Reminder: Deb Eckerling’s query letter contest deadline is 6/22

The deadline for the Write On! Online/The Write Environment Query Contest is June 22. The winner in each category – Screenplay, Teleplay, Fiction (novel), and Non-Fiction (book) – will have their query letter read by a literary agent, among other prizes. http://writeononline.com/2009/05/11/write-on-onlinethe-write-environment-query-contest/ For Tips on Query Writing, check out the Write On! Author Q&A with Wendy Burt Thomas, The Writers Digest Guide to Query Letters: http://writeononline.com/2009/05/01/author-qa-wendy-burt-thomas-the-writer%E2%80%99s-digest-guide-to-query-letters/

Call for submissions about ‘the power of persistence’

Bestselling Author Justin Sachs is looking for submissions for his new book, The Power of Persistence, to be published by Motivational Press. He is looking for stories of how you’ve successfully used the power of persistence to create more results in your business and personal lives. All stories will be considered. For more information or to submit your story please email justin@JustinSachsInternational.com

Carolyn Coman’s “Whole Novel Workshop”

If you have a draft in hand, you’re ready for Carolyn Coman’s Whole Novel Workshop. This workshop will be held at the homeplace of the Founders of Highlights for Children near Boyds Mills, Pennsylvania, October 10—17, 2009. Applications will be accepted July 13—August 1, 2009. This workshop is limited to 8 participants, so apply early.

 

www.highlightsfoundation.org

10 QUESTIONS FOR…Danielle Ackley-McPhail, author of an urban fantasy series (and more!)

Author interview with Danielle Ackley-McPhail

Award-winning author Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing industry for nearly fifteen years. Her works include the urban fantasies, Yesterday’s Dreams, its sequel, Tomorrow’s Memories (Mundania Press), and the upcoming novella, The Halfling’s Court: A Bad-Ass Faerie Tale (Dark Quest LLC), the anthologies, Bad-Ass Faeries, Bad-Ass Faeries 2: Just Plain Bad (Marietta Publishing), and No Longer Dreams, (Lite Circle Books), all of which she co-edited, and contributions to numerous anthologies and collections, including Dark Furies (Die Monster Die! Books), Breach the Hull, (Dark Quest LLC), Space Pirates (Flying Pen Press), and the upcoming science fiction anthologies So It Begins (Dark Quest LLC) and Barbarians at the Jumpgate (Padwolf Publishing).

Her non-fiction works include a chapter on writer’s groups for Dragon Moon Press’s The Complete Fantasy Writer’s Guide: The Author’s Grimoire, a chapter in their upcoming Elements of Fantasy: Magic, a chapter on self-promotions in Marietta Publishing’s Profitable Publishing, and a standing column, If We’d Words Enough and Time, for the sadly defunct website, Fictionauts.

Danielle is a member of The Garden State Horror Writers, the electronic publishing organization EPIC, and Broad Universe, a writer’s organization focusing on promoting the works of women authors in the speculative genres.

Danielle lives somewhere in New Jersey with husband and fellow writer, Mike McPhail, mother-in-law Teresa, and three extremely spoiled cats. To learn more about her work, visit www.sidhenadaire.com. 

 

1. Tell us about your latest book. My most recent book is Tomorrow’s Memories. It is the second book in the Eternal Cycle series and follows Yesterday’s Dreams. An urban fantasy based on Irish mythology. It is about sacrifice and self-discovery; destiny and revenge. This journey with Kara O’Keefe takes the reader to the familiar ground of New York City and the far-off wonder of Tir na nOg.

2. How did you get started as a writer? I’ve always written. English was my easy class all throughout school and I was always writing poetry or fiction of some sort. Now I just, in theory, get paid for it.

3. What does a typical day look like for you? Well, I wake up somewhere between 6am and 6:30am. I check my email while hubby brings me breakfast. I then put in about an hour either self-promoting or working on my writing or whatever anthology project I’m in the middle of. I stop at about 8am to go to work, leave there at 5pm (with luck) either read or write on my PDA on the train, get home where hubby serves me dinner, then I repeat my morning routine and end with reading in bed with said hubby. You know…when it’s all typed out like that…it’s pretty sad! But you know if you want to continue to be an author, that’s the kind of work you have to put in. If you just want your name on a book, well then…ignore everything above and just sit back once you have it.

4. Describe your desk/workspace. Oh…this depends. I write at work where there is paper and equipment and a little plastic Puss n Boots, then I write at home, at hubby’s desk, where I’m surrounded by Star Trek and anime memorabilia, and if I’m really lucky I’m on my laptop, which means who knows what I’m surrounded by because I take it wherever I want J

5. Favorite books (especially for writers) Writing the Break-out Novel by Donald Maas, The Elements of Fantasy: Magic, published by Dragon Moon Press (and containing my chapter on the vehicles of magic), and The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy Volume 3: The Author’s Grimoire, also by Dragon Moon Press (and containing my chapter on writer’s groups.) And on the fun side for everyone, Bad-Ass Faeries edited by me.

6. Tell us 3 interesting/crazy things about you 1) I have thrown a caber 2) I won three awards for my masquerade costume interpretation of a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater http://www.sidhenadaire.com/crafts/purple.htm    3) I am related to both Captain Kidd and Grace Kelley…which makes me a pirate princess! 

7. Favorite quote  “Dreams are the difference between living, and existing” Danielle Ackley-McPhail

8. Best and worst part of being a writer  The absolute joy of creativity. Picking up your work and being able to say “I wrote that!” and “I wrote that?!” and have it mean two different, but complimentary things. The worst part is when you desperately want or need to write and you can…either because the creativity just isn’t firing, or because your body just can’t take it. Right now I’ve had tennis/golfer’s elbow since November. I’ve gotten very little writing done and it is killing me, and all because it really REALLY hurts to type. Can only do it in little bits. Even worse; it hurts to even hold a book. Too much typing…

9. Advice for other writers If you are serious, don’t give up. It will be hard, slogging work, but the satisfaction is worth it. Just realize it is going to take equal parts hard work and luck. Also, your job isn’t over when you have the printed book in your hands. Get your but out there and promote because if you don’t have faith enough in your work to tell people about it, how can you expect anyone else to?

10. Tell us a story about your writing experience. I have to start off telling everyone that my preferred setting to write in is a pitchblack room, sitting in a comfy chair with soft Celtic instrumental music playing in the background and my laptop, well, in my lap. My job at the time gave us off from Christmas until after New Year. I was supposed to be spending the time writing as I was nearly done Tomorrow’s Memories; instead I kept tacking in things to do. Well…at the beginning of my break I was writing until the wee hours of the morning, getting as much done as I could so I didn’t have to feel guilty about the plans I let creep into my schedule. Well, I had had enough for the night and shut down the computer without turning on the lights. After all, I knew right where the folding snack table was, no need to turn on a light I was just going to turn right off. Remember those plans? They weren’t a problem anymore, because apparently I only THOUGHT I knew where the snack table was. When I went to put the laptop down I only caught the edge of the surface and the fifteen-pound laptop landed square on my big toe. I later discovered (after I managed to wake the sleeping dead that was the rest of my family) a spray of blood across the wall and had to personally remove what was left of my nail because the pressure was pure agony. Needless to say, all plans were canceled for the month and I finished the book in two weeks.

Short pitch on where to buy your book, your Web site, blog, etc.

http://www.sidhenadaire.com
http://www.bloodwilltell.com
http://damcphail.livejournal.com/
http://www.myspace.com/ackleymcphail
http://www.booktour.com/author/danielle_ackley_mcphail

My books are available on Amazon and most other online bookstores, by special order at most commercial bookstores, and through their respective publishers. If you would like to learn more about my work please visit www.sidhenadaire.com.

 

Column-writing class with Jennifer Brown Banks

Here you’ll discover:
1). How to identify your creative strengths and market them
2). Insider’s tips about the publishing industry
3). Job leads, money-making resources and more!

The next session begins July 6th. Credit cards and checks are accepted.

http://www.coffeehouseforwriters.com/Penning.html