Made of Awesome Contest!

Not to be confused with the Maid of Awesome Contest. That is a horse of a different color.

So here's the new contest. It'll be similar to the Twitter Pitch contest with the critique round and the judging round. But instead of entering a twitter pitch, we're doing a first page contest. (their words, not mine)
Here is the link to the actual contest entry page. If you know me, you probably have already been there... 100 times.

On May 28th, post your title, genre, word count and the first 250 words on your blog for critique.
Here be mine.
(I have revised my first 250 words and it is now up for review in the time that is left. The old version is still below for a comparison.)

The Event.
Sci/fi Fantasy
96000 words

Chapter 1 (2nd revision)

Days before the event happened worldwide panic set in. I remember my parents telling me we had to leave quickly. My father rushed around the house grabbing things. Our camping gear, lanterns, batteries all flew into the car. My mother grabbed food, as much as she could stuff into our four door sedan. I jumped into the driver’s seat but my dad sent me such a glare that I just mumbled a sorry and moved to the back. I had never seen my dad drive that fast before as we practically flew away from our house, while both my parents had a heated argument about a store. As my dad drove past the store he barely slowed down. Gunshots could be heard ringing from inside. Every window was broken and people were running around carrying armloads of items. Some of the weirdest things can stick in your head. I remember one man; his eyes were wide in terror as he held a bag of dog food in his arms. Dog food, I could never understand why a person would have grabbed that and risked his life for it. My dad gave my mom a look and floored it away from the store. Lawns and houses blurred by so fast it looked like one long strip of green.

           
            My Dad took us into the woods. There was an old cabin tucked away in a valley near a small lake; its waters were crystal clear. He said we were lucky no-one else came to this spot.

Chapter 1 (original)

            No one knew the devastation it would bring. The world I knew as a child was gone. Most days I can scarcely remember what it was like then. I do remember it was a time of convenience. Everyone had everything, or so I thought in my youth. Fancy cars, polished to shine in the sun lined the roads. Every yard was lush and green. Houses were all neat and tidy and the streets were always lit up bright every night.

           
            Days before the event happened the worldwide panic set in. I remember my parents telling me we had to leave quickly. My father rushed around the house grabbing things. Our camping gear, lanterns, batteries all flew into the car. My mother grabbed food, as much as she could stuff into our four door sedan. I had never seen my dad drive that fast before as we practically flew away from our house, while both my parents had a heated argument about a store. As my dad drove past the store he barely slowed down. Gunshots could be heard ringing from inside. Every window was broken and people were running around carrying armloads of items. Some of the weirdest things can stick in your head. I remember one man; his eyes were wide in terror as he held a bag of dog food in his arms. Dog food, I could never understand why a person would have grabbed that and risked his life for it. My dad gave my mom a look and floored it away from the store.


I am ready for your words of encouragement! Or if that fails, tell me what you don't like about it I want to hear from YOU! At the very least you can slap a thumbs up or down right under this post. Thanks for visiting, and good luck in the contest!

Flops, Birthdays and Future!

OK so the contest below... It's a flop. Turns out that no-one wants to post a picture of themselves onto a blog. Even if it is the back of their head, their socks, whatever. I forget how people can be like that sometimes. BUT! The good news is that Shelly has felt sorry for me and told me if no-one enters then she will review my query letter instead. So my dear readers, your fears are my win. Thank you for being you.

In conjunction with that Shelly has her own contest. It kinda overshadowed mine but I am OK with that since I am coming out ahead anyway. But I digress, her contest is for a really real agent to read the first 250 words of your MS and if they are good enough you can get a 10 page read and perhaps representation... This would be an awesome birthday present to me. Yes, OK, it was my birthday a couple days ago and I am now nearing the ends of the 30s.
I had a realization on or around that day and I decided to get a little more serious about my writing. I want to be published by 40. It will happen, one way or another. So in that respect I have polished up my query letter, and am once again going over my finished book. This time with a much more critical eye. This book will shine when I am done with it! A person once told me that it takes three careers changes to find what you really want to do in life. I have only had two so far. Writing will be my third. So raise a glass and give a toast because no matter what, I am going to win this and writing will be my job.

Welcome to the #angryavi Contest!

Seems everyone is reluctant to have a picture of themselves posted up here for review. I can understand that so I am twisting the rules a tad.
It is still to be a picture of you and still to be the worst author shot you can think of BUT it doesn't have to be your face. It can be... your feet... the back of your head, your hand holding a book. It is totally up to you folks. Be creative! The best of the worst still wins a query review and that is totally worth it's weight in gold. Let's see those entry's!

Ok it is my turn to have a contest since it seems to be all the rage now. So in honor of my twitter friend @Shelley_Watters I have named this contest after my continual harassment of her. She has been fussing over her avi for quite a while now and I have been giving her a bit of a rough time about it. She has even gone on to blog about it recently. While I was reading her blog the random thought hit my brain to run the #angryavi contest. Her angry avi is the second one down in the last link in case you were wondering what it looked like. It doesn't look so mean when you see it larger like that. So here is the gist...

1- You need to follow my blog to enter. (Wouldn't hurt to follow Shelley's too, she is funnier then I am.)

2- You must use a photo of yourself in your best (worst) writer type pose. (I obviously can't find out if it really is you, honor system folks.)

3- Post a link to this contest on your own blog or tweet it and provide a link with your entry.

4- Have fun with your entry... Take a look at the shots here of some typical poses and do your worst!

Now for the best part. Even though I harass Shelley to no end she has agreed  to judge the contest for us and the winner will get a query critique from her. How can you go wrong with that! The contest will end on My 25th so that gives everyone 10 full days to do your worst! Since I can't win the contest but I wanted to submit my photo anyway here it is...

Let the contest... BEGIN!

I call this the lounging on the couch, you caught me working with chin on fist and hand on cheek pose. The air force shirt is just cause that's what I happened to be wearing at the time and it is just lame enough to add in here.

Age it's not what it used to be.

So after a day in the sun my wife looked at me and asked the immortal question. So what are we going to have for dinner? With a quick glance at my HTC Desire HD that the same wife bought for me. (Yes, she does truly rock and I know you are all jealous) I saw that it was already 4:30 and way to late to be planning for dinner.
"Don't worry, I got it!" I said as I grabbed my keys and headed out the door.
A quick drive down the street and I was waiting in line behind two older gentleman at the lovely local A+W.
I watched as the older gentleman waited for a cup of coffee and noticed his hands shake as he held on to his money.
An odd thought struck me then.

He was once just like me, and one day I will be just like him.

I know, this might seem blatantly obvious to most people reading this. Of course he was just like me, people aren't born old after all... but wait.
How many people really remember that today? So many of us are wrapped up in our own lives that we don't remember what it was like to be a kid, or a child. We only remember the now. It really sunk in that we need to have more respect for the older generation. They were after all just like us now, young, vibrant and full of dreams and I am sure they still are on the inside. As I watched the gentleman walk away with his coffee to sit and relax I wondered what he would have been like at my age. Was he a "ladie's man" was he a musician, or just a quiet gentleman that hung out in the back ground. As a writer I can't help but wonder what his story is? Has anyone written it down? I am doing my best to keep my own story down in the hopes that one day when I too am old and flying around in space on my personal space craft sipping a coffee that some young person will wonder about my own story. Times will change for me as they do for everyone. I really like to think the only thing that has changed for the elderly is the year on the calender.

Marrage and the times

It seems to be happening more and more. Divorce, it used to be a hushed word only said in dark corners and whispered to each other out of ear shot of children. Now, it is a household word, children know what it means and in many occasions have seen it happen to their own parents multiple times.

I can only speak for myself here. REMEMBER this is my opinion only.

Marriage is very important to me. I waited a long time to find the one person that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Without her my life wouldn't be what it is today. As far as I was concerned we were married from the moment she said yes. We didn't need a big ceremony or a preacher to stand and make it so. God hears our thoughts and our minds are open to him. When we agreed to spend the rest of our lives together from that moment on I knew I would be with only one woman. My wife.

There are many people out there that will now disagree with me. That's OK you too have your right to an opinion. Now having said my piece I need you to know. There are reasons for a divorce. I would be happy to discuss them with anyone who would like to ask. A few examples might be, your husband/wife turns out to be a mass murderer, your husband wife has a totally secret life that you never knew about.

Yes, there are excuses for everything. The biggest problem I have is how easy it is to get a divorce. It is so easy that people just choose to take the option at the first sign of trouble. Perhaps we all need to listen hard to the words that we say in front of the preacher at our weddings.

Till death do us part.

For me I really hope that it is a long long time from now. I am looking forward to enjoying a long and happy life with the woman I love. The bumps along the way? they will only make us stronger. My wife becoming my best friend instead of my wife? She already is my best friend and my wife. It is just one more thing that makes me love her even more.