Friday, April 16, 2010

Rachele Alpine of Frecklehead Hosts a Cool Contest



YA Author, Rachele Alpine, is hosting a cool contest over at her blog, Freckle Head.

Rachele's YA novel, CANARY, is currently on submission. Her agent is Lina Sion at Global Literary Management.

Rachele is offering to critique 10 queries and draw two winners for a 30 page manuscript critique. Besides being an author, she's a high school English teacher and MFA student so she has lots of lit experience, not to mention, she's living YA everyday!

The Rules:

1) You must be a follower of Freckle Head.

2) If you'd like the chance to have Rachele look at your query letter or manuscript, post your hook in the comment section of her blog by midnight Wednesday (April 21).

3) You can have an extra chance at being drawn each time you tweet, blog or Facebook this contest (just post which you did in the comment section)

Rachele will draw ten winners randomly for query critiques and two winners for the 30 page manuscript critique.

Cool!

Another "must read" is Matthew Rush's dynamic blog, The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment. Today Matthew interviews Rachele and has posted the actual query letter that landed her an agent! Congrats Rachele & thanks Matthew! Matthew always has an interesting blog & he's cute too!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Patience

Waiting - I've never been very good at it. Today I'm waiting to hear about possibly getting a new home and I have to admit, I have a fluttering, nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach.

When I was a kid (about 100 years ago!), I was very impatient. But, as I've become older and more mature (okay, maybe not more mature), I've tried to work on my relationship with patience - tried to communicate with it, understand it, meet it half way, even romance it. I think it's paid off, because we've called a truce, patience and I. We're much better friends than we used to be.

Are you patient? What are you waiting for?

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

The First Novels Club INSIDE OUT Giveaway & Guest Post from YA Author Maria V. Snyder

The First Novels Club is hosting another guest post by Maria V. Snyder, the New York Times Best Selling author. Maria already has two popular fantasy series, The Study Series and The Glass Series. Her latest release is INSIDE OUT. It’s categorized as a Young Adult (YA) dystopian science fiction.

If you’d like to read the first three chapters of INSIDE OUT, or do a personality quiz based on the book, or see a video trailer for the book go to:

http://www.whatsinsideout.com/

To see maps of the world of Inside Out, go to: http://www.mariavsnyder.com/maps.php

To read some of Maria's SF short stories go to: http://www.mariavsnyder.com/shortstories.php

Now onto the contest. The First Novels Club is celebrating the release of Inside Out by giving away one copy that Maria is going to sign and personalize to one lucky winner!

Contest ends April 12th, 2010 at 11:59PM

To enter, check out The First Novels Club blog site at:

http://www.firstnovelsclub.com/

LiLa's Totally Epic 500 Follower Contest

From Lisa and Laura Write:

About a year and a half ago we were celebrating our very first blog follower. We even promised poor Sarah an ARC of THE NORTH SHORE (aka the manuscript that was rejected by almost every breathing agent in the business).

Now that we've hit over 500 followers we figured it was high time to offer our fabulous readers something slightly more exciting than an ARC of a manuscript that will never, ever see the light of day.

CONTEST RULES:

* To enter the contest you must be a follower of our blog (duh) and comment on this post. That earns you one entry.
* You can earn one extra entry by Blogging/Tweeting/Facebooking about the contest.
* Fill out this form (also attached at the end of this post) to place a bet on Lisa or Laura (or both if you want to hedge your bets and you've earned an extra entry).
* We are going to hold a live sister writer arm wrestling competition that we will post next Wednesday April 14th at 8 AM.
* All of the followers who have placed bets on the winning sister (if you bet on Lisa and Laura wins, you are out of luck my friends, so choose your Roecker sister wisely) will be entered into a lottery for these amazing prize packages:

The Reader Package:

* STUPID CUPID (signed copy!! hoorah!) by Rhonda Stapleton
* HOW TO TEACH FILTHY RICH GIRLS by Zoey Dean
* THE HOLLOW by Jessica Verday
* JERK CALIFORNIA by Jonathen Friesen
* UGLIES and PRETTIES by Scott Westerfeld
* Lots and lots of chocolate
* A fabulously warm blanket to curl up in while you're reading and chowing down on delicious chocolate.

The LIAR SOCIETY Package:

* Two Starbucks Gift Cards (So you can buy Kate's favorite drink: a full-fat Frappacino with extra whipped cream.
* A fabulous pearl necklace (Um, just don't ask us if it's real okay? If it makes you feel any better, Kate's pearls are fake too.)
* A DIY Pineapple Pizza Kit (Kate's favorite dinner! All you'll need to do is add cheese. Trust us, it's better this way.)
* A bike bell (Kate's sole methods of transportation are her trusty 10-speed and the school bus.)
* A 10 page critique of your manuscript or WIP.

The Grand Prize Roecker Extravaganza Package:

* Glee Soundtrack Volume 1 and Volume 2
* A variety pack of every Twizzler known to man, aside from the rainbow kind because those don't count.
* A bottle of Prosecco (sparkling juice if you're an underage/on-the-wagon winner).
* A t-shirt that will officially christen you as The Fourth Roecker Sister (or Sibling if one of our three male followers wins).
* Business Cards or Stationary Designed especially for you by the ultra-talented third Roecker sister, Stacey owner of PoochiePrints.

Not bad, right? Well, at least it's better than giving away a copy of a book that will never exist. So, please enter and tell all of your friends. And get really excited for the big vlog/contest winners announcement next Wednesday. We're taking this VERY seriously.

Check out Lisa & Laura's dynamic blog at:

(lisa-laura.blogspot.com)

Friday, April 2, 2010

I'm Not 50 - I'm 49.95, Plus Tax!

I'm not too sure how I feel about turning 50 this weekend. I was never one of those people who had a hard time with 20, 30 or 40 years of age. You know, the kind of person who says, "I was totally depressed when I left my 20's." I never had this problem; I was always very comfortable in my own skin, at all ages. This birthday, however, is different. I wouldn't say I'm depressed; that's not it. It just feels weird - in 20 years I'll be 70 - how weird is that?

One of the great things about where I'm at now is my writing career (such as it is - LOL!). Seriously, I think realizing your own mortality frees you a little; frees you to ensure you do what you love - NOW. In a sense, I've never felt more comfortable in my almost-half-a-century skin.

I'm 50 (almost) and writing YA - sounds strange, but my wonderful son, Matthew, is 20 and his lovely girlfriend, Trisha, is 29, and my brilliant daughter, Anne Marie, is 16, so I'm surrounded by YA, in a sense. I hear what they like and don't like in books, movies, etc. The four of us discuss everything YA ad nauseum (we have dissected The Twilight Saga to death!), so I still feel very young.

One of my favorite authors summed it up beautifully . . .

I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming... suddenly you find - at the age of 50, say - that a whole new life has opened before you. ~ Agatha Christie

Thank you Agatha, I couldn't have said it any better myself! Besides, I'm not turning 50, I'm turning 49.95, plus tax!