A New Contest!

Today I'm blogging about a hot new contest, over on Savvy Authors. The submission date for this one is very soon, next week in fact, 15 July 2010, so if you're interested, check it out quick!
Here's the skinny...

Lori Wilde's Drive 'Em Wilde Contest for Emerging Authors

Does your query make editors and agents pant, moan and beg for more? Have you written a story that will keep editors up at night, thinking of you and your prose? If you think you have what it takes to drive editors and agents wild with anticipation, Lori Wilde’s Drive 'Em Wilde Contest is your chance to prove it.

Our first-round is judged by published authors who will act like slush pile readers, pulling only the best three in each genre to pass along to the final round editors who will select the winners. But it doesn’t end there!

Lori Wilde, USA Today bestselling author, will choose an Overall Grand Prize Winner from each genre's first place winner to receive free tuition for her year-long mentoring track at Savvy University with Lori Wilde—a value of $1800! This individual will be mentored by Lori to improve his or her writing and edit a market-ready manuscript that really will drive an agent or editor wild!

**NEW: Enter contest today to reserve your spot, but you can upload your file any time until contest deadline!

2010 Categories and Final Judges:

Historical: Deb Werksman, Editor, Sourcebooks

Paranormal/Urban Fantasy/Fantasy:, Chris Keeslar, Dorchester Publishing

Science Fiction/Futuristic: TBA

Contemporary: Angela James, Editor, Carina Press

Suspense: Kristin Sevick, Editor, Tor/Forge Books.

Young Adult: Danielle Rose Poiesz, Editor, Gallery/Pocket Books Editorial

Erotic Romance or Erotica: Lindsey Faber, Managing Editor, Samhain Publishing


**NOTE: Each entrant will have an opportunity to further designate whether their entry is most like commercial fiction, commercial fiction with romantic elements, literary fiction or romantic fiction for the sole purpose of managing judges’ expectations.

Contest Details:

Sponsor: Savvy Authors

Fee: $20 Premium Savvy members / $25 Basic & non-members

Deadline: July 15, 2010

Judging: Each entry will be judged by three published authors and scored using the contest’s scoresheet. Judges will provide comments and feedback for each score given. All scores will be combined and averaged. Three highest scoring manuscripts for each genre will advance to the final round. All judged copies will be returned via email to non-finalist entrants following finalist announcement. Finalist entries will be returned after winners are announced. Final Judges will rank finalists one through three, with the First place winners sent to Lori Wilde who will choose the Overall Grand Prize Winner.

Finalists Announced: August 1, 2010

Eligibility: Must not have been published in the last 2 years or contracted on the date of contest entry by any of the major publishers (or its imprints) listed by Agent Query here: http://agentquery.com/publishing_mp.aspx

Enter: Query letter AND first 10 double-spaced pages of unpublished manuscript (See Official Rules)

First Place Winners: All first place winners for each category will receive $25 credit towards a workshop of their choice at Savvy Authors.

Overall Grand Prize Winner: Lori Wilde will read each of the first place winners and rank them 1 thru 7, with the first place winner receiving a free year’s tuition in her upcoming Mentoring course at Savvy University This prize is non-transferrable.

*****

Its a great prize, but what is also so great is the chance to get your first ten pages read by 3 published authors, and receive their critiques. Also, in my own particular catagory, should I make it to the next round, is the chance to get my work before the final judge Angela James of Carina Press. Manuscripts do not have to be finished, and as long as you meet the criteria of not having been published or contracted by any of the major publishers or their imprints (and The Wild Rose is not in the list).

So head on over to Savvy Authors and check it out. Feedback from 3 published authors for $25 - and the possibility of much more, got to be worth a try, right?

I was lost, in France...

I've been quiet for a while, because I was away in Provence. I know, lucky me! School finished up, and we were on the first plane out the following morning, landing in Marseilles airport under a blazing sky, so different from the grey, wet Irish weather that I couldn't remove the stupid grin from my face for days.

No computer. No internet. No twitter. No TV.
Instead, bagettes, pate, fromage, petit suisse and lovely wine.

I took my notebook, and did no writing. None. Not even a little bit. But I thought about my story, and did some mental working things out, while lounging around a swimming pool.

Now I'm back. My chickens laid a load of eggs so I've just made homemade pasta for dinner and a large pavlova with the excess. I'm pink (I don't do brown, just pink then creamy white again), covered in mozzie bites (apparently I'm the most delicious one in my family), and itching to write.

I got news yesterday that Catch Me A Catch has a release date of 28 July on Wild Rose, so I'll be blogging about that nearer the date, and of course, this weekend is the RNA conference Minxes Romy, Jo, Lorraine and Maya are going and will be blogging all about it when they get back, so for all of us not attending the conference this year, check in to the Minxes of Romance blog tomorrow for our 'Not at Conference? post.

Minxy

Well, I haven't much to say today, so I'm pointing in the direction of a couple of different blogs.
The first is my crit group's blog, Minxes of Romance, where the Minxy Suzanne Jones is introducing herself, and the second is Minx Romy's blog, where she's showing her new book trailer for Let's Misbehave.
Enjoy!

I have a cover!

Woo Hoo!
Well the title says it all, really. I'm very proud to show off my very first cover. Considering that Catch Me A Catch is the story of Annie Devine, an artisan chocolatier forced into the role of temporary matchmaker, and an advertising mogul, who has just sailed in from America to her town in the west of Ireland, I think it captures the mood and main elements of the story perfectly!

Sally Minx

I'm the featured Minx over at my crit group's website today, Minxes of Romance. Pop in and say hi!

And because it's flowering, here's a picture of my lilac.

Bond, James Bond

I've always been in love with James Bond. Every Christmas growing up we'd huddle around the telly with yet more bowls of Christmas Trifle, and watch a Bond movie. It was, and still is, one of my favourite Christmas Traditions. When I was about ten, I started reading the books, and devoured them greedily. I loved Bond, I loved Ian Fleming's terse, incisive writing. And of course, Ian Fleming wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, with the most terrifying villan of them all, the childcatcher. When I wasn't cowering behind the sofa hiding from the Daleks, I was hiding behind the sofa hiding from the childcatcher. And I wasn't alone. Everyone did.

Nowadays, the actors depicting Bond are vital research in the Romance Community. Everyone has their favorite, and I'd have to admit to liking Brosnan best. Bond has a very interesting character arc, he really doesn't seem to progress... He's a dinosaur, a tough, alpha anacronism, but the hints of depth revealed in the films are explored more fully in the books, and his inner demons torment him terribly.

Anyway, why, I hear you ask, am I writing about James? Because, dear reader, I've heard wonderful news. Jeffery Deaver, in my opinion one of the best writers on the planet writing today (I last blogged about him in September 2009, scroll down if you've forgotten) has been contracted to write the next James Bond book!

It's a win, win situation - for me, anyway. But for those who clicked onto the blog, looking for something else, here they are. Pictures of Bond.... Enjoy!

And as a special extra, I give you the actor first approached to play James in Dr. No, who turned it down because, at 58 he reckoned he was too old! The part went instead to Sean Connery.

So, everyone - who's your favourite?

He said - She said

My post today is about dialogue tags. You know the thing, she said, he said, she questioned, he replied.  The general criticism I've heard about these, is that their use pulls the reader out of the story. I've read that said is better than other words like replied, because the eye passes over it, although as a reader I don't really agree.
For me, good writing really flows well without tags at all. But it can be difficult to do.
Approach one: lines of dialog, without tags. Works for a while, but if used to excess, it can be difficult to keep track of who is speaking. Also, it doesn't reveal much of the pov characters feelings, or the other characters feelings. While you're living in the head of a character, you can't reveal what another character is feeling in any other way than their words and body language.
Approach two: Use action tags to show the characters action instead of a dialogue tag.
At this stage, I would be going 'huh?' so time for an example. This one is from one of my favourite Modern Heat writers, Robyn Grady. An excerpt from 'Naughty nights in the millionaire's mansion' (Thank you, Robyn!)

It's written in the heroine's POV. Vanessa. The red text is me.

Her gaze flicked to his left hand - large, tanned but no gold ring. Still, not all those who were taken wore bands. As she'd found out. (so from this we see she's interested, and has had a previous bad experience)
'Perhaps your wife could help.'
'I'm not married.'
'Girlfriend?' (see? lovely use of no dialogue tags. Just a ? at the end to indicate a question)
She was curious - only for the dog's sake. A workaholic man-god descended from warriors wouldn't be interested in an ordinary girl working her way up the ladder...lately one rung up, three rungs back. (lovely bit of information reveal, giving us Vanessa's internal thoughts, in her very distinctive pov voice)
'My housekeeper comes in once a week.'
She cut him a wry grin. (There you go, an action tag instead of a dialogue tag) Not the same.
She had a thought. (much better than sticking, she thought at the end) 'If a dog's too much responsibility and a fish maybe isn't enough, perhaps a -"
"Don't say cat." His chin and its deep cleft came down. "I don't do cats." (and we know how he feels because of the descriptive tag stating his body's response. No need for he said, or he warned, or any of those other dialog tags.)

Something to think about? Many thanks to Robyn for giving me the perfect example!