Contest Promo

From Lauren Barnholdt's Blog Introducing....THE REALITY CHICK BUZZ THE BOOK contest!

The PRIZES:(1) Your choice of either an iPod Shuffle, OR a fifty dollar Amazon.com gift certificate
(2) An autographed copy of REALITY CHICK by Lauren Barnholdt
(3) A copy of the August issue of Teen People, which lists REALITY CHICK as a Can't-Miss Pick for August
(4) Free tuition to a session of Lauren's YA writing class

THE CONTEST:

STEP ONE: Simply copy and paste this whole message (including the info about the contest) into any blog, message board, email list, myspace bulletin, or anywhere a lot of people will see it!

REALITY CHICK by Lauren Barnholdt is NOW IN STORES!

Going away to college means total independence and freedom. Unless of course your freshman year is taped and televised for all the world to watch. On uncensored cable.

Sweet and normal Ally Cavanaugh is one of five fresh people shacking upon In the House, a reality show filmed on her college campus. (As if school isn't panic-inducing enough!) The cameras stalk her like paparazzi, but they also capture the fun that is new friends, old crushes, and learning to live on your own.

Sure, the camera adds ten pounds, but with the freshman fifteen a given anyway, who cares? Ally's got bigger issues -- like how her long-distance bf can watch her loopy late-night "episode" with a certain housemate...

Freshman year on film.
It's outrageous.
It's juicy.
And like all good reality TV, it's impossible to turn off.

IN STORES NOW!Check out Lauren on the web at www.laurenbarnholdt.com or on her myspace at www.myspace.com/laurenbarnholdt

STEP TWO --Email Lauren at lauren (at) laurenbarnholdt.com and let her know you've posted about the contest and the book, and you'll be entered to win the prize pack! The winner will be picked at random on September 1st. The more places you post, the more entries you get. Have fun and good luck!!!

Slash & Burn

Apart from playing about on MySpace - oops did I say playing I meant networking! - I've also been polishing Lil to get her nice and sparkly in readiness of submitting to agents.

As I send the witches each chapter (or three or four) as I finish them, I edit along the way taking into consideration their suggestions, and the theory here is at the end - there shouldn't be too much left to tighten, polish and tweak.

Ha-de-ha.

Okay well it is a good theory but doesn't quite work in practice. Especially when the end product comes in several thousand above and beyond what I originally anticipated.

Sooo... I've been cutting. I slashed over half a chapter from the first 40 pages (suggested by brilliant cps) although I did have severe palpitations at the thought (as Amanda and Pat probably remember from that msn chat!) but the beginning is a lot tighter now. While I would have tidied it up during edits, left to my own devices there's no way I would have seen there was so much... how can I put this... waffle?!

Last night I lost a further 8 pages. Great news! By the time I got to THE END today, I'd added another three. Argh! While I was cutting, I was also adding! Bad move. Except the adds were essential! (Honest!)

MySpace Junkie

I get very fidgety when I've no book to work on. I know I have 400 pages of Lil to edit but I just can't face it at the moment - and besides, everyone says it's a Good Thing to leave the ms for a few days at least before going back to it. Sooo... sounds good to me!

The problem is, I can't physically stay away from the computer for any length of time. So instead of resting my poor eyes what have I been doing?

Well aside from revamping my blog and tidying up my webpage (and chatting to witches via msn which I don't think counts unless we call it... oh yes I've got it - brainstorming!) I've only gone and got a MySpace page. And this was after saying, as late as Saturday morning, that I didn't think it was worth me doing one until I actually had, well you know - a book to promote or something?!

But as the witches will attest, no sooner do I say that I could never do this, or can't ever see myself doing that... off I go and do it. Three years ago I knew I could never write a novel that was longer than 50k - six months later I wrote one that came in at 80k. Two years ago I baulked at the thought of writing in first person - a year later I'd written three in first person present tense. Though I suppose that does mean I'm open to trying new things!

But - back to the MySpace page. OMG. I love it. My youngest daughter, who is a total computer whiz, fixed it up for me last night. Oh, my slide show. I keep having to hop on just to gaze in total rapt delight at the hunks. Especially the divine Hugh Jackman (who my daughter accidently named Huge Jackman at first hahahah I nearly didn't get her to change that!)

Tarting up the Blog

After Sara and Amanda revamped their blogs, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and tart up my own one, which had been very pink and girly for waaaay too long. I rather love the black ones, because they are dark, sexy and mysterious but unfortunately I have trouble reading them, so in the end I picked a nice yellow.

Ha! Not really.

Ahem. Okay Lil update. Spent several hours yesterday hopping backwards and forwards between the first three and last three chapters making sure everything tallied. When I could no longer focus on the computer screen due to splitting headache and throbbing eyeballs, I shot the whole thing off to the witches.

HUGE sighs of relief my end this morning. So far, no gaping plot holes have been discovered, and all comments/suggestions/crits are easily fixable.

I'm taking the weekend off though, and will get back into the edits next week when my brain is less fried.

Hooray!

After what feels like forever but, after checking my diary (yes I'm that anal, I actually wrote in my diary when I started this one!) is in fact 19 weeks and four days - not sure how many hours - Kill Lil is finished!

Typed THE END this afternoon and goggled at the page for about 20 seconds trying to pluck up the nerve to hit word count. I had visions of it being in the region of 110k which would NOT be a good thing, but thankfully it came in at just a shade over 102k. Totally relieved I immediately closed the doc and collapsed under the desk in a freaked out heap.

There's a lot of editing and polishing ahead but hey - it's done! I'm soooo happy - there were moments when I seriously doubted I'd ever manage to tie up all those pesky loose ends I'd created. As soon as I've given it the final run through, it's off to the witches for their invaluable comments, crit and suggestions.

Oh yeah. And I'm completely knackered.

Happy Birthday Sara!

Enjoy your champagne and takeaway!

It's one of those very strange quirks that all the witches, no matter which birthday we celebrate, remain eternally twenty-nine!

Scorching Regency

A couple of years ago, while at the RNA conference in the UK, I met up with a fellow member of the RWAustralia, Anna Campbell, who was touring Europe at the time.

We kept in touch and I was thrilled to bits when her novel was recently picked up by Avon (after a bidding war!) Because Anna always referred to this novel with a cute acronym, I sort of assumed it was a light hearted Regency romance - perhaps a comedy of manners.

Man, was I ever wrong! Anna's website is now live and she has an excerpt posted. It's dark, incredibly sexy and has a baaaad hero! All I can say is go and read it. Now. And swooooon.

Honing the Historical

One of the many reasons I wanted to attend the RNA conference this year was to catch Michelle Styles, Harlequin Mills and Boon historical author, workshop on Making Your Historical World Come Alive. Now, strictly speaking I'm not writing an historical since my setting is mythological and the time period is so-called prehistory, but since it's definitely not contemporary I really wanted to soak up her advice.

So I was really happy when she offered to send anyone who was interested the notes from her workshop. And they are proving to be very helpful.

I especially liked the section on imagining your novel is a movie and then justifying each scene in terms of the budget available, as to whether or not that scene is working hard enough. Since I always imagine my novels are movies unfolding in my head (I've never pretended I'm not deluded!), I can really relate to this, and it makes a lot of sense to me.

Once I finish with Lil and start on the editing (oh joy... yeah right...!) I'll be using Michelle's notes to help tighten and polish. Considering I've just hit 91k and STILL have a fair amount of loose ends to tie up, I definitely need all the help I can get!

Ideas from Space

Amanda's been talking about where writers ideas come from on her blog today, and it got me thinking to my own early efforts. And it was a bit of a shock to realise that, from an early teenager, I've always managed to somehow incorporate aliens, space or time travel.

It's a shock because when I first started to write seriously seven years ago, I focused firmly on straight contemporary romance (apart from my first M&B effort, which included a fallen angel but let's not go there). But thinking back, all my early stories were not only a bit on the weird side, but they rarely had happy endings. For instance, one of my space epics ended up with the crew missing the re-entry window and bouncing off Earth's atmosphere into goodness knows where.

In fact I used to bump off my characters on a scarily frequent basis!

So although my wip is entirely different from anything I've ever written before, in actual fact all I've really done is get right back to my very early writing roots.

So, Sara, are you sure you no longer want that motel in space idea, because I have to say the premise is becoming more appealing by the second!

Sara Hantz Sells!

Hooray! Such exciting news. One of the witches, Sara Hantz, has just sold her debut novel, titled The Second Virginity of Suzy Green, to Flux publishing!

It's been murder keeping my mouth shut about this, but now it's all official, because it's in Publisher's Marketplace.

Sara Hantz's debut THE SECOND VIRGINITY OF SUZY GREEN, about a girl who
joins a virginity club in her new town to try to make a new start, to Andrew
Karre at Flux, by Sara Crowe at Harvey Klinger
(world).sara@harveyklinger.com

Sara's chronicled her brilliant sale story on her blog - I love sale stories and this one is a cracker! I got all emotional just reading about it again!

Huge congratulations, Sara. This is wonderful news, and we're all so proud of you and can't wait to see our Suzy on the shelves!

And - yes! Due to living down under I just so happened to be happily snoring away at every critical step. It's just got so way beyond a joke now, I mean what is the mystical link between the witches receiving fantastic news from NA and my nasal passageways?

You Had Me At Halo

Crawling from my sick bed to post this fantabulous news from PM...

Fiction: Women's/Romance Amanda Ashby's YOU HAD ME AT HALO, in the vein of All of Me, about a woman who dies with unresolved issues and comes back in the body of her geeky co-worker in order to sort them out, to Anne Bohner at NAL, in a nice deal, by Jenny Bent at Trident Media Group (NA).

Yay Amanda! Won't be long before our Holly hits the shelves now!

Gabby Moo

The love scene is in the bag and it only took me four days!

I decided to check my word count. 70k by the computer, and I still have heaps of plot left to unravel and subsequently tie up. My original thought was this novel would be about 85k - hmm bit offside there! (hey look did you notice I threw in a footy term there?!)

There's a definite pattern to how I write. When I start, I have this deep rooted fear there's no way I'll ever manage to find enough words to carry me through to a decent length book (say, 80k). Half way through I have a major panic attack that the whole thing stinks and I have no idea where the damn thing is meant to be going.

Then, I hit my stride as everything starts coming together and the words pour out faster onto the computer screen. Suddenly it's no longer a question of will I have enough words - but rather, omigod I am going to have way too many!

But for some reason that happens every single time, and now I'm just not going to worry about it. I know my earlier chapters need a good pruning which will lose me a few pages, and so long as I don't hit the wrong side of 100k I think I should be good to go.

And I think I need some kind of deadline to finish Lil. Maybe second week in July!

Lil Update

My wip is renamed - for the third time! I think it had something to do with all of us calling it Kill Lil, it was inevitable eventually I'd end up sliding Lily in the official title.

And it's weird. My last ms was written entirely from the heroine's pov, but all the witches immediately dubbed it Neo, after the hero. But the current one, despite starting off in the hero's pov and also having the villian's pov, is definitely Lily's story.

I'm now just over two thirds of the way through and am approaching the Sex Scene or, as one certain witch likes to refer to such things, the Smut Scene (not that I write smut, perish the thought, I'm sure I don't know what she means?)

So for the next few days I'm going to have endless headaches, chewed fingernails and doodles on my notepad as I attempt to get the love scene just right. It's not that I don't enjoy writing them, I just find them totally exhausting and a real challenge to make them steamy and believable (no third hand suddenly popping up from nowhere!)

Bodily Fluids

It's trickled through to me that it's World Cup time and football dominates the telly. I'm not a great sports fan but I am not averse to leering at fit guys running around a pitch chasing a ball. What's not to love there?

Well, I'll tell you. Whenever I get sucked into it and am avidly drooling at the screen, we zoom into a close up. Nothing wrong in that except I can guarantee the buff bloke will then immediately spit.

Argh. Even writing that word makes me squirm. I Can. Not. Bear. Spit. Argh.

It's totally gross and nasty not to mention unhygenic. What's the matter with these guys, can't they swallow??

I always have to then convince myself they're just spitting out chewing gum and nothing more - er - personal. Double ugg.

Australia is playing Brazil tonight and I wouldn't mind watching it, but the thought of seeing mouth fountains really turns me off!

A Rose by any other name...

The only problem with having cps scattered across the globe (apart from the obvious one which is we can't all get together on a regular basis for a bloody good booze up - umm I mean a deep and meaningful discussion on all things literary)is the different time zones we inhabit.

Whenever one of the witches gets good news from agents, editors or whatever - I am ALWAYS asleep. Without fail. It's just not cricket.

It's bad enough being out of the loop when all these various excitements take place, but there's more! Just to add insult to injury I now appear to have earned a rather unfortunate nickname.

From the creative brain that thought of dubbing my wip Kill Lil comes this gem. I am now offically known as The Snoring Witch.

The Snoring Witch!! How elegant is that?!

A Toothy Tale

My poor hubby. A few months ago one of his teeth dropped out at the dinner table (it's not funny... really, it's not... and is no reflection whatsoever on the state of my cooking) and every time he smiled he looked like a gangster. It was sort of scary. Anyway he finally gets around to going to the dentist where they took x-rays, moulds and measured him up for a new tooth.

For the last 4 weeks he's been putting off going back to get the thing fitted, but finally, when the dentist called him again on Friday, he arranged to go in this afternoon. Phew. At last!

Yeah, right. He turns up at the dentist only to find a man with a van there, lugging out all the furniture. Apparently the dentist is 'relocating' and this bloke is carting all their stuff to the new premises. Where's that? enquires my dh. Suddenly shifty, the bloke says he doesn't know.

Doesn't know? Doesn't know? This bloody dentist has my husband's new tooth! What the hell use is a single tooth to them? Couldn't they have passed his notes (not to mention tooth) onto another dentist before deciding to do a mid-afternoon flit?

And since when do dentists do a runner in any case?? Too weird!

Critique Musings

There's (another) great post on Miss Snark today regarding the joys and tribulations of asking your other half to read your masterpiece. Basically, it's probably not such a hot idea unless you have the hide of a rhino.

My dear hubby is very supportive of my writing habits, but he really doesn't get what I write at all. Considering he reads boring HowTo books and I write paranormal romance I should know better than to ask for his opinion but hey. I want him to love my work! So every now and then I give in to a masochistic urge and wheedle him to read my latest effort.

Um, yeah. As the witches know, the first para I wrote was a short aimed for Arabella magazine. I'd never written (a) a short before or (b) a spicy paranormal and I was sooo excited when I finally finished it. I cornered hubby, refused to acknowledge the look of glazed terror that crawled across his face, and urged him to read my gem which was all about Death and Eternal Love set on a beach at midnight, with vampires and witches thrown in for good measure.

He read it in silence, a frown of bemusement clouding his face. Not such a great sign really.

'So, did you like it?' I couldn't help asking when he finally finished all (12!!) pages and put them to one side.

Silence. Then - 'What was it about?'

Me, slightly taken aback. 'What do you think it was about?'

Him - 'Well, she was in hospital, wasn't she?'

Me, totally shocked. 'What?'

Him - 'She was delusional, wasn't she?'

Me - 'Er, no. She was on a beach at midnight.'

Him - 'Yeah, but not really. I mean really she was in hospital because she was sick wasn't she?'

To put it mildly, I was quite upset he completely missed the point of my story. Luckily the wonderful witches understood this was a paranormal, which meant it didn't have to follow the rules of our boring old everyday world.

And that's the magic of finding crit partners who really get what you're trying to do. Not because they think everything you write is great (how helpful would that be?!) but because they understand where you're trying to go and, because they're on a similar journey, have the necessary tools to assist (yes, I LURVE Stephen King!!)

So much as I love my hubby and would be thrilled if he enjoyed my writing, I know better than to ask him to crit my work. I have three brilliant CPs for that who have no hesitation in telling me if something doesn't make sense, needs tightening up or rethinking.

Not all writers need or want a crit group, but for those who do want critical feedback our significant other isn't always the best choice!

Bad Kitty Fun

As if I don't have enough to do, what with avoiding my wip and all, today Sara gave me the link to the Bad Kitty website of YA author Michele Jaffe.

Michele's website absolutely rocks, and I have to say I spent many happy minutes bedazzling boots. Such fun! And since I know you can't wait to try this out, here's the direct link.

When I grow up I want a fun website like that. Except with all dark and paranormally gizmos and sparkly bits and possibly a couple of tastefully naked guys as well feeding me grapes... mmm.

Witchy Thoughts

There is a great post on Amanda's blog today, about how the witches got together. And it reminded me of the first time Sara and I ever spoke.

A few weeks before the RNA conference in 2004, we discovered - quite by chance via the eharlequin boards - that we'd be on the same plane from Singapore to Heathrow. Wow! What an opportunity to get together before the conference!

So we exchanged a couple of formal emails introducing ourselves to each other (hehe, yes remember those polite emails, Sara?!) and then towards the end of the flight Sara came down looking for me (how brave is that?)

I think she must have batted her eyelashes at the flight attendent as he let me ascend to the splendour of business class, where Sara and I then proceded to be Painfully Polite with each other.

ahahaha. I am giggling now as I think of it. The roar of the engines prevented anything but genteel yelling (and I of course never yell) and then we hit some turbulance. After some toilet talk (ie aircraft loos are ridiculously tiny - what did you think I was talking about?!) I had to stagger back to my seat to prepare for landing.

The funny thing is we didn't become friends until after I returned to Australia and Sara returned to New Zealand a few weeks after the conference. We sometimes laugh about that time on the plane, and think how different it would be if we met up now that we know each other so well.

Oh yeah. Next time we'll be prepared, cause we'll take along our laptops so we can msn each other - even if we are sitting on the same aisle (those engines can be pretty noisy, y'know!)

Happy Birthday Amanda!

Luckily you can't hear me singing here, as it would make you weep... hehe.

But here's a big Happy Birthday dear Amanda! And now you're twenty-nine that means - gasp - you're the same age as me!!