In writing news, I'm still plugging away at edits and rewrites of the first six chapters in The Council before moving on to finish the second half of the book. It occurred to me that I have very few chapters in my books, but I do have kind of long chapters, usually around 30 pages in length. Is that weird? Oh well, I suppose it's just my style.
With the doctor visit today, I got nowhere near my book, but I do have major writing news to announce today. Yesterday evening, I received an email from Create Space, the company I used to self-publish Awakening of a Guardian. This email informed me about the new 2010 Amazon Breaktrhough Novel Award. It's a writing contest for unpublished or self-published books to be entered in. The Grand Prize is a $15,000 publishing contract with Penguin USA. There are two categories, General Fiction and Young Adult Fiction. I jumped right on the chance to find a major publisher and entered Awakening of a Guardian into the contest.
Now, I'm not foolish enough to think this is an easy shot at a publishing contract. On the contrary, they are accepting 5000 entries in each of those two categories. However, a one in five-thousand chance of winning a contract with a major publisher to me is worthwhile. The downside may be that you can't negotiate the contract at all. You have to take it "as is", but it's a possible contract to publish my first book nationally and really get the attention for it that I think it deserves.
If I can survive the first round, second round, quarterfinals, and semifinals to make it to the finals, I will be begging for everyone I know to go online to Amazon and vote for my book to win. That's the final stage of the contest, a vote by Amazon customers on the top three in each category. Keep your fingers crossed that I make it that far!! I'm excited just to know I've entered and am hoping that I make it at least to the quarterfinals. Apparently, those who make it that far can be evaluated by Penguin USA to see if they would like to offer a publishing contract. That would thrill me just to get that close even!
The music of the moment is on my iTunes "Writing" playlist. The song is "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day off of their American Idiot album. This is a song that I could imagine Cat playing on her stereo in my book Train Wrecks. It just seems like the type of thing she would be attracted to listening to in the frame of mind she's in. I also have to say that I really like this song and have ever since I first heard it on the radio when it first came out. The CD actually belongs to Scarlett, but she wanted to load the music onto her phone so she ripped it onto my laptop and I transferred it from Windows Media Player into iTunes for my own personal use. Scarlett is a big Green Day fan and even has a huge poster of them in her room. Of course, I remember them coming out back in the day when I was still in school! Funny how these things can still be popular when I have a child that age. LOL!
It's tidbit Tuesday, and I'm going to leave you with a fun piece from The Council. This is set at Jackson's house where his mother, Maura, is training Elyssia to develop her Guardian powers. Maura is trying to help Elyssia to learn to multi-task while keeping her focus on her telekinetic powers still. Check it out and feel free to leave comments about what you think!
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Maura had the most amazing abilities to me. She was not only a mind reader, but she instinctively knew what other Geverans’ abilities were, how they worked, and the extent of how strong they could be if proper training was given, which made her a Geveran teacher. She admitted that most Geverans naturally came into their abilities over time, although teaching could hasten that timeframe. However, Guardians often needed training to fully gain control of all the powers they were capable of possessing, which is what brought me to the point of training with her.
“When do you want me to start, Maura?”
“Start whenever you feel ready, El. I don’t want you to feel rushed this first time. I’m asking you to do a lot.”
I cleared my mind of all distractions first and tried mentally preparing for the exercise. Holding my hands in my lap and concentrating carefully, I looked at Jackson and he rose two feet into the air above his chair. After a minute of holding him in place, Maura spoke to me. “So, El, I meant to tell you that I love your beautiful sweater. Where did you get it?”
It was hard to focus on her and hold Jackson still at first, but I found the ability deep within myself and turned to answer her, without dropping Jackson even a fraction of an inch. “I got this for Christmas a few years ago from my parents. It’s a bit stretched out from overuse so I just wear it to hack around when it’s cold outside. It’s not one of my dressier sweaters.”
“Well, I think it’s a very flattering color on you, El. The red complements your dark hair and beautiful green eyes.” She smiled graciously at me. “Okay now, Evander, whenever you’re ready you can jump in and begin a silent conversation with her.”
“Okay.” He looked at me for a second and seemed to be gauging my ability to hold Jackson, talk to Maura, and converse with him as well. You know it wouldn’t really bother me if you dropped him on his head, Elyssia.
“Hey there, Evander! I don’t appreciate the idea that she might drop me during this little exercise. I still can’t believe my own mother would have me put in this position.” He gave her a minor shocked look and crossed his arms in a huff, frowning. I believed he would have put up a fight, but was afraid I would drop him.
Just to give him a hard time, I lifted him several feet higher in the air and flipped him upside down then began laughing loudly as he yelled out obscenities at me.
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