SCN Novel Pitch & 1st Five Pages Contest Winners

SMOKE CITY NARRATORS
NOVEL PITCH & 1ST FIVE PAGES CONTEST
2009 WINNERS

1st Place - $150: SECOND CHANCES … Theresa J. GRANT … Newaygo, MI
Pitch: Four dead girls, three years in hiding, two men with secrets; for forensic anthropologist Jo Birch, one second chance. 

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2nd Place - $75: CHIN LEE'S PLACE … Vance H. WHITE … Niceville, FL 
Pitch: Reporter Robert Gage turns detective in this hard-boiled thriller set in San Francisco on the eve of World War II. 

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3rd Place - $40: The BODY of HELEN … Tracy KORETSKY … Berkeley, CA  

Author hasn't given permission to post their pitch. 

2009 Honorary Mentions

HM #1: MY NAME is SADIA 
              by Erika Dusen TAMINDZIJA … Arlington Heights, IL

Pitch: A young slave navigates the 16th century Islamic World and struggles to regain her family.                       _____________________________________________________

HM #2: In the SHADOW of the LONE STAR
              by B. J. BATEMAN … Damascus, OR
Pitch: In 1938 Texas, a runaway white girl finds work and love in a colored nightclub, cultivating friendships and inciting violence.

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HM #3: The THIRD STEP
              by Ginger MARCINKOWSKI … Pella, IA 
Pitch: Two countries, two rivers, and her father's funeral cause a woman to confront the incestuous past that's haunted her life. 

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HM #4: KILLING RABBITS
              by Mary Ann KOHENSKEY … Maryland Heights, MO
Pitch: Joe Detrie runs away from an abusive family but returns to rescue his younger brother and kill their father.  

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JUDGE'S COMMENTS on SCN WEBSITE:

http://www.janicewiley-dorn.com/contest.html 

SCN Contest Deadline Extended - Announcing Judge Cindy Dyson

Smoke City Narrators
Novel Pitch & 1st Five Pages Contest

DEADLINE EXTENDED to Saturday 10/17/09
http://www.janicewiley-dorn.com/smokecitynarrators/pitch1st5contest.html

**Novel Does Not Have to be Complete.**

We're pleased to announce our 2009 Contest Judge: Cindy Dyson, author of THE LAST QUERY: A New Approach to Crafting a Novel Query Letter. Dyson shows how-to hone in on the most intriguing qualities of your novel and your life, even if you lack writing credits, and shape them into a unique query.

Her query letter hooked Agent Marly Rusoff, who sold Dyson's first novel, AND SHE WAS, to Harper Collins.

Her nonfiction credits include many magazine articles, five nonfiction YA books and three literary biographies in Harold Bloom's BioCritiques college library series. Dyson grew up in Alaska and now lives in Montana, where she's working on her second novel. Learn more about her and her writing process on these websites:

Cindy Dyson's website:
http://www.cindydyson.com/

THE LAST QUERY:
http://www.cindydyson.com/shopping.html

Agent Marly Rusoff and Associates - Dyson:
http://www.rusoffagency.com/authors/dyson_c/andshewas/andshewas_CDyson_bio.htm

Dyson Interviewed:

http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/backstory/2006/02/_cindy_dysons_b.html

http://49writers.blogspot.com/2009/09/author-interview-cindy-dyson.html

http://www.harpercollins.com/author/authorExtra.aspx?authorID=27501&isbn13=9780060597719&displayType=bookinterview

SECRETARY of the ARTS PETITION

Musician Quincy Jones--winner of a 2008 Humanitarian Award--has started a petition to ask President Obama to appoint a Secretary of the Arts. Please consider signing it.

http://www.petitiononline.com/esnyc/petition.html

GRANTS for WRITERS

Grants and other awards will enhance the bio paragraph in your query letters to agents and publishers.

I'm deeply grateful to the Elizabeth George Foundation for their generous award of an artistic grant for fiction.

The deadline for the 2010 awards is July 1, 2009. The application fee is $25.00 and you'll need letters of recommendation from five professionals in your field. The foundation doesn't have a website but you can request a brochure by writing:

Elizabeth George
Elizabeth George Foundation
P. O. Box 1429
Langley, Washington 98260

LOGLINE, QUERY LETTER & SYNOPSIS

Many writers find composing a one-page query letter and a one-page synopsis more difficult than writing a 100,000 word novel. Try writing a logline--a one-sentence description of your novel--first. Expand that into a one-paragraph pitch to include in your query letter. Writing a one-page synopsis now seems effortless.

Hint #1: Write the one-paragraph pitch as a teaser, painting in broad strokes your main character, their goal and the antagonist that blocks it. Don't give away the ending. Your intent is to intrigue the agent into asking for apartial or full manuscript. Your one-page synopsis should give more details and reveal the ending.

Hint #2: Double-space your novel chapters but single-space query letters and synopses. If an agent or publisher requests a detailed outline, be kind to their eyes and double-space anything longer than three pages.

This article by Christopher Lockhart gives detailed instructions on creating loglines for character-driven and plot-driven screenplays, and gives pointers on writing query letters. You can easily adapt the basics of his method to novels.

TIPS of the DAY & WORKSHOP REVIEWS

Scroll to the bottom of the page for information on writers and tips of the day on writing, publishing, marketing and P.R.. These sites will change periodically to keep new material coming in.

WRITERS: Have you attended a writers' workshop or conference in the past five years? Are you planning to attend one but feel unsure of where to go for your current needs? With the steadily rising cost of tuition and transportation, most emerging writers can't afford to go to more than one event.

To help you choose, I'll be posting reviews here soon or links to reviews on writers' websites. I'm especially interested in places that provide marketing help, such as one-on-one interviews with agents and/or editors, and workshops on pitching novels. Please email me if you're interested in contributing a review.