NaNo-vember

Today is the day! It’s the start of National Novel Writing Month, more commonly called NaNoWriMo. Good luck to all of you courageous people out there working towards that goal. I’ll be joining my peeps from the Nuremburg writers group this week for our first write-in.

We’d planned for tomorrow but it’s a holiday here in Germany. Germans take their holidays seriously and everything’s closed so we’re aiming for Thursday. It may work out better as we may need some encourage by day 4.

Today also marks the 1 month mark for my new release. Blood Diamond, a Jewel of the Night story, will be out December 1 from The Wild Rose Press and it's up on the website as Coming Soon. To celebrate, here’s a little taste.

Blurb:
Dodging an angry warlord and running through the rain forest in Congo Brazzaville was not what Jillian St. James expected when she signed up with Doctors Without Borders. Yet that’s exactly what she gets after a mysterious visit from her brother.

Mercenary Mack Nichols doesn’t have much faith in humanity these days. When a beautiful young doctor denies being part of the theft of a blue diamond from his client, he doesn’t put much stock in her story.

Neither have reason to trust the other and their mutual attraction is an inconvenience to both. A betrayal and the reveal of an evil plan pit these two against an army. Can they put aside their doubts and work together to bring down a corrupt, power-hungry overlord or will their chance at love be over before it ever starts?

Excerpt:

“Are you all right, Jillian?” The husky timber of his voice sent another shiver through her, this time having nothing to do with fear.

How could she be aroused after being scared so bad? Especially with a man like this one, a man who worked for the General. She was one sick puppy.

“Jillian?” A hand came down on her shoulder and she jumped.

Finally lifting her head, she ignored Mack and trained her attention on the log where she’d been sitting.
As recognition set in, her entire body began to shake and her heart pounded so hard, she feared cracking a rib. Dear God. There where she’d just been sitting lay a yellow-green snake with ridged scales and green eyes that matched its body staring sightlessly ahead.

She swallowed, trying to wet her dry throat. “Is that—”

“An African bush viper? Yep. I think in the firelight, your hand must have looked like dinner.” Though the snake now lay dead, Mack’s voice still sounded strained.

She stood on shaky legs. “I didn’t even see it there.”

“I’m not surprised. It had coiled its tail around the branch overhead and dropped from there.”

If he hadn’t seen the highly poisonous snake, she’d be dead right now. She launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face in his throat. She heard a thud and then his arms were around her, surrounding her in a blanket of safety. For the first time, she thought maybe he really would keep his promise.

NaNoWriMo

I’m taking the plunge this year and participating in NaNo. What’s this, you ask?

The complete abbreviation is NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month. Those that sign up are committing themselves to writing 50,000 words from November 1-30.

50k seems like a lot to write, especially in 30 days. It can be done. Millions have done it. The idea is to just write. No time to go back and edit stuff as you go, just spew those words out and get them down. December is soon enough for editing.

My goal is to break it down into smaller, more manageable chunks. I know that I’m going away for Thanksgiving weekend. Add in some weekend days that I probably won’t have time to write and I’m figuring I have 20 good days to write in November. So, divide 50,000 by 20 and my daily word count goal is 2500 words.

This is a reasonable goal to me. On a good day, I can have this knocked out within 3 hours or less. Other days make take me longer, but it’s definitely a do-able goal. On the good days, I’ll probably also try to go past that mark because who knows what will happen the next day.

I think I’ve mentioned here that my hubby found an English writer’s group in Nuremburg for me. The rest of the group have joined in with me and we’re going to try doing write-ins at the bookstore where we meet. We’re kicking the month off with a scheduled write-in for Monday afternoon.

Write-ins are basically where a group of writers meet to write. I’ve never participated in one before so this is a new experience for me. I think it will be a lot of fun and helpful to keep the motivation going so that we all reach that 50k goal by November 30.

This week, I’m finishing up the prep work that I need so that I’m ready to start come Monday.

If you’re interested in signing up for NaNo, or just want more information, head over to the official website. If you join in the fun, look to add me as a writing buddy. My screen ID is Riley Quinn. Go figure, right?

Are you already signed up? Think you’ll sign up? Or do you just think we’re all crazy? :)

Welcome to Blogmania Sept. 15 - 16!

You've arrived at exactly the right time to explore lots of new blogs, all of which, ARE GIVING AWAY A VERY SPECIAL BLOGMANIA GIVEAWAY  (For Two Days Only – September 15th and 16th) .

We've done all the work for you. No hunting or surfing. At the end of this blog post is a list of all the participating blogs. You may want to print that list out so you can mark each one off as you visit it.

I know you'll want to visit as many blogs today as you can. So, if you see something that interests you on any of our participating blogs, why not bookmark that site. Later, when you have more time, you can discover all its fabulous treasures.

CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! MY GIVEAWAY and RULES: I'm calling my giveaway Love with a Bite Paranormal Romance Prize Pack. 2 yummy candles from Colonial Candle, 3 great books (Taming of the Wolf, an anthology featuring Autumn Shelley, When Blood Calls by J.K. Beck and And Falling, Fly by Skylar White), a plush stuffed wolf and a pair of handmade moonstone earrings. Great prize, right? And easy to qualify. All you have to do is become a follower here on my blog and my Facebook fan page. Once done, just leave me a comment telling me your Facebook name or if you’d rather, email it privately to me at riley@riley-quinn.com. I'll be announcing the winner of the prize on Monday's blog entry, so make sure you come back!

My close-up of the earrings didn't turn out. This is the pic from the seller's website. Copper crystals at the bottom are the only difference. They're beautiful.

Below is the list I told you about. At each site, you'll find even more. Gifts and prizes totaling over $38,000 are up for grabs during this event. Each blog has their own criteria for their giveaway, so read carefully. Have fun checking out all these great sites.

Goodies Galore!

First things first. Thank you J.K Beck for stopping by and thank you to all who stopped by and left a comment on Friday. As promised, 3 lucky commenters will be receiving a copy of her new book, When Blood Calls. It is awesome!

The random number generator at www.random.org has chosen PL Parker, Cheryl Rae and Gale Stanley. If you would email your mailing address to me at riley@riley-quinn.com, I will get these lovelies out in the mail for you.

How about more goodies to give away? Remember last week that I mentioned Blogmania was coming up? It happens this week on Wednesday and Thursday, September 15 & 16. Saturday, I hopped over to Bayreuth to pick up the last piece of my giveaway for this awesome event.

I know I’ve mentioned that I’m basing the prize pack on my novel, Out of the Shadows. I’ve hinted here and there, but today you get to see what you’re trying to win.

I’m calling it my Love with a Bite Paranormal Romance Prize Pack.

First, a plush, so so soft stuffed wolf. Gabe, my hero, is a wolf shifter.

Wolves are equated with the moon, right? So how about some moonstone earrings. These beauties are handmade by Regina McGearty at Walk on the Moon. She even added a copper colored crystal for each one to signify my heroine, Belle the Fire Witch.

Next, I’ve got two candles from Colonial Candles. I searched for the scents that match Gabe and Belle and while I didn’t get it exactly, I came pretty close. There is one Tibetan Sandalwood and one French lavender. Mmm, they smell yummy.

Last but not least, I’ve got to add books! As I did with my last Blogmania giveaway, I chose books written by my chapter mates in the Austin chapter and of course, they are paranormals.

Taming of the Wolf – this is an anthology from The Wild Rose Press and features the story, Blood Moon, written by my good friend and critique partner, Autumn Shelley.

When Blood Calls – You know this one. I’ve reviewed it here and we just had J.K. Beck here. Here’s another chance to get your hands on it.

And Falling, Fly – This is the debut novel of Skylar White.

My close-up of the earrings didn't turn out. This is the pic from the seller's website. Copper crystals at the bottom are the only difference. They're beautiful.

Great prize, right? All this adds up to over $100. All you have to do to be in the running is follow my blog and join my Facebook fan page. To follow my blog, go to the Follow button in the right-hand column and it will walk you through. To join my fan page, go here and click that you Like it.

You can do both of these steps early, if you want and then on those two days, either post a comment stating your Facebook name or if you’d rather, email me at riley@riley-quinn.com and tell me both your Facebook name and your blogger ID.

On Friday, I’ll use the random number generator again and post the winner on Monday, September 20.

What do you think? A prize worth winning?

To Enter or Not to Enter

Let’s talk about writing contests today.

This has been a topic of discussion in several of my groups lately. I had hopes of entering Out of the Shadows in the Golden Heart this year. The RWA Golden Heart is kind of like the Emmys for unpublished writers.

I know, I have 2 novellas published (well, 1 comes out in December), but according to RWA guidelines, I’m not considered a published author. Except for this contest. Yes, I was disappointed at first, but I’m over it now. I’ll just wait until it’s published and then enter it in the RITA, the contest for published authors.

I have entered several other contests. Mostly last year. At the time, my manuscript wasn’t finished and in fact, the story arc is quite different then from now. I got a lot of confusing scores. Some helpful feedback and some not so helpful comments.

I never did final, although I got close a few times. It seemed that there would be one score that would knock me out of the running. In one contest there were only 2 judges. One judge gave me a near perfect score. The other was 100 points lower. 100 points! It was as if they had read 2 different manuscripts, or so it seemed to me.

I did get some helpful feedback. Some of the suggestions helped me clarify the story more and some gave me new avenues to pursue that would make it stronger. Some comments I questioned why they were included, even if the judge thought them. For instance, in my heroine’s POV, I described my hero as “tall, maybe 6’3” or 6’4”. The comment from the judge was “that isn’t tall”. Huh? Granted, I’m short, only 5’3”, so many men seem tall to me. But the average height for a man is about 5’10” or so. Anyway.

As I questioned my scores, or rather the vast difference between score 1 and score 2 for the same manuscript, I was told that often happens to writers with a strong voice. That’s good, right? Whether it’s true or not, I have no idea, but it helped soothe my battered ego.

After having the same experience time and again, I decided to give the contest circuit a break. I think, for me, this was the right decision. At least for now.

Have you entered any writing contests? What was your experience? Are there any contests you’re looking at to enter this year? What are your goals when entering contests?

Good News

I'm going to start off the conference posts with good news. There was plenty to be had.

I believe I mentioned here that I had an agent appointment at conference. I met with the lovely Emmanuelle Morgen (formerly Alspaugh). I was excited and nervous in turn, but in the end, Ms. Morgen was very good at putting me at ease at the beginning of our meeting.

It was my first time pitching and I had no idea what to expect. I had a whole spiel memorized and turned out, I didn't need it. She asked about me. Seemed interested that I wrote erotic romance. Asked about my novel. Said it sounded interesting and like something she represented but wouldn't know for sure until she'd read some of it. Asked me to send the first three chapters.

That's right, my friends. A partial request.

I'm sure that's par for the course, but it's exciting for me anyway. So, I'm running it through one more spit and polish, one more round through my fabulous critique partners and then I'm going to send it off with REQUESTED MATERIAL big and bold.

That's my personal good news.

I've mentioned on here that 4 of my chapter mates from the Austin chapter were up for Golden Heart/Rita awards. I'm proud to say that 2 of them won!

Sherry Thomas won the RITA for Best Historical Romance with Not Quite a Husband and Laura Griffin won the RITA for Best Romantic Suspense!

Another chapter mate, Jane Sevier, won the Scriptscene contest.

Very exciting.

And my last piece of good news for the day. I'm going to be a full-time author again. At least for a little while. I turned in my resignation letter and my last day will be 2 weeks from today. I've enjoyed the craft shop and it's definitely helped keep my creative juices flowing but with everything on my plate, it was too much.

Do you have any good news to share? I'd love to hear it.

First Step Part 2

If you remember, at the beginning of this month I told you about the First Step Contest being run by Savvy Authors and my participation in it.

The first part included submitting the first line of my manuscript. I chose to use Out of the Shadows since that is what I've been working so hard on lately. I shared my sentence here and asked you to vote for me if you liked it or to vote for another if you didn't.

I'm pleased to announce that I advanced onto the next round. For those of you that voted for me, you have my sincere and heartfelt thanks.

Part 2 of this contest consisted of sending in a 3-line pitch not to exceed 250 words. For those of you that write, you know how difficult that can be. Fortunately for me, I had some wonderful friends help me get my pitch ready. Thank you Stacey, Rachel, Denise and Calisa!

So here's the part where I beg, I mean ask, for your help again. I would love for you vote for my pitch, but again, if it's not your thing, please go to the site and vote for one that is. I know your vote will be appreciated. My pitch is about halfway down and reads like this:

After two failed kidnap attempts on fire witch, Belle Webster, she's assigned a bodyguard, wolf shifter, Gabe Mitchell, and he's having a hard time remembering why he shouldn't take a mate every time he gets a whiff of her delectable scent. Floored by her attraction to her bodyguard, and shocked to discover her role in the Shadow Prophecy, Belle concentrates on finding her abducted sister. She soon realizes that fighting off her attackers and rescuing her sister is just a warm-up to the standoff against Belial, the Chief of Devils.

The link to vote is First Step Contest. Again, thank you for your support.

First Step

We all the beginning of a manuscript is how we get our foot in the door. Sometimes it's just the first few pages. Sometimes less than that.

Over at Savvy Authors, they are having a contest. It's called the First Step Contest. There are three parts to it. The first step is the first line. There are over a hundred entries of first lines. Voting is for members and non-members alike. It started yesterday and goes through June 7, with the winners of that round announced June 8.

The top 30 from round one will submit a 3 line blurb or pitch, no longer than 250 words. The voting for that round will go from June 15 through June 28, with the winners of that round announced June 29.

The top 5 from round two will submit a 500 word sample. The voting for that round will go from July 5 through July 18, with the winner and 2 runners up announced on July 19.

The winner will receive a paid year's tuition in Beth Daniel's First Step to Complete Novel course and the two runners up will receive a paid annual membership to SavvyAuthors.com.

Why am I telling you all this? Because I bit the bullet and entered the first line of Out of the Shadows in said contest. I encourage to click here and support everyone's effort. Names are not attached to the entries but I'm going to cheat a little.

My entry is:

#42 – Why couldn't she go to a club looking to get laid like every other woman her age?

If you like my sentence, I would love to have your vote. But if you don't vote for me, please vote for one of these great sentences. It will be fun to see the progression of the contest, don't you think?