This week in Twitter Contests

Oh man, this week has been crazy for me!  Which is a good thing, I promise.  It started on Saturday when my oldest son turned 8 and was baptized!  On the same day I took part in #CPMatch on twitter.  CPMatch is where you post a quick tidbit about your book and see if anyone else in Twitterland, who also has a finished manuscript, wants to become a critique partner.  Well, I ended up with two and both their books are so great so far!

Then fast forward to Wednesday.  Wednesday was holy-hecka crazy.  Two Twitter contests and I took part in both.  The first was #Pitch2Pub and then later in the day was #NewAgent.  Whew!

#Pitch2Pub required you to create a 140-character pitch to give to 27 publishers.  If they liked your pitch they would favorite it and then you submit your book to them.  Well, I had 6 publishers give my pitch a favorite.  SIX!

Here is my pitch:

20y/o fix everything Jemma takes in substance abusing rock star crush then finds love in the one guy she never coming. #Pit2Pub #NA #CON #R

Let me tell you, summing up your novel in 140-characters is NOT easy.  I wrote at least a dozen before settling on the one above.  I'm still researching the publishers and will be submitting my manuscript to at least two of them soon.

And back to #NewAgent.  So this contest is a little more intense.  It's a mentoring contest with published authors and new agents in the industry.  It sounds like an amazing opportunity and I hope I get selected.  For #NewAgent you submit the meat of your query letter and the first 250 words to the host and then the mentors read through them and select the ones they are considering mentoring.  They had over 250 entries, so my competition is fierce!

Here is what I submitted:

Title: Chasing Forever
Word count: 71,000
Genre: NA Contemporary Romance

Query:

Twenty-year-old Jemma Bowers always dreamt of marrying a rock star and when the rocker of her dreams ends up in her care she begins to feel she’s bitten off more than she can chew. Sex, drugs and rock-n-roll don’t have a place among the rules she’s created to avoid heartbreak.

Troubled by the death of her mother and then her father’s abandonment at an early age, not to mention a traumatic miscarriage at seventeen, Jemma finds herself caught between rock star, Jordan Capshaw, her teenage fantasy crush and the real-life affections of someone she never saw coming. A budding relationship with Vic Harper, a swoon-worthy firefighter from her past, and the failing health of the one person Jemma could always count on, just may be the driving force to push Jemma to break the rules she created three years ago in order to protect her heart.

CHASING FOREVER, is a new adult contemporary romance novel complete at 71,000 words, and is told from two points of view about a girl who tries to hard to keep her distance in order to save herself from heartbreak and a rock star determined to prove his father wrong.

First 250 Words:

I haven’t kissed anyone in over a thousand days, so when my date, Cody, leans in for the customary end-of-the-first-date-kiss, I step away, bringing my fist to my mouth and pretend to cough.

“Sorry,” I say, quickly trying to come up with a valid excuse as to why I dodged his kiss.

“I’ve been fighting a cold or something for a couple days.” Lame? Yes. Effective? Apparently. He backs away, shoves his hands in the pockets of his khaki Dockers and clears his throat.

“Alright, well…goodnight. I’ll call you.” He walks away from the door to my dorm and I have the distinct feeling I’ll never hear from him again; so much for Trish’s attempt to have me break my no dating rule.

“How’d it go?” Trish asks eagerly as she looks up from painting her toenails an obnoxious hot pink color. She’s wearing a thin-strapped pink camisole and matching pink shorts. Her silky black hair spills over her bronzed shoulders and not for the first time, do I wish I had her body. Instead, I’m stuck with my five foot four inch frame with subtle curves. I’m stacked well for my size, but if I had Trish’s height I might feel more comfortable in my skin.

I plop down on my bed, which sits across from hers, sigh and pull my pillow over my head. “It was fine until the end and I pretended I was coming down with something so he wouldn’t kiss me.” I cringe as I await her reaction.

Round 1 edits under way

Ahh editing, the joy of every writer.  Can you sense my enthusiasm?  Round 1 will likely take me a couple days and then its off to a few beta readers.  And then more edits, yay.

But the good news here, is the first draft is finishes which means it's one step closer to publishcation!

And the end is near

So the title has grown on me and Jemma, Jordan and Vic's story is coming to a close.  I'm so excited to be finishing up this novel though I can admit, I'm not looking forward to the editing phase.  Writing a novel is almost like adding another child to your family - a part of you feels very maternal about the whole thing.  The great thing about that is novels don't eat!

So what's next?  As I mentioned, editing Chasing Forever.  Then I will finish up Terry Tarantula and possibly do some more drawings so it can be ready for pitching in August to agents.  And finally, I have a story in the plotting stages that I'm anxious to start writing, but will hold off until Terry is finished.

Character Inspiration

I've been a member of a book club for about six years now and one thing I always enjoy is when one of the gals tells us which actors/actresses she pictured as the main characters of the story we had read that month.  As a writer, I think we all do this with our own novel, it helps us keep our characters in check.  At least that's what I think.

So, when writing my current work in progress, the New Adult novel (NA is characters between the ages of 19-24), I spent a while looking at actors and found who I thought would portray my vision the best.

Here they are:

Teresa Palmer

20-year-old Jemma Bowers,  lives with her cancer-plagued Gran on her 40-acre ranch where she maintains the property and has become a live-in nurse.  Jemma is trying to figure out life and how to get over a traumatic, secret miscarriage that happened when she was seventeen.  She's afraid to let anyone get close to her and vows to steer clear of relationships.  But when she accidentally stumbles upon the rock star she's had a crush on for years after his concert one night, everything in Jemma's life changes.

Ryan Guzman

24-year-old Jordan Capshaw is the lead singer of world famous rock band who has a drug/alcohol problem.  He and his band made it big when he was eighteen and he has since lived a reckless life that included alcohol and drugs wherever he turned.  When Jemma finds him drunk and high, walking barefoot down a dark street, he has no clue how much this spunky yet timid girl will come to mean to him.

Scott Eastwood

 23-year-old Vic Harper is a fireman by day and a farmer by night, or is it the other way around?  He and Jemma meet at a club and hit it off.  Will he be the one to win Jemma's heart?  Or will he come on too strong and scare her away?

Kathy Bates

Gran, the name says it all, right?  Gran is witty, old fashioned with a little leeway and totally loveable once you get through her tough exterior.  She's been diagnosed with cancer and needs the help of Jemma, her grandaughter she's raised since she was four.  Despite the experimental drugs Gran is on, the outlook doesn't look good.  With the sudden arrival of the rocker Jemma has had a crush on since she was fourteen, Gran will have to try to pave the way for Jemma to become self-reliant and self-assured.  But can she do it before the rocker swoops Jemma off her feet?

The name of this New Adult book is still undecided which bothers me.  I like to title my novels sooner rather than later, but I guess something will stand out soon enough.  I'm currently running with Chasing Forever but it sounds a little corny if you ask me.

On revisions and rewriting

I have had my novel, The Phoenix, completed for almost two years now and after much deliberation and two rounds of edits, I've decided it needs to be rewritten.

Ummm...

Rewriting a novel is not exactly what I thought I would ever do, but I love the story so much I know it will be even better after this rewrite.

This is not an official cover, just an artsy one I created using Photoshop.  The artwork I used is not my own.

I feel like whenever I create a book cover it turns out looking like a cover for a romance novel...

So anyway, I've just rewritten up to chapter 9 and have decided to go the alternating point of view style.  I think it gives the reader a better sense of who my main characters are.  Its been a challenge doing this because my original writing was only from one person's point of view, so going back through and adding in the male character's voice has been fun, yet challenging.

Here is a snippet of Chapter 1:

DANE

     I always reek of smoke afterward. The kind of smoke that carries the scent of burnt hair and flesh, a raging inferno so hot nothing in its path can survive. Yet, I always do. None the worse for ware, however. Once, I even played with the raging flames, made them dance along my neon red fingertips, the tendrils wrapped around my skin like silk. It was beautiful, and didn’t even hurt.

     Luckily, the field I’m standing in is damp and green with new spring growth; this burning didn’t have anything to grab hold of. As if I need another fire on my conscious. I can’t see any houses around, just tall pine trees, match sticks really. My clothes have all burned away and the cool spring air is doing nothing for my self-confidence. I shake my leg, and the fireproof box I have chained to my ankle rattles at my feet. Everything I need to start fresh is in there: a change of clothes, my wallet with a fair amount of cash and my driver’s license, though I’ve been on the move so much its outdated.

     I shrug on a fresh shirt and the cool cotton fabric slides down my chest like feathers. As I’m buttoning my jeans a low rumble on pavement catches my ear. There must be a road nearby. The tall grass whips at my jeans as I sprint toward the sound of the oncoming vehicle. I can see it clearly now from behind this barbed wire fence, a beat up older Chevy model truck with two-tone blue paint; its hideous, but it will do for now. Carefully I bend the middle wire down so I can climb through the gaping jaws of the piercing fence and I tumble awkwardly down the sloped ground below coming to a rolling stop at the edge of the road.

     Screeching tires and burning rubber fill my ears and nose. I roll out of the way just seconds before the truck can plow over me. The driver’s door flies open when the truck comes to a jerky stop and a girl jumps out. She runs over to me spewing out questions and worried sobs.

     “Oh my gosh! Are you hurt?” Her hands clasp around my elbow. “Of course you’re hurt, you’re bleeding.” She rotates my elbow around to find the source of the blood; her face twists in confusion. “Wait, there’s not even a scratch. But where did the blood come from?” She drops my arm and backs away from me; fear filling her navy blue eyes.

     My head is throbbing as it always does when my body heals itself. “I’m sure it was just a scratch,” I say. “You probably just missed it.” My stomach growls fiercely and my headache turns to lightheadedness. “I need food. Take me to get some food.” The girl backs away from me moving closer to her truck. She doesn’t trust me, and why should she? “Please?” I ask. It’s against my better nature to be kind, but I try anyway.

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Hope you like it!  I have about 20 more chapters to go before it's finished and then a few more rounds of edits.  Maybe I'll be done by Christmas...maybe?