Crime Bake!
Once again, the November
conference put on by Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America was
wonderful. Elizabeth George, the guest author, proved to be witty, friendly,
and happy to share her writing knowledge and experience. All the authors made
themselves available and the panels were informative and humorous. The Master
Classes provided up-to-date information on a variety of subjects and made time
for Q and A. It was also a great time to catch up with all those writers I
haven’t seen for a while.
Conference
Opportunities: One of the perks of conferences is pitching your
manuscript. This year, Crime Bake held a pitch slam or the chance to pitch
to multiple agents. What an opportunity. Two agents asked me to send in
partials. Another perk is a manuscript critique. I had an excellent twenty-page
critique with Lucy Burdette, who gave me an in-depth review and a written assessment.
Contests: For the Crime Bake Flash
Words contest, a story having to do with crime, and no more than 150 words with 10 chosen from a list of 20 (ashes, blood, body, careless, consequences, death, deception, edge, enemy, evil, hiding, memory, missing, murder, payment, pursuit, shadows, traitor, vengeance, witness). I was a winner for the fourth year in a row. What an exciting moment, especially sweet after reading all the other excellent submissions. Here is my
winner:
I was at the River’s Edge
Café when he spoke to me—the same chilling words that dogged my nightmares,
“Hey there, sweet thing.”
Memories flooded my
mind. I was thirteen years old, hiding to spy on my sister and her date. She’d
always been careless about boys, and Mom had warned her of the consequences.
That night, payment came due, and I was the witness. From the shadows, I’d listened.
I’d listened as she laughed. I’d listened as she died. Since her death, I’d
thirsted for vengeance.
I blinked and looked
at him. The fire in his eyes almost undid me. His honeyed tongue dripped evil.
“I was just headed outside for a smoke. Care to join me?”
I sucked back the fear
and followed him. Tonight would be different. Tonight I was the one with the
gun and the badge to back it up.
###
I’m beginning the new year on a high note with a Submission. On the heels of Crime Bake,
I sat down and began re-editing my manuscript, Trace of Evil, to send in to a Ghostwoods Books, as they were
accepting submissions until the end of the year. That done, I’m working on a
synopsis for the same book to send to RWA’s Golden Heart contest. Once that is
out (before 1/11/16), I will work on the changes one of the agents suggested in
“Watcher Clan”. Some excellent free writing contests
This is the year! I'm going to be published. All I have to do is keep on writing.
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