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Here's the thing. I have 8 copies of my book left. There are 3 contests I'm thinking about entering.

The first is

Book Buyers Best

Judges: Industry professionals
Deadline: January 10
Cost: $35 and 5 books

The second is:

The Golden Quill

It includes a Best First Book Category.
Deadline: January 10
Cost: $25 and 5 books
Doesn't say who the judges are.

The third is:

The Yellow Rose

Judges: booksellers, librarians, reviewers and reader group members
Deadline January 24
Cost: $25 and 4 books

What do you think? Is it worth it to enter any of them? Which would you enter?

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For readers and writers:



For writers:

Five Sexy Scenes

Manic Readers Romance Novel with a final judging by Bantam.

We watched The Mummy 3 last night. Visually stunning. Liked the horses in particular. Very creepy. Not crazy about the evolution of the O'Connells, and while I appreciate Maria Bello as an actress, I had a very hard time with her as Evie. Once I stopped thinking of it as a sequel, I enjoyed it more. Still, since the first Mummy movie is my Favorite Movie, this one disappointed overall. Brendan's still ripped, though.

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I entered Hot Shot in the Eppies and now I'm debating also entering Smoke. Today is the deadline (don't know why I thought it was Saturday.) Does it make a difference if a book finals in the Eppies, or does it just make a difference to ME?

Dukey seems to be feeling better. She ate a LOT yesterday. Dh and ds have to give her the pills this week - bwahahaha!

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I found out yesterday I can enter the Rita!!! I thought I couldn't because my copyright is 2007 though the book is released in 2008, but I checked and I can! Talk about expensive, though....the entry fee, plus 5 books (at $7 a pop to me, with shipping) and shipping. But worth it if I final, right? Do you think a small press has a chance?

I also found out my next batch of books is on its way, the ones for the booksigning in October.

And Surface is being read by an editor.

And my last Javier movie was ready at the library. It was his first English speaking role. Now I've seen all his English movies and one of his Spanish ones.

But I didn't write a word yesterday.

We watched Leatherheads last night. Way better than I expected. The first football scene had me laughing so hard I snorted. John Krasinski's character wasn't so great, though. The romance was very like old Cary Grant movies, which is who Clooney reminded me of, especially with the physical comedy and the mugging for the camera.

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I finally finished Surface last night! I started my revisions on BD so I can enter the Suzannah, and I prepped two submissions. I need to get my Eppie entries done today, and hit the grocery store and do laundry again.

I got my scores from Lone Star on STTA - a 95, a 91 and a 75. Ouch! I don't have the nerve to read the comments yet.

The Wet Noodle Posse is participating in Unleash Your Story. Our goal is to raise $3000, so if you're inclined, please click!

Also, the first kiss from Where There's Smoke is up for best smooch on ecataromance Please vote!

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I got my first cover flat this weekend! I'm tempted to print it out and wrap it around Gina's book (they're the same publisher) just to see....



Looks like contest season again. I see a lot of contests are open to those of us in PAN limbo this fall.

First up...The Suzannah. Both published and unpublished can enter. I think I'll enter Breaking Daylight. Only 6 finalists are chosen over all, but you get 6 judges. Plus, money!

Next, Launching a Star. Unpublished and non-PAN-eligible authors can enter. I'm not sure about this one yet. Breaking Daylight, probably.

Then The Emily. I love The Emily. Can't enter Breaking Daylight or DLB or Surface, since all have finalled. I'd love to enter STTA, but I'm waiting to hear how it did in the two contest I entered it in this summer.

Then there is my possible first published contest, The Barclay Gold. Now, my maiden name is Barclay, so I'm drawn to this one. And the rule that will let me enter is the rule that prevents me from entering Where There's Smoke in the RITA. It has a copyright date of 2007. Now, it all depends if I get my author copies on time, because my book comes out September 12 and the deadline for this one is September 15. Talk about cutting it close!!! But hey, no printing ;)

We're off to Gruene today, lunch at the Grist Mill. MMMMMM.....

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Both Jared and Jensen were at Comic Con this year...I wonder if they met up with JDM (probably not, different days.) Kripke was there, too, as were Sera Gamble and Ben Edlund, two of the writers. They showed the first five minutes of the season premier, which will air on Sept. 21. (I'm loving September - my book is out the 12th, SPN and Grey's both returning...)

Dean didn't know he was going to die until he got the script.

Kripke said the Impala looks cool but "handles like a shopping cart."

The Ghostfacers was Ben Edlund's favorite episode, and the Ghostfacers may get their own webisodes. They also showed up during the panel.

Supposedly there will be a love interest for Sam.

We will learn more about Mary Winchester. One episode will show a young Mary and John. Mitch Pileggi from X Files will play Mary's dad.

Jensen actually sings well, though he was told to sing off-key for the season finale. Jared really can't sing.

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Novel Sisterhood is doing a writing challenge. I've fallen behind my goal every day. I do not know what to do with this book.....I don't think I'll finish by the weekend, though I should finish before I go back to school.

Speaking of challenges, Linda Winfree brought this to my attention: Unleash Your Story Neat concept, huh? I'm thinking about it....

Oh, and I caved and am judging three more Golden Gateway entries....I know, I know, but the coordinator is a friend.

AND I'm blogging at the Wet Noodle Posse about the Ritas.

My cover is up on Samhain and Breaking Daylight placed first in the Golden Palm with Leslie Wainger!!!

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I was at Blockbuster and got a call from the Emily coordinator - Breaking Daylight finalled in the Emily!! This gives this book a perfect record in contests, and me a perfect record in the Emily! Hope something comes of it!

My Baby Brother came to get his dog Saturday night and on the way home saw a coyote - IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD! We're less than a mile from the highway, though there has been a lot of development in the area. Still - my kitties!

Completely lazy day yesterday – I didn’t get out of my pjs! I took a shower and got back into another pair! I read 2 GH entries, finished a book that resolved a relatively big conflict in 3 pages ☹, started reading another book (about 100 pages!), did some revisions on my SHOMI contest entry and watched Blood Diamond (good) and The Last Legion (NOT good – I know, Natalie warned me!)

Today, no big plans, unless the boy hangs with his friends tonight. If he does, I’m going to the movies, since the dh has to work. We will hit Blockbuster and Chick-Fil-A, though (have some coupons that expire today!)

Top Ten Events of 2007

10) finishing Breaking Daylight
9) getting my iPod
8) Trish’s sale
7) finalling in the GH and Trish getting to call me
6) reconnecting with friends
5) Chris’s visit in March and getting to finally meet her family!
4) Trish’s visit after conference, wherein we saw Harry Potter at the IMAX and watched all of Robin Hood from BBC
3) celebrating my 20 year anniversary
2) selling Where There’s Smoke, my first book, to WRP
1) selling Hot Shot to Samhain

What were your highlights? Can you believe 2007 is over???

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I came home from my Christmas party last night to find Breaking Daylight finalled in the Golden Palm! I have a week to revise, then send it back and it's going to Leslie Wainger. It's been a long dry spell between finals, y'all. This feels GOOD. Wow, and I just got the results for Don't Look Back...if they'd had 4 finalists instead of 3, it would have finalled, too!!

I should get to write today. I need to make a quick trip to the grocery store, and then the SARA party tonight, but in between, no obligations.

Okay, heroes....I was reading this book recently where the hero was just, well, horny all the time. All. The. Time. It went a bit beyond the level of being sexy and was actually a little creepy, especially since he'd wanted this girl since she was 17. (He was about 10 years older.)

When I read Shelter Mountain, I had trouble getting past the hero's bald-big-be-earringed appearance.

I read another book where the hero made unfortunate choices in footwear. Just. Not. Appealing.

And another where the hero was, shall we say, hirsute. I didn't mind that quite so much because I have a feeling my current hero is as well, but I wasn't going to go into that in the likelihood it would be a turnoff to someone.

What hero characteristics turn you off, either physical or not?

Look what Natalie found!

AHEM. One of my entries is up at Romance Junkies. I can't tell you which one or I'll be disqualified, but I think you might recognize it!

I read RWR cover to cover the other day, and made a list of contests I’d like to enter the coming months.

I entered Indiana’s Golden Opportunity in the paranormal category because the final judge is from NAL. I also like that it was an e-sub. VERY easy. (I like entering e-subs but not judging.) The question I have is that if I’d mailed it, I would have only paid $30 entry fee, and my return fee is included in that. I paid $32 for paypal and they don’t have to pay return postage. Hmm. Sure, I saved $3, but they made $7!

Then I saw Adam Wilson of Harlequin is judging ST. Didn't I read he left Harlequin? Because I'm tempted....

The next one I’m looking at is Golden Rose, with an August deadline. The ST judge is from NAL. It’s also an e-sub, but it’s $36. It’s 55 pages, which is good, but still kinda high.

After that is Golden Pen. Esi Sogah is the ST judge. It’s $30 for 55 pages. Don’t know who the paranormal judge is yet.

The next deadline is Hot Prospects. I don’t know who the judges are yet, but I won that one one year ;) The fee includes return postage.

Gateway to the Rest has a paranormal judge from Grand Central. I would love to write for them. It’s e-sub and no synopsis.

Fiction from the Heartland, with a September deadline, is print-only. The paranormal judge is from NAL.

Golden Palms has Leslie Wainger as the ST judge. Do you know how much I would love to have her as an editor? And she never judges! I might just blow my budget here and enter 3 books. $30 a pop – gulp!

Then there’s the Suzannah in October. No categories, but if you final, you get in front of 6 judges. I’m debating if the odds are worth it. $25 a pop there.

Last on my list for now is The Emily. The website hasn’t been updated for this year, but I’ve finalled in this one twice and I love those ladies!

So my for-sures are Gateway and Golden Palms. We’ll see about the others.

Cindi came back from a 2 week vacation on Wednesday. She'd gone to Washington DC over the weekend, but with 3 little kids, only traveled 6 hours a day, so she left the Monday before. She'd just gotten an Acadia the last day of school (while I was excited about getting 3 seasons of the Gilmore Girls for $20 each, she bought a new car) and wanted to take it on a road trip.

One of her observations when she returned was she knows why San Antonians are so fat. There are restaurants everywhere. She said they had the worst time trying to find some place to eat in DC. They couldn't even find a Chili's.

Then I was working on my Mess in Progress (less messy because I cut 4,000 words yesterday). It's set in Miami - why, I don't know because I've never been there. I needed my characters to go to a late night fast food restaurant and was figuring McDonald's was safe. But what else could I use? I like to use chain restaurants because everyone can identify with me, though foolish me though Burger Kings were everywhere and they aren't.

So, my question is - what chain restaurants are in your neck of the woods? Do you have a lot of restaurants in your town and neighborhood?

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I have decided I love reading historicals. They just leave me with a great feeling. So I'm going to read them for another week. (Okay, I only read 2 books this week, but I read them all the way through!)

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Stacy and I are thinking about having an emergency plotting session with some other SARAs. I'm not sure how to structure something that would just take an afternoon or evening. Thoughts?

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I'm judging two contests right now. One has instructions for the judges to base everything around a 3, the average score. The other has judges basing everything on a 5, with comments for everything under a 5! So the entries I'm scoring are coming in pretty low for the first contest. I imagine the other contest will have a nightmare with figuring out who the finalists are, with a bunch of high end scores.

My hibiscus bloomed yesterday. The flower is as big as my hand.I also discovered that one of the hibisus I threw out is coming back. It's growing at a 90 degree angle from where the remaining stems were.



Okay, here's my dilemma. I want to enter contests again. Here are the ones I'm looking at, the books I'm looking at entering, and the final judges.

Breaking Daylight - The Molly. It could either go in contemp or ST. Contemp judge is May Chen, who never judges contemp. ST judge is Sulay from Simon and Schuster. That's the same as Pocket, right? If it finals (and I've never been able to crack the Molly), do you think either of those judges would like it?

Ghost Hunters (I have a real title, but this one's just easier) - PASIC. Final judge is St. Martin's Press. I just don't know if this entry is strong enough, though.

Either DLB or Surface AND Ghost Hunters - Maggies. ST final judge is Laura Cifelli from NAL (who has Breaking Daylight from Fire and Ice, so no sense entering that one again), paranormal judge is Abby Zidle.

I'm also looking at Lone Star, but they haven't announced their final judge yet, though the deadline is June 4.

Breaking Daylight AND Ghost Hunters - From the Heart. ST final judge is Kerry Donovan from NAL and the paranormal final judge is Cindy Hwang.

Breaking Daylight - Melody of Love. Michelle Grajkowski is the final judge. I'm wishy washy about this one because there are only 3 categories..

So, any thoughts? I did finish BD's synopsis last night - yay!

Testing today. Bleah. AND I realized I need to cut all the new stuff I've written on Breaking Daylight, which isn't TERRIBLY much, but I was going in the way wrong direction.

I have started reading The Ghosts, which is one of the books from my childhood. Until last night, I wasn’t sure it was the right book – it didn’t feel familiar. I KNEW there was a romance in it, and I thought it was between the non-ghost girl and the ghost boy, but the ghost boy is really young, so that’s not it. But then last night I was reading and the ghost girl mentioned Tom, the caretaker’s son, and my heart jumped in recognition. I think that’s it! So exciting, but in a dorky way.

I am looking to enter The Molly and the Maggies this month. I’ve never been able to crack The Molly, and the Maggies are just so prestigious. Hot Shot finalled in the Maggies a couple of years ago, and that was almost as cool as the GH.

Only here’s my thing – I don’t know what to enter in which. Both require synopses, which means if I enter Breaking Daylight or Ghost Hunters, I’d have to write one. I don’t know if either is ready for big contests like that, though.

Which leaves me with Hot Shot, which I could enter in The Molly but not the Maggies, Don’t Look Back, and Beneath the Surface. I just wonder if those have been overexposed. I do think they have the best chance of finalling, but I guess I need to decide if that’s what I really want. Is it worth the time and trouble?

What would you do?

This was my first year to coordinate an electronic contest. I only had 12 entries in my category, should have been easy, right?

Uh.

Apparently I’m a kinesthetic person, and like the actual sorting of entries. Because sorting them electronically was a pain in the neck. You had to make copies of each entry, electronically (at least that was the only way I could think to do it) so I made folders for each judge.

Only when I sent the folders as attachments, no one could open them. Sigh.

Then you had people who didn’t save as .rtf and you had to reformat.

One person sent in her entry only it had comments from her critique partner in it! She would have seen it if she’d printed it out. I couldn’t get ahold of her to resend, so I cleaned it up myself.

I accidentally sent the same entries to 2 different people to judge. Never would have done that with paper entries ;)

The ONLY good thing is no trips to the post office.

Never again.

GOOD LUCK to everyone who entered the GH/Rita!!! Check in if you final!!!

Please help spread the word by passing this on to any relevant loops you're on:
Once again, Melynda Beth Skinner will be hosting her Unofficial List of Golden Heart® and RITA® Award Finalists at
http://www.melyndabethskinner.com/finalists.html on notification day, March 25th, 2007. She updates the list every few minutes throughout the day. There's also a bulletinboard/chat room, and great fun is had by all. If you'd like to help, send names of finalists, their entries' titles, & the category(ies) entered to melynda@melyndabethskinner.com .
Permission is hereby granted by Melynda Beth Skinner to forward this paragraph.