Pitch contest for YA writers

I hadn't heard of the YAtopia blog until my friend Luisa linked this contest.

What's a "huge micro-synopsis" contest? (The opposite of a "micro huge-synopsis" contest?) The challenge is to condense your young adult or middle grade book synopsis down to a three-sentence agent pitch. Agent John Cusick will award one full manuscript request and two partial requests to the pitches that best catch his attention.

Deadline is midnight tonight (8/11)...but, hey, it's only three sentences. How hard could it be? ;)

Alternate Uses for a Troublesome Pie-hole

The other day, I listened in shock as the most ill-considered gossip tripped off my tongue. Seriously, if I took up chewing tobacco, my mouth would still be using its time better than that.

Why don’t I just zip my lip? It occurred to me that being a writer is part of the problem. I love stories, especially ones with a beginning, middle, and end. Especially ones with compelling characters, interesting plots, and a great twist at the end. A part of me threatens to pop, if I know a fantastic story, but I can’t tell it.

Please don’t stop talking to me once you’ve read this! I have a plan. Copenhagen may be the answer. Or maybe Bubblicious.

This blog brought to you by a cat that wanted out at 4:43 a.m.

Just one more dream...

Ok, I absolutely promise this blog is not my dream journal. But this experience cracked me up. I was stuck on a pretty important plot point, and I just KNEW the answer was locked up somewhere in my brain, so I decided to harness the power of my subconscious. As I drifted off to sleep last night, I asked myself several times what to do about my sticky problem.

Then I dreamed a dream:
After a long time dealing with infertility, I was at the hospital, and I'd just discovered I was pregnant! The entire hospital staff lined up on a video phone monitor to congratulate me.

Soooo....
It appears my subconscious mind agrees with my conscious mind: Yep, it's in there somewhere, all right. This is not to say it's actually in there. Just that my waking and sleeping brains agree that it is.

To be fair, as I was brushing my teeth, I did get a good idea that didn't entirely solve the problem, but might be an intriguing approach to it. That first, half-conscious idea, is often the best, truest idea of the day.

I can relate

My daughter Buffy started typing up her novel today. But the weather's nice, and her friend Rosmerta called up with a Great Idea, so off she went. Here's her manuscript so far:

Chapter 1
The

Look Under Things

Everyone who knows my mom knows her sure-fire, one-step method for finding what you're looking for: look under things. Her mom always says it to her, she always said it to me, and if my kids have lost something, I just ask, "What would Grandma do?"

"Look under things," they sigh.

The thing is, she's usually right (as she is quick to remind me—that's the other thing she always says). You scan the room, look around a little, find nothing. But you start picking things up, and there are your keys or your markers or your marbles. Marbles, especially—I lose those on a regular basis.

So, we have here the Look Under Things blog, dedicated to looking at, around, and under whatever's on my mind at the moment. Statistically speaking, this is likely to include:
kids
writing
plants
sewing
words
books
misc.

You must especially remember the misc. Welcome! Come have a look with me.