Writer's Contest w/ Sarah Wylie

Sarah Wylie is celebrating her new book contract.

"When I found out that All These Lives was going to be published, I promised we'd do something fun and celebratory. I've made some incredible friends within the blogosphere, and I wanted to find a way we could celebrate together."

Congratulations to Sarah and good luck to the contestants!

Wii Fit Workout

I've been trying to get up early and exercise. Wii Fit is my current exercise of choice - it's fun, simple, and I can choose how long my workout is and what areas to focus on. I'm frustrated because when I do the body test, I keep getting told "that's overweight." I'm not mad at the Wii - I understand that I need to lose a few pounds - I'm frustrated at myself because I can't get down to the next level. I'm right at the line. What does will it say when I'm not overweight? You're perfect? Just right? Send me your full manuscript? No, wait. That last one isn't right.

Don't you wish you had a handy-dandy workout tool for your manuscript? My ms is clocking it at right around 60K words. I know I have a few scenes yet to add. Suddenly, I'm pushing the higher end of my genre. How did that happen? (Then again, how did I gain 10 pounds since my daughter was born?) But, is it overweight in other areas? Does it need a few sit ups? Or to cut some unneeded words?

Do you need to put your manuscript on a healthy diet?

National Hug Your Critique Partners Day

OK, I made it up. It's true in my world, though.

I've been with my group just under a year. The three of them are part cheerleaders, part drill Sargents, part wordsmiths, part editors. There's probably more parts, too.

If you don't have critique partners, beta readers, writing colleagues or whatever you choose to call the people who read your work first -- Go. Get. Some. And, you can't have mine.

Here's to you Laura, Natasha, and Jen. Happy Hug Your Critique Partners Day! I love you guys!

Query Tracker Contest

I almost titled this post "OMG OMG" but that didn't look professional...

I can barely type right now my hands are shaking so badly...I was one of five winners at the Query Tracker pitch contest with Jason Yarn. Honestly, I'm hyperventilating. I've got to go and read what to do next... Congrats to the other winners as well! And everyone who entered...