Hello Everyone,
For the last month, I have been judging contest entries for my local RWA chapter. Three times a year, I judge in contests. Soon, I'll be judging the Golden Heart contest, which will be coming up soon. It's the most prestigious contest for unpublished writers along with the Rita's contest for published authors. Both are contests offered by RWA, Romance Writer's of America, an organization with over ten thousand members world wide.
Judging is a job that takes time and patience if you are going to do it right. I'm only going to tell you about my local chapter contest (MARA), although, I'm also a member of the Wisconsin chapter. Contest entries send in a manuscript with a synopsis of no more than thirty-five pages. The contest coordinator sends the entries along with a score sheet to our members. I received nine this year because we had 97 entries and all of mine were sent through email to the contest coordinator, so I read mine on the computer.
While reading the manuscript, I make comments directly in the content of the manuscript using blue font, and I also mark words in yellow if they are overused. Another thing I start marking my score sheet for the different things, I'm looking for, such as beginning hook, pacing, characterization, emotion, dialogue, narrative, action, and how they pertain to the characters and story.
Every item on the score sheet may receive a score of one to five (1-5) with a possible total point score of 250, which I didn't give this year. There were a couple who came close, and they may very well be finalists in our contest. I hope so anyway. When I judge entries I'm routing for them all the way, and I am so sad when they can't make it.
After reading, commenting and scoring our entries, we write a one to two page critique for the author. In this instance, I pick the biggest problems (two or three at most) to write about. I like to give examples how to correct these trouble areas if I feel this will help the entrant understand what I'm telling them. The reason I do this is because reading the terminology is not always enough for beginning writers.
Most of all, we encourage these budding authors to continue writing and learning their craft. It takes time to learn even the basics. Even published authors continue learning more of their craft.
To all those authors out there who aren't published yet I have three words to say to you: Don't Give Up.
Until next Sunday, have a great week.
Sincerely,
Sandy
http://www.eirelander-publishing.com; http://www.skaymarshall.com; http://www.myspace.com/s_zinn_marshall
Showing posts with label MARA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MARA. Show all posts
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Mid-America Romance Author's Retreat and Blogmania
Hi Everyone,
First, I'm going to tell you about blogmania again. You are missing an exciting time and a chance for thousands of prizes if you don't join in. Learn more at this site http://betweenthelinesandmore.blogspot.com/2010/04/blogmania-early-bird-check-list.html or read the blog I posted on Monday.
Last week I missed posting on Sunday because I was at writer's retreat at Basswood Inn from Friday night to mid-Sunday morning. To give you an idea of what's involved with a writer's retreat read the list below.
We arrived around 5:00 p.m., unloaded our cars and helped others with theirs while the ones who arrived earliest helped set up the food. The first night we all contribute to the food pantry. lol There's enough food the first night to keep us going all weekend. lol
As we continue to munch and drink various beverages, we sit around long tables listening to readers and critiquing the work everyone has brought to be read. During this time we stop occasionally for a break and have a drawing. Everyone at the retreat has the their name in a pot where if their name is drawn they have a chance to win a prize. Some of those prizes were awesome, and I was envious of the winners.
Did I mention we munched and drank more. lol
We did more critiques and quit about 10 or 10:30 at night to break off into groups to visit. Many went to bed early in preparation for an early day on Saturday.
The next morning, we were up early trying to get to showers (mind you there was only three bathrooms for 37 people) to make it to breakfast at 8:00 a.m.. Our breakfast was wonderful thanks to our wonderful chef, Carla Cassidy, and author of a hundred books. You can visit Carla at http://www.carlacassidy.wordpress.com
At nine o'clock sharp we were sitting at our long tables for the first of many workshops on Saturday. I don't remember exactly what order the workshops were presented, but here is what was presented to us.
World Building is an important part of writing a story, and we learned a lot about doing it in our class World Building 102. This topic could be a blog all by itself, so I won't elaborate here. This class was given by Gretchen Jones and for some reason I do not have a website or blog for her.
We had another workshop on promotional items given by Marianne Stephens. In this class, we received lots of promo advice. All advice was good for those who are pre-published and published. This course told you how to get you and your brand out there before you become published. You can learn about Marianne Stephens at http://www.mariannestephens.net/
The next class was about humor, heat and hooks and tells you about the elements of a scene. Since Katy Madison will be doing a workshop at Romance Author's of America (RWA) conference this summer I will not go into detail here. You can visit Katy at http://www.katymadison.com
Break: Eat and drink and be merry. lol
We had a workshop titled, A Writer's Business Plan Template by Laura Phillips. She can be found at http://www.lauraphillips.net/ This course is very important for anyone, whether writer or business owner. There were things I should have been doing but hadn't even thought of them.
Carla Cassidy gave a class on writing romantic suspense. I'm always learning new things from Carla and she manages to come with great workshops. You can learn more about Carla at http://www.carlacassidy.com
Did I say we ate? lol Again. All the time. lol Yep, we took a break for food.
After we ate some of us walked around the pond or out to the fishing dock to walk off some of that food. lol During our breaks, we often walked as well as visited and ate.
Break time is over and we're ready to hit it again. Back to having our precious work read and critiqued. This is serious work because this is when we learn what works and doesn't work in our work in progress (wip). We get the tough questions and we have to answer them in order to continue with our wips. Thanks, Kari, for one of those tough questions.
After a late night, we wake in the morning for another breakfast before starting to work on critiques. I had to leave earlier than the noon checkout time, but I had a great time. Much thanks go to the organizers of this wonderful retreat.
First, I'm going to tell you about blogmania again. You are missing an exciting time and a chance for thousands of prizes if you don't join in. Learn more at this site http://betweenthelinesandmore.blogspot.com/2010/04/blogmania-early-bird-check-list.html or read the blog I posted on Monday.
Last week I missed posting on Sunday because I was at writer's retreat at Basswood Inn from Friday night to mid-Sunday morning. To give you an idea of what's involved with a writer's retreat read the list below.
We arrived around 5:00 p.m., unloaded our cars and helped others with theirs while the ones who arrived earliest helped set up the food. The first night we all contribute to the food pantry. lol There's enough food the first night to keep us going all weekend. lol
As we continue to munch and drink various beverages, we sit around long tables listening to readers and critiquing the work everyone has brought to be read. During this time we stop occasionally for a break and have a drawing. Everyone at the retreat has the their name in a pot where if their name is drawn they have a chance to win a prize. Some of those prizes were awesome, and I was envious of the winners.
Did I mention we munched and drank more. lol
We did more critiques and quit about 10 or 10:30 at night to break off into groups to visit. Many went to bed early in preparation for an early day on Saturday.
The next morning, we were up early trying to get to showers (mind you there was only three bathrooms for 37 people) to make it to breakfast at 8:00 a.m.. Our breakfast was wonderful thanks to our wonderful chef, Carla Cassidy, and author of a hundred books. You can visit Carla at http://www.carlacassidy.wordpress.com
At nine o'clock sharp we were sitting at our long tables for the first of many workshops on Saturday. I don't remember exactly what order the workshops were presented, but here is what was presented to us.
World Building is an important part of writing a story, and we learned a lot about doing it in our class World Building 102. This topic could be a blog all by itself, so I won't elaborate here. This class was given by Gretchen Jones and for some reason I do not have a website or blog for her.
We had another workshop on promotional items given by Marianne Stephens. In this class, we received lots of promo advice. All advice was good for those who are pre-published and published. This course told you how to get you and your brand out there before you become published. You can learn about Marianne Stephens at http://www.mariannestephens.net/
The next class was about humor, heat and hooks and tells you about the elements of a scene. Since Katy Madison will be doing a workshop at Romance Author's of America (RWA) conference this summer I will not go into detail here. You can visit Katy at http://www.katymadison.com
Break: Eat and drink and be merry. lol
We had a workshop titled, A Writer's Business Plan Template by Laura Phillips. She can be found at http://www.lauraphillips.net/ This course is very important for anyone, whether writer or business owner. There were things I should have been doing but hadn't even thought of them.
Carla Cassidy gave a class on writing romantic suspense. I'm always learning new things from Carla and she manages to come with great workshops. You can learn more about Carla at http://www.carlacassidy.com
Did I say we ate? lol Again. All the time. lol Yep, we took a break for food.
After we ate some of us walked around the pond or out to the fishing dock to walk off some of that food. lol During our breaks, we often walked as well as visited and ate.
Break time is over and we're ready to hit it again. Back to having our precious work read and critiqued. This is serious work because this is when we learn what works and doesn't work in our work in progress (wip). We get the tough questions and we have to answer them in order to continue with our wips. Thanks, Kari, for one of those tough questions.
After a late night, we wake in the morning for another breakfast before starting to work on critiques. I had to leave earlier than the noon checkout time, but I had a great time. Much thanks go to the organizers of this wonderful retreat.
Thanks goes to Sunny Cole for collecting all of the wonderful prizes. You may learn about Sunny at her blog, http://www.authorlyncash.blogspot.com/
I also want to thank Katie who clarified some things for me. Did I tell you that this retreat is paid for by our local RWA chapter MARA. Everyone brings food for Friday night, and we give a small amount of money to our blessed organizer for food, which she buys the ingredients and fixes the food for all of us.
It's a terrific retreat and worth joining MARA just for it. You may visit MARA's website at http://www.mararwa.com to learn more about this writer's group.
Thanks,
Sandy
http://www.eirelander-publishing.com/addiction.htm
http://www.skaymarshall.com
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Credit Card Fraud
It seems lately that so many of the posts I write about on my blog are unlikely topics for a writer. Not really because I am an issue oriented person, and when I write my stories they are almost always about some concern I have about our society.
So now we come to one of those topics that worry me. Credit card fraud is a growing white collar crime along with many others. With the age of the Internet, hackers who are diligent can get in anywhere, and any security you have is not one hundred percent safe.
Recently, when my computer was hacked into, I had to change our credit cards because I had bought some things on-line using my CC numbers and didn’t want to take the chance that they had been stolen.
Last week, my Wisconsin RWA group was all abuzz because many members had received letters from the Radisson Hotel where they had their writer’s conference saying that their credit department had been breached. At this time, everyone thought it was just their group at this particular hotel who had been hit. Only it turned out the main credit department for all the Radisson Hotels had been broken into.
Some members had their CC’s used in California, Colorado, Oregon, Bangladesh, and probably many more places not mentioned. Was this the work of hackers? It’s too wide spread to be just a hotel employee (not to say there isn’t one working with them), so I say most definitely somewhere there are hackers involved in getting these numbers.
RT (Romantic Times) had their conference in Orlando, Florida, and some of those people had their credit cards used by someone other than themselves. One of the MARA-RWA members told me her roomy had charges on her card that she didn’t make, but her roommate hadn’t used that card at the hotel. She’d used it across the street at a convenience store.
One author even had someone try to buy $1250.00 worth of shoes with her numbers. Now, I’m guessing she might like to have those shoes for herself. Smile. Although, I doubt she would buy that many at a time or spend that much.
Another place where there have been fraud issues is at Vista Print, a company where you can order business cards. A parent company takes your CC number and signs you up for something called Passport to Fun, whether you want it or not, which gets you discounts.
Two other authors found problems with Vista Print, there were charges on their CC’s that they didn’t recognize that came from them. One author happened to read an article in AARP about “negative option marketing,” which said a merchant doesn’t have to sell you anything; he can assume you bought it. Those free sites and free trial period deals get you into these kinds of deals. This is an illegal practice and it is fraud.
What can you do? 1. The article suggested you insist on them sending you a contract. 2. If you get charged for a negative option program, contact your state attorney at www.naag.org, file a complaint with the FTC at www.fte.gov or call 1-877-382-4357. 3. Check your charge statement and beware of free trial offers. There are fraud hotlines to go to as well. Also, the article said some insurance companies use this practice, too.
One of the author’s from MARA recommends getting pre-paid Visas, but check into other CC’s to see if they do this, too. For a pre-paid card just put enough money on the card for the trip, then your home account information isn’t available for theft. Just max out those cards during the trip or cash them out when you get home so there is no paper trail leading to you.
Many of you reading this may think that just conferences or writers are being targeted, but that would be far from the truth. Each and every one of us is a target in today’s world.
For instance, my brother was overcharged on his telephone bills a year or so ago for calls made to Jamaica. They tried to tell him he’d misdialed, but he fought them on it and got the charges dropped.
Do you check your credit card statement, or do you just pay the bill?
I always go over my monthly statement and check each item off before I send in my payment. I attribute my care to detail to my work in the airline maintenance. We were required to go over the paperwork multiple times to make sure everything was done.
Keep a watchful eye out for anything to do with credit, money, etc. There’s always someone there waiting to take advantage of you. (When my hubby reads this paragraph he will laugh out loud because it has been his mission in life to teach me this.) lol
Have a great week, and I’ll see you next Sunday.
Sandy
So now we come to one of those topics that worry me. Credit card fraud is a growing white collar crime along with many others. With the age of the Internet, hackers who are diligent can get in anywhere, and any security you have is not one hundred percent safe.
Recently, when my computer was hacked into, I had to change our credit cards because I had bought some things on-line using my CC numbers and didn’t want to take the chance that they had been stolen.
Last week, my Wisconsin RWA group was all abuzz because many members had received letters from the Radisson Hotel where they had their writer’s conference saying that their credit department had been breached. At this time, everyone thought it was just their group at this particular hotel who had been hit. Only it turned out the main credit department for all the Radisson Hotels had been broken into.
Some members had their CC’s used in California, Colorado, Oregon, Bangladesh, and probably many more places not mentioned. Was this the work of hackers? It’s too wide spread to be just a hotel employee (not to say there isn’t one working with them), so I say most definitely somewhere there are hackers involved in getting these numbers.
RT (Romantic Times) had their conference in Orlando, Florida, and some of those people had their credit cards used by someone other than themselves. One of the MARA-RWA members told me her roomy had charges on her card that she didn’t make, but her roommate hadn’t used that card at the hotel. She’d used it across the street at a convenience store.
One author even had someone try to buy $1250.00 worth of shoes with her numbers. Now, I’m guessing she might like to have those shoes for herself. Smile. Although, I doubt she would buy that many at a time or spend that much.
Another place where there have been fraud issues is at Vista Print, a company where you can order business cards. A parent company takes your CC number and signs you up for something called Passport to Fun, whether you want it or not, which gets you discounts.
Two other authors found problems with Vista Print, there were charges on their CC’s that they didn’t recognize that came from them. One author happened to read an article in AARP about “negative option marketing,” which said a merchant doesn’t have to sell you anything; he can assume you bought it. Those free sites and free trial period deals get you into these kinds of deals. This is an illegal practice and it is fraud.
What can you do? 1. The article suggested you insist on them sending you a contract. 2. If you get charged for a negative option program, contact your state attorney at www.naag.org, file a complaint with the FTC at www.fte.gov or call 1-877-382-4357. 3. Check your charge statement and beware of free trial offers. There are fraud hotlines to go to as well. Also, the article said some insurance companies use this practice, too.
One of the author’s from MARA recommends getting pre-paid Visas, but check into other CC’s to see if they do this, too. For a pre-paid card just put enough money on the card for the trip, then your home account information isn’t available for theft. Just max out those cards during the trip or cash them out when you get home so there is no paper trail leading to you.
Many of you reading this may think that just conferences or writers are being targeted, but that would be far from the truth. Each and every one of us is a target in today’s world.
For instance, my brother was overcharged on his telephone bills a year or so ago for calls made to Jamaica. They tried to tell him he’d misdialed, but he fought them on it and got the charges dropped.
Do you check your credit card statement, or do you just pay the bill?
I always go over my monthly statement and check each item off before I send in my payment. I attribute my care to detail to my work in the airline maintenance. We were required to go over the paperwork multiple times to make sure everything was done.
Keep a watchful eye out for anything to do with credit, money, etc. There’s always someone there waiting to take advantage of you. (When my hubby reads this paragraph he will laugh out loud because it has been his mission in life to teach me this.) lol
Have a great week, and I’ll see you next Sunday.
Sandy
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