Don’t Miss The Writers Helping Writers AMAZING RACE!

Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi at Writers Helping Writers (formerly The Bookshelf Muse) have added two more books to their Descriptive Thesaurus Collection: The Positive Trait Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Attributes and The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Flaws. To celebrate, they are hosting a race, and not just any old race, either. It's the...

Photo Credit: Tharrin

 
Writing is hard, isn't it? Create the perfect hook. Make your first page compelling. Craft an amazing 25 word pitch. Knock out a query that will blow an agent's mind. On and on it goes. And sometimes, well, you just wish someone would help.

WISH NO MORE!

From October 21st until October 27th, Writers Helping Writers is posting an OPEN CALL for writers. You can fill out a form, requesting help with critiques, book visibility, social media sharing, blog diagnostics, advice and more.

An army of Amazing Racers are standing by (ME INCLUDED!) waiting to help with your submissions. How many people can we help in a week? Let's find out! Did I mention there are Celebrity Racers too--amazing authors and editors who know their way around a first page. Maybe one of them will pick your submission to help with!

Each day this week, there's an AMAZING giveaway, too. So stop in at Angela & Becca's new Writers Helping Writers website and find out how to take advantage of this unique, pay-it-forward event for writers. I'll see you there! 

Invisibility

...without the cloak. :)

You know the feeling.

• you wave at someone ... and no one waves back
• you ask a question ... and no one answers
• someone cuts you off in mid-sentence ... again
• someone comes up with a great idea that everyone loves ... the same one you mentioned 10 minutes before that no one seemd to hear...

Yeah. That.

I've felt like the invisible woman more than once lately. Both online and off.

When I finally enter those query wars later this year, will it be the same? Probably. :)

Along with Harry's cloak, I think I'll need more than a drop of his courage when the time comes!

Do you ever feel invisible? Where do you find your courage to take the next step in the process?

(Check out Alex J Cavanaugh's blog for more posts in the Insecure Writer's Support Group)

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And, onto the winner! Remember back on my last post, Becca Puglisi visited and offered up a PDF copy of The Emotion Thesaurus - the brilliant resource written by her and Angela Ackerman - the fabulous minds behind the Bookshelf Muse blog? Well, it's time to announce the winner. I used the old reliable Random.org and it chose lucky #7. So, the winner is...

Beth at Muses and Meringues! *throws confetti*

Congratulations, Beth! I'll forward your email to Becca & we'll get you that copy of the book!

RAOK & FTWA

I'm over at From the Write Angle today talking about the Online Writer's Toolbox tab we have over there. I have one site I use to help me during the 'slash and burn' editing phase. Can you guess what it is? Pop on over and let me know what sites you use to help you out when you're editing or researching or writing or...

In other news, I won a lovely leather journal from Sharon Mayhew over at Random Thoughts. Sharon had a random giveaway to support Angela & Becca's RAOK too. The awesomeness just keeps spreading!

So, instead of 1 critique, I'm going to offer my thoughts to 2 of the people who commented on my last post. Winners are Linda at LD Masterson and Miss Jack Lewis Baillot over at However Improbable. If you lovely ladies would like to send me either your query or first 10 pages, I'd love to have a look and give you my thoughts!

Hope to see over at From the Write Angle!

RAOK

The nicest thing happened to me on Monday morning. Lovely Lisa Gail Green over at Paranormal Point of View offered me a Random Act of Kindness in honour of Angela and Becca over at The Bookshelf Muse. These 2 wonderful ladies celebrated the release of their book The Emotion Thesaurus with an amazing Random Act of Kindness Blitz. All over the bloggy-verse, people performed amazing acts of kindness. Incredible stuff! AND the ladies are offering up a gift or two to everyone at their blog!

Anyway, Lisa offered me a critique - I'm thrilled with such a great opportunity! And now I'm going to pay it forward twofold. :)

First, I'd like to do a shoutout to my two critique buddies. They are amazing ladies who are incredibly bright and have eagle eyes when it comes to critiquing! They're also kind, generous and fun! I joined Agent Query Connect as a total newbie and lucked into a crit group with these two. They've taught me so much! Here's a little more about them:

Jean Oram writes chick lit and contemporary romance. She's also working on a chapter book for kids that has a fabulous premise. She's got an agent for a nonfiction project that revolves around her It's All Kids' Play website and blog. There are about a bazillion ideas for parents on this site - you'll love it!

Calista Taylor has published steampunk romances (Virdis and Devil on a Sparrow's Wing) and a grim reaper romance (JACK). She also has the Steampunk Your Wardrobe craft book coming out with Fox Chapel Publishing in the fall. In addition, Cali creates fabulous book covers!

Both Jean and Calista are also part of the From the Write Angle Blog team. Please visit these 2 lovely ladies and say Hi! :)

Second, I'd like to offer up my own critique for someone who comments. Please know I have absolutely NO credibility other than my own experiences (and putting out the offer is making me extremely nervous)! I'm not sure how valuable my input might be, but, sometimes an extra set of eyes is welcome. I have more experience critiquing queries, but I'm willing to look at the first 5 or 10 pages instead. Whichever the winner chooses...if anyone is willing to take a risk on me! Let me know in the comments if you are interested and I'll select a random winner on my next post. Because I don't blog on a schedule, I don't know when that will be - but probably in a couple of days! :)

Thanks again to Lisa, Angela and Becca!

What's one of your favourite random acts of kindness?