Covering Critique Methods at Project Mayhem Part II

The final post in my series about critique and Microsoft Word is up over at Project Middle Grade Mayhem today. Please stop by and check it out!

Covering Critique Methods at Project Mayhem

I'm over at Project Mayhem, posting about full manuscript critiques this morning.

Kay Em Evans' World Race Mission Contest: Teaser

My friend Kay Em Evans is going on a World Race Mission, and needs to raise some money, for a good cause. The actual contest/auction begins next week, starting Labor Day, September 2nd. It will be an auction in which the highest bids earn prizes like signed copies of books and various critiques. For now, I'll let Kay describe the teaser.

Take it away, Kay!

Teaser prize for this week’s teaser (for writers): Query critique by, Matthew MacNish, and first 5 pages critique by Kay Em Evans.

Optional prize (for non-writers): copy of one of these books: Lonely Planet’s LONDON ENCOUNTER, Lonely Planet’s MONTENEGRO, Bill Bryson’s A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING, or Paul Theroux’s THE TAO OF TRAVEL – to be provided by Kay Em Evans.

• Anyone who blasts about the contest just has to go Matthew’s blog (The QQQ Experiment: http://theqqqe.blogspot.com/) and comment that he/she is spreading the word and how (via which social networking platform).
• That’s it! Then that person is entered into the drawing for the query critique and firstseven-pages critique!

Matthew is a writer and a whiz at queries. His blog, the Quintessentiallyly Questionable Query Experiment, was started for that very purpose—to take the guesswork out of the query letter process. He’s interviewed all kinds of experts in this area—authors, agents, editors—and is the perfect person to critique your query. http://theqqqe.blogspot.com/

Kay Em Evans is a writer and editor. She started off writing YA and has now expanded to travel. She first discovered her knack for editing in college, when all of her friends began asking her to edit their research papers. After providing an edit and critique to a fellow writer back in 2009, that writer finally started receiving requests from agents and was later signed by the New York based literary agency D4EO. http://www.kayemevans.com/blog/kays-editing-services/

Thanks! Matt again here.

So really all you have to do is Facebook, Tweet, G+, blog, or whatever about this teaser, leave a comment here saying that you did, and you'll be entered to win the prize!

Write On Con 2013

2013 Y'all

I know some of you might remember me being kind of depressed about WriteOnCon last year, and I'm not saying that having another year with no agent is awesome or anything, but I'm trying to go in with a better attitude this time. I've already had one partial request for RUNNING FROM RUBY RIDGE, which is great, but I'm also just trying to enjoy helping other writers. That's why I started this old blog in the first place, anyway.

For now, I would really appreciate if all of you would visit my threads, and give me feedback on what I've shared. You've got:

The Query Letter for RUNNING FROM RUBY RIDGE

The first 250 words of RUNNING FROM RUBY RIDGE

The first five pages of RUNNING FROM RUBY RIDGE

and my Intro Post, which mostly just leads back here and to some other cool query related stuff.

Otherwise, I think all you writers should get involved too! Go sign up. Jump into the forums, and get involved.

And feel free to link to anything you've put up over there in the comments here. I would love to visit all of you as well!

You Guys Really Missed Out

First of all, congratulations to the Atlanta Braves, who clinched a playoff spot last night with their walk-off defeat of the Miami Marlins, but especially to Kris Medlen, who tied a record set in 1950-53, by Whitey Ford and the New York Yankees. Kris is the best pitcher in baseball right now, but make no mistake, this is a record that can only be won by a great team.

Now, that's not what I meant when I titled this post. You missed out because one of my best internet writing friends has changed the rules on his First Impact Critiques. Adam Heine is one of the smartest guys I know. He's also one of the kindest and most giving, but that's beside the point. The point is that he has this series he does, critiquing anything from queries, to jacket copy, to first pages, to even short synopses. To quote him "basically anything under 300 words that is used to answer the question, 'Do I want to read this book?'"

He's still open to accepting submissions for the critiques, but due to lack of submissions, he's had to stop offering the prizes. He used to give away Amazon gift cards, or even better, critiques from his agent, Tricia Lawrence, to readers who commented with their own feedback on the posts.

I'm here to tell you that you should send him something. Yes, even if I've already critiqued your query, you should send it to Adam. He's very good at what he does. His forte is Science Fiction and Fantasy, but I've seen him critique everything from Erotica to Mystery, and he always does so with skill and style.

I don't know if he'll open up the prizes again if I send him enough people, but it doesn't matter. The critiques themselves are worth it on their own. So head over to his blog, read Pawn's Gambit, check the First Impact page, and hit him up. You won't regret it.