An exciting start to December! Fun! Fun! Fun!

Hello!

There are an exciting few days coming up for me, how about you? Today is the last day of NaNo. I've about 1500 words to go on my novel and I'm sure I can do that with my eyes shut, and they probably will be! Most of it's vomitus, but I'm really excited about the plot if not the writing. It was far too big a project for a month, as are most NaNo novels, so really the work is just beginning...Indulge me, Clarissa Draper says she always fiddles with a cover first to help focus her ideas for her current novel, so I had a quick play and whipped this up. After my previous post on debut novels I couldn't resist the tag at the bottom, lol!


E-book Boot Camp's over so I'll be sharing more later. I'm so excited about all the things I learned but there are so many decisions to make...

This Friday December 2, RomanticFridayWriters kicks off again with the first challenge of the month - response to this picture:

Everyone can have some fun! You can write prose or a poem up to 600 words in response to the picture. There needs to be some romantic element within. After you've written your entry, go to the RomanticFridayWriters website and link to your story. Any further questions, ask in comments.

The second challenge has been posted, due Friday December 16. The theme is Sparkle! What fun we can have with that one! Back to the 400 words or less limit again. After initial groaning, RFWer members have honed their flash fiction skills and enjoy the low-word limit challenge. Great for those editing skills.

So you are invited to join us for both our challenges and many more in the future.


Also on Friday December 2, Michael at ...in time is celebrating his one year blogoversary by giving away Amazon Gift Cards. He still needs 3 more followers to reach 500. Maybe you can pop over, leave a comment, follow Michael if you've not done so and win some Amazon e-money at the same time. How can you lose? Michael's site is fabulous. So many helpful posts.

There are also a lot of other blogfests coming up. I posted about them here. You can also check them in my sidebar - Madeleine's cliches and a group of bloggers got together to give us Deja Vu.

Hope the writing is going well. Don't forget you can try out excerpts of your WIPs using the RomanticFridayWriters themes. Nancy Williams is posting about critiquing today if you'd like to visit!

Your first novel is not any good. D is for Discouraged? or D is for Determined?

Howdy friends!

I'm just checking in from e-book Boot Camp. Had an introductory session last night and there's two long days to go. Today we get to try various digital media and tomorrow we get to format/publish our own work using Pressbook. I have so much to share with you already, but you'll have to wait! Now to my pre-scheduled post...

Well seeing as many writers may be busily tapping away scratching out that first novel during NaNo or just for their own tortuous needs, I wonder where those first novels will end up? Seeing as they'll not be any good!

You agree? There's no use looking for an agent/publisher for your first book because you know that you're no good until novel number three, right? Well, I've heard this a lot and it has affected my attitude to my first two novels knowing that they probably aren't any good 'cause people in the know say so. Better just leave them languishing on my flash drive.

I was browsing through a Writers Digest magazine when I should have been penning a novel during NaNo (and it is likely to be pretty darned good seeing it's novel number three) when I saw an interview with Sue Grafton (of the alphabetical series of mysteries, you know. M is for Murder etc). She ended the interview by declaring that first-time novelists shouldn't bother fishing for a literary agent because they've only written one book and therefore, "you're not any good yet." Well she's allowed to have her opinion but it is pretty discouraging all the same.

Has Ms Grafton forgotten first-time novelists Harper Lee, Margaret Mitchell, S.E. Hinton or Alice Sebold and that's just for starters? How about all the successful blogger/novelists we know like, well, lots of you! Give me some names in the comments just in case I haven't read your debut novel!

After I read the first article dissing first-time novelists some time ago, I've made a point of reading many debut novelists, and man, they've been good. So much blood, sweat and beers, er tears, goes into that debut novel, and judging by some second and third novels I've read by best-selling authors, the first one is sometimes the stand out!  I'm just reading for the second time, 'The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul' by Deborah Rodriguez as part of my Afghanistan research project. You guessed it, a stunning debut novel. So I'm not Discouraged, I'm Determined. How about you?

BTW, I set myself the goal of reading 100 books this year! I'm well past 100 and it's only November. 

I wrote a post about a debut novelists here!

And an inspiring story of a fellow blogger's debut here!

• Do you know any great debut novels?
• Do you agree with Sue Grafton? Should first and second novels be relegated to our own slush piles?

Holiday season blogfests hotting up! So do you know of any blogfests to share? Ann Best's new memoir...

How're you doing? Not too ground down with all the writing projects? Just a short post before I get back to work. I want to share with you some up-coming blogfests and I'm hoping if you know of any more, you'll share with us all.

1. On December 2, Romantic Friday Writers have their first blogfest of the month based on this image: 

Challenge No 26 – post on Friday December 2^nd

Response to image.

Write a 400 – 600 word (or less!) story/poem based on this image. You might write a Christmas tale, a spooky tale, a fairy story, a fantasy…the sky’s the limit! You don’t have to use all the details in the picture, but your story will reflect the image in some way…

Linky will be posted on Thursday December 1^st .Go here on December 1st to submit your entry...

Good luck with your entry! Please post the image in your sidebar and spread the word.

2. Madeleine Maddocks of Scribble and Edit is hosting her cliched blogfest on December 5th.

Go here for more deets. You can join up with the linky NOW! 

3. The Insecure Writers Support Group posts for December will be on Wednesday December 7th. This, like RFWer is an on-going 'blogfest'. Go here for more deets and sign up. This is Alex J Cavanaugh's brain child.

4. On December 16, there is the Deja Vu blogfest. Love this as it's going to give everyone a chance to read a blogger's best (ITHO) posts. You know, those posts that you wrote maybe when you had 10 followers, you took so much care, yet only 2 people ever read it! Find this little gem, dust it off, and post it so we can all enjoy it! 

Go visit Nicole Duclerior at One Significant Moment at a Time for more deets! 

Onto books/blog tours/book reviews etc etc...

Many bloggers are getting impatient with posts pushing books, so I thought I'd include a little shout out with a post, rather than do a whole post. I understand the 'blog tour' fatigue that's hitting us, but I also understand that authors (especially our blogger-friend authors) need to get the word out, so...

Today I'm giving Ann Carbine Best's latest memoir a shout out. Ann is an inspiring 71 years old and after pubbing her first memoir through WiDo Publishing, she went it alone this time. She worked her way through all the e-pub formatting, published on Smashwords, then goofed with Amazon and had to withdraw it. Now she's figured out Amazon Kindle, so Imprisioned is available through both Smashwords and Amazon. I have read Imprisoned and can highly recommend it. I've posted a review on Amazon. Go Ann!

• Now you have 4 blogfests. I haven't been visiting as many blogs as usual due to my commitment to finishing my NaNo first draft, (27,500+ words thus far), so I'm sure there's many, many more. Please leave a comment and tell us about it!
• I've had positive comments about my Disqus comment system. Just a request...I hate filling out that 3-field thingy too - Name, email, blog link, but once you do it the first time it will auto-fill from then on. If you don't fill out the URL I can't easily visit your blog. Please...

STOP PRESS! - I just saw another blogfest for Dec 8-10 at http://brenleedrake.blogspot.com/ 

Hello Barack Obama, US/Aussie history, then a Plot and Structure exercise.

Howdy my friends! How's everyone doing? 


Today Australia welcomes Barack Obama to our shores for the first time. I hope he enjoys his sneak peek of our beautiful country but he's not here to sightsee, of course, he's here to announce another joint military effort between our countries - a naval base in Darwin, our pretty much unprotected Deep North entry point. 


For those who might wonder why there is such an official bond between our countries it is because the only time Australia was ever threatened in a war (WW11) when the Japanese forces bombed Darwin and their submarines were cruising Sydney Harbour, nearly all of our army was fighting overseas. Other allies told the Japanese they could take Australia from Brisbane (((shudder))) north, but the Americans came to our rescue and did the Sir Galahad and today all of Australia remains Australia, not a Japanese colony, but has quite a lot of American military activity as a result of the 'rescue package'. Very useful for them to keep an eyespy on this part of the world. And of course we feel beholden to go fight the never-ending War on Terror.  


So, there you have a little insight into why we have such a strong tie with who we fondly refer to as the Yanks (their wartime nickname).


Well, now that I've mentioned the War... on Terror...

Thanks to PK Hrezco for sharing James Scott Bell's Plot and Structure. Here's a little exercise from the book for my NaNo story, A Peculiar Grace.


1. My lead is a drop out from Western society who joined the Hippie Trail and never returned home. Her objective is to subdue her demons by helping the unfortunate yet inspirational women of Kabul, Afghanistan.


2. She is confronted by dangerous political forces who oppose her because firstly, she is a woman, and secondly, she is an American whose armed forces have wreaked havoc on one regime after another.


3. The ending will be a knockout because many threads will be drawn together for a climax that will blow your sox off! 

• Any opinions on my plot exercise? Have you done similar for your latest WIP? Tell me about it...
• Anything else you feel to share, go right ahead...I think I'm trying a new comment system, so you'll be helping me see if I should delete it AGAIN or stay with it!

Romantic Suspense Group (#43) Getting-to-Know-You Blogfest. Short and sweet.

I know the Campaign is over, but Joy Campbell has been trying to organise this blogfest for months, however publishing her books got in the way, which is all good! How is 'Hardware' going Joy? 


So, better late than never. The Romantic Suspense group (#43) in Rachael Harrie’s Platform  Building Campaign is hosting a Getting-to-Know-You Blogfest during the week of November 13-19. 

It’s in the middle of NaNo, which is why we’re giving ourselves a week to drop by each other’s blogs and cement the connections we’ve made during this Campaign. The Getting-to-Know-You Blogfest is fun and easy.  We just signed up in the linky list and from November 13 to November 19 we'll be posting answers in response to the questions below. 

If you're in The Romantic Suspense Group and missed the email or forgot about it, there's still time to join up here and participate. 


This is what Joy asked us to do:

• 1. Name two [romantic suspense] authors who inspire you.

This is difficult, choosing only two. However, two inspirational romantic suspense authors are: Nora Roberts and J.D.Robb. Nora, especially, writes many genres, of which romantic suspense is only one, but she is an awesome writer, not to mention prolific. 

• 2. How did you start writing in your genre?

I like romance, but I also like a lot of suspense. And I adore crime thrillers so thought why not link crime and romance? 

• 3. You've landed a meeting with your dream agent. Write a one paragraph pitch to sell your novel to him/her. (No more than four sentences)

This sounds like a lot of work during NaNoWriMo! Okay, let's go...here's my 'elevator' pitch for my second novel, In Search of the Last Cowboy.

Shakira Pearlman sets out to avenge her rape, but she's confronted by a police force crippled by inertia and a Senator father who's afraid a court case will hurt his chances of retaining his Massachusetts seat. Shakira refuses to accept the status quo as she's discovered she's not the rapist's first victim and fears she won't be his last. She pursues him across America following the trail of the honeybees. Her quest intensifies when she meets Detective Byron Bredemeier and falls in love. Together they must find the rapist before he strikes again.

• 4. Sabotage or accident- which would put your female lead through and why?

Sabotage. It sounds way more interesting, but, on the other hand my protagonist above does meet with an accident... 

• 5. Plotter or Pantser? Who are you?

Pantser. I try to be a plotter, but that comes along once I've got my idea, a few characters and a bit of a start. I'm at 12,000 words on my third novel, this one set in Afghanistan. Now the characters have all come by, we've had a getting-to-know you party, sorted out our cultural differences, and now I can sit down and get plotting or maybe I'll just go along for what's going to be a wild ride.

1.	The Character Depot	2.	How Many Days In A Year?
3.	Chris Eboch's Write Like a Pro! blog	4.	Kris Bock: Ordinary women. Extraordinary adventures.
5.	Tara W.	6.	Kerrin Hearfield
7.	Mynr Whitman Writes	8.	L'Aussie
9.	Tina DC Hayes, Author at Large

Click on the names above if you'd like to read what they have to say.

• I'd appreciate comments from one and all, especially regarding the pitch. Re-reading I think it's a bit clunky. What do you think? Does it interest you?