GIGANTIMOUS CONTEST -- Via Sheri Larsen and Her Awesomeness

Sheri Larsen is having an epic giveaway to celebrate her signing with an agent! Whoo! So here she is with the deets:


Today, I invite you to celebrate with me!! I've signed with Literary Agent Paula Munier of Talcott Notch Literary! And because our literary community is so freaking fabulous and generous, I'm having a Bigger-Than-A-Shopping-Mall GIVEAWAY!! The giveaway consists of:

•  two separate Rafflecopters with multiple giveaways 
• and one grand prize Rafflecopter giveaway - to enter for the grand prize, you must enter either giveaway #1, #2, or both. 

There's only one mandatory entry. Everything else is up to you!! I know Rafflecopters can be a pain, but it was the only way to organize such a huge giveaway. The giveaway is open until September 27th. WINNERS will be announced on September 28th. (Entrants may win more than one prize!)

Thank you so much for entering, spreading the word, and celebrating with me!!

List of Rocking Participants: Lenny Lee, Colene Murphy, LM Preston, Darby Karchut, Joanne Brothwell, Patti Larsen, Christine Fonseca, Catherine Stine, Jessica Bell, Kelly Hashway, Leigh Moore, Christine Danek, Alex Cavanaugh, Katie Mills, Matthew MacNish, Beverly McClure, Marcy Hatch, Jennifer Million, Nicole Zoltack, Christina Lee, Kris Yankee, JL Spelbring, Sharon Mayhew, Candice Granger, Dianne Salerni, Lisa & Laura Roecker, Elana Johnson, Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi, Susan Kaye Quinn, Lydia Kang, Julie Musil, Natalie Agurrie, Talli Roland, Medeia Sharif, Kelly Polark, Angela Brown, Sarah Fine, Stina Lindenblatt, Lynda Young, Susan Fields, PK Hrezo, Shannon O'Donnell, Shelli Johannes-Wells, Theresa Brown Milstein.

Links to Rafflecopters: 

Giveaway #1- a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

Giveaway #2 - a Rafflecopter giveaway

Grand Prize Giveaway - a Rafflecopter giveaway

And Again. Tired of Me Yet?

Yep. Back again. Over there, Matthew MacNish. You know the drill.

Thanks Dudes!

Have an awesome weekend!

Check It Out, Or Not. But Mostly Do.

I promised a couple beautiful wonderful people that I would post a reminder about it. And considering I'm asking you all for the favor, it's the least I can do!

I'm over on Matthew MacNish's blog today and tomorrow. He's going to rip my query a new one. Hopefully.

I would LOVE some feedback as I have put querying on hold until I get notes for reworking my query. It juuuuuuuust wasn't doing as well as I'd like out there. Wasn't doing BAD necessarily. But not good either. So help me get back into the trenches!

I know it's a bit to ask you to stop by two days if you weren't already a MM regular (but really, lets face it, who isn't?) or don't blog/visit both days, so if you can't and do have some wise advice for me, just post it here today or drop me an email. (ce dot murphy at yahoo dot com)

Thanks dudes.

Happy Thursday!

It's Monday And I Forgot A Title : Quick Post

HEY!

My query goes up Thursday over on The QQQE at Matthew MacNish's place. Everyone and their momma's already know who he is and the awesome that he does, so I hardly think I need to ask, but I would love if you could hope over and show me some support and good insight to how I can make it better.

Thanks a butt-ton!

Happy Monday!

It's What We Do

Hey, hey! I'm at 300 followers! That is effing sweet, guys! Thanks so much! I know it's been rocky around these parts lately, but you guys are awesome for sticking with me. Hitting the "unfollow" button is so easy these days (I would know. Annoy me on twitter? BAM! Unfollowed. Clog up my feed on FB with crap? BAM! Hidden.) So I really appreciate it, guys. Truly do.

As a thanks for putting up my with shit, I'm going to announce a contest here pretty soon, but hang in there. It isn't today!

As far as writing goes, I still have a lot of confidence in the current book on submission with agents right now. ALL of the confidence comes from the crit partners and other awesome people who have read it and believe in it, so I'm still plugging along!

I asked Matthew MacNish for some query help, though, to mix it up and hopefully get a bigger response from agents. I'll announce when I'm up with him so you guys can hop over and gimme a hand if you like.

And the new book, well geez...okay. So last week was a freak-out week (sorry crit girls, but thanks for talking me down!) and I wondered if anyone can identify. So, I have 3 projects I COULD go with next. One may get in on an upcoming trend that's possibly coming around. One is an idea I've wanted to do for a while. And the third is something I should have tried AGES ago because I am all about it.

So, I email them spazzing out about which to do. I wrote a bit on all of them, and all of them have valid arguments for going with that one next instead of the others, but I couldn't figure out which would be best. And every time I tried to sit down with one I got stuck in my own head over "is this the right one?" "what if this is a waste of time and I should have gone with the other but won't know it till it's too late?" "what if I'm writing this one all wrong because I can't wholly focus on it?"

On and on. And it all boiled into one big freak-out with my partners via email. And, thankfully, I have the best girls in my corner a person could ask for. They got me out of my head and made me stop what if'ing my head off, reminding me that there is no way to predict the future. There is on way to predict what an agent would rather have over anything else. And writing isn't about chasing possible trends. It's writing the story you want to write, you need to write.

And that was only one of the three ideas. It's something I've been dying to try, something I've never written before, and something I quite honestly have no idea how to write. But that's the cool thing about the internet: You can learn or find a way to learn anything. And the even cooler thing about being a writer, there is always room to learn more. I'm really really enjoying this education too. It's awesome!

Ah, I love writing. I considered giving up a whole thirty seconds a couple weeks ago before I laughed and told myself to stop being a moron. When you're a writer, there is nothing else you can do. Or at least, that's how I feel about it.

Will let you all know about the upcoming 300 follower contest as well as when my query goes up over on The QQQE with Matthew.

Happy Monday, you fabulous peeps!

It's Honesty, Not Whinesty.

So, I've been battling with what to do and what I want to do and what I need to do over the past couple weeks. And I THOUGHT last week I decided to just stop blogging for now. I didn't see where it was helping me at all, and I didn't see where forcing myself to make time for it would help matters right now.

But today, as I'm missing the community, and feeling guilty about how many of you guys I haven't dropped in on in so long (meaning: all of you), I decided instead of hiding from you all I'd just pop in and be honest. I mean, this blog was started with the original purpose to chronicle the journey to published author. What point it is if I disappear and don't write about it when things get a little sticky? (or cement like) Okay? So here we go.

I have nothing to post about that is helpful in any way to potential authors. (IMO, maybe someone else will see that it isn't all sunshine, magic fairy farts and a 6 figure book deal in 3 months time. Maybe that will help them not be discouraged to know other people don't make it so easy. I donno.)

I am not an author. I am a writer. Those things are completely different to me, and I do not feel comfortable trying to impart wisdom on anyone when I'm having such shit luck at querying my book right now.

I have absolutely nothing to offer you guys besides my opinions, my personality, and my experiences.

If you have any inclination to know any of those things about my writing experience and so forth, then that's what you'll get. But I don't want anyone to come here looking for huge knowledge barfs and expect to be the next anyone bigger than me (everyone) from my blog posts. Okay? I feel this is much better to tell you all, and lower the expectation in my own head for my blog, otherwise I will absolutely give it up until I can come back and say "I got an agent" or "I'm going to be published" or anything along those lines.

So lets try out honest me, not wracking-my-brain-for-advice-and-insight-that-I-just-don't-have-right-now me, and see how that goes, okay?

As of right this moment I'm querying and have been for a couple months. When I began I was like a cracked out horse busting out of the gate, hauling ass. I got requests for fulls almost immediately (and one from a DREAM AGENT holy crap!). So my head was practically floating it was so big. Which, I should have known then was my downfall.

See, I'm a believer that if my expectations are high, and I tell people about possible good news, I jinx myself. It always happens. Which. I did this time too. It was one agent after another with the fulls who came back and said no thanks without any explanation why. I know they're busy folks, and I don't bash them or wish them any harm because of it, I just donno what the problem is now or how to fix it.

And since then it has been a complete poop-storm of no's.

But, I did have another beta reader blaze through it in 2.5 days, and immediately ask for the second (which, obviously won't be written until the first's future looks bright.) So that was a bit of sunshine in the middle of my poop-storm.

I'm not discouraged yet. I have so much encouragement and love coming from other people, that it's hard to stay down about it all the time anyway.

But, isn't there a ratio or something--so many rejections vs requests and you need to tweak your query? If anyone knows what I'm talking about, feel free to educate me. I'm feeling like I may need to start the tweaking. 

But on the bright side, just finished up my Girl Trip for this year, and had a much needed time out from all the sighing and ho-humming.

So, all in all, I'm discouraged but not out. Writing a new book for distraction that I'm enjoying, and keep on plugging along.

How's everyone else going? I've been loving stalking around spying on good news here and there. New, gorgeous book covers and things. It's all fabulous! I'll stop lurking soon, I swear. ^_^

Happy Monday, all!

Check Out My Thing : The Writers Voice Entry #171

So, there is this thing by these bloggers that I'm sure every writer and their mamma must know about. And these bloggers are hosting the thing. They're calling it The Writers Voice. Go HERE and check it out to know more.

OMG! It was so crazy getting in there! I was so nervous! Man, that widget filled up like they were giving away cash. But, right now, as someone deep in the query trenches, this is better than cash. Just my opinion. ANYWAY!

This is my entry! Wish me luck. And good luck to all my bloggy peeps who got in too! I saw a bunch!!

CALLING DEATH
YA Paranormal
64,000 words

Query:

Sixteen-year-old Damaris may have the power to steal human souls, but she isn't happy about it. A direct descendant of Death, Damaris doesn't share her parents' beliefs that her kind, Ankou, are inherently evil. Or that the only way they can gain access to Heaven is by killing humans and stealing their souls. Worse, she's been shipped off to boarding school because of her rebellion, leaving her younger sister, Genie, alone under her parents' murderous influence.

But over summer break, Damaris has a chance to show Genie another way of life, put an end to all the senseless deaths, and, hopefully, start a chain reaction to change the rest of her kind. Her parents have other ideas, however. If Damaris doesn’t make a kill, they’ll disown her. Of course, that’s if somebody doesn’t get to Damaris and her family first.

Someone is stalking Damaris, car and mail bombs popping up at every turn. If she isn't able to find out his or her identity soon, more than Genie's future will be lost, and escaping back to boarding school will no longer be an option. With everything falling in around her, Damaris must decide: go against everything she believes about the value of life and use her powers to save her sister, or admit defeat and let her deadly heritage carry on. Seems the life of a daughter of Death has just gotten way more complicated

First 250 words:

Someone is watching me. I feel it the moment their eyes hit me.

The desire to murder my sister is currently threatening the mission home from boarding school that is meant to save her when it happens. But, luckily for her, the unknown threat has distracted me for the moment.

I squeeze my eyes shut, count to five while holding my breath, and all I get is a head rush and those stupid white spots flickering in my vision – not frustration relief. Neither problem has been willed away.

Genevieve squeals down the hallway again, dragging something heavy and loud across my locked bedroom door as I wonder how she spent her time while I was across the ocean. A good 80% of her day is now spent finding new ways – or hell, sticking with what works – to annoy me.

I move nearer the window and peer out at the back yard. No one lurking in trees or behind bushes that I can see. I don't know what to do about this at the moment, so I move away from the window and focus on the other problem.

I can hear Genie gearing up for another lap down the hall. The heavy object switches hands with a bang from the starting side and thump to the opposite side. She winds up and is off again. Only this time I flip the lock, fling my door open, and attempt to catch the thing. My father's golf club smacks me in the gut as Genie explodes with laughter.

Dangit. Walked right into her perpetually sticky hands.

Also, Happy MAY! I'm back again. More later.