But wait!!! I can’t have deflated balloons for a winner announcement! *puffs and puffs and puffs* And now the contest winners – we have balloons again!!! If you recall, my giveaways are one signed copy of Misfit McCabe and one signed copy of Nowhere Feels Like Home and a stellar book bag. And now for the winners!

***drum roll please***

The winners are:

Jewelz
Alicia
PamelaJo

Thunderous applause

Thanks to everyone who participated and helped celebrate the happy day of Carolina’s agent representation. And just think what kind of party we’ll have when she hits the best seller lists.

The post And the Party’s Over appeared first on Be the Cat.

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Happy Agent Representation – Carolina Valdez Miller

Being a writer can be a tough proposition, because along every step of the way you face rejection in multiple forms and most likely multiple times. So, most writers I know love any reason to celebrate, and I’m NO exception. So, because my friend fellow Bling-Babe, Carolina Valdez Miller announced her agent representation today with the fabulous Vickie Motter of Andrea Hurst and Associates Literary Management, join us for the rest of the month in the:

Agent Celebration Mega Giveaway

YOU get to be the winner because Carol is such a sweetheart, her first thought for a celebration was to get a bunch of people involved to give away swag!! How can you beat that? So from today through midnight April 1st (Eastern Time), you have a chance to win one of the fabulous prizes below. The contest winners will be posted on April 4th.

How do you enter? Easy, check out the list of prizes below, click the links (the names) to the site and enter by either filling out a form or posting a comment on the Agent Celebration Mega Giveaway post. And NOW on to the prizes!!

From LK Griffie (Me)

To enter, comment below. Please also click one of the Like buttons in the sidebar

• Winner 1: A signed copy of Misfit McCabe (or ebook) Preview available in the sidebar
• Winner 2: A signed copy of Nowhere Feels Like Home (or ebook) Preview available in the sidebar
• Winner 3: A canvas book bag

Click the picture to view larger version

From Carolina Valdez Miller

• Winner 1: A 1st page critique from agent Vickie Motter!
• Winner 2: A Kindle Wireless Reading Device
• In order to win this one, you will need to follow all the blogs in the giveaway to qualify. **Note** Since this blog does not have the follow buttons, either Like one of the two Facebook pages in the sidebar (or both if you want) or follow @lkgg on Twitter. Please also put a comment on this post so your follow/entry for the Kindle can be confirmed.
• Winner 3: Signed copy of Escaping into the Open: the Art of Writing True by Elizabeth Berg
• Winner 4: Signed Hardback of Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready
• Winner 5: Signed Hardback of Passing Strange by Daniel Waters

From Heather’s Odyssey

• Writers Digest Guide To Query Letters

OR

• The Fire In Fiction by Donald Maass

From Critique Sisters Corner

• 2011 Guide To Literary Agents

OR

• Writing The Breakout Novel by Donald Maass

From J. Koyanagi

(You will need to subscribe or follow her RSS feed)
One winner will win:

• WRITING DOWN THE BONES, by Natalie Goldberg

OR

• HOW NOT TO WRITE A NOVEL, by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman

OR

• GIVE ‘EM WHAT THEY WANT: THE RIGHT WAY TO PITCH YOUR NOVEL TO EDITORS AND AGENTS, by Blythe Camenson and Marshall J. Cook

From Simon Larter

One winner will win all three:

• Stephen King’s ON WRITING
• Ray Bradbury’s ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING
• Anne Lamott’s BIRD BY BIRD

From Sara McClung

One winner will win all three:

• A signed copy of THE DARK DIVINE
• A signed copy of RAISED BY WOLVES
• WRITE GREAT FICTION: PLOT AND STRUCTURE

From Lola Sharp

• A $25 Amazon gift card

From Elizabeth Davis

• A $25 Amazon gift card

From Tracey Neithercott

• A Hardcover of Across the Universe

From Kristen Yard

• A Signed copy of PERSONAL DEMONS by Lisa Desrochers

From Christine Fonseca

(You will need to subscribe to her blog):

• 101 Success Secrets for Gifted Kids: The Ultimate Guide

OR

• A partial Critique

From Jonathon Arntson

• A $15 Barnes and Noble gift card

From Eisley Jacobs

• DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth
• HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins
• THE NAME OF THIS BOOK IS SECRET by Pseudonymous Bosch

From Denise Grover Swank

• ANGELFIRE by Courtney Allison Moulton
• ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS by Stephanie Perkins
• HEX HALL by Rachel Hawkins
• DEMONGLASS by Rachel Hawkins

The post Blog Party Celebration appeared first on Be the Cat.

The odd thing is that prior to writing No Boundaries I had more of an idea of what I wanted the book to be when it grew up than any other I’ve written. I had a more detailed outline. I knew the majority of the characters, there were fewer surprises for me to deal with along the way. It should have made the book easier to write, but it didn’t. Or maybe it did, but I don’t realize how bad things would have been with something else. I’m still struggling with this book, but this time from a different persepctive. Although there are days when I feel like I will NEVER get the editing completed, I know I ultimately will finish this and get it on the shelf.

Now my digging has taken on a different aspect. Before I was frantically trying to dredge up what I could so I didn’t drown in the hole (or get buried alive or any other such drastic thing). Now, I’m still digging through this story… but it is to find the pearls I know are there. At one point through the process of writing No Boundaries I contemplated stopping, calling it quits with this series and announcing that I had been beaten (okay – maybe it was more than once). What stopped me was the story itself. It has value; there is good in there; I just have to clean the mud off. Does this mean because of all the difficulty I had in writing this book that it will not be as good? Absolutely Not!!! This book has a lot that I love, and I can’t imagine Katie’s life without these events. It just means I need to take the extra time to slog through the mud and dig out the pearls.

What are your writing challenges?

The post Writing Challenges appeared first on Be the Cat.

I just finished writing a rough (and I mean very rough) synopsis of No Boundaries and in the middle of it, I realized Good Grief!! I packed a lot of crap stuff in this book!!! Not that having a packed book is a bad thing… it just makes it difficult to summarize.

I thought about how I came to have so much going on in the book. First of all, it’s the third book in the series, and there are story lines that were started in book 1 (Misfit McCabe) which are carried through book 2 (Nowhere Feels Like Home) and into book 3 (No Boundaries). And there are story lines that started in book 2 (Nowhere Feels Like Home) and carried into No Boundaries. So at the beginning of this book, I already had two books worth of story lines to keep track of, plus the new story lines and characters in No Boundaries… no wonder I feel like this one is bursting at the seams. And I still have two books in the series to go.

The other reason why there is so much packed into the book is I like it that way. I do write some serene sections of reflection, but those are generally short and then we move back to more things happening. And on reflection one additional reason for the book to be full of goings-ons. Misfit McCabe was about Katie, Nowhere Feels Like Home is about Katie and her family, so the scope broadens, No Boundaries is about Katie and her relationships at school – an even bigger scope, the next book in the series will be about Katie and the world, and the final book in the series… well it’s a secret for now.

Now I can get back to the job of finishing the edits on No Boundaries so I can launch it and get the next book written.

The post Good Grief, Charlie Brown appeared first on Be the Cat.

Chris has put his life back together and now has The Chris Treece Show back on track, and Chris contacted me to reschedule the show. The show will now go live (barring any additional natural disasters) on September 15, 2010 at 0900 PT (12 noon ET). To call in and chat, please call: (347) 633-9495.

We’ll be talking about Nowhere Feels Like Home, the second book in the Misfit McCabe series. Here’s a snippet of what Nowhere Feels Like Home is about:

Stuck in bed with a broken ankle and reeling from the loss of her father, her home, and life as she knew it, Katie McCabe must deal with her anger toward the town bully and a world that’s fallen apart. Being cooped up in the house with Uncle Charley and three overprotective cousins isn’t helping. Despite her new family’s good intentions, Katie feels like a lonely outsider. Will she ever be happy again?

So join me, Wednesday, September 15th at 9 AM PT to talk about Katie McCabe and what the future holds for her.

The post Back on the Radio with Chris Treece appeared first on Be the Cat.

So, what can I share about this book? Well, the working title at the moment is No Boundaries. That may change, I still haven’t completely settled on the title. After I finish this phase of editing and do a couple complete read-throughs, I’ll know whether the title works, or not.

Currently, I am in the repetitive word phase of editing. I have a very colorful manuscript and I’m going through line by line and targeting those words which I have overused and I focus specifically on the passive words. This is the phase for me where the book actually changes the most – not the story line, but the writing shapes up most significantly during this phase. This sets me up nicely to continue on with the editing for pace and flow.

No Boundaries contains all of the characters from Misfit McCabe and Nowhere Feels Like Home plus one or two more. During the course of the book, which is centered more around school life and how Katie and Tim are fitting in, Katie will make both friends and enemies. But sometimes it is difficult to tell which is which. My favorite new character is Sunny Li, who showed up before I started writing the book and kept tossing me lines. In order not to lose what she gave me, I kept a document of Sunny lines (although I didn’t know her name at that point). I didn’t know how this character would fit in, but I knew she was going to have a part. I love when characters show up and completely take control of their part. It makes my job as the writer so much easier.

A few more rounds of editing should see this book completed. Speaking of which, I should get back to it.

The post Misfit McCabe Series – Book 3 appeared first on Be the Cat.