writers

Calling All Critiques: Cover Art Entry #3

Jun 2, 2014 | Offers

Thank you, J Edward Neill, for submitting your cover art entry to Calling All Critiques! We are so happy to post your book cover and give feedback.

To all those interested in critiquing the art below, please be constructive, proactive, and helpful. Not all feedback has to be positive, but it must help the author improve and/or let him/her know what s/he is doing right and wrong. Your feedback is important to the author, so please provide details and suggestions in a polite way. More info on how to critique here.

Please also make sure to check out our Rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win two books and an Amazon gift certificate ! Critique then enter!

Author: J Edward Neill
Website: www.DownTheDarkPath.com
Book title: Dark Moon Daughter
Genre: Adult / Dark Fantasy

Leave your critiques below! The author appreciates your feedback.

There’s more to critique!

After leaving your comments, you can head over to one or more of these blogs to see some more great entries:

Calling All Critiques: Submit Your Cover Art

May 31, 2014 | Offers

Starting now, Calling All Critiques is accepting entries for your cover art.

How to Enter

Submit your entry to Critiques@Saboviec.com. Cut and paste the following template into your email and fill it in.

Your name/pseudonym:
Your website (optional):
Title:
Genre (include audience, such as YA/Adult, and category):

Attach your cover art to the email in a standard format (.jpg, .gif, .png preferred). Make sure it’s big enough to be legible when viewed at full-size on a standard web browser.

This week, we will keep accepting entries through Monday or Tuesday, depending on interest. If you get them in before 8 p.m. EDT and spots are open, you will go into the next day’s round.

More Details

Questions? Check out some of the earlier blog posts or leave a comment below:

After You Submit…

After you submit, check out all the participating blogs and bloggers:

Quanie Talks Writing – Quanie Miller
Proof Positive – Christie Stratos (Twitter / Facebook / Google+)
Official Blog of Brian Basham – Brian Basham (Twitter / Wattpad / Facebook)
MM Jaye Writes – MM Jaye (Twitter / Facebook)
Magic & Mayhem Book Reviews – S. L. Saboviec
Before Ink Dries – Mike Verbickas

Thanks for being part of Calling All Critiques!

Calling All Critiques: Entry #14

May 28, 2014 | Offers

This is the final day of 500 word excerpts for Calling All Critiques! Thank you to all who participated – we hope you found the critiques you received useful. Next week we’ll have book covers in need of critiques, so stay tuned!

Don’t forget to enter our raffle to win a $10 Amazon gift card, an eCopy of It Ain’t Easy Being Jazzy by Quanie Miller, and an eCopy of Guarding Angel by S. L. Saboviec. This is your last chance!

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/6928ae2/

And now, on to the final critique.

Author: Robert L. Slater
Website: www.desertedlands.com
Genre: YA/Adult Science Fiction
Entry:

*STRAIGHT INTO DARKNESS*
A Deserted Lands novel*.*

LIZZIE SLUNK BETWEEN THE CIRCLES of lights on the snow-scattered streets. The night’s cold bit at her through the layers of clothing she’d added after escaping. Her second day of freedom—slept away in an uncollected house—faded into the past. Happy Belated-f___ing Birthday, Lizzie. Now someone followed her. Or maybe paranoia lied to her again.

Her pace quickened, the baby in her belly kept her core warm, but her fear sent her running. She jogged down the center of the street away from the drifting snow that would give her path away.

Like her feared pursuer, the houses watched her; like hollow ghouls they represented the human deaths, the costs of the pandemic. Her heart twisted at the thought of her own dead. Mama, keep me safe. Jayce, help Mama not be too lonely. Lizzie wished she could hear their voices, see their pictures and videos. But that cell phone had died in the burning car. Stupid. Months later she still kicked herself for her forgetfulness and lack of focus.

A car engine hummed down a nearby street. She slid behind a wooden fence and found a knothole she could use to spy on the car. Good thing she’d hidden—one of The City’s finest. He looked like a cop, not just someone who had become one since the Quieting. That might make him better at his job.

He couldn’t be looking for her. No one should even know she was gone until she didn’t show up for Monday morning chores, cleaning up after breakfast in the cafeteria. Somebody might notice she didn’t show up for breakfast, but breakfast wasn’t mandatory for the preggers. They’d assume she’d prioritized sleep or felt nauseous. She should have had another day. She needed that day. Dammit. The cop stopped at the next intersection and turned a circle inside it, then another and stopped. Was he bored?

The patrol car sat idling. The door opened. Lizzie scanned behind herself, she needed to move. She slipped against the house and worked her way around, eyes peeled and ears open to anything. The car door closed. The engine revved and moved away from her. At the edge of the street, she waited behind another parked car until it turned onto a side street. Then she raced across.

This mission wasn’t what she’d imagined. It should have been easy. The night curfew meant no one on the streets. That was the mistake. No one except her. She needed to get out of the central district and into the suburbs. The viaduct cut across her path. She lowered herself down its incline on her butt. Ice covered the bottom, but she’d be more hidden. Unless, of course, someone had seen her go down and then there was no escape.

She slid along the ice for several blocks, but it slowed her down. She crawled out to streets blown clean of snow. Anger fueled her feet on the bare pavement, she ran, ignoring the mild stitch in her side and the uncomfortable bounce from the extra fat her body was piling up.

Liked critiquing this piece? There’s more to critique!

Or critique another piece on Proof Positive’s blog:

Calling All Critiques: Entry #8

May 27, 2014 | Offers, Uncategorized

Thank you to everyone who has shared their work for us to critique! We hope that our feedback is useful.

Also, please note that we still have spots open. Submit your first 500 words to Critiques@Saboviec.com for inclusion in this week’s blog posts. We need it by tonight at 8 p.m. if you want to be included tomorrow and spots are still open.

For critiquers (and if you’re an entrant and you critique, you’re a critiquer), feel free to enter our Rafflecopter giveaway. One lucky person will win a $10 Amazon gift card, an eCopy of It Ain’t Easy Being Jazzy by Quanie Miller, and an eCopy of Guarding Angel by S. L. Saboviec.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/6928ae2/

Entry #8

*Author: Kim Johnson*
*Website:* http://kimcjohnson.wordpress.com/
*Title: Her Only Escape*
*Genre: YA Suspense*

The last place a senior wants to be cooped up is the career counseling office. But I like the quiet. I like the college posters filled with smiling faces. The stacks of possibilities filed in the cabinets. Even the obsolete typewriter. But most of all, hearing the tick, tick, tick, of the clock. A sound to drift to if I can stay undetected in the far corner.

Hunched over, my long hair drapes my face on my desk and I let my glasses dangle at the tip of my fingers.

*My legs flutter above ground, whipping high in the sky. I land. Move my feet sharply like scissors to complete an arabesque, dangerously close to the edge of the stage. With my feet perfectly on pointe, I arch my back, keeping the length of my arms straight. I’m dancing like my life is on the line – reckless chances. Maybe it’s because I know he’s watching me from the back corner. I dance faster so he doesn’t disappear, but my body is tiring. I stumble glancing in the shadows. He is gone. *

The bell rings and I jolt my head up. It takes a second to place myself. I wipe the drool from my mouth, and throw my bag over my shoulder. Adrenaline charges up my body, raising my energy beyond containment. I refuse to let anything stop me from dancing again. I swallow the pain choking up to my neck thinking about Michael. About his warnings. About him being gone.

I practically skip to the doors adjacent to the indoor weight facility at Eugene Highland high school. We use it as our makeshift studio. The first time I found out it, I stalked the dance practice through the window for weeks before I brought the subject up at home.

“Maybe you shouldn’t,” Mom said after I mentioned wanting to take up dance again. I did a double take, to make sure I heard her right. She repeated once more. Hearing it a second time, it stung like she slapped my face. Dad left the room to refrain from yelling at the top of his lungs.

I wanted him to. Just once lose it, in front of me. But he didn’t.

Mom continued, “I only mean, you should try something new, Samantha.”
My mouth still hung open a bit. What she won’t say is, *do something else*. *Anything else.* As long as it doesn’t remind her of Michael.

Mom is all about forgetting.

Shoving it down.

Burying it.

Dad usually gives in to Mom, but this was one thing he wouldn’t let be taken away from me. I found him upstairs, unpacking my dance boxes.

“For when you’re ready,” he said, before kissing my forehead goodnight.

And dance began burning in my heart again. Calling me to the floor. Gripping me until I couldn’t breathe. Till the only thing left for me to do was dance.

There’s more to critique!

After leaving your comments, you can head over to one or more of these blogs to see some more great entries:

Thank you to the entrants and the participants!

Calling All Critiques: Entry #6

May 26, 2014 | Authors, Offers

Thank you, C. Angeles Wolf, for submitting your 500 word entry to Calling All Critiques! We are so happy to post your work and give feedback.

To all those interested in critiquing the work below, please be constructive, proactive, and helpful. Not all feedback has to be positive, but it must help the author improve and/or let him/her know what s/he is doing right and wrong. Your feedback is important to the author, so please provide details and suggestions in a polite way. More info on how to critique here.

Please also make sure to check out our Rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win two books and an Amazon gift certificate! Critique then enter!

Book Title: The Penumbrae Chronicles: From Ember and Ash
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Fantasy/Sci-Fi

Entry:

His prison was everywhere and nowhere.

Bound in inertia, he was blind, deaf, and mute but aware; immobilized yet vigorous in spirit; confined in sleep but lucid in dreams.

This existence, the enforced stasis, was slow torture. His body was growing steadily feebler while his life force raged within…and therein was the punishment, the…sentencing.

A great many things had been stolen from him.

Caged by his own might, the sorcery containing him powered his prison walls; the more he fought to be free, the more unbreakable his shackles became. In essence, he was a prisoner in and of himself.

Clever, his jailers were.

Meticulously planned, his torment bore insanity in its wake.

Was derangement even now his for vowing to overcome this restraint? He had a great deal left undone; this would not be his end.

He had no freedom, no power in physicality, but he had Will…one with great strength, rooted in Being, rooted in Blood.

He was learning passivity the hard way; he couldn’t waste any more energy raging against himself. Vitality – it was critical he conserve it.

Existence narrowed down to little more than torment…and dreams.

Chapter 1: The Last Outpost

The landscape was a searing empty skillet and it was the sum total of the world around her: nothing but a crust of dead earth, blasted rock and a horizon that enjoyed the chase. As the transport chugged its way across the plain, little else moved but waves of heat shimmying off the scorched landscape.

Earth’s environment was a harsh one, a place of violent weather and no water. Distantly, a massive boiling cloud of soil, dust, and lightning churned through the atmosphere. It stretched over half the horizon, a wrathful paladin unleashed by Mother Nature.

Jade Blackheart turned her outward gaze from the cloudy portal window to the handful of other passengers.

They, too, were journeying across the empty basin once known regionally as the Mid-West, heading for the last outpost of civilization: Frontier Town.

No one among them had the clean-cut appearance of the hospital personnel Jade had familiarized herself with, but so far the trip had been entertaining with a unique array of characters to consider.

The first was an older man whose weary eyes and grandfatherly face didn’t match his crude vocabulary. His traveling companion was a wretched scrawny youth, face full of acne, a mouthful of inflamed gums and plaque-coated teeth. The pair of them wore filth like it was in fashion, rank with old sweat and body odor.

The adolescent caught her looking and waggled his tongue suggestively for her, grabbing at his crotch.

His elder cackled and nudged him with an elbow, then, like the flicking of a switch, cast Jade a baneful glare.

“Look away, bitch!”

The third traveler wasn’t sharing the same reality as the rest of them; with mutterings about a blowtorch and a severed limb, his eyes were shiny bright with mania. He was fully present when he caught her inspection, though, lunging partway out of his seat at her from across the aisle.

Leave your comments below, and take a look at the other entries on Calling All Critiques’ hosts’ blogs:

(Website not yet live) Before Ink Dries – Mike Verbickas
M.G.’s Fantasy Blog – M.G. Silverstein
Magic & Mayhem Book Reviews – S. L. Saboviec
MM Jaye Writes – MM Jaye
Official Blog of Brian Basham – Brian Basham
Proof Positive – Christie Stratos
Quanie Talks Writing – Quanie Miller

Thank you all in advance!

Calling All Critiques: Submit Your First 500 Words Tomorrow

May 23, 2014 | Offers

Quick reminder: Tomorrow (Saturday, May 24) starting at 6 a.m. EDT, we’re accepting entries to the Calling All Critiques event. Next week, we’re doing critiques of your first 500 words.

How to Enter

Submit your entry to Critiques@Saboviec.com. Cut and paste the following template into your email and fill it in.

Your name/pseudonym:
Your website (optional):
Title:
Genre (include audience, such as YA/Adult, and category):
Entry:

Your first 500 words may run slightly over in order to finish at the end of a sentence.

Acceptance of entries closes on Sunday, May 25, at 5 p.m. EDT.

More Details

Questions? Check out some of the earlier blog posts or leave a comment below:

Less than 24 hours before we begin accepting critiques!

While you wait, check out all the participating blogs and bloggers:

(Website not yet live) Before Ink Dries – Mike Verbickas
M.G.’s Fantasy Blog – M.G. Silverstein
Magic & Mayhem Book Reviews – S. L. Saboviec
MM Jaye Writes – MM Jaye (Twitter / Facebook)
Official Blog of Brian Basham – Brian Basham (Twitter / Wattpad / Facebook)
Proof Positive – Christie Stratos
Quanie Talks Writing – Quanie Miller

We look forward to seeing you back here soon!

Calling All Critiques: Introducing Your Hosts

May 16, 2014 | Offers

As I posted on Monday, Proof Positive is part of the upcoming Calling All Critiques cross-blog event. Today’s post is to introduce the bloggers who will be participating, critiquing, and calling everyone they know to help support those brave souls who have shared their work. You can read more about the event here: Calling All Critiques: A Cross-Blog Event.

Meet Our Hosts

We have seven fabulous bloggers who will be participating in Calling All Critiques.

Brian Basham

Brian Basham Brian grew up and still lives in Va Beach, VA where he spends his time playing with his black lab, Saie, a.k.a. Inspector Puppy. In his spare time he plays softball, poker, and the occasional video game. Oh, and he writes too. You can read some of his stories for free at his Wattpad page. The first novel in his Virtual Wars series is going through edits and rewrites with no current release date announced. He blogs about writing, publishing, movies, and whatever else he feels like talking about at http://www.brian-basham.com/.

MM Jaye

MM Jaye is the pen name of Maria Messini, a bilingual Greek native who lives in Athens with her husband and daughter. She is a certified translator and also teaches the art of translation to young adults. Writing was Maria’s idea of therapy when, back in 2009, her spirits had temporarily nosedived, but she didn’t take it seriously until her first manuscript was completed last year. Since November, she’s been building her author platform aiming at publishing Fate Accomplis, her first contemporary romance, in the fall, along with Fate Captured, a prequel novelette. She blogs at mmjayewrites.com and myfriendsexcerpts.wordpress.com. You can also find her on Twitter @MMJaye or Facebook.com/MMJayeauthor.

Quanie Miller

Quanie Miller grew up in New Iberia, Louisiana. She fell in love with reading at an early age and spent most of her time at the Iberia Parish Library discovering authors like R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike (she was often found walking back home from the library with a stack of books that went up to her chin). She holds degrees from Louisiana State University and San Jose State University. She has been the recipient of the James Phelan Literary Award, the Louis King Thore Scholarship, the BEA Student Scriptwriting Award, and the Vicki Hudson Emerging Writing Prize. Her debut novel, It Ain’t Easy Being Jazzy, is a romantic comedy loosely based on her experiences living and working in Silicon Valley. Her first paranormal novel is called The New Mrs. Collins and is slated for a September 2014 release. She lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her husband and is currently, as always, working on another novel. To find out more about Quanie and her works in progress follow her on Twitter @quaniemiller or visit quaniemiller.com and quanietalkswriting.com.

S. L. Saboviec

Samantha grew up in a small town in Iowa but now lives in the suburbs of Toronto with her Canadian husband and expatriate cat. In her spare time, she reads, writes, and thinks about reading and writing—along with playing the occasional video game or eight. She’s expecting her first child in September, but pregnancy has only slowed her down a little; her debut release, Guarding Angel, will be available May 19th. She blogs speculative fiction book reviews at the Magic & Mayhem Book Review Blog and tweets about life and writing from @Saboviec.

M.G. Silverstein

M.G. Silverstein is a YA fantasy novelist and fantasy genre blogger. She is currently completing her second Bachelor’s degree in English (her first is in Hospitality Management/Culinary Arts). Her debut YA fantasy novel Elemental will be available in 2015.

Although she considers the Washington, D.C. metro area her favorite place on Earth—she isn’t ‘from’ anywhere. Having lived in 7 states, 14 cities, and 2 different countries, the only place she feels at home is when reading or writing fantasy. You can visit her at www.mgsilverstein.com to hear her musings on both the fantasy genre and writing a fantasy novel.

Christie Stratos

Christie Stratos is an editor and award-winning author who lives in the New York area and holds a degree in English Literature. An avid reader of all genres and world literature, Christie reads everything from bestsellers to classics and is always on top of current publishing trends and technology. In her spare time, you can find her playing French Horn for musicals, small ensembles, orchestras, and a 10-year-old community band for which she was a founding member. Christie can be reached through her editing business, Proof Positive, her author website and blog, Twitter, Google+, Facebook, and Goodreads.

Only one week left until we begin accepting critiques!

While you wait, check out all the participating blogs and bloggers:

M.G.’s Fantasy Blog – M.G. Silverstein
Magic & Mayhem Book Reviews – S. L. Saboviec
MM Jaye Writes – MM Jaye (Twitter / Facebook)
Official Blog of Brian Basham – Brian Basham (Twitter / Wattpad / Facebook)
Proof Positive – Christie Stratos
Quanie Talks Writing – Quanie Miller

We look forward to seeing you back here in a couple weeks.

Any questions? Leave them in the comments!

Meet Author Charlie Moore

May 14, 2014 | Authors

Action, danger, political corruption – you can’t find a better book with all these things than Charlie Moore’s Against The Clock. It gives the TV series 24 a run for its money. You won’t be able to stop reading it. You’ll find yourself sneaking in a few pages before your meeting starts and even at stoplights. I wouldn’t be surprised if you faked a sick day just because the suspense is killing you.

Much like the book itself, I’ll get to the point. Charlie Moore took some time out of his busy writing schedule to answer a few interview questions. I hope you enjoy “meeting” this outstanding author.

~~~

Is this your first book? How long did it take you to plan it before you began writing it?

Yes, this is my first feature novel. As you know I had been ghostwriting for a while before writing this book, and the whole time I had the intention of writing my own novel and releasing it. I just didn’t know when. In the beginning Against The Clock was meant to be a short novella, just a warm up and a bit of fun before I started a nonfiction drama story I had wanted to write about for a while. But as I started fleshing out the story, the characters started to grow, and before I knew it, it became something so much more. From conception to getting words on the page was only a few weeks. A lot of the research for the characters and the scenarios they were thrust into was already done through life experiences, and those that weren’t, I dived into it while I was writing. That made the process interesting and organic.

This book is the first in a series. When can we look forward to the next book being published?

Without giving away any spoilers 😉 this book is the first in a series. I have four books for Shirin Reyes conceptualized, with the next two at different stages of planning and mapping. It was my intention to release the next Shirin adventure in March of 2015, but as a result of such great feedback and pressure from fans of Against The Clock, I’m doing my best to have the next book released before Christmas this year. Fingers crossed!

Do you mostly write in this particular genre or do you dabble in other genres? If so, which ones?

As a ghostwriter I wrote primarily in nonfiction. And there are a few nonfiction stories I really want to tell, but my passion is definitely wild, crazy action thrillers!

What do you think makes your work stand apart from other works in your genre?

There are so many great writers in this genre! Standing out in such great company isn’t easy. I’ve tried to give the reader a lightning fast, slightly crazy thrill ride, and I’m hoping the pace of the book and the characters in it are enough to excite my readers to keep coming back for more.

Are any of the characters in your book based on people you know or have seen/talked to in real life?

For sure! I’ve kind of pilfered my experiences and the people I know for all the best and worst things about them, thrown them into a tumbler of scotch, added some ice, a vigorous stir, and gulped it down. One thing is certain, I’ve never knowingly met anyone like the character Smith. I probably wouldn’t be alive if I had…he is one scary dude!

Do your friends and family know you’re a writer? Were they surprised when you told them?

All my family have known for a long time that I was determined to be a professional writer. It’s been a burning need for over twenty years. It was the reason and motivator for many of the life decisions I’d made; travelling, becoming a Private Investigator, learning and competing in martial arts, learning how to use a gun and different weapons training and so on. It was very hard to hide that kind of enthusiasm! So while my closest friends and family knew, it’s not something I had actively talked about throughout all my other professions. So even now when I bump into old friends or colleagues, they’re shocked when I tell them what I’m doing now.

What inspires you to write? Music? Other books? Real life events? Just an incredible imagination?

Inside my head is like a weird Scrubs episode. Out of nowhere a full scene or daydream just hits me, and it’s like I’m watching a movie, the details are so vivid. And that’s just how it is. Actually that reminds me of the movie with Ben Stiller, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It’s kind of like that. And incorporating these moments into what I write is just so much fun!

Are you part of any writers’ groups? If so, what do you like about them? How do they help you or inspire you? If not, why not?

No, I’m not part of any official group. I am friends with a lot of writers, and we talk over coffee or on Facebook, for example, and share some of the experiences we’ve had. Having a sense of community and support is very important for anyone, and I definitely appreciate the community I have growing around me.

Do you plan your writing out with outlines, character development exercises, and other pre-writing activities? Or do you just write as it comes to you?

That’s a really good question. You’ve got me reflecting… For Against The Clock I used a combination of everything you can think of. I started off using a great mind map app on my iPhone, and later purchased it for my PC. Using that I mapped out the bulk of the book. But then there were moments where the story or the characters just took the book in a new direction, or when the direction I had mapped out just seemed to suck and I had to wing it and write as it came to me. I think with the complexity and pace of my book there had to be a clear theme, continuity of events, characters and storyline, or the reader would disconnect from it. For me it worked perfectly to have it mapped out and then sprinkled with spontaneity every so often.

Have you done any research on police and their procedures (or any government factions) for your books?

I have. As a Private Investigator I had a lot of interactions with police officers of varying position, and with a lot of other Private Investigators. It was such a rich world of experience for me! I had to follow people and learn how to do it without being spotted. I got to learn how to investigate a crime, even worked on a homicide case (later identified as accidental), I was involved in car chases, and one day when I got lazy, the person I was charged with following spotted me and chased me with a baseball bat. I’ve had a knife pulled on me, been forced to defend myself, and even ran like hell when I had to! In my line of work as a thriller action writer, where else could you get resources to work with like that?! For Against The Clock, though, there was a lot of other research I had to do, like the holding cell and interview room scenes, etc. I really wanted to get these things right! I wanted the fight scenes to be real, the speed and ferocity of them to be like it really happens, and the same for the gunplay. I also wanted there to be legitimacy to police procedures and spy craft portrayed throughout the book. Readers are intelligent, especially those that read my genre, and for them I made sure to get it right. I worked closely with police consultants throughout the book, and I’d like to think that rings true throughout the pages. And now that I’m working on the next book in the Shirin series, I find myself diving even more vigorously into the research.

Do you read the kinds of books you like to write? Do you watch movies similar to or the same genre as your writing? This is especially interesting since your book is comparable with the extremely popular TV show 24.

Definitely! I write the kind of book that I love to read, and love to watch. It’s a passion for me. Hopefully that comes through in the gusto that I write my thrillers with. And the likeness to 24 is incredibly flattering. I love the show! To be honest, I’ve been so busy the last few years, I haven’t seen the last two seasons, but I’m keen to square away some time and have a 24-a-thon. Speaking of 24, I understand that one of my favorite writers of all time, Vince Flynn, was involved with a number of the seasons creatively. Vince Flynn has sadly passed, but there are talks of his books being translated into films. That would be a dream for me one day. I’m told Against The Clock is easily visualized as an awesome movie – I’ve even had a screenwriter approach me to discuss reworking it… I won’t hold my breath, but I am crossing my fingers and toes.

If you could write anywhere in the world – in a fictional or non-fiction place, where would you write?

Hmm… In my mind I keep escaping to an old farmhouse-style cottage in the middle of the European alps, white snow as far as the eye can see, a fire burning, my feet up, and a laptop being tapped away at on my lap… Ahhh the dream…

~~~~

Connect with Charlie Moore:

Website
Facebook
Amazon
Twitter
YouTube
Goodreads

Be sure to check out Against the Clock – you won’t be disappointed:

Calling All Critiques: A Cross-Blog Event

May 12, 2014 | Offers

We can all use a little help once in a while, can’t we? I’m excited to announce that my blog will be part of an upcoming event, Calling All Critiques, a cross-blog critique event open to self-published, traditionally published, and unpublished authors (that would be everyone!). The event will start the weekend of May 24 and run until June 13, adding up to three weeks of critiques of different aspects of novel writing and marketing.

Three weeks of critiques

The schedule for the weekly critiques is as follows:

Week of May 26: First 500 word critique
Week of June 2: Cover art critique
Week of June 9: Book blurb or query letter critique

Entries will be accepted the weekend before the week’s critiques, with a cutoff of 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday. We have a total of 35 slots, 5 on each of the 7 participating blogs, and the entries will be accepted in the order they were received. The posts will go up throughout the week, 7 each Monday through Friday, one on each blog each day, for a total of 5 per blog. All blogs will link to each other so that critters can easily find the other entries.

There will be prizes

What’s an event without prizes? We have two categories of prizes: One lucky winner each week from the entrants and one lucky winner from a Rafflecopter giveaway, chosen by random draw. Each winning entrant will have his or her choice of the following prizes:

20-page professional edit/critique by Proof Positive OR
An author interview on the Proof Positive blog AND an author WIP Q&A on MM Jaye Writes OR
An honest review of his or her book (no horror/hardcore erotica) on MM Jaye Writes AND, if it’s speculative or dark fiction, Magic & Mayhem Book Reviews, with corresponding Amazon and Goodreads reviews.

Each Rafflecopter winner will win this package:

An electronic copy of Guarding Angel by S. L. Saboviec
An electronic copy of It Ain’t Easy Being Jazzy by Quanie Miller
$10 gift certificate from Amazon

Interested in having your work critiqued?

Each week, entrants will have two days to submit their work for critique. When the submission window opens, you (that’s right, you) may submit to an email address that will be provided. You will need to provide the following information: Your name/pseudonym: Title: Genre (include audience, such as YA/Adult, and category): Entry: Your email will be kept confidential. What you submit is what will be posted, so double- and triple-check your spelling and grammar. (We may correct crazy formatting errors as a result of email quirks, but still, make sure it’s clean before you press send.) You may resubmit an entry, but it goes to the end of the queue: if you submit it past the 35 entry cutoff, you’ll have lost your spot. If you’re nervous about participating because you aren’t sure what comments you’re going to get, rest assured that we bloggers are committed to making this a positive event for everyone. Mean-spirited or trolling comments will be deleted. We’ve participated in these events in the past, and for the most part, everyone is helpful and kind. That being said, if you don’t want feedback on your entry, don’t submit. Critiques are provided to help you improve your writing. Along with “this worked great for me,” you will get “this didn’t work so great for me” comments. If you don’t want that kind of feedback, please don’t participate.

Interested in critiquing?

Yay! Critters are the lifeblood of this event. As the posts go live, one each weekday over the three weeks of the event, please feel free to critique as many or as few as you want. You may want to follow all the participating blogs to get up-to-the-minute information, or we will be tweeting under the hashtag #CACrits. The only rule we have is to be constructive. You can say you dislike something, but give reasons why. In fact, you can say you like something, but give reasons why for that, too. Although it’s ultimately up to the author to determine whether to take feedback or not, we grow the most when we understand why something does or doesn’t work. Posts will go up in the morning at each of our blogs. We’d love it if you could visit all of us throughout the week:

(Website not yet live) Before Ink Dries – Mike Verbickas
M.G.’s Fantasy Blog – M.G. Silverstein
Magic & Mayhem Book Reviews – S. L. Saboviec
MM Jaye Writes – MM Jaye (Twitter / Facebook)
Official Blog of Brian Basham – Brian Basham (Twitter / Wattpad / Facebook)
Proof Positive – Christie Stratos
Quanie Talks Writing – Quanie Miller

Thanks for stopping by!

We look forward to seeing you back here in a couple weeks. Any questions? Leave them in the comments!

Meet Author Dahlia Savage

Jan 21, 2014 | Authors

The popular TV show Scandal is nothing compared to Dahlia Savage’s new book, Indiscretion. Just published today, Indiscretion is Dahlia’s premier novella, and what a dramatic, absorbing piece of fiction it is! I read this in just a couple of hours – and then reread it more than once. Once you start this book, you just won’t be able to stop.

Without further ado, meet Dahlia Savage, suspense and drama extraordinaire.

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Is this your first book? How long did it take you to plan it before you began writing it?

Yes, Indiscretion will be my first published book. Key word being published! The story didn’t take long to plan out; it was originally the result of a writing prompt from a creative writing professor. When we received the assignment, it took me a few weeks to plot out what I wanted to do with it.

Did you plan on writing a novella, or did the book just come to you in that form?

The first version I did for my creative writing class was a two-page short story. However, from the moment I wrote the two-page version, I wanted it to be longer and I knew I had enough of a storyline to make it a novella.

Do you mostly write in this particular genre or do you dabble in other genres? If so, which ones?

I think I’m a mash-up of genres. I enjoy writing light-hearted, fun stories that would fall into chick lit, but I also enjoy the more dramatic fiction of this story. I recently had another idea that was a bit more suspenseful, so I’m interested to see where that one goes when I do sit down to write it. However, regardless of the genre, at the core of every story I write, is the relationship. That relationship can be romantic (or friends with benefits, whatever floats the character’s boat), friendship, siblings, parent/child, or even the relationship with self. It all comes down to the relationship.

What do you think makes your work stand apart from other works in your genre?

That’s a really good question. I would say it’s the dialogue. Though I’ve learned to be mindful to not rely so much on dialogue, I feel that what the characters are saying and thinking is what drives the story forward.

Are any of the characters in your book based on people you know or have seen/talked to in real life?

Nope. Believe it or not, all the characters in this story are the result of my overactive and twisted imagination.

Do your friends and family know you’re a writer? Were they surprised when you told them?

My family knows that I’m a writer, however only my closest friends knew, and I purposely did that because I wanted to have a finished product before I made any announcements. Now that Indiscretion is done, I’ve shared it with my extended friends, family, and network.

What inspires you to write? Music? Other books? Real life events? Just an incredible imagination?

All of the above. I may hear a song lyric, a random one-liner during a conversation, or recall a recent event, and from there, the imagination takes off. My imagination is definitely overactive and just a tad bit twisted.

Are you part of any writers’ groups? If so, what do you like about them? How do they help you or inspire you? If not, why not?

I’m not part of any face-to-face writers’ groups at the moment. I have recently started navigating through Goodreads and the various groups on that site. From what I’ve seen so far, they could most definitely be helpful to any author. I’ve also been participating in the monthly Insecure Writers Support Group (http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com). I love how other writers are so supportive of each other and how we all basically have the same challenges when it comes to our writing and balancing our craft with the other moving parts of our lives.

Do you plan your writing out with outlines, character development exercises, and other pre-writing activities? Or do you just write as it comes to you?

When I write, I do create a basic outline as I always have an ending in mind, but once I get started, I’ve learned to be flexible to deviate from the outline if it’s better for the story. Basically, my characters take over and I just go with it.

Do you read the kinds of books you like to write? Do you watch movies similar to or the same genre as your writing?

Yes and yes! I love humor and chick lit. I also enjoy drama as long as it’s not too over the top. Some of my favorite movies are Beaches, Steel Magnolias, and Coming to America.

If you could write anywhere in the world – in a fictional or non-fiction place, where would you write?

When it comes to getting into a peaceful space in order to write, I would say anywhere that has a beach. I’ve lived in Florida for almost six years, but it wasn’t until recently that I’ve come to really appreciate and enjoy the serenity of the beach, especially early in the morning.

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Connect with Dahlia Savage:

Website: http://dahliasavage.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DahliaSavageWIB
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DahliaSavage
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/dahliasavage
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7571341.Dahlia_Savage

Check out Indiscretion on Smashwords:

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