The "Create a Contest" Contest

A little bird reminded me I should be promoting Like a Thief in the Night and letting people know that this red hot futuristic tale of sex, murder, magic and mayhem will be available for sale at Samhain Publishing on January 15, 2008 for the low, low price of $3.50.

But how should I promote the novella? Maybe a contest? I wracked my brain, which took all of 2 seconds, and came up with these ideas:

• The "Guess Bettie's Favorite Color Contest"
• The "Tell Bettie Why You Deserve a Free Book" Contest
• The "Guess How Many Fingers Bettie is Holding Up Behind her Back" Contest.

Maybe I'm not so good at this contest thing. Maybe I used up my one good idea on the Hard Boiled contest. No, wait, I have one more idea: I'll let potential contest entrants make up their own contest.

So, here's the deal. Post your single best idea for a contest in the comments of this post. If I pick that idea, you'll win a free copy of Like a Thief in the Night and I'll hold the contest in February, with a second copy of Like a Thief... as the prize. Entries must be submitted by 6 P.M. Pacific on Monday, January 14, 2008.

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Ultimate Temptation

It's summer. TV's all in reruns, weather outside is broiling--there's nothing to distract me from writing, right? Wrong. My darling SmartAss got a PS3 this weekend. How will I resist the temptation? Even though the game I am desperately looking forward to (John Woo's Stranglehold, starring Chow Yun Fat [squee!]) isn't out yet, our new gizmo upconverts the old PS2 games so prettily. And, who am I kidding, I could stare at the menu for hours. Seventy Days of Sweat just got a whole lot harder.

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Kill Your Darlings

Angela James had an interesting post over on Romancing the Blog yesterday about people who are unable to let go of their unpublished novels.

Because I'm a lazy slob, and because I think the realization I came to while reading that post are my new words to write by, I'm just going to repost the comment I left right here.

That old quote, “Kill your darlings,” is some of the best writing advice ever given. When we fall in love with our books, we lose sight of their flaws. I’ve noticed that the more I love a story I’m writing, the less likely I am to even like it a year later.

A couple years ago, I wrote a story that I adored. My critique group wasn’t so keen on it; nobody seemed to like it but me. I shelved it, ran across it a year later, and realized I had been so enthralled with my own ideas that I’d written an over-detailed, under-plotted, meandering mess.

I still like the world and the characters, though. One of these days, when I’ve sharpened my critical eye to a lethal edge, I’ll haul that story back onto my desktop and gut it like a sacrificial lamb.

I'm starting to think that you can either love writing, or you can love the things you write. If you love writing then you change, you grow, you hone your skills to better practice your craft. If you love what you write, you drag the same manuscript around for years wondering why nobody appreciates your baby the way you do.

So that's my new motto, right after "Kill your darlings," is "Love writing, not what you've written."

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