To Enter or Not to Enter

First of all, this picture has nothing to do with anything--I'm just excited for Halloween and I thought it was adorable.

haha. So, in other news, I'm noticing a ton more agent pitch contests coming up--all over the blogsphere. I'm wondering what you guys think of them? I mean...I was in the agent pitch contests. And I didn't get any requests, even though I made it to the finals. And then I was in the small press pitch--where I did get one requests, which I'm quite happy about. But would I have gotten that request anyway if I'd queried that press? Or are agents more likely to read the pitch with a positive attitude if they know it's been through a contest and they are looking at one of the finalists?

I'm just really wondering if I'm better off shooting for more contests or just querying. Or does it even make a difference? Opinions?

Also, if you haven't voted, could you pretty please vote for Cacee by Tamara HERE. We are holding onto the lead, but only by a thread. My daughter is going to be totally bummed if we lose. Okay. Okay. I'll admit it...so will I. We really want that pony. haha. Thanks guys!!

Teaser Tuesday and Revisions...

So, I've had some revisions that were suggested by a couple beta readers and my critique partner. For some reason, I've been putting them off for quite awhile. I knew I had to do them. I'm not sure what was stopping me. It's like...my book was done. I wrote, revised, revised, revised, revised. The End. And then I found out  it wasn't the end and my brain just sort of balked and didn't want to deal with it.

In the meantime I'm in all these contests and stuff--so, on the chance that something comes from one of them, I have to actually finish the damn book. haha. So, today I finally got around to doing my revisions. And--lo and behold, I'm kind of having fun. I knew in my head the book needed to be changed, but I'm not sure I knew it in my heart. I think some part of me was resistant to changing something I'd worked so hard on. But I'm SO glad I got over my mental block. Because, now that it's in black and white, I can see how much better the book is.

Have any of you guys ever had a situation like this? Do you find it hard to continue revising after you think you're done? Or do you not make the mistake of thinking your done until you're positive you're done revisions?

Also, on a totally different note, it's Teaser Tuesday again. -sponsored by Should Be Reading  Anyone can play along. Just grab your current read, open to a random page, and share two teaser sentences from somewhere on the page. Be careful not to include spoilers!! Share the title and author too, so other TT participants can add the book to their TBR list if they want. Today's excerpt is:

She is silent for awhile, and I'm about to show myself, when she suddenly laughs, closing her eyes and shaking her head. I actually miss that stupid... I miss R. I know that's crazy, but is it really that crazy?

That's from Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion. If you haven't checked this book out yet, do it!! Awesome, beautiful book!! Totally different than anything else I've read. I LOVE it!!

And, lastly, I was asking everyone to vote for my pony before the voting even started. Oops. haha.  Anyway, if you want to be hugely awesome and click HERE to vote in the correct poll, my pony is Cacee by Tamara. My daughter drew her and she's really excited about this contest. It's so cute. She checks the site like ten times a day to see where the voting is. So, it would be awesome if you guys would vote, cause she'd be ecstatic if the pony she drew actually won. :)

THANKS FOR VOTING!

Quick update. First, I want to say thank you so so much for everyone who voted in the Kiss/Kiss off contest. But, as it turns out, the final set of votes had to be discounted because in this last round someone was cheating. They ended up ignoring the votes and just turning the whole thing over to an agent--that way it was up to a trained professional with a totally unbiased opinion to choose the winner. And guess who she chose???

If you guessed me, you're right. haha

So, it turns out that, even though I totally thought I'd been beaten, I wasn't! I won!!!

Now I get a twenty page agent critique. Best case scenario, she wants to keep reading. Worse case scenario, she tells me how to fix it so some other agent will want to keep reading. Either way, it's a win/win situation. I'M SO HAPPY!!

In the meantime, it turns out my grandson was an absolute angel the entire seventeen hour trip. I drove straight through--only stopping three times, for about twenty minutes each time. I was half dead by the time we got here, but I'm all rested up and having a great time  now. Glad I found a few minutes to hop on my blog and say thanks to you guys. YOU ARE ALL AWESOME!!!

Wow. Four out of Four

So, before going to bed, I did what I always do--I checked my query that's up on Deana Barnhart's site  for the small press pitch. There were four judges, and I got four votes to go through to the next round!!! Very nice confidence booster.

Now, mind you, I already did this once--on the agent pitch I got two votes and then a tie-breaker third allowing me to go through to the final round. Once IN the final round, I didn't get anything. So, I'm trying not to get my hopes too high, but it's really hard!

In other news, I've been blogging regularly since I started this. I know nobody is sitting around waiting for my blog's to pop up, (or, if you are, that's kind of creepy. haha). I just thought I'd mention that I'll be offline for most of the next week. I'll stop in when I can. I really want to see how my fellow GUTGAA'ers are doing. But I probably won't be steadily online or posting for about a week.

I'll miss you guys! I love having my blog to look forward to. And, I'm still planning a hundred followers contest, I've just been super busy, but I'll let everyone know when it is. One last question before I go...

How do you guys deal with something like this? When things seem really promising, but you don't want to hope too much because it never seems to work out? Please give me some tips to keep me from driving myself crazy.

Also, if you haven't already, please don't forget to vote for my PONY while I'm gone. haha. Me and my daughter really love our pony--so we're taking our PonyFest votes extremely seriously. I'd appreciate it immensely if you'd click the link and, if you like our pony, make sure to leave a vote!! :)

Thanks everyone, I'll miss you guys! I'm off to my nephew's wedding. Sixteen hours in the car from Southeast GA to upstate PA. To make the ride more fun, my two year old grandson, who happens to be sick and fairly miserable right now, is riding with us. *wince* Wish me luck!! haha. I'm gonna need it!

Insecure Writers Support Group and WWW Wednesdays

INSECURE WRITERS SUPPORT 

So, today is my first day joining the insecure writers support group, hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh. If you haven't visited his blog, please check it out, he's amazing! If you'd like to know more about IWSP, please click the link under the pic.

Anyway, apparently this is the place I come to express any fears or doubts. Strange, because it's been a very high and low month, so I should have some doubts. Lets see...I made it through to the finals round on GUTGAA Agent Pitch. Three agents voted me though and I was super excited, but then I didn't get a single vote/request from my pitch. Very disappointing.

Then, EVERYONE who follows my blog knows I've been in the Kiss/Kiss Off contest for about a month or so. It ends today. The last I looked at the poll, I was in second place, but I'm being beaten by over one-hundred votes. Ouch. Painful! But hey--congratulations to the girl who won, right? :) She had a good story.

I also sent out three queries (I decided I needed to revise before sending out more) and got three form rejections.

And, sadly--get ready to get your tissues out--my poor pony from PonyFest12 is getting NO votes. Sniff. This was definitely the most heartbreaking thing that has happened to me recently. Please click HERE and vote if you like her. :)

BUT, in the meantime, I was lucky enough to win a fifty-page critique from RuthAnne at And Then She was Like blah blah blah.  She pointed out some stuff that was really lacking in my manuscript and now I know exactly how to fix it. I was thinking for awhile that I was just being too chicken to really query (sending out three doesn't count too much haha) but I think, in my heart, I knew the book wasn't completely done. So, it's revision time again, but that's okay by me because I want my book to be the best it can be. At the same time, I met Stacy Stokes (Thinking to Inking) through Write On and she ended up being an awesome beta reader. She wrote an amazing book so it was no problem at all to beta for her!

Also, most of you already know that this month my critique partner, Karen Denise at I Am Always Write, also got signed by Sheldon Fogleman Literary agency, so that was AWESOME news!!

I also met some really amazing people this month through my blog, so that's been awesome. Right now, I'm participating in two contests, the Small Press Pitch (I have two votes, fingers crossed that I get another). Deana Barnhart is amazing!! I can't believe how much work she put into GUTGAA!! I'm so grateful I found her blog. :)

 I'm also a finalist in the Ghostly Blog hop for my short story, Beyond. Voting is closed, but it you want to check it out it's HERE.

So, all in all, it's been a lot of ups and downs this month--but I'm cool with that. I am not currently feeling insecure. I said to my husband the other day that I've decided the more rejections I get and the harder I have to work, the cooler my story will be when I finally succeed. And that's my new motto.

Thanks for checking out my post. Before I go I also have been wanting to participate in WWW Wednesdays. To play you just have to answer  three questions:

What are you currently reading?  The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

What did you recently finish reading? Angelfall by Susan Ee. AMAZING book. The best action/suspense I've read since the Hunger Games. I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for an edge-of-your-seat read. Great heroine, non-stop tension and awesome stakes that continually rise throughout the book.

What do you plan on reading next? The Shining by Stephen King. It's one of his only books I've never read and it's on my TBR list, so I'm finally going to check it out.









How about you guys? How is your month as a writer going? What are you reading this Wed?

Teaser Tuesday

So, I came across a cool idea at Should Be Reading. It's called Teaser Tues. A bunch of you have probably already heard of it, but--for those who haven't, you can click on the link to get more info. :) It sounded like a fun idea, so I thought I'd start participating. Plus, I'm trying to give my blog some coherency instead of just posting whenever the mood strikes me. haha.

My Teaser for this week:

They kept flashing a 1-800 number, so I called it. The woman who picked up on the other end was called Michelle. And I told Michelle that I was a kid and did not need an exercise machine, but I hoped she was having a good night. 


That's from Perks of Being a Wallflower. I'm only halfway through it, but I LOVE the book. I'd quote the page it's on, but I'm reading it on my iPhone, so I can't, cause the numbers are totally different on the phone.

Also, you probably know what I'm going to say while I have you here. Haha. I promise not to bother you guys anymore about this after today, but it's the last day of the kissing scene contest: HERE. I can't tell you what entry I am, but I can tell you I'm on Team Kissy and I desperately need votes!!! Just scroll down past the entries and you'll see the poll.  Pretty please take a second to go over and I'll hope you pick my entry. :)

Thanks guys! Also, have any of you read The Perks of Being a Wallflower? What did you think of it? Will you be going to see the movie? I think Logan Lerman and Emma Watson were perfect casting. I'm super excited to see it! If you haven't seen the trailer, just click on the pic! :)

Final Week

So, it's the final week of the Kissy/Kiss Off contest. As most of you guys know, I've been in this contest for awhile now--over a month--and I made it to the top two finalists of TEAM KISSY. I can't tell you which one I am, but I can ask you to pretty please go vote and hope that, out of the two Team Kissy entries, you pick mine. :) Right now, Team Kissy is sadly lacking in votes. :( 

Please Help!!!! 

KISS/KISS OFF FINAL CONTEST

And who else thinks Rory and Jess from the Gilmore Girls were one of the cutest couples ever?