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

Friday, December 16, 2011

Deja Vu Blogfest

DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude 2.0 is holding the Deja Vu Blogfest on his site. So I just had to enter cause I'm lazy like that. I love that all I have to do is re-post something I've already posted before.That's how I roll.

Here's the deets...

In his words:

Some of my longtime followers (any of you still out there) know that I’ve broached this before. I even came up with the BLOG RECYCLE STATION where I encouraged fellow bloggers to leave a link to one of their favorite blog posts in the comments of that post. Innovative, maybe, but now I’m ready to do one better. Thus I've teamed up with three awesome blogging buddies, Katie Mills (Creepy Query Girl), Lydia Kang, and Nicole Ducleroir, to bring you….

How will this work? First, sign-up to participate with Mr. Linky below (or at any of the ladies blogs above), then shout out to all of your blogging friends and encourage them to sign up as well. Take the badge above and plaster it everywhere, blogging graffiti gone wild. Then on December 16^th all of those taking part will re-post their favorite blog offering, or one that never received the exposure it should have. Then as the day unfolds and everyone hops from one blog to another, what they will be reading is the best of the best (as determined by you). That day the blogosphere will be chock full of past writing brilliance! Encouragement, enlightenment, knowledge, bared souls, stimulation, hilarity, insecurities, success stories! All on display…the very same day…like no other time before. Some of them will no doubt be familiar, well-deserving a second read, but a good many will be the first time you’ve seen them. And it couldn't be any easier to take part...no writing necessary!

Go check the other participants' entries here.

Here's my re-post...

I wrote this last year for Christmas and it's something from my heart. It's just something about me, so I hope you enjoy it.

First off I'm a guest blogger today over at CA Marshall's 12 Days of Christmas blogfest. Please go HERE to check it out and leave a comment. She should have it up sometime today.

Okay, I absolutely love the song 'I'll Be Home for Christmas'. It has special meaning to me because of the story my father would tell with tears glistening in his eyes under the lights of the decked out tree each year. Back when my father was a little boy, he had a baby sister who was very ill. This was in the 1940s and medical treatments weren't as advanced as they are now. She died right before Christmas, and on the drive from the hospital, my father remembers the song, I'll Be Home for Christmas was playing on the radio during the ride home. From that time on, the song held special meaning for him. And after all the years that have past, he still remembers his sister's short life fondly.

As I was growing up, and as I had my own children, I would wonder how Meme (my grandmother) was feeling during such a terrible loss. Then came my son's illness at five-years-old. My youngest had Hodgkin's, which is a cancer in the lymphoid system. I remember the fear of losing him, the elation when he was cured, and the compassion I felt for all the mothers in the world who wouldn't be as lucky as me.

So, at your places of worship or beside your beds at night, say an extra prayer for the children, mothers, fathers, and those who love them. Be they stricken with cancer or other ailments, or protecting us in all the corners of the world, each person is someone's child or beloved.

Peace and Love to all of you. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

11 comments

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Can We Guess Your Character's Age? Contest ...we have winners and more!!!

It has been a whirlwind of fun on the blog lately, and it's because of all the fantabulous writers and friends who participated in this blogfest. I just want to say how much you all mean to me! Thanks for all the positive comments and critique love you sent to your fellow writers. Each of you should be proud of the work you've done. Congratulations to everyone! You may not have won the prize, but you're that much closer to achieving your goal of getting published.

I want to give a ~~BIG~~ HUGE SHOUT OUT to our wonderful judge, prize giver, editor, literary agent assistant, writer, blogger, journalist, Brazilian, insomniac, and word nerd extraordinaire, Gabriela Lessa! Show her your thanks by following her on twitter and her blog. Not only is she giving up three prizes to the winners but she's added more. Yay!

Gabriela Lessa Website
Follow her on Twitter here!

And now ... drum roll please ...

We have door prizes (I should just end all my sentences with an exclamation mark - I'm that excited)! Five to be exact. With the help of Random.org we've chosen five winners from the linky sign-up list who will each receive a query critique (no more than 500 words) by Gabriela Lessa...

Stephanie Diaz

Rebecca Buss

Jeremy Cook

Jamie Corrigan

Susan Francino

And Gabriela wanted to acknowledge the following honorable mentions...

#4 Taffy Lovell
#5 Sharon Bayless
#11 1000th.monkey

Gabriela really liked your excerpts and is offering a 15% discount on any one of her services.

And now, the winners ...

1^st place and the winner of an edit of first 30 pages + 25% off any services they want to hire is...

#2 – Robin Weeks

What Gabriela had to say about her entry ... Robin manages to catch the teenage spirit here. The vocabulary is appropriate to teenagers without being obvious, full of teen slang. Her character shows a concern with her looks, but it’s not overdone. She has a BFF and school bags, suggesting a teen, but she drives, so she has to be at least 16. Her voice in general made it clear for me that she was not a senior – she doesn’t have that air of superiority seniors usually have. So she had to be just 16. The way she reacts when caught, saying “like an idiot” seals the deal. I knew the exact age instantly and I didn’t need to think it over, but I didn’t feel like the author was hitting me in the head with it either. It flowed naturally. Fantastic!

Character's age: 16

2^nd place and winner of an edit of first 20 pages + 20% off any services is ...

#12 – Kendra Gale

What Gabriela had to say about her entry ... Great example of knowing how to differ an MG from a younger YA. The character’s concerns here and her line of thought show she’s not in high school yet. Every detail – from worrying about the teacher to justifying her actions – scream MG. Very well done.

Character's age: 12

3^rd place and winner of edit of first 10 pages + 15% off is ...

#16 – Melinda Williams

What Gabriela had to say about her entry ... Another one that not only shows this is a teen, but a younger high school kid. Everything in her actions and her reasoning shows a certain reverence to this head cheerleader, even if she’s hated. Her posture is not that of a senior, and the shock from the rest of the school confirms that. We can easily identify her age.

Character's age: 16

***All winners please email me at brendadrakecontests@gmail.com and I'll send you instructions on how to collect your winnings.

And don't forget, coming up on the blog in January...

Pitch contest with agent Ammi-Joan Paquette of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency. Joan only accepts submissions by referrals or conferences, so this is a great opportunity to get your work in front of her.

That's it, for now...

22 comments

Monday, December 12, 2011

Can We Guess Your Character's Age? Contest ...Semi-Finalists

We have semi-finalists! Each semi-finalist will have their own post, so scroll down and view each one. Please feel free to comment on the entries' posts (be nice in your critiques). I have to say that the writing and stories were so fantabulous it was hard to decide. I hope you got enough critiques during the blogfest to determine if your characters' voices matched their ages. Thank you to everyone for being so kind. I love this community, you all are so helpful and generous!

How it went down yesterday...

The three judges met at my home for a lunch of pancetta pasta, salad, red-velvet cupcakes, and triple chocolate hot cocoa. Yum! With full bellies, we played the game Can We Guess Your Character's Age? I'd read an excerpt aloud and each judge wrote down the age they felt the character was on a dry erase board. When we had finished, the judges had successfully guessed ages for thirty-five entries.

The next round was now about what voices matched the age the best. Enter my wonderful writing buddy, Erica M. Chapman who read late into the night to help me pick the top twenty. Thanks, Erica, you are so beyond awesome! (Please note: This contest wasn't about perfect grammar but about voice.)

I'm happy to leave the final decision to our wonderful judge ...

Gabriela Lessa Website
Follow her on Twitter here!

Gabriela Lessa is an editor, literary agent assistant, writer, blogger, journalist, Brazilian, insomniac and word nerd. In addition to being an Associate Editor at Turquoise Morning Press and an assistant at a major New York-based literary agency, she works independently to offer editing and consulting for authors. Her work is to make manuscripts shine! Check out her reasonable editorial and consultant rates here. She's simply great! Now, I wish I could enter *pouts*.

Follow her blog, it has some great information!

And, of course, we have prizes ...

1st place - Edit of first 30 pages + 25% off any services they want to hire

2nd place - Edit of first 20 pages + 20% off any services
3rd place - Edit of first 10 pages + 15% off

If you're not already following Gabi on twitter or her blog, please do - she's aAHmazing!!!!!

What did you learn from participating in this contest?

Check back in a few days for the winners! I'll be drawing names from the linky list of participants for door prizes.

23 comments