Extra, Extra! Read all about it!

Filed in: Announcements | blog | promotion    Tags: brags | interviews | ngoui viet

I’ve decided that pretty much my mum is always right. *sigh* As if she wasn’t always right before! She’s going to be intolerable now.

I told her I might want to do an ad in a Vietnamese newspaper for Butterfly Swords. She told me to forget the ad. Just send a copy of the book to them. So I did and the editor passed it down to one of the journalists who read it and then called me for an interview.

I thought it was just going to be an online feature, but yesterday I received a package in the mail which contained this:

I was more than a bit flabbergasted because that’s the entire front page of the English language insert of Nguoi Viet, the largest Vietnamese newspaper. THE ENTIRE PAGE.

Butterfly Swords takes up almost a fourth of the layout and the picture of me hugging my book is huge too. I’m completely dumbfounded. I must send a big ol’ thank you note tomorrow once the room stops spinning.

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My nefarious plan

Filed in: Announcements | publishing | writing    Tags: brags | contest final | fire and ice | request

Okay, not that nefarious. I had reached the point where I thought no agent would ever take a chance on my book so I started entering a slew of contests to try to get in front of editors.

I just saw on the ChapterLink loop that Butterfly Swords finaled in the Chicago-North RWA’s Fire & Ice contest. I entered in four chapter contests this year and finaled in three, one of them being a double final. Fire and Ice is the last one I entered so no more of these little highs. My contest days may be done. Oh no, scary thought!

Would my nefarious plan have worked out? I’ll never know.

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Voting opens in Chase the Dream contest!

Filed in: Announcements | writing    Tags: brags | butterfly swords | chase-the-dream-contest | contests | openings | writing

All eight finalists have been posted and voting opens from March 5 to March 11. There’s quite a range there — historicals from different time periods, paranormals, contemporaries. Butterfly Swords is in good company and I feel like I’ve already won since the lovely panel of judges will read over all the final entries.

I feel silly trolling for votes, so if you’d like to check out some interesting openings, click on over and vote your conscience.

To read the final entries
http://chasethedreamcontest.wordpress.com/entries/

To vote:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=OQvSykwHXYudFZ5C3hcdoA_3d_3d

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Butterfly Swords finals in "Chase the Dream"

Filed in: Announcements | writing    Tags: brags | chase-the-dream-contest | contests | hooks | writing

It was 6:00 am Wednesday. I woke up and groggily turned on my laptop. I had a workout I had to rush to at 6:30, but for some reason I thought I’d check out Rachelle Chase’s blog…just to see.

*BAM*

My words! The opening for Butterfly Swords. I couldn’t smile wide enough. I started e-mailing people and gushing. I compared it to a couple of my writing buddies as the “I’m on TV” feeling. My writing is on the Internet.  Okay, I know it’s easy to post something to the Internet…look I’m doing it right now.  But it was so cool to be recognized…and of course I’m jittery about the amazing agents and editors that Ms. Chase has gathered for the panel.

You can keep on entering every week for this contest. (It’s still open by the way!) So I had entered every week for four weeks, alternating between “Butterfly Swords” and “Silk and Seduction”. I was kind of worried she would be darn tired of seeing that thing again, but the rules allow it so there had to be a reason, right?

Persistence paid off! And though this was the same story that finaled in “Hook, Line & Sinker”, I had revamped the entire opening based on other contest feedback. I switched it to start in the heroine’s POV and in a more action packed spot. It had to mean something that more than one judge would point out that the opening was just okay compared to the rest of the entry. So even if people love your writing – pay special attention to the comments you get repeatedly!

So, come by and browse the finalists. Get your 1000 words together to enter. It’s free and you may final or win the mini-crit. One of my chapter-mates finalled two years ago and that’s how she got the editor request that led to her first sale.  And you can learn a lot by reading the openings that finalled or won the mini-crits. Rachelle Chase and Leigh Michaels are really making an effort to comment constructively and provide a learning opportunity.

Oh yeah, and if you honestly feel “Butterfly Swords” was the most compelling, come by and vote for it from March 4 to March 11. 

Excerpt from Butterfly Swords

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Silk and Shadows wins in Gateway to the Best contest

Filed in: Announcements    Tags: brags | contests | requests

First place in the Historical Romance category.

My first contest final and win ever! And, as icing on the cake, I received a request for the full from the editor judging the historical category. I’m quite surprised and giddy.

At the moment I entered, I had only written 25 pages of this manuscript and decided to enter it for feedback because of MORWA’s special contest deal which allowed a second entry for half price. I’m encouraged that the story received such a nice response its first time out.

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