Happy Friday All, Yep, you read that right, it's Friday! It's also almost the end of October--where did the time go? Today I want to talk about pitching. Writers know that they have to be prepared to talk about our work--whether to friends and family, or to professionals. It can be nerve-wrecking. Especially if you don't know where to begin. Diane with Pitch University  is the answer to   writers' nerves and uncertainity about their pitching and query letters. In fact, I got her to help me with my pitch for the Lone Star Conference and I'm glad I did! She has a lot of articles/materials and information to prep authors to talk about their work to the agents and editors who will decide whether or not to request pages from them. She also has opportunities to video-pitch to real agents and editors who are guests on the website. A whole team of "minions" work with Diane and the site is just amazing. If you're preparing to pitch and/or send a ...

Happy Monday All, Just 5 more days until Christmas. Can you believe it? If you're in denial about how close it is, I'd recommend not looking at the countdown in the margin of this blog. LOL This time of year, with New Year's the week after Christmas, it's been a "look back on the year" season for a lot of things--everything from the Internet to television.   For me, the previous year had it's bright spots, but it also had its rough spots.   Two of my uncles died, as well as two friends. One of the friends that died was someone I graduated high school with and I'm still in shock about it. It's hard to imagine such a thing happening.   On the bright side, I managed to finish editing (and start the query process on) a manuscript. As well as go into a pitch session for the first time, which is even more further along than I was a year ago. I like the idea of progressing forward--learning and growing and improving.   There was also a birth o...

Happy Friday All, While y'all are celebrating the end of another week, you can join me in celebrating me putting out a query letter for the first time. Thursday afternoon was when it happened, and I'll keep you updated on what's next. (In the meantime, please cross your fingers, toes, hair, whatever and if you're a prayer type person, send some up for me, please as I go through this process). There's mixed feelings involved here. For instance: On one hand I was nervous after pushing that "send" button, on the other hand, a sense of relief fell over me that my manuscript was finally ready and I had everything prepared. Once the initial nerves are gone there's the whole "Okay, onto the other manuscripts." and "What other responsibilities do I have?" Yesterday (late, around 8:30 or so p.m.) I made fudge. I had planned to, but the fact that I had gotten done what I had planned to in terms of getting that query out made me feel...

Happy Wednesday All, I wanted to post earlier, but for some reason the site was acting crazy, but it's mostly behaving right now. So, I can finally put something up. New Releases: Last night I picked up my copy of Kerrelyn Sparks' new book, Eat Prey Love, which is Carlos's story from Sparks' Love At Stake series. Looks good, by the way. Coming up: October 1st:  Robin Badillo makes her debut with  Journey Of The Damned: Retribution. October also means Laura Childs' new book from her Scrapbooking Series, Fiber & Brimstone will be available. Notes on Query Letters: A couple of days ago Scott Eagan talked about query letters and what he has to say about them. On a similar note today,  BookEnds, LLC talks about what their rejection letters look like. On September 26th, Query Shark had a winning query letter posted. Other News & Fun Things: Another thing happening in October is something I've been talking about:  NWHRWA's Lon...