One More Day until Mystery Agent Day!

March is tomorrow. 

And a new month means one thing...The Mystery Agent Contest! *throws streamers* I can promise you that a fantastic agent is waiting to read your pitches. 

Amparo posted the details on Monday, but I wanted to leave them up today to remind everyone (and those who may not have seen it yet) of the genres Mystery Agent is (as isn't) looking for.

What the mystery Agent is looking for: 

YA contemporary/realistic fiction

YA sci-fi or light fantasy (nothing "epic")

Adult literary fiction

Magical realism (YA or adult)

Dark mystery (psychological or ghostly--nothing with an "amateur sleuth" or cozy mystery)

Literary horror (YA or adult)

And here are projects the Mystery Agent isn't looking for:

Paranormal romance

Picture books/children's books

Genre romance

Nonfiction

Anything else you don't see in the Not Looking For list is fine, though. So get those one-sentence pitches ready. 

Remember: the prize is a full manuscript request. Please, please, please make sure the manuscript you are pitching is completed. 

Hope to see you tomorrow. 

Note: to those of you who entered our February Mystery Agent Contest, don't worry! The results are on their way. They will be posted them as soon as we get them. :)

March Mystery Agent Contest DETAILS :)

Note: to those of you who entered our February Mystery Agent Contest, don't fret! The results are on their way. I'll post them as soon as I get them :)

Now. March is right around the corner. Which means a brand new Mystery Agent!! *dances* Since the contest will go live this Thursday, I figured I'd let y'all know what our Mystery Agent is clamoring for in ze slush pile. 

Here are the genres our Mystery Agent is looking for:

YA contemporary/realistic fiction

YA sci-fi or light fantasy (nothing "epic")

Adult literary fiction

Magical realism (YA or adult)

Dark mystery (psychological or ghostly--nothing with an "amateur sleuth" or cozy mystery)

Literary horror (YA or adult)

And these are projects the Mystery Agent isn't looking for:

Paranormal romance

Picture books/children's books

Genre romance

Nonfiction

Anything not specified in the Not Looking For is fine, though. And remember: the prize is a full manuscript request, so yeah, I'd enter this baby if I were you. Make sure you come back on Thursday, March 1st for the contest!

If you have any questions, feel free to either leave them in the comments, or email us at OperationAwesome6@gmail.com!

Happy Monday!

Do You Read Nonfiction for Writers?

If you look at my bookshelf, it is crowded with books about writing, from our own Michelle's McLean's witty and charming Essays and Term Papers...

The best book on essay writing. You'll actually ENJOY reading it!

...to how-to books more geared toward novelists specifically, like Hooked...

Goodreads

...and...

Goodreads

 ...and...

Goodreads

...and...

Goodreads

...and MANY, many more.

Full disclosure: I have not read each of these in their entirety. Perhaps if I had, I'd be the next Beth Revis or Suzanne Collins. But alas, I can only get a few chapters into one of these inspiring books before the temptation to just start writing becomes too strong to suppress. 

Without fail, a dip into one of these books gets me impatient to try something. Beyond the great tips, these books offer something else -- fellowship. The authors are writers, and they're funny, witty, and creative in the way they present their nonfiction about fiction. 

Do you read nonfiction for writers? Can you get through a whole how-to book without getting distracted by your muse? 

What are your favorites?

You Tell Me....

What are some of your favorite organizational tools for writing? 

I always get a little giddy when I get new office supplies. Notebooks, gel pens, push pins, file boxes, paper clips *happy sigh* And they've got the CUTEST stuff nowadays! I'm also a fan of spread sheets, lists, and outlines and am hoping the Easter Bunny brings me Scrivener this year :D

What sorts of things do you have in your arsenal?

Starting a New Writing Project is Like...

• Stepping off a step that's an inch higher than you expected.
• Buying a new shiny something that somehow makes your life feel complete.
• Finding out your husband/wife didn't finish off the last of the ice cream and there are maraschino cherries to boot!

• The night before summer camp when your bags are packed and now you just have to anticipate.
• Walking into a really cool natural rock cavity (aka cave), and realizing it might actually be somebody's home...
• Starting a new recipe that got amazing reviews. 

You can guess what is on my mind. Food, shopping, and a shiny new idea. So basically the usual. :) 

For me, the start of a new project is both scary and exciting. I'm giddy about the prospects, but worried I'll mess it up or get lost in the woods somewhere. 

You're all writers! What brilliant metaphor can you add to my silly list above? 

Starting a new writing project is like...

Take the wheel, blog buddies!

Never Give Up. Never Surrender.

"You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence."

Octavia Butler

Writing is hard. If anyone says anything different then I want what they're having. *grins* But, despite the (occasional) hard moments, you write. You make the time to sit at the computer to type those words day after day. You edit, rewrite, query and go through the rainbow of emotions that accompany it. 

You smile at requests. You file away the rejections. You shelve manuscripts you love. You write scenes and dialogue on scraps of paper/cereal boxes/text messages. You balance your real life with your fictional ones. You write. You persist. And that is the important thing. 

Never give up. Never surrender. 

You are a writer.  

Stuck in the Muck--Editing Tip

If you have't noticed, the Tuesday spot on the OA blog has been void of posts as of late. Recently, I've been given a great opportunity for my fantasy novel, which now sticks me in the muck of editing. Once I'm able, I'll share with you all more about the opportunity and let you know the outcome.

This opportunity also includes me revising my novel, including changing the POV from 1st to 3rd. (Sigh). As I've been going though the manuscript, doing other edits as well as changing the POV, I've notice key words bogging down the writing. So after I complete each chapter, I do a find/search function and go though each of these words.

look
pain
that
felt
just
feel
think
thought
was
down
up
back
around
out
had
only
ever
for
about

I was very generous with the use of directional words. Instead of saying "he sat" I would often put "he sat down."  The word down is unnecessary and slows down the prose. Same way if I said "he looked up to the sky."  The sky IS up, so why would I need to add the directional tag? I don't. "He looked to the sky" is just as effective (and lowers the unnecessary wordage).

Another thing that I did was having everyone looking. He looked. They looked. She looked. She looked at him. He looked at her. You get the idea.

Now, this doesn't mean that you CAN'T use these words. I'm a firm believe that all words have rights. Even  was and had deserve to be used, too. It's the OVERUSE of words that give problems. So I do use the occasional "look" or "up" but took out a bunch when I could.

So what words do you find yourself using a lot? If you made a list, what would it be?

Interview with Jill Hathaway, YA Author of SLIDE!!

Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth—her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered.

Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed “friend” when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body.

Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can’t bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting off lately, more distant, especially now that she’s been spending more time with Zane.

Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again. 

Since Slide is one of my most anticipated reads of 2012, I figured I'd beg ask Jill Hathaway to share her awesomeness on le blog! Luckily, she agreed, and today I'm happy to give you Jill's interview. 

Le interview:

On the book

1) Vee's ability both fascinates and terrifies me! Was there ever a moment while working on SLIDE where you freaked yourself out? 

I got goosebumps when I wrote the scene where Vee slides into the killer standing over Sophie's bloody corpse. 

2) I read on your blog that your ideas usually come to you while driving. How much of SLIDE did you brainstorm in your car? 

Hmmm... Maybe about 50%? I commute to work, so I think about stories A LOT while I'm driving. But about half the story just comes to me while I'm writing. I'm definitely a combo plotter/pantser!

3) You've mentioned watching the super awesome TV show Veronica Mars prior to writing SLIDE. Was the book's mystery element a result of this, or was the show part of your research? 

It definitely wasn't research. I think writers subconsciously draw on a lot of their experiences or things they've read or seen, and I think a lot of the tone came from things like VERONICA MARS and HEATHERS and other shows/movies/books I've enjoyed.

4) YA is no stranger to paranormal stories, but paranormal mystery is making a name for itself. What appeals to you most about the genre? 

I guess I didn't think of the genre while I was writing the story. My first kernel of an idea was a girl somehow finding herself in the head of a killer standing over a dead body, and that naturally led to a mystery. And I needed the paranormal aspect to explain how she got into the killer's head--that's where sliding came in.

On Writing 

1) Pantser or plotter? 

Definitely a combo. I usually have an endpoint or certain scenes in my mind, but I let myself run wild when I'm drafting. It makes for a lot of revising...

2) Revisions. Love them or hate them?

I guess I'm ambivalent. They can be frustrating, but I know they're necessary to craft the best possible book.

3) How much of SLIDE's first draft made it into the final version? 

*laughs* SLIDE was rewritten many times. In fact, the killer changed from the rough draft to the final version. And manymanymany other parts of the story changed, as well. It's enough to make me want to outline, but I find it difficult to do at the beginning of the process. 

4) You have an awesome series on your blog called Query Makeover! Since you were so generous in helping other writers with their queries, and since you're repped by the wonderful Sarah Davies of Greenhouse Literary Agency, I was wondering if you could tell us about your process of nabbing Sarah's attention. Did you query her? If so, was there anything that helped you craft The Best Query Possible? 

Sarah fished me out of the slush. The main thing I tried to do in my query is hook the reader, just as you would with the blurb on the back of a book. You have to make the agent want to read more. Same thing with the first five pages, which a lot of agents request now.

5) What's your #1 piece of advice for querying authors? 

Make sure your manuscript is in the best shape possible. 

On randomness

1) Favorite TV show/movie: Veronica Mars

2) Favorite candy: Anything Reeses

3) You're stranded on an island by yourself. Which book would you read over and over again? THE SECRET HISTORY by Donna Tartt

4) If you weren't a writer, you would be... a teacher! Which I am. So... Yeah. :)

A HUGE thanks to the wonderful Jill for stopping by OA today!!! Make sure you pick up your copy of Slide on March 27th, and go follow Jill's blog, her Twitter and Facebook!! 

Sharing the Booklove: Dies Irae and Lacrimosa

Check out these pretties...

Christine is over at my blog today guest blogging about writing gothic and thriller subgenres!

Praise for her books:

“Dies Irae is the perfect introduction to Christine Fonseca’s Requiem series. The beauty of the words will tempt you, the tragedy of the story will break you, and the love, woven throughout like music through the trees, will haunt you for days afterward. Dies Irae promises a tale unlike any you’ve read before.”

~Ali Cross, Author of BECOME

"LACRIMOSA reaches out, grabs readers by the heart, and takes them on an emotional journey from the first page to the last. The last novel you'll need to read to understand true sacrifice." - Elana Johnson, Author of POSSESSION 

If you've read Elana J's POSSESSION, it makes her statement all the more impressive, as she's an author whose characters know about true sacrifice. 

Do you read fiction with a thriller/gothic bent? What's your all-time fave?

Things That Make Me Go WOW...and Grab a Pen

Okay, bear with me through the fangirl gushing for a paragraph or two - I promise there is writing related stuff coming :D

Has anyone seen that Sherlock series on PBS (or BBC depending on what side of the pond you live :) It comes on right after Downton Abbey)? Like Downton Abbey, I resisted watching it despite glowing reviews from my friends. And like Downton Abbey, once I saw one episode I was completely hooked and found a way to watch ALL the episodes, seasons 1 and 2. And I'm completely bummed I have to wait until next year (most likely) for season 3.

The show is, simply put, brilliant. There are so many twists and turns - and not just regular twists and turns, but COOL twists and turns. The situations are serious, the dialogue is awesome, and the characters make me laugh and sometimes cry.

When I watch something like this, I sometimes sit back and just think, "Man! I wish I could write like that!" It makes me want to pull out my WIPs and rewrite them, or add to them, or just amp them up in a million different ways. It makes me think harder about the twists I put in my own stories. It makes me try harder to be more original, to surprise my readers more, to make them care more about my characters.

The hubs will sometimes ask me why I'm watching shows like this instead of writing. I do it because of all the reasons above. Sure, it's an enjoyable way to procrastinate :) But it's also a wonderful inspiration and motivation to make my own writing BETTER.

Have you ever watched anything that just made you think - Oooo that makes me want to be BETTER?

I Spy a Series

Lets take a trip to a wonderful place. A place where adventures are within our fingertips. A place where all you have to do is crack open the cover and you can be anywhere. A place called the bookstore.

Browsing the shelves (and later my own bookcases) I discovered that most of the books are part of a series.

Here are a few examples:

• Harry Potter (7 books)
• The Mortal Instruments (4 books and counting)
• The Hex Hall series (2 books and 1 to go)
• Vampire Academy (6 books, 1 spin-off series)
• The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay 
• Shiver, Linger, Forever. 
• Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn.
• Inkheart, Inkspell, Inkdeath.
• The Sookie Stackhouse series (9 books so far)

Why so many? Some books begin life with the best intentions of being a stand alone title. But as the story unfolds, the characters revealed, darker layers and wider narratives open up making it impossible to tell the full saga in 300/400 pages. A sequel (or series) is born.

Some books are plotted with the intentions of being a series, like The Immortals by Alyson Noel.

It doesn't seem to bother readers if there are two, three, or even perhaps seven books in a series. And there's something comforting about settling down to read a book with a character you know. If we enjoy it then we get involved and have to read on. Sometimes we don't. I'm sure there are people who didn't enjoy/couldn't finish some of the books I've mentioned. 

But how do we look on this as writers? We're told to write stand alone books where we can. Pitch one book. But why are we told to query our books as stand alone when it seems like every book out there has a larger story arc to tell?

Confusion.

But this doesn't seem to put off agents or publishers from signing books with series potential. So I say write the story you want to write. Stand alone, sequel, trilogy or series. Because it only takes one agent to fall in love with your book. And then one publisher. And if it's the right idea, the right story, your series could be up there with the others.

What do you think? 

Query Workshop: Comparative Titles

So. Queries. Scary stuff, right? *nods*

I've been thinking about them a lot these past couple of days. If you're an unpubbed writer seeking an agent/editor, you know how stressful writing a query can be. Some say it's even more stressful than writing the freakin' manuscript. Well, no worries! I am here today to offer a bit of help. In today's edition of le Query Workshop, I'd like to talk about something that helps agents/editors place your book within the market: comparative titles.

Here are my tips for choosing the best comp titles for your book:

1) Think of your genre

If you write horror novels, chances are you read published books within that genre. You're familiar with its rules and conventions, as well as the authors who employ them. For your query, I think it's best to use at least one comp title within the horror genre, since your book belongs to the same family. But don't use any horror novel just because: stick to comp titles that handle the elements of your book with the same intensity. If it's a slasher novel, think of a pubbed novel with a slasher in it. Then think of how much slashing there is in that pubbed novel. If it matches the amount of slashing in yours, you have a winner. 

2) Think of your premise

Another way of choosing comp titles is through your premise. You have your horror novel. Let's say it's about a killer clown who eats zombies. Stephen King's It has a killer clown, although he doesn't eat zombies. In this case, I think you can pitch your book in the following way: "My novel can be described as Stephen King's It meets The Walking Dead." Instead of saying readers of so-and-so novels will enjoy it, pitch it as a mash-up of two premises, but make sure those premises are similar to yours.  

3) Think of your audience

Let's say you wrote that horror novel with a killer clown who eats zombies. But the main character's voice isn't uber-serious and creeptastic. It's more on the funny side, despite the horrible things happening to him/her. Your intended readers, who are fans of funny and creepy, won't pick it up if you pitch it as Stephen King's It meets The Walking Dead, will they? In this case, I'd say you have to find: 1) comp titles within the same genre, 2) comp titles with a similar premise, and 3) comp titles aimed at the same audience (depends on the MC's voice/your writing style). For example, I'd pitch your ms as such: "My novel can be described as Stephen King's It meets Zombieland." The former fits the 1st and 2nd requirement, while the latter fits the 3rd. Not only does this help you and your agent/editor market your book, but your target audience will have an easier time discovering your awesomeness!

So. Comp titles. Choose 'em well, folks. Choose 'em well. 

Also, if any of you are traumatized with Stephen King's It as much as I am, I apologize. *shudders*

If you have any questions regarding comp titles, or would like to share your awesome wisdom, please leave them in the comments! 

Happy Monday, and happy querying! :)

And the winner....

of Christine Fonseca's DIES IRAE is.....

Marthapao!!!

Send me an email at authormichellemclean (at) yahoo (dot) com with your email address and format preference (pdf, Nook, or Kindle) and I'll get your two copies of DIES IRAE sent over!!

Congrats!! If you'd like more chances to win a copy, head to Christine's blog for deets on her blog tour or you can purchase the book at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Cover Reveal: BREATHLESS by Cole Gibsen

My awesome friend, Cole Gibsen, has an exciting month coming up in March. She has not one, but TWO books coming out. Today, at Operation Awesome, we get to share in that excitment by revealing on of those covers to you all. Here is the cover for her upcoming book, BREATHLESS. You can read an excerpt on her publisher's website here.

Obituary-reading emo girl Edith Small is broken - the end result of forcing herself inside a mold that doesn't fit. All she wants is to conform to her strict sergeant stepfather's rules long enough to make it to graduation day. But a boat accident threatens to unravel the life Edith has worked so hard to keep. After waking up in a hospital with a lacerated shoulder, Edith fakes amnesia. Because admitting she received her injuries from a blue-haired girl who breathes underwater is all the reason Sir needs to send Edith on the first bus to military school.

Safe at home, Edith struggles to put the nightmare behind her. But the mysterious creatures that live in the ocean aren't about to let her forget. After meeting Bastin - a strange boy with silver hair and black eyes - on a secluded dock, Edith learns about the war raging undersea to end human existence. A war that Edith, unwittingly, has become the key to winning.

In a world where death is an ever-present shadow and motives are as dark as the bottom of the ocean, Edith must decide if her life is worth risking for a love that can't survive past the shore. 

Release Date: March 27^th, 2012
Publisher: Crescent Moon Press

GIVEAWAY!!!

My wonderful friend and crit partner, Christine Fonseca, is celebrating the release of her novella DIES IRAE. This book launches her amazing Requiem series (LACRIMOSA, the first book in the series, will be out 3/21/12). Here's a teaser:

Some sacrifices should never be made—even for love.


Mikayel lives by one rule—obey the orders of the angelic Council at all costs. But when he and his friends, Azza and Demi, are sent to Earth as teenagers, following the rules is more difficult than they expected.
Being human isn’t the only problem facing the three angels. Unbeknownst to the Council, demonic activity is on the rise, threatening to break a tenuous peace that has existed for a millennia.


Caught in a struggle for power with unseen demonic forces, and fighting against his rising emotional, Mikayel must now decide how many rules he is willing to break to save his friends, a decision that could reignite an ancient war and will threaten the only thing that matters to the angels, the survival of humanity.


So, to help her celebrate, we are giving away not one, but TWO, copies to one lucky commenter. One copy for you, and one to give away to the person of your choice :D (your choice of pdf, Nookbook, or Kindle).

To enter, just leave a comment below. Winner will be announced Saturday. Good luck everyone and congrats Christine!!!

And here's a sneak peek of LACRIMOSA :)

As if casting out demons isn’t hard enough, five-hundred-year-old Nesy has to masquerade as a teenage girl to do it. Nesy is the best of the warrior angels called Sentinals. She never makes mistakes, never hesitates, never gets emotionally involved. Until she meets Aydan.


He is evil incarnate; a fallen angel that feeds off the souls of others. Everything Nesy is supposed to hate. But she can’t, because he’s also the love of her former life as a human girl—a life that ended too soon, tying her to emotions she was never supposed to feel.


Now Nesy must choose between doing her duty—damning Aydan to the fiery depths of hell—or saving him, and condemning herself.

About Christine Fonseca

School psychologist by day, critically acclaimed YA and nonfiction author by night, Christine Fonseca believes that writing is a great way to explore humanity. Her debut YA Gothic series, The Requiem Series, including DIES IRAE and LACRIMOSA, examines the role of redemption, sacrifice and love. When she’s not writing or spending time with her family, she can be sipping too many skinny vanilla lattes at her favorite coffee house or playing around on Facebook and Twitter. Catch her daily thoughts about writing and life on her blog.

DIES IRAE can be found on Amazon, and Barnes & Noble

February Mystery Agent CONTEST!!

The contest is now closed. Thank you all for entering. GOOD LUCK! 

Welcome to our February Mystery Agent contest!!! If you haven't read our Mystery Agent's wish list, please go read it NOW. 

Without further ado, here are the rules:

1) Entries must be left in the comments section of today's post (do not email us your entries! You won't be entered in the contest if you do so).

2) You must have a completed manuscript that's ready to send upon request.

3) You can only pitch once today (only one project). If you participated in previous MA contests, you may enter this one as well (no worries!).

4) Please include TITLE and GENRE along with your pitch.

5) Your pitch must be one sentence long. The exact word count is up to you, but remember: stick to the point! 

6) The contest will close once we receive 50 entries. 

7) The winner will receive a FULL manuscript request! Our Mystery Agent may or may not choose runners up as well, but it's totally up to them.

Now go forth, my pitching friends!! Best of luck to all who enter!! :)

February Mystery Agent DETAILS :)

So. We here at OA are hosting our monthly Mystery Agent contest this Wednesday, February 1st. 

*dances all over the place*

In order to get y'all prepped for the contest, I thought I'd give you our Mystery Agent's genre preferences a little earlier. That way, you'll know if our MA will jump at the chance to read your manuscript! 

These are the genres our MA is dying to see in ze slush pile:

Picture books

Middle grade fiction

YA fiction

Historical fiction

Literary women's fiction

Smart/funny/snarky literary fiction (think Christopher Moore Chuck Palahniuk)

Narrative nonfiction--heavy on the narrative

And these are the genres our MA *doesn't* want to see:

Paranormal romance

Straight romance:

• Not interested in contemporary romance unless it's very literary and quirky. No modern-Harlequin titles, like the whole P.I.-falls-in-love-with-the-woman-who-hired-him angle. 
• Our Mystery Agent loves historical fiction and would consider a romance with an interesting historical setting.

Genre sci-fi

Genre mystery

High fantasy

There you have it!!! Make sure to stop by this Wednesday so you can have a shot at a full request!! 

Happy Monday!

The Idea File

It's said that ideas are a dime a dozen. I disagree. No one's paying me for them, but my story ideas are gold to me. I treasure my idea file almost much as my novel drafts.

My idea file has a few forms. It includes three partly outlined novels, a few paragraph-length summaries, a line or two each in individual Word docs, one long list of story ideas, a few snippets, a paragraph here or there. A few years ago it had nothing. Then when I finally started writing a novel, I had more novel plots than I could write. Then a few years later, a wrote a picture book. Now, thanks to Tara Lazar's Picture Book Idea Month, I have a couple drafts and a lot more ideas.

Often I review my idea file before a walk or drive so I can turn a premise over in my mind, transforming an idea into a story. Almost everything in that file (well, except a couple make-weights from PiBoIdMo, if I'm honest) seems tantalizingly viable. I just need the time, skill, and creativity to do those ideas justice ... someday.

So a dime a dozen? No way. I insist on the traditional penny-per-thought rate. Unless you have a 20 percent off Groupon, and then a dime will do.

How do you keep track of your ideas? Are you a one-at-a-time writer, or do you have a vault full of SNIs?

And get your pitches ready -- New Mystery Agent contest beginning on Wednesday, February 1!

Need inspiration? Read the i swim for oceans interview with Operation Awesome's Angela J. Townsend, author of AMAROK, a unique, dark, thrilling paranormal coming soon from Spencer Hill Press.

Cover reveal: Updated Covers for Possession & Surrender

When the fabulous Elana Johnson announced via Twitter that she had a secret to reveal, I dropped my cookies and jumped at the chance to help her reveal it.

You remember these covers, right?:


Gorgeous, right? Well here's what landed in my inbox from Elana...

First, I present the newly-designed cover for the POSSESSION paperback:

I love (and own) the original cover in hardback, but I think the graduated background colour really compliments the the butterfly in the ice. And did you notice the new tagline?

And here is the hardback cover for SURRENDER:

Again, I think the colour of the background makes the bird in the jar pop.

I'm normally a bit on the fence about cover redesigns. I like my books (especially the ones in a series) to compliment each other when they live on my bookshelves (I know, I'm weird *grins*). But I do love these new covers. Plus the cover backgrounds just happen to be two of my favourite covers. :)

What about you? What do you think about the POSSESSION and SURRENDER covers?

Where Do I Send It?

So you have an unagented short story or novel that you want to submit for publication, but don't know where to look? Here are a few places that currently have submission calls out:

Entangled Publishing - several calls out for anthologies and a couple new lines

Pugalicious Press - looking for historical romance shorts for an anthology

Sourcebooks - they are actively acquiring single-title romances (90k - 100k words) for their Casablanca imprint. They are also seeking YA titles (60k - 90k words) for their Sourcebook Fire imprint

Samhain - They always have calls out and this time they are looking for Horror shorts and novels (12k -100k) and Retro romances

Inkspell Publishing - looking for Fantasy (any sub-genre; urban fantasy, paranormal, YA, historical, etc) (20k - 80k)