Author: Cindy

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

RITA Report

The deadline for getting in RITA® scores is March 9th. I’m happy to report that I’m done. Read all the books in my panel, submitted the scores on-line. Good for me.

RITA judges are instructed to “hold all judging and/or scoring data confidential” (from the Judging Guidelines), so I can’t talk about my panel of books in any way that might identify them. What I will say is that judging the RITA this year was a pleasure compared to last year. Last year was my first time judging, and I don’t know how or why it happened, but I wound up with 9 books to judge, 8 from the same category and one from a second category (judges select a minimum three categories that they’re willing to judge, and it can’t be a category in which you’re currently entered). This year I had 6 books, from three categories. I liked that much better! Judging 9 books within a short time frame last year was tough. Especially because most of the 8 books that were from the same category last year were also published under the same line/imprint, and, oddly enough, several were even set in the same city. It was an odd judging experience, to say the least. As a judge, I want some variety. I didn’t get that last year, and I had to keep reminding myself that the authors of the books in my panel had no idea that I’d wind up with several books all set in the same city and with fairly similar story lines. In other words, I had to work extra hard last year to ensure I was being fair to all the entrants.

I can’t remember which three categories I selected to judge last year, because I only received entries from two. This year, though, I dropped at least one of the categories from last year in favor of a different category. I might have done this with two categories, actually. And it paid off. I had a great time this year with my entries. I was introduced to authors I might not otherwise have bought, and I discovered a couple of authors I want to buy again (that’s what I love about the RITAs). I don’t know if I lucked out, but the vast majority of books in my panel were above par.

I don’t have a 2010 release as Penny, so next year I can ask to judge the category Penny usually enters (Romance Novella). I’m looking forward to that.

It’s odd, when I used to judge the Golden Heart, it didn’t bother me if I received entries from just one category. But you only have to judge three chapters and a synopsis in the Golden Heart. For the RITA, you have to read the entirety of each and every book in your panel. That’s a lot of words.

How is your RITA or Golden Heart reading going? Have you finished? Are you lagging behind? Are you judging another contest this year? I’m not. Maybe next year I’ll take on another contest or two. For now, though, I need to step back.

Juno Books Submission Call

Juno Books editor Paula Guran is looking for submissions. Check out her blog for details. Make sure to read the part that says you can send off a short synopsis and FULL MANUSCRIPT right away. No need to sub a partial first. But also make sure to read their submission guidelines before submitting. No sense sending Paula something she doesn’t need or want. Right? There’s my smart blog readers.

Go Canada!

Excuse me while I gush.

I’m not normally a hockey fan. Not what I would call a sports fan in any way, shape or form. Pretty much a total klutz and perennial bench-warmer when it comes to my own athletic abilities. But I have been glued to Team Canada’s progress throughout the 2010 men’s Olympic hockey games since the 1st American-Canadian game back in the whatever-round-that-was several days ago. The press has been saying all along that hockey is “Canada’s game,” but I’ve never really felt that way (I know, boo-hiss on me). For one thing, lacrosse is Canada’s official sport (I don’t even know why, as hockey is definitely the most-played sport). For another, in the NHL, Canadian hockey players play on American teams and American players play on Canadian teams. It’s like a big family reunion with talented cousins playing alongside equally talented cousins. But there’s something about the need to prove yourself on home soil. Especially when Canada doesn’t usually perform anything like Americans at most Olympics. But we did ourselves proud this Olympics. Winning the gold medal in men’s hockey during overtime was the icing on the cake.

Canada won 14 gold medals this Olympics—the most gold medals won in any Olympics by any country, regardless of whether the games were held on home soil or not. For most Canadians, I would think that’s pretty mind-boggling. We’re happy to win silver and bronze medals. Heck, we’re happy to be in the running. Overall, we placed third in total medal count, with 14 golds, 7 silvers and 5 bronzes. Total medals = 26. Germany beat us out with 30 medals, 10 of which were gold, 13 silver and 7 bronze. And Team U.S.A. won the medal count with 9 gold, 15 silver and 13 bronze (total 37 medals). (If you’re wondering where I retrieved these stats, click here). But, ahem, we won 14—count ’em and weep!—14 gold medals! Us! Little ol’ Canada!

:::Cheering!! Waving the flag!!!:::

Go, Canada, go!

And now back to your regularly scheduled blog programming (excuse me for interrupting).

De-Grouping

I’ve decided with much reluctance to step away from my (now former) Golden Heart 2007 finalists (“The 007s”) group blog, Nobody Writes It Better. If you’ve visited the blog lately and noticed that the posts are really, really old, that’s because they are. The blog experienced a bit of a disaster in late December in the way of a nasty virus that was whipping its way around the web and somehow made its way onto the site and infected several of the members’ computers, including mine. Ol’ Delbert. May he rest in pieces. This happened just as I was going on vacation, so I had to leave the fixes to other members of the management team. Our blog designer fixed the problem, but then it seemed to reoccur, which was horribly confusing, as we didn’t know how it was happening. We had over 30 members when we started blogging only last June. The planning and design process of the blog occurred for another several months before that. Well, once the blog was fixed, it seemed like a good time for members to take stock of their involvement. And the exodus began. About ten members still remain with the blog, but it’s undergoing a transition period so currently is inoperative.

Everything in me wanted to stay with the blog (I have a problem giving up), but as one of the members of the initial management team, I’d put hours and hours and countless hours into not only the design of the blog, but also the set-up and several aspects of the continuing maintenance. I just couldn’t keep it up. I also discovered along the way that I’m not really suited to group blogging. With 31 or 32 members, we had to keep a pretty tight schedule, and scheduled blogging makes me feel…pressured. Yes, I only blogged every 6 weeks, however, unlike here, I didn’t feel like I could just whip out a post. No, I had to take more time, say something important or clever. And trying to be clever, as we all know, is stressful. It’s better when the cleverness just pours out of us naturally!

Would I consider joining another group blog? Yes, maybe, we’ll see. It depends. It would depend on a number of factors. But right now I need a break.

Regardless of who stays with the blog and who has decided to leave, we are all still 007 Bond Girl sisters. We’ll still cheer each other on, celebrate our successes and commiserate with our lows. We don’t need a group blog to do that.

How do you feel about group blogs? Do you read them? Do you participate in one? What about it works for you (or doesn’t)?

Circle of Friends Blog Award

I visited Natalie Damschroder’s blog the other day to discover that she’d passed on The Circle of Friends Blog Award to little ol’ moi. Thanks, Natalie!

You know what this means, don’t you?

(1) She reads my blog on a nearly daily basis

(2) She enjoys my wit and intelligence

(3) She wants me to buy her a drink in Nashville

(4) She wants to buy ME a drink in Nashville

(5) She is constantly amazed at our mutual GMTA. Excellent. Because I am, too.

I’m pleased to have the award. The shade of blue looks so wonderful on my website that a little, evil part of me isn’t sure I should pass on the button to others. But I will. Because I enjoy blog-hopping. I don’t do it as much as I used to, what with Facebook and Twitter and those nasty things called deadlines getting in the way. I wish I had more time to blog-hop, because I think it’s much more personal, shall we say, than truncated Twitter posts. But there are several blogs that I visit nearly every day (even if I don’t always comment) and their authors deserve a look-see. So blog-hop-on over to:

Avery Beck

Edie Ramer

HelenKay Dimon

Maureen McGowan

Old Writer, New Tricks

Well, middle-aged writer is more accurate. I’m not 103 yet!

I have made a transition in my writing life that I never thought I would accomplish. I have :::gasp!::: finally begun typing in black font on a white screen. It’s almost like typing on white paper. Amazing. Why didn’t I think of this before?

Back in the Blue Ages, when WordPerfect was the word processing program of choice, I became used to typing white font onto a blue screen. One day My Liege came home from work and announced that his employer had converted to this strange new program called Word. We were getting a new computer, and he didn’t want to have to know how to work two word processing programs (plus, back in the Blue Ages the hard drive on our computer was so small that it didn’t have room for two word processing programs). So it was decided that we were moving to Word. I wailed, I gnashed my teeth, I believe I even pulled out some of his hair. I LOVED WordPerfect. For a writer, it’s amazingly simple compared to Word. The Reveal Codes alone was enough to keep me committed to WordPerfect for life.

However, then I learned that not only had my husband’s employer moved to Word, but Word was the program of choice pretty much across the publishing industry. Teeth ground down to gums, I made the transition. But one thing I refused to give up was typing in white font on a blue screen. Typing in black on a white screen hurt my eyes. Plus, it didn’t look pretty. It looked business-like, not creative. It stunk.

Lo and behold, Word has a “white font on blue screen” option for those of who were dragged kicking and screaming away from WordPerfect. I used that option religiously until this year.

Two things happened. (1) My eyes are older and weaker than they used to be, so suddenly the black font on white screen doesn’t seem so harsh; and (2) as my frequent blog readers know, my desktop died. I had a full manuscript request, so I was forced to work on My Liege’s and Youngest Son’s laptops. They both type black on white. Afeared of screwing up their laptops somehow, and noting that the laptop screen wasn’t as big (and therefore not as blinding) as my 19-inch desktop LCD monitor, and rationalizing that I was only editing not creating, I boldy went where my fingers had not gone before and typed black on white. And after a few days it wasn’t that bad.

Then the weirdest thing happened. I loaded Word onto my new desktop, opened a document, cursed that the default was once again black on white, went into the options panel and changed it to white on blue, then…decided the blue screen was too bright. Yes, finally, finally, after all these years, I have made the conversion. It will be interesting to see if it sticks. Having submitted that requested full manuscript, I am now returning to revisions on my single title. Revisions I can manage typing black on white. I do most of my revising with pen and ink, anyway. But when I finish those revisions and finally start crafting a new story, that will be the real test.

Have you forced yourself to learn new writer tricks? The other biggie for me was going from two spaces after a period to one. When I finally decided to make the move, it only took my fingers three or four days to become accustomed to not typing that extra space. I thought it would take forever. Not so.

Maybe there’s hope for me with the tiny keyboard on my new netbook, after all. It’s replacing my old AlphaSmart, and if I could type on that, I should be able to type on the netbook keyboard. But I did order a mouse to go with, and I can’t wait until it arrives. I still absolutely abhor touchpads. Maybe someday I’ll get used to them..but not now.