Yikes--Eight Days?

It's been that long since I posted anything? Bad blogger. Bad, bad blogger.

Let's see...well, I've finished the third draft of CRYBABY FALLS and it's off to my critique partners, finally. I have two people to thank especially for my most recent changes--Karin Tabke and a guy named Jerome, last name unknown, who both answered my police procedural questions with alacrity and specificity. If this book sells, they're both going in the credits.

I'm about three-fourths of the way done with my edits to CODE NAME: WILLOW for the editor who suggested I revise it to fit Silhouette Intimate Moments. I like the changes, I think. It's made the book richer. I still think the story is going to be too mystery-intensive--it was written for Intrigue--so if the editor still passes on it, I think I'll submit it to Intrigue instead after some edits for length.

Did I mention that I'd already submitted WHAT THE HEART SEES to the editor who requested it? I'm trying to clear all my finished books off the table and out to editors so that I can concentrate on writing something new.

The Marlene awards are supposed to announce today. I have a submission in that one (can't remember if I have two). Keeping my fingers crossed.

And WILD CARD's On a Roll!

Add another contest final to the WILD CARD tally--it made the Long Contemporary finals in the Winter Rose contest.

I've been trying to pick and choose my contest entries based on a handful of criteria: who the final round judge is and whether or not she's already seen the work I want to enter; how many pages at a time I can enter (the more, the better); the contest's prestige and whether or not I have a new book that I want feedback on.

Primarily, however, I'm looking at the final round judges, because I've had a lot of luck using contest finals as queries. Four of my completed manuscripts have finaled in multiple contests. So far, three of those manuscripts have been requested by editors through contests. The fourth may yet, as it's only finaled three times and the final winners haven't been announced yet.

I like the idea of using contests as a sort of backdoor query. I've had occasional trouble getting an editor to ask to see my book off a query/synopsis; contests make the editors read my first chapter and let my writing sell itself. Not to say that knowing how to write a query and a good synopsis isn't important; it is. But contests take the pressure off me AND give me contest finals and wins to put on my writing resume. Two birds, one stone, etc. etc.

Even when I don't final, I usually get plenty of useful feedback on my stories, which is well worth the entry fee. There's just not much of a downside to entering contests that fit my criteria.

Another Contest Final for WILD CARD

WILD CARD made the first round finals of the LERA Rebecca Contest. I think this means the entry goes to Pattie Steele-Perkins, who's the agent half of the agent/editor combo judging the first and second rounds.

Hmm--April Fool's Day is a bad time to be posting anything. Nobody will believe it's true!