plot, breaking through a block, adding depth to a character, or finding twists to add dimension to a work-in-progress. Simply shuffle the cards and let them lead you into new directions.

The kit was out of print for a while, but has recently been re-released. Go to Gryphon Books for Writers to order.

Tomorrow, we’ll try a sample run to give you an idea how valuable this kit can be.

Rap It Up

It's time to rap up the critique group contest. Thanks to all who participated. You have some great stories and wonderful blooming talent.

Over the weekend, I narrowed the list to five finalists. Members of Rumored Romantics went over the entrants' short and long samples, as well as the questionnaires we had the finalists fill out. We voted to accept two new members to our group.


And


The


Winners


Are


...


Dawn Brown and Roni Griffin!!!

Congratulations, ladies. I'll contact you with more information on getting started.

Check back tomorrow for a regular post.

Fun Friday - Giraffes

I thought I'd try something new: Fun Friday. Anyone like puzzles? I love them. Although, I'm finding I'm a little slower than average when it comes to the online jigsaw puzzles. Oh, well. Maybe you can do a better job than me.






I chose the giraffes because this summer, the twins and I had the chance to feed a giraffe. He actually stretched out his long tongue and grabbed a piece of cracker from our hands. Oh, to be so close to such a wonderful creature. What an amazing experience.

Let me know how you did with this puzzle and whether you'd like Fun Friday to become a regular thing.

Contest Update

The romance critique group contest has closed, but there's more for some of you... I've sent e-mails out to certain entrants requesting more material simply because there are too many great entries and I can't narrow the selection down any further. Since I want to wrap this up over the weekend, I can't risk losing out on one of the entries because of a possible e-mail mix-up. So, I'm listing the first names of everyone who should've received a request for more.

Thanks to everyone who entered. Please note the competition was very strong. Don't be discouraged. I saw potential in every single entry.

Here, in no particular order, is the list of people who should've received a request e-mail from me.

-Karen
-Julie
-Faith
-Shannon
-Sharon
-Stephanie F.
-Stephanie G.
-Stephanie H.
-Sue
-Roni
-Marybeth
-Dawn


Once you've sent your second sample, you should, within 12 hours, receive an e-mail confirming I received the entry. If you haven't heard from me by then (and after checking your junk mail), contact me again.

Good luck to everyone! I'm looking forward to reading more of your work.

RE-QUERY??? GASP!

Last week, I asked you if you had any questions about the craft of writing or the publishing industry. Stephanie Faris had a great question.


“I'm curious about this thing I read from an agent recently...that if an agent had rejected an author more than once, that author should never query that agent again. Does that mean we can only query each agent twice? Could we wait a while and query again? What if we end up with a better project two years down the line and we want to hit that agent again???”


Here’s what I’ve read on the subject. You can query an agent on the same project a second time, but only if you’ve done MAJOR revisions. Don’t query the same work more than twice. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time for both of you. Now, let’s say you’ve re-queried and have received a second rejection. Does that mean you can’t approach Super Agent with another book idea? Nope. Go ahead. The same rules apply. Although, I’d wait at least a month so you don’t have a rejection slip associated with your name. If you fail to acquire the agent by this point, it may be Super Agent just doesn’t like your style. Move on to Even Better Agent.


What do you think? Have you had any experience with re-querying an agent? What have you heard on the subject?

Thanks Stephanie for the question. If anyone else has questions about the craft or the industry, go to my sidebar. Under labels there's a link called Writing or Industry Questions. Click on it and write your question in the comment section.

Don't forget today is the last day to get your entry in for the critique group contest. The deadline is midnight. In case you missed the post, here are the details.

Award Time!

It's that time again. I've received the Kreativ Blogger award from Amanda Bonilla from The Keyboard. Thanks Amanda.

Here are the rules for the award:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.

4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting. (see below)

5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.

6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.

7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.

Hummm... 7 interesting things about me?

1. I love animals. I own a bichon frise (dog), cat, hamster, and fish, but have owned more animals in the past.

2. I have twin 4 year old girls. Yes, they're identical.

3. I get up at 5 during the week to get a little writing time in before the twins wake up.

4. When my hubby and I met, it was pretty much love at first sight. We met mid November and by January were booking people and places for our wedding, which was in August. Yep, kind of fast, but when you know, you know.

5. I'm vertically challenged. Yeah, kind of forgot to grow. I'm only 5'. You read that correctly. Five foot nothing.

6. I used to teach in French most of the day at a French Immersion school. That's where you take English speaking kids and place them in a French environment. All courses (except English, of course) are taught in French.

7. My first three books were YA romances. Although, I only completed one of them. Now, I'm writing romantic suspense. I've completed two r/s (first draft) and am reworking the second one now.

There you have it, a little something about me.

Now, check out these 7 great bloggers and find out more about them: Roni at Fiction Groupie; Rebecca Emrich at Living a Life of Writing; K.M. Weiland at Word Play; Carrie Kei Heim Binas at Heim Binas Fiction; Stephanie Faris at Steph in the City; Tabitha Bird at Books, Bubs, and Writing Blabber; and Rebecca Knight: Writer in Progress.

And don't forget to tell your friends about my critique group contest. We're looking for romance writers or writers of (genre) with romantic elements. The deadline is Wednesday at midnight, so get the entries in! In case you missed the post, here's a link.

The Submission Process???

I’m interested in a course offered at Lowcountry Romance Writers called: “The Submission Process—It’s Not Just About the Query Letter.” It’s taught by Lois Winston. Have any of you taken this course? I’d like to know more about it because Lowcountry doesn’t have much of a description. What does she teach in this course?

Also, just a reminder about the critique group contest going on right now. You have until Wednesday midnight, so get your entry in!!!

The Contest Is Now Open!!!

As some of you already know, I hosted a critique group contest not too long ago. From that, my small crit group of three expanded to six. However, one of the original members is now too busy to critique and has pulled out of the group, leaving an opening.

So, here I go again with another contest.

The details:

• This contest is only for romance writers of adult fiction who are seeking a critique group (all sub-genres are accepted including genres with romantic elements).

• All entrants must be 18 years or older.

• Entries should be 2-3 pages from an unpublished manuscript, double spaced, 12 pt. font., Times New Roman. Anything beyond 3 pages will NOT be read.

• This is a two part contest. The first part is the sample writing page open to all contestants and the second part is only for the finalists. That’ll be a bio/questionnaire to fill out because our group wants to know we’re compatible both in our writing styles and personalities. Specific questions will be sent to the finalists.

• Entries will be judged on the quality of the writing, but we aren’t expecting perfection. Please send us your best work without external help. We want to see how well YOU write, not your critique partner or professional editor.

• All entries are due by midnight Wednesday, August 19, 2009

• One entry per person, unpublished work only.

• Send your entry in the body of an e-mail (I will NOT open anything with an attachment) to: lynnette_labelle@hotmail.com

• You should expect an e-mail from me confirming I received your entry. If you haven't gotten one within 24 hours, double check the e-mail address. Note: my name is spelled with two n's. LyNNette. If you don't spell it correctly in my e-mail address, I won't get the message.

• Finalists will be announced and notified by e-mail some time during the week of August 17.

The PRIZE:

• Membership for 1 lucky writer to a small (online) critique group for romance writers *

• Note: Rumored Romantics is looking for someone who is willing to critique at least ONE chapter a week. Chapters are no longer than 20 pages double spaced. So, the most your minimum required critique would be is 20 pages. To be clear, you’d only have to critique one chapter a week, not one per member. However, everyone is encouraged to participate as much as they can.


If you have any questions about the contest or Rumored Romantics, ask away.

*We reserve the right to not choose anyone if we don't feel a good fit for our critique group.


Hint #1:
You must write romance or a genre with romantic elements, BUT we don’t actually want to read the sex scenes or romance scenes in your story (at least not for the contest). You’ll have better results if you show us a piece that represents how different your work is from everyone else’s. Get it?

Hint #2:
When you submit your entry, it doesn’t have to be a complete scene. Don’t stress yourself out trying to find a 2-3 page scene in your manuscript and don’t cut important parts of a scene to make it fit. In fact, if you cut the end of the scene, I might be intrigued enough to want to read more. Hook me and you’ll have a great chance of winning.

Hint #3:
Here’s how I’m going to read the entries. I’ll copy and paste from the e-mail into Microsoft Word. If the font isn’t Times New Roman, 12 pt, I’ll change it to that. If it’s not double spaced, I’ll modify it. Once the entry is formatted correctly, anything beyond three pages will NOT be read.

Good luck!

Contest Tomorrow

Just a quick note to announce Rumored Romantics has an opening. If you're an adult romance writer looking for a critique group, or you know someone who is, stay tuned...

Let's Work Together

For the next two days, I want you to list questions about the craft of writing or the publishing industry. I'll post answers to your questions as we go along. (If I don't know the answer, I probably know someone who does.) I'll also leave a link on my sidebar, so whenever you have questions, you can post them there and I'll get back to you. This way, I can be sure my blog posts are suited to your interests. Sound like a plan? Let's do it!

Don't Sabotage your MS

Another writer highly recommended “Don’t Sabotage Your Submission: Save Your Manuscript from Turning up D.O.A.” by Chris Roerden, so I had to check it out.

I was impressed that the author has been editing manuscripts for over forty years, first as a managing editor for a publisher, and then as an independent book editor. Some of her clients have had books published from St. Martin’s, Berkley Prime Crime, Midnight Ink, Viking, Intrigue, Oceanview, Rodale, Walker & Co., and many more. So, I’m assuming she knows what she’s doing.

I’m not very far into the book (page 12), but I’m enjoying it. Some craft books I’ve read are very dry. Not this one. The author’s easy-going style makes for a fun read. In fact, the whole book is set up in legal terms because of the D.O.A. theme in the title.

Here’s a list of a few of the chapters I’m looking forward to reading:

Part III: First Offenders
Clue #1: Hobbled Hook
Clue #2: Perilous Prologue
Clue #2: Bloody Backstory

Part IV: Killing Time
Clue #4: Fatal Flashback
Clue #5: Toxic Transcript
Clue #6: Deceptive Dream
Clue #7: Time Bomb

There are many more interesting chapters, but I won’t list them all now. You can take a look at the book on Amazon.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it? Any other craft books you’d recommend?

Pet Talk

Since we talked about adding pets to your stories yesterday, I thought you might be interested in what The Today Show had to say about dogs. They listed the top five smartest dogs.

1. Border collie
2. Poodle
3. German shepard
4. Golden retriever
5. Doberman


According to Discovery Channel, the best kid-friendly breeds are (in no particular order):

- Golden retriever
- Labrador
- Boxer
- Beagle
- West Highland white terriers (Westies)
- Shetland sheepdog


Do you have any pet facts you’d like to share?

Characters with Pets

Do your characters have pets? Janet Evanovich’s character Stephanie Plum has a hamster in that series. I have to thank her for that. I often listen to the audio version of her books while I’m working out at the gym. Well, hearing all about Rex, the hamster, brought out the kid in me. I had to have a hamster, too.

Now, this need didn’t come out of the blue. I grew up with teddy bear hamsters. Heck, I’ve probably owned a total of 20 or more of the little furry critters with a maximum of three at one time. And now, I have another one.

As for my own work, I have yet to include a pet in a story. When a character doesn’t have an animal to care for, she can be anywhere anytime. But, how would the readers react if my heroine is kidnapped and her dog is alone in the house? Who will let him out? What if he runs out of food or water? The next thing you know, the reader is more concerned with the pet than the heroine. Not good.

What about your stories? Do they have any pets in them? How did this work for you? Have you read many novels where the main characters owned pets? How did the author handle the situation?

For All You Writers Out There

I came across a few great blog posts this morning that I wanted to share with you. Of course, there are many others, but I figured these would be a good start.

About rejection: Authors Promoting Authors

How to maximize your author website: Online Promotion Made Easy

Interview with debut novelist Christine Marciniak: Writing It Out


Check out these links. Do you have any you'd like to share?

How Depressing!

Bad news, folks. Only 10% of books earn out their advances, which means the advance is all you’d get. All the royalties earned go toward paying down the advance. Sad, isn’t it?

Here’s a quote from agent Kristin Nelson: “--Don’t quit you day job until the back end royalties can pay for your daily living expenses without issue. Back end is the royalty money you earn once your advance has earned out. This does not include the advance you might earn for your next book because that’s an advanced that hasn’t earned out yet. And just an FYI, statistically speaking (and this is by no means exact), only about 10% of books actually earn out their advances. The good majority of them don’t. And here’s another interesting tidbit, if a book does earn out the advance, it can take 2 years or more before that happens. One of my authors just earned out (which is hugely exciting) but it took 4 years. Now you know why I emphasize back end royalties that pay your daily living expenses without an issue.”

You can read her posts here for part one and here for part two.

How does this make you feel? Frustrated? Challenged? Depressed?

Amazing Woman

For those of you who follow agent Kristin Nelson, you may know what her assistant, Sarah, has done for someone else. Regardless of whether or not you're a writer, this is a story of an amazing woman with a huge heart. I'm not going to spoil it for you. Read the article here.

What did you think?

Glued to the Idea

Four Wisconsin women are accused of luring a man to a hotel under false pretenses. The married man believed he met one of his girlfriends for a little fun. He allowed her to bind him to the bed and blindfold him in preparation for a “rub down”. Instead of massaging him, the woman allegedly cut off his underwear and texted the other girlfriend, her sister, and his wife to enter the room. At that point, the man was assaulted and his penis glued to his stomach.

Seriously? Who does this?

Read the full story here.

I swear, the more I watch the news, the more I wonder what this world is coming to. However, a part of me thinks this might make a good romantic suspense story some day.

Where do you get ideas for your stories?

Twitter Time

Yeah, I did it. I joined Twitter. I tried to fight the urge, but the temptation was too strong. I had to see what all the fuss was about.

I'll admit. At first, I didn't get the concept. I tried keeping track of everyone's tweets. A word of advice, this is not possible unless you're online every minute of the day and then some. However, I figured there must be more to this than what I was experiencing. Surely, people weren't at their computers all day long. Then, it hit me. Twitter is like a chatroom. You go on when you want, check out what people are saying at the moment, and then leave. If you really want to hear back from someone, you send them a direct message, similar to an e-mail.

Still, what's the point in all that? So, I know when someone's drinking coffee or working on their manuscript. What can I get from Twitter that's worth my precious time. I'm a stay-at-home mom of twins with very little time to myself. Every second counts.

Well, here's what I've already gotten from the Twitter experience (and I've only be on the site for a day). I've met some great writers and found a few agents I didn't know about. Some of my new Twitter pals have come to follow me on my blog. *wave* I'm sure there's still more I need to learn, but I'm enjoying Twitter and am glad I joined.

If you're on Twitter, look me up: http://twitter.com/LynnetteLabelle

What else can you tell me about Twitter? Are there places I should go? People I should follow? And how do I get my background from twitterbackgrounds.com to stay longer than a few minutes?