Musings from the Slush Pile

It wasn’t long ago I realized I needed a REAL web presence. I was at my computer all day, silently stalking my favorite agent blogs hoping to glean the information I needed, but I wasn’t moving forward. I was writing manuscript after manuscript and getting nowhere.  Was it the topic they rejected? Was the query too pathetic? Was it the writing??? Looking back, it was sad.

Then, I discovered Twitter.

Twitter, while intimidating at first tweet, is a brilliant hodgepodge of amazingness. I am now on a one woman quest to promote and encourage the use of twitter throughout the writing community! In case you don’t tweet, let me tell you why you should.

First, you chose who to follow. That means those people’s comments will appear on your screen when you log in. I started by following a favorite agent of mine, then I followed who she was following. That made sense right? If they interest her, then I need to know them too. I followed writers, publishers, agents, everyone in the industry I could find, and now I am enjoying it every day.

I log in to twitter to promote my blog, or talk about my writing hits and misses, and people respond! Using the #amwriting hashtag connects me with everyone else who’s writing and I’m not alone anymore. I frequently respond or comment on things agents or editors say and I’m making a little place for myself.

Twitter allows me to find writing contests, hot blog topics, and hear what agents and editor are saying about the industry. No more trolling the internet for hours. I have one stop shopping on twitter. I can network, get the scoop, and make friends who know the challenges I’m up against. I’ve found beta readers, guest bloggers and won my share of free books all thanks to the twitterverse.

I love the camaraderie. I can’t meet enough aspiring writers. We’re made up of the same stuff.  I also love that editors begin to recognize my name. I can’t imagine how tedious query reading can become, but I can imagine sifting restlessly through hundreds of emails and losing focus. Then, I picture myself preparing to pass on a query until I see a familiar name. I’m hoping that building a recognizable name will get my query one more read, through fresh eyes. After all, it only takes one yes, right?

So, if you’re still reading this, I hope it means you already have a twitter account. If not, please stop over, check it out and consider joining twitter. I’ve met my closest of writer friends that way (and two of them don’t even live on this continent). I joined a critique group and I have a sounding board. Twitter is a fabulous tool for every aspiring writer and every author looking to build a platform of readers.

You can find me @JulieALindsey and follow those I’m following to help you get started, or wing it, but definitely look me up!

Last year I entered a contest which was awesome. The contest is the brainchild of literary agent Scott Eagan and it’s a blast. Scott credits the idea to his long time mentor Kate Duffy who believed a good writer could find the story in any scenario. All the details you need are at the Alien Vampire Bunny link, but here’s a summary (and I notice that while he’s announced it’s coming, he hasn’t updated the year and dates details yet). This is the basics:

1. Story MUST be a romance

2. Alien vampire bunny must be an integral character

3. You write a maximum 100 word pitch for the story as if you’ve written an entire novel

4. You write the opening 2 pages

5. Submit both pieces to the site where people vote to choose a winner.

6. Winner last year got a critique by Scott Eagan on TWO partials!!!

Definitely start formulating your plan. Its a fun contest, lots of sci-fi last year. Loved watching every day to see if I got anymore votes LOL. For kicks and nostalgia, I’m posting my pitch paragraph from last year and I want to mention *cough* I won last year and as a result, Scott read over the opening chapters of my YA. He gave phenomenal feedback and as a result, that manuscript was revised and is currently on the desks of several YA editors. *Super curtsy to you Mr. Eagan*

My 100 word pitch: (I didn’t go sci-fi, I stretched the AV Bunny)

When community activist, Anna Little, is rescued during a riot by Ryder, a known Alien Vampire gang member, Anna gets a glimpse beneath his dark, edgy persona, and she can’t get him out of her mind. Their instant connection draws Anna into Ryder’s world, where she discovers worth cannot be defined by affiliation alone, especially since spending time with Ryder has his gang calling her an AV Bunny, but not everyone is willing to accept their relationship, and being an Alien Vampire Bunny soon becomes dangerous for more than just Anna’s career. Protecting her could cost Ryder his life.

There you have it. An amazing fun contest with the writers dream prize! Look up this years details and good luck!!

Here I go again It’s been one complete year since I attended my first writers conference. I had no idea so much could happen in a year. When I went last year, I went alone. Hubsy drove & hung in the hotel, checked out local shopping – tech stores, IMAX movies etc, and met me for the after party. He went to be supportive. This year, he bought a ticket. LOL. I guess I can thank Lori Foster for that. He attended with me in June and got a kick out of 400 romance writers in one place It also helps that I scored some contracts this year and my dedication to a writing career is still in tact. It really isn’t a phase I’m going through. I wanna be a writer A year ago, I had no contracts and 50 blog followers. I don’t think I was even on twitter a year ago. This year my blog is healthy and well, I’m a twitter addict, and counting anthologies, I have 8 books in my future thanks to two small presses who believe in me too. *Curtsy*

I guess today’s post is a bit nostalgic and also hopeful. I’ve had a great year this year. I made so many new friends I can’t count them. *Thank you twitter* I’m looking forward to another year of growth to look back on when I attend next year. Am I the next Stephenie Meyer? No. Not even in the same galaxy, BUT I’m making my way in the right direction. SO, if you’re reading this and you are where I was this time last year (at the beginning of my dream career) then I say to you, keep your eyes on the prize. Lots and lots of uber amazing things can happen in a year. This time next year, you might be the next Cassandra Clare. If you are, I’m totally saying I knew you back when…LOL

Anything’s possible and I believe that.

One of my closest girlfriends from college is now a reporter. She lives fa-fa-away, but we try to get together. She’s gorgeous and I’m friendly and when we get together it’s suddenly 2002 all over again. We attract new friends and what do you ask someone you just met? OMG SHAME ON YOU! *perv* No. You say “So, What do you do?” She says “I’m a reporter” and straightens her posture as if in preparation for the coming reverence. It always comes. “Wow! What a cool job! What paper do you work for? What do you cover?” Etc. Etc. I used to say “I stay at home and make babies,” but then a few years later I said “I homeschool” …both got the first finger in the collar to loosen it up so they could breathe move.  Well, now I finally can say “I’m a writer.” This pleases them – at first. “Oh, you’re both witers? Nice. Do you work together?” – No. “I write fiction.”

This is where people get shifty eyes. I can’t for the life of me figure why this bothers people? But it does. Or maybe it’s me. In college I got the same looks when I said “Psychology.” After they asked what I was studying. Once I asked a guy what he studied in grad school and he shied away saying, “Eh, I don’t like talking about that.” I figured he was in for gyno. Nope. he said Psychology. LOL. Ha! Me too. Would’ve been a match made in heaven but we both analyzed it to death.

So, there you go. If you are Stephen King, you can be a novelist. If you are not, then you should prepare for the shifty eyes. LOL. OR tell people you’re a gyno. That might be a real convo starter

I meet the coolest people on twitter. If you read my blog and have not yet joined twitter…please leave now. I give up. *throws hands in air* LOL. Just kidding. I meet all sorts of people, and one of those people was Dan Dewitt. Lucky me. Dan’s become one of the little avatars I look for when I’m online, and today I get to share him with you. He’s fabulous fun AND he writes horror.<– Right? I’m afraid of my shadow and therefore avoid my shadow. A perfect match for Musings because I’ve never had a horror author on deck. So, I begged him to blog for me about his love of horror and I’m so amped…. he agreed!

Please welcome Dan Dewitt, snark master, 90s rocker, zombie fighter, and the man….

I owe Julie A. Lindsey. Were it not for her obsessive random person following on Twitter, I’d still be a guy with 30 followers who never Tweeted. Now I’m a guy with over 600 who no one listens to, but I owe her nonetheless. Then again, she owes me a pair of Hammer pants, but I’ll do the post anyway.

I consider myself a multi-genre writer, but horror is my first love. I touched on this a while ago on my blog. I’ve also developed a bit of a reputation for being a zombie guy, though I have no idea why. Really, no idea at all.

The question Julie posed to me was, “Why?” Why do I read it? Why do I write it?

Believe it or not, I’ve asked myself that question many times before. What is it about the horror genre that attracts me so much, and has since I was a kid? Why is it that dire circumstances and nefarious monsters make millions of people, including me, shell out their cash?

In one of my blog posts, I wrote:  “When compared to other genres, horror can offer the greatest consequences for its characters. Everyone can die. If our heroes fail, the world itself can be at risk. And then their souls can be tormented for eternity. See where I’m going with this? In a well-crafted horror novel, the suffering never has to end.”

I guess that’s a good jumping-off point, but it goes deeper, much deeper, than that. Most, if not all, humans share some fears: death, the unknown, eternal pain…and everyone I’ve ever met gets anxious when the lights unexpectedly go out. We may not be afraid of the dark itself, but what’s hiding in it is a different kettle of fish. Or tentacled, sixty-eyed, flesh-eating monster. One of those.

So why do people flock to horror books? Why have writers like Stephen King made a bazillion dollars scaring the crap out of us?

If I had to guess, I’d say it’s largely a matter of control. For starters, reading a scary book is a form of escape from the everyday horrors that we hope never touch us and we’re powerless to influence or prevent. We choose the author, the book, the place, and the pace.

The reader may be a slave to the author between the covers, but has complete control of when and how to relinquish that control. Consider this scene from Friends:

Rachel: Umm, why do you have a copy of The Shining in your freezer?

Joey: Oh, I was reading it last night, and I got scared, so…

Rachel: But you’re safe from it if it’s in the freezer?

Joey: Well, safer. Y’know, I mean, I never start reading The Shining without making sure we’ve got plenty of room in the freezer.

Something like this has happened to me a grand total of once in my life. At one point during IT, I started to see things out of the corners of my eyes in the completely dark backyard. I closed the book and moved into the brightly-lit living room. That was probably the single greatest moment of my reading life, because an author finally made me “go freezer.”  I got to experience a moment that made my heart race and my paranoia kick into high gear, all without leaving the safety of my house. I was free to impose my will on that stupid clown and turn on every light we have.

I believe that we, as readers, tend to become far more emotionally invested in characters who are facing seemingly insurmountable odds. When the monsters have our heroes on the ropes, we want them to dig deep and overcome. We want them to exhibit the qualities that we hope exist within ourselves. Not that any of us ever want to find out for sure how we’d react when faced with a horde of zombies. Unless you’re insane or, you know…me.

I write horror because I can force the action, I can put my characters through the wringer and make them stronger, and I can just let my imagination do what it wants to do. As long as it’s well-written, people will gladly go where I want them to go, regardless of what I may have lurking around any given corner. Horror enables me to tell incredible stories and inspire those same feelings of dread in the reader. In other words, suffer as I have suffered and I will consider my time well-spent.

Meet Dan online! Tweet him @Dan_Dewitt, check out his blog, even better…check out his books on Amazon!

ORPHEUS by Dan DeWitt

Cameron Holt is fortunate enough to survive the initial outbreak that turns his New England island community into a hive of the undead. So is his son, Ethan. Now, the only thing keeping Holt going is the determination to rescue his son from the undead…or remove him permanently from their ranks. Unfortunately, zombies aren’t the only thing getting in his way.

Oh, also leave a comment and say Hi!

THANK YOU DAN!!! (but I’m keeping the Hammer pants).