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OCCRWA June Online Class

May 27, 2013 by in category Archives

OCCRWA Proudly Presents: header
June 10 – July 7, 2013

FEARLESS PITCHING

with Laura Drake

About the Class:
Pitching, it has the power to strike fear in the heart of the most intrepid writer. It also has the power to launch your career, whether you’re pitching on paper, or in person.  This workshop will give you the tools you need to feel confident, and present yourself and your writing in a professional manner. We will cover:
  • Pitching on paper
  • Creating a logline for your novel
  • The all important query – and how to use it as a building block for your pitch
  • Researching agents/editors
  • Etiquette and procedures
  • Pitching in person
  • Different types of pitches, and how to prepare for each
  • Attitude is everything – how to make it work for you
  • Tips and tricks, how to be memorable in a good way
  • Make the most of your opportunities
  • How to manage your fear
Debra HollandAbout the Instructor:
Laura Drake decided to write a novel.  Three years later she completed it, and decided what she really wanted was to hold a book in her hand with her name on the cover. 500 queries, three novels, and ten years later, Laura achieved her dream, signing a three book deal with Grand Central for her romances, set in the world of professional bull riding. The Sweet Spot, released in May of 2013. She also sold her ‘Biker-chick’ romance to Harlequin’s Superromance line.
She’s a member of the Orange County Chapter, as well as a former President of RWA’s Women’s Fiction Chapter.

http://LauraDrakeBooks.com
http://WritersintheStorm@Wordpress.com
Twitter: @PBRWriter

Please click here for enrollment information.


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Families and business and family business

May 24, 2013 by in category Archives tagged as ,

You see it on organic foods and on the advertising that is trying to attract an environmentally sympathetic, locally grown, “healthy” type audience.

And for sure it’s a code word for not being big business or a large conglomerate.

But has anyone actually thought this through?

Can you imagine working efficiently and successfully with your family members?  Isn’t it hard enough to get together for special events—a shared meal during holidays, a birthday or anniversary, wedding or funeral?  Can you imagine actually having not only to put up with everyone day after day, but know your livelihood is in their hands—and firing them may not be an option?

Instead of going to HR or your supervisor about a performance concern as a professional and colleague, you end up feeling nine years old and tattling to Daddy about a sibling.  “Johnny just picked his nose! Make him stop!” “Did not!” “Did so!”

Well, you get the drift.

And what about the opportunity for personal retaliation on the home front for a real or imagined issue at the workplace.  “I’m sorry, but you’re not getting invited to Thanksgiving because you didn’t get those reports in on time.  Now do your homework or you can’t go out and play…”

Work relationships are challenging.  Family relationships are complex.  Imagine combining them! The mind boggles.  OK, yes, I’m sure family owned businesses can work–indeed do work.  But it certainly doesn’t seem easy!  And to present it proudly, as if it were an asset, simply boggles my mind.  All I can think of is ‘imagine if Thanksgiving dinner were a Board Meeting!  OMFG!’

What is the deal?
It seems like the words “family owned” reads that it’s small and everyone has some kind of emotional commitment to the business beyond profit.  And those things in turn are supposed to mean that it’s a superior product compared to a business focused on efficiencies and profit  And that, in turn, means it’s likely worth a premium price (for questionable value add).

But I have to say I am very fond of profit.  The profit motive is clean, clear and lacks hypocrisy.  Its consistent, and perhaps most importantly, focused on the customer.  For profit companies have to create something that people actually want to spend money on to get.   Profit is a demanding proof-of-concept!

Family migrates you away from a focus on profit and efficiency, and adds an emotional component that may certainly have some upsides, but certainly has some significant downsides.

Why is nepotism not a good thing, but a family business is something to celebrate.  Doesn’t that strike anyone as…odd?

It’s all about relationships. And how they relate.

Sign me:

Love my family–but wouldn’t want to work for ’em….

Isabel Swift

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LISTEN UP! THE MAKING OF AN AUDIO BOOK

May 15, 2013 by in category Archives tagged as , , , , ,

I have written over 25 novels. Each one starts with voices in my head. By the time a book is done, I know every inflection, tonal change and speech pattern of every character. So, when I had the opportunity to create the audio versions of Hostile Witness and Silent Witness, I was excited. This, I thought, was going to be a breeze.

I thought that just before I became terrified.
I was excited because next to having your book made into a movie, audio is about as cool as you can get. I was terrified because suddenly there were decisions to make that I had never considered when writing these books. How had I really imagined my characters’ voices? Did I want an actor or an actress to read my books? How did I produce and publish an audio product? Did I want separate voices for each character or not? Did I want to read my books myself?
The only question I could answer was the last one. No fiction author should ever read their work if I am an example. My one attempt to do so left me ROFL. Thankfully, I was alone in the house when I tried it. Some people are actors; I am not.
Once that decision was made there were still others to tackle. This is my list of the five things I did   to bring my books from print to awesome audio.
1)   Listen to popular audio books in your genre. I listened to both male and female thriller authors. I found it disconcerting to hear a man read primary female parts but had no trouble accepting a female reader tackling male characters. It is a personal decision but I was lead by what seems to be accepted wisdom of the best selling authors and that is use the voice of the predominant character. I chose Tara Platt, an award winning voice over artist (www.taraplatt.com). I also chose to have each character voice distinctive and that meant the voiceover had to seamlessly move between character and gender, expository and dialogue.
2)    Choose a neutral voice unless your book has a cultural basis for a different choice. I listened to audio versions of books written by English authors and read by English actors. As much as I love an English accent, I realized choosing a voiceover with a discernible accent was distracting for an American thriller.
3)   If possible, seek professional assistance. I was lucky to know a producer who understood what goes into a successful voiceover. He coached me in what I should be listening for when I received my file for approval, not the least of which was breathing patterns. Like a singer, a voiceover artist should be able to read seamlessly without gasps or gaps in the production as well as communicate the appropriate cadence and genre of your novel.
4)   Provide your talent a ‘cheat sheet’ that includes a short description of the plot, descriptions of all recurring characters, unique setting points, and where the major plot points are. Also provide the talent with a copy of the book.
5)   Speak up and ask questions. There is someone to listen at established, professional sites. I worked with ACX for Audible.com, the most recognizable of all audio sites. They were responsive to all my questions and offered production options from talent buyout to royalty sharing and independent production.

It didn’t take me long to realize that as much time goes into reading a book for audio distribution as writing it for print or digital consumption. I also realized after I heard the first few chapters of my book that I was as lost in listening to the story in the same way I had been lost in writing it. I may have known the ending, but I didn’t know the sound of it would leave me breathless when I heard it.
Listen to Hostile Witness
Listent to Silent Witness 

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Naked Sushi and RT Book Reviews by Jina Bacarr

May 11, 2013 by in category Archives tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

“I got goose bumps thinking about the icy cold fish wiggling between my thighs even if they were dead fish,” says Pepper O’Malley in Naked Sushi, my upcoming Harlequin/Cosmo Red Hot Read (Oct 2013),

Naked Sushi is about more than dead fish.

It’s the story of a smart working girl who is trapped by her own fear of rejection. Pepper is a computer whiz, adventurous, and has all the right moves, but she keeps sabotaging her efforts to get the job she really wants.

Does that sound familiar?

All of us fear rejection, which is why we put off finishing that manuscript or sending it in until we do one more polish that is never enough. I know. I’ve been there. I learned that writing may be a solitary job, but publishing is a team effort. No matter how good your manuscript is, it will remain a lonely .doc file on your computer unless you press that Send button.

Like Pepper, I started in the world of video games, playing with the boys, so to speak. No one wanted to hire women, but somehow I got the job. I learned how to write interactive games, which has since helped me in writing novels. Keeping all the balls, that is story points, in the air and tying up all the ends to give the player, and now the reader, a satisfying ending.

It’s not all dark chocolate truffle delights. You will get rejected.

I have. For lots of reasons. But I never stop trying. Never will. It’s in my DNA. That’s why writing Pepper was so important to me. I wanted to show that we have to get to the root of our fears, as Pepper does, and sometimes that means opening up and letting it all hang out. Talking about it with a good friend or the hero in your life helps…so does writing in a journal.

It’s good for your soul.

And your story.

You’d be surprised what you’ll find out about yourself.

——————

Naked Sushi Update: I was so excited to see my Cosmo Red Hot Read from Harlequin mentioned on the RT Book Reviews site:

“With our column, Forewords, we let readers know the latest book news about some of the web team\’s most-anticipated upcoming releases across the genres — just as the projects are announced!”

via Forewords – The Books Before The Buzz | RT Book Reviews.

—————–

This is so cool!! Click on the link above to go to RT Book Reviews, then scroll down to DOWNLOAD AND GO and you’ll see NAKED SUSHI mentioned under Contemporary Romance.

Thank you for the mention, RT!

Jina

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Love and Marriage and All That Madness by Kitty Bucholtz

May 9, 2013 by in category Archives tagged as , , , , , ,

It’s funny how many accidents create ah-ha moments. What would we do without penicillin and Post-It notes?

I’ve been trying to figure out for two years how to write interesting, entertaining blog posts that are similar enough to my book-writing style to encourage blog readers to become book readers. Then last month I had an ah-ha moment.

I’d written a funny article for the OCC RWA newsletter encouraging people to sign up to enter or judge the Orange Rose Contest for Unpublished Writers. Then I wrote a funny guest post on Louisa Bacio’s blog about How Hotel Sex Turned Me Into a Romantic Comedy Writer. I mentioned to several people that I love writing this kind of silly fun article, but I didn’t have an outlet for it anymore.

D’oh! Yes, I did! Um, blog, sitting there, waiting for me to be brilliant!

So this week I started a new column on Mondays called Marriage Madness. Since I write stories with fun romances in them, and since Sunday was my (gasp!) 23rd wedding anniversary, it seemed like I’d finally found an interesting and entertaining topic that might lead my blog readers to my books.

Whether my tactic will work remains to be seen. But I’m having such fun writing about all the good, bad, and hilarious things that I’ve seen in marriage! Coming up will be the “tornadoes in trailer parks” story, the “will she walk into that light pole” story, the “65 days of no cooking” story, the “how to never argue” story, and many more.

If you’ve met my husband, John, you’ll understand in about a minute and a half why I write romances – and why all my heroes are tall, dark, and sexy – I mean, handsome! 😉 And if you haven’t met him yet, you’ll feel you know him pretty quickly when you read about his shenanigans.

If you like reading fun, romantic stories, stop by Marriage Madness every Monday. And if you’re a writer trying to figure out how to write blog posts your potential book readers would be interested in…well, I suggest you look for something to trip over. 😉

Kitty Bucholtz decided to combine her undergraduate degree in business, her years of experience in accounting and finance, and her graduate degree in creative writing to become a writer-turned-independent-publisher. Her first novel, Little Miss Lovesick, is now available in print and ebook format. Her next novel, Unexpected Superhero, will be released May/June 2013, followed by Love at the Fluff and Fold this summer. Her short stories can be found in the anthologies Romancing the Pages and Moonlit Encounters, available in both print and ebook formats.

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