IWSG September 2018 and Submissions Open for Next Anthology

It's September - wow, how did that happen? - and as it's the first Wednesday of the month, that naturally means it is time for the group posting of the wonderful Insecure Writer's Support Group. Headed up by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the group meets once a month to offload writerly worries in a safe, non-judgmental space. This month's co-hosts are Toi Thomas, T. Powell Coltrin, M.J. Fifield and Tara Tyler.

Before we get to this month's post, a very exciting announcement as submissions are officially open for the next IWSG anthology!

Word count: 3500-6000

Genre: Young Adult Romance

Theme:

Masquerade

A Masquerade can be a false show or pretense, someone pretending to be someone they aren't. It can be a ball, a fancy dress party, it can be a mask. Open to interpretation.

Submissions accepted: September 5 - November 4, 2018

How to enter: Send your polished, formatted (Double spaced, no page numbers), previously unpublished story to admin @ insecurewriterssupportgroup.com before the deadline passes. Please include your contact details, your social links, and if you are part of the Blogging, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter IWSG group.

Judging: The IWSG admins will create a shortlist of the best stories. The shortlist will then be sent to our official judges who will be announced September 5.

Prizes: The winning stories will be edited and published by Freedom Fox Press next year in the IWSG anthology. Authors will receive royalties on books sold, both print and eBook. The top story will have the honor of giving the anthology its title.

This is a fantastic opportunity for all writers to appear in a prestigious publication. Will you be entering?

Now let's turn to this month's IWSG question which is What publishing path are you considering/did you take, and why?

Well, this does tie into my insecurity this month as it will soon be time to self-publish the second book in my series, which does take a somewhat darker turn in some places, and I hope readers will go with me on that. It's something I've been thinking about a lot - I'm considering pursuing some form of traditional publication on my next project, but does that allow one to take the kind of risks that are possible with self-publishing? It comes down to the individual publishing house, I suppose. The traditional route is something I have always wanted to experience, and being a hybrid author does come with own its freedom as you pick and choose what is most suitable for each project. Perhaps I would benefit from greater editorial input and intervention too - it remains to be seen if the freedom afforded by self-publishing means I'll be flying too close to the sun with this next book and will end by crashing and burning.

Ultimately, I would hope to work with a company that offers full support to the author's vision while flagging where something might not seem quite right. Perhaps one of the smaller publishing houses?

What about you? Where are you on your publication path? Will you be seeking publication in the next IWSG anthology?

Hear What You Want by Kyra Lennon out now!

One of my oldest author friends released a new book this week, and I was lucky enough to receive an ARC. I can wholeheartedly recommend this book - in the past, Kyra Lennon has been known for sweet romances that I have thoroughly enjoyed, even though that is not my first genre of choice. The key is that her characters are always completely relatable, and that carries on into this new offering which takes a turn into some darker territory, doing so in a way that is skilful and keeps you guessing.

Title: Hear What You Want (Chaos and Consent Book 1)

Author: Kyra Lennon

Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Goodreads

Blurb: Ambra
Things I wanted:
A great night out, and to meet my favourite band.

Things I didn’t want:
To wake up the next morning with my underwear beside me on the floor and a large chunk missing from my memory.

Guess which one I got.

Noah
Things I wanted:
To meet a pretty girl at my band's gig and have some fun.

Things I didn’t want:
To find a photo of me and the pretty girl on social media with people questioning whether or not I raped her.

But here we are. And that one photo?

It changed everything.

**This book contains sensitive topics that some may find upsetting.**

My review:

One of the best novels I've read in a long time. I think its greatest quality is that it deals with very hard-hitting, challenging issues in a style that is very accessible - we get alternating viewpoints from both main characters and I felt a great deal of sympathy for both of them, including Noah, who we have to believe is behind the attack that underpins the plot - now that's no mean feat. The problem is that neither of them are sure whether an attack took place, and while they're trying to piece it together, they're facing a backlash that could threaten both of their futures.

This very timely novel is a sobering warning about the pitfalls of social media - which as well as being a force for good, can all too often become a vehicle for a mob mentality in which people jump on the bandwagon to vilify someone with no worries about the consequences. In the days following the night that changes her life, this has almost as devastating an effect on Ambra's life as the incident itself. I won't give away any spoilers, but let's just say the nature of trust also comes under the microscope here as something that is increasingly fragile in the digital age.

Lennon throws in a good couple of twists towards the end - I hadn't actually realised this was the first in a series, so now I'm eagerly awaiting part 2 to see where she takes us next.

My only quibble with this book - which was very minor, and might not bother someone else - was the Americanisms that pop up throughout (eg "apartment", "asshole", "most everyone"). British people don't speak like that - I even share the same hometown as Ambra, Brighton on England's south coast, so I would have preferred a more authentically British feel. It jarred me out of the story slightly at times, but didn't spoil my overall enjoyment.

That aside, this was an engrossing read that kept me turning pages, and is the best I've read from an author who has consistently produced excellent books. Highly recommended!

IWSG August 2018 and Next Anthology Contest Announced

Time for another group posting of the IWSG - quite hard to believe it's August already! Our heatwave in Scotland has turned decidedly autumnal. Wherever you are, hope you're safe and not too hot or cold. This is the time every month where we can unload our writing worries and woes among supportive friends - with Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh taking the helm as always, our co-hosts this month are Erika Beebe, Sandra Hoover, Susan Gourley and Lee Lowery.

Just the usual insecurities this month about prepping for an upcoming release - I believe I'm very nearly done with edits for book 2 of my trilogy, now it's just finishing touches and making sure its teeth are brushed and hair combed before sending it out to seek its fortune. I'm also reading through the draft of book 3, having been quite shocked to see that it was last saved six months ago. I was stuck on the ending then, but a readthrough is sparking different ideas off and I'm heartened that the writing is not quite as terrible as I had feared. Let's turn to this month's IWSG question.

"What pitfalls would you warn other writers to avoid on their publication journey?"

This is quite an interesting question because I firmly believe that mistakes and stumbles are a vital part of the process - they're how we learn, after all. You just have to do what feels right at the time, but if I was going to give advice, it would be not to put all your eggs in one basket - be open to different routes to publication and if sending out queries to agents or publishers, keep writing in the meantime rather than obsessively checking your inbox. Yes, I was guilty of this one, but I soon learned my lesson. It took me a while to write another book, but I did write the first short stories I was really proud of at this time, which brings me on nicely to a couple of big announcements for the IWSG!

First we have:

The 2018 Annual IWSG Anthology Contest

Word count: 3500-6000

Genre: Young Adult Romance

Theme:

Masquerade

A Masquerade can be a false show or pretense, someone pretending to be someone they aren't. It can be a ball, a fancy dress party, it can be a mask. Open to interpretation.

Submissions accepted: September 5 - November 4, 2018

How to enter: Send your polished, formatted (Double spaced, no page numbers), previously unpublished story to admin @ insecurewriterssupportgroup.com before the deadline passes. Please include your contact details, your social links, and if you are part of the Blogging, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter IWSG group.

Judging: The IWSG admins will create a shortlist of the best stories. The shortlist will then be sent to our official judges who will be announced September 5.

Prizes: The winning stories will be edited and published by Freedom Fox Press next year in the IWSG anthology. Authors will receive royalties on books sold, both print and eBook. The top story will have the honor of giving the anthology its title.

The good news is this gives you a headstart of over a month before the contest opens! Time to get thinking caps on.

We also have details of another exciting new venture to share. The IWSG has teamed up with the good folks at WEP (Write-Edit-Publish) for a challenge that all our members can take part in, including on Facebook. Sign up today to post August 15. Details as follows:

The August WEP Challenge – A Change of Heart

Who hasn’t had one? This one’s easy, right?
A commitment made when a prospect looked attractive, a decision on a course of action, and then regrets and reluctance to follow through. It could be an engagement, a date, a diet plan, a chore someone said they’d do and didn’t follow through. A strip poker-game. Or maybe a gamble with super-high, panic inducing stakes. A break for independence that once made, gives pause for second thoughts. A bolt for the grass-always-greener pasture and then wanting to vault-n-turn right back. Something offered, then withdrawn. Myriad ways to go.

There's plenty going on! Any thoughts on either of these challenges? Any pitfalls to share for others to avoid? Check out the other great IWSG posters here.

Tempting Friendship Release Day

Today I'm helping out a very talented author friend with the release of what looks like another great book. So it's over to Patricia Lynne and Tempting Friendship.

At first, Quinn isn’t impressed by Keane. He’s cocky and has sex on the brain. The polar opposite of her. Despite their differences, something blossoms between the two. 

Never one to take things seriously, Keane is an incubus coasting through life without a care. When he meets Quinn, her lack of reaction to him piques his interest. No human has ever been able to resist him. 

As Keane and Quinn struggle to understand what is going on between them, something sinister rocks their world. Young incubi are vanishing, and Keane's friends go missing. Someone is after his kind. When Quinn is kidnapped, Keane must uncover who is behind the abductions and get to her before it's too late.

Keane’s Top Five Video Games by Keane

Hello my adoring fans. *winks* I decided to take time out of my busy schedule and clue you in on the must have video games everyone should play. And don’t try to tell me you’re not into games. These are worth it. Trust me, I’ve been around long enough to know good quality when I see it.

1.      We have to start with a classic: Pong. It doesn’t get much simpler than that but did this change everything. I don’t want to think of where gaming would be if not for this game.

2.      Sonic The Hedgehog. I know there are going to be Nintendo fanboys/girls yelling at me but hear me out. Sonic is just a blast. It’s fast paced, the music is great, and the graphics still hold up. I’m right and you know it.

3.      The Legend of Zelda; Ocarina of Time. Can I really call myself a gamer if I didn’t love this game? It was amazing. The story. The characters. The music. I still play this game. (I do have to admit, Breath of the Wild has become a second close.)

4.      Street Fight. Chun Lee. Nuff said.

5.      Tomb Raider games, but not the reboot. The reboot was fun to play, but Lara is so booooring now. Before she was snarky and confident. I love a confident woman. I hope future releases in the reboot have Lara gaining the confidence the old Lara had.

Buy on:

Amazon

Smashwords

Kobo

iTunes

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the Author

Patricia never set out to become a writer, and in fact, she never considered it an option during high school and college. She was more of an art and band geek. Some stories are meant to be told, and now she can't stop writing.

She writes New Adult under the name Patricia Josephine and Young Adult under the name Patricia Lynne.

Patricia lives with her husband in Michigan, hopes one day to have what will resemble a small petting zoo, and has a fondness for dying her hair the colors of the rainbow.

Social Media Links:

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Google+

Newsletter

Goodreads

Amazon Author Page

Smashwords

Summer sale for A Change of Mind and Other Stories

Hope everyone is having an awesome summer and you're not sweltering too much in this heat - we're definitely not used to it in Scotland! - and if it's winter where you are, I hope it's a pleasant one! To help celebrate, I've put my speculative collection A Change of Mind and Other Stories on half price throughout July - that's just $0.99 for a bunch of tales that's set to intrigue and tickle your imagination.

"This is a wonderful collection of short fiction. Nick Wilford's writing style is sharp and punchy and you'll find yourself sucked into these pieces." - Michelle Wallace

"Wilford’s ability to work an awesome plot-twist into such short pieces of fiction is simply amazing. My favorite of the shorter pieces was definitely Marissa, although I enjoyed all of them and felt disappointed when I reached the end of the collection. Don’t miss this one! It’s fantastic!" - Amazon Customer

"What a delightful collection of stories! There's good character development even in the shortest of works in the volume, and nice, forward-moving plots... If you're looking for some light, quick reads with a bit of an edginess to them, this is a good place to start." - KSF

"Some of the best writing I've encountered in indie fiction... For anyone interested in speculative fiction and snappy short stories, reading A Change of Mind is an afternoon well-spent." - JKU

You can find it here: Amazon US / Amazon UK / Smashwords / 

The Smashwords sale is running throughout July and you can find lots more great reads here.

Have a great weekend!

IWSG July 2018

It's the first week of July, and we're here a day early because I hear there's some sort of big holiday going on for my friends across the pond tomorrow. Nothing else has changed though, this is still the best place to gather and unleash our writerly worries in an atmosphere of mutual support. Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh remains ably at the helm, backed up this month by Nicki Elson, Juneta Key, Tamara Narayan and Patricia Lynne.

I don't have much to be feeling insecure about - edits for the middle part of my trilogy are proceeding apace and I should be on track for an autumn release. Maybe taking a bit longer than planned, but for good reasons - I spent the past couple of weeks crafting a short story for a competition, for example. Diversions like that stop me getting bogged down, and I've come to believe that things will be ready when they're ready, rather than following a rigorous schedule. Let's turn to this month's IWSG question, which is as follows: "What are your ultimate writing goals, and how have they changed over time (if at all)?"

That's an interesting one, quite deep for a glorious summer's day. I suppose in some way my goals have changed - initially I just wanted to finish one book, then I wanted to sign on with an agent. For the first I realised that, because finishing was in fact possible, I wanted to write a better book, and for the second, it did not seem as all-important as it once had after I started talking to other writers who were pursuing publication in all sorts of ways. But ultimately, my goals have always been to express myself and hopefully say something about the human condition. It's a confusing enough world - more and more so every day, it seems - and I'm always trying to find out what makes people tick, even if those people are on a distant planet or far into the future. I also want what I have to say to strike a chord with others and for them to relate to it, and miraculously, I seem to have had some success there, so I'll keep trying to take that further. Selling millions was never really part of the equation, which is probably just as well!

To read others' thoughts and insecurities this month head to the IWSG signup page here.

In other news, we only have just over two weeks to go before the next #IWSGPit on July 19. Will you be pitching into the fray with a tasty morsel to hook an agent or publisher? Last time we had about 5,100 Tweets and became a trending topic, and the next event looks to be even bigger, so don't miss out on grabbing a piece of the action! Rules are as follows:

Create a Twitter-length pitch for your completed and polished manuscript and leave room for genre, age, and the hashtag. On July 19, Tweet your pitch between 8am and 8pm Eastern time. If your pitch receives a favorite/heart from a publisher/agent check their submission guidelines and send your requested query.

Many writers have seen their books published from a Twitter pitch - it’s a quick and easy way to put your manuscript in front of publishers and agents.

Rules:

Writers may send out 1 Twitter pitch every hour per manuscript.

Publishers/Agents will favorite/heart pitches they are interested in. Publishers can either Tweet basic submission guidelines or direct writers to their submission guidelines. (Writers, please do not favorite/heart pitches.)

No images allowed in pitches.

Pitches must include GENRE/AGE and the hashtag #IWSGPit.

Ages:
#C - children’s
#MG - middle grade
#YA - young adult
#NA - new adult
#A - adult
Genres:
#AD - adventure
#CF - Christian fiction
#CO - contemporary
#F - fantasy
#H - horror
#HI - historical
#LF - literary fiction
#MCT - mystery/crime/thriller
#ME - memoir
#NF - non-fiction
#PB - picture book
#PN - paranormal
#R - romance
#SF - sci-fi
#WF - women's fiction