Step 1: Write up a blog post about yourself. And link back to the main blog hop page. ^
Step 2: Upload the link address from your blog post to the cool little Linky Widget thingamabob that does the job, and bibbidi bobbidi boo, you'll turn into Cinderella!
Wait, wrong story.
Your blog will get added to the blog hop, which may not be as exciting as riding in a giant pumpkin, but on the plus side, it probably smells better. Your name goes in the "your title" field.
Step 3: Read other hopefuls' blogs, be nice, make friends, have fun! One of the best things that can come out of participating in this kind of contest is the new friends and writing buddies you'll find. Publishing is a tough business. We've got to stick together.
I've been way too busy with life - kids, writing, kids, hobbies, kids (did I mention kids?) - to blog in a looooong time. I wasn't sure if my blog was even still active, it's been so long! Thankfully, it was.
I'm entering an awesome competition called PitchWars, run by the talented Brenda Drake. Full details on the contest here: http://www.brenda-drake.com/pitch-wars/
Basically, published authors volunteer their time and expertise to help aspiring authors polish up a manuscript over the course of two months before pitching it to agents. Authors pick 4 mentors to submit to, and if you're lucky, one of them will pick you to be their mentee.
The manuscript I'm submitting is titled "Once Upon A Typewriter." And unfortunately, I'm having a hard time figuring out whether it's better suited to Young Adult lit or Middle Grade. I think it actually sits smack dab in the middle, at young YA/high MG. If you have an opinion on which category I should mark it as, please comment! Or catch me on Twitter as @bethanyrambles. Because I do ramble. A lot. I've always been way too wordy. OUAT sits at roughly 65k words, for example, and I've been cutting as ruthlessly as I can.
Without further adieu, here's my brief pitch for OUAT:
When Emily sleeps through her senior English final, her teacher sets her a daunting task: write a 30,000 word story in just two weeks or fail the course, and risk losing her college scholarship.
There's just one catch. She has to write her story on an old typewriter Ms. Brigs loans her. And once she starts writing, the characters let her know that they have their own ideas about how their story will end. Will the characters' happy ending cost Emily hers?
Stylistically, it's a story within a story.
The outer story is magical realism, revolving around Emily, her sister Aubrey, and the magic typewriter, and her stress over finishing her assignment in time to save her grade.
The inner story is a lighthearted fantasy quest, with an eclectic cast of characters.
There's the pompous Head Wizard, who's far more confident in his skills than he ought to be.
There's Cassandra, a female blacksmith who gets dragged into the quest against her will.
There's Sir Geoffrey, the best dragon slayer in the kingdom--and quite possibly the stupidest one as well.
Quiet Jeremy follows Sir Geoffrey wherever he goes, to make sure his idiocy doesn't cause trouble.
And then there's Matt, a middle-aged mercenary with a strange phobia or two.
The outer story is magical realism, revolving around Emily, her sister Aubrey, and the magic typewriter, and her stress over finishing her assignment in time to save her grade.
There's the pompous Head Wizard, who's far more confident in his skills than he ought to be.
There's Cassandra, a female blacksmith who gets dragged into the quest against her will.
There's Sir Geoffrey, the best dragon slayer in the kingdom--and quite possibly the stupidest one as well.
Quiet Jeremy follows Sir Geoffrey wherever he goes, to make sure his idiocy doesn't cause trouble.
And then there's Matt, a middle-aged mercenary with a strange phobia or two.
And of course, there's the Wicked Witch Geraldine, the most feared creature in all the kingdom, whose curse began it all.
And this is the blog hop, with my fellow lovely contestants! Check 'em out too!
