Happy Halloween!

Reasons to Celebrate! A Rejection-Free Disneyland Day!

Thanks for the birthday wishes for my five-year-old, we had a great time at Disneyland (he hasn't had his "own" day at Disneyland before, and he loved it). Also, I'm happy to report that my Blackberry was rejection-free at Disneyland this time around, definitely a reason to celebrate.

Another reason to celebrate, (maybe): I learned on Karen Amanda Hooper's Blog that Literary Agent Mary Cole is having a query letter contest. The deadline is October 31st and you paste your query letter right in the comments. It has to be for a YA or MG book that is completed. The prize? Her critique of the first 30 pages of your ms... here is the link: Kidlit Contest.

And something else! I enjoyed The Maze Runner so much that I want to share the joy. Since I won it in a giveaway (thanks again Mary!) I figured I would pay it forward in a giveaway of my own. I'll put up details this Saturday :)

Last thing for today: I'm catching up with an award, and awards always makes me happy. Thank you to both Melane at Chasing the Dream and Natalie at Sound of the Rain for the Kreativ Blogger Award! The rules for this award are...

1. Copy the Kreativ Blogger picture and post it on your page. (Done)
2. Thank the person that gave the award to you and link back to their blog. (Thanks administered above)
3. Write 7 things about you that we don't know. (Posted below)
4. Choose 7 other bloggers that you would like to give the award to. (Hmmm...)
5. Link to the bloggers that you chose. (I will!! But there is some rule-bending going on here)
6. Let your winners know that they have the lovely award! (Winners, I am letting YOU know. YOU have won the lovely award!!)

I JUST did the ten things challenge, (click HERE if you want to read them) so coming up with another seven things I'm willing to reveal isn't going to be easy... thankfully I'm using my real name and this is a public blog, otherwise I might be concerned about privacy. Here goes!

Diana's Seven Additional Things You Don't Know About Me

1.  I love dipping my food, drowning it really, in cheese.

2.  If I start a video game I will become obsessed with finishing it, down to every last heart piece or whatever. Beating all the levels is sadly not enough. Therefore, I don't start video games anymore... but I did "help" my daughter finish Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

3.  My husband and I were high school sweethearts (awwwwwwwwwwwww).

4.  I love a lot of movies, but if I'm honest with myself, my true favorite are The Three Amigos, The Princess Bride, and the first Pirates of the Caribbean.

5.  Um, um, um, (starting to run out of ideas here!) I don't watch much T.V. Here is exactly what I watch: The Office, 30 Rock, Community, The Bachelor/Bachelorette, and Survivor. I know. Junkfood for the mind. Other shows I happen to know about are thanks to my T.V. addict husband.

6.  I'm an Aries (See? I told you I'm out of ideas!)

7.  I have a Disneyland Annual Pass. The cheapest one, because it financially comes out to the same as two admissions... and we live close enough that we at least do one birthday trip for somebody, and one Christmas trip as a family. And sometimes a in-from-out-of-town family member wants to go, or a friend asks us to go... Okay, okay, you got me, I LOVE going to Disneyland. One of the things on my ten-year To Do list is a kids-free Disneyland day :) Disney Love is NOT something my wonderful husband and I have in common, but I think I might convince him someday. Or not. Either way he doesn't argue about the annual passes, which is worth my loving adoration.

And now for the winners! 

The winner of the Kreativ Blog Award is... YOU! Yes YOU, the person reading this blog right now. I'm writing in the second person here, and if you actually read through my seven additional things you deserve this award! And if you didn't read the seven things I don't blame you! Please accept with my congratulations, and follow the rules above (or break the rules, like I did).I will edit this post and put in a link to your blog, yay! Congratulations, you!! You are awesome! And if you don't feel like posting seven things and all the rest, you are still awesome! Thanks for reading my blog :)

Random Wednesday: Quick and Dirty

My random things for today:

a) my son turns five today! 

b) we will be at Disneyland

c) Did you know, thanks to my Blackberry, I was rejected once at Disneyland? Ha! (For any agents who follow this blog, I would appreciate my rejections coming tomorrow, thanks)

d) for all those WIP Wednesdy folks... I'm still at 100 pages

Be back tomorrow with another award!

Tuesday Newsday!

This isn't an official part of my blogweek, but there is some fantastic news that must be shared!

Suzette Saxton announced on Shooting Stars that she is now an agented author! Click HERE to read about her offer from Brendan Deneen at Fineprint Literary!

Perhaps some of you recall how the lovely Bethany Wiggins, also from Shooting Stars recently received an offer of representation from Marlene Stringer at Stringer Literary (read about it HERE if you missed it). These two sisters are both shooting stars... congratulations Bethany and Suzette!

Caught in the Act: Common Writing Mistakes

For  your enrichment, published author and kind person Carolyn Jewel has an outstanding Writing Workshop full of advice, all for free and all outstanding. She writes romance, but the advice is sound whatever genre you write. I've used it a hundred times at least, and after you check it out you might end up with a new bookmarked website. 

So today the idea is to throw out a few of my common writing mistakes-- the ones I catch myself making even though I know all about them-- and hopefully hearing some of yours, too. I will be referring back to Ms. Jewel's fabulous workshop with links so you don't have to hunt things out yourself... in case you'd like an author's take.

Diana's Top Three Writing Mistakes

• Showing, instead of telling. Ughhhh, forgetting this is writing's biggest evil. Probably the hardest thing to fix. The bottom line? People will not pay to be told about stuff. In fact, people won't even be told stuff for free! Check out some clear examples from Ms. Jewel HERE, and then understand it further with another activity HERE.

• First Draft-Itis. Oy. A first draft is a skeleton. It's a map of where I'm headed. It's other analogies, but it isn't a publishable book. Nathan Bransford blogged on this on Friday too, so if you don't want to go HERE for Ms. Jewel's savvy take on mining for gold in your First Draft, then go HERE for a tiny bit from Nathan regarding NaNo and not submitting a first draft to agents.

• Using Overdone Phrases and Cliches. Ms. Jewel lists three types of repetition: Micro, Macro, and Mega. I'm guilty of mega repetition (doesn't that sound bad?). It's when a writer uses overdone phrases; things like "He looked up," or "She turned," etc. Her list is more in tune with historical romance, but the idea of using the same ol', same ol' for descriptions is bad, and it crosses genre-lines. 

Do you have any problem areas? Do you know and understand, just as I do, that active voice is the goal but still find your drafts full of passive when you re-read? (Passive voice would be my fourth top writing mistake. Find some explanations and clarity from Ms. Jewel HERE). What are some writing mistakes you catch yourself making?