Monday, May 21, 2012

Conference update, some cool stuff and a $25 Amazon gift card giveaway

The OCCWF Writers Conference was amazing! I got to speak on two panels, lead a rogue critique session and co-teach a class on speculative fiction. I got to see some old friends and meet new ones.

[Left to right: Andy Meisenheimer, freelance editor; Mick Silva, freelance editor; me; Rachelle Gardner, agent]

I also had an opportunity to encourage other writers (one of my favorite things to do). But one thing that made this conference so special was the fact that two members from my writers group were teaching and they both had new books out. (Yay and congrats to Mike Duran and B.J. Taylor!)

Later this week I’ll tell you a little bit about their books.

Another thing that was really cool was the fact that a dear friend of mine, Andrea Jones, won the grand prize for the fiction writing contest. (Eeeek!)

[Andrea's on the far right]

She won this from The Editorial Department: “An in-depth assessment and coaching of an author's writing style, based on the principles of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, by Editorial Department founder Renni Browne and Dave King.”

If you’re a writer, can you imagine getting an editorial memo from Renni Browne? I think I’d scream! I bit my writer’s teeth on his writing book, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. If you’ve never read his book, I highly recommend it.

ALSO:
There’s some really neat stuff coming up on my blog this week!

On Thursday, I’m going to reveal the cover for my upcoming e-book collection of short stories titled, Waiting For Midnight. This collection of 16 stories includes a ghost story, a werewolf story, a science fiction story, as well as two stories that feature characters from my novels, AFTERLIFE and FEAST. The collection will release sometime within the next 2 weeks.

Subscribers to my newsletter will get a sneak peek! They’ll get to read the first story for FREE. So, you might want to sign up for my newsletter. *hint, hint*

AND:
I’m running a contest this week.
RULES: Make a comment on any of this week’s posts, share a link on either Facebook, Twitter or your blog, and you’ll be entered to win a $25 gift certificate from Amazon. Also, you must include your email address so I can contact the winner.

Coming up this week:

TUESDAY: Mike Duran’s new book, The Telling

WEDNESDAY: BJ Taylor’s new book, Charlie Bear

THURSDAY: Cover reveal for my short story collection, Waiting For Midnight

FRIDAY: Book review: Shadow And Bone by debut YA author, Leigh Bardugo

PLUS: $25 Gift Certificate for Amazon to be awarded on TUESDAY, MAY 29.

10 comments:

  1. Congrats to my new friend Andrea! So amazing meeting you and finding out I went to youth group with your hubby. Merrie, it was so nice meeting you and hearing your feedback. I enjoyed your critique group and our chat. =)

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  2. Michelle, Hi! It was great to meet you at the conference. =) Thanks for stopping by and I wish you the best with your novels!

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  3. Fingers crossed the science fiction story will be the free one ;-)

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  4. And so you can contact the winner, if it happens to be me: TezMillerOz at gmail dot com

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  5. Tez, *grin* I can't tell.
    But I can say that the entire collection will probably be .99 on Amazon.
    Thanks for stopping by, girlfriend!

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  6. Oh! A story collection!? Will it be available as ePub as well?

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  7. Sullivan,
    Hi! I think it will be on Kindle, but not sure about any other formats. Right now Kindle alone is making me want to pull out my hair. LOL. Is ePub another format? You can tell I'm new to all of this. =)

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  8. EPub is indeed another format. I have a Sony ereader so I can't load kindle books on it, so I'm really hoping your anthology will also be available outside of amazon.

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  9. I loved your insight on the faculty panel at the conference this past weekend. Thanks for being so willing to share your knowledge and journey with those of us just starting out. I really loved what you had to say about combining traditional publishing with alternative publishing ~ seemed very in touch with the market.

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  10. Curly Girl,
    I'm so glad you stopped by my blog! And I'm really glad that you were at the conference and that the info was helpful. I know how hard it is getting started and I wish you the best. =)

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