Query Contest over at Children's Publishing
The deadline for entries has already passed, but the KidLit gals over at Adventures in Children's Publishing are having a fantastic contest/workshop to help writers polish their pitches. I'm learning an absolute ton just from reading other writers’ pitches and the comments on them. I highly recommend it to anyone who’s ever written a query, is writing a query, or may one day need to write a query. Comments are open to contestants and guests alike, so feel free to join in on the critiquing process!
Plus, bonus: my own pitch is up there, for THE IRON WOOD, the book you guys have been listening to me babble about for the past few months.
Each contestant was assigned a “mentor,” one of a number of participating authors, who will comment on his or her pitch with an in-depth critique. I was lucky enough to get the incomparable T.H. Mafi of Grab a Pen, which has been one of my favorite writing blogs for a long time now. If you've never been to her site, do so immediately! There's a great mix of humor and encouragement there. I guarantee it'll make you smile. She hasn't commented on my pitch yet, leaving me gnawing on my fingernails and refreshing the page every ten minutes, but I'm excited to see what advice she'll have for me.
I haven't posted in a while, but not at all because I haven't been working--the opposite, in fact. The past few weeks have been a crazy whirlwind of brainstorming about revisions for TIW, research on just about every aspect of medieval Russia for HUNTED, endless revisions of my query (as though one word will be the difference between a request and a rejection), and, just recently, receiving comments on TIW from my Editorfriend, who basically turned my brain upside down. In a good way.
Tonight, I take a breath, though. Tonight, I go to see the keynote address at the Melbourne Writers Festival, given by none other than Joss Whedon, one of my absolute idols. I'm so excited I could almost pee myself.
Almost.
Plus, bonus: my own pitch is up there, for THE IRON WOOD, the book you guys have been listening to me babble about for the past few months.
Each contestant was assigned a “mentor,” one of a number of participating authors, who will comment on his or her pitch with an in-depth critique. I was lucky enough to get the incomparable T.H. Mafi of Grab a Pen, which has been one of my favorite writing blogs for a long time now. If you've never been to her site, do so immediately! There's a great mix of humor and encouragement there. I guarantee it'll make you smile. She hasn't commented on my pitch yet, leaving me gnawing on my fingernails and refreshing the page every ten minutes, but I'm excited to see what advice she'll have for me.
I haven't posted in a while, but not at all because I haven't been working--the opposite, in fact. The past few weeks have been a crazy whirlwind of brainstorming about revisions for TIW, research on just about every aspect of medieval Russia for HUNTED, endless revisions of my query (as though one word will be the difference between a request and a rejection), and, just recently, receiving comments on TIW from my Editorfriend, who basically turned my brain upside down. In a good way.
Tonight, I take a breath, though. Tonight, I go to see the keynote address at the Melbourne Writers Festival, given by none other than Joss Whedon, one of my absolute idols. I'm so excited I could almost pee myself.
Almost.