Bev Pettersen's Blog, page 26

Thank you, Sabrina

In this year’s Rita Awards ceremony, the audience watched clips of authors thanking fellow authors who had played an important role in their writing careers.

We’re all in this together.

When RWA called for submissions for this feature, I sent in an entry–to thank Sabrina Jeffries for all she’s meant to me. We were selected to participate, but our clip ended on the proverbial cutting room floor. Since I missed my chance to thank her at the RITAs, I’ll express my gratitude here today.

Sabrina a...

Just Contempt

Has this ever happened to you?

I read continuously. Sometimes two books at a time. This past week I took my grandsons to the library and even though I have hundreds of books sitting in my office and on my kindle that I’ve not read yet, I had to have another world to step into.  I picked up a book by an author who I recently heard of but never read before and dove in. That evening, after reading twenty odd pages, I closed the book and went to sleep, thinking it’s the beginning. It’ll get bett...

I Got A Request! … Now What?

Whether you went to the RWA National Conference and were able to get one of the “Speed Pitch” slots or not… whether you pitched on twitter or participated in PitchWars or dug through Query Tracker and Publishers Marketplace to see which editors and agents were acquiring and building their lists right now, at some point as a writer you are going to be submitting.  You’re going to be sending a query or a partial or a synopsis or a full… and you might be thinking, what the heck are those?

I’ve b...

I Got A Request! …. Now What?

Whether you went to the RWA National Conference and were able to get one of the “Speed Pitch” slots or not… whether you pitched on twitter or participated in PitchWars or dug through Query Tracker and Publishers Marketplace to see which editors and agents were acquiring and building their lists right now, at some point as a writer you are going to be submitting.  You’re going to be sending a query or a partial or a synopsis or a full… and you might be thinking, what the heck are those?

I’ve b...

300 words a day

If your summer has been like mine, finding time to write is difficult. Schedules are in a shambles. Any time you do find, after spending the day breaking up childhood squabbles and entertaining visiting relatives, is not when you normally write.

I don’t know about you, but I’m grouchy if I don’t get to spend a little time at the keyboard each day. The habit I’ve developed over a period of time sends me to my computer for some quiet writing time first thing in the morning before my husband awa...

A Newbie’s Take on RWA18 Conference

I did not attend RWA18 in Denver. I did stalk social media for information and pictures shared by other authors. I found plenty. Seems 18 was an excellent conference. But I was only seeing posts from established romance authors. What did the newbies/first timers think? Did they have the same experience? I asked first time attendee, Alyssa Henderson, to share her experience. This is what Alyssa said.  

 Thank you for inviting me to blog Rita. I’ve been following the Rubies a little over a year...

Mojo…or Not

The annual Romance Writers of America Conference was recently in Denver. The conference was amazing – fun, fulfilling, and enlightening. It was time spent with friends, time making new friends, and time learning about others’ experience in this business.

I always come back home energized and I’d initially thought to put that feeling into this post. Hence the “mojo” title.

Until I looked it up. If the first entry to come up on Google is to be believed, mojo is:  “A magic charm, talisman or spe...

Traveling to Open a Writer’s Mind

Happy Friday! What are you up to this weekend? Perhaps you are headed out on vacation? I just returned from our family house on the coast of Maine. We inherited the 19th century home from my husband’s grandparents. It’s bank of wild primroses and lupines leads down to McCollum Beach. From the porch you can look out at the lobster boats chugging along the reach. Much love, sweat and inheritance money have been poured into making the house functional again so that we can spend most of July up w...

What Would Jane Austen Want?

Last week I saw an article about a new television adaptation of a Jane Austen work I’d never heard of, which made me sit up and take notice because I was pretty sure I’d read all of Ms. Austen’s work (at least twice) and had even made a pilgrimage to Bath to walk the paths taken in Persuasion.  So imagine my surprise to hear that a new television series was being made of a book called “Sandition.”  An unfinished, unreleased book.

Now, the Austen-phile reader in me was excited, but my writer h...

We’re Back!

Okay, RWA National was fantastic! I did more than survive. My brain is exploding with inspiration, and also, and perhaps more importantly, with concrete ideas on how to execute.

While we all recover, I thought I’d put up a quick post with some of my top RWA 2018 moments.

– When the woman with the coolest hair at the conference refers to seeing you at the Indie signing as her “surprise fangirl moment.” (Thanks, Chelle Olson!) 

– When Tessa Dare looks at your name tag and says, “We know each ot...