Tag Archive: SORB


Neeeeeeeext!

Filed under: My Writing, Silk Over Razor Blades — 9 Comments
January 25, 2013

I should have mentioned this earlier on in the week, but I fail. Just a lil bit. Sorry! Anyway, for those of you who don’t know, Amazon runs an annual competition; the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. This year they catagories have been expanded to include the likes of horror/fantasy/sci fi (woohoo!) so I thought I’d enter. Thank you so much Erin for posting about this and several other opportunities. I pinged it straight to my Twitter and Facebook, so I hope those of you who caught sight of it and have a novel ready to go have been able to do something about it.

Anyway on hearing about the opportunity with Amazon I picked up SORB and sent it straight out. There was absolutely no reason not to since the competition was open to my genre (yey!). I’ve received my acknowledgement and now just need to sit back and wait until February to see if I’ve made it to the next round or not.

Now, I named this post ‘Next’ because I’m trying to get into the habit of sending out my work. I’ve already talked about the Phoenix Subs Club and my entry into Flash500 and I thought, since it’s getting close to the point that HarperVoyager would advise whether or not they wished to pursue SORB, it is well passed time to see where else it can go. No sooner had I made that decision than I received an email from HarperVoyager advising that they regretfully would not be pursuing my novel. Perfect, right? Obviously it’s a shame that they chose not to take it up, but that freed me to enter Amazon’s competition with no worries, since both insist on exclusivity.

Normally I’d be querying the novel again, since my real aim is to get an agent, but while these competitions keep popping up, there is no harm in sending them there first. ‘Cutting out the middle man’ by potentially winning one of these things is a really attractive idea to me. And it may even help in the search for an agent, if I can say such and such a publisher is interested in my work and has offered a contract.

So I have another entry to add to my submissions spreadsheet. That’s already double what I was hoping to be able to do this month and I have another short story almost ready for this competition. I think I’m doing an okay job of building up the habit. :)

What about you guys? Have you entered competitions or made any queries lately?

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Bonus Blog: Next Big Thing Tour

Filed under: FUN!, My Writing, Procrastination, Silk Over Razor Blades — 2 Comments
January 2, 2013

Heeeeeeeey! Thanks JM! I’ve always wanted to be part of a blog tour and your tagging me is a great way to start the year. ^_^

So if you’ve not come from JM’s blog, then pop back over there to read her answers to these interview questions. If you have, then welcome, and thank you for stopping by to check out what I have to say.

So! Here we go:

What is the working title of your book?
Silk Over Razor Blades (aka SORB) is on the shelf for the time being, but it is still my primary piece. So I’ll talk about that.
 
 
Where did the idea come from for your book?
A combination of enjoying Buffy The Vampire Slayer and desperately wanting a strong female lead in a book. This is from when I was about 14 years old. The idea has matured a hell of a lot since then, but that was the core; strong female lead, and a desire to see the vampire’s perspective.
 
 
What genre does your book fall under?
Urban fantasy.
 
 
Which actors would you choose to play in your movie rendition?
Oooh I just answered this in a previous post, but for the sake of fullness I’ll answer it again. Ileandra I’d have played by a younger Naomie Harris. She has the look that means she could start weak and grow to become the strong woman we see by the end (she’s also English which is a big plus for me). Her or Brandy Norwood, before she went all Hollywood and began to straighten her hair. Think back to her Moesha days. Tristen I’d have played by Ben Barnes; I think he could pull it off so long as he lost the cute boy look. Or rather, if he could pull off ‘steamy, sexy and authoritative’ while his hair is long. Brad would have to be Liam Neeson; he could pull that off no problem (and Brad Pitt, though the age is right, is still too good looking). Nick… that’s harder; I think I’d cast Jared Padalecki into that role. He has the look and I can image him being able to pull off the ‘excited over supernatural’ aspect of Nick’s personality.
 
 
What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
New vampire, Ileandra Young, schemes to derail the police investigation into the murder of her fiancée, whilst avoiding the search of the vampire who made her.
 
 
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Everything else I’m happy to self publish, but this, I want to go through an agency. That is my major goal.
 
 
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Nine months, I believe.
 
 
What other books would you compare this story to?
Oooo, that’s a tricky one, because most vampire stuff has a romantic element which this tale lacks. I suppose it feels, on occasion, like an Anita Blake book, though a little more like the Blue Blood books by Melissa De La Cruz; primary female protagonist growing used to a new state of being while not necessarily getting on with others in the same situation.
 
 
Who or what inspired you to write the book?
At the time I wanted to be like Christopher Pike, since his Last Vampire series was awwwwwwwwwesome! So a bit of that mixed up with a bit of enjoying Buffy and Xena.
 
 
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
This book offers a new interpretation of the vampire myth, as in, the first vampire. There are several sequences that take place in Ancient Egypt and offer a completely different spin on how they originated and what the relationship is between vampires and humans.

Yey! I love talking about SORB, but now its time to direct you on. Please enjoy my nominations for the next leg of the Next Big Thing Tour, to be posting on Wednesday 9 Jan 2013. ^_^
J Keller Ford
Jennifer M Eaton
Naomi Baltuck
Cathi Rae
Jami Gray

Cheers folks!

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Six Sentence Sunday 28/10 #38

Filed under: My Writing, Sample Sunday, Silk Over Razor Blades — 2 Comments
October 28, 2012

Got some votes on what NaNo novel I’ll be working on this year. I’ll admit that I’m a little surprised by the current favourite, but it’s a pleasant surprise. I love this level of interaction with you all and I’m glad you’re playing along with me (I could never have made the decision on my own!).

Since next week I’ll be well into whatever NaNo novel I’m working on, this week will be the last week of SORB samples for a while. I think it would be nice to put the piece fully to bed for a bit and probably look at it again in January. That’s the end point for HarperVoyager (i.e. if I haven’t heard anything by then, they don’t want the piece), so there’s no point messing with it until then. They wanted any submission to them to be solely to them, as well. So I can’t even send it out elsewhere just yet. Never mind.

So… I think I’ll give you one last glimpse into the comedy that is Keith.

This is the same scene as last week, but the action has moved on a little. Keith has been able to show Brad the data on the computer and neither of the pair are happy with what they have seen. Following this, Brad makes a request for help that Keith initially resists. Until…

“I’m fired, right?”

Brad gritted his teeth. “Look at as much gay porn as you want, Keith. Cover it with as much straight porn as you can stand; I don’t care! Just don’t say you can’t help me.” He bent down, waiting until Keith lifted his flushed, embarrassed face off the table.

Uh-oh! Busted…!

I kinda feel sorry for the way I treated Keith, actually. Uncomfortable conversations and dropping him into the middle of a situation he is in now way equipped to handle. Ho hum; I guess that’s what stories are made of, right?

As usual, the home crowd from Six Sunday are hanging out on the main site. You can find them by using the banner link below.
Six Sentence Sunday

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Six Sentence Sunday 21/10 #37

Filed under: My Writing, Sample Sunday, Silk Over Razor Blades — 6 Comments
October 21, 2012

I must have been knackered last week because I didn’t even tell you guys that I’d met the HarperVoyager deadline. ^_^

It involved lots of late nights, lots of cursing and deleting and cutting and shuffling and very many cups of tea, but I did it. I polished off Silk Over Razor Blades as best I could and now it’s time to leave it alone.

By the way:

THANK YOU

to all the people who read the piece and provided comments. Be it a sample or the whole manuscript, I can’t describe how valuable your feedback has been. Catching all sorts of things I would never have thought of, hammering at my grammar and continuity. This novel is now at its absolute peak because of you guys.

o.O I’m sure that if HarperVoyager don’t want the piece, I’ll find (more) problems with it, but for now I am resolved to leave it and move on. I sent in the details they wanted at 23:30 on 13 Oct after forcing myself to stay up and do that night. Tell you what though, I’m bloody glad I did, because when I looked at the submission portal on 14 Oct, it had closed! Even though submissions were supposed to be until 14 Oct. Apparently there was some sort of technical glitch, but I’m just glad that I didn’t have to worry about it. My heart does go out to those people who missed the deadline because of the glitch though. Terribly unfair.

Anyway, since I’ve made the deadline, I want to show off a little bit more (!!!), before moving on, so here is another six sentences form SORB, no longer a WIP but a CM (completed manuscript).

A few lines after Keith makes his comments about the ability of ‘Tech’ to find anything, his conversation with Brad continues.

“How do you get away with dressing like that?”

“I’m a volunteer who lives in the basement of this hole. Nobody gives a crap what I look like.” Fingers flying over the keys, Keith shrugged. “Take a look at the report while I sort this out. Your computer is about thirty years passed retirement age.”

I like this guy. I wish I had more space in the novel for him as a character. Unfortunately, his story just didn’t make the final cut. Ho hum.

As ever there are lots more people taking place in Six Sunday. Please use the banner below to visit the main site and say hello. :)
Six Sentence Sunday

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Six Sentence Sunday 14/10 #36

Filed under: My Writing, Other Writings, Sample Sunday — 10 Comments
October 14, 2012

October. Yikes. The year has gone so fast and so much has happened that I can hardly stand it. Thinking about it almost makes me feel that my life has spiralled off like a high speed film reel and there’s nothing I can do to slow it down. I’m nearly 30. I have two kids. I have all these plans and ideas and jobs to take care of while I still have the will, strength and stamina to do it.

But first…!

Today is Sunday. You know what that means; another six sentences from my WIPs to tease your literary ear. Hehee. I have been caught slightly off guard this week, though. My A-Z of Flash Fiction is done, insofar as Six Sunday which means I need to find some other work to give you. I wasn’t quite ready for that.

Fortunately, I’ve been hammering away at Silk Over Razor Blades for the past three weeks so I should give you something from that! In fact there is one line in particular that I read to Dave today because I’m particularly proud of it.

In this scene Detective Inspector Brad Thorne has fallen asleep at his desk whilst working on the ‘Harrison Homicide.’ He tries to leave but ends up in conversation with one of the volunteers who has lifted some vital evidence from a broken laptop against all odds.

Brad paused. “Tech said it was useless. They couldn’t retrieve anything.”
“Please, those idiots?” Keith twirled a piece of hair around his finger. “They couldn’t find syphilis on a street corner prossie.”

Colourful, huh? Keith knows well enough to be proud of a job well done. ;-)

That’s it for this week. Next time I may well give you another sample from SORB, though by then I might be sick to death of it. Hehee. We’ll see when the time comes. In the meantime the banner below will take you to the main Six Sunday website. You know what to do.
Six Sentence Sunday

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