Author: Cindy

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

Pubbed Contest Deadlines

A mini-rant. Gee, coming on the heels of my bye-bye to Bebo post last week, I almost feel grouchy!

Okay, last year, I entered Penny’s first novella in the RITA. That was the only contest Penny entered. Penny did not final, but that’s not the source of my gripe.

This year, Penny has entered her second novella in the RITA. Now, because Penny’s novellas don’t actually release until the end of December, the January 2nd receipt date for the five copies of the book reaching RWA in Texas is impossible to meet. I can pre-order Penny’s novella anthologies on Canadian Amazon all I want, but I won’t receive them until mid-January. Argh. (P.S. for those who’d like the link to pre-ordering Penny’s second novella on American Amazon, here it is).

For the RITA, I’m willing to pester Penny’s publisher for five copies of the anthology and, like last year, perhaps even hassle her to mail them to RWA for me. I mean, it’s the RITAs—the Oscars of romance writing. Even though there’s a slim chance of an erotic novella finaling, entering is a chance Penny can’t pass up.

So, I receive the October Romance Writers’ Report (RWA’s monthly magazine, for those not in the know), and I’m thinking this year maybe I should enter Penny’s new novella in more than one contest. However, every contest listed in the October RWR has an entry receipt date of no later than January 15, 2009. Usually earlier. That’s fine and dandy if you receive copies of your books from your publisher no later than December 15th (especially when the author lives in Canada, as I do), but when you don’t get copies until mid-January for a book released the end of December, where on earth is the author supposed to find the time to enter these contests?

Hopefully the November RWR will list published contests with more reasonable entry receipt dates—like February 1st. Because I would love the chance to enter a couple of contests other than the RITA and see how Penny’s work stacks up (assuming the contests have novella categories—many don’t). However, I still feel like my freedom of choice of which contests to enter is sorely lacking. Not to mention ironic. My book is copyrighted and published in 2008, but because the release date is the end of December and I don’t physically have copies in my grubby little hands until mid-January, I can’t enter contests with an early January deadline. Yet I can’t enter Penny’s 2008-published novella in next year’s contests, either. Because then I’d need a 2009 copyright/publish date. I dunno, I think that’s wonky.

Awwww…

Allie McBeagle is seven today. This is how she celebrated:

Also, she got a hard-boiled egg for a present. She’s one happy dog.

“A Force to be Recognized”

So You Think You Can Dance Canada, Week Two

Why did I title this post “A Force to Be Recognized”? Because one of the four SYTYCD Canada judges, Jean-Marc Genereux, a French Canadian who often guest-hosts or choreographs on Do You Think You Can Dance (U.S.), was apparently criticized for his English after last week’s first SYTYCD Canada when he said one couple were “a force to be recognized” rather than “a force to reckon with.” But, I dunno, I think “a force to be recognized” captures the essence of what this show is about.

In particular, I love this couple! Arassay and Nico. She’s from Cuba, living with her father in British Columbia for under a year, and he’s from Quebec. I’m sure neither of them minds that Jean-Marc’s English isn’t perfect. The video is a little long, because it includes not only the clip of this week’s Theatre Dark Angel dance (notice how I spelled Theatre, because this is SYTYCD Canada) but the preceding interview bit and the judging at the end. But the dance is definitely worth it to watch.

Now, my question. Why are there four judges on SYTYCD Canada when there are only three on the original American version? For that matter, why are there also four judges on Canadian Idol? I’ve never been able to figure that out. The rest of the dance show follows the American format to a tee, more than Canadian Idol follows American Idol actually, because this year Canadian Idol had a top 22 instead of a top 20 and the show also didn’t restrict the finalists to the same number of males and females. As a result, I believe (I only watched one episode of Canadian Idol this year) the male finalists outnumbered the girls from the start. I actually prefer that. I’d rather see the true Top 20 singers (or Top 22) than have them split along gender lines.

What say you?

(P.S. If Teresa E. is reading this, I tried to make the accents above Genereux using your instructions, but they didn’t work. I’m accent-impaired).

Bye-Bye Bebo

I’ve cancelled my Bebo account (for those unfamiliar with Bebo, it’s similar to MySpace). Unfortunately, for the past several months, I’ve received far too many spam messages that I just have to go in and delete. I also found that I rarely used the service after the first few weeks once I set it up. That said, I would have stayed on if not for the spam—especially the aggravating porno comments mass-sent via cell phone—because I loved the template that I found to showcase my profile and books. But the spam wasn’t worth it. So, to my bona fide Bebo friends, bye-bye! If you want to find me on a social networking site, I’m still on MySpace and intend to stay there. I’m also on Goodreads and Shelfari, although I’m thinking of losing Shelfari, too. Adding books there is a PITA. For some reason, the program runs slow on my computer. I don’t have that problem with Goodreads.

For those who use social networks, which ones are you on and which of those do you find worth your time? Which have you left and why? I’ve never joined Facebook, for example, because I’m already on MySpace and I don’t want to set myself up for another Bebo experience. For those on Facebook, would you recommend it? How about Twitter?

Gah, I’ve just let go of Bebo! Do I really want to saddle myself with another social network? Right now I feel social-networked up the whazoo. I need and want to focus on my writing for the next several months.

New Review at Writers are Readers

Ever dropped by Writers are Readers? If not, now is as good a time as any, because I have a new review posted! No, not for one of my books. For a book I’ve read, A WOLF AT THE TABLE: A Memoir of My Father, by Augusten Burroughs.

I won’t post the review here, because the whole point of Writers are Readers is to get you to go over there to read the reviews, ooh and ahh over the fact that the cover for BORROWING ALEX is up on my reviewer page—and an excerpt from the middle of BORROWING ALEX is also posted. It’s from one of my favorite scenes in the book. Thank you to Katherine Stone for finding and posting the excerpt when I was too lazy to find it myself.

But enough about me. I loved A WOLF AT THE TABLE. And I love, love, love the cover:

Maybe I’m warped, but the red fork reminds me of Little Red Riding Hood (I’m sure the word Wolf in the title has something to do with that). In my mind, the bent tines invoke the image of a wolf (like its hair standing on end right before it attacks you) (or its claws…hm, almost like the claws you’d, well, I’d imagine the witch from Hansel and Gretel possessing), while also symbolizing the mutant soul that was the author’s experience of his father.

What does it say about me that I love such a disturbing cover?

What does the fork symbolize to you?

Well, it’s Federal election day in the Great White North (that’s when we vote for Members of Parliament for our individual ridings and the party with the greatest number of seats across the board, their leader becomes or remains our Prime Minister). Usually, Canada’s fate is sealed before my province’s votes are counted. It’s a Time Zone issue. And an all-the-population-lives-in-Central-Canada issue. But I must do my part! I must go vote regardless.