Winners of the Novel Description Contest

Last month I held a contest for the best way to describe a novel using other novels, movies or shows. I judged it on accuracy for when I had read the book or how much it made me want to read the book if I hadn't already done so. So here's the winners of the Novel Description Contest:

$30 B&N Gift Voucher:

Name: Vivien
email: deadtossedwaves at gmail dot com
Book: Inside Out by Maria V Snyder
Description: Across the Universe by Beth Revis meets Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Blood Song:

Name: Lexie B.
E-mail: nerdfighterwriter@gmail.com
Book: Before I Fall
Description: Groundhog Day meets Mean Girls.

I'll be in contact with the winners in the next couple of days. Congratulations.

After the Madness Workshop - sign up now!

Brenda Drake, Shelly Walters and Cassandra Marshall recently help a PitchMadness contest where agents got to bid on 60 pitches posted on three blogs.

When reading the PitchMadness entries, they noticed the entries that didn't make it to the agent match was because the first words weren't hooking them. There wasn't a unique element to pull them in, the setting was right but the action was too familiar, or the story started in the wrong place. So they decided to do another workshop focusing solely on the opening page.

And YAtopia (my group blog) jumped in to help, joining Brenda Drake, Shelley Watters and Erica Chapman in critiquing your opening words on the four sites this month. On YAtopia you could get a critique from either myself, Sarah Nicolas, Kelley York or Leigh Fallon.

YAtopia 

Brenda Drake

Shelly Watters

Eric Chapman

 Here how it's going down...

If you want to join in sign up on the linky below. Remember your entry will be placed on the blogs and critiqued not only by us but also by your peers. We're accepting up to 40 60 participants. We'll be critiquing two each per day starting March 26. Depending on the success, we may open another round at a later date. After you sign up on the linky below email your first 250 words of your manuscript (finished or unfinished - any genre) to brendadrakecontests@gmail.com. Again, don't wait. Email your entries right away.

Only the first 40 60 will make it into the workshop, so hurry and sign-up now!

Tribute to inspiring female authors

This is a belated International Women's Day post.

I've been noticing a trend. There are so many inspiring female YA authors out there at the moment, so here's my top five.

1) Beth Revis. Her perseverance inspires me. She had a goal and never gave up, and it resulted in one of the most amazing YA books EVER. Her insights into society and humanities short-comings just astounded me. Then there's Ms Revis' social media presence. She's giving with her fans and takes a stance on topics she feels strongly about.

2) Veronica Roth. Being published at younger-than-most age and then taking everything that goes with that in her stride shows that she is all kinds of awesome. I also admire that she's not afraid to put her Christianity out there, without being preachy in her writing.

3) Tara Moss. Apart from the fact that I really love her writing, both her Mak series and Pandora English series, I admire how active she has been for women's rights. Her role as a Unicef Goodwill ambassador and breastfeeding advocate is inspirational.

4) Emily Rodda. What an amazing Australian author Ms Rodda is! Her Deltora Quest series has made an impact internationally AND has become a cartoon. But what I love about her the most is that she wrote stories that enticed my son to read when he was younger and struggling to find stories that captured his attention.

5) Julie Davies. Ms Davies is not a name that people will know readily. She's been published in a few anthologies in Australia and is working on her first novel. But she was my boss and mentor when I worked for the government. Neither of us knew that the other one wrote. We lost touch after she moved jobs and reconnected recently. She had only recently decided to pursue her writing and I admire her for following her dreams.

So that's my fave inspirational female authors. Who are yours?