Crits for Oklahoma: Results!

Thanks to everyone who donated last week or who has volunteered their time to help me with this crit workshop!

Total donations came to almost $500 to benefit Oklahoma tornado victims, which is just brilliant. I can’t thank all of you enough!

Donators: Most of you have sent in your query OR first page, but if you haven’t, please email it to critsforcharity@gmail.com.

Critiquers: I have sent you at least one query letter or first page to look over. Please have your notes back to me by tomorrow so I can format everything and put it up on the site. 

Posts will be staggered over a couple of days and will be tagged using the manuscript’s title and genre. Author names and personal information will be redacted. It’s just about the content.

Thank you all again for helping out and spreading the word! Ya’ll are the best!

Query/First Page Critique Workshop to Benefit Oklahoma

If you haven’t heard already, there was a major tornado that rolled through the Oklahoma City region on May 20th. This tornado was an EF-5 category with winds at approximately 200 miles per hour and a base that was over a mile wide. Which means everywhere it went – and it was on the ground for approximately 40 minutes – it “ate” up a mile-and-a-quarter worth of homes, schools and businesses. At the time I’m typing this, 24 people have been declared dead with that toll expected to rise. Many more are at area hospitals in critical condition.

So here’s my plan: I’ve been pondering running a critique workshop, so now I’m going to run one for charity. You donate to one of the organizations sending disaster relief help to Oklahoma – American Red Cross, Feeding America, Operation USA, Samaritan’s Purse – and you’re entered into the workshop. That’s it.

I am being joined by the fabulous, amazing, generous Dahlia Adler, Marieke Nijkamp, Brenda Drake, K.T. Hanna, Elizabeth Prats, Jennifer Malone, Michelle Painchaud, Nazarea Andrews, Heather Webb, Molly Lee, Angi Black, Irene Rose, Francesca Zappia, Krista Van Dolzer, Dee Romito, S.M. Johnston, Kimberly Chase and Natalie Parker, who will be helping me field crits.

Details:

• This is open to pretty much anybody. Your query or first page can be adult, YA, NA, MG or PB – doesn’t matter – but you must be willing to have your query or first page displayed on this blog.
• You have from the time of this posting until 11:00 PM EST/8:00 PM PST on Saturday, May 25th, to enter.
• You are entered as soon as you email me a copy of your donation receipt or some other form of verification that you’ve donated.
• There is a minimum donation amount of $10.00 USD. For regional donations, please use the Moore, OK, zip code of 73160.
• Once I’ve received your verification, I will email you back to confirm your entry, and you will send me EITHER your query or your first 250 words to be critiqued.
• Entries will be critted by either myself or one of my fantastic helpers, and I will post them on this blog next week*.

There is no limit to the entries at this point, and the only qualification is that you give a little support to the Oklahoma tornado victims who desperately need help rebuilding their lives. If you don’t have a query or first page to workshop, keep an eye on this website as Beth Fred is setting up a charity auction in the coming days.

Here are donation links**:

• American Red Cross
• Operation USA
• Feeding America
• Samaritan’s Purse

And the workshop entry email again: critsforcharity@gmail.com

PLEASE NOTE: The charities listed above are options but are NOT the only acceptable charities. All I’m looking for is some verification that you donated to an organization that’s helping out with Oklahoma disaster relief.

*This is somewhat contingent on how popular this workshop gets. If I get a billion entries, obviously I won’t be able to post them all next week. I will have to space them out.

**All of these charities have been double-checked for their credibility using charitynavigator.org.

What’s Up Wednesday

Much thanks to Jaime Morrow for this wonderful meme! Go check out her own What’s Up Wednesday post!

What I’m Reading
I’ve been working my way through North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, mostly because I’m somewhat obsessed with the BBC miniseries with the delicious Richard Armitage as John Thornton. I finished it last night, in time to give the book back to my mother-in-law when she visits this weekend.

I’m also trying to catch up on the manuscripts that have been long-neglected on my Kindle. I think they’ll be the reading focus for the coming week.

What I’m Writing
I outlined some revision ideas for PECULIAR DARK and got some feedback from CPs on it, but PD is still backburnered while I let it stew and make sure I don’t rush it stupidly forward. I broke 15K on my adult science fiction WIP, Big Ben, and I’ve managed to get character sketches together for a new project – a serial. Trying to plot a serial has been a really interesting mental exercise because I keep trying to attack it like a regular novel and draw big arcs. But the episodic nature of serials require a different angle, a different focus. You have to format dozens of little arcs and stories that BUILD to a big arc.

I’m also jumping in and out of revisions for my co-project with Brenda Drake. It’s kind of a relief to jump into Ryan’s head for AFTER PARTY because I know him so well now. Revisions are just my thing. *huggles revisions*

What Inspires Me Right Now
This is a tough one because I haven’t been feeling very inspired this week. I think part of that has been regular life busy-ness, but I can’t use that as an excuse. Writing what I want, when I want has been inspiring the past few weeks and has refreshed me, but I think – like all indulgences – it’s starting to hit that point where it’s not so good for me. So we’ll see what happens with this in the coming weeks.

I think I can safely say that this song is hella inspiring me for Big Ben. And I definitely need a little boost on that story at the moment.

What Else I’ve Been Up To

• The Man and I have are usually rotating cadre of shows. We’re trying to finish up Burn Notice, but I think we’re both a little over it at this point. The central character doesn’t seem to be evolving, nor are his relationships with the other characters. The only draw at this point is Bruce Campbell being awesome… We started watching Continuum instead, a Canadian scifi show  that has some interesting world-building and likable characters. I’m hoping it continues to develop and deepen both of these aspects.
• The weather is warm enough (every now and then – we’re supposed to have freaking snow tomorrow) that I’m going outside more to run. I’m really not great at running and I hate it, but it’s a new goal to try to work up to 3 miles. I can run…1 mile right now. That’s it. And it takes me awhile, and I suck air despite the fact that I work out all the time. I need to fix this running stuff.
• Speaking of the outdoors, The Man and I have vowed to be better gardeners this year – with both decorative plants and vegetables. We tried last year, but the extra-hot, drought-y summer didn’t do us any favors and we kinda let things slide. No longer! *raises fist*
• Oh, and I only have one more week of dog-sitting this sweet but rather destructive lab. I’ll be quite happy to turn him back over to his family…

So what have you been up to lately?

The Sum Of Us

As we’ve discussed, I’m an impatient person.

I’m petty and judgmental and jealous. I have road rage. I’m vain. I get angry easily and passive-aggressive even easier. I’m anxious and neurotic and paranoid.

Deep inside me, there are demons with horrible faces, locked inside cages with no keys, testing the bars every day to try to find a way out.

I don’t let them out, though, because they are not the sum of me.

I’m more than my flaws. I work to rise above them. I know that the other parts of me are worth the struggle to keep those demons in their prisons.

Parts like empathy. Like love and compassion. Like intelligence, curiosity and growth. Like strength and courage and willpower, creativity and imagination and heart.

Most of the people out there are like this: flawed but rising. Just trying to reach up and pull themselves a little higher. This doesn’t just apply to one nation or one belief system. This isn’t about ethnicity or birthplace, whether you believe in one god or dozens or none.

This is the human condition.

Humanity has demons with horrible faces. It has flaws, dark spots, things that ought to stay caged but sometimes creep out.

They are not the sum of us. They only become the sum of us when we let them. When we stop loving, giving, helping, hugging, reaching out, stepping up.

When we stop rising.

This Freaking Holiday

Look, I know what Valentine’s Day is “supposed to be.” I know what the candy and diamond and flower and fine dining companies want you to believe it is:

“IT’S SCHMOOPY COUPLES DAY! QUICK – GET HER ROSES, GET HER JEWELRY, GET HER CHOCOLATE! OTHERWISE YOU SUCK AND YOU’LL WIND UP ON THE COUCH BECAUSE OOOOO SHE SO MAD!”

Screw them, okay?

I’ve never been much of a romance girl, and The Man and I don’t really do anything special for it. The most awesome thing about Valentine’s Day since I was a kid is that my dad would buy each of us a card: his wife and all three daughters. Because he likes giving cards and because he loves his family.

So, to me, Valentine’s Day isn’t solely about romantic love. It isn’t about couples and Men showing the Emotional Women how they can shell out with gifts.

It’s about all forms of love. Parental love. Sibling love. Friend love. Love for grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. Passionate, sparking love and slow-burning love. Love for that person who always gives us their seat on the subway. Love for the people all around us who serve and have dedicated their lives to putting everyone else first.

Love is the best goddamn thing humans do. It’s the only thing that keeps this world from spinning into madness. And we should recognize it every minute, but most of the time, we don’t. So I’m okay with setting aside this one day to remind us:

Love, actually, is…everywhere.

Happy 2013! What I’m Planning + Photos From My Best Day of 2012

I’ve got no complaints about 2012. It was a usual year-like mix of good days and bad days, bitter and sweet, rough parts and smooth parts.

But it rises above all that rollercoaster crap because in October 2012, this happened:

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That’s pretty much the *drops mic* moment of the year for me. I got to marry my best friend. And someday in the near future, I hope everyone in every state in the U.S. will have the same opportunity to marry THEIR best friend, regardless of gender.

I bandied about with idea of doing resolutions for 2013 like I usually do, but somehow it hasn’t felt right. It’s seemed too constricting, and I’m getting the feeling that to get through this year, I’ll need to be flexible. To be able to bend and shift any goals in response to sneaky changes that I can’t see yet.

So instead of making a list of all the stuff I’m going to do, pounds I’m going to lose, words I’m going to write, etc., I’m going to put up one general goal.

I will not procrastinate.
Because tomorrow is not guaranteed. And my dreams aren’t going to make themselves come true – I’ve got to sculpt them out of blood, sweat and ether.

So, 2013, I plan to be flexible and productive.

And we’re gonna start with the productivity today, with cleaning and outlining.

I wish all of you a very happy new year! Go be awesome and make 2013 your bitch.

In Which The Man And I Tie The Knot

I am not here. I’m getting married today to that man up there – THE Man. My best friend. My nerd partner for life.

He is my perfect example of the fact that sometimes you have to wait awhile to find something special, sometimes you have to hold on when everyone else tells you to let go, and always you have to listen to your heart.

I will be back to my regular schedule of tweeting and posting November 4th.

Wishing all of you the very best.

Love,

Becca

On Awkward Days and Itchy, Fucking Life-Sweaters

I’m telling you right now that I don’t know how this blog will turn out.

The truth is, I don’t usually blog on days like this. The sad days. The quiet days. The days where it doesn’t matter what you do, you just feel awkward. And not adorable-puppy-awkward, not awkward like Zooey Deschanel is supposed to be “awkward,” but more along the lines of “lumbering troll” or “humpback social outcast.” The world is an ill-fitting, too-tight sweater that you can’t take off – you just have to wear it all damn day. A fucking, itchy life-sweater that’s probably giving you a rash, too.

Usually I skip the blog on days like this. I prefer to come at ya’ll with sarcasm and pop culture, with nerd rants and raves, occasionally with an upbeat “hey, here’s what I learned from this” after an emotional rough patch.

But there isn’t always something to learn.

Sometimes things just suck. You feel gross and unattractive and untalented. You feel lonely or unloved. You feel like every word out of your mouth is a massive fuck-up. You doubt the dreams and decisions that yesterday had seemed so polished and bright, and you just want to chuck them down the garbage disposal because looking at them now, in this dingy light, is painful. Dreaming is no longer for you, down in the muck. Dreaming is for everyone else, all those shiny toy people hanging out somewhere in the sun, laughing.

Have I depressed you yet?

No? Here, have a sad puppy.

I’m having one of those days, and I wasn’t going to blog about it, but if I’m committing myself to slammin’ it down, honesty-style, on this blog, then not talking about the down moments would be disingenuous.

What really convinced me, though, is the realization that, on days like these, I feel very isolated. I feel like I’m the only one who has days like this, who trips into these ravines, and that is decidedly not true. And it helps a little to know that, to hear others say, “Dude, I’ve been there.”

So, to any readers who felt a spark of recognition in the word-vomit above, consider this my gigantic: “Dude, I’ve been there.”

And I’ve got two broad, German shoulders for all ya’ll next time a day like this hits you.

Twitter and #WriteMotivation Hiatus + Thank Yous

In case you missed it, this morning I received some rather heart-breaking news. It involves my immediate family, so I’m not going to disclose all the details. I am very, very close with them – my parents and my sisters – and I will only say that we have suffered a loss.

Right now, they need whatever energy and strength I have, so you will not see me on Twitter or doling out any #writemotivation for the next couple of days at least. That being said, I am so, so grateful for the outpouring of support ya’ll gave me.

Huge hugs and thanks to my lovely friends below (kind of a mix of your guys’ Twitter handles and actual names…)
Feaky Snucker
Darci Cole
Lady Jai
Angi Black
Rebekah Loper
SafireBlade
Marieke Nijkamp
Leigh Caroline
K.T. Hanna
Sarah L. Blair
Brenda Drake
M. Andrew Patterson
Avery Marsh
MissDalELama
Summer Heacock
Erica Monroe
Tristina Wright
J.C. Gregorio
Simon Brodie
Derek Chivers
MSmithBooks
Vix
Abigail Kern
Jennifer Iacopelli

Anxieties, Lists and Keeping My S*** Together

I must confess to being a little…anxious.

I have three-and-a-half days left at my old job, and next Monday I start up again as a proofreader, which makes me nervous. Not so much the bit about starting at a new office or any of that – more the bit about how I will be the only proofreader at a pretty decently sized advertising company. I think there’s going to be a lot of work, and I worry about my ability to draw lines and not burn myself out. That is going to be a challenge: saying no, putting work to bed at a decent hour, and stemming the tide.

On top of this, I sat down on Sunday to assess what will need to get done for the wedding in about hour months. You guys, there were LISTS. Lists on top of lists. Bullet points with subpoints about the subpoints. WHY DIDN’T I ELOPE, BLOGOSPHERE?

So I, at the moment, am trying to breathe, to remember that I am only one person and there is only so much I can do on any given day. This will be the mantra for the next couple of months, in fact.

Hello. My name is Becks. I am only one person. There is only so much I can accomplish in a day. Today might not be your day. Tomorrow may not either.

What I’m most worried about is that all this zaniness will cause my writing life to fall by the wayside. I’ve let it happen before – I really don’t want it to happen again. And yet, I haven’t gotten a lot done with the plotting of the new book, BIG BEN, and that’s mostly my fault. I want to start drafting in July, and that month is awfully close. It’s pulling faces at me from behind bushes and around corners, taunting me. *shakes fist at July*

It’s going to take a certain amount of focus and moxie to push back, draw lines and compartmentalize my life so that I do my job and still get to do the things I love. Like writing and encouraging all of you to write. Like spending time with The Man watching Burn Notice and Warehouse 13 and odd, Scottish dark fantasy movies that he stumbles across. This is my challenge, people. I hope I am up to it.

On a side note, I have a couple of future plans for blog posts I’m throwing out there, one of which is to feature well-done self-published/independent books that are out there. I’m wading through it so you don’t have to! I’m just a little sick of all the in-fighting between traditional and non-traditional routes to publishing and choose instead to be maddeningly positive about books, no matter how they’re distributed – so long as they’re good.

It’s a big sandbox, people. Everyone can play.

Also, I officially have 22 subscribers to this blog, which is 22 more than I ever thought would be interested in what I have to say. (The number in the right sidebar says 364, but they lump Twitter and blog followers together.) So I’m thinking giveaway. What do people like to see in giveaways?

• Critiques? (Either of queries or chapters)
• Books? (Probably already-out books since I don’t have a lot of ARCs)
• Preorders?
• Something else?

And finally, if you haven’t already, go sign up for July #writemotivation over on K.T. Hanna‘s blog. It’s seriously no obligation – just a great way to meet and bond with other writers, both when your story is going awesome and when it’s being a total bastard.

Now, if you’ll please excuse me…I need some ibuprofin.