Tuesday, May 31, 2011

POETRY SLAM! #5

This month's Poetry Slam suggestion was inspired by the season. Summer! Tell me what you think and leave a suggestion for next month. So here we go!


Summer Dreams

School lets out, scorching heat
Lakes and pools to wade our feet
Barbeques and lazy days
Sun block and mosquito sprays

Fireworks and lots of sports
Bonfire goodies of different sorts
A few short weeks and summer's done
Back to dream of the coming one

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Just a Query Letter. Not scary at all.... Right?

Earlier this week I finished editing my NaNo novel from 2009. (Yay!) I'm excited. Quite. But with the excitement comes apprehension. I've crossed an editing threshold into a new one, the Query Zone. (Oooh...) I've only heard about the Query Zone, never been there myself, but I've heard things. Word searching, hair pulling, almost as bad as writing the book itself! It's the making of the dreaded query letter! (Gasp!)

Ah, the query letter. Such a little piece of paper with so much importance. The letter that sells your book. The letter that will show an agent why your book is going to be perfect for them. The letter that's suppose to make an agent fall so deeply in love with your book that they come beg you to let them represent you. No pressure, right?

Well, yeah, there's a little pressure. This is new territory for me so I'm going to need some help. I know close to nothing about a query letter except for what I researched a little. So I ask you, any suggestions? Have you written a query letter before? Where did you research, a website or a book?

Well, my novel is still no where near ready for being queried so I'll try not to stress about it for now. I'll just sit in the holding area between editing and querying and wait my turn. I believe that place is called revision, right?

PS- Don't forget about the Blog-iversary Giveaway!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The Naming - Alison Croggon

In the classic spirit of epic fantasy comes this glittering saga of a young girl who learns she possesses an uncanny gift—and is destined to use it to save her world from a terrifying evil.
-http://www.alisoncroggon.com

First of all, I want to say that I like this book. If I didn't like it I wouldn't have finished it. With that being said, I almost didn't.

The Naming is a good 400 pages long and it seemed that I hesitated reading some parts of it. The two main characters, Maerad and Cadvan, spend a lot of time traveling. I don't want to say it's boring, but really all that happens in those parts is a description of the area and the weather then something exciting then back to travel and they get where they're going. Now I haven't read the other three books in the series so I'm in no place to say what I think was necessary to put in there or not so I won't go that far.

I will, however, be reading them because it's an excellent plot. I'm stuck wondering what's going to happen next. I want to know what's going to happen to the characters and what kind of trouble they're going to run in to and that's really important for a book.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

BLOG-IVERSARY GIVEAWAY!!!

Next month is the one year anniversary of Scribbles and Shorts!! I thought it would only be appropriate if I had a party for it. :) Consider this your invitation. And what's a party without some goodies? That's why I'm having a giveaway!! This is what I'll be, well, giving away!



A dictionary, thesaurus, notebook, 3 ring pencil holder, pens, mechanical pencils, and highlighters. Basically it's a writer's starter kit. Even if you don't write these are things that you would use pretty often.

Rules in short:
-Be a follower of the blog
-Leave a comment about anything on this post
-Contest closes on June 10th at 12:01am Central time
-Results will be posted on June 11th

Rules in Detial:

So how do you get in on this? Follow the blog and leave a comment here. That's it! It can be about anything. A book I should read or what I should post on the blog. Have fun with it! I'll number the comments (the first is number one, next is two, and so on) then I'll use the random number generator to pick one. I'll close the contest at 12:01am on June 10th Central time, film the generator pick that day, and post the results on June 11th.

So have fun posting your comment! But be quiet, it's a surprise party for the blog so only tell EVERYONE you know. :D