A star is born

Here's Emily wearing the multicolored coat in the finale.

Emily made it on stage last night for the performance of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater.

What an amazing experience for her. She got to participate in the production and sang and danced herself up a storm.

And we found out today that she got a part in a musical version of A Christmas Carol being done by one of the local churches. She's going to play the part of citizen #2 (name to be determined) and she gets to sing a solo.

What a great week for her.

Happy 10th Birthday Emily

My baby is no longer a baby. She's reached double digits and she's the greatest kid ever.

This week she auditioned for a musical based on A Christmas Carol. She prepared a song (These are a few of my favorite things) and had to read from a script. In addition, she had to show them she could learn a dance routine and perform it. I was so proud of her.

Tonight we're celebrating by going to our local dinner theatre to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. They pull a couple kids out of the audience to participate in the performance. She's been playing the soundtrack on the piano for the last month. I hope she gets chosen to be on stage.

Adventures of a Teenage Truthseer finals in the Toronto Golden Opportunity contest

Whoohoo. Another YA final. This book continues to do better than I expected. The scores were really polarized with 40 points between the lowest and the next highest. I'd love to know if this is because so many different types of voices can be found in YA or if it's just this book.

What's great about this final is the chance to make changes before it goes to the final editor. What's cool about that is that I've made some rather drastic changes to the book since I submitted it to this contest.

I'm off to look at score sheets and figure out what else I want to look at.

Simple revisions became a day long project

I started out thinking I would fuss a little with some of my word choices and let it go at that.  None of the feedback led me to feel that major changes were required.  Of course, that was before I received my Happily Ever After final judge's comments for Meddling

These came yesterday.  Just in time for me to work on the beginning of the book.  The editor didn't have much to say about Meddling, but she did note a scene that had originally been written for the beginning of the book.  I'd shifted it toward the end to create some additional conflict between my characters and she thought it was too contrived.

So, I replaced it back where it belonged.  Whether or not it works there has yet to be seen.  I wrote it to reinforce my heroine's conflict with the hero.  

Moving the scene also meant that chapter 3 became too long.  Therefore, I repositioned an explanation scene into chapter 4.  It actually works pretty well there.  This scene had started out in chapter two, but too much backstory convinced me to move it to a later chapter.

It's weird to be working on short contemporary after spending so much time in a sixteen-year-old's head.  Doing so reminded me how much I enjoy these short romances.  So much needs to happen in such a tightly written package.  

Today's goal:  Return my Golden Gateway entry

Yesterday's achievement:  All the YA is broken into scenes in Scrivener

What I'm grateful for:  Being able to revise before an entry goes to the final judge

Quote:  "An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations." -Charles de Montesquieu (1689 - 1755)

A Case of Meddling Finaled in the Golden Gateway

Whoohoo!

This is particularly exciting because it was a 3 chapter and synopsis contest.

Today's goal: Ch 15
Yesterday's achievement: Ch 14
What I'm grateful for: Hot sunny Saturdays spent on the river
Quote: "I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall." -Eleanor Roosevelt

Judging contests. Are PROs too critical (i.e. puffed up with self-importance?)

Before I start my rant, let me say that I am PRO and I am darned hard on the entries I judge.  But I don't let personal preferences or snap judgments get in the way of my scoring.  And when I see something that belongs on an editor's desk, I'm all glowing praise.

I am always fascinated by my contest results when I look at them. Most of the time, I can count on published authors to score my entry high and unpublished and most PROs to score low and nitpick the chapter to death.

Just by looking at the comments, I can usually tell when a PRO has judged it. The level of "you are doing this wrong" is always high. It's like they're looking for stuff to pick on. 

I'm always eager to get feedback, but it has to be intelligent feedback.

Here's a no no:

"Having both characters rich, made it hard for me to sympathize with them."

This story is targeted at Desire.  The heroes are billionaires.  If you're going to judge series, know your category lines.  That's like a someone judging paranormal and saying they don't like all those books about vampires, shapeshifters and faeries.

And here's an example of where you lose credibility with me:

"In the opening scene, I couldn’t figure out who was hosting the party"

CHAPTER ONE

Nathan Case dodged a waiter carrying a tray of champagne. Ahead of him, keeping just out of range, Emma Montgomery slipped through the cream of Dallas society gathered at her father’s home to celebrate New Year’s Eve.

Were you able to catch whose party they were at?

Okay, enough grumbling.  I'm off to work on chapter 14 of my YA.

Today's goal: Finish chapter 14

Yesterday's achievement:  I actually wrote a little

What I'm grateful for:  All of you for listening to me vent.  Thank you!!

Quote:  "The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible.  - George Burns

We now return to your regularly scheduled blog

Whoops!

I've completely blown my post twice a week goal. Ah well, like bingeing on desert in the middle of a diet, you just put it behind you and get back on the plan.

How have you all been?

I'd like to tell you I've been ridiculously productive, but that's not really the case. Although I did return from RWA National with a spring in my step and a reason to get my ass in gear and perfect my YA, I have been struggling with lack of writing time, planning, and discipline.

On the other hand, I'm enjoying the story a great deal. When I do work on it, I'm having fun. And I've passed the halfway point on the second draft.

Oh, and I joined Facebook.

That's about it.

Today's goal: work on chapter 14
Yesterday's achievement: added a few hundred words to my fantasy story
What I'm grateful for: I've embraced the Zone diet once more. Time to get rid of those 20 pounds I gained whilst waiting to sell something (can anyone relate?)
Quote: "Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows." -David T. Wolf (1943 - )