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CONGRATULATIONS to our Golden Heart Finalists
Donnell Ann Bell and Jean Willett in Romantic Suspense
Jen McAndrews and Shea Berkley in Young Adult
New Releases:
JENNY GARDINER has new book out: SLIM TO NONE. The book has a Kindle exclusive till July, then will be available through all e-readers.
Here's the Amazon link:
The book has lots of yummy recipes in it!
LongandShortReviews.com published VICKI BATMAN’s short story, OUCH on April 15., click Free Short Story in the box on the left, and voila! the story appears.
Her A CAKE FOR ALL SEASONS will appear in the July 2010 True Love
CAROLYN MATKOWSKY w/a CARA MARSI’s BREWED IN LOVE will be published as a short coffee story in the June True Romance. Her short story, REUNION OF HEARTS is now available in the April True Romance.
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RWA National Conference – July 28-31, has moved to Orlando Florida
- Published Authors Network
During the March meeting, the RWA Board of Directors amended policy to clarify that, if a chapter wishes to include "PAN" in the name of its published author groups/functions, it may do so only if the chapter's PAN membership criteria are consistent with RWA's PAN membership criteria. Allowing differing criteria for PAN membership at the chapter and national levels causes confusion and dilutes RWA's purpose. RWA is not prohibiting chapters from having a program to recognize published authors in some other manner. However, if your chapter program uses the term "PAN," eligibility requirements must be the same as RWA’s standards. The definition of PAN and eligibility requirements can be found on the RWA website at
http://www.rwanational.org/cs/pan_membership.
The RWA PRO Community is pleased to announce HelenKay Dimon will be awarded the 2010 PRO Mentor of the Year during the PRO Retreat on July 29, 2010 at the RWA National Conference in Orlando, Florida.
Do your members know about RWA University? RWA U is a self-directed program, meaning you can read through the available information at any time after it’s posted. We plan to have industry professionals give presentations online, and lots of links to other sources on the sub-topics will be available. We’ll also run periodic RWR articles on these topics as well. Visit RWA U at www.rwanational.org/cs/RWAU. Tell us what you think or any program topics you’d like to see covered by sending an email to RWAUniversity@RWA.org.
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JEN McANDREWS placed Second in the YA category of the 2010 North Texas RWA Great Expectations Contest.
MARY JO SCHEIBL w/a CASEY CLIFFORD’S October 2009 Romantic Suspense finaled in WisRWA's Write Touch Readers' Award.
MICHELLE MILES’ sci-fi, ANGEL AND THE DEADMAN, finaled in the Stroke of Midnight contest in the Futuristic/Fantasy/Sci-fi category.
SANDY JAMES’ ALL THE RIGHT REASONS is a mainstream finalist in the Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence
Also, Both TURNING THIRTY-TWELVE and FAITH OF HEART are finalists in the Write Touch Readers Choice Awards.
MAGIC SCHOOL DROP-OUT by LIESE SHERWOOD-FABRE placed first in the Young Adult category of the The 2010 Linda Howard Award of Excellence contest for unpublished writers.
MISTY EVAN’S OPERATION SHEBA placed first in the 2010 New England Reader's Choice Bean Pot Awards and is a finalist in the URWA Great Beginnings Contest in Romantic Suspense.
NANCY NAIGLE’s OUT OF FOCUS placed First in the 2010 Write Stuff Contest’s Mainstream with Romantic Elements.
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Erasing IT
By Autumn Jordon
As writers, our goal is to write a compelling, lucid story which will submerge our readers in another world. Using the word it will not get it done.
Imagine viewing a movie and the film skips or stops. No matter how spellbound you were by the tale, you’d probably be cast right back to reality--thus defeating the purpose of watching the story.
It is a lifeless pronoun and upon reading the word I stop and wonder if the writer could not come up with a better description for the object and a way of adding to the story. Using the pronoun weakens your writing.
Let’s look at a few examples.
1) Sheila labored to carry it to the curb.
2) Sheila labored to carry the garbage can to the curb.
3) Sheila labored to carry the garbage can containing her husband’s body to the curb.
In reading the story we might know Sheila’s husband is dead and even that she had a hand in his death, but by reading the first sentence we do not know what she carries to the curb. The second sentence tells us what she carries but it is not enough to paint a vivid picture. In the third sentence, we see what the author wanted us to see. Sheila is disposing of the body!
We can make the sentence in even stronger, but that is another lesson.
Another example:
1) Martha ordered Billy to go get it.
2) Martha ordered Billy to go get the note.
3) Martha ordered Billy to go get the note from his teacher which he’d had buried under his bed.
In sentence one, we had no idea what Billy was ordered to get, but in sentence three we know what Martha is seeking and have an idea of what she is feeling and why .
A great writer knows it is necessary at times to use it, but whenever possible she/he will erase the weak word from the page.
Autumn Jordon is a 2009 Golden Heart ® Finalist. Her first two releases, EVIL’S WITNESS and Obsessed By WILDFIRE will be out from The Wild Rose Press late 2009. She writes a Wednesday blog at www. autumnjordonsnotes.blogspot.com and produces a newsletter which you can sign up for through her website www.autumnjordon.com
"The Four Agreements for Writers"
by Misty Evans here
"What's on Your Roadblocks List?"
by Cara Marsi here
(AKA Carolyn Matkowsky)
"The Three I's of Query Writing" by Misty Evans here.
"Ten Life Lessons I Learned" by Cara Marsi (aka Carolyn Matkowsky) here.
"Don't Quit Your Day Job" by Lois Winston here
"Free-Lance Writers and Taxes Hobby or Business?"
by
Linda Burke here.
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