Thea Isis Gregory's Blog, page 4
October 9, 2012
The Haunted Writing Clinic: Welcome to the Zombie Culinary Institute!
Greetings, minions and fellow super-villains. Please, pull up a chair and have a listen.
The Zombie Culinary Institute is an esteemed and ancient institution, with only one goal in mind: Helping zombies make the most of the apocalypse. Brains and bodies can get boring if only eaten raw, and our mission is to spice up that ennui with some good old fashioned query writing.
If you succeed, a life of the following glory awaits you:
The theme is all zombie, all the time. I am your devoted host, and I’m here to help you perfect your queries before the apocalypse. You don’t want to be eating only raw meat for the rest of eternity, do you?
Now, go forth and watch this space for more handy and totally not undead (I promoise!) query tips and tricks.
Don’t forget to say hello to my fellow villains!
James Wymore – Dark Brain, master of hypnosis, seeking Darkling minions
Court Young – The House of Gaunt (pure bloods only)
Dawna Raver – The Mystical Masters
Gerilyn Marin - The Phantom Court
Thea Gregory – The Zombie Culinary Institute
Mike Robinson – The Mighty Minotaurs of Metaphysics
Krystal Wade – Frankenstein’s Laboratory
The Criminal Masterminds - Visit the Curiosity Quills blog today for an interview with criminal mastermind contest judge, Andrew Buckley.
October 8, 2012
The Haunted Writing Clinic and Contest
There is nothing SCARIER than rejection, so this Halloween face your fears by entering a spooky writing clinic and contest by Curiosity Quills. Not only will you get help crafting your submission package, you’ll have an opportunity to win a request from Curiosity Quills. And it’s all FREE!
We will have two types of bloggers involved:
Minions: Writers with query ready manuscripts.
All fiction genres are eligible for entry, however manuscripts that fall into our “favored genres” list will be more likely to win requests. Check the submission guidelines for this list.
Super villains: Published and pre-published authors from Curiosity Quills.
So far, I have six authors signed up as super villains and I’ll publish their names when it’s final. Super villains will enlist teams of minions to mentor. Each team will have a spooky name and theme. The super villain whose minions get the most requests will win bragging rights as villain supreme.
Blogfest schedule:
Week of 10/8: Query Week – Super villains will post tips on how to craft a successful query and their own successful queries (if applicable). Minions will post their query and super villains and other minions will stop by and provide critique.
Week of 10/15: First Page Week – Super villains will post tips on writing a great first page and their own successful first page. Minions will post their first pages and super villains and other minions will stop by and provide critique.
Week of 10/22: Mentoring Week – Super villains will pick teams of minions. Super villains will provide personalized critique on their team members’ submission package. Minions from the same team are also encouraged to help and support each other.
10/31 – It’s fright night! Minions ready to face their fears will submit their query and first page to our criminal mastermind judges (three submissions editors from CQ). If they like what they see they’ll make requests and hopefully graduate some minions to super villains.
P.S. If you entered the Wilde’s Fire Editor Judged Contest you ARE eligible to enter this contest too. Your work will be seen by fresh eyes.
Here’s the signup linky! I look forward to a fun-filled October!
October 3, 2012
Cover reveal! 18 Things by Jamie Ayres
Synopsis:
Can eighteen things save a life? Olga Gay Worontzoff thinks her biggest problems are an awful name (after her grandmothers of course) and not attending prom with Conner, her best friend and secret crush since kindergarten. Then Conner is killed in a freak accident and Olga feels responsible. The sarcastic, nerdy girl who never missed a day of school is suddenly lost and unable to deal with the emotional pain. When she downs an entire bottle of pain pills, her parents force her into counseling. There, her therapist writes a prescription in the form of a life list titled 18 Things. Eighteen quests to complete the year of her eighteenth birthday. Olga enlists the help of her friends and becomes a catalyst for healing in their own lives as they eagerly offer suggestions. Alls she has to do is fire-walk, try out for the cheerleading squad, break a world record, and err . . . go on her first date. Good thing Nate, a new hottie in town, enters her life with perfect timing. He brings the fun factor to her list and helps her discover the beauty and strength inside herself, then complicates things by falling in love with her. Maybe it’s time to put into practice the lessons her list has taught her. Just as she’s finally embracing the joys of YOLO, her therapist reveals a big secret and Olga’s world is shaken. In the past year it took eighteen remarkable things to change a life, but nothing she believed about her mission is true. Now she doesn’t just risk losing her true soul-mate forever, she risks losing her very soul. There’s only one thing she knows for certain. Her choice will affect their future for all eternity.
Author Bio:
Jamie Ayres writes young adult paranormal love stories by night and teaches very young adults as a public school teacher by day. When not at home on her laptop or at school, she can often be found at a local book store grabbing random children and reading to them. So far, she has not been arrested for this. She lives in southwest Florida with her prince charming, two children (sometimes three based on how Mr. Ayres is acting), and a basset hound. She spent her youthful summers in Grand Haven, Michigan and this setting provided the inspiration for her debut novel, 18 Things. She really does have grandmothers named Olga and Gay but unlike her heroine, she’s thankfully not named after either one of them. She loves lazy pajama days, the first page of a good book, stupid funny movies, and sharing stories with fantastic people like you. Visit her website at www.jamieayres.com.
September 18, 2012
Making the most of limited time
Time has been a major constraint for me in the production department. I either have too much (thanks, lame-ass long commute with standing room only, I love my Kindle) or not enough (thanks, day job. I’m not going to speak ill of the soon-to-be-departed, though.)
Flagging sales and a backlog of completed rough drafts have spurred me into action. I must act now, or lose myself in the purgatory of eternal editing and languishing in square one. It dawned on me today–I spend too much time mired in trivial day-to-day bullshit. My job’s a temp job, it should cease to exist for me the moment I walk out the door. I don’t have any kids and it’s not like I am the most social person to have ever lived. I can squeeze my days for a little more.
With that in mind, I’m setting the following goals for the rest of September:
Weeknights: Edit 1 chapter. (For me, a chapter is 2000-4000 words.)
Weeknights: Write a blog post, a review, or edit another chapter. Otherwise, get more involved with outside writerly-world-thing-community that apparently exists out there.
Weekends: Edit 1-2 chapters.
Weekends: Write 1500+ words/day. (I can do this in about 60-90 minutes.)
It’s amazingly simple. With these goals, I can finish the first edit of Bedlam by October. As well, the first draft of The Pandora Machine should be completed.
If there’s one thing taking more calculus classes than I will admit to publicly helped me, it’s the understanding that with effort, my limits go straight to infinity. Without effort, zero is the best I can hope for.
What kind of goals do you set? Word count, chapter edits, or do you choose another way to gauge success?
August 27, 2012
Sanity, Pandora, Zombies and You (me)
It’s been a while, and I figured that when in doubt, give updates!
Sanity Vacuum (if that will be its final name. Probably, I can’t think of anything better) is getting its final facelift before being shipped back to the editor. I am starting to feel really proud of my scifi bundle of madness. The characters have a fascinating dynamic. I don’t want to spoil anything, but let’s just say it’s so me. quIRKy, weird and maybe a little thought-provoking. I’m allowed to have a deeper meaning to it all mixed in somewhere, right?
Moving right along, as my 8th and 9th grade math teacher would say.
Sanity Vacuum has a baby sequel! Junior, titled The Pandora Machine, currently weighs in at almost 52000 words. It’s decidedly dark–that’s how I like it–and the characters get taken for a wild ride. They face betrayal, deceit, conceit, unlikely allies and it only makes them stronger. I’m almost done the skeleton first draft. Then, I’ll add a few chapters here, give a character or two a sex change there, make sure their names are spelled properly. You’ll see, it will be nice. I’m glad I’m still editing Sanity Vacuum while I write this, I like adding my forwards and backwards foreshadowing, Easter eggs and other fun.
Lastly:
You want zombies? I got your zombies, right here! Bedlam is written, and as soon as Sanity Vacuum gets out of edits, the latest Zombie Bedtime Story goes under my knife. It’s the most gruesome and dark piece I’ve written to date. (Well, it might be tied with The Pandora Machine. I’m not quite sure. They’re both depraved, in different ways.) Zombies, a crisis of morality. The choice between duty and your own humanity.
August 3, 2012
Buccaneer Blogfest: Looking back
This is the part where I look back, and reflect on what took place during this blogfest. Alright, I can do that.
It was a great experience, all in all. I met lots of cool people, I interviewed quIRK, and I was interviewed by the very awesome Gwen Gardener and I got to think about Pirates (With a capital P!). I got my first blog troll, apparently an accomplishment, and a lot of very coo, thought-provoking comments. I also started my own reader review blog.
In the end, I’d like to thank Courtney Young and Sharon Bayliss for coming up with this great blog hop. The moment I saw the post suggestions. I knew I had to do this. There was no way I couldn’t, not with pirates and awesome CQ people.
In closing, there’s still time to enter my Zombie Bedtime Stories giveaway. Don’t be scared, they can’t really hurt you. (Much!)
July 31, 2012
Buccaneer Blogfest: Have some Zombie Bedtime Stories!
The blogfest is winding down, and that’s awesome, but not before I host a giveaway!
I have three copies of the complete-to-date Zombie Bedtime Stories (#1-3) up for grabs. The file format is in PDF, and I hope you like zombies.
Because WordPress is tragically allergic to javascript, please visit my Rafflecopter giveaway directly. This contest runs from August 1-4.
July 29, 2012
Buccaneer Blogfest: Do Pirates and Social Media mix?
Of course they do! Social media is like the wide open sea–plenty to pillage, and even more to explore.
I love social media. I’ve met so many great, amazing friends on Twitter. I have no idea where I’d be without their patience, support and input. I wouldn’t have discovered CQ, or really been able to expand my horizons.
But, this is going to turn into a rant.
However, I do hate the spam. I’m infinitely more likely to buy a book of a person who bothers to talk to me, as opposed to the constant tweet spam I find in my news feed. I unfollowed the worst offenders a long time ago. I have a rule: if I memorize your tweets, you’re gone.
I never really got into Goodreads, their interface makes me swear and no link seems to take me to the same place twice. In theory it’s amazing, but I hate it.
I have a fan page on facebook, but for some reason other authors (ones I’ve never talked to or heard of!) all really, really want to be my friend-friend. No other form of networking will do. They probably do it so they can send my mom/family/friends book spam. Sorry buddies, my cat pictures are for people I know! Reader groups are fun, until the “you need to read my paranormal romance” comments come in.
Google+ looks like what my facebook would be if I friended authors. I go on, realize I’ve seen it all on Twitter, don’t care, and leave for a few more months.
So… I love twitter. But as a whole, I admit that find a lot of what social media has become pretty annoying. I’m at the stage where I’m considering having a sacrifice account that gets all the follows and does the “nice” follow-back thing, allowing my real account to follow and converse with like-minded people.
Basically, we need to go privateer on those Tweetdeck loving spammers. A year ago, I found there was a lot more discourse, and the overall quality of content was bigger. Now it’s a flood of Triberr (another thing I’m starting to detest) and book links.
Where did the fun go? The connections? The friends?
I don’t think there’s an answer. There’s a ton of people out there who don’t get it. They never will get it. That’s alright, but I’m not following back.
Book Review: Bigfoot Hunters by Rick Gualteri
Reblogged from Thea's Quiet Reading Corner:
I picked this book up when it went free on KDP Select a few months ago, and I really do consider it a diamond in the rough. Bigfoot Hunters is a Horror/comedy mashup by Rick Gualteri, and I’m going to say it was quite the experience.
The book is based on a simple premise, and sets out to prove the following:
So, I wrote this sweet review I think the world needs to see more of.
July 26, 2012
Buccaneer Blogfest: Why yes, I do review books!
It’s no secret that I love to read. I even do video book reviews. I’m getting back into that, now that I’ve solved the technical problem that arose when YouTube and my laptop’s webcam decided they were no longer on speaking terms. Thus, I have managed to conjure up access to a digital camcorder, so my reviews can now be in beautiful HD.
I’m going to record a whole slew of books and upload them this weekend, but until them, I have a sweet surprise for you.
I started a book blog of my very own!
Please drop by Thea’s Quiet Reading Corner, give it a follow and browse through my back catalog of video book reviews. I’ll be posting more text/vlogs in the next few days. If you’re interested in a review, drop me a line.
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