Writers in the Storm

By Laura Drake

Whenever the subject of contests comes up on writer’s loops, it’s guaranteed to be a very lively discussion. People feel very passionately about them -- either pro OR con. And why not? I’ve experienced both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat at the hands of judges.

Up to now, it's just been a challenge to me to final in a contest (hey, I'm a writer - I like pounding my head against a wall!) Now that I've finally won one (and finaled in three-results yet to be announced), here's what I found...

The judging is so completely subjective that not placing does not mean you don't have a good book. Unfortunately, winning doesn't ensure you have a saleable one either.

Not all contests are created equal - chose a contest based on its reputation, or, better yet, if they give feedback - that's what you get to keep at the end of the day.

Unless an agent judges your entry, a win really doesn't gain you much traction in a query letter. The one exception to this is the Golden Heart Contest.

Please don't assume from the above that I don't think contests are worthwhile - I do.  But to keep your heart intact, you must go in with your eyes open, and without overblown expectations.

What I like best:

• The feedback (also what I like the least, depending on the reviewer!) I’ve heard of writers who stopped writing for up to a year after receiving negative comments on their entry.
• Always keep in mind – this is one person’s opinion. In most cases, you don’t even know who the judge is, to be able to gauge what value their opinion is to you. Someone told me once that one out of two doctors graduated in the bottom half of their class – it’ll help to keep in mind that the same applies to judging.
• It gives you an idea of how your MS stacks up against the competition -- that's who you'll be fighting with for attention in the marketplace.
• If you win, it gets your name in front of your peers (hopefully potential buyers) - win enough, and they’re recognizing your name before you're published. Be careful, I’ve found these things can be addicting!
• Contests give you impetus to get the darned thing polished and sent out!
• It gives you something to look forward to.  That shining announcement date reminds me that time is passing; a yardstick by which to judge my writing progress.

Love them or hate them – as long as you go into the competition wearing your titanium panties and with your eyes open, contests can be a great experience!

How do you feel about contests?

by Jenny Hansen

Have you read all the links in Part 1 yet? We’ve been busy at work for you here at Writers in the Storm and I'm delighted to get to share so many fantastic links with you. There are such amazing resources out for writers right now...it's hard to keep up, isn't it?

The news here at WITS:

Tara Taylor Quinn’s blog tour was a huge success with great comments from the readers. We’re so happy she stopped by. The lucky winner of Tara’s book, It Happened on Maple Street, is Jackie S. who commented on April 9^th. We’re going to send an email but, in case you stop by, Jackie, feel free to send us one first at WritersInTheStorm@gmail.com with your mailing address. We want to get you reading this fabulous book as soon as possible!

We’re planning to see Linda O. Johnston sometime in the next month as well to celebrate her latest release, Beaglemania. Stay tuned for more details with exact dates.

The next contest - Name That Story - will debut on May 2nd. We're hashing out the final details as we speak.

On to the Mash-up of Magnificence, Part Deux...

We’ve exempted Fae Rowen and D.A. Watt from mash-up picks this time. Fae is touring wonderful gardens, as well as the Bayou, in New Orleans and D.A. is in the middle of the dreaded Day Job Hunt. Ugh.

Fae’s series, From the Safari Journal has been an amazing read – the photos are incredible. Especially if you’ve never done an African safari, click here to read Part 1, which discusses the Masai Warrior who safeguarded Fae from the local lion population. Part 2 of the series discusses her safari accommodations and shows a great photo of a one-ton cape buffalo. My personal favorite is Part 3, which posted this last weekend. Fae’s group drove around sleeping lions, watched cheetah’s eyeball a herd of unsuspecting wildebeasts and encountered a rare pair of dikdiks. (I’ll bet you can’t say THAT without laughing.)

Laura Drake, Sharla Rae and I have plenty of links to keep you busy. Below are the top blogs that impacted each of us over the last few weeks – we hope you’ll jump in and comment with your latest faves.

Laura’s Picks

• Explain, Exemplify. Translation: Cut It Out! – from Rebecca Rasmussen on Writer Unboxed gives great descriptive examples of show-don't-tell.
• The Dark Side of the New Age of Self-Publishing – Fascinating: Scam or Good Advertising?
• Think of me as a conduit, not a gatekeeper – Agent Jenny Bent on the changes in the industry
• Agent Kristen Nelson gives great advice regarding queries
• More brilliance from agent Donald Maass
• Very insightful look at what publishers have to do to add value in the future

Sharla’s Picks

• Romantic Times Conference wrap up & Pics
• 4 tips to creating an online presence – by Laura Kaye on Once Written, Twice Shy
• Create Compelling Titles – from the FF&P Chapter Blog
• How to write and publish the almost perfect book – by marketing expert, Penny Sansevieri
• The Ingredients of a Perfect Writer’s Blog – from KindeWriters
• 7 ways to learn from Conan’s twittering – from Mary Demuth

My Picks

To include Tara’s guest blog (which was amazing) and my blog on Editing vs. Proofreading in the list of three would be cheating, but I didn’t want to leave them out. Both had a profound impact on me. My other picks were:

• The Struggle for a Rising Plotline – from Stephanie Cowell at Writer Unboxed…really great blog who those pantsers that tend to write first and shake out the plot later.
• Top 100 Creative Writing Blogs – I was here on BestCollegesOnline for an hour!
• How To Amp Up Sexual Tension in Your Story – anyone who’s been following for a while knows I really, really needed this!
• Fiction Novel Writing--The First Step Makes All the Difference – this is a great blog when you’ve got those blank page jitters.
• Know Your Audience—Writing a Synopsis – a great blog from Darlene Quinn

What articles/blogs have been lighting YOU on fire lately?

Till next time,
Jenny

This blog is part of a series. Click here for Part 1 and Part 2

The Game Drive

Everyone goes on safari for the animals.  And they are fantastic.  I saw more animals than I ever imagined.  Animals I didn’t know existed. 

Did you know there are three different kinds of giraffes?  The only way to tell their gender is by the knobs on their head?  You can’t miss the male baboons.  Beautiful turquoise-blue family jewels. 

Also, there are black rhinos and white rhinos, but you can’t tell by the color of their hide.  You have to look at the mouth.  Yep, I got close enough to do that.  Keep that motor running!

In Kenya, our game drives started at 7 a.m.   We arrived back at camp around 1:30 to grab a quick buffet lunch then were out on the Masai Mara until 7 p.m. when the gates to the camp were locked.  

We had a lot more time than most folks get on a game drive because I was traveling with five professional photographers.  They were motivated.  Extremely motivated.  So much so that by the time we got to Tanzania we left at 6 a.m. (hence my pre-dawn walk with my Masai warrior) with a box breakfast and stayed out until 7 p.m., stopping for a boxed lunch at an area that was safe—read “no tall grasses for animals to stalk us.”

One morning we set out before sunrise and happened upon three cheetahs walking across the savannah.  Our driver was good.  He knew the “bachelor males” were hunting for breakfast, so we followed them.  This was the only time we saw the predator vs. prey hunt.  A jackal followed the cheetahs, knowing it would get lucky if the cheetahs hunted well. 

Zebra and wildebeast, known as gnu to the Africans, travel together.  The zebra can smell predators and the wildebeast can smell water.  After a feint chase, one cheetah insinuated itself into the wildebeast herd.  The zebras had already moved to the perimeter of the herd.  After awhile the wildebeast ignored the lone cheetah in the midst of the herd.  Bad idea.

Lions sleep twenty-two hours a day, so I have a lot of pictures of sleeping lions.  And when they sleep, nothing will make them move.  It must be nice to be at the top of the food chain. 

We came upon lions asleep in the road and had to drive around them. (See below.)

I did get pictures of moving lions.  In fact, I saw a mother elephant chase off three lions that were too close to her baby.  I don’t think the lions were hunting—it was mating season.  And it was birthing season. 

We found an area that appeared to be a kind of lion nursery where five lionesses rested while they nursed eight cubs.  Did you know that a lioness will nurse any hungry cub, even if it is not her own?  Yep, the two males were sleeping away from the action.

Warthogs.  What amazing animals.  So many tusks on the top and bottom jaws and out from the snout.  When they run they put their tails up and prance in a line.  Our driver would laugh and say, “There goes the African express!”

I practically kissed my driver when, on the second day, he delivered up a restroom that had a Western toilet.  After that, I never had to use a “squatter” again.  Thank goodness.  I include this information for those of you who might be intimidated by the lack of facilities in the wild.  Just let your driver know your needs.

Our Kenyan driver, Big John, loved to drive our Land Cruiser forty miles an hour to get us to see something one of the other drivers radioed about.  The roof of the vehicle popped up and had railings around the outside, so I would hang on for dear life and bend my knees like I was skiing when the tires slipped on rocks as we went through streams or bounced along across burrowed holes on the plain. 

One day, during a particularly exciting stream fording (John actually said to hold on!) I started singing the Indiana Jones theme song.  The three other people in the truck took up the song. 

John had never seen the movie, so we told him about it.  When he understood how much we enjoyed the bumps and tilts, we had even more fun the following days.  We started calling him Indiana John.  A copy of Harrison Ford fighting snakes is winging its way to Kenya as you read this. 

The first and last animal I saw in Africa was a dikdik.  Most people never see one, but just before sunset I spotted the little creature on the way into our first camp. They are the smallest gazelle-- about the size of my twelve-pound Siamese cat. 

The dikdik mates for life.  When its mate dies, it stops eating and dies soon thereafter.  The romantic in me loved the dikdik at first sight.  Unfortunately, it’s rare to see a mated pair.  Two dikdiks live alone on miles of plain.  But every morning I told my carmates that I was going to look for a herd of dikdiks.  At least it made us laugh during those ungodly early hours of the morning.

But on our last day, I saw three—a mated pair and their baby.  My rare herd of dikdiks! 

Next week:  More animal tales—and tails!
Fae