First 200 Words-Winner!

So, great news: I was one of the winners of the First 200 Words contest over at Deana Barnhart's Blogfest.
I will get a ten page critique from Monica Bustamante Wagner. Check her out, she lives in Chile and has chickens, just two of many things that make her awesome in my book. She's also represented by Wolfson Literary Agency, so I'm hoping she'll impart serious how-to-get-an-agent knowledge.

Congratulations to my fellow winners, Lisa and Lindy.

And a huge, tremendous THANK YOU! to Deana for engineering, hosting and delivering the best blogfest-ever!

I Did it; A Blog Award AND Rejection Widget?

I did it. I pushed the button. Sent the first 100 pages to an agent who requested them. It's my first submission ever. I feel like I've stepped off a ledge.

Also, I got a lovely blog award from Jen at Jen's Bookshelf. Thanks Jen! See below for blog award details.

And finally. Now that I have stepped off that ledge (opened the door, whatever image you want to use) I need a way to keep track of my rejections. Anyone know of a widget for this kind of thing? One that lists number of queries, requests, rejections received? A place to put medicinal gin&tonics/cookies (pick your poison) would be helpful too. I'm keeping track on Querytracker, but wanted something on the blog.

The goal of the award is to spotlight up and coming bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers. The rules of the award are:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
5. And most of all - have bloggity-blog fun!

So here's my list of five blogs that are uber cool:

1. Lisa over at Kicked, Cornered, Bitten and Chased - She's an awesome writer and there are cute animal pics on her site.

2. Bird's Eye View - Michelle gave the most detailed, line by line feedback during a recent query contest. She's on it!

3. Crit group bestie, Laura Campbell at Writing Unleashed.

4. The lovely and talented Jenna Cooper at Finding the Write Way

5. Bryce at the Bryce Daniels Preservation Society. He needs to be preserved. Probably in aspic.

Go forth, lad and lasses and have bloggity fun.

I've Got a Map, AND First 200 Words Contest

I've been revising, that's old news. But this week I've been polishing. As I've mentioned before, I got a request for the first 100 pages of my ms at a conference I attended in May. The agent is on submission hiatus until Monday. I'm sending my pages tomorrow.

So I've been tweaking the ever-living stuffing out of this thing for the last few days. One of my beta readers is tardy in returning my pages because he's moving across country (lame excuse, Greg) and I'm checking the mailbox every 2.5 seconds. But, aside from anything earth shattering I get from Greg, I'm done.*

So, late last night, I drew a map of BookEnd. Sorry, I can't seem to stop the top from being cropped in the scan.

Here it is:

It's missing some stuff, but it's generally accurate. What do you think?

And HEY! I'm a finalist in the GUTGAA First 200 Words Contest. Much love to Deana for setting it up. Fingers crossed!

*I'm done with the shiny first 100 pages. I can polish the remaining 250 pages ad infinitum.

GUTGAA Week 4- First 200 Words

We're in the home stretch of Deana's Blog-extravaganza! Head over there now to enter her contest for a critique on part of your novel. Details here. Below is my entry. Good luck to everyone!

A. N Villasante

BookEnd

YA Fantasy

  

I: The Farm

Chapter 1

     It’s early, before dawn but at the bakery everyone’s been up for hours. I stand where I always stand, down the alley in back, opposite her window and out of sight. I want to see her before she can see me, before I go in and buy the morning bread and a cinnamon knot for Story. Story got another tooth last night and needs something to gnaw on while I finish whittling her teething ring. But the bakery isn’t open yet and I need to see Jane first, get over her loveliness before talking to her. I don’t want to sound like a stunt-brained QR, or worse, like a little kid. 

     Right on time, Jane pushes the window out on its hinge and rests her chin on her hands. She always looks up, never down to where I am. I think maybe she’s looking at the last of the night stars as they fade, but she could just as easily be looking at the early morning clouds, judging the weather.

     Jane is smart. She knows things about the stars and the 

weather and the world that I don’t know. Though she’s the baker’s daughter now, before she came to BookEnd she was something else.

 

I Need a Map

For someone who has a ridiculously excellent sense of direction - I hardly ever get lost, I can 'see' the layout of new cities I visit after a couple of hours roaming and I wish the career of map-maker were more lucrative - I'm having a lot of trouble mapping my world.

BookEnd has a specific geography. Things it needs in certain places. The River, the Rish Sea, and places like RiverTown, Idyllia and Finis Terra City all need to interconnect the right way.

Don't get me the wrong. I routinely ignore the maps at the beginning of books, be it Lord of the Rings or The Princess Bride. I'm not that kind of reader. I'm good at suspending disbelief. If you tell me the hanging tree is north by northwest of the sacred rock, I'm like, whatever, when's the hanging and how is the heroine going to escape?

But while revising I keep hitting the 'where am I?' wall. I'm imagining two people by the North Pasture and I can't figure out if they look left or right towards the river. That's bad. So, to rectify that, I tried to draw a map. People, I have a masters degree in Fine Art. How come I can't do this?

Nothing looks right. It's more frustrating right now than correcting typos. Not sure if I'm concentrating on it as a distraction from revising, if it's imperative to sort out now, or both. So, anyone have any map-making ideas or resources?

Oh and some nice news. I was selected as a finalist for the GUTGAA Blogfest Query Contest. Nice! Thanks Deana and Lora.