Release Day for Tamara Hogan’s Taste Me
A hero who experiences the world through TASTE? Who is also an incubus. And a heroine named Scarlett in a rock band called Scarlett’s Web who is a siren, able to amplify emotional energy with her voice.
WOW.
Put these two together in a dangerous underworld and you’ve got 2009 GH Finalist Tamara Hogan’s sizzling new debut novel, TASTE ME, a sexy, fast paced urban fantasy out from Sourcebooks TODAY.
I’m especially excited for Tammy because I’ve been following her progess over the past year and a half or so on the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog–from GH winner to publishing contract to revisions to–waalah–gorgeous novel!
Read an interview with Tamara on the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog here and visit her website here. And then run out and (or click to) buy her book! I can’t wait to read it!
Congratulations, Tammy!!!
Voting ends tomorrow in the Jane Austen Short Story Contest at pemberley.com
You have until tomorrow at midnight Eastern time to vote for your favorite Jane Austen-related short stories at pemberley.com.
There are almost ninety! I’m still reading them all!!
My story is #70, The Lost Portrait of Jane Austen.
The top ten winners of the popular vote will be announced Tuesday.
Oh, and who are you rooting for tonight?!
What I Wish I Could Say to the GH Entrants I Judged
I’ve been judging contests for a couple of years, but this is the first time I volunteered to judge the Golden Heart, RWA’s prestigious contest for new writers. There are over 1000 entrants or more per year, in ten categories, and the first-round judging is done by members all over the country.
No feedback is given in this contest–you simply get a list of six numerical scores, 1-9.
I long to give feedback to everyone, to tell them what exactly it was that made me score them as I did. I believe the purpose of contests is to mentor and teach–not to knock people down. But this contest does not give you the opportunity to do that. So…
Here’s what I wish I could say to the entrants I had the honor of judging:
–Conflict drives a story and if you have no external conflict, but focus only on the internal, the reader soon becomes bored. BUT YOU CAN FIX THIS!
–Don’t replace your external conflict with strange, unlikely events that happen suddenly that would never happen in real life (unless you are writing paranormal). This is an attempt at trying to make the story exciting but it falls flat because it is forced. BUT YOU CAN FIX THIS!
–Pacing has to be fast to keep your readers’ attention. I think writers often lose track of pacing because we are so submerged into the story and want to be careful to explain many different things so as to not lose our readers. BUT YOU CAN FIX THIS!
–Inserting emotions that are way over the top doesn’t add excitement to the story. If the heroine squeaks, bursts, or prances, the reader can only wonder if she is human. AN EASY FIX!
–Does your heroine make bad decisions based on low self esteem that are hard to understand or are not explained well? The reader has to have immediate sympathy with your heroine and if she/he doesn’t, it may be because the decisions she makes are not explained well. BUT YOU CAN FIX THIS, TOO!
–If you are making jokes in your writing, they may fall flat. Humor is hard to write.
–One story had an incredible amount of heart but the writing had many flaws (and I don’t mean grammar, etc. I mean story structure problems.) But the heart of the story was so good, I wished I could score it higher.
–What’s the cure for all these things? Critique partners and Readers. Readers that read a lot of the genre you write in and feel free to tell you honestly, hey! this just did not sit well with me. Especially in the entry with a lot of heart, this writer will never know by numerical score how much possibility her entry has. That she can easily improve her story, polish it up and get it out there again.
–I am always amazed at how blind to my own story problems I become. The total immersion it takes to build a story world becomes blinding after a while. I had to force myself to let other people read my work, but you know what? It gets easier all the time. Because the only way to get better and better is to put yourself out there.
Hope Ramsay’s Debut Novel Out Today–Welcome to Last Chance
Take a look at this gorgeous cover!! Hope Ramsay, one of the Golden Heart winners from 2009, has her first book out TODAY! The cover says it all–this is a small-town romance between two unlikely people, and they’re from the town of Last Chance, South Carolina. Read all about it on Hope’s website here.
Hope is blogging today at the The Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood. Check out her post here–and don’t forget to pick up a copy of her book!!
Hope is a frequent blogger on the Sisterhood. Check out her craft advice blogs in their archives. They are outstanding.
I had the privilege of meeting Hope at the RWA national Conference in Orlando last summer. She calmed me down when I was shaking, index card in hand, for my agent appointment. (Thanks, Hope!)
Congratulations, Hope, on your four-book series!!!
Jane Austen Made Me Do It Short Story Contest–Vote till Feb. 28
Do you love Jane Austenesque fiction? There are 87 short stories now posted by talented unpublished authors at pemberley.com. The stories are “inspired by, or based upon, Jane Austen, her novels, characters, letters, philosophies of life and/or love.” They are all wonderfully creative and all of them could not be more different!
Please stop by and vote for my story, The Lost Portrait of Jane Austen. It is about a woman who suffers from Darcy-Wickham confusion because of a previously broken heart and how she ultimately finds her real Darcy.
I loved writing this story. It was a stretch for me in many ways. Because my beginning line is a play on the first line of Pride and Prejudice, I was committed to the first person, which I have never written in before. (Very scary!) Also, the story is contemporary–I usually write Regency historical romance. And lastly, the story is short–I write 90,000-word novels. How do you tell a whole story in 24 pages what usually takes you 350? Answer: you write short and you write tight. (Easier said than done!)
My blog is brand new and is not even showing up in the Google search engine yet (unless you plug in the .com name exactly). So if you read my story or any others, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment about the ones you’ve liked. It is difficult to read all 87 by Feb. 28!
And please stop by and vote (for me)!