To Celebrate...

Musa Publishing's launch, go and check out the contest on the Musa Publishing blog!!You can win free books (and who doesn't love free books?) and check out the two grand prize drawings coming next week!

A Quick Reminder

Beginning tomorrow (July 23rd) Aspen Mountain Press is beginning their fourth anniversary celebration! Please stop by the AMP Community Loop and check it out. Come and meet not only AMP authors and readers, but you'll get the chance to win some great prizes! Oh, and did I mention the premier of the Aurora Regency/Aurora Historicals imprints??? That's right, tomorrow marks the release of Marguerite Butler's Compromising Prudence, Arabella Sheraton's The Dangerous Duke, and yours truly's The Pursuit!

So, pop on over and said hi! We'll be there from 10AM to at least 7PM (EDT) and hopefully, so will you!

Win a Kindle!!!

Now that I have your attention...


Seriously, though, if you'd like to be entered to win an Amazon Kindle, pop on over to Samhain editor Tera Kleinfelter's blog for your chance to enter. It's very easy - all you need to do is leave a comment pertaining to one of the Kindle contest blog posts. Each day features a different Samhain author (all edited by Tera, who really does a kick ass job) and it's my turn today!

So take a look and who knows? You could win a Kindle!

Good luck!

It's Really Over Now

Adventures with Web Guy has, officially, come to its (long overdue) end.

My domain name is really and truly mine.

It is registered under MY name.

My web site now belongs to me.

It is fresh and new and current and will hopefully be coming to a computer near you within the next day or so.

Yay!

I've been having fun designing my new site - it isn't fancy or anything, but it looks nice (I think) and, most of all, it's up to date. Finally. I think it was about two years out of date because trying to get updates done in a timely manner was really more hassle than it was worth. Web Guy was expensive and aggravating and those two never mix well, at least not for me.

So, I'll post an announcement when the site is live (should be anytime in the next 24 hours or so.) Who knows, maybe I'll run a contest to celebrate my new site. Until then, it's time to get back to writing, which has been woefully neglected in the website mess. I also owe all of you a huge thank you for all of the advice and support you've offered through this whole website nonsense. It's been therapeutic, being able to vent here, and I've received a lot of wonderful advice in return. So for that, thank you.

Now that I won't have Web Guy irritation, I can finish the final revisions that I thought I'd have done by now. Man, I ought to send Web Guy a bill for the lost writing time due to web issues. But you know what? I'm done with him and that is payment enough, right? Come - do the happy dance with me, won't you?

NaNo - Day 4 (I think)

It's been a busy day here, between getting out to vote and NaNo-ing, but here's my progress so far...

21043 / 50000 words. 42% done!

So, I'm still typing away furiously and trying not to obsess over the election coverage (is two windows' tabs too many to have open in order to keep up with the results as they come in??)

To all who subscribe to my newsletter - yes, I had a brain fart last month and spaced, so there was no newsletter. This month is going to be a little late as I'm working on two projects, have two sick kids (yet again), a knee that's making me nuts and a cold as well. So please be patient. I will get back to normal real soon (or as close to normal as is possible for me.)

Oh, and I had a winner for my Eden's Pass excerpt contest - Stina! Congratulations! A signed copy of You Belong to Me is on the way!

Okay, I've hit my quota for the day and now it's time to go veg and watch election coverage. I hope ya'll voted if you were able...

Paper or E-Book as Prize?

Hmm... It's August already.

It's August.

Already.

Where did the summer go? School's just a bit over a month away (is it wrong that I can't wait for school to start up again? Nah - I didn't think so.) Soon it'll be fall and I'll be bitching about the cold and whining about wanting to open the pool (then again, considering I have to go and vacuum said pool in a little while, maybe I won't be whining about that.)

But that brings me to today's topic -

I've been promising a contest (and I just know you're all dying with waiting for it - admit it), but so far, I've yet to deliver. Part of it really is the fact that time just kind of slips away from me, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that there's something else to it.

People just don't care about getting ebooks as prizes.

It seems to me that the contests I run with ebook prizes don't do nearly as well as those I run where I give away paperback books. Sure, it's been a looooong time since I've done a paperback giveaway, but I have done them and I'll be doing them in the near future when You Belong to Me and Eden's Pass release in paper.

Remember, a while back I did a post on paper versus ebooks? Well, for me, I would rather have a paperback book as a prize as well. At least, with a paperback back, an author can sign it. Can't reallly do that with an ebook. Sure, I know authors who burn the book to a CD, print off a copy of the cover to put in the jewel case, and sign that, but let's face it, hardly the same thing, right? Well, they aren't, too me.

So what do you think? Is an ebook every bit as good as a paperback copy of a book or do you prefer one over the other? What else would you like to see authors do for giveaways (and yes, I am trolling for ideas here, ;>)?

Just curious... Yeah.... that's it. I'm just curious. =)

Surfacing

Jeez, it's been almost a week since my last post. I'm still planning to do one on beta readers (which I may be in the market for) but it's going to wait right now. I'm under the gun to get my niece's birthday present finished (what was I thinking?), I'm working on two new books right now, trying to get some other stuff done, and both kids chose last week to get sick. Needless to say, things have been a bit hectic in my little corner of the world.

For those who subscribe to my newsletter, my apologies, but it's going to go out a little late this month. Things have just been nutso here, so I'm working on it, but it's taking a little longer than I'd thought. Grrr...

Since Eden's Pass is now out, it's time for another contest. The last one seemed to generate a bit of interest, so I'll do the same thing again for June. I'll post excerpts from Eden's Pass, and the winner will receive a digital copy of the book. I can't wait to have print books to give away. They seem to be more well-received. Oh well. You Belong to Me will be released in trade paperback on September 5, but Eden's Pass won't be out until March, 2009. Yikes - that seems like such a long way off.

So, in the next few days, the contest will open, so check back!

To Judge or Not To Judge...

That is the question today.

For the last five years or so, I've offered up my time to judge in several different RWA chapter contests for unpublished writers. Before I sold my first book, I entered into a few contests, and though I never won (boo, hiss), I did get some of the best feedback ever. I am one of those masochists (or is it sadist? I can never remember which is which) who would rather hear what's wrong my manuscript than what's right. Point out what doesn't work and I can figure out the rest. =)

So, since I've always appreciated the busy people who took their time to judge and critique (though not pass me on to the winners' circle, boo hiss), I thought I'd do the same. Pass on what I've learned and help someone else to maybe, just maybe, realize their dream of being published as well. Hey, it was the least I could do.

Well, it's that time of the year again and so far, I've declined to judge in any contests. I've just been too busy, with the Boy's therapies, the Girl's newly discovered social life, editing and revising two books, as well as the multiple WIPs cluttering my desk.

So far, it's been fairly easy to just say, "No thanks". Until now.

NJRW's Put Your Heart in a Book contest will be getting underway soon. I've judged in this contest since the beginning of my judging life. But this year, I'm thinking of taking a pass on it.

True, both books will have been released by the time my services would be needed, but I do have several other manuscripts that I need to get back to. And there's the Boy's therapy, which won't end until October at the earliest. And there's a lot of other reasons.

But the one that troubles me the most is that, as the years progressed, I found myself getting more and more frustrated by the entries.

Don't get me wrong - some where dynamite What do you mean I can only read the first three chapters, blow me away terrific. On some of them, I actually commented about being bummed that I might never know how the story ended.

And then there were others...

I've seen entries that were painfully obvious first drafts. Some that read in a way to suggest that the writer was not a native English speaker. And some - well, let's just say they were a little... ooky. One touched on almost incest - which creeped me out to no end. It was hard to find something positive to say about it.

Some had major POV problems. Or no plot, but just a series of events (I wrote an entire book like this, but it had some smokin' sex scenes. When I ran out events, I threw the hero and heroine into bed and had them get very creative. Almost a shame there was no story, really.)

Some were beyond my ability to suspend my disbelief.

And some were just littered with typos. Now, if you can't be bothered to check your spelling at the very least (and I kid you not, I mistyped almost every word in that sentence), why the heck should I take my valuable time - away from my work or my family - to comment on your lousy spelling? Buy. A. Dictionary. And don't rely on spellcheck alone. Bad idea, that.

So, I'm really having second thoughts about whether or not to take this on. On one hand, I feel a sense of obligation, but on the other - it's a huge chunk of my time that has, in recent years, left me aggravated.

I'm leaning toward no this time around. I feel bad about it, but I also feel I need that time for me. Maybe next year. We'll see.