By Jenna Petersen

Before an aspiring author is published, one of the things they can do to get feedback and also get their work in front of an editor is to enter contests, which are held by local Romance Writers of America chapters across the country. To enter, the writer sends some amount of money (these are also fundraisers for chapters), three to five copies of the first few chapters of their manuscript and then they wait. Other authors normally judge the preliminary rounds and then finalists are announced. These finalists have their manuscripts sent to romance editors or literary agents, who then rank the winners and occasionally ask to see more of the manuscript.

As you can imagine, these contests, especially ones with prestige, are very popular.

Before I was published, I entered three. I wrote over 10 manuscripts, for 4 years and I entered three. Why? I was never that into the contests, I always worried about too many cooks in my creative kitchen and those things can get expensive. I sold via a query letter that landed me an agent who then sold my work to a publisher. In other words, the old fashioned way.

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Ann Aguirre is the author of Grimspace and its upcoming sequel, Wanderlust.

When Dee [Bam: That would be me] emailed me and asked me to write a blog about writer’s block, I had to say:

“I don’t get writer’s block. I suffer from lazy sometimes, and I’d rather play video games, watch TV or take a nap than do my work. Do you want me to write about that?”

She said yes.

So here we go. First, it should be noted that my opinions and processes apply to me. If you get something of value from this post, awesome. If not, well, you probably weren’t gonna work for the minute and a half it took you to read this anyway, so you found a new way to screw off on the internet. Sweet!

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[Bam: Okay, so I was a little late in announcing the winner. Don’t blame Helenkay, blame me. It was my bad. So my bad. The winner is… Oakling! Email me your info and claim your prize. That is all. Thank you.]

…of Toasty, Gooey Fun!

Have you heard about the Page 99 Rule? I stumbled across it on this blog called Critical Mass. I have no idea how I found it or what I was actually looking for that lead me to this blog post, but there you go. The Critical Mass folks describe the Rule this way: “…skip to page 99, read it, and if the writing or scene grabs you, chances are, it’s worth beginning. If not, toss it.”

You know what happened, right? I dragged out my books - the ones in print and the ones in the editing process - and then I panicked. What if there’s a typo? What if whatever is on the page is stupid? Really, how the heck could anyone tell if they wanted to read something using this method? Seems about as effective as a test where I throw a book up in the air and if it lands face side down, I read it. But I tried anyway…

In my upcoming release, HARD AS NAILS (Brava, July ‘08), page 99 is the last page of the first novella in the anthology. That’s helpful. Since you probably can guess whether or not my hero and heroine have a happy ending without reading the last page, what you’ll read there won’t be a surprise. Whether or not it would convince you to buy the book is a different question…one to which I hope you’ll answer “yes!!”

I then turned to my current release, the one in the bookstores now, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW. You should buy the book whether or not you like page 99, but here it is:
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And the winners are: Brooke #17, WW #28, Julie D #14, Jennybrat #8, and Jambrea #7. You know the drill. Email me and claim your prize!

In honor of the recently released anthology, Eternal Lover featuring Jackie Kessler, Richelle Mead, Hannah Howell, and Lynsay Sands…

You Know You’re A Succubus If…

Your romantic encounters tend to end with your lover:
(A) Unconscious
(B) Damned
(C) Dead

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Behind the creation of Netherworld

I’m celebrating the recent release of my first novel titled Dark Sentinel a paranormal romance. And the launch of my series site Netherworld, the back drop for Dark Sentinel. While Netherworld offers a new romance with every installment it’s a dark, foreboding world. I mixed a little horror and urban fantasy elements into the series.

Sometimes authors have real clear ideas of what’s in store for their characters and worlds. Other times details come more slowly.

Netherworld sparked to life with a whispered word. Redemption. What’s necessary in the process of redeeming? What kind of act would redemption take? This led to my central concept. The forsaken. The forgotten. And with that concept I just knew I wanted a world with multi dimensional layers like that of the Dark-Hunter world of Sherrilyn Kenyon. I wanted a world I could build on and expand as the series unfolded.

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