Writing Competition, Souls of Indie & ROW80 Update

Happy Monday. I have stuff to share today.

First, a great opportunity to enter a short story contest for a low fee ($10 per entry) and nice prizes ($100 to the winner, $50 to the runner up). Check out the Pamlico Writers Writing Competition.

Deadline: February 23, 2014

Information (for further details, visit here):

Who May Enter: 

• Any adult writer (age 18 or over).
• The High School Category is for students in Grades 9-12 ONLY.
• Members of the current Steering Committee, Jurors, and Workshop Presenters WILL NOT participate in the competition.

What You May Enter:

• Your entry must be your original work.
• You must own all publication rights (i.e., the work must never have been published in a manner in which you gave away your rights). You generally do not give away rights when the work is published on the Internet. You may, as when you are not paid, retain all rights whenever you have published the work in a conventional way.
• Entries flaunting degrading sexual and physical violence or espousing extreme political views will not be considered for judging at the discretion of the contest juror.

There are five contest categories:

• Fiction
• Creative Non-fiction
• Young Adult
• Poetry
• High School 

Second, an amazing deal on 5 full-length novels...

5 full-length novels from 5 of the hottest authors in New Adult Paranormal Romance!

Escape reality and immerse yourself in these steamy paranormal romances. With everything from tattooed bad boys and sexy demons to hot, otherworldly bodyguards, you’re going to fall in love. Beware: you’ll be up reading well past your bedtime!

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Retail value = $14.95
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Recommended for readers 16+
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Amazon UK
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For more information on the books in the collection and to enter the giveaway, please visit here.

*****

Mondays are also my A Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80) check in days. 

After completing my second round of edits on Chasing Shadows, I needed to play quite a bit of catch up on everything from blog posts to taxes. Now, I'm working on Chasing Forgiveness, a Tala Prophecy novella, while I'm waiting for CS to come back. Plus, I need to finish my Acknowledgements and back cover summary. 

Wishing everyone a great week!

Writers' Conference & Competition News

TGIF!

I'm still finding my footing after two weeks of holiday craziness and family time. Hope everyone's transition to 2014 is coming along.

Today, I wanted to share some information about the wonderful Pamlico Writers Conference and Competition with all of you.

Saturday, March 8

9:00am - 6:00pm

Washington, North Carolina (waterfront)

From their website

Our theme above emphasizes the hands-on approach of the second annual 2014 conference & competition presented by the Beaufort County Arts Council and The Pamlico Writers Group.

Writers will meet in the Washington Civic Center, an historic railroad station and warehouse, located in the heart of Washington, NC on the Pamlico River.

We invite you to join us for a day filled with workshops, a keynote speaker, and a panel discussion on The Craft of Writing, a.k.a. The Labor After the Inspiration.

About the Juried Writing Competition

DEADLINE for submissions: February 23, 2014

Contest Categories:

• Fiction
• Creative Non-fiction
• Young Adult **
• Poetry
• High School (for students in grades 9-12)

Contest Fees:

• Prose categories - $10 reading fee per entry
• Poetry - 3 poems for $10 reading fee
• High School (no reading fee)

FOLLOW THESE EASY STEPS TO ENTER:

1. You MUST upload competition entry files from your personal account.
2. Check CONTEST RULES to make sure your work complies.
3. Create a Login Account.
4. Log in: My Account page is your place to register for the conference and enter the competition.
5. Choose option to enter the competition.
6. Pay your reading fee via your PayPal Account or credit card of your choice.
7. UPLOAD your entry per instructions.
8. You may UPLOAD as many entries as you like (reading fee applies to each entry) until competition closing date.

Last year, I really enjoyed the conference. In addition, I won the Young Adult competition and was published in The Washington Magazine. It's only in its second year, but it's growing. I highly recommend it if you are in the area.

Even if you can't go, please consider entering the writing competition: you don't have to be present to win and you don't have to attend the conference to enter. In addition, if you know high school students who love to write, please encourage them to enter. The winner gets a $500 cash scholarship prize.

Please share this information with anyone who is interested. Thank you.

Hope everyone has an amazing Friday!

** How cool is it that they have a YA category. Come on friends. I know you have stories to tell!

From Idea to Publication: ROW80 Update

When I wrote my first novel, I wasn't sure if I was a one-and-done writer. After publishing, my mind seemed void of ideas. Then about a year later, an idea emerged.

But Life kept the idea in my head until last November. For the first time, I decided to take on National Novel Writing Month. I had no clue what I was really getting myself into, but I knew one thing about myself--if I took on the challenge, I wouldn't quit.

I survived NaNo. Taking the advice of those with NaNo experience, I put the manuscript aside until mid-January or so. When I re-read it, I was surprised how much I liked it. Still unsure what to do with it, I let it sit again.

Then, my mom (and my Depression Cookies co-author) called to let me know about a short story contest at a writing conference. They had a YA category. I wanted to see how the idea behind Chasing Memories would fare, so I entered a revamped 2,500 word sampling from the Prologue and early chapters into the contest.

Crazy thing happened... it won.

Armed with an increased self-confidence about the piece, I decided to send it to my amazing blogger friend, Jo Michaels, who happens to be an editor at Indie Books Gone Wild (where I am also an editor). When she was also encouraging, I threw caution to the wind and began the editing process. Six weeks later, I had a finished copy. Now, I'm hovering over the Publish button. Why is hitting Publish so scary?

None of this would have been possible without my writing community, a huge part of which is ROW80. Without the encouragement of my fellow writers, this manuscript would be collecting dust in a corner. I am truly grateful.

Please stop back by on Friday. I will have sign ups for the cover reveal for Chasing Memories. 

I hope all my writer friends are 

making progress and believing in their work!

Writer's Conference & Writing Competition

My new theme for 2013 is discovery. Since 2013 has had a bumpy start, I'm determined to discover new things about myself and my writing (see my post, Eagerly Awaiting Discovery).

To that end, I wanted to share a wonderful new Writer's Conference and writing competition... 

Pamlico Writers

Conference & Competition

Writing In Our Time

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Washington Civic Center

Located in Historic Downtown

Washington, North Carolina

A Sampling of the Lineup
Panel Discussion: Publishing in Our Time--featuring an amazing lineup

Keynote Speaker: Bland Simpson, Kenan Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing at UNC-Chapel Hill

Workshops Include
Writing for Young Adults*
Humor in Writing
Memoir & Beginnings
The Prose Poem: Where Do We Draw the Line?
Finding the Story Shape: A Pattern Language for Fiction
Non-Fiction

For more details on workshops and speakers, please visit here and download the registration brochure. The registration deadline is February 15, 2013.

In addition, there is a Writing Competition. The full rules can be found here on the Beaufort County Arts Council website. A few details:

* February 1, 2013 Entry Deadline
* Categories: Prose: Fiction, Prose: Non-Fiction, Prose: Young Adult, Poetry, High School (no fee required for high school)
* Prose - 2500 word maximum
* Poetry - 200 word maximum
* $100 cash prize for 1st place & $50 cash prize for 2nd place will be awarded in each category
* A $500 Scholarship Award will be granted to the best high school entry

For those in the area, I hope you will consider coming. Both my mom and I will be there, and I'm looking forward to discovering new things about my writing. All of which I will come back and share with all of you.

* I am particularly excited about this one. Devyn Dawson, YA author of the Light Tamer Trilogy, is the speaker. Check her out here. I am hoping to pick up some pointers for my YA novel, Chasing Memories.