August Contest Winners

Congratulations to our August Contest Winners:

August Winners

Goodie Bags:

Megan K.

Janette H.

Workshop:

Roseanne D.

To be eligible to win, just leave a comment. The more comments, the more chances to win!

SEDUCED BY HISTORY BLOG CONTEST

It’s time to enter the Seduced by History Blog August contest. Check on each blog during the month, look for a contest question, send in your answers to each question in one email to seducedbyhistoryblog@yahoo.com by or on September 5, 2011. IF A BLOG DOESN'T HAVE A QUESTION, SKIP THAT DAY.

Prizes awarded to one lucky winner include: Victoria Gray’s book "Angel in My Arms", "Spirit of the Mountain" package from Paty Jager, Cynthia Owens’ book "Coming Home", a Kansas basket from Renee Scott, Anna Kathryn Lanier’s ebook “Salvation Bride” and gift basket, “Stringing Beads - Musings of a Romance Writer” by Debra K. Maher, Eliza Knight’s ebooks “A Pirate’s Bounty” and “A Lady’s Charade”, Anne Carrole’s book “Return to Wayback,” a 4 gb jump drive, a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card, and more!

All entries must be received by or on Monday, September 5, 2011 to be eligible for the drawing. Please include your mailing address in email. A winner will be chosen from all those eligible on or about September 6, 2011 and contacted by email. Odds of winning will depend on the number of total number of entries received.

Month-long Contest - Lots of Prizes

Seduced by History Blog is hosting a month-long contest in August.  One winner will receive a ‘basketful of goodies.’  All you have to do is check in on each blog during the month, look for a contest question to answer and September 1-5, 2011 send in your answers to seducedbyhistoryblog@yahoo.com.

Prizes award to one lucky winner include:  Victoria Gray’s book "Angel in My Arms",  "Spirit of the Mountain" package from Paty Jager,  Cynthia Owens’ book  "Coming Home",  a Kansas basket from Renee Scott, Anna Kathryn Lanier’s ebook “Salvation Bride and gift basket, “Stringing Beads - Musings of a Romance Writer” by Debra K. Maher, Eliza Knight’s ebooks “A Pirate’s Bounty” and “A Lady’s Charade”,  Anne Carrole’s book “Return to Wayback,” a 4 gb jump drive, a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card, and more!

All entries must be received by midnight Monday, September 5, 2011 to be eligible for the drawing. A winner will be chosen from all those eligible on or about September 6, 2011 and contacted by email.  Odds of winning will depend on the number of total number of entries received.

Workshop Drawing Winner

Congratulations to Alison Bruce, our very first Blog winner for a free HHRW Campus workshop.  Paty will have until December to take the workshop of her choice.

To be eligible for the July workshop drawing, just leave a comment on any July post.

Anna Kathryn Lanier
blog moderator

Why and How to Contest

Why and How to Contest©

Why:
If you read your RWR every month, you know there are a lot of contest out there. But before you enter a contest, you might want to think about what you’ll get out of the experience.

If you have a manuscript or synopsis that you’ve gone over and over (along with your critique group), it’s a good idea to get ‘fresh eyes’ to look at it. Here’s where a contest can help. Make sure you choose a contest that will give you written feed back from multiple judges. Today most contests will have a copy of the judging sheet in advance so you can see what type of comments to expect. Read the score sheet. Carefully.

Some contests only allow unpublished authors. Some contests allow published authors if they haven’t published in a number of years, usually three to five. Some contests allow published authors enter only ms. in sub-genera in which they weren’t previously published. Some contests allow on ms. that haven’t been entered previously.

So be sure to check and double check all the rules and regulations of the contest.

Choose a contest that has a category for your type ms. Check the entry form and rules for every contest that seems likely, then choose the best contest for your needs.

The contest’s ‘fresh eyes’ can find holes in your story that you (or your critique group) might overlook because you are so familiar with the work. If money is no object, you might try out two different opening/hooks to see if one was better received.

I really like synopsis contests, as they generally cost lest money and are shorter. I found this to be a great help with synopsis, as it can help you decide what information to cut (if too long) or punch up the motivation that you know, but the reader didn’t see in the synopsis. I always wanted to make sure my story would hang together before I spent my time and effort to write the complete ms.

If you think your manuscript is pretty good and you have a good chance to win, enter it in a contest where the top judges are editors of the line you are targeting. Just finaling in such a contest gets your ms. to the editor. Then when you write your thank you notes, you can ask if they’d like to see the ms. And even if they don’t buy it, when you thank them for looking, ask if they want to see something else. If they aren't buying now, they will in the future, and they've seen your name and your work. You can always query later.

If you win or place in a national contest, then be sure to mention it in your cover letter to editors and agents.

If you’re already published, there are now plenty of contest for published works.
If your previously published work placed/won in a contest, this might look good if you want to ask for a larger advance, are trying to change lines or houses. And again, if nothing else, placing or winning shows the quality of your work.

How:
Choose a contest that suits your needs. Send for the entry form and rules. Read the rules carefully. Read them again. Make sure you enter your ms. in the correct category.

Check the scores sheet and make any adjustments in your ms. Let me repeat that, check the score sheet and make any adjustment in your ms. If there are scores for the hero, and in your 25 page submission, the hero appears on page 20 -- you're probably not going to get max points for the hero.

For example, in my ms. which has finaled in several contests, I cut out the paragraphs where the Hero finds a cat in the barn - this is important as it foreshadowing and the cat plays in important part later -- however, by cutting this section from the contest entry, it allowed me to fit more page time between the Hero and Heroine in the contest page count.

Make sure you send exactly the material requested, and with the proper postage/envelope for return. And many contest today are on-line, so there is no postage. If it’s an on-line contest, make sure you send your entry to the correct address/category coordinator.

When you get your entry back, be sure to write thank you notes to the judges and contest coordinator. It’s a lot of work, and they deserve your ‘thank you’. You can address you thank you to Judge #whatever and send it to the contest coordinator to be forwarded. Don’t forget the contest coordinator, they deserve a big thank you.

In your thank you note, be sure to mention the title of your entry, so the judge/coordinator can know who said thanks.

Read over all the judges’s comments. Read them again. Did they point out the same problem/areas of concern?

If they liked your ms. - then celebrate. It’s always nice to hear good things about your writing.

If you got negative comments - put them away and do the following steps:

1) Sulk for one day and eat two chocolate bars.

2) Write.

3) A week or so later, get out the comment and read them over again.

See if maybe there are some comments that will help you better your ms. After all, you paid money for their opinion.

I once got back a score of 168 and 68 from two judges, but their comments were almost identical. But that's the way it goes.

My ms. that became Kentucky Green won a contest for unpublished ms. And later in a contest for published books, finaled in Best Historical and Best First Book - winning Best First Book. So contests can be a big help in your writing.

Remember, contest judges are subjective – but then so are agents and editors. This is worth repeating - Remember, contest judges are subjective - but then so are the agents and editors.

Take any comments you think will help your writing and ignore the rest.

Good luck and keep writing.

Scoring Well in Contests

by Ann Lethbridge

I love to read new and talented aspiring writers. The only way for me as a writer to do this is to judge contests. When I judge a manuscript or a synopsis, it is always with the hope I can give a perfect score. I want to give every manuscript the chance to go before an agent or editor. I start each new story with a hopeful heart.

For those of you entering contests, here are some of the things that make me give full marks to an entry.

1. The story starts things happening, (call to action) usually right where everything goes wrong for the main character(s). And in a romance, usually very close to where the hero and heroine first meet. The best stories begin with a rush to the bottom of a very steep hill, that keep me wanting to know what happens next.

• Carriage rides/car rides/plane rides with people thinking or talking about their past, are not action, it is a back-story dump.
• Explaining a world in a paranormal is not action.

2. From the moment I enter the story, I know exactly which character's point of view I am in, what they are thinking, feeling, seeing and doing. The writer is moving me through the character's world as if I am that character. How can I resist marking ten out of ten.

• telling me a character is feisty, isn't nearly as effective as showing her rap an encroaching male over the head with her umbrella.
• a male pov describing a room in detail isn't nearly as effective as having him note mentally that it is all fussy lace, and feminine, and instantly feel as if any chair he sits on will collapse beneath him.

3. The main characters are likeable, or at least one of them. I need to be rooting for someone at the start of the story. If they do something or say something with which I can empathize right away, it shows their state of mind and that they are worthy of my reading time and a good mark.

4. Surprise me. I love to be surprised. A woman dressing as highwayman and riding out at night isn't new. But what if she dresses as the ghost highwayman? Or hires a highwayman to help her? Or... give it a new twist and keep me hooked to a high score.

5. If things are bad at the beginning, and things just get worse, you will get top marks from me. A couple needs to earn their happy ending.

6. If you've kept your characters on stage at any one time to a minimum, the fewer the better, I will be thrilled. I can see your characters deserve full points in all categories, because I know them better than I know anyone else on stage.

• A cast of more than five people in the opening pages is going to confuse me. It can be either the hero and heroine, or perhaps one of them with one other person, even the villain, but the more people you introduce at the beginning the less engaged the reader is with your lead characters. Get rid of anyone in a scene who is not going to be important to the story, now or later. Make them do double duty wherever you can.

7. Worthy villains make chills run down my spine. Make them appear normal, give them hopes and dreams which are not necessarily evil, although they can be, but definitely have them on the wrong side of the angels. Let them have a pet they love. Or a woman they help. They will become all the more real. And will frighten a high mark out of me.

8. Making me believe a characters motivations, will get you top marks from me. If a beleaguered wealthy rake of a bachelor agrees to take on a ward, or visit girl on behalf of an aged aunt, make me believe that man has a good reason to agree instead of refusing as he has always refused in the past.

9. If you make me want to know what happens to the characters when my three chapters are done, I will want to give you a perfect score. Keep me guessing. Small hints about their past, little clues when it fits with the action, that there is more, much more, to this person or persons that I must know. Make the story stay with me. This is probably where that intangible voice thing comes in and sweeps me into awarding that perfect score.

10. If your grammar and spelling is nigh on perfect, it is a wonderful relief to me. I will give you full marks every time. Nigh on perfect means you are allowed a couple of typos, the odd slip in grammar--who isn't? I make them all the time. I never ever mark down on mechanics unless you really need help. Make sure you know what the words you use mean. Malapropisms can let you down.

As you can see, I really really want to give you a perfect score. And while there is so much to writing I could go on for hundreds of points and in a lot more detail, I hope thinking about these will help you achieve close to a perfect score on your next manuscript.

Good luck. Next time I will talk about the perfect synopsis, if you would find it helpful. Let me know.

---

Ann's book
Wicked Rake, Defiant Mistress,
Harlequin Historicals, ISBN 978-0373295920
Will be in stores on May 1
Ann has three other stories out with HMB in 2010
and her alter ego Michele Ann Young's story Remember
will appear in the Mammoth Book of Regencies in August.

First You Walk

It seems we are on the verge of a major change in the art of wordsmithing. What exactly do I mean by wordsmithing? To me it stands for getting ideas from one person to another through the use of words.

The human race has been “wordsmithing” for many thousands of years. Long before there was the written word, we felt the need to share part of ourselves with others. Storytellers kept the past alive by speaking and singing tales of our creation, myths, battles, heroes, and the history of the tribe/family. The tradition is carried on today with storytelling and folksong festivals all over the world.

The next big step (other than the creation of the written word itself) was to keep a permanent record so that if the storyteller got killed in battle, the history would not be lost. Over time many civilizations learned to record history on everything from clay, to stone, to wax, to paper (papyrus was an early form of paper), but by far the masters of bureaucracy, a fancy term for making sure it is recorded, was the Roman Empire. The reason we know so much about Rome today is because they had so much “paper” that no matter how many times the city burned to the ground or was looted by invaders, there was always something written down that didn’t get destroyed.

So the human race toddled along writing things down. Being a scribe was hard work, but at least you had job security, one square meal a day, and a place to sleep. 

Until Mr. Gutenberg came along with his marvelous printing press. We all know what that did to the publishing world. Manuscripts could be mass produced and the rich no longer controlled the distribution of reading material. The middle and even lower classes started to learn to read, realized that they were getting the wrong end of the stick, revolutions and uprisings, pilgrims, Australia…well you get the picture. 

So the human race walked along printing books. Being a publisher eventually grew from being a three or four man operation to investing large sums of money in equipment and hundreds of people to run the equipment, find books to print on the equipment, sell the books you’ve printed and keep track of the whole thing. Until someone invented a CRT and a CPU and put them together to make a computer, which someone turned into a PC/Mac which Bill Gates turned into Microsoft, and Steve Jobs turned into Apple. We all know what happened then.  Laptops, cell phones, smart phones, and finally e-readers.

So now it seems the human race is poised to run. Yet it’s almost as if we are afraid to step away from the starting block. Print Book or e-book? That seems to be the question of the day in the publishing industry. Why not both? As an author, I know I am happy to have as many outlets as possible for my creative endeavors. I love writing e-books and I love writing for print. As a reader, I love being able to have 200 books on my i-phone and I love turning the page of a novel when I’m in bed late at night. So I’m encouraging all publishers to do both. It can only help. Especially in times like these.

Let me know if you prefer one over the other and why.  Or stop by and comment on any of the blogs posted this holiday weekend. I will enter you to win one of three gift cards; a $10 Amazon Gift Card, a $10 Wild Rose Press Gift Card or a $15 Limited Edition Widow’s Peak Visa Gift Card. The winner of the Widow’s Peak Gift card will also be entered in my Super Contest to win one of two art prints. Check out the Super Contest at my blog Never Too Late For Love.

Hanna Rhys Barnes is one of those people with an evenly balanced right and left brain.  She has a BA in English, but recently finished her final year as a high school math teacher.  She loves to cook and was a pastry chef in a former life. A member of RWA’s national organization and of several local chapters, she currently lives and works in Portland, OR. Hanna’s Debut Novel, Widow’s Peak, is due to be released September 23, 2009 from The Wild Rose Press. She is currently working on Book 2 in the series, Kissed By A Rose.

The Month's History and a Few Prizes

What a month! Followers of the Seduced by History Blog have been treated with a treasure chest of historical gems this month. From Egypt to the Wild West, from Tudor England to Medieval Italy. We celebrated Easter and Hunt the Gowk Day, learned the intricacies of writing historicals with heat, and discovered that much of the history we swallow with the popcorn at the movies is, at best, poetic license.

Now it's time to reward 2 faithful followers with something beyond knowledge in our second All-Blog Contest. Once again, I have chosen 2 commenters at random and paired them with 2 bloggers who have volunteered prizes. The winners this month are Kerensa and Stephani Hecht. Congratulations!

April's prizes will be provided by Brenda Wright and Barbara Scott.