Laura Heffernan's Blog, page 5
July 10, 2017
Meet Query Kombat Grand Champion Erin King
Query Kombat Grand Champion
Erin King
Erin King hails from the deserts of Las Vegas, where she was a serious high school choir nerd (no, really, we won a Grammy), turned songwriter, turned novelist. These days,
she lives in Manhattan with her designer husband, where they pretend “creatives” can afford the city. She writes Young Adult fiction while her three native New Yorkers attend elementary school, and takes her life in her hands every time she goes for a run in Central Park. She’s anaphylactically allergic to exercise. Yes, it’s a thing. However, she hopes to survive to write many more fantastical tales about fictional teenagers.
Erin lives on Twitter @erinkingwrites, or online at erinkingwrites.com.
Read more »
Meet Query Kombat Adult Champion Maxym Martineau
Query Kombat Adult Champion
Maxym Martineau
Maxym Martineau is a staff writer and copy editor by day and a fantasy romance writer by night. She has a bachelor's degree in English Literature from Arizona State University and a borderline unhealthy addiction to Dr. Pepper and coffee. When she's not reading or writing, she can be found playing with her dogs or binge-watching TV shows with her husband. She also appreciates a well-made margarita.Twitter: @maxymmckay
Website: www.maxymmagazine.com
Read more »
Meet Query Kombat YA Champion Tracy C. Gold
Query Kombat Young Adult Champion
Tracy C. Gold
Every day I strive to help people learn, spark conversations, think about “what’s next,” and play with cute animals.I spend most of my time teaching, editing, and writing. I cofounded Sounding Sea Writers’ Workshop, which holds writing classes and provides writing tutoring. I teach composition at the University of Baltimore, and I write short stories and novels. I also intern for literary agent Carrie Pestritto.
When I’m not working, I’m devouring a novel, riding my ex-racehorse L.J., running, biking, or at least pining for the trail.
If you’re a Terp or a Tar Heel, you may want to skip this part, because I’m a proud alum of Duke University. I earned my Masters of Fine Arts in Fiction at the University of Baltimore.
P.S., if you’re wondering why the middle initial is everywhere, it’s because I have no relationship with Tracy Gold, the actress in Growing Pains. I was actually named after a dog, which is cool by me.
Twitter: @TracyCGold
Website:www.tracycgold.com
Read more »
Meet Query Kombat MG Champions Jess and Britney Gulbrandsen
Query Kombat Mid Grade Champions
Jess and Britney Gulbrandsen
Jess and Britney Gulbrandsen are a husband and wife writing team who spend their romantic date nights discussing plot points and hunting for Big Foot. When they aren’t writing, Jess and Britney like to read aloud first lines of novels and create dialogue for their children and dog.
In his spare time, Jess enjoys fishing, arm wrestling, and extremely low-budget monster movies. Britney spends most of her days making lists, reading, and trying to keep the little ones from burning down the house.
She also talks about books and writing on her website: www.britneygulbrandsen.com
Instagram: @gulbrandsenbooks
Twitter: @britgulbrandsen
Read more »
July 9, 2017
Summer Escape Giveaway, Week 2
Congratulations to the first round of Summer Escape Winners!
July 2-8 Summer Escape Winners!
$15 gift card to the ebook retailer of the winner’s choice – Charlotta C RoweBlood And Shadow by Dayne Edmonson (print) – Barb Allen VanderWelEmergence by Dayne Edmondson (print) – Karen McKnightT. F. Walsh ebook of the winner’s choice – Mary Margaret DevineSigned Sisters of the Craft trilogy by Lori Handeland (print) – Jana LeahSigned Once Upon a Time In the West by Lori Austin (print) – Sharon GoodHollywood Nights Tender Trio by Christa Maurice (ebook) – Jess Haney
Here's the link to the new hunt. Enter before the end of the week to win a $15 gift card to the ebook retailer of your choice.
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http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e8df5c9818/
July 2-8 Summer Escape Winners!
$15 gift card to the ebook retailer of the winner’s choice – Charlotta C RoweBlood And Shadow by Dayne Edmonson (print) – Barb Allen VanderWelEmergence by Dayne Edmondson (print) – Karen McKnightT. F. Walsh ebook of the winner’s choice – Mary Margaret DevineSigned Sisters of the Craft trilogy by Lori Handeland (print) – Jana LeahSigned Once Upon a Time In the West by Lori Austin (print) – Sharon GoodHollywood Nights Tender Trio by Christa Maurice (ebook) – Jess Haney
Here's the link to the new hunt. Enter before the end of the week to win a $15 gift card to the ebook retailer of your choice.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 14.0px} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #4787ff; -webkit-text-stroke: #4787ff} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} span.s2 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none}
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e8df5c9818/
July 5, 2017
Query Kombat Wrap-up, Part 1
It's unofficially over!
The Query Kombat Awards Ceremony usually marks the close of our brutal, month-long tournament. Praising the top performing entries in each age category as well as the Grand Champion is a something we can't do without!
That being said, the ceremony will be delayed for about a week or so due to an unforeseeable (but totally awesome!) circumstance. We're hoping to present our winners with their badges early next week, so hang tight.
I hope my fellow Americans had a grand Independence Day!
Real Life Reality Stars: Steph Mignon
As some of you may have guessed, I like reality TV a lot. :-) To celebrate the upcoming release of Sweet Reality, I'm going to be posting interviews from current and former reality TV stars over the next few weeks. To start, I've got someone who is part of both my writing world and reality TV: my lovely Pitchwars mentee from last year, Steph Mignon. To be honest, when she mentioned in the ramp up to PitchWars that she had been on a reality show, I googled it. I was hoping to love her story before I even got the entry in my inbox. We're a great team.
Name: Steph Mignon (Featured as Steph Hickey) Reality Show: Mantracker
Season: Season 3, Episode 11Air Dates: 2010
This is not Steph.
**Mantracker is a Canadian reality show where tracking expert Terry Grant pursues two people through the American or Canadian wilderness. The show aired from 2006 - 2012. I admit, I'd never heard of it before meeting Steph, but I enjoyed the episode I watched.**
How did you Place? (If applicable)We didn’t not get caught if that’s what you’re asking.
What made you decide to audition for a reality show?I am always game for an adventure so when I found out this show involved running from two men on horseback in the Big Bear wilderness, I was in. Luckily, my friend and roommate Kristy is always down for anything and she quickly agreed to be my partner in crime.
What was your favorite on-screen moment?Attempting to steal the Mantracker’s horse was definitely an intense moment for me. I will never forget that adrenaline rush. And I was so close! I literally had the horse’s reigns in my hand and was seconds away from hoping on when I felt a rope around my arms. Even though we didn’t win, getting that close to stealing the Mantracker and his sidekick’s transportation was very satisfying.
What was your favorite behind the scenes moment?After we were caught we had a few days left to do interviews, as did the Mantracker and his sidekick. I finally got to ride one of the horses then which wasn’t quite as exciting as it would have been without permission but still cool. I’ll always be a horse girl at heart.
Steph and her partner, KristyWho is your biggest reality TV crush (any show)?Flava Flav for sure.
How would you say the show affected your personal life?Even though we only filmed for a week, it was super exciting and a great break from everyday life. Coming back to my office job was a major let down. I was definitely craving excitement after Mantracker! Then there was some unresolved tension with Kristy. If you watch our episode you’ll see we bickered quite a bit. Thankfully, our friendship is strong and we were back to normal in a few days.
Overall, how would you rate your experience?Totally awesome.
Would you do another reality show? Why or why not?Absolutely. You only live once. Plus as Laura proves Reality Television is great writing material.
If you could do any reality show you wanted, which one would it be and why?
Probably The Amazing Race. I’m a good problem solver in stressful situations. Plus I love traveling. Maybe someday when my kids are older I’ll apply if the show is still on.
Name: Steph Mignon (Featured as Steph Hickey) Reality Show: Mantracker
Season: Season 3, Episode 11Air Dates: 2010
This is not Steph.**Mantracker is a Canadian reality show where tracking expert Terry Grant pursues two people through the American or Canadian wilderness. The show aired from 2006 - 2012. I admit, I'd never heard of it before meeting Steph, but I enjoyed the episode I watched.**
How did you Place? (If applicable)We didn’t not get caught if that’s what you’re asking.
What made you decide to audition for a reality show?I am always game for an adventure so when I found out this show involved running from two men on horseback in the Big Bear wilderness, I was in. Luckily, my friend and roommate Kristy is always down for anything and she quickly agreed to be my partner in crime.
What was your favorite on-screen moment?Attempting to steal the Mantracker’s horse was definitely an intense moment for me. I will never forget that adrenaline rush. And I was so close! I literally had the horse’s reigns in my hand and was seconds away from hoping on when I felt a rope around my arms. Even though we didn’t win, getting that close to stealing the Mantracker and his sidekick’s transportation was very satisfying.
What was your favorite behind the scenes moment?After we were caught we had a few days left to do interviews, as did the Mantracker and his sidekick. I finally got to ride one of the horses then which wasn’t quite as exciting as it would have been without permission but still cool. I’ll always be a horse girl at heart.
Steph and her partner, KristyWho is your biggest reality TV crush (any show)?Flava Flav for sure. How would you say the show affected your personal life?Even though we only filmed for a week, it was super exciting and a great break from everyday life. Coming back to my office job was a major let down. I was definitely craving excitement after Mantracker! Then there was some unresolved tension with Kristy. If you watch our episode you’ll see we bickered quite a bit. Thankfully, our friendship is strong and we were back to normal in a few days.
Overall, how would you rate your experience?Totally awesome.
Would you do another reality show? Why or why not?Absolutely. You only live once. Plus as Laura proves Reality Television is great writing material.
If you could do any reality show you wanted, which one would it be and why?
Probably The Amazing Race. I’m a good problem solver in stressful situations. Plus I love traveling. Maybe someday when my kids are older I’ll apply if the show is still on.
June 29, 2017
Query Kombat Success: MY SOUL TO GIVE by Magali Fréchette
What better time to share a Query Kombat success story than before the final round? Publishing is a long game. You tend to hear about the overnight successes, which is one reason it's so important to celebrate the stories that take a bit longer to find their homes. Today, we're hearing from Magali A. Fréchette about her journey to publish MY SOUL TO GIVE - available today! Congratulations, Magali! I've loved this concept since I first read the query, years ago.
Hey!
I was a contestant in Query Kombat 2016, and although I made it into the first round, that’s as far as I went. However, I did end up getting great feedback on my query, and it helped me along the way for future queries. It even helped me fix part of the story I realized didn’t work through the query itself. Now, the story I entered for the contest isn’t the one that got published (although, I’m still querying that one!), but I did want to mention something here. The writing community on Twitter, these contests like Query Kombat, Nightmare on Query Street, Sun vs. Snow, and all the Twitter pitching contests did get me where I am today. I remember when I was feeling really low about not getting into one of these contests, Michelle (amongst many others) reached out, made sure I was feeling better, and offered all the help and the support she could. And that’s the greatest thing for a writer; a community. There are lots of people I want to thank for getting me here, and these contests, and their hosts are definitely among them, so thank you!
MY SOUL TO GIVE is an Adult paranormal mystery romance inspired by a dead tree the neighbourhood kids, my sister, and I didn’t like approaching (sounds weird put like that, I know, but I swear, the story doesn’t actually revolve around a tree!). From there, a story was born. I’d been querying my manuscript since I finished it back in 2014. It wasn’t my first story, though; it was actually my 19th.
After many, many rejections, I was beginning to give up hope for this manuscript, but I’m glad I never gave up on it. It changed a lot from what it once was (original was so dark and depressing…and disturbing lol), but I love what it is now. Just to give an idea, this book went through over 72 edit rounds (not kidding), three revisions, and one rewrite. I can’t even count how many times the query was redone, but you can imagine. A lot of people told me to move on, and write something else (which, I did since I’m on manuscript #25 now), but I just wouldn’t – couldn’t – give up on this one. It meant a lot to me, and after putting so much work into it, I wasn’t ready to shelve it just yet. And all that hard work made it what it is today, and I have no regrets.
On February 21st, I found Evernight Publishing. I’d seen them before, and loved their covers, read their books – but I had waited since I already had eight queries out. I wanted feedback to see if my query was good enough now, or if it still needed work. Finally, that day, I decided to stop waiting, and queried them. And on April 7th, they emailed me back and offered me a contract to sign my book with them. To say I was ecstatic would be an understatement!
After going back and forth with them, I realized how lucky I was to be publishing with them. From answering my questions, setting me up with a wonderful editor, an artist who did a fantastic book cover, and a marketing manager who has been giving me wonderful and helpful advice, and explaining everything step by step on how the press works – it’s just been all surreal, and I love every second of it!
I plan on writing a sequel to this book, and query Evernight again for it; crossing my fingers I get a second book deal with them because they really are a fantastic press to publish with, and I look forward to working with them for many years to come.
Moral of the story? Keep writing, yes – but don’t give up on that manuscript you really want published. It may have to change, go through more edits, and even be rewritten, but eventually, it will find a home!
When Celina Leviet escapes the brutal home invasion that kills her husband, she’s left with a bullet in her gut and vengeance in her heart. An alluring demon, Mekaisto, offers an irresistible deal—in exchange for her soul, he’ll let her live long enough to get her revenge, but she must hunt and kill the murderers herself.
After sealing the contract, Celina digs into her husband’s past for clues about his murder, and what she uncovers makes her question everything she thought she knew about him.
His company never existed.
His family history was a lie.
And he was involved with The Lumen, a shadowy religious order whose members know too much about demons. As the life she thought she knew crumbles around her, Mekaisto's charms become harder to resist. Forced to face a horrible truth, Celina struggles against her late husband’s betrayal and the dark seduction of the devil she knows.
My Soul to Give is available now!
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2tqaorkp.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #4787ff; -webkit-text-stroke: #4787ff} span.s1 {font-kerning: none; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #000000} span.s2 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #4787ff}
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2tp3lzt
Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B073H5TGC8/
Evernight: http://www.evernightpublishing.com/my-soul-to-give-by-magali-a-frechette
Magali A. Fréchette writes paranormal, dark fantasy, and thrillers, but always with a side of romance as she enjoys all things dark and sweet. Full-time single mom, photo manipulation artist, and gamer, she loves spending most of her time writing. She also enjoys reading, watching TV shows, and pizza. While, in her heart, home will always be in Ottawa, Ontario, she currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has completed a Bachelor of Social Sciences with a Major in Criminology. Bilingual – French being her first language – and has a passion for Japanese.
Twitter: @stormowl7Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMAF/Blog: https://stormowl7.wordpress.com/
Hey!
I was a contestant in Query Kombat 2016, and although I made it into the first round, that’s as far as I went. However, I did end up getting great feedback on my query, and it helped me along the way for future queries. It even helped me fix part of the story I realized didn’t work through the query itself. Now, the story I entered for the contest isn’t the one that got published (although, I’m still querying that one!), but I did want to mention something here. The writing community on Twitter, these contests like Query Kombat, Nightmare on Query Street, Sun vs. Snow, and all the Twitter pitching contests did get me where I am today. I remember when I was feeling really low about not getting into one of these contests, Michelle (amongst many others) reached out, made sure I was feeling better, and offered all the help and the support she could. And that’s the greatest thing for a writer; a community. There are lots of people I want to thank for getting me here, and these contests, and their hosts are definitely among them, so thank you!
MY SOUL TO GIVE is an Adult paranormal mystery romance inspired by a dead tree the neighbourhood kids, my sister, and I didn’t like approaching (sounds weird put like that, I know, but I swear, the story doesn’t actually revolve around a tree!). From there, a story was born. I’d been querying my manuscript since I finished it back in 2014. It wasn’t my first story, though; it was actually my 19th.
After many, many rejections, I was beginning to give up hope for this manuscript, but I’m glad I never gave up on it. It changed a lot from what it once was (original was so dark and depressing…and disturbing lol), but I love what it is now. Just to give an idea, this book went through over 72 edit rounds (not kidding), three revisions, and one rewrite. I can’t even count how many times the query was redone, but you can imagine. A lot of people told me to move on, and write something else (which, I did since I’m on manuscript #25 now), but I just wouldn’t – couldn’t – give up on this one. It meant a lot to me, and after putting so much work into it, I wasn’t ready to shelve it just yet. And all that hard work made it what it is today, and I have no regrets.
On February 21st, I found Evernight Publishing. I’d seen them before, and loved their covers, read their books – but I had waited since I already had eight queries out. I wanted feedback to see if my query was good enough now, or if it still needed work. Finally, that day, I decided to stop waiting, and queried them. And on April 7th, they emailed me back and offered me a contract to sign my book with them. To say I was ecstatic would be an understatement!
After going back and forth with them, I realized how lucky I was to be publishing with them. From answering my questions, setting me up with a wonderful editor, an artist who did a fantastic book cover, and a marketing manager who has been giving me wonderful and helpful advice, and explaining everything step by step on how the press works – it’s just been all surreal, and I love every second of it!
I plan on writing a sequel to this book, and query Evernight again for it; crossing my fingers I get a second book deal with them because they really are a fantastic press to publish with, and I look forward to working with them for many years to come.
Moral of the story? Keep writing, yes – but don’t give up on that manuscript you really want published. It may have to change, go through more edits, and even be rewritten, but eventually, it will find a home!
When Celina Leviet escapes the brutal home invasion that kills her husband, she’s left with a bullet in her gut and vengeance in her heart. An alluring demon, Mekaisto, offers an irresistible deal—in exchange for her soul, he’ll let her live long enough to get her revenge, but she must hunt and kill the murderers herself.
After sealing the contract, Celina digs into her husband’s past for clues about his murder, and what she uncovers makes her question everything she thought she knew about him.
His company never existed.
His family history was a lie.
And he was involved with The Lumen, a shadowy religious order whose members know too much about demons. As the life she thought she knew crumbles around her, Mekaisto's charms become harder to resist. Forced to face a horrible truth, Celina struggles against her late husband’s betrayal and the dark seduction of the devil she knows.
My Soul to Give is available now!
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2tqaorkp.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #4787ff; -webkit-text-stroke: #4787ff} span.s1 {font-kerning: none; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #000000} span.s2 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #4787ff}
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2tp3lzt
Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B073H5TGC8/
Evernight: http://www.evernightpublishing.com/my-soul-to-give-by-magali-a-frechette
Magali A. Fréchette writes paranormal, dark fantasy, and thrillers, but always with a side of romance as she enjoys all things dark and sweet. Full-time single mom, photo manipulation artist, and gamer, she loves spending most of her time writing. She also enjoys reading, watching TV shows, and pizza. While, in her heart, home will always be in Ottawa, Ontario, she currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has completed a Bachelor of Social Sciences with a Major in Criminology. Bilingual – French being her first language – and has a passion for Japanese.
Twitter: @stormowl7Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMAF/Blog: https://stormowl7.wordpress.com/
June 27, 2017
Query Kombat Round 5 starts now!
Here we go! Round 5!
Entries are on Michelle's Blog! This round lasts until June 28th at 8 pm.
On Wednesday, the host will call out for extra judges to come and break ties, or in case of extra close votes to try and get a more decisive margin.
The entry with the most votes for Victory moves forward to the final round for the championship on June 30th!
You know the drill. Judges, wait until after the host comments on each entry first and reply to that comment to cast your votes. Try making your votes objective instead of subjective (but if you really love an entry subjectively, don't even feel bad about saying it was a subjective vote - subjectivity rules!).
Make sure to post under your nicknames! And use the entry nicknames instead of the titles.
Let's hear it for DELICIOUS VICIOUS CYCLES, the remaining representative of Team Writey McWriterFace!
June 24, 2017
Query Kombat Round 4!Round 4!This round lasts until ...
Query Kombat Round 4!
Round 4!
This round lasts until June 25 at 8 pm EDT.
On the last day the hosts may call out for extra judges to come and break ties, or in case of extra close votes to try and get a more decisive margin. In the event a tie remains, the blog host will provide the tie breaker.
The four entries with the most votes for Victory move forward to the fifth round on June 27!
Now before we begin:
Read this post again to remind yourselves of the rules and guidelines of commenting and judging. Below I've reposted the main ideas:
Reminders for the Entrants:
You may comment on your own entries ON the last day of the round to offer thanks or congrats. If there is a problem with your entry, please tweet me @LH_Writes. I tend to be around slightly less on weekends, but I'll reply as soon as I can. If you don't have a Twitter, you may comment on your entry telling us the mistake. Also, we tried our hardest to make the match-ups as fair as possible and against as similar stories as possible. But, obviously, this is impossible to do perfectly and some match-ups may seen very random. We apologize for this but it's an evil of the system.
Reminders for the Judges:
Wait until after one of us hosts comments on each entry first and reply to that comment to cast your votes. Try making your votes objective instead of subjective (but if you really love an entry subjectively, don't even feel bad about saying it was a subjective vote - subjectivity rules!). Be sure to point out the good as well as what needs work. Post under your nicknames! If you forget, just delete and repost. And judges: seriously, thank you for doing this. It's a very tough job and isn't for the faint-hearted.
Reminders for Everyone:
Try not to comment until after one of us hosts have made the first comment, then go ahead and offer your feedback. We ask everyone who entered Query Kombat to leave at least one comment.
NOW THE FUN BEGINS!!! GO GO GO!!! We'll be Tweeting under #QueryKombat!
Round 4!
This round lasts until June 25 at 8 pm EDT.
On the last day the hosts may call out for extra judges to come and break ties, or in case of extra close votes to try and get a more decisive margin. In the event a tie remains, the blog host will provide the tie breaker.
The four entries with the most votes for Victory move forward to the fifth round on June 27!
Now before we begin:
Read this post again to remind yourselves of the rules and guidelines of commenting and judging. Below I've reposted the main ideas:
Reminders for the Entrants:
You may comment on your own entries ON the last day of the round to offer thanks or congrats. If there is a problem with your entry, please tweet me @LH_Writes. I tend to be around slightly less on weekends, but I'll reply as soon as I can. If you don't have a Twitter, you may comment on your entry telling us the mistake. Also, we tried our hardest to make the match-ups as fair as possible and against as similar stories as possible. But, obviously, this is impossible to do perfectly and some match-ups may seen very random. We apologize for this but it's an evil of the system.
Reminders for the Judges:
Wait until after one of us hosts comments on each entry first and reply to that comment to cast your votes. Try making your votes objective instead of subjective (but if you really love an entry subjectively, don't even feel bad about saying it was a subjective vote - subjectivity rules!). Be sure to point out the good as well as what needs work. Post under your nicknames! If you forget, just delete and repost. And judges: seriously, thank you for doing this. It's a very tough job and isn't for the faint-hearted.
Reminders for Everyone:
Try not to comment until after one of us hosts have made the first comment, then go ahead and offer your feedback. We ask everyone who entered Query Kombat to leave at least one comment.
NOW THE FUN BEGINS!!! GO GO GO!!! We'll be Tweeting under #QueryKombat!
