CataUniversity | 2008 December

The List of 20

By Alice ⋅ December 18, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

by Alice Anderson
Having trouble with your story? Stuck in the middle? Writer’s block slowing you down?
Have you tried a list of 20? Numerous authors have suggested this to me and I have to agree that it works. What you do is, list 20 things that could happen next. Or 20 possible scenes for the middle [...]

The Call: Mechele Armstrong

By Alice ⋅ December 17, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

My call was actually an e-mail.
In May of 2005, I pitched to an editor from Loose Id at the Romantic Times Conference in St. Louis. The full manuscript was requested, which led to lots of shouts of joy afterwards. I submitted and waited anxiously to hear back.
It was a Sunday night, and I was up [...]

The Call: Kendra Clark

By Alice ⋅ December 16, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Technically, I didn’t get a first call. I got a first email! I had submitted a few stories to two different ebpublishers. My first call/email came in for Spirit Warrior at Triskelion Publishing on a Monday. I got my second for Kiss Me Sweetly to Whiskey Creek Press Torrid the following Friday!
It was a fabulous [...]

The Call: Laura Bacchi

By Alice ⋅ December 15, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

In December of 2004, I heard about two publisher-sponsored writing contests at the last minute and spent my Christmas holiday ignoring my family and gift-shopping to get my entries done. The publisher announcements were scheduled for the same day in January. When I checked my email that morning, fingernails gnawed to the quick and coping [...]

The Call: Donica Covey

By Alice ⋅ December 13, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

I’d sold a story to Triskel, but I had a book that I’d written that, in my heart I knew it was the big one. I sent it to Harlequin’s Intrigue line. In the same week I sent off the query, I got the rejection. Tells me they didnt even look at it. I was [...]

The Call: Sylvia Day

By Alice ⋅ December 12, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Publication for me started with a contest.
I was selected as one of twenty finalists in the 2004 Lori Foster Brava Novella contest ten months after I first began writing. Two months after that I found out I’d won the Reader’s Choice portion of the contest. I was stunned. When Kate Duffy called the day after [...]

The Call: Yvonne Lindsay

By Alice ⋅ December 10, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Thursday 21 April 2005, 7.30 a.m. Auckland, NZ I’m in the en suite getting ready for work. Have just finished applying my makeup and brushed my hair and I’m about to apply hairspray when my hubby calls me from the bedroom (in bed) to say there’s someone on the phone for me. Who could be [...]

CLEAR IT OUT!! by Kelly Bowerman w/as Kelly Ethan

By Alice ⋅ December 9, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Someone once said ‘a cluttered office leads to a cluttered manuscript’, oh, that was me! I have a cluttered office, my file cabinet overflows and my books have a leaning tower of Pisa thing going on. So I took a monumental step forward and decided to organize my office. After a multitude of hours spent [...]

The Call: Jayelle Drewry

By Alice ⋅ December 8, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

My call came in June, while I was driving down to the beach with my sons. My husband called me on the cell phone and it was during that conversation I realized I had married a sick man. He teased me. He tormented me. “You have mail.” He stops. “Want me to read it?” Does [...]

The Call: Leigh Ellwood