Author: Cindy

I'm irritated because my posts won't publish.

Box ‘O Books Holiday Give-Away!!

The holiday season is nearly upon us—what better time to tame my TBR pile and give away a Box ‘O Books?

The books I’m giving away to one lucky winner are comprised of free copies I’ve received at writing conferences and haven’t found time to read, as well as books I’ve bought but have never read and have realized that with all the books in my TBR pile, I might never read them (not because they aren’t good, but because I tend to go overboard in my book-buying and purchase copies in genres I don’t usually read simply to support the authors), or books that I’ve accidentally bought two copies of (hey, it happens).

These are all new, never-read books. Not ARCs. Not used books. Brand new, never-read. Not by me or anyone else. Some were published this year, some last year, and a wee few are a little older—but they’re all still new.

Here’s what’s up for grabs:

Young Adult: Gingerbread by Rachel Conn, Gossip Girl by Cecilyvon Ziegesar, and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares.

Chick Lit: Unbecoming Behavior by Stephanie Rowe and Enchanted, Inc. by Shanna Swendson.

Historical: St. Raven by Jo Beverley.

Paranormal: Dark Needs at Night’s Edge by Kresley Cole, 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover  by Linda Wisdom, and The Undead Next Door by Kerrelyn Sparks.

Mystery: Candy Apple Red by Nancy Bush.

Contemporary: Skinny Dipping by Connie Brockway, Record Time by Beverly Brandt, Tangled up in Love by Hailey North, and Got a Hold on You by Pat White.

If you’ve read this far, I’m also including a copy of one of my books, your choice of either BORROWING ALEX or HEAD OVER HEELS (please click the links to find out more about each book). If you already have copies of both (aren’t you sweet?), feel free to enter anyway, because you can always ask me to sign the extra copy to your mom, your best friend, or your guppy.

The Rules:

  1. Contest is open from Monday, November 24th to Sunday, November 30th. I’ll choose the winner’s name at random Sunday at midnight and contact the winner Monday morning, December 1st by email for your snail mail address, so I can ship the books. I will ship the books within 2 or 3 days of hearing from you, which means, you never know, you might receive them in time to stuff a few stockings!
  2. Only one entry per person please.
  3. I am very sorry, but because of the weight of the Box ‘O Books and because Canada Post doesn’t provide discounts for shipping books, I can only open the contest to residents of Canada and the contiguous United States. This means that if you live in Alaska, you can enter (seeing as Alaska borders the Yukon), but if you live in Hawaii, you can’t. I’m shipping the winner the books by ground, not airmail. The airmail cost, frankly, would be wayyyy too prohibitive for my rather skinny wallet.

How to Enter:

  1. Enter your name in the Comment trail, and please let me know if you would like a copy of HEAD OVER HEELS or BORROWING ALEX along with the Box ‘O Books. Please don’t be shy about entering your name in the Comment trail. I am the only person who sees your email address, seeing as I’m the Administrator of this blog, so whether you enter in the Comment trail or choose Option 2, yes, I will know your email address, but I promise not to use it for any other purpose but this contest. That means, no, I will not sign you up for my newsletter or any other promotional activities without your knowledge or permission.
  2. Or you can email me at cindy AT cindyprocter-king DOT com with BOX ‘O BOOKS in the Subject line, again please letting me know if you would like a copy of HEAD OVER HEELS or BORROWING ALEX included in your holiday surprise.

Go forth and enter! Tell your buddies, tell your chapters, tell your guppies.

If I get a good response, I’ll make the Box ‘O Books Holiday Give-Away an annual event.

The Sexiest Hugh Alive

People magazine has declared that Australian actor Hugh Jackman is the Sexiest Man Alive for 2008. I can’t say I disagree with them. It’s about time he won the honor.

I definitely know he’s the sexist HUGH alive. I can say this with all authority, because I have a cousin named Hugh, and, sorry, Sonny, you ain’t got nothing on Mr. Jackman.

I love this quote:

The magazine’s executive editor, Jess Cagle, said Wednesday on NBC’s “Today” show that Jackman is a “surprising choice,” but he’d been on the editors’ minds “for a long time and it seemed like this was the year to do him.”

Ahem.

What say you? Does Hugh deserve the title? Who would you rather have seen in his place? Why do we keep track of such things? Why isn’t there a Sexiest Woman Alive? Isn’t that sexist?

How Handy Are You?

Penny might have to rethink her career as an erotic romance author….

Recently, I took this fun Internet quiz that another Red Sage author posted to Facebook: Is This a Sex Toy or Home Repair Tool?

Um, Penny scored a measly seven correct answers out of 12! And most of those were guesses. The test’s response? “I’d stay out of the garage if I were you.”

I guess Penny isn’t as worldly as she should be… But now, the question is, how handy (as in “knowledgeable”) are you?

Take the quiz and find out. 😉

More Worms

Remember when I said Monday that changes to the RITA contest this year might also affect the Golden Heart? Here’s how.

Last year, changes to RWA publisher recognition occurred so that an author’s ability to enter PAN (the Published Author Network of RWA) was no longer tied to whether or not an author’s publisher met RWA-set standards. Instead, now, an author can join PAN independently of her publisher’s ability to host official editor appointments and publisher Spotlights at National, yada, yada, and her requirements for joining PAN are instead based on achieving a set minimum dollar amount of advance/royalties combination on one novel or novella. This change enabled me, myself and Moi (all three, I assure you) to join PAN last spring. Yipsee-doodle.

Suddenly, I found myself unable to enter the Golden Heart (which didn’t bother me in the least). I was thrilled not to enter the Golden Heart. After all, the year I finaled, I had two books contracted, and one of those books, BORROWING ALEX, was published just a month before the National RWA conference in Dallas. I confess, it always felt a bit strange to me to enter my unpublished manuscripts in the Golden Heart when I had books available for sale, but that was the avenue open to me, so that was the avenue I took. Fine and dandy. I entered the GH with an unpublished manuscript in 2007, and I finaled (yay, me). Did I feel guilty about taking away the chance for a truly unpublished author to final? Um, not really. Because I think every RWA member should have a chance to enter either the Golden Heart or RITA contest if she so chooses. However, the RITA changes this year now prevent that.

Now, if you sell a work of over 20,000 words to a non-Subsidy, non-Vanity Publisher, you can no longer enter your unpublished works (ie. not the work you sold) in the Golden Heart. However, once that book you sold/contracted is in print, unless it’s mass-produced (ie. not POD, which are books printed as they are ordered) you can’t enter it in the RITA contest either.

You can’t enter your published work in the RITA.

You can’t enter your unpublished work in the Golden Heart.

I’m a bit bamboozled. This is the first year since I joined RWA that I can recall a member not having the ability to enter either contest. That bugs me. Even though it doesn’t apply to my situation.

I also find it ironic that an author can join PAN on the basis of her earnings, then find herself unable to enter the same book that qualified her to join PAN in the RITAs—because her publisher uses print on demand technology instead of Print Runs of a Mysterious Number Yet to be Announced.

What am I missing?

By the way, there’s an excellent discussion about the topics of today’s and Monday’s blog post occurring over on Absolute Write, if anyone wants to check it out. Last I checked, no one in that thread had received confirmation of what constitutes “mass-produced.”

Happy Birthday, Sandorf Verster!

Today is my best friend’s birthday. Everyone, please wish a happy birthday to Sandorf Verster!

What sort of name is Sandorf Verster? Don’t ask me. Just because I dream up these nicknames doesn’t mean I know how or why or wherefore or rhyme-for they leap into existence.

All I know is that the name Sandorf Verster has been in existence for more years than I can count.

I’m also pretty sure that Sandorf Verster does not read this blog, so she can’t even give me hell for outing her AS Sandorf Verster in cyberspace.

Yes, I’ll phone her to wish her a happy birthday. No, I will not tell her I outed her.

No, you can’t tell her, either.

RITA Changes

I’m mailing Penny’s entry to the RITA contest today. Wish Penny luck! Erotic romance novellas don’t usually final in the RITAs, but a Secrets novella has finaled before, so you never know. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

Um, not always. Recently, I was rather disappointed to find out that entry qualifications for the RITAs have changed yet again. Last year, for the 2008 contest, for the first time ever that I can recall, micro-press books could be entered in the RITA if the entrant provided copies that were printed and bound by the publisher (IE. entrants could not print off and enter paper copies of their ebooks). Amber Quill Press prints trade paperbacks of all its novel-sized ebooks, so last year I was able to enter RITA for the first time with BORROWING ALEX. I was very excited, as the same opportunity wasn’t available to me with HEAD OVER HEELS. So I entered. That opened up another can of worms, because then I had to decide whether to enter a short novel in the Single Title category to compete against novels up to twice as long, or to enter BORROWING ALEX in the Series Contemporary category, the category descriptions for which included enough language loopholes enabling me to enter it regardless that BORROWING ALEX didn’t have a number (as in numeral) on the cover, like books published by Harlequin and Silhouette do.

I didn’t expect much. With judges not accustomed to reading micro-press books in the RITA, dared I hope I could compete? Well, BORROWING ALEX didn’t final, but it competed just fine, garnering one 9 (the top score in the contest for those not in the know) and an 8 out of the panel of five judges (IE. my peers). Yay, me. I’d hoped that by entering the RITA last year with a micro-press book I’d help pave the way for future entrants in similar circumstances. Alas, this year, anyway, it is not to be. Here is the information from the public pages of the RWA website:

Books entered in the 2009 RITA contest must:
  •  Have an original copyright date (printed on the copyright page) or a first printing date or a first North American printing date of 2008.
  • Not have been previously entered.
  • Be mass-produced by a non-Subsidy, non-Vanity Publisher in print book format.
  • Meet the requirements for the category in which it was entered.
  • Be a work of original fictional narrative prose.

It’s the “be mass-produced” phrase in the third bullet point that bothers me. Why? Because, either: (a) I’m so out of touch that I didn’t realize this pretty darn big change had occurred; or (b) it occurred without a big announcement or fanfare, like that which occurred last year.

Now I’m wondering, what qualifies as “mass-produced”? I know print on demand (POD) technology does not qualify as mass-produced, because publishers who use POD technology, like Amber Quill Press, print the books as they’re ordered. Mass market prints “print runs.” But the 2009 RITA rules do not specify a print run number.

Does this mean micro-press authors can order 10 copies of their book and then submit five copies of that book for entry to the RITA? Does 10 copies qualify as a print run (“mass-produced”)? I’m not trying to be ridiculous, I’m trying to figure it out. I’ve “heard” (IE. as in a rumor) that 500 is the minimum number required for mass-produced, but the 2009 RITA rules do not state the 500 minimum. They just state “mass-produced,” which, to a mind like mine, is open to interpretation.

I don’t know, how do you feel about these changes? Regardless of whether they affect you?

Oh, yeah, these changes also affect which authors can and can not enter the Golden Heart, but that’s another blog post.