Sharp Words

You may have read this elsewhere, but I just thought I’d link here in case anyone missed it. Bam’s monthly writing contest is back, at Lorelie’s blog. You may remember Lorelie from the Serial Fabulousity that is Tarnished Angel. And if you don’t, then you probably haven’t read Tarnished Angel. (Go read it!)

The prompt: I wanna see a girl tell a guy what she wants. Sexy, zany, crazy, whatever. I wanna see her pipe up and ask for her heart’s desire.

The word count: 400.

The prize: $50 gift certificate from Amazon.

The deadline: 15 May.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: This contest is one of my favorite writing exercises, ever. The word limit, the deadline, the faint whiff of competition–all these things combine to get the creative juices flowing. I’ve gotten two novellas out of entries I wrote for Bam’s contest. One was Like a Thief and the other–you may be hearing about it soon… Point is, it’s a lot of fun, and if you haven’t entered before, don’t be afraid.

And if you’re not the writing type (oh, come on, you know you really are!) you can have fun just reading the entries. I love how a bunch of writers can take the same prompt and produce so many different stories.

So, go forth and enter!

03/24/2008 Update: The Like a Thief vs The Vampire Queen DA BWAHA poll is up at Dear Author.

3/23/2008 Update: Thanks to everyone who voted! After a very close contest (55% to 45%) Like a Thief in the Night advanced to the next round, where it will be up against Joey W. Hill’s The Vampire Queen’s Servant.

3/21/2008: Almost forgot — Like a Thief in the Night is up against Jane Lockwood’s Forbidden Shores at the Dear Author / Smart Bitches March Madness tourney. For, like the next half hour…

Did you miss me? I’m sorry I told you to get lost three hours and forty-two minutes ago, but I wasn’t in my right mind. I had just opened my mailbox to find Private Arrangements waiting for me, and, of course, I had to read it.

Now that I’ve read it, I wish I hadn’t liked it quite so much. Perhaps then I wouldn’t have read it so quickly. And if I hadn’t read it so quickly, I would have had more time to enjoy it.

Private Arrangements is a grand book. Really, that’s the only word I can think of to describe it, except, perhaps, “delicious” and Delicious happens to be the title of Sherry Thomas’s next book, which I will be buying the day it comes out in August, 2008, so I really should conserve that word for further use this summer. And speaking of this summer, expect another terse blog post telling you to go away. I apologize, in advance, for my future rudeness, but if today was any indication, I won’t be in my right mind.

I should start by saying, this is not a review. I’m lousy at reviewing, and I’m suspect, besides, since Sherry Thomas wrote a lovely double review of my novellas Ember and Like a Thief in the Night for Dear Author back in January which probably sold more copies of Like a Thief than all of my confused, sorry little attempts to promote the story, combined. But please don’t think I am biased just because I have reason to be, because if you do, you will miss out on one of the best historical romances ever. Ever!

Read the rest of this entry »

…go away. I’m reading.

But come back on March 25th when I’ll give away the copy of Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas that I would have bought, if I hadn’t been so lucky as to win a copy in the Dear Author contest.

Azteclady’s post at Karen’s blog about authors who welch on contests reminded me that…I suck. I was supposed to have announced the winner of the Hard Boiled Contest at the beginning of March, and here it is practically St. Patty’s day. ::sigh::

I sincerely apologize for letting things at this here blog hang. The winner of the Hard Boiled Contest is Katie, who noted that this passage from Like a Thief:

“You don’t mind being so…close to your victims?”

She met his eyes. “I like it. I don’t shoot and run. My targets are always dead when I leave because I watch them die.”

He gave her a rude, toothy grin.

She returned it. “I haven’t left yet, have I? Did you bring me down here just to pick my brain for pointers on the simple art of murder?”

…is a reference to Raymond Chandler’s essay and collection of short stories, The Simple Art of Murder.

The second reference, which Katie also correctly identified, is to Dashiell Hammet’s The Glass Key .

So, Good job, Katie! I hope a $25 gift certificate will help you forgive me for being so late to announce the winner of this contest. Email me: bettiesharpe at gmail and let me know what email address you’d like me to send your GC to.

I haven’t received a single entry to the Hard Boiled Contest. Is it too hard? Is it too odd? It’s a $25 Amazon gift certificate, folks! You can use it to buy books! I’m extending the deadline to February 28th, 2008. Here’s the deal: Like a Thief in the Night contains one (1) reference to a title by Raymond Chandler and one (1) reference to a title by Dashiell Hammet. Find the references. Type them into an email. Send me the email, and I’ll enter you in the drawing!

Hard Boiled. It’s not just the name of one of my favorite movies, it’s one of my favorite subgenres of mystery, too. While Like a Thief in the Night isn’t a mystery or a detective story, I did sprinkle in references titles by two of the subgenre’s most famous authors. Why? Because I could.

Weird, right? But my thematic non sequitur can add up to cold, hard, Amazon gift certificates for one lucky reader.

Email me (bettiesharpe at gmail dot com) identifying Like a Thief in the Night’s references to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet titles by February 28, 2008 and you’ll be entered to win a $25 Amazon gift certificate.

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.

Hard Boiled. It’s not just the name of one of my favorite movies, it’s one of my favorite subgenres of mystery, too. While Like a Thief in the Night isn’t a mystery or a detective story, I did sprinkle in references titles by two of the subgenre’s most famous authors. Why? Because I could.

Weird, right? But my thematic non sequitur can add up to cold, hard, Amazon gift certificates for one lucky reader.

Email me (bettiesharpe at gmail dot com) or leave a comment on this post (or any other posts advertising this contest)* identifying Like a Thief in the Night’s references to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet titles by February 1, 2008 and you’ll be entered to win a $25 Amazon gift certificate.

* Update: I just realized, if you post the answer to the comments, the answer won’t be a secret (duh). So, scratch that part about comments. Email me at [bettiesharpe at gmail dot com] or [bettie at bettiesharpe dot com]. I’ll make sure to check my spam folder so no mail gets lost, and I’ll post a list of entries I’ve received the day before the drawing so people can notify me if their name isn’t there.

The many, many authors at Fangs, Fur & Fey, are posting the top ten hallmarks of their writing. So, even though they are print-published authors, and I’ve only got two novellas out–one of which is free and the other of which won’t be released for another week–I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon.

1. Moral ambiguity
   I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I like villains. My protagonists aren’t all bad people, but they sometimes do bad things. My goal at the outset of any story is to write it in such a way that if it was told by a different character, the hero would be the villain.
2. Secondary characters with lives
   Another storytelling goal of mine is to write secondary characters with lives and secrets. There are things you don’t know about your friends. There are times when you are just a support character in their story–and if there aren’t those times, you don’t have friends, honey, you’ve got back up singers.
3. Fairy tales
   I love the gory ones. No surprise here, but almost every story I write references fairytales or folktales as a general idea, or a specific comparison.
4. Romance
   But it ain’t all hearts and flowers. Love is a battlefield — violent and explosive. Or an ice-skating rink — cold and treacherous. Or a race track — fast and competitive. Or a waltz — dreamy and whirling in perfect accord. Love is different things for different people. Why should my characters all have the same version of it? Though, to be honest, I really like the battlefield.
5. Multi-racial and international characters
   Why? Because when I was a kid, there were so few nonwhite characters in books that weren’t about race that I used to randomly pretend heroines in my favorite adventure stories were brown girls. Because as a reader I am damned tired of seeing the word “white” used as a description of the heroine’s beautiful skin. Because I want my characters to look like me and my friends. Because I think authors who refuse to write about characters who aren’t their own skin color or ethnic background are wusses.
6. Violence
   Most of it movie-like and stylized. Some of it not. Fact is, I like adventure stories. When it comes to movies, I like car chases and sword fights and Hong Kong style fight scenes. And sometimes I use physical violence as a symbol of emotional turmoil.
7. Strong female protagonist
   Do I even need to say this? I can’t imagine writing a weak female protagonist–leastwise, not one who didn’t end up strong by the end. Those martyriffic heroines who let everyone shit on them for an entire book before the hero realizes that they are pure and virtuous and wonderful are not my heroines. No way, no how.
8. Virtue is NOT its own reward.
   See above. I hate the idea of noble suffering. Usually, characters who spend a whole book suffering nobly could have ended it all by telling a few people off. I also am not down with selfless heroines who will always, always, always sacrifice themselves to help or save people they love–Self-sacrifice like that isn’t noble, it’s co-dependent.
9. A is for “Alpha” and “Asshole”
   I admit it, my heroes are kind of assholish. But all they need as motivation to end their asshole ways is the no-nonsense love of a strong female protagonist (see # 7, above). Just like in real life, right? ;o)
10. Dark
    This isn’t part of my manifesto, it’s just something people keep saying about my stories. Even the sweet ones. I don’t set out to write “dark” they just end up that way.
11. Bonus Feature: References to classic/hard boiled mysteries.
    Not in every story, but in a few. Email me or leave a comment on this post* identifying Like a Thief in the Night’s references to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet titles by February 1, 2008 and you’ll be entered to win a $25 Amazon gift certificate.
    

* Update: I just realized, if you post the answer to the comments, the answer won’t be a secret (duh). So, scratch that part about comments. Email me at [bettiesharpe at gmail dot com] or [bettie at bettiesharpe dot com]. I’ll make sure to check my spam folder so no mail gets lost, and I’ll post a list of entries I’ve received the day before the drawing so people can notify me if their name isn’t there.

Carolyn Jean won a new header for her blog in my Pay it Forward contest, and now she is holding her own contest. Go forth and enter!

And speaking of the Pay it Forward Contest,Sarai, you won my Pay it Forward Contest. I.O.U. some kinda graphic. But I don’t have your email address. I’ve just discovered that some email from respectable ISPs has been shunted to my Spam file, so if you mailed me before, I might have missed it. To be on the safe side, copy me at bettie at bettiesharpe dot com when you write to let me know what you want.