Shooting Star Stories

Late last night I sent off the first two chapters of Princess of the Pigsty, my children's historical novel, to a publisher along with the query letter, synopsis and the requested author's bio and C.V.

I must say, I thought the request for a C.V. intriguing, I have never heard of a publisher asking for one before. Has any one else encountered this before?

The publisher is a very new one, just setting up in Australia called Shooting Star Stories.
They are so new in fact, their website is still under construction.

Of course there are pros and cons when submitting to a new publisher.

They will of course be reasonably unknown, so it's hard to get a gauge of the sort of finished product they will produce. There may be little or no feed back from others authors they have worked with about what they are like to work with. But, as new writers must start somewhere so must new publishers.

On the upside, a new publisher may be in a better position to build a more personal relationship with their authors and to put more resources into promoting their work.

We shall see. Whatever the result of this little exercise I shall post it here.

Quote of the day: Mark Twain

Persons attempting to find motive in this narrative will be prosecuted;
persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished;
persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.

BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR
per
G.G., CHIEF OF ORDINANCE

Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

T.K. Roxburgh's Banquo's Son

T.K Roxburgh is a local writer I have recently discovered, thanks to a tip from a friend and a full page spread in the ODT recently.

She has written a sequel to Shakespere's MacBeth, titled Banquo's Son, which was picked up by Penguin. It will be available in stores on the 1st of October $37NZ. The trilogy and film rights are about to be auctioned in America.

The book, set in Scotland in 1100AD, looks awesome; I can't wait to get my sticky little hands on a copy.

You can find her blog at www.banquosson.blogspot.com, a candid and enjoyable read about writing and her journey to get these books published. You can find a list of her YA books here as well.

NZ History Competition

It is competition time again for the Dunedin Writers Workshop. This time the theme is NZ history.

Apparently, so long as the story in set sometime in NZ's history it will qualify. I'm not sure how historical a piece has to be. For instance would a romance set in the 1800 stand as much chance as a piece based on an actual historical happening. From what I have been able to dig up both will have a shot, perhaps it will all come down to the judge; Susan Bell, writer of A Touch of Sleeve.

I am digging out a few of my short stories set in the early 1900s (1930 -1950s) and revamping them. We'll see how we go. I'll be entering three stories: Ring of Yellow Roses, Suitcases, and Martini.

Results will be out in November.

Staging a Play

Yay!

I had a email yesterday to say that the play I collaborated on with my friend Sue, entitled Roman Runaway, will be staged by a small group of players in Dunedin on Monday 14th of September.

Whoo-hooo! I'm an amateur playwrite!

I'm Gonna Be Published!

It has been ages since I blogged last. Lots has been happening, both in my normal life and in my writing life - if one can separate the two.

I have moved house (and townships), survived school holidays and been away with my husband, without children! (That's a biggie - especially if you are a home-educator as I am)

AND...

I am going to be published!
Not just in a magazine or a newpaper, but in a book! One of my short stories, submitted to the spiritual anthology competition, has been accepted and will be published in an anthology!!!!

The chosen piece was "Fire of Hope."

I am not sure how many stories were accepted, I do know aprox 486 stories were entered in the competition.

The book will be launched in Pleasant Point, Canterbury, on the 3rd October 09. There will be a dinner and book signings with all the authors involved who attend.


In other, slightly less exciting news, I also received a third place award in another competition I entered with the NZ Christian Writers Guild.

I didn't get placed in our local writing groups competition, I didn't really think I would. However, I am very proud to say that my friend and prodigy, Sue, was awarded FIRST and THIRD places. You go girl!

Results of the Katherine Mansfeild competition will be released on the 1st October.


So, that is all my news. I haven't been writing much as I having been trying to put most of my energy into the Introduction to Journalism paper I am studying this semester.
I'll get back into writing come the end of October.

Quiet

Things have been a little quiet around here recently, the reason being that we have been hunting for a new place to live - our landlord has decided to sell this place. House hunting is hideously time consuming!

We move in two weeks, so my hope is that things will pick up again after this.

I have finally emailed my entry into the Katherine Mansfeild competition. I have been frantically editing and rewriting for the past few days, on top of sorting and packing, to get it in on time. The ending was nice and predicable so had to be scrapped and re-written, and character's determined to survive eliminated. Sigh. Sometimes it is tough being a writer...

On the plus side, it is nice to have it done, out of the way, and not hanging over me anymore.
Now we sit, cross our fingers and pray, and wait and hope to hear.
If we don't hear we know we failed!

I have two entries sent into the NZ Christian Writer's competition; winning entries will be published in the August mag.

And on the 8th of July, I'll find out how I did in our local Writer's Workshop Competition. It should be a good night. The winning entries will be read aloud. All the entries will have been critiqued and I am really looking forward to seeing what kind of feedback I will get on the pieces I submitted.

So, on top of writing and homeschooling and moving and gearing up to study a journalism paper next semester and trying to find some very part-time work, life is pretty quiet.

Whoever said a writer's life was cruisie? They lied!