Author Book Signing in Franklin, TN on May 18, 2013

I'm a member of Music City Romance Writer's, the Nashville, TN chapter of the national organization of Romance Writer's of America, of which I'm also a member.  I will be there with eight other MCRW members who are published authors.  I haven't met all of the authors, but  ha've met a few and am looking forward to meeting the others.  I recently attended a Writer's Retreat in Natchez Trace National Park in Tennessee, and all of the women I met there were amazing writers and very nice, and I  had a blast at the retreat with them!

Information on the Author Signing is available on the MCRW website by clicking here Music City Romance Writers Meet & Greet.  If you're in the area, stop by and say hello ... and perhaps pick up a good book or two!

My stomach hurts!

My stomach hurts, and it has for well over a week now. When it started I figured it was because Amazon was just a few days away from posting those moving to the Quarter-Finals. A week later, I began to think maybe it wasn't nerves at all, but a stomach bug. Now, a week and a half past the onset of my upset tummy, I'm back to thinking its nerves. 

Every time I get ready to look at the ABNA forums on Amazon's website, my stomach twists into knots. There are some really nice people posting there, but there are also some pretty hateful ones. The ones I loathe, however, are the ones who are blatantly promoting their work under the guise of a question. Promote your work if you want. Ask people to read and review your excerpt (most everyone does) … but don't pretend you're asking for advice when you just want to draw attention to your excerpt. Nearly everyone is asking others (particularly unbiased strangers) to read and review their excerpt. The ones that leave a bad taste in my mouth are the ones who pretend their embarrassed by their work and what others will think of their excerpt. I find it less than a coincidence that those are always the ones with overly-foul language, written to shock rather than entertain.  I can understand why they would be embarrassed to have others read it, but look ... you don't enter an international contest of this caliber ... in your own name ... if you don't want your family to know! Even if they had written under a pen name, how are they going to explain the prize money ... or the trip to New York for the awards ceremony ... if they were to win?

I downloaded all the Quarter-Final entries of the romance genre, and have been steadily making my way through them. A few were quite good, and I would have happily continued reading the rest of the novel if I could. A few were written well, but not my kind of romance (paranormal). Nevertheless, I would probably have finished them, if for no other reason than I'd started them.

Some, however, are beyond bad. There is a splattering of poorly written "mommy porn" in the Quarter-Finals, and that really bothers me. Erotica is not romance. Like all pornography, erotica is created with the intention of selling a lot of books, not with telling a compelling story. It doesn't belong in this contest any more than porn movies deserve to be showcased with mainstream movies at the Oscars. I don't believe it requires explaining … we all know there's a reason pornography holds its own award ceremonies, away from those of "real" movies.

Fifty Shades of Grey is touted as an erotic romance, but there's really very little romance to it. It's basically an older man subjugating a young, impressionable woman. It has sold a LOT of books, but not because people want to read about the love between Christian and Anastasia, but because they want to read about the perverted sex between them! There's nothing wrong with that, but trying to pass it off as a romance is.

A lot of people bought the book to see what all the hype was about and were disappointed in it. I know at least one woman who saw a group of housewives on morning television claiming "this book changed my marriage". She bought it thinking it would help hers, and was shocked to find out she had bought an x-rated, bondage book. I know someone who reads erotica. An avid reader of all types, she bought the book, but can't force herself to finish it. The plot is implausible and the writing is mediocre at best.

Mommy porn sells, and I'm fine with that … just be honest about what it is … and don't try to pass it off as romance. If you take out the sex, all you're left with is a couple of poorly written passages that no one would bother buying or reading. Without the sex, there is no story, and if there is no story without the sex, it's neither a romance nor literature. Let's just say that anything a twelve-year-old boy would hide under his mattress has no literary merit.

There is also a book about a young girl abandoned by her father after her mother dies. She's raised by an aunt, who leaves her in the care of her teenage sons and a neighbor boy. As she grows up, they molest her. As she grows older, she's beaten, raped, and impregnated … more than once … by these three boys, one of which, is her "love interest". Really? A love story between a victimized six-year-old child and her abusers? I find this one to be very disturbing, as did many others (per the reviews).

If you uploaded your entry with Internet Explorer, it uploaded the excerpt as one, long, unformatted paragraph, which makes for very difficult reading. If you were one of those people, your writing had better be spectacular to make up for the difficulty in reading such a passage. I read one that was formatted like this, and I hope English was not their first language (all entries had to be submitted in English). The story may have been well written in another language, but the translation made for some very stunted, confusing sentences … the kind you read a couple of times to make sure you read it right, then think "Hmmm, that's really what it says. Wonder what they meant to say!"

These are just a few of the examples, and they temper my enthusiasm at being one of the "chosen" Quarter-Finalists, and once again, cause me to question the overall quality of the entries submitted in the romance category.

Everyone believed in the piece they entered, myself included. I realize others could read my entry not care for it, but they won't walk away scratching their head or feeling like they need a bath … or antibiotics. I have been told I should be more graphic with sex scenes, but I don’t' think it's necessary. I'm not writing a sexual "how-to" … it's a love story. As far as I'm concerned, the sex is irrelevant and it is a by-product of their love. The sex is not the story, so it's left to the imagination of the reader. The sexiest movies I have ever seen are the ones that have no sex scenes in them!

I'm certain that by the end of the contest only the well-written stories will remain. In judging this round, Publisher's Weekly reads and reviews the entire manuscript. They are blatantly honest in their reviews because it's what they do. They aren't in business to make writer's feel warm and fuzzy inside … they are paid for their honest opinion, which can be brutal at times.

There are numerous typo's and grammatical errors in my submitted entry, and I can only hope that it is written well enough that the reviewers will understand I can write well, even if the piece still needs some editing. The reviews I got from Amazon reviewers/editors were very positive, so obviously the typo's didn't bother them or get in the way of the story I was telling, and I can only hope that's the case with the Publisher's Weekly reviewers.

Like all the other writers who entered this contest, I believe I write well and told a compelling story. The reviews I've garnered on the Amazon website for my entry are all very good and give me hope that I'll continue on, but there is certainly no guarantee. I'm not exactly worried about what Publisher's Weekly will say about my work, although I am somewhat anxious. I hope if they are critical of something, it's done in a way that I can use their criticism to make the story and/or writing better. If their only criticism is that it needs editing, I will take that as a glowing review … everything has to go through an editing process before it's published.

There are twenty-nine days until Amazon releases the twenty-five entries lucky enough to continue to the Semi-Finals. Out of the one hundred per category in the Quarter-Finals, only five per category move on.

Ninety-five percent of the Quarter-Finalists will be eliminated … and I can only pray that I am among the five percent deemed worthy enough to move forward.

On April 16th, the pool of entries moving forward will have gone from 10,000 to 2,000 to 500 to 25. Regardless of the odds, I will remain hopeful … and, most likely, dehydrated and nauseated!

"A Summer in Ocracoke" Made the Quarter-Finals!!!!!

What a relief!!!!  I didn't realize how nervous I was until I opened up my iPad this morning to see if the results were posted.  My stomach was so twisted in knots I actually thought I might get sick.  What a tremendous relief to make it to this round!

All Quarter-Final excerpts are available for download (typo's and all!!!).  Here's the link to A Summer in Ocracoke ...

Click here to download the excerpt of "A Summer in Ocracoke"

So, out of the 10,000 entries, 500 are still contenders, 100 of which are in the romance category.  I can't wait to download the excerpts of the other romance Quarter-Finalists and see what kind of competition I have.

The Semi-Finals will be announced April 16th.  Only 25 total will make it through ... five per category.

Gulp!

Six Days to the Quarter-Finals

In six days, Amazon will announce those moving to the Quarter-Finals.  The decision is based upon the score by the reviewer of the excerpt (the excerpt is the first 3,000-5,000 words of the manuscript).  Once you become a Quarter-Finalist, the entire manuscript will be read and scored.

Round One was the initial submission ... 10,000 submissions into one of five categories.

Based on the pitch, 2,000 (400 per category), were moved to Round Two.

Based on the excerpt, 500 (100 per category), will move to the Quarter-Finals.

Based on the entire manuscript, 25 (5 per category), will move to the Semi-Finals.

Based again on the entire manuscript (though I don't know how it's rated at this stage), 5 total (1 per category), move to the Finals, at which point you are offered a publishing contract.  You can refuse it, but who would?  That's why we all entered this contest!

I hope to move to the Quarter-Finals, as does every other participant in Round Two, but there are no guarantees.  I have read of people who have entered the same manuscript in multiple years, each with varying results ... one year they made it to the Quarter-Finals, one year to Round Two, once to the Semi-Finals, and more than once they never even made it to Round Two ... and this was with the exact same manuscript!

I have read a good many of the pitches in all of the categories of the ones that made it to Round Two.  Some were really good, and it was easy to understand why they made it to Round Two.  Even if it was a book I would never read, I could see it had value.  Some I had to read two or three times, trying to figure out what they were actually saying ... and some I never could make sense of.  To be fair, it is very hard to condense the essence of your novel into 300 words or less, so the excerpts and manuscripts may be very good even if the pitch is poorly written and/or confusing ... but since those who advanced to Round Two were selected based on solely on the pitch, I couldn't help but wonder about the overall quality of the pitches.

The above examples prove that good writing isn't necessarily enough to propel you from one round to the next ... your work also has to fall into the hands of someone who finds the premise of your story interesting and intriguing.  As much as I enjoy Nicholas Sparks, I would not have passed his last two novels from the Quarter-Finals to the Semi-Finals.  Supernatural stories turn me off.  Safe Haven, his best selling book-turned-movie was a huge hit at the box office.  A good friend of mine LOVED the book and the movie (as did millions of others), but I did not.  It certainly doesn't mean the book wasn't good ... it just means I didn't enjoy it ... and that if I were judging his work, he wouldn't get a favorable score on those two particular books.

For the record ... I think Nicholas Sparks is a master at writing romance novels, to which his bank account holds testament.  But when you throw in ghosts or super-duper, too-coincidental elements ... you've lost me ... and his last two books had both.  Regardless, I'm sure I will buy his next book.  If the ghost thing continues, I may not continue to read his work ... but I probably will.  I don't enjoy horror or gore, either, which means I'm not a Stephen King fan ... but something tells me both of these men have enough loyal followers that my humble opinion won't make a bit of difference.  And I think it's safe to say that my sweet, romantic, little love story would make a Stephen King fan gag ... so I do understand it works both ways.

All that to say ... even though I think the excerpt for A Summer in Ocracoke is well-written and tells the beginning of a really good, unique story, it has to fall into the hands of someone who doesn't think a love story without vampires or violence or Fifty-Shades-of-Grey-sex isn't worth reading.

I am prepared for the possibility that I will not make it to the Quarter-Finals.  If I don't continue on in this contest, it doesn't mean that A Summer in Ocracoke isn't good ... it simply means that the one Amazon reviewer who read my excerpt didn't care for it.  I deal with this by reminding myself that both Nicholas Sparks and Stephen King were rejected many times ... by successful industry professionals who should have recognized literary genius (and they both are) when it was (literally) dropped into their laps.

If I don't continue on to the Quarter-Finals, I'll go back to researching agents to query.  Until then, I wait nervously, for ... Six.  More.  Long.  Days.

A Summer in Ocracoke is moving to Round Two in the ABNA Contest!!!

I checked the Amazon ABNA page when I woke up this morning.  The results weren't posted yet, so I got ready for work.  I had a pretty busy day planned, but I checked the website one more time before I had to leave my desk and get busy.

It was just after 8:00 a.m. Central Time.  The results were posted.  My heart was pounding.  I wanted to make it to Round Two!

With much trepidation, I clicked on the link for "Romance".  They were in alphabetical order ... by first name.  I scrolled slowly until it hit the J's ... and my name was there!!!!  I was so excited!  I started screaming to my co-worker ... who knew I had entered and was excited for me, but nearly as excited as I was!  I took a few deep breath ... more like huge sighs of relief ... and then sent a test to a few people who were as anxious to know the results as I was.  I wanted to hug someone, but there was no one to hug!!

After I found that typo, I really didn't think I would make it past the first round, so I was elated to see my name on that list!

Now I wait until March 12th, when the Quarter-Finalists are revealed.  I know I am incapable of being unbiased about my own work, but I really do think this novel has an exceptional beginning, which is what will propel me to the Quarter-Finals.

So once again ... I wait ... but with much more hope :)

Groan :(

Reading over my pitch for the ABNA contest, I discovered a typo ... and a pretty big one.  I used the word "sale", when it should have been "sell".  With the judging for Round One already completed (to be announced in two days), I discovered the mistake far too late to correct.

With this round being judged solely on the pitch, and with the pitch being 300 words or less, every word matters.  While "sale" rather than "sell" may seem like a minor mistake, it may appear as though I don't know proper English ... and who wants to read more of a book where the writer obviously has such a tenuous grasp of language?

It may not matter at all, and it may turn a judge off entirely.  I guess I'll find out the day after tomorrow.  It was always going to be a long shot to pass from round to round, and I think this makes it more difficult for me to do so.

I read my pitch hundreds, if not thousands of times before I entered.  I gave my pitch to several others to help me proof it, and none of us caught it.  Maybe the judges won't either ... but I think it's just as likely that my fair godmother swooped down on her pink unicorn and fixed it before they had a chance to see it.

And the Countdown Continues

Nine days until ABNA announces those advancing to Round Two.  This is the part of the contest that worries me the most, because Round One is judged solely on the pitch.  I made my pitch as strong as I could, and I don't know how I could have made it any better ... but I don't think it does justice to my work.

If I make it to Round Two, my excerpt will be read.  My excerpt is Chapter One, and is just over 3,000 words.  I think A Summer in Ocracoke has an excellent beginning, and if I can just make it to Round Two, I think I have a pretty good shot at going further.

I recently sent the manuscript (as an ebook) to a total stranger.  He writes a blog I read, and I emailed him out of the blue to ask him if he would read it for inaccuracies regarding a specific thing.  He is an author of non-fiction, and I know he loves to read ... but this is a man who does not choose to read romance novels.  I expected him to tell me no or not even bother to reply back.  To my pleasant surprise, he did reply back ... he said yes ... and then wrote back that he enjoyed it!  He read it very quickly, and told me it was very engaging ... that he kept turning the pages to see what happened next.

He went to the trouble to note typo's and other errors throughout.  When he uploaded the book from his Nook to his computer, the notes were stripped away ... so he sent me his Nook so that I could change the errors he found.  I was flabbergasted ... that's the only word I can use to describe it ... flabbergasted.  As a thank you, I'm tucking a small gift certificate in the package when I ship it back.  He doesn't expect anything for reading it, but I think he's gone above and beyond the call of duty, and I wanted to thank him somehow.

It is very exciting to have my work read ... and enjoyed ... by someone who does not know me and does not care for the romance genre.  I think it helps that I don't write ooey-gooey, over the top stories, with fabulously wealthy protagonists who jet-set around the world and live off their trust fund.  Nor do I write erotic, descriptive love scenes (something I've been told I should do!) ... but I don't ... and never will.  Unless you're writing something like Fifty Shades of Grey, I don't really see the point.

One of the sexiest movies I've ever seen was Phenomenon ... yet there were no love scenes ... the camera's cut away at just the right time.  You knew what was happening, but didn't watch it.  To me, that's sexier.  It's not the sex that's sexy ... it's the emotions that lead up to it and follow it that are the story.  Fifty Shades of Grey is a book about sex ... A Summer in Ocracoke is a book about love.

I write about ordinary people ... with ordinary lives ... that share an incredible love.  And I think that is sexy.

So ... nine days to see if I'm lucky enough to be read by a judge who can see the value of my work ... who didn't just have a fight or find a run in their pantyhose or get stuck in traffic on the way to work or come home to find their dog got sick on the carpet.

The only thing I can equate this to is when I was a kid, waiting for the last nine days of school before summer vacation.  Like then, I just have to wait ... nine ... long ... days.

Critique My Pitch!

I have entered my latest novel, A Summer in Ocracoke, into the Romance category of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest this year.  

Round One is judged solely on the appeal of "the pitch".  According to the rules, the pitch is "A well-written description of your book that addresses more than just a summary; it needs to be a well-written explanation of what the book is about. Talk about your novel's strengths, and highlights what differentiates it from other novels in its genre. with respect to how it is being evaluated."

Upon review of the above rule, I tweaked my pitch just a bit.  The submission phase will close soon, but until then, I can still revise it. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think ...

          It had been seventeen years since Tara Martin had been to the tiny island of Ocracoke, North Carolina. It was easy to remember how long it had been; it was the last vacation she had taken with her father. They had spent two glorious weeks at her grandmother's cottage that July. After her father drowned a few months later, the thought of being on a tiny strip of sand in the Atlantic terrified her, and she never set foot on Ocracoke again. Until today.

           Within hours of arriving, Tara discovers puzzling clues from her grandmother's life. With each new clue more confusing than the last, she's left wondering how well she really knew the woman who raised her. Despite her promise to stay the entire summer, her plans are to leave Ocracoke as soon as her grandmother's cottage is ready to sale. But then she meets Larry Taylor, a handsome local contractor, who came to Ocracoke a few years before to escape his own demons, and found life on the isolated island a soothing balm to his fractured soul. Finally at peace, Larry patiently pursues a reluctant Tara. Plagued by insecurities and self-doubt, Tara slowly allows Larry into the recesses of her heart, second-guessing and questioning his motives, as well as her own, every step of the way — but it's the unraveling of the mysteries surrounding her grandmother that leave her heart reeling.

           Set in the picturesque village of Ocracoke, North Carolina, A Summer in Ocracoke is not just another predictable romance novel. It's not only the story of new love, but the mature love of the elderly, and the discovery of the sacrifices made in the name of love that ultimately cost them everything. Fresh and inspiring, readers of all ages will be moved by this unique tale.

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest (ABNA)

Last Monday I entered “A Summer in Ocracoke” into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest.  It’s a contest they have held annually for the last five years.  The rules change somewhat each year, but the basic premise is the same … up to 10,000 submissions are accepted, which are whittled down in several rounds, with one being crowned this contest’s equivalent of Miss America.

This year, as in the past, up to 10,000 submissions are accepted.  The submission period, which began January 14, 2013, will end either on January 27, 2013 or the moment 10,000 entries have been submitted.  The contest this year is different from past years in that all five authors making it to the Final Round will be crowned winners, with one of those being christened the Grand Prize Winner.  That means five authors will be offered publishing contracts.  In past years, only one or two were guaranteed contracts (though many others have been "discovered" and saw their dreams come to fruition).

There are five categories this year:  Romance, General Fiction, Mystery/Thriller, SciFi/Fantasy/Horror, and Young Adult.  “A Summer in Ocracoke” is entered into the Romance category.  While none of us who have entered know exactly how many will be entered into each category, the categories everyone expects to be the most gloated are General Fiction and SciFi/Fantasy/Horror. 

Round One - The Contestant Parade

Round One is judged solely on the basis of your “pitch”.  The pitch is basically what you find on the back of the book or the jacket cover.  In 300 words or less, one must introduce their novel, the basic plot, and the protagonists.  The scary part is that the judges are given a number of entries to read and score, regardless of their personal preference or area of expertise.  That means someone who reads nothing but Stephen King or John Grisham could be judging (and scoring) my pitch on a romance novel.  It’s hard to believe someone accustomed to reading nothing but gore or action-packed thrillers would be terribly moved by my pitch.  My fear is that because of personal preferences, my pitch won’t be scored as highly as something in their preferred genre.  I know the judges will be as impartial as they can be, but my fear is that some grumpy, old, cop-turned-writer-agent-editor will be reviewing my piece with a look on his face like he just sniffed something “iffy” in the refrigerator.  But, I knew this going in, and it’s a chance I’m willing to take.

Round Two - The Evening Gown Competition

On February 13, 2013, 2,000 submissions will move into the next round. Round Two “contestants” will have their excerpt read by the judges.  The excerpt is the first 3,000 to 5,000 words of your novel.  Considering the word count limit for submissions is 50,000 to 150,000 words, that’s not much of the finished work.  My manuscript is around 82,000 words, and the excerpt just over 3,000 words … or about 3.5%.  Although the percentage the judges read of each piece will vary according to the overall word count vs. the length of the excerpt, I’m guessing most will fall in that same percentage.  And again, I am at the mercy of a judge ... who might not be willing to read a romance novel if his/her life depended on it.  But once again, I knew this going in, and it’s a chance I’m willing to take.

Quarter-Finals - The Talent Competition

The Quarter-Finalists (500), will be announced on March 12, 2013.  No one wants to be cut before making it at least this far, as it's the first time the entire manuscript will be read and reviewed.  That being said, 9,500 will not make it to this round.  I believe it is at this stage that Amazon makes the excerpts and judges reviews available to the public, and readers are encouraged to review and rate them as well.  There have been several authors who did not move past this round, yet they were able to use the reviews from the judges to get an agent to give them the time of day ... and eventually, a publishing contract.

Semi-Finals - The Swim Suit Competition

Semi-Finalists (25), will be announced April 16, 2013.

Finals - "I just want world peace/Where's my crown?"

Five finalists will be announced on May 21, 2013, and Amazon customers will be asked to vote for their favorite.  Because of a rules change this year, all five finalists (one per category), will be awarded publishing contracts.

On June 15, 2013, Amazon will announce one of the five finalists as the Grand Prize Winner.

I realize moving from one round to the next is a bit of a crap shoot, but as a yet-to-be-published author, it’s hard to pass up such an opportunity.

I have spent my entire life dreaming of being a published … of walking through the airport and seeing someone reading my book … of being someone whose next book release is eagerly anticipated by thousands.

I’m hopeful, yet realistic, of my chances of winning or even progressing from one round to the next.  I’m well aware that it’s a long shot … but a long shot is still a shot … that’s all I really ask for … I just want a shot at making my dreams come true.

Wish me luck!