PITCH CONTEST, BUT IT ENDS TODAY AT MIDNIGHT

I'm here busily writing at my writer's retreat (in an actual cabin where there's pine trees and cool weather and writer friends and chocolate), but stopped to enter these two pitch contests. The first one ends tonight.

Chance to pitch to Bree Ogden from Martin Literary Management http://yatopia.blogspot.com/2011/07/elevator-pitch-competition-with-agent.html

Opportunity to pitch to Vickie Motter of Andrea Hurst & Associates Literary Management
http://yatopia.blogspot.com/2011/07/agent-contest-with-vickie-motter.html

Sweeeeeeet Writers Retreat!

Page Fright

Do you ever experience page fright?

If you are a writer you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. How often do we let our fears keep us from writing? Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of the dust rising another inch on the furniture if we don't get out the Lemon Pledge Furniture Polish and a dust cloth right now instead of writing. In fact, you shouldn't even be reading this blog...Go! Now! Dust!

On another blog I read about an intriguing book by Ralph Keyes titled The Courage to Write {How Writers Transcend Fear}. It does take courage, doesn't it? Just the putting so much time and effort into a project without knowing if there will be a successful outcome is a risk in and of itself. Then there's the whole opening yourself up for critique and rejection part of it. Definitely not for the faint-of-heart.

The book deals with such topics as overcoming procrastination, dealing with anxiety over what others will think, and, this is a quote from the website, "how writers use obfuscation to soothe writing nerves." (I don't know what obfuscation means, but it sounds kind of like a procedure performed in a doctor's office involving unwarranted growths being removed from the body and not soothing at all.)

One thing Keyes recommends for overcoming fear is "joining a serious writers' group." His words. I had to laugh because after attending last summer's writing retreat with my group, American Night Writer's Association, one could question our seriousness. Of course, in the sense that he is speaking of, we are serious. Serious about writing and supporting each other in this risk-taking endeavor. I know that if it wasn't for ANWA I might have been content to write newspaper articles, church programs, and my kid's English essays (KIDDING!), never having the courage to take the plunge into novel-writing.

So stare down that blank page and show him/her whose boss. Turn your fears into positive energy that flows right onto the computer screen.

And I'll go look up obfuscation...

[this post is also playing at anwafounder.blogspot.com]

Writerly Humor

For a sample of what writers laugh at check out this video on Sarah Eden's website. It will be funnier if you have read the books shown in the video. They are listed at the end.

BTW, Sarah's the very talented author of "Seeking Persphone."

Note: I have tried all kinds of ways to link to Sarah's website so that one click would take you right there, but the linky-link thing refuses to work today. You'll have to do it yourself...sarahmeden.com. Look for "What Do You Get When You Ask Me to Present at a Writer's Retreat?"

Rubbing Shoulders at the Writer's Retreat

Last week it was my privilige to attend the annual writer's retreat of The American Night Writer's Association. We wrote, ate chocolate, attended workshops, chatted about writing and everything else all day long, and stayed up late chatting and eating chocolate, oh... and writing some more.

The authors of these books were there...

Joyce DiPastena


Cindy R. Williams


Marsha Ward


Tina Scott


Donna Hatch


Sarah M. Eden


Janette Rallison


Pretty cool! Maybe some of their book-writing-and-publishing smarts will rub off on me...