Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Thanksgiving & Thursday's Children Double Up Blog Hop

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Yes, combining Inspiration and Gratitude makes perfect sense.



I am devoting this post to Writer-Mentors. 

The Givers. 

The ones throwing contests and clinics, holding out a hand to those traveling behind them. 

Even though they are also writing, editing, revising, parenting, "spousing", teaching, and a million other things.


After writing three books I finally decided to work on my "Social Media Platform". Twitter, Facebook, and blogging connected me to other writers. Through them, I learned about the world of Contests and Clinics and Blog Hops. Oh, my.

I entered GUTGAA. Boy, did that make my head spin! Although I didn't make it to the agent round, I learned a lot and met some fabulous people. And I won a critique.



I still have NO idea how Deana Barnhart pulled off something that HUGE and COMPLICATED with such patience and grace. Clearly she's an organizational genius. Not to mention, a saint.

I entered a couple of Flash Fiction contests on the Writer Unboxed Facebook group
and on Suzanne Palmieri's blog.

Then there was Hook, Line and Sinker. I didn't make it past the first round there. But it was still fun.

Hook,Line,&Sinker

Dee Romito at Writes For Apples not only knows about all the contests that are going on, she's involved in most of them, not only H,L&S, but also... Agent Trick or Treat.

Trick or Treat with and Agent


Kimberly Chase and Brenda Drake (more on her later) were also part of Trick or Treat. Because of their spirit of generosity, the original twelve slots became THIRTEEN. And I squeaked in and got a request for a partial because of it. Yay!

Somewhere in there was this one. Thank you Jamie Corrigan !


Sharon Bayliss hooked me up with The Curiosity Quills Haunted Writing Clinic & Contest,



where I was mentored by the kind and insightful James Wymore. His help led to a request for a partial!

Through that contest and Sharon's Title Contest, where TENDRIL was one of the winners, I connected with Jessa Russo.

There's also this going on at Talynn Lynn's Ink in the Book blog.

Registration extended through Thanksgiving

Heather Webb's Pitch Like a Rock Star Contest came next, as I recall.
Heather's kindness resulted in three runner-up 5-page critique prizes. Yup, I got me one of those.



I also did a couple of contests hosted by groups of YA writers

from the people at YAtopia

and another one from Oasis for YA which got me a crit of TENDRIL's first 250 words

And here are two more contests I'm looking forward to-

PitchWars - Brenda Drake strikes again! And brings a whole posse of helpful writers, editors, and agency interns along with her. Thirty-one awesome volunteers to be exact. Check her blog to see who they are.



And yeah, The Thanksgiving Blog Hop was Brenda's idea too. Clearly the woman NEVER sleeps. I call her Bionic Brenda. She doesn't know that though.

Also coming up is #PitchMas Feaky Snucker 's Brainchild. I don't know what Feaky's real name is. I think she might be in some kind of Librarian Protection Program.

Holiday PitchFest 2012

The best parts of all these contests? (aside from the occasional ms request)
New friendships, mentoring, helpful feedback.
If I'm ever in a position to extend the same kind of helping hand to fledgling writers, believe me, I will.

THANK YOU WRITER-GIVERS! 

You are MY inspiration!


If you'd like to join Thursday's Children this week here's the Linky List

And if you'd like to grab the code, here it is

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And here's our Theme Song!



16 comments:

  1. I second this blog! I am so thankful for WriteOnCon, GUTGAA, and the Haunted Writing Clinic. I have learned so much from these events/contests and I feel I am a better writer for the lessons learned! I am so grateful to those who host these wonderful events!

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    1. Thanks for taking time out of your POV-revising frenzy to pop in :D Once NaNo madness is done I'll be twisting your arm (yes, I'll move the cat off it first) to join Thursday's Children.

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  2. GREAT post!!! This is so true. GUTGAA was what inspired me to start a blog and I've met so many great people since then. I still have three partials out because of various contests and one full (with Jessa Russo--I saw you mentioned her, do you have anything out with her?) She seems really sweet!! I interviewed her on my blog. :) I also got a chance to work with Krystal Wade (who I won a query critique from) and who is incredibly nice. Kimberly Chase read/critiqued my manuscript for me even though I didn't make it into her contest--and gave me a ton of helpful advice. So yeah...the amount of support in this community is really awe inspiring. And I'm with you--if I ever make it in this business, I definitely want to emulate these writers!!

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    1. Excellent on your requests! At the moment I have 3 fulls out and 3 partials (all for TENDRIL). One of the partials is with Jessa. Good luck to us both :D

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  3. Wow, you've been busy! Thanks for the shout out. It's been great to get to know you too and I look forward to seeing what happens with Tendril.

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    1. Thanks for visiting-talk about busy, you are like a crazy woman with the blogging and the contests and the tweeting and the writing. Like the roadrunner with a pen.

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  4. Darn, your post is now making me rethink that whole not entering anymore contests for a while idea...

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    1. They are kind of addicting, but I will be the first to admit they are not exactly conducive to writing/revising. For everything there is a season. Fall was my season for contests. You can quote me on that ;-)

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  5. You are amazing!

    And busy! O.O

    I'm so impressed by everything you do and keep up with!

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  6. I'm so glad you were able to join this week-figured it might be a "light" week for Thursday's Children :)

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  7. You've been very busy. I'm impressed with all the people you've met and all the opportunities you've been brave enough to try.

    I also think it's great you're taking the time to thank people.

    You inspire me.

    http://otherworlddiner.blogspot.com/2012/11/thanksgiving-thanks.html

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  8. Aww...thank you Mia, and thank you for joining us during a crazy holiday week. The few, the proud, the Thursday's Children of Thanksgiving. Going to the diner now :D

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  9. And you met ME through GUTGAA :) Or was it CAGI??? Haha.

    Your comments have always been helpful, both on my queries and those 1st three chapters I sent you :) Thanks!!

    John

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    1. Yes! You are one of the "fabulous people" I alluded to-and it was GUTGAA, I didn't do CAGI. It was a pleasure to read your work. Now I think of you every time my family makes me watch a Star Wars movie. And it helps actually to view them through a mythology lens because normally I can't stand Star Wars :)

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    2. LOL. Thanks :)

      Ditto.

      PS: I've been wanting to do a mythology Thursday's Children one of these weeks. I have something better for this week, though.

      There is so much you can get from it, even in contemporary dramas.

      PREVIEW: How different is the Iliad and its aftermath to what happens when soldiers come home from war in modern times? It's all about relationships and individual motivations.

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