Author Archives: Tina

In Which I Bombard You With All Sorts of Cool News

It seems every year I vow to update my blog more regularly, but such is the curse of most fiction writers–when I have a spare moment there’s always some other story demanding my immediate attention.

First bit of cool news:

My minion…er…I mean husband took it upon himself to create me an official–we’re talkin’ fancy-schmancy professional looking author page. It’s good he’s talented in these sorts of things.  I’m pretty worthless around a computer except to poke my way around Word or Scrivener like a toddler swinging a stick at a piñata.  Anyway, it’s gorgeous and wonderful and you can view it here:

www.tinagower.com

Then he also insisted I have a separate Facebook page, too. What? It’s not good enough to hang my name on a cyber door–I have to engage in social media too? I’m beginning to think this is how he will drag me into the modern era (kicking, screaming, and begging for my candle lamp and washboard back, so I can get some chores done. And while you’re at it my ink well is dry!) Anyway, if you have Facebook and you want to be updated on my writing news and publications you can ‘like’ me here:

www.facebook.com/gowertina

And the last bit of cool news is that the results for the Daphne du Maurier Awards are in annnnnnddddd….

I won first place!!!!

~throws confetti~

Okay, so the required story on the win follows:

I didn’t attend the National Romance Writers of America Conference, because it was in Atlanta GA and I’ve been saving my money to go to WorldCon this year (my first writing conference ever… I’ve done workshops, but so far no cons). I knew the results were being announced at the Death by Chocolate Ceremony thrown by the Kiss of Death chapter of RWA. The ceremony was at 8pm Eastern time and I knew by 9pm Pacific time the ceremony must have been done and winners announced. Thinking, huh, I never got an email nor could I find any announcements anywhere that I must not have placed, but I was curious who won. I emailed the contest coordinator with a short note that I wanted to know when the results would be posted. She emailed me back a few minutes later wanting my phone number. Turns out she also was not at the national conference and on Pacific time. I sent off my number and went back to the short story I’d been working on all day. Ten minutes later my phone rang.

She played around with me a bit. “So you entered the Paranormal category, huh? Tough category.” I could hear pages flipping in the background, she was most likely searching for my name thinking, ‘did I file that under Tina, Smith, or Gower…why does this girl have so many names? Jeeze, pick a name already.’

“You sent in the chapters from your novel Identity?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“We had some rearrangements with editor judges and some of the judges were different than the ones advertised.” Long dramatic pause. “Nothing wrong with your category though. Everything was in order.”

“Oh good.” She was talking business now, letting me down easy.

“So you’ve not heard any of the results? Not any?”

“No.”

“Well, Tina, then I guess I get to tell you…” Her voice lifted and my heart sped up, because I could tell by her tone she had something good. Maybe I placed? “You placed.” Holy Cow! “Not only did you place first in your category, but the editor who served as your judge wants the full copy of the novel for publishing consideration.”

What?!

I’d been told at my first RWA chapter meeting that sometimes an editor will request a copy of a full manuscript from a contest, but I’d heard it was never a guarantee. And since I’d spent years banished in dyslexia hell, teachers shaking their heads at my scribbles, friends giggling at my misspellings–I always assume I’ll get nothing more than a pat on the head for most of my writing attempts. But I like this turn around in my career. I’m starting to really like it!

Plus, I’m really excited for a chance to work with this particular editor, if the publishing house does like my story.

So that’s where I’m at now. Again, it’s just a request to see the rest of the novel, and it’s not a guarantee for a sale, but I’ll take it. This will be the first editor to see my novel and I’ve not sent it out to any agents, so if it’s a ‘no’ I still have a lot of other options. I’ve been busy rewriting some of my novella for the Stellar Guild project and now I’m going to do a few more re-reads and polishing of my novel before I get the packet with the information on how I’ll submit to the editor.

Okay, that’s all! You can take off those flack jackets now. I promise I’m done bombarding… for now 😉

Guilt Frosting

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“Today is a really awesome day!” I said to the kids when I picked them up.

They were in a good mood and got right in the car when I asked. They’d been patient all weekend while dealing with my crazy book signing schedule. I decided on a whim: “Let’s go get cupcakes!”

I’d seen the Cupcake Crusader was going to have her van in our neighborhood and so I took them over. When we arrived there was nobody else around. I leisurely got the kids out of the car and explained the flavors. While the kids were deciding a car drove up right behind us. The lady jumped out and speed walked over. I’d told the attended what flavors the kids would want. We were only getting two cupcakes. My wallet was buried deep under all the signing crud in my purse. Bookmarks, hat, kindle all came spilling out.

The lady jump ahead of me and said to me, “I’m going to just go ahead and order. I know what I want.”

— I nodded, now with wallet in hand. She then proceeded to hmm and ha over what flavors she wanted in her dozen box. She took the last of the flavors the kids wanted. Hooray for me for being nice and patient–rewarded with the unkindness of strangers.

Thankfully my kids were understanding and we voted to make our own at home (since Isaac is iffy with chocolate due to his stomach migraines and that was all that was left).

She did come up and apologize as I was tucking the kids back into the car– “I realize now took the last of the ones you’d planned to order. I had heard which you wanted, but I was in such a hurry it didn’t register!” She said it with a half smile, the kind people get when they know they did something wrong and are unwilling to fix it.

“Don’t worry,” I managed to somehow utter.

“Have a nice day!” Isaac called out to her as she rushed to her car in the rain.

Isaac turned to Ella. “We will save money.”

Ella clapped her hands. “Ours will taste better!”

I wondered if the woman’s cupcakes will taste as good with guilt mixed into the frosting.

Monique Bucheger’s Super Awesome Crazy Cover Reveal Book Bomb Tour

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If you’re looking for a great read for your middle grader, look no further than Monique Bucheger’s Ginnie West Adventure Series. Bucheger is kicking off her series on a week long blog tour to reveal the new covers and they’re gorgeous.

I think the series is especially tailored to girls, but boys will find plenty to enjoy between the pages, too. I first met Monique at a writer’s workshop taught by David Farland a.k.a David Wolverton. She has a talent for wholesome family stories with great morals and honest characters.

The series starts with The Secret Sisters Club, followed by Trouble Blows West, and then the third installment Simply West of Heaven.

Nice Blog about Success

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Most of today I started writing a blog series on Secrets to Success with some of my insight to what makes a person successful. Usually I get a few thousand words in and think “Oh really? What makes me a pro at this?” and I set it aside to never hit publish. But then I found this blog linked from Melanie Meander’s Facebook page:

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/what-are-the-odds-of-success-really/#comment-71046

The gist of the article is that really success is about doing things most people never actually do. Yes A LOT of people dream of being a writer, but very few actually DO the things it takes to “make it” and that’s such a huge part of success. We’d like to think it’s luck or good networking, but really, come on…It’s also the doing.

So I guess I’ll be diving into the doing.

Kristen Lamb is author of We Are Not Alone–a non-fiction book for writers on building an audience/platform. I can’t wait to read it. Just what every craft book junkie needs–another good book.

I love comments! 5% of all comments will elevate to greatness. Okay…you really have to read Kristen’s blog to get that one.

What Just Happened?

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So it’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog, she says sheepishly. And a lot has happened in my writing career. Most people who even read this blog (hi mom!) will know these things, but just in case a random web surfers decides to look up “most awesome person ever” and finds my blog they’ll know the latest gossip on a nobody aspiring writer…. Who also happens to be awesome, thank-you-very-much.

(sorry, working on my “confidence”)

At the kick off of 2013 I sold a short story titled Today I Am Nobody to a professional science fiction and fantasy magazine, Galaxy’s Edge. It’s a newish magazine edited by Mike Resnick, who is NOT new to the SF/F field.

I then spend the rest of the early months preparing for the Writers of the Future Workshop, approving galleys and doing copy edits to my story Twelve Seconds Man it feels good to finally reveal even just the title name. I had to keep it super sekrit for so long. Twelve Seconds is a story about a man with autism who archives the last memories of homicide victims. He’s pulled into a mystery when he discovers a memory that is incomplete. I received first place for the first quarter of the contest in the middle of last year and then had to wait for the other three quarters of judging to complete. Then all the first place winners are re-judged for the grand prize.

I got the grand prize *throws confetti*

But rewind. I didn’t get to tell the good parts. So a month before I left for Writers of the Future (WOTF), I’d been working on short stories and second drafting the first few chapters of my novel. I thought since I’d written a cross-over novel (cross between science fiction and romance) that wouldn’t it be smart to also try to enter it into some romance contests as well? So I looked a few up, found one I really liked and had been impressed with winners in the past–The Daphne du Maurier Awards–and entered the first few chapters of my novel.

Then Mike Resnick asked me to write him two novelettes in a week (or novellas, but I pretended not to hear, because novellas are soooo long. So I plugged my ears and said “Lalalala”). I had one that was in good shape, but had to write a second that could impress, according to Locus, “the all time award winner, living or dead, in short fiction.”

And because I have a failure complex I immediately started to panic, because he’d know I’m a total fake. He’ll see right though all my smoke and mirrors. It’s easy to convince someone to buy a short story, but a novelette?? I’d have to keep up my singing and dancing act through sixty pages—that’s a lot of nouns and verbs!

Well, I wrote it. Then I gave him the stories before I left for the WOTF workshop. He read them and when he attended the workshop he offered me a chance to collaborate on a Stellar Guild novel. I said “holy crap!” in my head, but managed to keep my cool and say, “yes” in real life. I might have muddled the two phrases together; I might have just nodded my head enthusiastically. Heck, I might have just passed out and filled the rest of reality in and have yet to still wake up. Because from that point on things continued to get better and better.

Later that week I won the Writers of the Future Grand Prize (as I mentioned before). Then I flew home and a few days later got a call from the Daphne Awards that I was a finalist for their contest too.

And that’s what you missed on Smashed Picket Fences.