I Cracked The Code!!!

I know, I said I was going to change my blogging schedule for the summer, but today I just can't help myself. It turns out I "cracked the code" over at the simply marvelous The Bookshelf Muse and, hey presto, won myself a prize: a 10-page critique from one of my blogging heroines, Shannon Whitney Messenger.

I just about fainted. What a Father's Day surprise!

(The Bookshelf Muse is an awesome blog. It's like a giant thesaurus. I've used it several times for getting advice on setting, my pet bugaboo. Angela and Becca, the Muses, put in a lot of hard work and have rightly earned the love and adulation of their 2133 followers!!)

A Contest, A Contest, My Keyboard for a Contest..

Confession time. Dangerous writers have been known to be sucked into the maelstrom of the internets (only after finishing their day's work, of course.) I myself have been seduced by a number of contests during the nearly seven months of this blog's life. I won a copy of Epitaph Road (by David Patneaude) on Elana Roth's blog and a copy of Day One (by Bill Cameron) by guessing which one of the Trixie Belden books was Janet Reid's favorite.

Janet Reid runs the best contests. She tosses out five juicy words and you have to use them all in a story with an 100 word limit. I made the final four in her latest--so now I know what it feels to come close to the brass ring. (The prize was a copy of Vordak the Incomprehensible: How to Grow Up and Rule the World.) It looks like a hoot! I'll just have to grow up and buy a copy.

My Own Contest: April Fools

Now that I've become slightly addicted to contests on other blogs, I've decided to run my own.

I'm calling it: "The First Annual April Fool's Day Vignette" Contest.

Here are the RULES:

1) In the comments section of this post, write about the best (that is, most wicked) April Fool's prank/lie/story you've ever done/told--or had done to you.

2) Mention this contest on either your blog or Facebook, and leave me the link below your entry.

3) Do all this by 11:59 p.m. PST on April 1st.

The Prize: Your Choice of $10 Powell's gift card or $10 Amazon gift card.

The Judges: My three sons, hooked up to the laughatron. All entries will be anonymous and read to the judges by Dad. Whoever gets the most snorts, guffaws, chuckles, or squeals of disbelief/horror will be the winner.

Write on and Good Luck!

Win a book

Over at the Caren Johnson literary agency blog, there's a contest that could win you a copy of the newly released Epitaph Road.

As a highly competitive soul, I'm always on the look-out for contests/competitions. In fact, I'm busily thinking up one of my own. Check back here in a day or two...

Guide to Literary Agents blog contest

What did we ever do before the internet? It seems almost pre-historic when you think of it. I mean, God rest my aching wrists, I wrote my first stories on a typewriter (albeit an electric one--I'm not that antediluvian.) As for getting to know about agents and the like, you had to rely on a) either going to a conference to prove to yourself that they were not inhabitants of some outer solar system or b) looking up information in a book which, I swear, went out-of-date the moment you opened it. You'd send a query into the blue yonder and I'm sure I had at least one reply saying "I'm sorry, but this agent has been vaporized by intergalactic storm-troopers." What a waste of a 25 cent stamp! (Thanks, internet, for reminding me of the price of a first-class stamp in 1990.)

A dangerous writer no longer has to endure such frustrations. Now, all sorts of information pops onto one's computer screen at the touch of a keystroke. (This makes life very easy; it also can suck away at your precious time, link by tempting link.)

You no longer have to buy the book, because most literary agencies have gorgeous looking websites (not to mention blogs, Facebook, and Twitter.) And then there's the super-duper Guide to Literary Agents blog run by Chuck Sambuchino. http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/ There's everything there that your giddy little heart might want to know during your agent search. Chuck's even running a "Dear Agent" contest for the next couple of weeks. Send in the first 150-200 words of your MG or YA novel to be read by agent Jennifer Laughran of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency http://www.andreabrownlit.com/agents.php and vie for the chance to have a critique by her of your first 25 pages. (More details on the Guide to Literary Agents blog.)

That's enough reminiscing for today. I'm going to do the dangerous thing and enter the contest.