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A Gutsy Tale

July 5, 2011 by in category Archives tagged as , ,

by Monica Stoner, Member at Large

           
This is a self indulgent blog, about my life this last month. It has little to do with writing but a lot to do with surviving life.

I’ve always found it easier to deal with a situation if I’m as informed as possible, so I have spent time researching the Whipple surgical procedure – the history, the odds of success, the improvements in survival.  I’ve learned as much as possible about roadblocks to recovery and about potential drawbacks of this specific procedure as well as any surgery.  To be well informed is to be ready for most any eventuality.

Imagine, though, how the neighborhood of the digestive system would feel about having a portion of their community removed without warning.  Would it go something like:

 â€œMan, what hit us last night? I don’t remember any kind of party, do you Harry?  Harry?  Where’s Harry.  And – Bob?  What are you doing over here, you’re supposed to be over on the other loop.”

“Yeah, and it looks like someone took a hunk out of the Pancreas.  What went on here last night, some sort of rave?”

 â€œHey, that pushy guy is gone, the one who was squatting at the end of the duct and kept encroaching on everyone’s property.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Anyone know what happened to him?”

“It’s like there was a riot or something and they cleaned out part of the neighborhood.  Man, I’m hungry.  Any chance we could get some food down here?”

The research and subsequent flight into fantasy have to do with what has gone on since my May blog.  Some of you have met Tom, my very talented artist husband, or you’ve heard me talk about him.  Shortly before the May 19 blog, I noticed a new glow to his skin, as in yellow bright enough to be an extra on the Simpson’s.  Jaundice.  Tests ensued, first outpatient then in the hospital where the doctors worked to keep him going while they tried to pin down the cause. 

Turned out it was a tumor blocking the duct.  Good news, it was encapsulated and there didn’t seem to be any lymph involvement.  Bad news, the treatment is the most complex gastro intestinal surgery possible, with a low possibility of success.  Since the other options were not surviving, we chose door number one.

Tom asked for his brother the day before the surgery and at midnight I met him at the Albuquerque airport.  Pre surgery was like a tag team comedy routine, then we went to wait.  And wait.  Seven plus hours all told before the surgeon told us he was happy with his part of the procedure but warned us this was just the first step.

We’ve had two steps forward and one step back, often those steps are shuffling baby steps.  When we thought we’d beaten the odds he ended up back in ICU, having aspirated bile and at risk of pneumonia.  I’ve gotten to know my quirky brother in law, who was part of a special unit in VietNam, and has the stories to share.  I met a nurse who came from Iran when she was ten and the shelling got so bad in her village, it wasn’t safe for her to live there any longer.   So many people, so many stories.  For someone who chose to live far out and away from people it’s been an experience.

Thanks for listening.

Writing as Mona Karel, Monica Stoner’s first book, MY KILLER MY LOVE, was released on May 25, 2011 from Black Opal Books.

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July Submissions — Fireworks, Fairies and Superheroes

July 1, 2011 by in category Archives tagged as ,

Posting from RWA Nationals in New York City! This month, there are some explosive calls for submissions. Plus, I dug a bit deeper to find some calls from Ellora’s Cave and Samhain. If you know of an upcoming call, send them our way.
And, if anyone gets published from the information you read here, please let me know. We’d love to share the good news.
Dancing with Fireworks, A Celebration of love, romance and dancing!
XoXo Publishing is seeking original never published before short stories written by unpublished and published writers. 2,500 to 4,500 words. Romances of all genres, safe-sex couples, sensuous romances, sweet, historical etc. Celebrating dance of all kinds be it the dance of courtship or actual physical dance. Manuscript must be sent in as MS Word doc, attachment.12 pt Times New Roman. Double spaced and fully edited. Deadline July 31/11.
Angels & Fairies
There are angels who are good and pure and perfect — and there are angels whose halos are a bit, well, crooked. And tarnished. They’re naughty angels, and they’ve got more fun things to do than play harps and float on clouds.
Ravenous Romance is looking for steamy, sexy short stories for an anthology that features angels — the naughtier, the better. M/F, M/M, F/F, and ménage stories welcome. Submit your stories to acquisitions editor Jennifer Safrey at jen@ravenousromance.com. Please include a short query letter in the body of the email and the story as an attachment. Deadline August 1, 2011.
* * *
Fairies can come in all shapes and sizes: strong and sexy alpha fae, or flirty, giggly pixies. Ravenous Romance is looking for otherworldly erotica for a short-story anthology featuring fairies. M/F, M/M, F/F, and ménage short stories welcome. Submit your stories to acquisitions editor Jennifer Safrey at jen@ravenousromance.com. Please include a short query letter in the body of the email and the story as an attachment. Deadline July 5, 2011.
Stories should run between 2,500 and 5,000 words.
Samhain Superheroes
It’s up, up and away we go, to a world of superheroes and supervillains, where heroes and/or heroines with special abilities and crime-fighting prowess protect the public…and fall in love.
I’m very happy to announce an open call for submissions for a new, yet-to-be-titled spring 2012 superhero romance anthology. For more information on what I’m looking for when I ask for superhero stories, check out these entries on wikipedia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superhero
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superhero_fiction
I’m open to M/F, M/M, F/F, or multiples thereof, any sexual heat level, and the romance must end happily ever after or happy for now.
The novellas must range between 25,000 to 30,000 words in length, no more, no less—please note, only manuscripts that fall in this word count will be considered for this anthology—and will be released individually as ebooks in spring 2012 and in print approximately one year later.
Submissions are open to all authors, published with Samhain or aspiring to be published with Samhain. All submissions must be new material—previously published submissions will not be considered. Additionally, manuscripts previously submitted, whether individually or for past anthologies, will not be considered either. Be aware that manuscripts submitted to this anthology cannot be resubmitted at a later date unless by invitation from an editor.
Please note: fanfiction of popular, trademarked and copyrighted superheroes will not be considered. Only original works please.
To submit a manuscript for consideration, please include :
The full manuscript (of 25,000 to 30,000 words) with a comprehensive 2-5 page synopsis. Also include a letter of introduction/query letter. Full manuscripts are required for this as it is a special project.
As well, when you send your manuscript, be sure to use the naming convention Superhero_Title_MS and Superhero_Title_Synopsis. This will ensure that your submission doesn’t get missed in the many submissions we receive, and makes it easy for me to find in my e-reader.
Submissions are open until September 1, 2011. No submissions will be accepted after this date—no exceptions.
http://www.samhainpublishing.com/special-calls/
Ellora’s Cave Love Letters
~ Story length 18K – 45K words.
~ Any genres, settings.
~ Must use the theme as a primary story element.
Submission deadlines are firm. Earlier is preferred.
LOVE LETTERS
Theme is love letters, cards, diaries.
Stories will release in January/February 2012 (in time for Valentine’s Day).
Submission deadline is August 31, 2011.
Send a professional cover email, a detailed synopsis (2 to 5 pages describing setting and main characters and outlining full plot, including resolution), the first three chapters and the final chapter of your manuscript via email as an attached file (doc or rtf format) to Submissions@ellorascave.com. Note: We are an e-publisher and all our work is done electronically; we do not accept paper submissions.   
Compiled by Louisa Bacio
Bacio’s new erotic paranormal The Vampire, The Witch & The Werewolf: A New Orleans Threesome is now available. Visit her at http://www.louisabacio.com.

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Breaking Things Down Into Threes

June 26, 2011 by in category Archives tagged as , , , ,

With  Beth Daniels aka Beth Henderson, J.B. Dane

Date: July 11 – August 6, 2011 this is a four week class
Cost: $20 for OCC members, $30 for non-OCC members
Enrollment Deadline: July 9, 2011
If you have specific questions, email occrwaonlineclass@yahoo.com

About the Class:
Plots require organization – even those written by Pantsers. Why? Because all storytelling requires a flow, a smooth transition from one scene to the next. Getting it doesn’t require an outline though. All it requires is a system. A system of breaking everything down into thirds.

Three is a magic number. It’s used in art, music, interior design, and in literature. After all, doesn’t every story have a Beginning, a Middle, and an End? Three things.

But we need to go further. Need to section the various elements of our storylines into smaller and smaller divisions of three. Many have already have done this in writing essays at school, or in a public speaking class. Opening either a essay or a speech by telling the audience

  1. here’s what has occurred before and what we need to change, 
  2.  here is how we can change it or why we should change it, and
  3.  the problem is this because of this and that and we need to do this to correct it.

Storylines in fiction do exactly the same thing, they simply use characterization, action and reaction to move along. Scenes can be broken down into threes; chapters can; POVs can. And in thinking by threes to create each tale, each element of a tale, story flow results.

Participants should have a work in progress, but it can be in any state of development – thinking about, early chapters, middle, or heading toward the conclusion. Thinking by threes works at any level, including editing. It can also help identify things that aren’t really needed in the book, the sort of things editors delete.

This class is for writers at any point in their writing career from unpublished to midlist.

About the Instructor:

Beth Daniels currently writes as Beth Henderson and J.B. Dane, though she answered to Lisa Dane and Beth Cruise in the past as well. She has worked with editors at Berkley, Zebra, Leisure, Harlequin/Silhouette, and Simon and Schuster’s Aladdin Paperbacks, done e-books for a now defunct company (not her fault, she says), and began her writing life with hardcover books slated for library use with a publisher that got out of the romance business (again, not her fault). More recently she’s had a number of articles about writing picked up by e-zines, saw a short story published in a mystery and suspense magazine that turned up its toes the next year (really, really not her fault), and has a story in the MOTHER GOOSE IS DEAD anthology slated for publication by Dragon Moon Press in 2011.

For over a dozen years Beth taught college level composition, both in the classroom and online, and a credit course on Novel Writing. Twenty-six of Beth’s manuscripts have appeared in print or e-book format, and in 12 different languages in over 20 countries. At the moment she is working on various manuscripts, some fiction, some non-fiction but related to writing.

She is a member of Romance Writers of America, and an active member and volunteer with the Kiss of Death Online romantic suspense chapter, and a fixture at SavvyAuthors.com.

Website: www.RomanceAndMystery.com 

Breaking Things Down into Threes with  Beth Daniels aka Beth Henderson, J.B. Dane
Date: July 11 – August 6, 2011 this is a four week class
Cost: $20 for OCC members, $30 for non-OCC members
Enrollment Information: http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclassJuly11.html
Enrollment Deadline: July 9, 2011
If you have specific questions, email occrwaonlineclass@yahoo.com
*******************************
Upcoming classes:

August 15 – August 28, 2011

Writing from the Male Point of View to Create Stronger Heroes with Sascha Illyvich

September 12 – October 8, 2011

Show and Tell: An Interactive Workshop with Shannon Donnelly

Check out our full list of workshops.  http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclasses.html

Want to be notified personally two weeks before each class? Be sure you’re
signed up for our Online Class Notices Yahoo Group!  Sign up at the bottom of http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclasses.html or send a blank email to OCCRWAOnlineClassNotices-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

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Drink Local – Thoughts on trends by Isabel Swift

June 24, 2011 by in category From Isabel Swift tagged as ,

Finally, I can be trendy!

When I’m at a restaurant and the waiter arrives and asks…”Would you prefer sparkling or still mineral water?” I no longer have to be branded as a plebian, one of the unwashed, uncultured and/or possibly just cheap types, as I have in the past (responding with the low-brow…”Actually, tap water is fine, thank you.”)

Now I can say, “Thank you, but I prefer local water.”

I can even give them the hairy eyeball for suggesting any right thinking human would insist on importing their water, complete with non-bio-degradable plastic or costly glass not to mention the diesel/gas costs for lugging the tonnage from whatever pure-sounding, exotic, or just plain expensively packaged product to my table.

I mean really! When fresh, local water is available (free of charge, I might add) bubbling from a tap RIGHT THERE in the restaurant. Their own private and locally grown pipe-fed spring. It doesn’t get much more local than that!

And filled with locally grown minerals and other nutrients, each local water has its own individual and unique bouquet. That’s what local is all about, isn’t it?

(Add in as much of the rest of the pro-local verbiage as you choose).

Take my word for it, you are definitely on the moral high ground here.

Drink up!

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Writing for Two Publishers

June 23, 2011 by in category Archives tagged as , ,
Available now 

by Charlotte Carter

For a working author it’s often a good idea to write for two different publishers. In my case I write for Guideposts Books and Love Inspired Romance. That gives me an opportunity to write more books and earn more money per year than I might with one publisher, which is generally a good thing.
Here comes the ‘but’ —
Apparently there is some universal rule that when you’re writing for two different publishers, the two editors (who probably don’t even know each other) conspire to request revisions the same week. That’s right. All at once you’ve got two revision letters and week to revise two books. Ack!
To compound the problem, the two editors are now on the same schedule to send you the copy edited version of their respective manuscripts a couple of weeks later.
By the time you finish that double process, it’s a miracle if you haven’t accidently slipped Daniel, the hero from book A, into book B as the local pharmacist.
This phenomena closely resembles my husband’s frequent complaint that every time he starts to back the car out of the driveway, an entire parade of cars arrive to thwart his efforts.
I like writing cozy mystery continuities for Guideposts Books. (Watch for a new Secrets of Mary’s Bookshop series coming out in early 2012; I’m writing book #3, Reading the Clues.)
Writing for Love Inspired Romance gives me a chance to tell my own stories, and that’s important to me. (Big Sky Family is a November 2011 release.)
Now, if I could just manage to keep the editors on alternate schedules, I’d be all set.
Happy writing—
Charlotte Carter writes
  books that leave you smiling 
 Big Sky Reunion, Love Inspired, available now
 Big Sky Family,  Love Inspired, 11/2011
 New Beginnings,  Guideposts Books, 9/2011
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