Sean Ferrell is!
what's yours?
Jumat, 31 Desember 2010
Rabu, 29 Desember 2010
The Novel Road reveals deeply troubling info about Jeff Somers
This interview with Jeff Somers reveals some very disturbing new information about him.
What do you think it is:
What do you think it is:
What did I learn about fabulous Amy Minato?
I discover the most amazing things about my own clients when they do interviews.
Here's Amy Minato on The Novel Road.
Here's a poll for you about what I learned in the interview:
Here's a poll for you about what I learned in the interview:
Guess the GHOST COUNTRY writing contest winner/s!!
Thanks to all of you who left your roast beast, put aside your nog, and otherwise yielded your Yule to join in the contest fun!
Herewith the results of the 77 entries, each of which I read more than once:
Nice twist of the trope:
Sarah 11:58pm (time jump allowed because I opened the comments five minutes early)
Three entries had a line that just leaped off the page:
C. Andres Alderete 12:12am
She was beautiful once, but circumstance gnarled her and gravity pulled her and God demanded too much from her.
Jeff 4:32pm
Murder is sometimes a necessary breach of etiquette.
Michael G-G 11:53pm
The Shark, moments before, had knifed out of the conference bar and plunged into the ocean, headed for Nassau.
Of course, some of you resorted to poems, and they were doozies!
Amanda C. Davis 11:18am
Working Stiffs 1:04pm (with special recognition for mentions of La Slitherina Herself)
Jdh 5:32pm (with special accolade for rhyming "entity with gentian tea"!!)
Two of you have been reading too much metafiction and are now writing metaentries!
Debra L. Schubert 11:25am
SemperFi 1:55pm
Several entries had very interesting concepts but weren't quite a story:
Shallamuth 12:02pm
Mr Sitouh 1:42pm
Four were very very nice, but not quite stories:
Amanda 4:10pm
Cannonwrites 10:03pm
BPatterson 3:09pm
Jeff 4:32pm
This is AMAZING but again, not a story:
Durango Writer 4:51pm
That cunning Adjective was on the chase again. Noun looked for a page to hide behind but the outlook was bleak. Verb had already unhappily fallen prey to Adverb. The battle for narrative clarity seemed impossible to win.
“Stop breaching protocol!” Noun shouted. “Publishing doesn’t like when we pair up.”
“I hate when you talk about Publishing as if it’s some Entity to fear,” Adjective said. “It’s those critique groups you should really worry about.”
And an illustrated entry (which I promptly posted as my new Twitter avatar!):
jjdebenedictis 5:34pm
Here are the five finalists:
LeAnne 12:36am
Mr. Copperfield had the peculiar occupation of giving chase to rabbits for a living. Every morning he would stare down at his vegetables from his farm house only to notice a severe breach in the wire fence around his garden.
It was a bleak situation.
Despite the turned pages of Rabbit Hunter Weekly, all of his cabbages were gnawed to the point of no return. Red-faced, Mr. Copperfield cursed the little bunny entity, marched outside, and poised his shovel to strike, only to find his dog, Pookie, slipping back through the fence with a cabbage head between his teeth.
Janet B. Taylor 11:27am
“She wouldn’t let me page you,” Sam says, as I breach the double doors.
The bleak emptiness on his face confirms my worst fear.
“Why would she choose a human doctor?” I ask, as my eyes chase the arterial spray across a gleaming white wall, “I could have saved her. You knew that.”
My hands twitch with the need to touch my sister. Heal her.
“She didn’t trust magic,” Sam squeezes his wife’s limp hand, “believed it came from the Dark Entity.”
A sick feeling overtakes me.
“Sam,” My voice is low, but growing shrill, “where’s the baby?”
Patrice 9:35pm
“There’s been a breach in the perimeter! Page the commander.”
I pick up the mezzophone and bark into the speaker, “Alien entity alert. Perimeter breach. Chase it down!”
Alarms sound overhead. The red light flashes, alternating with an amber blinker. This is the real deal.
I peer out of the viewport and across the bleak expanse of moonscape, seeking the telltale dust puffs that will give away the approach route. I see nothing.
The mezzophone chirps. “Yes?” I ask.
“Rizzo?”
“Yeah?”
“We found the entity.”
“And…?” I feel the sweat pool at the small of my back.
“It’s your mother.”
Realityanalyst 9:54am
Insufferable avian. Every year – every single bleak midwinter, without fail – it raps at my window, begging to be let in.
Let it freeze. It’ll never make it through the double-glazing. Besides, if I let it in, it’ll only chase me around my chambers, squawking its one-word vocabulary and pretending to be some dire entity of lore.
As if I didn’t have enough to do.
I ducked my head, turned the page and tried to concentrate on the report. Breach of contract, insurance number, ominous silhouette at the window –
No. Enough! I’d had enough!
Tomorrow, I was buying a .22.
Joel 8:16am
Shaw sat in his car and snipped the dedication page from every copy of Ceaselessly and then returned them, the bookstore non-entities crediting his Discover with a sigh, a “Sorry” or “But it’s Henry Light.”
The pages applauded in Shaw’s hand as he chased Henry under the bleak dawn, across West Egg beach. Henry slipped on the rocky stubble, and Shaw fell on him. He rolled Henry over and kneed him.
“Into the breach. Into. Her. Dear. Friend.”
He filled Henry’s mouth until pages bloomed.
“Oops,” he said, standing, trembling, giggling.
“Oops. Oops. Oops.”
And dragged Henry into the sea.
Now, here's the fun part (and a new and delicious way to torment writers!)
I've picked the winner. Who do you think it is?
This contest has a new wrinkle: instead of announcing the winners, I've re-posted the five finalists' entries. You get to guess which one is the winner. (not pick the winner, guess who's been chosen)
Herewith the results of the 77 entries, each of which I read more than once:
Nice twist of the trope:
Sarah 11:58pm (time jump allowed because I opened the comments five minutes early)
Three entries had a line that just leaped off the page:
C. Andres Alderete 12:12am
She was beautiful once, but circumstance gnarled her and gravity pulled her and God demanded too much from her.
Jeff 4:32pm
Murder is sometimes a necessary breach of etiquette.
Michael G-G 11:53pm
The Shark, moments before, had knifed out of the conference bar and plunged into the ocean, headed for Nassau.
Of course, some of you resorted to poems, and they were doozies!
Amanda C. Davis 11:18am
Working Stiffs 1:04pm (with special recognition for mentions of La Slitherina Herself)
Jdh 5:32pm (with special accolade for rhyming "entity with gentian tea"!!)
Two of you have been reading too much metafiction and are now writing metaentries!
Debra L. Schubert 11:25am
SemperFi 1:55pm
Several entries had very interesting concepts but weren't quite a story:
Shallamuth 12:02pm
Mr Sitouh 1:42pm
Four were very very nice, but not quite stories:
Amanda 4:10pm
Cannonwrites 10:03pm
BPatterson 3:09pm
Jeff 4:32pm
This is AMAZING but again, not a story:
Durango Writer 4:51pm
That cunning Adjective was on the chase again. Noun looked for a page to hide behind but the outlook was bleak. Verb had already unhappily fallen prey to Adverb. The battle for narrative clarity seemed impossible to win.
“Stop breaching protocol!” Noun shouted. “Publishing doesn’t like when we pair up.”
“I hate when you talk about Publishing as if it’s some Entity to fear,” Adjective said. “It’s those critique groups you should really worry about.”
And an illustrated entry (which I promptly posted as my new Twitter avatar!):
jjdebenedictis 5:34pm
Here are the five finalists:
LeAnne 12:36am
Mr. Copperfield had the peculiar occupation of giving chase to rabbits for a living. Every morning he would stare down at his vegetables from his farm house only to notice a severe breach in the wire fence around his garden.
It was a bleak situation.
Despite the turned pages of Rabbit Hunter Weekly, all of his cabbages were gnawed to the point of no return. Red-faced, Mr. Copperfield cursed the little bunny entity, marched outside, and poised his shovel to strike, only to find his dog, Pookie, slipping back through the fence with a cabbage head between his teeth.
Janet B. Taylor 11:27am
“She wouldn’t let me page you,” Sam says, as I breach the double doors.
The bleak emptiness on his face confirms my worst fear.
“Why would she choose a human doctor?” I ask, as my eyes chase the arterial spray across a gleaming white wall, “I could have saved her. You knew that.”
My hands twitch with the need to touch my sister. Heal her.
“She didn’t trust magic,” Sam squeezes his wife’s limp hand, “believed it came from the Dark Entity.”
A sick feeling overtakes me.
“Sam,” My voice is low, but growing shrill, “where’s the baby?”
Patrice 9:35pm
“There’s been a breach in the perimeter! Page the commander.”
I pick up the mezzophone and bark into the speaker, “Alien entity alert. Perimeter breach. Chase it down!”
Alarms sound overhead. The red light flashes, alternating with an amber blinker. This is the real deal.
I peer out of the viewport and across the bleak expanse of moonscape, seeking the telltale dust puffs that will give away the approach route. I see nothing.
The mezzophone chirps. “Yes?” I ask.
“Rizzo?”
“Yeah?”
“We found the entity.”
“And…?” I feel the sweat pool at the small of my back.
“It’s your mother.”
Realityanalyst 9:54am
Insufferable avian. Every year – every single bleak midwinter, without fail – it raps at my window, begging to be let in.
Let it freeze. It’ll never make it through the double-glazing. Besides, if I let it in, it’ll only chase me around my chambers, squawking its one-word vocabulary and pretending to be some dire entity of lore.
As if I didn’t have enough to do.
I ducked my head, turned the page and tried to concentrate on the report. Breach of contract, insurance number, ominous silhouette at the window –
No. Enough! I’d had enough!
Tomorrow, I was buying a .22.
Joel 8:16am
Shaw sat in his car and snipped the dedication page from every copy of Ceaselessly and then returned them, the bookstore non-entities crediting his Discover with a sigh, a “Sorry” or “But it’s Henry Light.”
The pages applauded in Shaw’s hand as he chased Henry under the bleak dawn, across West Egg beach. Henry slipped on the rocky stubble, and Shaw fell on him. He rolled Henry over and kneed him.
“Into the breach. Into. Her. Dear. Friend.”
He filled Henry’s mouth until pages bloomed.
“Oops,” he said, standing, trembling, giggling.
“Oops. Oops. Oops.”
And dragged Henry into the sea.
Now, here's the fun part (and a new and delicious way to torment writers!)
I've picked the winner. Who do you think it is?
Minggu, 26 Desember 2010
GHOST COUNTRY writing contest!--closed now, results soon!
To celebrate the publication of GHOST COUNTRY we're having a writing contest!
Contest starts NOW Tuesday 12/28 (12:01 am Eastern Shark Time-December 28 approx 24 hours from when this post goes up)
Post your entry in the comments column of THIS blog post.
The contest is: write a story using 100 words or fewer. Include the following words in your entry:
page
chase
bleak
entity
breach
One entry per person please. If you need a mulligan, a do-over, that's fine, but only ONE (the later entry) will be counted.
All decisions, awards, mistakes, errors, and boneheaded choices if any are mine. No grousing about who doesn't win or I'll gnaw you.
Prize: a copy of GHOST COUNTRY by Patrick Lee and some amazing swag that the sales and pr department at Harper cooked up (it's VERY cool!)
Get thinking!
"not for me"
The amazing and awesome agent Suzie Townsend has some wise words on why she no longer offers feedback on requested manuscripts. Read it here.
I was stunned at her query stats for 2010. She requested and read a LOT.
Suzie is, in fact, alot of awesome.
I was stunned at her query stats for 2010. She requested and read a LOT.
Suzie is, in fact, alot of awesome.
image ruthlessly lifted from
Jumat, 24 Desember 2010
Kamis, 23 Desember 2010
Books I'm looking forward to in 2011
This book was slipped to me under cover of darkness by an editor who shall remain nameless. I read the manuscript before it went to production and fell instantly in love.
You will too.
And you'll get a chance to read it early cause I have two copies of the ARC to give away soon!
If you don't love this book, don't ever bother speaking
to me,
of me,
about me,
or in my zip code
again.
Ever.
I'm serious.
Team Dauntless.
It is a story of a young boy's desperate yearning for a father during a time of extreme poverty and confusion. The book has been compared to Frank McCourt for it's depiction of deprivation, to Geoffrey Wolff for its depiction of a deceptive father and to David Sedaris for it's hilarious depiction of childhood. Jack Olsen passed away in 2002.
You're going to have to look hard to find this; Pleasure Boat is a small elegant press that has never published a bad book.
It's about a boy who wants to be the world's greatest super villain, but inadvertently ends up saving the day and becoming the hero (much to his disdain).
NOWHERE NEAR NORMAL by Traci Foust (4/2011)
A raw and funny memoir about growing up with severe OCD, a sort of Augusten Burroughs with bleach.
THE TENDER MERCY OF ROSES by Anna Michaels (5/2011)
A debut novel about an alcoholic ex-cop drawn to investigate the murder of a cowgirl, even as it uncovers dark secrets from her own past. Think Garden Spells meets The Lovely Bones.
AFTERTIME by Sophie Littlefield
Awakening in a bleak landscape as scarred as her body, Cass Dollar vaguely recalls surviving something terrible. Wearing unfamiliar clothes and having no idea how many days—or weeks—have passed, she slowly realizes the horrifying truth: her daughter has vanished.
When wealthy Pamela Jordaan hires PI Jade de Jong as a bodyguard after her husband Terrance disappears, Jade thinks keeping an eye on this anxious wife will be an easy way to earn some cash. But when a determined shooter nearly kills them both and Jade finds Terrance horrifically tortured and barely alive, she realizes that she has been drawn into a wicked game.
2010 Sox Knockers
I bought it because I read a review on Shelf Awareness that I blogged about. It took me a while to find 20 hours to read all 550+ pages, but it was worth it.
I read this twice. Once when the editor slipped me a VERY early copy under penalty of death if I told anyone. The second time was right after the first time cause I couldn't believe what I'd just read. Then I had to restrain myself from breaking in to the editor's apartment and forcing her to discuss the book with me at 2am. I've advised people to steal this book if they have to and offered personal refunds to people if they buy it on my recommendation and don't like it.
Every book Laura Lippman writes should be on your list to read. This is her latest stand alone. I first blogged about it back in September.
I read this at Bouchercon. I gave up time in the bar to read this. I didn't mention that in the blog post I wrote about it cause I couldn't quite believe it myself.
This gets a special mention cause it wasn't published this year but I just read it and loved it. I'm pretty sure it's an almost perfect novel. If you're a writer, read this. If you like a good novel, read this.
Senin, 13 Desember 2010
Beautybloggers.org Charity Auction Just in Time for the Holidays
Beautybloggers.org is the brainchild of the fabulous Karla Sugar. Many of us feel very blessed to have the opportunity to do something we love (whether hobby or career), try the products we try and share that information with those who either take a gander at our blogs or have become regular readers. In the spirit of giving back, beautybloggers.org was created to progress an avenue to give a little something back to those in need.
BeautyBloggers.org is the collaboration of almost 50 different beauty bloggers and brands. At this holiday time, we wanted to make a meaningful contribution to charity — knowing that the most effective donation to any charity is cash.
So we’re putting our makeup, skincare and other beauty items on the auction block. Winning bids will be donated directly to Doctors Without Borders.
Karla came up with the magnificent thought to make DWB our charity of choice, and I'm delighted to participate in this effort. This organization is committed to bringing quality medical care to people in crisis, regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation. They treat rape victims in Papua New Guinea; they make sure women don’t die in childbirth in Pakistan; they helped flood victims in Mexico and earthquake victims in Haiti. They work in 65 countries around the world, and your donation will make an immediate impact. Click here to learn more about Doctors Without Borders.
The auction is live now, and will close on Monday, December 20 at 5 pm CST. We are asking people to register before they can bid. This is simply to try to discourage "spam" bids. Usernames will be public (because the auction shows the username of the current highest bidder), but first name, last name, and email address will be private. They will only be used to contact the winning bidders. And, yes, international bidders are welcome, too!
Now is the time as there are only a few days left. Pick up great gifts of beauty for those you love donated from over 50 beauty bloggers and beauty companies and feel good knowing your winning bids are going directly to charity. Click on beautybloggers.org to see all the great options and to place your winning bid. Bloggers will be working hard to get your items shipped to you in time for gift giving. We're not taking a penny of the money. It all goes to charity!
Donating Beauty Bloggers and Companies:
Langganan:
Postingan (Atom)
