Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Writers' Wednesday: Awards for Authors

Hey writers! OK, first of all I have to say how happy I am that (a) "Homeland" won Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best TV Drama and that (b) "Argo" won Best Drama/Film and Best Director for Ben Affleck at Sunday's Golden Globe awards  I discovered "Homeland" late and just got the first season on DVD for Christmas. My husband and I are already addicted! Great writing, great acting, great suspense...you just never know quite what's going to happen next. But "Argo" I saw in the theater months ago and knew right then it was a winner. It's a great story (of a little-known story behind the Iranian Hostage Crisis), combining humor and suspense and brutal historic truth with tremendous balance. The only downside is that Affleck didn't get an Oscar nomination for Best Director :(

I was reading the latest issue of Writers' Digest, which features an article this month on some of the most prestigious writing awards. The one I found most interesting is called the "Gift of Freedom Award, it "assists female writers who are ready to restructure their lives in order to complete their creative project" over 2 years. Grand prize? $50,000 with which to restructure. I gotta say, I'm curious about the winners of this one and how exactly this restructuring takes place. Hmm....do I sense a story idea here?

Anyway, if you're the contest type, and want to look beyond your typical genre or category contests, here are some websites they mentioned:
Duotrope.com
FundsforWriters.com
PW.org
WinningWriters.com

Happy writing!

Monday, January 14, 2013

Monday Mentionables: What's In A Title?

Happy Monday, everyone! So the latest news with me is that I've gotten my rights back for Lost in Paradise, which is one of my favorite (and first) books, but which needs some new life...so I've decided to release it independently with a new cover, new title, and some new content as well.

Exciting, right? While it will be a bit of a challenge, I'm looking forward to it, and to the learning process as well. The "hybrid" model of publishing is becoming more popular with authors these days, the concept of still publishing some works with a traditional publisher but combining that with self-publishing other, often shorter works as well. It will be interesting to see how that total control over the process affects me - or not. I do think I'm lucky that I'm familiar with the whole publishing process, so I know a lot of the "behind the scenes" steps. Still, a lot of this will be new. Thank goodness I have some writing friends who have done it and can help me!

Anyway, I'm in the process of choosing my title. I still want it to have a reference to Paradise (the name of the town but also, of course, the idea of a perfect place to find love), so I'm leaning toward The Promise of Paradise. What do you think? Let's see...what are some other possibilities? Thoughts?

Paradise Found
Promises in Paradise
Pleasure in Paradise
Hearts in Paradise