Brenda Drake . . . under the influence of coffee: March 2011

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Is It Hot In Here Or Is It This Book? ... Epic Follower Blogfest

My good friend Shelley Watters over at Is It Hot In Here Or Is It This Book? is hosting an epic follower twitter pitch blogfest/contest. The prize is a full manuscript request from the incredible super agent Suzie Townsend. On April 1 and 2 we're posting our pitches and hopping around to the other participants' blogs to critique their entries. On April 3 we'll enter our polished pitches in the comment section of Shelley's contest post.

Check out all the details and go read all the other participants' entries here.

So here's my entry and feel free to tell me what you think.

Title: LIBRARY JUMPERS
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Word Count: 93,000

Yanked into a gateway book that links the great libraries, Gia finds that she's a long lost knight and must now fight to stop an apocalypse.

Thanks for stopping by and good luck to all who enter!

That's it.

39 comments

Birthday Month Giveaway Madness...another giveaway and the party is over... for now

Well, it's been a fun birthday month for me. I'm humbled and awed by all the wonderful writers in our community. I really enjoyed reading the comments this month and reading all the entries in the SHOW ME THE VOICE contest with the fantabulous agent Natalie Fischer. I have a few more contests in the works. One I hope at the end of the summer *crosses fingers* with an agent who is closed to submissions. That would be an awesome opportunity for you all to show your work to an agent who would not other wise see it. I'm busy hunting ... um stalking...um begging, anyway, asking other agents to do contests, so I hope to have some more fun blogfest/contests soon.

CA Marshall

Also, I'm working on a live chat with CA Marshall, agent intern, freelance editor, author, extraordinaire. The chat will be all about answering your editing, and possibly, submission questions to Cassandra. Should be very informative and fun. Cassandra has a new editing site here . Go check out all the services she offers and there are some ala carte services that won't break your piggy bank. Seriously, she's an awesome editor and she's taught me so much, I'm sure you won't regret using her services.

I guess I should maybe get to the giveaway, right? Right.

And so, the final winner of my birthday month giveaway is ...

Corrine O'Flynn check out her blog here .

Congratulations, Corrine! You've just won $50 toward a full edit OR a ten page manuscript critique and a four page synopsis critique from CA Marshall. Email me your email address at bdrake(at)comcast(dot)net and I'll send you the gift certificate.

Well, that's it, for now.

3 comments

Monday, March 28, 2011

Show Me The Voice Contest . . .We Have Winners!

First off, I want to thank the amazing Natalie Fischer with the Bradford Literary Agency for judging and providing prizes for this great blogfest/contest. Thank you, Natalie! Follow Natalie's blog (click link below her picture) for great information and fun contests. Plus you'll want to query her when she's open for submissions! She's so nice and smart anyone would be lucky to have her as their agent.

Natalie Fischer: Adventures In Agentland

I just want to say that all the entries were wonderful. I hope you all had a chance to critique each other's work and receive great advice back from your peers. You all are winners in my book!

Without further hesitation here are the top three winners.

3rd place and the winner of a query critique is ...

Katy Upperman - click here to read her entry.

2nd place and the winner of a critique of the first 10 pages is ...

Taffy Lovell - click here to read her entry.

And the 1st place winner of a critique of the first 20 pages is ...

Mer Snow - click here to read her entry.

Congratulation winners! Please email me at brenleedrake(at)gmail(dot)com and I will give you further instructions.

Check out my friend's, Shelley Watters, blog Is It Hot In Here Or Is It This Book?and enter her twitter pitch contest with agent Suzie Townsend with Fine Print Literary Management for a chance to win a full manuscript request.

Come back on March 31st to see if you win an editing gift from CA Marshall for my final birthday month giveaway.

11 comments

Thursday, March 24, 2011

WE HAVE SEMI-FINALISTS

After a day long event, drinking cup after cup of coffee, my fantabulous judges have picked the twenty semi-finalists. I want to thank J9, C, and Godzilla (that's my nicknames for them) for their tireless efforts to choose from such stellar entries. Though I had read for the first round, I nominated more than half of the entries for the judges round. Basically, I'm writing this in the wee hours, so excuse any typos.

I want to thank everyone for participating. You all did a wonderful job, and we had a difficult time narrowing the list. I've given each of the top twenty entries their own posts. Please feel free to congratulate the semi-finalists in their comments, but refrain from critiquing. You can go to their sites if you want to critique their work.

And a bit on competition. I came across a post by Kalen O'Donnell that summed it up nicely. Go check it out here. The competition is fierce out there, so you definitely need to shine in your opening words.

And now I turn it over to our awesome judge, agent Natalie Fischer with the Bradford Literary Agency to pick the top three. Thanks Natalie!

Natalie Fischer - Adventures in Agentland

29 comments

SEMI-FINALIST - 1

Name: J. Keller Ford
Title: In the Shadow of the Dragon King
Genre: YA Urban Contemporary Fantasy

David Heiland chucked the PS3 controller on his bed and scrambled onto the balcony as four F-18 Hornets screamed overhead, disappearing into the sunrise over the Tennessee Mountains. A flock of ducks took to the sky, squawking as if in protest.

“Yes!” David punched the ice-cold air. “Man, that’s freaking awesome!”

He shivered and scurried back inside, flicking a sideways glance at the photograph on the wall of his father in the cockpit of an F-16. Sucks you can’t be here for the air show next weekend, Dad. We’d have a blast.

David rummaged through the laundry basket for his sweater and jeans and headed to the bathroom. He emerged twenty minutes later, showered and dressed, his hair an uncombed mess, and checked his phone. He smiled and read the text message from his best friend, Charlotte.

chk ur e-mail. sent you a pic from my 5th b’day party that will make u laugh!

Oh, man, this has got to be good, he thought.

David opened his laptop and within minutes brought up a photograph dated ten years earlier. Charlotte stood sopping wet in the foreground, her fists clenched at her sides. Martin Sanderman lay at her feet, his hand to his cheek. The third person in the picture – himself at five years and one day – stood in the background, his mouth twisted in a grin.

He chuckled and typed:

OMG, talk about an April Fools Day gone bad for Martin! I still can’t believe you clocked him, but he so deserved it for pushing you in the barrel.

2 comments

SEMI-FINALIST - 2

Name: Mike Wordplay

Title: The Sisters Ellison and the Case of the Whistling Willies

Genre: MG

On a lone house set high on a hill, lived two little girls, their names were Emily and Eliza Ellison.

Emily the older one, loved reading books about insects,

And mummies,

And ancient Mayan rituals,

And she especially loved playing solitaire on the stairs with her cat, Osiris.

But more than anything, she loved a good mystery.

Eliza the younger one, could be found climbing on very tall things,

And very small things,

And all things in between,

And she especially loved taking things apart to see how they worked.

But above all of these, she adored a good adventure most of all.

Two sisters so different yet it was their love of mystery and adventure that would bring them together in a most unexpected way.

It happened suddenly.

It happened at a very late hour.

Wheeee-Tweeeee-Whoooo!

The whistle rattled the window panes.

Whoooot-a-toooooooot!

It rolled up the stairs and reached the tiny but ever-alert of ears of

One Ms. Emily Ellison.

Fweeeeeeeep!

In an instant Emily opened her eyes and reached for her spectacles sitting atop the bureau.

“What on earth” she whispered to herself as she reached into the top drawer of the bureau for the flashlight and carefully slipped into her houseshoes at the edge of the bed.

Criiiiiiiiiiick-Craaaaaack-Creeeeeaaaaak!

The floor groaned under her gentle steps. Soon her footsteps were joined by another less careful set that bounded quickly toward her.

0 comments

SEMI-FINALIST - 3

Name: Deana Barnhart
Title: Remembered
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

The only thing Jonas was completely sure of was that Mackenzie Shae was going to die. As he studied her walking along – practically bouncing – in step to the loud music still playing in the field behind her, he couldn’t help but stare. Not that Mackenzie intrigued him. No human had that affect on Jonas. They were way too predictable. Sure, she probably attracted a majority of the male population, but she was the whole reason this mess consumed him in the first place. That annoyance completely trumped how she looked.

Of course the bond between them continued to aggravate him as well. He didn’t have time to ponder over some typical teenagers innermost thoughts. So what if she turned misfit because her sister died? What difference did it make that the boy standing at her side, eyes caressing her face like they could actually feel her skin, loved her, and she didn’t return that love? Least of all did he enjoy that this link—which acted more like a shackle at times—forced him into caring.

What he needed to worry about now consisted of finding out when and how Mackenzie would leave this life, and why he was hers to begin with. It didn’t seem to him like she had anything extraordinary going for her.

As he waited for her to approach, many possibilities swam through his head in answer to those questions. However, given all the ways he’d seen death take someone, he never, in the many centuries of doing his job, could have guessed he would actually be the cause.

3 comments

SEMI-FINALIST - 4

Name : Roland D. Yeomans

Title : French Quarter Nocturne

Genre : Urban Fantasy

It rained lies and death today.

But some things even Hurricane Katrina couldn’t change.

As it had for the past century and a half, the setting sun took its last look on St. Peter’s street as it transformed to Rue La Mort. The flooded street sparkled with flakes of burning silver. Beneath the muddy water, spirits swam restlessly, looking nothing so much as seeping blood under the sea.

Though I had seen the transformation a thousand times, tonight’s still hollowed out my chest. My vision blurred. My head became light. Reality stretched like taffy pulled by some demented demon-child.

The world looked as if I were viewing it from the wrong end of a telescope. My head felt full of helium. I half-expected it to float off my shoulders.

The evening fog became blood mists billowing over the flooded street. The mists became figures out of nightmare. I stood my ground. There were dazed innocents behind me, and I would protect them as I had protected them for a hundred and fifty years.

Frightening me never worked. The ghost demons fell back to the tried and true, murmuring hollow promises in my ear. I felt off-balanced as if I would fall into madness. I still stood my ground. Hissing in anger, they drifted off down the flooded Rue La Mort in search of more gullible souls.

A shadow loomed over me. I held onto my Stetson and craned my neck, looking up. There it was in all its hellish glory.

Meilori’s, the Crossroads of Worlds.

6 comments

SEMI-FINALIST - 5

Name: Lindsay N. Currie and Patricia Burgess Leaver

Title: FATUM

Genre: YA Dystopian

“I had nothing to do with us losing that game, Keith. We were ahead five-two until you stepped onto the mound.”

We’d been having this argument every day for the last week, but here I was again, defending a score I knew for a fact was correct. Guess that’s what happens when you’ve been cooped up in a missile silo for the better part of a year with nobody to talk to but each other. Somehow, something as trivial as the score of our last baseball game becomes a matter of life and death.

“Whatever, Jake. We would’ve been ahead five nothing if they’d let me start.”

I stood up, sending the old cable spool we used as a table crashing down, our only deck of cards scattering into the thin layer of dirt that covered the floor. “Are you kidding me, Keith? The only reason you made the varsity team is because your dad is the assistant coach.”

“Was!” Keith roared. His father had died along with the rest of our team that day on the bus, leaving the three of us to fend for ourselves. “And if you’d done your job and won the game before that, we wouldn’t have been on that damn bus, Jake. We would have been home.”

“Now you’re saying it’s my fault your father is dead?”

Keith nodded, took one aggressive step to invade my personal space. “I’m saying you losing that game sure as hell didn’t help matters.”

“You little prick!” I grabbed him by the shirt collar, the thin fabric fraying in my hands. He’d been blaming me for everything lately, and I’d had enough.

4 comments

SEMI-FINALIST - 6

Name: Jared Larson
Title: I'm Here to Save Your Day
Genre: MG Adventure/Humor

I never lie. Never. I’m all about telling the truth. A long time ago,
there was this man named George Washington who told his dad he
couldn’t lie. And then the guy became President of the United States.
I’m exactly the same way. If I lived way back then, George and me...
we’d be best bros’ forever. I’m sure of it.

And yeah, I’ll admit it. I’ve been bullied. But, I bet George had been
too, especially on his first day at a new school.

I hated first days.

I looked at my mom with big glossy eyes (well, one eye actually...
yeah, I wear an eye-patch, so what?) as wide as I could make it,
staring behind my glasses.

“Just one more day,” I pleaded. “Please, Mom? Don’t make me suffer like this.”

She smiled and took her hands off the steering wheel of our kickin'
awesome Honda mini-van. Well, Mom thought it was awesome anyway. I'd
rather have her hauling me around in a red Ferrari or something.

She patted me on the cheek. "You'll do great, Bo. Now, you don't want
to be late."

She always insisted I be on time. Ugh.

"But, Mom," I said, "school doesn't start until eight. It's only seven
thirty-five."

She smiled and leaned over, giving me a big mom hug. "You need to sign
in at the Administrations Office. They're expecting you." She paused,
tapping her lips with a purple fingernail. "Well, maybe I should go
with you."

1 comments