In the end, we had 19 valid entries for the Worst First Line Contest... not enough for me to take a picture of myself standing on my head for your amusement. I get it. You all just respect me too much to want me to embarrass myself. I appreciate your concern.
My husband reviewed all entries this weekend, and picked the following first-line dud as the winner:
It was (and it wasn't, but that's a different story altogether).Congratulation to Lisa P. for the sentence that would cause my husband to laugh, then put the book down and walk away. You will be receiving your prize fudge recipe by email shortly.
And thank you to everyone else for playing. Thank you so much, I was laughing all week at your awesomely bad entries.
So, what's on tap for this week? More ranting about chick lit, I suspect (my previous ranting can be found here), since I just discovered yet another "chick lit is dead" article, plus our dear friend at Pimp My Novel is planning to include chick lit/women's fiction among his Genre-Specific Book Sales Round-Up posts this week.
I also hope to write another post about the writing/life balancing act (parenting edition), and maybe something about querying.
Speaking of querying, nothing has changed in my querying status since I last mentioned it nearly two months ago. Writers, how about you? What's your current writing status? Are you editing or creating something new? Waiting for responses to queries? Got an agent already and are waiting for something to come back on the publishing side of things? If you're not a fiction writer like many of my readers, what other things are you up to? Blogging? Non-fiction articles? Let's find out what we like to write and what stage we're at...
Congrats to Lisa P. I hope my rabbi line gave her a run for her money!
ReplyDeleteAs far as what I'm up to, I'm deep in the query process (3 full and 8 partial requests), am working on a new novel, blogging, tweeting, and writing articles for phillyexaminer.com on songwriters and songwriting. My writing plate is quite happily full!
I'm currently in the querying/waiting stage for the last novel, and am plotting the next novel. (And probably eating too much chocolate in the process...)
ReplyDeleteCongrats! Actually...it makes me intrigued to read more.
ReplyDeleteYes, we are on a similar wave length today with our ending questions! Our readers could just copy and paste from your comments over to mine or vice versa. We'll save them time that way! And since I already posted my status in my blog today, and you already read it, I won't bore you again! :)
ReplyDeleteI visit my query in the hospital every day, watching it get better inch by inch. This weekend we had a breakthrough: I helped my query stand on crutches and hobble into a Word doc without any red text anywhere in it! My query has two more weeks of physical therapy scheduled, and then I think it will be able to stand on its own.
ReplyDeleteThe August agent/publisher dead-zone is partly to blame, but I know my query is committed to being ready after that. Of course, it's scared because September sees agents and publishers catching up on queries from August.
Meanwhile, my complete novel is getting an in depth line edit, and it feels pretty good about itself. I am also sneaking in some work on my current novel, and it loves the attention. It rubs up on my hand like a cat.
My current writing status is best described by a conversation I overheard of my daughter with a friend.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter's friend asked her if I was in aspiring author. My daughter answered, "More like a perspiring author!" Which turns out to be an accurate account of my situation at the moment.
That's a very good worst line! Congrats to the winner.
ReplyDeleteOh my, I'm so pleased! I'm so...proud...of being able to write badly on purpose!
ReplyDeleteMy current writing status: I'm seeking out and entering writing contests. There are a lot of them out there!
Congrats Lisa. That made me laugh too. My current WIP is about 40,000 words and going in fits and starts. I should probably be writing NF articles for submission, I have a few on the go. I should also be finishing my writing course work... oh well. :)
ReplyDelete"The Hong Kong Connection" is a legal thriller about a gutsy female attorney who takes on high ranking International officials. It's a taut, rollercoaster of a ride from New York to Palm Beach to Washington D.C. to Hong Kong. The plot is expertly woven, the characters persuasive, and the dialogue snappy and spot on.
ReplyDeletewww.StrategicBookPublishing.com/TheHongKongConnection.html