Tag: Fiction

Pitch madness!

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LipeiArtwork by Hazel Butler

Lipei
Artwork by Hazel Butler

That’s right, folks, I’ve got pitch madness!  What, pray tell, is pitch madness?  Why, it’s a lovely competition run by the lovely Brenda Drake and it’s happening right now! 🙂  Well, kind of.  The submission window was yesterday and the task for those who chose to accept it was to submit a 35-word logline (a pitch) and the first 250 words of their completed novels.  The slush zombies are currently wading through all the submissions and choosing who will advance to the next round.

Unlike during GUTGAA when I was on the edge of my seat, I was slightly more relaxed this time around because there was no entrant cap – everyone who entered during the window got in.  But!  That hasn’t stopped me from second-guessing every bit of my submission ever since I hit send yesterday morning.

I’ve been working over my pitch and my MS quite a bit over the course of the last six months, but that hasn’t stopped me from feeling insecure about the whole big mess, especially since I have a variety of short pitches in the works now.  Do I use one of the ones I created for the #PitMad pitchfest last fall?  Do I use the one I currently have up on authonomy?   Do I use the one-sentence synopsis I spent a whole day trying to draft?

Why I read

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So, what has prompted me to write about my reading motivations?  Well, I’ll tell you!

In addition to being lousy at blogging so far this year, I haven’t been so great at keeping up with Facebook and Twitter, either.  This means I spend a lot of time playing catch-up.  During one of my crazy bursts of catch-up reading, I found the following tweets in my stream:

And I got to thinking: Why do I read?

Castle of Dreams

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Today I had the pleasure of guest posting over on my good friend Andrea Baker’s blog.  She’s been running a series called Castle of Dreams and I’m delighted to participate in it.  My contribution concerns the palace in Lokana, where my book The Lokana Chronicles and my current WIP are set.  It was a whole lot of fun to write.

I hope you’ll head on over and check it out.  While you’re there, have a look at some of the other entries in the series.  Not all are fictitious entries; there are also posts about very real castles, including Kenilworth Castle, which figures prominently in Andrea’s book, Worlds Apart – Leah, recently published by Taylor Street Publishing.

And now, I’m off to bed.  It’s been a long and busy day, full of work and good food and good friends and great family and fun and I am exhausted!  Happy Friday! 🙂

(c) 2013.  All rights reserved.

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So way back in November, my book club had its very first meeting.  The book we were supposed to read was The Perks of Being a Wallflower and I completely forgot to check it out until about a week before the meeting.  Naturally, my local library didn’t have it.  Neither did the one the next town over.  Fortunately, the library where I work had it.  Unfortunately, it was already out.  So, with a week to spare, I asked them to put it on reserve for me and prayed it would come in with enough time for me to read it before my meeting.  Then I headed to Barnes & Noble to see what ridiculous price they wanted to charge for it.  I left the store empty-handed, my hopes of reading the book before the movie crushed even further.

A couple of weeks ago, the library called.  The Perks of Being a Wallflower was in – did I still want it?  Despite the fact that the meeting I’d wanted it for was three months passed, I figured, why not?  I’ve heard great things about it and I’d really like to see the movie, so let’s see what it’s all about. . . behind the cut!

Star Trek and books: A Valentine’s Blog Hop

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blog-hop-tag-3001Well, it’s that time of year again: the stores are full of chocolates, red and pink decorations abound, and if you’re not careful, Cupid might get you with his trusty bow and arrow.  That’s right, Valentine’s Day approacheth!  Joleene Naylor, one of the wonderful members of the Ink Slingers League, is hosting a little blog hop celebrating the loveliest of holidays and the loveliest of pastimes, reading!  Here, then, be my entry for the I ♥ Books Blog Hop! 🙂

Valentine’s Day is not the only special February day in the Kauffman house.  February 10 is a pretty special day, too.  February 10 is the anniversary of my first date with Seymour an unbelievable five years ago.  And February 16 is his birthday, so that’s another special day.  I can hear you all now: What the heck does your first date have to do with Star Trek and Valentine’s Day, let alone books?  Well, if you know us, or if you’ve been reading my rambling scribblings here for long enough, you’ll know that it was Star Trek that brought Seymour and me together (among other things, like small-town curiosity (okay, fine, small-town nosiness)).

On our first date at the local pizza joint, we ran into my kindergarten teacher, who stopped to chat.

The Rose and other tidbits

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rose

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. (Photo credit: alice_ling)

The rose she has gone back to Nature
Her petals on the grass by her mother tree lay
But memories of her blooming in the sunshine
With me till my own end will stay.

“The Rose,” by Francis Duggan

I hopped on the Alliance thread this morning and found the above waiting for me with a belated birthday wish from the Dreamcatcher.  It’s a lovely little poem; you can follow the link to read the rest of it.  A quick Google search revealed that Mr. Duggan is quite prolific and that a lot of his work is available online.  The site I linked to above had nearly 500 pages of his work alone, possibly more.

So what’s new?  I’ve been rubbish at posting since the new year struck.  I’ve been struggling to get into a routine – any routine – this year and I’ve had some other things weighing me down as well.  Hopefully I’ll have all that unpleasantness resolved soon and I can start making progress on the rest of my goals for the year.

Speaking of goals for the year, I’ve passed 40k on my sequel.

Books I want to read this year

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I have an extensive list of books that I would like to read and it seems that my list grows longer every day.  But since I’m keeping track of which books I’ve read through the course of the year, perhaps if I keep track of which books I’d like to read, I might stand a chance of reading a few more of those desired titles.

So, without further ado, here are some of the books I’d like to read this year:

And now, without further ado, a review!

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That’s right, a real, live book review!  It’s been so long since I’ve reviewed a book that I feel like I’m back in high school.  Okay, maybe college.  Actually, that might very well be the last time I gave a proper book review like I’m fixing to give right here.

Yeah, I said “fixing to.”  It happens.

Anyway, my book club met Saturday night and I was unable to make it to the meeting – again – so I decided that, since I couldn’t share my thoughts on the wonderful book we read with my book club ladies, I’d share them all with you! The book we read for January was Defending Jacob by William Landay and, while it was not a book I’d have normally read, I really enjoyed it.

The book follows Assistant District Attorney Andrew Barber as he investigates the murder of a local teenager, one of his son Jacob’s classmates.  When Jacob is later arrested and charged with the crime, Andy’s life falls apart.  As the investigation proceeds, he struggles to hold together his marriage and realizes how little he actually knows his son.  It’s part crime novel, part lit fic, and entirely enjoyable. To find out more, just click here!