Celebrate the Small Things - Conference edition

It's here!  After almost a year of planning, my RWA chapter's conference is here!  I'm happy about this for several reasons:

1) We have a great line-up of speakers and classes, so it should be a really informative experience for everyone.

2) We have a great location.  Downtown Fort Worth--what's not to love?

3) Once the conference is over, I can get back to my normal life and start writing again!  Between the conference, moving, the wedding, and the day job, I haven't had much time to get any writing done.  I miss it.  A lot.  I'm really looking forward to getting back to it.

What are you celebrating this week?

If you've been reading my blog, you know that Fridays are reserved for a post where I celebrate the little things that have happened during the week.  This is a blog hop hosted by VikLit, and it's one of my favorite blogging things to do.  I encourage you to check out her blog and the full list of participants, because who doesn't love reading about good things?

Attention romance writers!

Fort Worth skyline

My RWA chapter, North Texas RWA, sponsors a writing conference every other year.  Our next conference will be held in March, 2014, and yours truly is the conference coordinator.  I'm happy to report that I'm catching up on my conference to-do list, and I've got the conference blog up and running.  If you're a romance writer who is looking for a fun, educational conference, I hope you'll consider our Texas Two-Step!

Looking for a few good readers!

Attention READERS!  Would you like some free books?  My RWA chapter is holding a contest for published authors called The Carolyn Readers Choice Award.  Naturally, to bestow a reader's choice award, we need readers to judge the entrants.  If this sounds like your cup of tea, please check out our contest page and consider signing up!

Photo Friday - Das Boot edition

No, not a boat (apologies to the Germans) but a boot.  As in, the NTRWA boot o' authors.

You see, my local RWA chapter does this thing where authors receive a giant pencil when they sell a book.  The pencil has your name, your book title, and the publisher's name on it.  You get to stand up and talk about your book when it's awarded, and then the pencils are placed in the boot until December, at which point you get to take them home.

I don't mean to brag, but my chapter is pretty dang awesome.  That boot fills up fast, and my goal when I first joined the chapter last year was to someday get a pencil (or two) of my own.  This month, I did just that.  (It's the dark blue one in front, in case you're wondering)

Are you a member of a writing group?  If so, how does your group celebrate the successes of its members?

Great Expectations Contest!

www.123rf.com

Yes, I am alive. :)  It's the end of the semester so I've been buried in work, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel--two more weeks until break starts!

In the meantime, I wanted to let you all know about the Great Expectations contest sponsored by my local RWA chapter.  Here are the details:

What: Great Expectations Writing Contest

Who: Unpublished authors (and authors not previously published in that genre)

Where: http://ntrwagreatexpectations.blogspot.com/

Why: Because entering a writing competition like Great Expectations can be a great thing for you, your writing, and your career.

Great Expectations encourages inspiration, learning, improvement, discipline, experience, and publishing.

Inspiration

A writing competition with different categories can encourage you to polish that story you've always wanted to write. Great Expectations offers you a chance to enter the first twenty-five pages of your manuscript in the following romance categories:

• Contemporary Series

• Erotic Romance

• Historical

• Inspirational Contemporary

• Mainstream with Romantic Elements

• Romantic Suspense

• Single Title

• Specialized (Futuristic/Fantasy/Time Travel/Paranormal)

• Young Adult

Learning

Every entry will be evaluated by at least five first round judges and scored. Feedback is often provided by those judges. Finalists will then be reviewed by professional editors from a variety of publishing houses. Previous entrants to Great Expectations have found the feedback invaluable to improving their manuscripts.

Improvement

Writers who apply what they learn from the feedback have the chance to polish their manuscripts for future competitions and submissions. Imagine the chance to know what in your first twenty-five pages really resonated with the judges and where they had questions. Too often, writers don't have access to this kind of information. You have a chance to improve the quality of your writing, your submissions, and your story just by entering.

Discipline

Like all competitions, Great Expectations has some hard and fast deadlines. From early bird entries to the very last day you can enter. To take advantage of the other benefits, you have to meet those deadlines. Discipline helps writers become more focused not only on their story, but also their method.

Experience

Experience is the best teacher. Whether you are a first time pre-published author, a veteran of writing competitions, or an author looking to experience a new genre, Great Expectations can help you achieve experience in that area with valuable feedback, contacts, and learning.

Publishing

Many finalists in the Great Expectations contest (and even some who didn't final) used the experience, the learning, and the feedback to turn their entries into polished full submissions and publication. Final judges may request full manuscripts during the judging process as well, so just by entering you have the chance to make it to the short-list of authors an editor wants to see more from.

The only question you should have left is, why aren't you entering Great Expectations?

Enter today.

I hope some of you will take advantage of this contest--it's a wonderful opportunity!