Want a Chance to Win a Prize Package?

My friend Maria Zannini is having a fun contest/challenge and she's offering up a great prize package for the winner. Info is below. From now until May 28, 2009 at 12 Noon (cst) you earn a point every time you post the words below and my website link on any blog, forum, or social networking group. Google Alerts will tell me every time these words are used, but if you want to make sure you get credit, email me at: countdown DOT apocalypse AT gmail DOT com and send me the direct link on where you posted it.

THE APOCALYPSE IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK

Buy TOUCH OF FIRE by Maria Zannini http://www.mariazannini.com/

Write a review for Touch Of Fire on Amazon or any other review forum, and earn 5 extra points. Post the phrase and link on Twitter and earn 3 extra points. The person with the most points by noon, May 28, 2009 will receive a prize package worth $100. The prize package includes a signed copy of Touch Of Fire, a $50 gift certificate from Amazon.com, and assorted trinkets and VERY COOL goodies totaling $35. Maria's blog Maria's Webiste Good luck!

NABBW Your Age of Elegance Writing Contest

The National Association of Baby Boomer Women, is proud and excited to sponsor the... Entering YOUR Age of Elegance - Writing Contest Ah, Baby Boomers. Look who's entering the Age of Elegance... According to author Chloe Jon Paul who wrote, Entering the Age of Elegance - A Rite of Passage & Practical Guide for the Modern Maturing Woman, this second adulthood reaches us around age forty and if this "rite of passage" isn't done with style and grace, we can become disoriented and lose our way. We want to know what the Age of Elegance means to you. Fulfillment? Exploration? Discovery? Tell us! To enter this contest, simply follow these short and simple guidelines before submitting your story. CONTEST GUIDELINES: Using 500 words or less, and using these helpful questions below, tell us;

• What does the "age of elegance" mean to you?
• Have you embraced this time in your life? If so, how?
• Have you used this journey to define yourself as a new woman?

Please submit your entry in a WORD document AS AN ATTACHMENT. Include your name, email address, and short bio (no more than 75 words) INSIDE the WORD document NOT IN THE BODY OF THE EMAIL.

• SUBMIT to - contest@nabbw.com with Age of Elegance in the subject line.
• DEADLINE - May 31, 2009PRIZE
• MONEY - 100.00 and F-R-E-E membership or renewal in the NABBW. Plus your story will be published in the Our Voices section at http://www.boomerwomenspeak.com/. Also . . . TWO LUCKY RUNNER-UPS will receive a framed copy of The Litany of Elegance plus easels, compliments of author Chloe Jon Paul!

Visit the NABBW Website NABBW on Facebook

FREE Online Conference - Promo Day!

Online Conference to Help Authors with Publishing Industry’s New Promote-Yourself Mindset World Wide Web--As the recession deepens for the publishing industry and more and more writers must--absolutely must--promote their own books or see them languish, a free online conference featuring industry experts is here to help! PROMO DAY returns for its second year Saturday, May 9, featuring notable publishing industry experts like Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers including The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward To Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. She is also the author of other author aids like her Amazon short, “The Great First Impression Book Proposal.” Howard-Johnson has appeared on more than 300 TV and radio shows. She is an instructor for UCLA Extension's renowned Writers' Program and award-winning author of fiction and poetry. The conference also features Lael Johnson, Karina Fabian, John Desjarlais - Elysabeth Eldering, Joyce Anthony, Ron Berry, Devon Ellington, Carol Denbo and Lea Schizas. The day, coordinated by Jo Linsell, is an all day online international event packed full of tips and advice. In includes a variety of opportunities for writers, publishers, editors and other book publishing professionals to promote their work and services. Readers are also welcome to drop in and get to know the presenters and attendees better in the online chatroom, view the video trailers, or read the sample chapters on site. Founder and Organizer of the event, Jo Linsdell, says “Promo Day came about because I was looking for opportunities to promote my books using the internet at little or no cost. After attending the Muse Online Writers Conference back in 2006, I searched the internet for similar events aimed at what to do after you’ve written the book and found none. I decided to fill the void.” New features for this year is the official blog for the event, http://promoday.blogspot.com/, where everyone can keep up to date with new announcements and information regarding the event and the official Promo Day book, packed full of information and resources, which will be available to buy during and after the event. To attend go to http://jolinsdell.tripod.com/promoday Learn more about Howard-Johnson at http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com/ Promo Day Blog - http://promoday.blogspot.com/

Writer's Journal Contest(s)

*Romance Category* Prizes: First: $250.00, Second: $100.00, Third: $50.00, Plus Honorable Mentions First, Second, Third, and selected Honorable Mention winning stories will be published in future issues of the WRITERS' Journal. For Contest Winners, please click here. Guidelines For printable version, click here Annual Postmark Deadline: July 30 Reading Fee: $7.00/entry U.S. funds only Send Entries to: (Multiple entries from one party may be mailed in one envelope.) "Romance Contest" Val-Tech Media P.O. Box 394 Perham, MN 56573 Please make checks or money orders payable to: WRITERS' Journal Submissions must be postmarked by the deadline date. (July 30) Manuscripts will not be returned Rules: Length must not exceed 2,000 words. Manuscripts must be typed, double-spaced on 8 1/2" x 11" paper. Only one copy of each entry required: ~ Writer's name must not appear on submission. Each submission must include: ~ A separate cover page with the name of contest, title of manuscript, writer's name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address if available. ~A title page with the manuscript title only. ~On the manuscript itself, each page headed with a title key word and page number. ~Nowhere on the manuscript should the author's name appear. No staples please. Photocopies accepted - manuscripts will not be returned. For those without Web access, a winner's list can be obtained by sending a #10 SASE. Only original, previously unpublished stories accepted. Copyrights to manuscripts remain with author. WRITERS' Journal requires only one-time rights to winning entries. Reading fee must be included. Writer's Journal Website *NOTE: Check out the website, there are other categories available to enter. Not to mention the great articles and monthly Writer's Book Giveaway.

Happy April Fools Day!

Comments - Graphics - Layouts - Photobucket

Romancing A Cause Auction

Help friends from The Romance Divas support a struggling romance writer. She and her husband have lost their home, both lost their jobs, and we don't want them to lose hope. Be a Diva and have a ball with these awesome items. A new auction every day! From April 1st through April 7th you can bid on print books, ebooks, writing critiques, banner creation, jewelry, baskets of soap, and other goodies galore! All of the participating authors are part of the Romance Divas writing forum, and include Robin L. Rotham, Gemma Halliday, Jennifer Lewis, Kate Pearce, Jennifer Colgan, Nell Dixon, Sage Burnett, Delia DeLeest, KB Alan, Debbie Mumford, DaraEngland, Cassandra Curtis, Ciar Cullen, Stephanie Adkins, and many more! To learn more visit Ciar Cullen's Auction Page. Happy Bidding! Romancing The Cause Auction Ciar Cullen's Website/Blog The Romance Divas Forum

Agent Contest - TKA's Book In a Nutshell Competition

*Snipped from The Knight Agency Blog Get noticed, get feedback, get an agent. Here’s a chance to have your project reviewed by one of the agents at The Knight Agency. Submit three compelling sentences (150 words max) about your completed, unpublished manuscript to mailto:submissions@knightagency.net (delete spaces). Write BOOK IN A NUTSHELL in the subject line or it will not be deemed elligible. One submission per project, please. Twenty of the best submissions will be chosen and requested by various agents who will then give feedback on your work...and it may even lead to possible representation. Hurry, the deadline is April 20, 2009. Winners will be notified by May 1, 2009. The Knight Agency

RJ First and Favorite Writing Contest 2009

*Permission to forward RJ First and Favorite Writing Contest 2009 FAQ 1. It's free. 2. Open to all published and unpublished authors. Only published authors from Tor cannot enter. 3. Each week we post a group of entries to be voted on by readers in our Romance Junkies Readers Loop http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RomanceJunkiesReaders/ 4. The top 18 finalists will be posted on the Romance Junkies Blog for a final round of voting by readers. http://www.romancejunkies.com/rjblog/ 5. The top three entries will be read by Tor Editor Heather Osborne who will pick a Grand Prize Winner. And that Grand Prize Winner will win a netbook laptop. Contest Schedule April 2– July 15-- Take in Entries Week of June 1st –September– Post entries in Readers Loop Every week a group of entries are posted on the Romance Junkies Readers Loop to be voted on by readers -http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RomanceJunkiesReaders/ October 1st – November 4th– Top 18 entries posted on RJ Blog for final round of voting by Readers. http://www.romancejunkies.com/rjblog/ Top Three go to Editor Heather Osborne of Tor So how do you enter? You scroll down and read all the Rules and stuff we put in to cover our butts. Then you polish up your entry, check out the info on how to enter below and send it in. ;-) Easy as pie. Contest Rules and Regulations Contest is free and open to all published and unpublished authors. Only published authors from Tor cannot enter. All work must be original, unpublished work. No previously 'published' works will be considered and this includes, e-publishing, etc. You can enter more than once. Romance Junkies is a PG-13 site and since the entries are going to be online to be judged by the readers they need to be PG13. Please submit nothing your boss would look over your shoulder and fire you for reading at work. If you have any questions please contact Kimberly at writingcontest@romancejunkies.com. Your manuscript can be really steamy and more than PG13, but the part you send into us has to be PG13 so we can post it on the Readers Loop/RJ Blog for voting ;-) We want your first Chapter and something in the middle. First chapter can include Prologue and First chapter combined. As long as the both add up to no more than 5,000 words. And then we want a little something from the middle. Send us your favorite scene from the middle up to 2,500 words. Entrant fully understands that the judging is subjective. Entrant will accept and abide by the decision of the judges. Entrant will hold Romance Junkies, its members, officers and the judges of this contest harmless and hereby release them from any liability, which may arise from this contest. By submitting the entry, entrant specifically waives any right they may have to bring suit against Romance Junkies, its members, officers, representatives or judges. Participants understand there is no implication of a publishing contract with TOR Publishing and the Participants agree that by entering contest they will hold TOR Publishing harmless from any liability resulting from the contest How to Enter Please combine the first chapter and your favorite scene in one document with each area clearly labeled. Please include your writing name and email we can use to contact you. Send all that into to writingcontest@romancejunkies.com (no spaces) with writing contest in subject line ;-) Clear as mud? Romance Junkies http://www.romancejunkies.com

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Myspace Comments

Miss Snark's Secret Agent Contest

*Below info snipped from Miss Snark's First Victim Blog Please note: THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS. Anything emailed prior to the opening of the submission window will be deleted. Without further unwarranted tangents: 1. The call will be for the first 250 words of your COMPLETED, EDITED novel. 2. This month's genres are limited to the following: Suspense, mystery, thriller YA and MG mystery/thriller, adventure (no SF/F) 3. I will take the first 50 submissions. Period. The "24 hour window" is a thing of the past, as submissions generally fill up in less than 2 hours. Granted, this is a narrower genre pool. I'm not sure how many mystery and thriller writers will come out of the woodwork for this round, but I'm sure you're out there! Just make sure you submit something polished. 4. Format of submissions (same as ever): SCREEN NAME TITLE GENRE Excerpt 5. Submission email address: facelesswords(at)gmail.com. DO NOT SEND YOUR SUBMISSION TO MY AUTHORESSMAIL address. Email subscribers pay special attention to this, please. Your email subscription comes from the authoressmail account, which is not the submissions address. Full submission guidelines will be posted when submissions open on Monday. PLEASE NOTE: There will be a new time for the start of submissions! This is an experiment, as we're dealing with so many time zones. (Bear in mind that, while I'm sure you'd like to be awake when submissions open, it's imperative that I am awake, too, so I can, yanno, run the contest. In short, I can't accommodate everybody, much as I'd like to.) Submissions will open at 8:00 PM EDT on Monday, March 16. That's 1:00 AM Tuesday morning, London time. For the rest of you, go HERE to determine the start time in your time zone. I'm not sure if this will work for me, since it robs me of Monday afternoon for creating posts. But let's give it a whirl and see what happens. If I drop from exhaustion, you can revive me by sending all sorts of gourmet goodies wrapped in pink cellophane. Please drop your questions in the box!

Read An E-Book Week

Did you know that March 8th thru the 14th is Read an E-Book Week? Well, it is. :) This is the first I've heard about it. Here's a bit of background I snipped from the Read an E-Book Week site: History - Read an E-Book Week was first registered with Chase's Calendar of Events in 2004. Chase's is a day by day directory of special days, weeks and months used by event planners or anyone looking for a reason to celebrate. By having the week officially recognized, e-book authors and publishers acquired a certain extra "legitimacy" during that week to promote the new technology of e-books. The public and media were initially wary of e-books and many doors were closed to promotion. With the week officially recognized by Chase's, authors reported they now had access to television morning chat shows and were allowed to set up library displays during the week-long event. Purpose - Read an E-Book Week is a not-for-profit week set aside to inform the public about the pleasures and advantages of reading electronically. Authors, publishers, vendors, the media and readers world-wide are welcome to join in the effort. We encourage you to promote electronic reading with any event. These could include: public readings, library displays, reading challenges, school visits, newspaper and blog articles, chat show appearances, internet radio interviews, e-book give-ways, and banners on your website. The Read an E-Book Website is here to provide the latest information on e-books and to act as a collection point where you can list your event or give-away. The site has all you ever wanted to know about ebook readers, too. If you'd like to learn more about Read an E-Book Week and/or download a free support/promotional badge like the one I have above (there are badges for different genres). go to:

http://www.ebookweek.com/index.html%20 .

Happy Reading!

Oh, by the way, here's a little something extra to help celebrate Read anE-Book Week: *Posted with permission* To celebrate Read an eBook Week, March 8th – 14th, BeWrite Books will be giving away a selection of eBooks to download for free. Please follow this link to download your free copies. Each day will have a different genre of books to chose from including Crime, Adventure, Fantasy etc. More details on Read an eBook Week can be found here:http://www.ebookweek.com/index.html To download your copies visit BeWrite Books: http://www.bewrite.net/bookshop/download.htm BeWrite Books BeWrite Books Blog Happy Read an E-Book Week!

WOW! Winter 2009 Flash Fiction Contest

WOW! (Women On Writing) WINTER 2009 FLASH FICTION CONTEST

OVERVIEW:

WOW! hosts a (quarterly) writing contest every three months. The mission of this contest is to inspire creativity, communication, and well-rewarded recognition to contestants. The contest is open globally; age is of no matter; and entries must be in English. We are open to all styles of writing, although we do encourage you to take a close look at our guest judge for the season (upper right hand column) and the flavor of our sponsor, if you are serious about winning. We love creativity, originality, and light-hearted reads. That's not to say that our guest judge will feel the same... so go wild! Express yourself, and most of all, let's have some fun!

WORD COUNT:

Maximum: 750 Minimum: 250

The title is not to be counted in your word count. We use MS Word's word count to determine the submitted entry's word count.

PROMPT:

OPEN PROMPT!

That’s right, this is your chance to shine, and get creative. You can write about anything, as long as it’s within the word count and fiction. So, dig out those stories you started way back when and tailor them to the word count.

We’re open to any style and genre. From horror to romance! So, get creative, and most of all, have fun.

GUEST JUDGE: LITERARY AGENT, JANET REID

Janet Reid is an agent with FinePrint Literary Management. Her specialty is relentlessly commercial crime fiction but she also swoons over well-written projects in many other categories. Her asssssistant is a 12 foot long stuffed snake (given to her by Lee Child.) She maintains a blog at http://www.jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/ to rant about everything that makes her snarl from query letters to…well, query letters. She also runs Query Shark to critique query letters. After hours she stalks Jack Reacher.

CONTEST DEADLINES:

FALL: September - November 30th Midnight (Pacific Time) - CLOSED WINTER: December - February 28th, Midnight (Pacific Time) - NOW OPEN! SPRING: March - May 31st, Midnight (Pacific Time) - CLOSED SUMMER: June - August 31st, Midnight (Pacific Time) - CLOSED

ENTRY FEE: $10.00

We are limiting the amount of entries to a maximum of 300 stories. Please enter early to ensure inclusion.

If we reach 300 entries, we will disable the PayPal buttons.

This sounds like an awesome contest. Hurry and get your submission in before it’s too late! Also, not long ago I blogged about the below post (scroll down to Sunday, January 11th post), but I thought it was worth mentioning it again.

Good luck to those of you who decide to enter the contest!

WOW! is seeking writers for their upcoming themes:

- Finances - Genres - The Process

We are also looking for photo essays and video on a variety of subjects: workspaces, tours of author's homes, how-tos, speakers on craft of writing subjects, author interviews, event coverage, balancing work/writing with family, etc. If you have an idea for a photo essay (300-500 words), or a video, please query us with examples of photo essays/video work you've previously completed. Please review our submission guidelines on our Contact Page (scroll to the bottom) for pay rates and how to submit. We look forward to hearing from you!

LSFW Mayke It Happen Challenge

Liberty States Fiction Writers Mayke it Happen Challenge (No, that's not a typo in Mayke! - the deadline for completion is May 31.) Write your personal "Great American Novel" in the LFSW Mayke it Happen Challenge.· The Goal: 60,000 words by midnight EST May 31, 2009· The Prize: Everyone who finishes their goal will be eligible to win a critique of their proposal (synopsis and three chapters) from a published author, agent or publishing house editor Who is Eligible: The Mayke it Happen Challenge runs from February 1, 2009 through May 31, 2009. A support loop, moderated by a number of published authors, will be available to help participants reach their goal. The cost for non-members is $25 and a link for payment will be available on February 1. This challenge is free for all Liberty States Fiction Writers members. The following published authors will be moderating the loop and providing guidance to Mayke It Happen participants:

• Debra Mullins
• Linda Parisi
• Caridad Pineiro
• Lois Winston

For details, meeting information or to join Liberty States Fiction Writers visit the website at: http://www.libertystatesfictionwriters.com/ contact: Chris Redding http://www.chrisreddingauthor.com/

2009 PNWA Literary Contest

Fron the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Website:

The 2009 PNWA Literary Contest presents an opportunity for writers to showcase their unpublished work.

Deadline is Febuary 20th, so hurry and get your entry in!

Contest Categories 1. Mainstream 7. Non-Fiction Book/Memoir 2 .Inspirational Genre 8. Screen Writing 3. Romance Genre 9. Poetry 4. Mystery/Thriller Genre 10. Short Story 5. Science Fiction/Fantasy Genre 11. Children’s Picture Book or Chapter Book 6. Young Adult Novel 12. Adult Short Topics: Article/Essay/ Short Memoir

Awards and Benefits

The eight finalists in each category will be notified before June 2009 prior to the PNWA Summer Conference on July 30 - August 2, 2009. Award Winners will be announced at the conference.

Every entry accepted in the contest will receive two –critiques—a useful tool for any writer.

Finalists who attend the PNWA Summer Conference will receive a Finalist ribbon for their name badge, giving them high visibility to the agents and editors at the conference. Finalists’ manuscripts will be made available to agents and editors during the conference. In addition, finalists entries are read and judged by an agent or editor to determine the top three in each category.

Winners are given the opportunity to attend the Agents and Editors Reception at the PNWA Summer Conference.

Awards will be given as follows:

First Place: $600 and the Zola Award The Zola Award honors founding member Zola Helen Ross for her vision in creating a writing community more than 50 years ago.

Second Place: $300

Third Place: $150

Entries must be postmarked no later than FEBRUARY 20, 2009.

PNWA Webite PNWA Contest Rules/Guidelines