The Writers Helping Writers AMAZING RACE!

Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi at Writers Helping Writers (formerly The Bookshelf Muse) have added two more books to their Descriptive Thesaurus Collection: The Positive Trait Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Attributes and The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Flaws. To celebrate, they are hosting a race, and not just any old race, either. It's the...

 
Writing is hard, isn't it? Create the perfect hook. Make your first page compelling. Craft an amazing 25 word pitch. Knock out a query that will blow an agent's mind. On and on it goes. And sometimes, well, you just wish someone would help.

WISH NO MORE!

From October 21st until October 27th, Writers Helping Writers is posting an OPEN CALL for writers. You can fill out a form, requesting help with critiques, book visibility, social media sharing, blog diagnostics, advice and more.

An army of Amazing Racers are standing by (ME INCLUDED!) waiting to help with your submissions. How many people can we help in a week? Let's find out! Did I mention there are Celebrity Racers too--amazing authors and editors who know their way around a first page. Maybe one of them will pick your submission to help with!

Each day this week, there's an AMAZING giveaway, too. So stop in at Angela & Becca's new Writers Helping Writers website and find out how to take advantage of this unique, pay-it-forward event for writers. I'll see you there! 

Photo Credit: Tharrin

I need your help!

So, I got myself appointed the Florida Writers Foundation Silent Auction Chairperson.  The Silent Auction is an annual fundraiser for the FWF (which is the charity arm of the Florida Writers Association), a non profit 501 (c) 3 benefitting literacy.

The Silent Auction is held at the annual FWA Conference in Lake Mary, FL (October 22-24, 2010).  Because it's pretty close to Christmas, many attendees use the auction for Christmas shopping, so literally any donation is useful.  I will take some of the smaller donations to make larger baskets, and some will be used for a raffle.

However, I'd love to get a bunch of critiques and other writerly prizes and auction those online a couple of weeks before the conference so everyone can bid!  Yay!

So how can you help?  Spread the word!  Send me donations!

I plan to choose one critique or prize for the online auction and put it up for raffle. Anyone who spreads the word (blog post, tweet, message board post, etc.) will get a free ticket for that raffle.

Please help!

Here is the donation letter:

And the donation form:

Thanks! :-)

Do The Write Thing For Nashville (or where have you been, under a rock?!?)

Okay, so unless you've been hiding under a rock, you probably already know about the Do the Write Thing for Nashville blog auction. It is going EXTREMELY well, and there are some FANTASTIC items up for bidding. Critiques, phone calls with agents, signed books, and more.

Last night, I went a little crazy and bid on a bunch of stuff. In case you missed it, I have FOUR PART-TIME JOBS. Yeah, so not rolling in the money around here. One item I bid on was a 30-minute phone call with agent Michelle Wolfson. She added a query or 10-page critique if the bidding got to $375, so I bid it. I figured someone would certainly outbid me, since the bidding was close to $375 already.

Ha. The bidding on that item ends tonight at midnight CDT, and no one has outbid me yet. Now, if I win, I will gladly take the crit and phone call. Woohoo! However, my marriage might be better off if someone else wins. LOL. (Hubby actually said he'd rather spend the $ on a babysitter for me to have writing time this summer, which I could DEFINITELY use).

Anyway, go. Bid. But be careful what you bid on...you just might win it! Hahahahaha. :)

Speaking of critiques, head over to Stephanie Theban's blog. She's giving away a 5-page critique for free! :)