Contest Entry for Emerald City's Opener!

Every year, for the last 4 or 5 years, I've entered my first 7 pages of my current work in progress into my local RWA chapter writing contest. And I have to say that every year the response back from those who judge the contest get better and better.

I'm more of a paranormal or science fiction romance writer, but a few nanowrimo's ago I finished a contemporary romance novel. I decided that I was going to submit the first 7 pages of the novel that 2 agents requested a full manuscript copy of last year at the Emerald City Writer's Conference, and the first 7 of my contemporary novel.

They limited the entries for each, and as of 7:13 pm on the last day (5/31) for entry only one category had met it's limit:

Contemporary -25 max entries -limit met
Historical -12 entries
Paranormal - 11 entries
Romantic Suspense - 21 entries

Fortunately I can submit my contemporary novel under romantic suspense, so I paid the $20 (non-RWA member fee) for each entry, and hope that I get awesome judge feedback!

If you're reading this on 5/31, you can still submit your entry! If you're not, there is always next year!

Contest entry is open from 4/1-5/31 each year. This is the first year the limited entries, so I don't know if next year will yield the same.

Keep an eye out for Conference information (this is an awesome event!) and contest information through Greater Seattle Romance Writers of America website, and subsequent links to media on through their page.

Book Review- Liberation's Kiss (Robotics Faction #1)

First let me say that I was given a free advanced copy of this book for an honest review by the author Wendy Lynn Clark.

Now that that is out of the way, let me say that I loved this novel! And I can't wait for the next in this series. I'm a big fan of science fiction romance (there is never enough of this stuff to go around), and I was glad to see a new series pop out on the market. Review after book blurb.

Liberation's Kiss (Robotics Faction #1):

The Old Empire has crumbled. Strong factions prey on the weak, and strongest of all are those who ally themselves with the mysterious Robotics Faction…

Cressida Sarit Antiata is twelve years old when her diplomat parents learn that her name has appeared on the Robotics Faction Kill List, a classified document of dangerous individuals marked for execution. Calling in all of their connections, her parents smuggle her to a small but wealthy ore-producing moon where she grows up in anonymous luxury, secure that her data is safe.

Until now.

Xan | Arch is an x-class android with one mission: execute the target n81, also known as Cressida Sarit Antiata. Although he possesses biological skin, hair, fingernails, and eyes – and extensive conditioning to pass as a sweating, swearing, rough-and-tumble everyman – beneath the surface, he is all machine.

When he arrives at the moon, something unexpected is waiting for him. Something that circumvents his execution order and forces him to protect Cressida instead. Something that gives him the free will to question his makers, control his destiny, and awaken his heart. Together, they might escape their destinies and forge an entirely new future.

If they can survive…

Review:

This book felt like a new take on the Terminator series set in the future with more romance thrown in. Xan is a machine that's been produced to blend in with the human population and get things done by using a back log of subroutines to help him get his desired responses out of the population, while Cressida is a human who is used to following orders in order to stay alive since she found herself unlucky enough to be placed on a kill list.

This action packed book takes the reader on a wild ride of action, romance, and more action while this duo work together in order to try and keep Cressida alive. 

I loved the unusual set of dichotomies and themes that ran throughout the entire book that I found really interesting and defiantly lead to a rich novel (and I'll try not to give away any spoilers). 

• While death and destruction happen throughout this entire book the population as a whole seems unaffected by it. Is that because they have a chance to be reborn, if they have the backup chips, or is it a result of population having dealt with this type of destructive action before (the overseeing powers that be are known for coming in and taking over however they deem fit)?

• The machines that are released by said overseeing governing body are strong, smart, and highly adaptable, but the every day, I'll call them police units although more like peacekeepers, are dim witted and slow. Which only made me wonder what would really get the police units in an uproar, and if the place was more Utopian before the governing bodies that be took over?.

In the end this novel feels more like a science fiction plot with strong romance elements, but I really enjoyed the interactions between the characters, the fight scenes, the plot development, and the overall feel of the novel.

** Spoilers:

Awesome points: 

Character development was amazing. You really get a feel for all the characters in the novel. The author does a good job giving each person a separate and unique personality that really helps bring this story the richness it has.

Action scenes, after Xan rescues Cressida, the action gets better and better. Each interaction is not the same as the last, and just when I thought I had the next scene figured out, the story took a surprising and awesome turn ( I  love that I couldn't guess where the story was going, but I also didn't feel lost in what was happening)

Environments, each new environment that the author placed her characters in were unique and had it's own flavor. They were rich and populated with traits that brought the scene clearly to the forefront of my mind without being bogged down by long drawn out descriptions.

Frustrations:

I'll lay it out there, the really frustrating scene for me was when Xan and Cressida fully come together the first time. I had my hopes up from the prior time they interacted, but I was disappointed that I was unable to connect to any of the characters in this scene, but I loved how they interacted throughout the entire book. I can't stress that enough.

We never learned why Cressida was placed on the kill list, not even a little bit of a hint to move that subplot along (since the main was is to keep her alive while she's being searched for by some crazy robots). I hope it gets moved along in the next novel.

Spoilers over **

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys science fiction with strong romance elements. You can currently preorder this novel for $0.99 before it releases July 1st, before it returns to it's original price of $4.99.

I can't wait for the second novel in this series, Liberation's Desire

My personal rating scales for this novel are:

2 out of 5 for bedroom steaminess, 4 out of 5 for storyline/romance 

Cover Reveal for Awesome Author AR DeClerck

Amy-Riddle-DeClerck is an awesome writer of several genres and will soon be adding a new genre to her repertoire. She has a contemporary geek chic romance, Love in the Time of Coffee, releasing May 22nd! The wonderful cover is below followed by a book blurb, credit for the fantastic cover goes to Rachel Olson at No Sweat Graphics. Keep an eye out for this wonderful novel!

Blurb:

Life as a geeky math chick with little patience and time for men is never easy. When a handsome stranger spills a caramel macchiato all over her term paper Irissa Daniels thinks her luck just might be a 'changin. Mac McCleary is tough, smart and sexy and he treats Irissa like the only woman in the world. Things are going great, but life seems to get in the way. Mac's dad is sick, his business is in trouble and his only hope to keep it going is to get involved with a very shady character. Soon Irissa begins to wonder if she and Mac will make it to happily- ever-after after all. 

Love in the Time of Coffee is very complicated indeed.

Holy Crapoly!

Dang,

Has it really been since 2012 that I posted a blog about anything? I guess that would be right around the time I started college again, and went full throttle with it too. Well, going on 3 1/2 years of school later, with only one summer off (with a full time job), I can say that I am half way there (please oh please let me be closer!) since I'm hoping to get into a Masters Prosthetic and Orthodics program.

A lot has happened since 2012. For one, I've read so many books that attempting to review them all would never happen. So I'll just start afresh from what I'm reading now. I am still writing, but hoping to up my actual writing and revising (dear god the amount of revising that needs to get done!), but on the plus side of things, I did have 2 agents interested in the sci fye novel I've written (yeay!), now I just need to get it ready.

Way more has obviously occurred, and will probably get into that in later on.

I've made a lot of author friends, so you'll probably see more information regarding their books on here (not a lot, only like 6 authors), just as a friendly author to author shout out.

I will be going on a 11 week trip to Europe for a study abroad course offered through my university, so it won't all be fun and games (but there will be some fun and games).

Keeping this short, but keep a look out for my blog posts (with a shout out to my 1 follower!)

What the Heck is an Elevator Pitch?

This was my first thought when I signed up for the Pitch Fest in this years Emerald City Writers' Conference at the end of the month... well to be more precise, in 3 days.

Apparently an 'Elevator Pitch' is a two to five sentence recap of your novel that, once completed, should also allow you time for your victim... I mean captive audience to ask you any questions they might have about your story.

The one thing I have to say is that I've already practiced narrowing down a description of a story or movie to one sentence, so broadening the field to about 3 sentences will be a breeze, or atleast should be :)

Think of the move Snow White (the G rated one), here is one way to describe it in one sentence:

Escaping from a Stepmother who wants to kill her, Snow White struggles to make a life for herself away from her Stepmothers evil ways.

I'd suggest trying this with other movies. Remember you want to be as broad and general as possible because you want to get the general point across without going into too much detail. You save that for later when they ask you questions or request more information.

So after taking this reduced sentence down of the description of Snow White, lets expand upon it to make it more of an elevator pitch:

Escaping from a Stepmother who wants to kill her, Snow White with the help of seven dwarfs attempts to make a life for herself outside of her Stepmother's evil influences. Her Stepmother won't let her go without out a fight and Snow White and the seven dwarfs must use all their physical and mental skills to keep her Stepmother away.

Now, lets see if I can do this with my novel (it's always harder to do it with things we created :) )

Here's my one sentence:
In love with her neighbor, Beth finally gets the chance of a relationship with James, but his ex isn't done with him yet.

Okay, lets see if I can expand upon it without getting too complicated:
Beth has always been in love with her neighbor, but when she finally gets the chance to build a relationship with him it comes with some unwelcome strings attached. James' latest ex has decided that she's not done with him yet, and will do everything in her power to try and break Beth and James' lives apart.

If you can complete this successfully (and please note, I haven't received any input aside from myself for the above pitch, I won't know how well it works until the conference. Notes to be added below later) this is also a very helpful tool when writing your query letter.

I found this link to 'Kick Butt Elevator Pich' by Kristen Stieffel very helpful.

Story Conversation and Scene Help

Recently someone asked me if I had any suggestions on how to make a scene flow better and how to tell if they got their points across. The scene they were asking about had character conversation in it and was the last chapter of their story.

This can be a tricky, especially with endings or wrap ups in which you strip your characters bare. This advice can be used for any scene in any storyline and can be particularly helpful when you are unsure if you've wrapped up or started any drama in a clear manner.

My suggestion to them was to think about what they want to portray in the scene. What emotions did they want to have their characters feel or cause in each other and write it out. Usually in the big finally where everyone brings everything out in the open and the characters emotions are laid bare, you generally want your characters emotionally raked over coals before coming out better for it on the other end.

Think back to your favorite books. What do the characters feel in that last breath before the end? Dispare, pain, anger, depression? Are they afraid? Do they feel that they could lose everything they've spent the last some odd chapters working towards?

Write the above items down on a piece of paper and if you are trying to get a specific point across in the scene, add that to the list as well. Then, and here is the important part, show the list o a trusted adviser, email them to your critique partners or show it to a random stranger. After that, and I suggest this especially for the characters conversational portion of the story, read it aloud to your friend and that stranger or email it out to your critique partner/s, and have them cross off what points you hit on and which points you didn't. If they're nice, they'll also state where they were having issues following along or will provide suggestions to help it flow better.

The verbal renditioning of your story can also help with sentence flow (character conversations in stories should sound/read like an actual conversation) and will also display how well you are able to convey your points across in the scene.

I hope this helps in your writing endeavor!

Nano Plot Tips: The Index Card Methods and Structure Grid

I've been reading up on this idea and have to say that I might give it a try, especially if I run out or through my plot outline too soon (I tend to do this around 25k thinking it should have lasted till 50k) and start pantsing it. Which has failed to reach me the 50k mark on many a frustrating occasions.

What you need:
Index Cards or post its
Space- perhaps lots of it
and if you're feeling exceptionally rambunctious, a cork board

Object:
Every chapter needs to have a climax or reach a critical point to help the story along, usually involving either emotional movement (character development or trauma) or plot line movement. As well as every three chapters or so there should be a central climax or point that happens that moves the plot along at larger intervals until you reach the storyline climax and then the one or two chapters to close everything off. Keep in mind plot climaxes usually proceed the romance climax where the characters conclude that they want to spend the rest of their lives together. Everyone confused? Then I've succeeded :) More on plot line suggestions later.

Index cards are one of the more effective story planning tools because they allow you to write your scenes out and then easily move things around when you need to. I've tried to do this on a computer and it can get a bit frustrating to go back and forth between pages to try and figure out what's happening or what a character looks like. Plus think of it as literally holding your story in your hands. Think of all the colorful creations you could make, that or the time you'll spend procrastinating writing your story as you design the cards.

I do hate to say it, but I still tend to write out a basic plot line on paper or computer and then transfer everything to the note cards. The plus side, if I had some ideas about what could happen in the plot but couldn't figure out how to write it in, I'd add it a note card to have on hand in case I want to shuffle plot points around or add more complexity to the story, or just plain run out of items to fill a plot section. Then I place my cards out on a surface and start putting them in planned chapter order to see how the scenes play out and get a general idea on the flow of the story. I can then mix, match, shuffle, toss and include any other cards when needed.

What I tend to include on my note cards:
Character descriptions, each on their own, including the villain
Basic chapter outlines, not initially labeled unless I want a bunch of black marks crossing out chapter identifications
About 10 additional cards with random plot events that I may want to experiment with
A death card, that will have a list of names and moments when they were killed, just to keep everything in order
A introduction card, to help me keep track of when I introduced characters, so I don't introduce them twice
And a couple challenge cards

What is a challenge card you ask? A challenge card/s is something you either decide to play around with yourself with your story, or you decide to take up from a fellow nano'er post on the whole challenge idea. I recently read one where you have a character turn blue or purple in your storyline due to a chemical reaction and you later have to use this your benefit in your story. Another was help another character get married, and another was having them consume a really greasy food. You could have someone fall in love with an AI, a really harry man or just waltz in the background of a scene. Challenges can be hard, easy, fun, frustrating or just plain crazy, but they can also help you move your plot along if you've run out of previously planned plot points or just need filler till you reach your next scene.

Challenges can be found on Nanowrimo Forums.

Will you be using note cards this year? Or were you planning on using a different form of plotting assistance. If so, please share!