Call for Submissions from Bloomsbury & BEA links you shouldn't miss!

Head over to DearEditor.com for details about Bloomsbury Publishing's new digital-only imprint, Bloomsbury Spark (and some contest news as well)!

Bloomsbury Spark will publish fiction eBooks for teen, YA, and new adult readers. Its list will feature multiple genres: romance, contemporary, dystopian, paranormal, sci-fi, mystery, thriller, and more. Click HERE for the Bloomsbury Spark website.
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BEA 2013 is here!

BookExpo America is a chance for publishers to show off their upcoming releases and get them in front of booksellers, libraries/school systems, foreign publishers, and members of the media. Here are a must-read links that will have you adding titles to your To-Be-Read list.

CHILDREN'S/YA FICTION BOOKS BY PUBLISHER

EDITORS BUZZ PANEL BOOKS

WHAT IS BEA?

BEA WEBSITE: SHOW & AUTHOR INFO

Why should you be interested in these types of events?

Something that I’m striving to improve is my awareness of what’s going on in this world of writing/reading that I’m so passionate about. Knowing about things like the Bologna Book Fair, the Frankfurt Book Fair, and BookExpo America might not get me a book deal, but these are things that go along with the business of book writing.

In addition to all the great information about writing craft, I’d suggest getting online and looking at both GalleyCat and Publishers Weekly every now and then. You can learn a lot by clicking around those sites!

Remember, writers, that while you shouldn’t write to trends (books already on shelves were typically pitched to editors 1-2 years earlier, so editors have already been inundated by what may seem like a “fresh” idea), it is smart to know what’s selling and what readers are clamoring for. That’s why we’re encouraged to list comparison titles from the last couple of years in query letters. 

Agents want to know that we know the genre that we’re writing and that we’re educated and passionate enough to have read widely in the category we’re pitching, whether it’s children’s/YA/adult/etc.  That’s also why agents use recent comparison titles to get editors excited.

With that in mind, happy reading this summer!

The Perfect Mother's Day Gift (buy one for your mom NOW)

*THIS POST IS FOR YOU, DEAREST MUMSY*

Unsure about what to do for your dear mother this Mother's Day? Do yourself and her a favor and buy her an Erma Bombeck book. Any Erma Bombeck book. I virtually (virtual/internet promises being negotiable) guarantee she will thank you.

If you're a woman who has never read Erma, go to the bookstore or library now. She's a genius who will break your funny bone and tickle your heart and make you say, "Oh my goodness, this woman is writing about my life!" at least once. And my mom loves her, so there's another fabulous reason!

Who is she?
Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) was an American humorist and newspaper columnist who wrote about marriage, motherhood, and suburban home life. She published 15 books, most of which went on to become bestsellers. And if you love to write humor, then check out the annual Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop in Dayton, Ohio. 

Here are a few of her classics:

The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank

If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?

When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time To Go Home

All I Know About Animal Behavior I Learned in Loehmann's Dressing Room

Aunt Erma's Cope Book: How To Get from Monday to Friday in 12 Days

and of course,

Why God Created Mothers

I'll leave you this Mother's Day weekend with a whole bunch of Erma quotes. Feel free to read them all or just skim J

All of us have moments in our lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with white carpet is one of them.

Spend at least one Mother's Day with your respective mothers before you decide on marriage. If a man gives his mother a gift certificate for a flu shot, dump him. 

I have never gone to the bathroom in my life that a small voice on the other side of the door hasn't whined, "Are you saving the bananas for anything?"


People shop for a bathing suit with more care than they do a husband or wife. The rules are the same. Look for something you'll feel comfortable wearing. Allow for room to grow.

Before you try to keep up with the Joneses, be sure they're not trying to keep up with you.


Everyone is guilty at one time or another of throwing out questions that beg to be ignored, but mothers seem to have a market on the supply. "Do you want a spanking or do you want to go to bed?" Don't you want to save some of the pizza for your brother?"

Giving birth is little more than a set of muscular contractions granting passage of a child. Then the mother is born.

Graduation day is tough for adults. They go to the ceremony as parents. They come home as contemporaries. After twenty-two years of child-rearing, they are unemployed.

Have you any idea how many children it takes to turn off one light in the kitchen? Three. It takes one to say, "What light?" and two more to say, "I didn't turn it on."

Marriage has no guarantees. If that's what you're looking for, go live with a car battery.

Mothers have to remember what food each child likes or dislikes, which one is allergic to penicillin and hamster fur, who gets carsick and who isn't kidding when he stands outside the bathroom door and tells you what's going to happen if he doesn't get in right away. It's tough. If they all have the same hair color they tend to run together. 

My kids always perceived the bathroom as a place where you wait it out until all the groceries are unloaded from the car.

No self-respecting mother would run out of intimidations on the eve of a major holiday.

Onion rings in the car cushions do not improve with time.

Some say our national pastime is baseball. Not me. It's gossip. 

 Happy Mother's Day!

From Rejection-land to Pulitzer Nomination with James Lee Burke (and a book winner!)

Need a little inspiration and motivation to keep going on your writing journey?

Photo courtesy of http://www.jamesleeburke.com/

My dad (who's been sending me author tidbits and nibbles ever since he found out I had the writing bug) recently sent me a photo of a book he was reading. Specifically, the bio section of the book. The author was James Lee Burke and dear old dad was fascinated to read that a story that had gotten rejected 111 times went on to be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. See the bio excerpt below:

Burke's work has been awarded an Edgar twice for Best Crime Novel of the Year. He has also been a recipient of a Breadloaf and Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEA grant. Two of his novels, Heaven's Prisoners and Two For Texas, have been made into motion pictures. His short stories have been published in The Atlantic Monthly, New Stories from the South, Best American Short Stories, Antioch Review, Southern Review, and The Kenyon Review. His novel The Lost Get-Back Boogie was rejected 111 times over a period of nine years, and upon publication by Louisiana State University press was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

If you're getting discouraged after rejection number 10 or 20...or 50 or 60...or 100 or 110, DON'T LOSE HEART! I'm not saying that we all have Pulitzer-worthy tales floating around our heads, and sometimes it's best to let a story go and start on something new, but if you love writing, then stick with it J

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By order of Random.org, the WINNER OF CHRIS HOWARD'S NOVEL ROOTLESS IS...

Pk Hrezo!!! Congratulations!! Please shoot me an email with your address and I'll ship you the 

book