The Lori Foster/Brava Contest is drawing to a close. I’ve been surprised by how many people I’ve read about entering the contest on Lori’s message board. I can’t imagine how many entries there must have been! No wonder Lori asked for help this year.
The number of entries has prompted me to wonder: Are there that many aspiring and published authors that want to break into romantica? Or is it the lure of the contest and a possible editor read that pushes authors to submit to a genre that they don’t intend to spend their careers writing in? Or perhaps it’s the short 750 word limit that draws submissions? After all, 750 words takes only a couple of hours to write. (Of course polishing and tweaking would take up far more time, but better to polish and tweak 750 words than say 30-35 pages.) Or perhaps there are actually hundreds of authors who write romantica and also want to write for Brava. We’ve actually been discussing this for the last few weeks on the message board. (You can veiw the thread here.)
Considering that published authors were also permitted to submit, the competition must be fierce. I wish I could be a judge! I bet the entries would be so awesome to go through. The good ones would just excite you endlessly and the bad ones would be like an episode of the best of the worst on American Idol. Either way. What fun!
I am thrilled to say that I’m finally a member of a critique group. Finally! Finally! :hehe: I have been looking for cp’s for months now. I’m so excited!
I’d also like to ask more of you writers with blogs to consider joining the webring. It’s really a “no lose” bit of promotion. You can personally use the ring to surf author blogs and in the process gain some added visitors for your own blog. The link is really small and can be placed anywhere in your blog sidebar:
(I admit it’s not “attractive”, but hey, I didn’t design the darn thing. It’s the univeral design for blog rings!). The more members, the better the ring. (click on the “#” above to see the list of existing members.) Please consider it. You can join here.
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You know, I’ve been wondering the same thing about the Brava contest. I’m guessing that much of the lure is the 750 word count AND the fact that it’s free. There are probably a lot people thinking, "what the hell, if I win, I guess I’ll learn to write erotic romance."
Two years ago–heck, even a year ago–I wouldn’t have considered attempting it. But my writing has gradually grown more spicy, and I’m having fun with hotter material.
Now I just have to hope that no one laughs my entry right out of the water!