If you read or write YA, you should definitely check this contest out. YA Confidential is giving away lots of ARCs, a query critique by agent Sarah LaPolla, and a five page critique by agent Vickie Motter. Go here to enter.
Category: Contests
Critique Contest
YA author Gennifer Albin is holding a critique contest at her blog. Check it out here.
Dialogue Contest Finalist
Yay! I’m a finalist in Mysti’s Dialogue Contest! I’d love it if you would all visit the link, read the entries, and vote for your favorite. You don’t even have to vote for me if you don’t want to!
Micro Synopsis Contest
YAtopia is having a Micro Synopsis Contest with agent and author John Cusick. If you have a completed YA or MG manuscript, check the contest out here!
eBook Contest
Author Katie Salidas is giving away all four of her ebooks to one lucky winner. She writes vampire novels, and who doesn’t like vampire novels?! Enter here.
Pitch Contest
There’s a two sentence pitch contest going on at Chanelle Gray’s blog. Check it out here. Whoever wins gets a manuscript read and critique by agent Victoria Marini!
Win a Free Edit!
Editor and writer Cassandra Marshall is giving away a free edit to one lucky winner. Enter here.
Gearing Up For Vacation #2
After four email robot rejections, I finally was able to submit my first 250 words in the contest. Email robots are picky, even more than all my English teachers combined. Only twenty-five people can enter through the time window – I was number twenty-five. The robot told me so. There was a second window later in the day, but my internet connection crapped out on me, and I wouldn’t have been able to enter. So it was close. Too close. I feel a story brewing with email robots and time windows and cutting things close… Hmm. I’ll file that away for later.
In other news, I’ve started writing the sequel to The Grave Winner, which is titled What Gifts She Carried. It would be an understatement to say I was excited. I have to know what happens to these characters because even darker, more horrible things will drop in their paths. (I’m giving the computer an evil squint as I type this).
And, oh yeah, I’m going on another vacation! I leave Thursday to visit my parents in Liberty Lake, Washington, a small but super cute town outside of Spokane. I haven’t seen my parents in almost a year, which is way too long. Last time I visited, they put real estate brochures all over their house in their not-so-subtle attempt to get me to move out there. I’d go if I could bring my job with me…
So, I’ll be MIA for awhile, but don’t worry. The BF and I put this video together of cute pictures of Jesse. If you watch it enough times, you’ll be so smitten with His Majesty’s cuteness, you won’t even miss me. The music comes from the soundtrack to the TV show Cowboy Bebop. The second song is meant to be sleepy-sounding, not sad. Even though Jesse just knocked over the trash can and used coffee grounds flew all over the carpet, he’s not dead.
Oasis for YA
The lovely ladies over at Oasis for YA are holding a contest to celebrate 300 followers. The lucky winner will receive a critique on their first chapter from all five ladies! Click here to enter.
Honorable Mention Happy Dance
I entered the first 500 words of The Grave Winner into a contest hosted by Lydia Sharp over at http://lydiasharp.blogspot.com/ and received an Honorable Mention! Yay! My insides are all fluttery! Every entry received a critique; here’s mine with Lydia’s comments in red:
We stood rooted in place after Mom’s funeral, just the three of us. The weight in my chest threatened to suffocate me if I looked at the lid of her gleaming casket any longer. I focused on the sky instead, at the black birds cutting across the wisps of clouds in a sharp V formation. The dull thump of my heart echoed the rhythm of their beating wings. They pressed on until the clouds took them from me. {love that description. Saying they “took them from me” feels like comparative imagery with the loss of the character’s mother. Very well done.}
A different flutter out of the corner of my eye pulled me back to Earth. The movement took a few seconds to penetrate my numb brain until I realized I was staring at a girl. She crept in and out of the crumbling tombstones, her body thick with mud and grime. A dress, or the torn remnants of one, hung loosely from her scrawny frame. Her mouth sagged open as if she was about to scream. {ew, for real? That would make me scream. Good descriptions, though. You got a physical reaction out of me.}
Darby, my little sister, stood next to me, and I reached out to touch her. I wasn’t sure anymore if any of this was real, if I was completely losing it, but Darby was real. Her ache was real. My hand slid over her bony, quivering shoulders and squeezed her closer to me.
Inky black footprints followed the girl like a trail of burnt breadcrumbs. She stopped beside a tree and leaned her back against it. More darkness pooled at her feet and crept up the tree trunk behind her. {I love that you got to this weirdness so quickly, no messing around. I’m definitely hooked.}
Sweat trickled down the back of my dress. A sudden breeze brushed spring air over my arms and sent a faint smell of rotten hamburger meat past my nose. My stomach rolled, but the breeze and stink faded to nothing as quickly as it had come.
The girl turned her head and looked at us. The whites of her eyes blazed behind the mud that covered her face. Her open mouth held the same black gloom that fell at her feet.
I gasped as recognition hit me.
I knew the girl. Knew of was more like it. Her social circle was my social nightmare. Her name was Sarah, a popular cheerleader who committed suicide one week ago. {ack!} Poor Sarah, everyone said. She couldn’t handle the pressure of popularity and performing kicks and splits in front of everyone anymore. She’d sliced her wrists open to release her from those horrible demands.
So how could she be here when she should be in the ground? I had to be hallucinating. My grief, the unbearable weight in my chest, was climbing up to press on my brain.
But if Sarah really was standing over there by the tree, I couldn’t let Darby see her. That would be too much to handle in one day. I wanted to fold her into me or flip her glasses off her face. Instead, I willed Sarah to go away.
Her darkness crawled up the earthy brown bark to the tips of the tree’s branches and ripped away the silky song of its leaves, leaving it empty and naked.
This is a big mess of awesomesauce. I love it. Sorry if my comments aren’t very helpful, but I honestly don’t see much to improve upon here. You’ve effectively pulled me into this very quickly. You have great voice and excellent description and a whole lotta intrigue. Superb.
Thanks again, and best of luck with this!
Thank you so much, Lydia!!