Congratulations and a Guide to Shooting Crows

Firstly a huge CONGRATULATIONS to the New Voices finalists and warm wishes as you write your second chapters.

But for the rest of us who are feeling inevitably a bit disappointed I'm pleased to announce it is now Open Season on Crows. So come and pick your weapon and ammunition of choice to shoot the crows of doubt now circling in menacing fashion.

If any of the following statements are applicable to you (and not all of them are applicable to me, I hasten to add) please select the appropriate weapon and take aim:

(1) I have had work requested from an Editor, therefore I am not crap.

(2) I have requested work still outstanding, waiting to be sent in to an Editor, therefore I am not crap. (and I promise myself to get on and get ready to submit)

(3) I have had really positive comments in a revision letter/face to face feedback at an Editor pitch, therefore I am not crap.

(4) I have previously placed in a competition, therefore I am not crap.

(5) I have received positive comments from readers who liked my competition entry, so they can't have thought I was crap.

(6) Failure to place in a competition does not mean I will not get published (invoke the names of Maisey, Tina et al at this point) so it does not mean that I am crap.

(7) The more I keep writing and learning craft and subbing and the harder I work at it the closer I will get to achieving my dream and I refuse to give up on it.

Take that pesky crows now I've only got one thing left to say:

PULL!

Battle of the Spooks

I've decided it's time for some serious NTANV or NTATR (Not Thinking about the Roses!) distraction. There is a serious issue that needs to be decided: who is the most fanciable of the Spooks?

I know Richard Armitage has held court for a while but am I the only one to miss Rupert Penry Jones?

Apologies to those who haven't a clue what I'm talking about, Spooks is a UK TV programme recently entering a new series. It's choc full of alpha males (and women to be fair) racing around saving the country.

Anyway, we have a new contender to the battle - Max Brown aka Dimitri.

So, who is the sexiest spook of them all - Richard, Max or Rupert?

NTANV (Not Thinking About New Voices)

Other writers have blogged about what they've learnt so far from the competition. All I know is that in order to NTANV I'm going to have to grow a thicker skin and force myself to learn a few...

1. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If I possessed it I wouldn't have entered my New Voices submission early on but waited until nearer the end to save the prolonged angsting any time someone gives the entry a really low score ( I try to be impervious but I'm only human).
2. Perspective is a wonderful thing. And possessed in bucket loads by people who aren't actually entering... ;-) I was determined not to be consumed by this competition but being ill, cranky and physically feverish (and without the energy to throw myself into anything else) while trying to NTAI is not a good combination.
3. Patience is a... Okay, had enough of that. Patience is for saps, grumpiness rules :-) The fact I'm on week three without a cup of tea or the ability to eat chocolate is depriving me of my usual self-cheering strategies. I'm going to have to wheel out my favourite feel good dvds to do the job for me. ("The Accidental Husband", "Music and Lyrics" and "Ballet Shoes")
4. There is always an up side, much as it pains my grumpy alter ego to admit it. Being ill means I can feel my ribs again and my too-tight jeans are now loose. And the public nature of the competition means whatever happens I'll have some lovely comments to take away from the contest with me, feedback I wouldn't otherwise have got.

Is anyone else out there wishing the whole thing were over already? How are you managing to distract yourself?

Three Tips

Tip 1 - if you're ever offered a medicine that has losing a stone in weight as a potential side-effect, don't think 'Fantastic' but ask questions.

Lots of them.

While being able to feel my ribs again is nice I wouldn't go through the past month again for anything.

Tip 2 - if you ignore tip 1 and end up subsequently incapacitated and dreadfully ill try Lucozade. Lucozade really is my best writing tip - I couldn't even move around my house at the weekend without holding onto the furniture or walls but a couple of bottles later and I was propped up at my desk writing.

I may end up in a diabetic coma (in which case it's been lovely knowing you all!) but I always think it's important to get your priorities straight ;-)

Tip 3 - have a read of Joanne Pibworth's "Sequins and Secrets" over at the New Voices site, it's a corker :-)

New Voices - Taking the Plunge

There are only so many times you can change a word or phrase and then change it back again to your original choice without going stark staring mad.

So, with that in mind I've decided to take the plunge and upload my chapter to the Romance is Not Dead site.
The title is "In too Deep" and the chapter is in the Contemporary Romance section.

If you're still writing/polishing head over to the Minxes site tomorrow (Friday) - We've collated links to all the best competition tips and news stories for you in one post so you can spend more time writing and less time surfing.

Right, time to head over to Lacey's blog to get my badge for being brave ;-)

Romance is Not Dead (but it might have cold feet!)

There's never a good time to be poisoned by your medication really, but the week before the launch of New Voices certainly wasn't the best timing for me to be laid low.
Being violently ill at the same time as realising the beginning of your chapter needs to be re-written isn't a good combination. Worst thing is I've been told it will be another week to ten days until the adverse reaction wears off and I can eat and drink properly again.
So why am I sitting at my computer instead of curling up with daytime TV world? Firstly, because I wasn't convinced The Michael Ball Show wasn't making the retching worse but secondly because next to not eating and not drinking, not writing is even more unpalatable.
Congratulations to those of you who've already uploaded your chapters. Diving straight in beats standing in the shallows getting cold feet. I've always been a 'walk in slowly while gauging the temperature' kind of girl myself when it comes to swimming in the sea (but then I do live in the UK and the sea is bloody freezing!)
I'm sure I'll take a last minute 'what the heck' plunge, once I've managed to re-write my beginning.
Good luck to all my blog friends, I'm looking forward to reading your entries :-)