Linda Nelson

The deadline for the 3^rd annual NHRWA Query Quandary Contest is coming up fast and they are still open for submissions.

I haven’t been in RWA for very long and I’m still trying to put a romance manuscript together at this time. I personally will be passing on the contest this year since I would rather have a finished manuscript to shop than something that has less than 10k words written.

But if anyone else is interested here is the link for you so you can enter this fun contest. http://www.nhrwa.com/contest.html

And the really fun thing about it is that you don’t have to be a RWA member to enter this contest. It is open to anyone who has a query they are thinking about sending out for a Romance novel they have written.

Believe me, if Along Came Neil was done or ¾ of the way done then I would be hopping on and joining this contest.

From what I hear, the queries will be judged and critiqued by editors of several different publishing houses.

Just follow the instructions and maybe your query will be the next winner.

ROW80 Check In:

This week I am taking part in a pre-writing workshop that was offered by YARWA. It is how to research what you need to know about your story before you begin writing it and it also includes writing time management.

I’m into day three now and there has been a lot of great information. Hopefully by this weekend I will be ready to do some serious writing. I mean really serious writing…

I can already see a difference in the way my plot outline is coming together just by the little bit I have put together from the first day of the class.

My word count is now over 7k in fewer than two weeks. To me that is not half bad since Road Salt took me almost six months to write. I really struggled with that story even after having a plot outline all drawn up.

So since Sunday I have written another 1k words which is not half bad since I really haven’t been making a big effort to work on it. I’ve been too busy reading the workshop notes and making my own notes and *sigh* playing video games.

Yup- I confess… It’s video game week.

One has to set time aside to play too.

My big word count days are Saturdays and Sundays anyways.

Stop by our Linky List and check to see how other ROW’ers are doing with their wips. ROW80 Linky List

Yesterday I went to the movies for the first time in months for our Valentine’s Day Getaway. We went to see the new Bruce Willis movie, A Good Day to Die Hard.

It was okay, but it wasn’t as good as some of the other Die Hard movies.

This one had a lot of action just like the others, and they destroyed a lot of really nice cars. But the thing that turned me off the most about the movie was the parts in it where anyone watching it would find themselves saying, “It only happens in the movies.”

Other than that the plot was super simple. If it was a low budget film I would give it top stars but knowing that it probably wasn’t due to the fact that it did star Bruce Willis I have to give it only three stars.

Poor Bruce – He had the lamest lines too. I don’t think this movie did his acting career justice. – Just saying –

ROW80 Check In:

It has been over a week since my last check in. I had to cook the plot some before I could go on with the story.

Now I think I have some sort of idea where the story is going. I really don’t like writing by the seat of my pants but it seems like that is the way this story is taking off.

It will be my first Teen Contemporary Romance, so the plot line is giving me some trouble. I must not be much of a romantic and I have a lot to learn.

I’ve been reading Rachel Gibson’s book – The Trouble With Valentine’s Day and I must say that I really love her writing style. It gives me much to look up too. She just may turn into my secret mentor and I will now need to read every one of her works so I can learn a thing or two from her, even if she does write for adults instead of teens.

My goal will be to try to learn her style and apply it to Teen Contemporary and maybe my fantasies too.

So who ever the secret Santa was that gave me that book – thanks. I’m really enjoying the story and I have found another author I had no idea existed.