6/7/10

Library Activities plus Contests!

I'm still knee deep reading Mythos and scribbling various insulting comments to myself all along the margins, so I don't have much to say about writing process today. Well, except that a writer is his or her own worst critic. Until somebody else gets a chance to criticize.

On another note, I swung by the library with my daughter this evening to get her signed up for the summer reading club and to have her check out the requisite "massive" pile of books. This kid reads at a frightening pace.
She grabbed a mix of middle grade and YA books, like she does, including Matilda, by Roald Dahl, The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale, and The Absolute true diary of a part-time Indian, by Sherman Alexie.

The parking lot was over-full, and I wound up parking quite far away. It turned out there was a book signing and presentation this evening at the Rockaway Township library, for the book you see on the left, by the authors, Eleanor Mason and Patricia White. The line was out the door.
I've seen many books in this series cover our surrounding towns, and now our town finally has its own. Had I realized, I would have picked up a copy, but I think I'll grab one on my next trip to Borders.

On another note, here are some cool contests!

Literary Agent Natalie Fischer will judge a 5-round "Line-by-line" contest for Adventures in Children's Publishing starting Thursday 6/10. Polish up the first sentence of your YA or MG novel and be ready to enter at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday! They're taking the first 50 entries at 8:00 am ET and the first 50 entries at 12:00pm ET. Top prize? A 25-page critique by Natalie Fischer, and more prizes for top placers.

Over at Market My Words, there's an Agent Pitch Contest with Bree Ogden of Martin Literary Management. 1st Prize is a full manuscript submission, 2nd prize is a partial, and 3rd prize is a query critique. Sounds good, no?

Good luck!

4 comments:

Tamara Hart Heiner said...

we signed up my 4yo for the summer reading program a week ago! so fun! how are you doing w/ the submission process?

Jay said...

It is great. My son did it all the way up until he was too old (sniff) to do it. Sub-wise, I've kind of set Midian aside while I try to get Mythos revisions done. :-) Thanks for asking.

Anonymous said...

I leave insulting notes to myself right in my drafts. My crit group laughed at me once because I left notes like ((SHE CAN'T AFFORD AN IPOD, IDIOT!!)) and stuff right there in a draft I sent them for general critique. Still, it helps me remember I need to change things.

BTW, you're not in Rockaway Twp., NJ, are you? If so, I'll chalk that one up to another blogospheric coincidence, 'cause I've lost track of how much work I've done in that area.

Jay said...

Hey there, Simon. Some of the self-editing comments can be really hilarious, can't they? And yes - I am in the Twp. :-) Talk about a coincidence!