Blogging the Fading Lands

My friend and fellow Leisure Author, Emily Bryan, (she of the absolutely hilarious romantic romps, Pleasuring the Pirate , Vexing the Viscount, and Distracting the Duchess) is sponsoring the "STROKE OF GENIUS CONTEST" on her blog.

Want to see your name on the acknowledgment page of Emily Bryan's next book? Here's your chance! Emily is giving her readers an opportunity to name an important secondary character in her upcoming STROKE OF GENIUS.

The winner will receive signed copies of Emily Bryan's entire backlist (including A CHRISTMAS BALL anthology, due out Sept 29th). Plus you'll be mentioned on the acknowledgment page of STROKE OF GENIUS. The contest begins June 1st and entries close July 1st. For more information, visit www.emilybryan.com.

Blogging today on Writers At Play about hunky heroes. Who are some of your favorites and why?

(Really, the blog is just an excuse to post pix of gorgeous guys and wax rhapsodic about movie heroes that make me melt :p)

Come join me and share your own favorite heroes. Prizes to be given.

Cheryl

I'm reworking the beginning of QUEEN (loving the new opening *much* better than the old one) but I thought I'd pass this along.

Lisa Paitz Spindler, a friend of mine and fellow playpal on Writers at Play has posted chapters of her wonderful unpublished sci-fi romance novel, The Kinship, at www.Authonomy.com a website sponsored by Harper Collins to "flush out the brightest, freshest new writing talent around".

What is it exactly? Well, let me quote direct from the FAQ on the site:

Authonomy invites unpublished and self published authors to post their manuscripts for visitors to read online. Authors create their own personal page on the site to host their project - and must make at least 10,000 words available for the public to read.

Visitors to authonomy can comment on these submissions – and can personally recommend their favourites to the community. authonomy counts the number of recommendations each book receives, and uses it to rank the books on the site. It also spots which visitors consistently recommend the best books – and uses that info to rank the most influential trend spotters.

So basically, readers can go to the site, read the first chapters posted and vote on their favorites. The books that receive the most votes will get read by Harper Collins editors.

So take a jaunt to authonomy.com and read a few of the books posted there. And if you like Lisa's book, The Kinship, be sure to register and click the "Back the Book" link to add your vote. She's only a few clicks from breaking the top 400 and we playpals are on a mission to see her story rise to the top!

Authors - its a great opportunity for you to make your own attempt to break into NY publisher.

Readers - how better to let your voice be heard and see the books you WANT to read get published?

In addition to her authonomy showing, Lisa authors the widely respected Danger Gal blog. She's been quoted by an impressive list of authors and bloggers and always has an intelligent and insightful view into science fiction books, movies, and tv - particularly as relates to the role and portrayals of women in sci-fi. She's worth a read, if you haven't already checked her out.

Cheers
Cheryl

I'm blogging today at Writers at Play about Making Time to Write. Come join me :)

I am blogging today at Yankee Romance Reviews about discovering how fast you write and what your best writing hours are. If you are a writer or want to be one, come share your own experiences and insights.

Holiday - From the Old English haligdaeg, from halig "holy" + daeg "day;" in 14th century meaning both "religious festival" and "day of recreation."

~ from the Online Etymology Dictionary, (C) 2001, Douglas Harper

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Joyous Yule! Happy Holidays!

Regardless of your religion, the December holiday season is observed by many as a time of faith, hope, love, renewal, celebration, and fellowship.

In my last several blog posts, I've asked you to support others (booksellers, publishers, authors, the families of wounded soldiers) in a time of need. Now it's my turn to support you, my wonderful readers, and wish you the very best holiday season with the best gift I can think of for readers: the gift of books.

There are twelve days left from now until New Year's Eve. From now (December 20) until December 31, I'll be giving away $15 gift certificates to either Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com (winner's choice) -- that's enough for two paperbacks or a trade-paperback novel (or one paperback and international delivery if you buy from amazon.com). Not to leave Borders out in the cold, I'll also give away a $25 Borders gift card on Christmas Day and New Year's Eve.

How to Win

Winning is simple. You only need to do two things: (1) post a comment on this blog any time between now and December 31st sharing one of your favorite holiday traditions, and (2) email a copy of your post to cheryl@clwilson.com along with your full name and mailing address. (This last is to prevent duplicate entries and to stop me from having to track down winners for addresses later. I will not keep your address, reveal your information to a third party, or use it for any other purpose, but I do require a full name and mailing address in order to include your post in my daily drawings.)

I will pick one winner per day (except Christmas and New Year's Eve when I will pick two).

I want to be clear, posts are not restricted to Christmas or Hanukkah traditions. I have friends of many different faiths all over the world - Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, Wiccan, Secular Humanist, Muslim, you name it. (In fact, one of the best results of having my books published has been making the acquaintance of so many fabulous people who've written to me and befriended me since LORD OF THE FADING LANDS made its debut.) If you don't celebrate a December holiday, pick your favorite or most important holiday / day of celebration, and tell us a little about what and how you celebrate.

If you have trouble posting a comment to Blogger, simply skip step (1) and email me your post and address information and ask me to post your tradition for you. I'll be happy to do that.

How Many Times Can I Enter?

You can post comments as often as you like, but only one unique Holiday Tradition post per person will be entered in the drawing. The sooner you post your tradition (and send me your name and address) the more chances you'll have to win.

My One Request to Winners

If you win, I ask only one thing, please--please--use the gift certificate to buy a new book. Authors and publishers only receive payment for each new book sold, which means only new sales keep authors and publishers in the business of writing and publishing books.

Thank you so much. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and have a peaceful, joyous and prosperous new year.

C.L. Wilson

I'm blogging today at Writers At Play on a subject near and dear to my heart - supporting authors and fighting internet piracy. Please come join me and show your support!

cheers
Cheryl