This weekend I’m getting my entries ready for the 2013 Faulkner-Wisdom Competition. There are eight categories: Novel, Novella, Narrative Non-Fiction, Short Story, Novel-In-Progress, Essay, Poetry, and Short Story by a High School Student. Guidelines are listed on their website and the deadline is May 1, 2013.
Anyone else entering?
I never knew how important things like the acknowledgement and bio pages are, until I sat down to work on mine. I recently spent two days polishing those and the dedication for Poison, Perennials, & a Poltergeist. The thing to remember is that these three pages not only let you give a shout out to all the people who support you, they also let the reader get to know you a little better. I kept my acknowledgements to one page, and made sure to mention why I was thanking everyone. The About the Author page took the longest for me to get right, since it’s much easier and less awkward to talk about the book than myself. The dedication was done months ago, and I do believe I’ll start all this front matter as I work on each manuscript from now on, at least make notes of the people who are helping, and not wait until the book is ready for publication. That should save me time in the future.
Congrats to all the Quarterfinalists in the ABNA! I didn’t go to the next round, but I’m cheering on a few of my friends who did. 
I’m one of nine finalist in Lyrical Press’s How Lyrical is Your Romance? contest! Pretty psyched about that!
Today I’ve been trying to set up a page at Amazon’s Author Central. For some reason, it lists me as ‘Contributing Poet’, but I sent an email or two and should have it fixed soon. I’ll post a link here as soon as that’s straightened out.
And a novella in my head is itching to be turned into a manuscript, so I’m trying to oblige.
What’s keeping y’all busy these days?
The cover for Poison, Perennials, and a Poltergeist (Petal Pushers Mystery Series, Book 1) should be finished soon. I got a sneak peek at how it’s coming along yesterday, and I’m pretty psyched!
The romantic suspense manuscript I entered in the ABNA made it past the pitch and is going on to Round 2. Cross your fingers, y’all, and good luck to all the entrants.
Right now I’m busy working on a novella I wrote a few years back. The plan is to rip it apart, add a particular element that I left out, and glue the thing back together, minus the drivel. Changing the 3rd person POV to 1st person is going to put the reader even deeper in the mind of my main character (and oh, what a character Judith Webster is), but it’s a tricky process to show every crazy thought process in her twisted little head as well as the reactions people have to her.
That’s what I’m doing this weekend. This story has been calling for me to take it to the next draft and I’m eager to do it. Anybody else get a rush revising and reshaping your manuscripts?
