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What I'm writing in YEAR OF THE DOG

I just finished writing Year of the Dog ! It had a massive plot hole that I had to fix which turned out to be more work than I expected. Here’s a snippet: “Hey, Auntie Nell.” He wrapped his arms around her, bussing her on the cheek and breathing in pikake flowers and shortbread cookies. And suddenly he was nine years old again, and her solid presence had made his chaotic world stable once more. “What are you doing here?” He usually took her to dinner on Wednesday nights, but today was Tuesday. The edges of her smile faltered a little before brightening right back up again. “What, I can’t visit my nephew?” She angled around him to enter his home. “Is this your new house? Looks lovely.” Which was a blatant lie, because the fixer-upper was barely livable, much less acceptable to a neat-freak like his aunt. She also left four matching pink and purple floral suitcases on the stoop behind her. Only then did Ashwin notice the cab driver standing slightly to the side of the walkway. “Can ...
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Seekerville blog

Captain's Log, Supplemental

I owe a lot to writing contests.

Before I was contracted, I won first place in the Mystery/Suspense/Thriller category of the ACFW Noble Theme contest, which garnered me some fabulous attention from editors and agents.

Partly because of that, I’ve coordinated the ACFW Genesis contest (the Noble Theme was renamed the Genesis the year after I won) for the past two years. 2008 will be my third time coordinating!

I love writing contests—I can’t experience the thrill and anguish of entering, so I coordinate and judge (other contests—not the Genesis, for obvious reasons). I love hearing from entrants, emailing judges, tallying the scoresheets and seeing who finals.

A lot of my friends have finaled and won writing contests, also. Some have gone on to be contracted with publishing houses.

In honor of our love of/obsession with/irrational addiction to writing contests, fourteen of my writer friends and I have started a blog dedicated to contests.

We cover everything from writing craft, tips for savvy contest entering, lists of contests, encouragement and the occasional kick in the pants.

Welcome to Seekerville!

We’ve got a massive 3-month launch party going on. We’ll be giving away books written by our members (including mine, Only Uni, in February), Amazon gift certificates, and critiques of YOUR manuscript excerpt by us, the contest divas.

Head over to Seekerville to find out how to enter and join the party!

P.S. You don’t need to be a writer to enter to win!
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