Tag Archives: Critiques

Ireland Writer Tours

The Emerald Forest

Oh my gosh in chocolate heaven! There is an Ireland Writer Tours not just once this year but several times! How can someone choose which one to attend?

June 28-July 5, 2020

The tour will be hosted by author, screenwriter, and forensic specialist  JENNIFER DORNBUSH and literary agent from Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency JILL MARR.

July 12-19, 2020

This tour will be hosted by multi-published & award-winning author & Writers’ Digest instructor Donna Russo Morin and agent & editor with Marsal, Lyon Literary Patricia Nelson

The tours are mini-writers’ conferences that help get your manuscript ready for publication. With dinner in a haunted castle and visits to a mysterious lake, ancient forest and a cave with eerie true stories, the tour is filled with enchantment and enough creepy to spark your writing juices.  Combine this with professional critiques and editing advise and you’ve got one helluva trip! And don’t forget you can write this off at tax time since it’s a learning event.

Get your passports ready! And happy day writing.

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.

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Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest

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The deadline for Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest is approaching. All unpublished entries must be received by March 1, 2020 (online entries) or March 27, 2020 (paper entries by 6pm). This is also a chance to get feedback on your work. There are twelve categories:

  1. Mainstream
  2. Historical
  3. Romance/Women’s fiction
  4. Mystery/Thriller
  5. Sci-fi/Fantasy/Paranormal
  6. Young adult
  7. Middle grade
  8. Nonfiction/Memoir
  9. Short story
  10. Children’s picture/Chapter book
  11. Adult short topics (articles/essays/memoir)
  12. Screenwriting/TV pilots

There are three monetary prizes:

  • FIRST PLACE: $600
  • SECOND PLACE: $250
  • THIRD PLACE: $150

Eight finalist will receive two critiques on their submissions. The agents and editors participating in the PNWA‘s summer conference will pick winners out of the finalists. Go here for contest details. As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.

STORMRISE by Jillian Boehme Released Today! (Yes, this is Authoress!) + Giveaway

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I’m pleased to announce that the author many of us have admired, Jillian Boehme, has her debut novel released today…STORMRISE! Jillian kept her identity secret for many years, pledging she’d only reveal herself when she got a book deal. Watching her progress over the years and waiting for the unveiling was like watching the final episode of the Masked Singer. This was because her talent and passion shown through every post, so by the end of her secrecy, all her fans were on the edge of their seats singing “Whooooo are you, who-who?”

AuthoressAnon

Many of us learned to love her as Authoress on her blog Miss Snark’s First Victim. She gave awesome advise to aspiring writers, edited and gave critiques, and had many contests to help authors get agents. Yes, all while being incognito. She poured her heart and soul into her blog, so not know who she was still made it easy to connect to her. We knew it was a human behind the hat and not a BOT. (See what I did there? Fans and Jillian might be the only ones to get this, so reader don’t fret.)

But let’s talk about why you’re really here. STORMRISE! A combat warrior will risk everything to awaken the dragons and save her kingdom.

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If Rain weren’t a girl, she would be respected as a Neshu combat master. Instead, her gender dooms her to a colorless future. When an army of nomads invades her kingdom, and a draft forces every household to send one man to fight, Rain takes her chance to seize the life she wants.

Knowing she’ll be killed if she’s discovered, Rain purchases powder made from dragon magic that enables her to disguise herself as a boy. Then she hurries to the war camps, where she excels in her training―and wrestles with the voice that has taken shape inside her head. The voice of a dragon she never truly believed existed.

As war looms and Rain is enlisted into an elite, secret unit tasked with rescuing the High King, she begins to realize this dragon tincture may hold the key to her kingdom’s victory. For the dragons that once guarded her land have slumbered for centuries . . . and someone must awaken them to fight once more.

So, without delay, go purchase it now, or ask for it from your local library! Let’s show Jillian the love and support she has shown us for so many years! And if your hoping to keep a copy for yourself without purchasing, just enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win a copy!

All my LOVE to Jillian and the hopes of a very successful debut!

 

WIN>>WIN>>WIN>>RAFFELCOPTER<<WIN<<WIN<<WIN

 

Amazon | BN | Kobo | Google Play | Goodreads | Macmillan | Target | BAM! | Audible

YA4YA Mentoring Program

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The YA4YA platform is for writers of YA looking for free mentoring from industry professionals. This can range form query critiques, the first twenty-five pages, or an on-going mentorship until their manuscript is ready for submission. The actual critique is determined by the mentor participating. Check them out, along with their wish lists:

This mentorship doesn’t offer an agent round at the end, but what it does offer is help revising your manuscript without a deadline. The end result, of course, is hopefully polishing the writer’s manuscript so they DO get an agent. Submissions are October 1-15, 2019. And as always, good luck!

P. D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA Fiction

Midwest Writers Workshop 2019

Midwest Writers Group

The Midwest Writers Workshop will be held July 25-27, 2019 at the Alumni Center in Muncie, Indiana. You can find the group on twitter @MidwestWriters or the hashtag #MWW to keep up on news. MWW states the mission is to give all writers the opportunity to improve their craft, to associate with highly credentialed professionals, and to network with other writers.

They have sessions with top quality faculty during their three-day program on everything from fiction to nonfiction, marketing, and ways to get your creative juices flowing. The workshop is packed with sessions on the craft of writing and the business of writing.

Some of participants will be:

AGENTS

 

To see all the faculty, go here. There are even opportunities for pitching and manuscript evaluations, along with query critiques. Think about it, three days socializing with writerly people! What’s not to love!

As always, good luck and happy learning!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.

Pacific Northwest Writers Association Contest 2018

pnwa

The deadline for Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest is approaching. All unpublished entries must be received by March 23, 2018. This is also a chance to get feedback on your work. There are twelve categories:

  1. mainstream
  2. historical
  3. romance/women’s fiction
  4. mystery/thriller
  5. sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal
  6. young adult
  7. middle grade
  8. nonfiction/memoir
  9. poetry
  10. short story
  11. children’s picture/chapter book
  12. adult short topics (articles/essays/memoir)

There are three monetary prizes:

  • FIRST PLACE: $600
  • SECOND PLACE: $300
  • THIRD PLACE: $100

Eight finalist will receive two critiques on their submissions. The agents and editors participating in the PNWA‘s summer conference will pick winners out of the finalists. Go here for complete details. As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.

Pikes Peak Writers Conference

Pikes Peak logo

Pikes Peak Writers Conference is an opportunity to get literary advise from a professional in the business or get invaluable feedback on your manuscript. The conference will be April 27-29, 2018 held  in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

ACQUIRING EDITORS:

AGENTS:

For more authors and specialist, go here. And be sure to register before the workshop fills up and make your reservations at the Colorado Springs Marriott. As always, have fun!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.

Under The Volcano Writing Retreat

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Under The Volcano has master classes over a nine day stay in Tepoztlan, Mexico. This retreat is for writers wanting to vacation, learn, and write on their WIP simultaneously. Even greater, these types of trips are tax deductible for writers. (Yes, you heard that right.)

The next session will be January 11-21, 2018 and costs $1895 (US). This fee includes:

  • Tuition workshops
  • One individual conference
  • Opening reception, orientation and closing dinners and one other group dinner
  • Daily lunches
  • Private faculty reading and dinner
  • Public readings and book signings
  • Village tour and other cultural events
  • Escorted pyramid hike
  • Closing dinner

The fee does NOT include Airfare, accommodation and ground transportation for the workshop. For information or questions, you can go to their website to access their guidelines and application. (Disclaimer: I’ve not attended this workshop, so do your own research!)

 

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.

@WriteOnCon Campaign Has Begun for Critiques and Chats. You Can Also Register for the Conference in February 2018!

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WriteOnCon is an online conference for kidlit writers and illustrators to teach, learn, and mingle. You do not have to be published to attend, nor do you have to leave your house! And if you think I’ve been sitting on my laptop waiting for the campaign to start, YOU ARE RIGHT! The campaign often has very affordable critiques and I WANT IN!

During the campaign, writers can purchase critiques of their queries, partial pages, or full manuscripts from NYT Best Selling Authors, publishing editors, or literary agents. Writers can even purchase calls from a couple of literary agents to discuss the publishing industry. Some of the participants of the crits or chats include:

All purchases appear to include conference registration and entry into a raffle to win a critique, book ARC, or a phone call from an agent! (There will be multiple winners.) And of course, you can purchase only the conference if not interested in any of the critiques. The prices are:

  • General Admission: $1
  • Full Conference Admission: $5
  • Extended Admission: $10

No, you’re not reading those numbers wrong! This will be the cheapest conference you will ever attend that will be packed with hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of information from the comforts of your home! What else could you ask for? For complete information of what the tiered admissions cover and to search through critiques you might want to purchase, go to the campaign page. The crowdfunding will end on December 7, 2017. so hurry if you want to purchase a critique. They’re going fast.

As for the conference, it’ll be February 9th – 11th, 2018. Mark your calendars and I hope to see you there, uh, virtually of course!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA fiction.

#DVPit Critique Giveaway Starts Today

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First, for those not familiar with #DVPit, it’s a Twitter event created to showcase pitches from marginalized voices hosted by founder and literary agent Beth Phelan. The next event will be in October. So, in preparation, Beth has wrangled some agents, editors and authors to give away critiques to hone writers’ manuscripts and/or queries before the event.

In order for writers to participate, they’ll need a twitter account. The giveaway tweets for each category will post at noon ET on the relevant day. The posts will be on the twitter handle @DVpit_ starting today. The events will be as follows:

  • Tuesday, August 15 2017: Children’s, i.e. Picture Books, Chapter Books, Middle Grade
  • Wednesday, August 16 2017: Young Adult
  • Thursday, August 17 2017: Adult Fiction & Nonfiction

For the list of all the mentors involved for the specific dates, go here. As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA Fiction