GUTGAA Agent Pitch Contest - Round 1 Has Begun!

WELCOME TO THE 1st ROUND JUDGING WEEK OF THE AGENT PITCH CONTEST!!!

Some announcements before we begin:

- If you're sulking because you didn't make it into the agent pitch contest, never fear! There is still the Small Press Pitch Contest coming in a couple of weeks. I will be announcing the small presses and 1st round judges for that contest Wednesday! If your interested and haven't signed up for GUTGAA yet, go to the master list and do it! MASTER LIST. 

To learn more about what GUTGAA is, go HERE.

- Another special Gutgaan, Tamara Walsh has offered up her keen eye for a first 25 page critique! She ran a critter website with a buddy and taught a high school class on critiquing, so no fear, this woman knows what she's doing:) If you hop over to her blog (her post may not be up yet, but she is still running the contest) and let her know you're from GUTGAA, you'll be entered to win. Simple as that. Friday, she will announce the lucky winner.

- If you participated in the Pitch Polish and are still looking for feedback, I'm going to keep the links up for the rest of the week on the left sidebar.

- A few weeks back I asked for some questions to give to the agents that will be doing the judging in this contest. You delivered and so did they. Friday, when I announce the finalists going on to the agent round, I will post the answers to your burning questions! Don't miss it!

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Now it really is time for the rules of the Agent Pitch Contest - First Round

What will go down this week...

- 200 of you lucky writers popped up on my email account first and that was apparently no easy feat. FYI: Both windows filled up in under a minute, GUTGAA trended on Twitter for two days in a row and WAY more than 200 people entered the contest. I wish I could have taken you all, but alas, my helpers and I may have gone bonkers. We did let 5 more in just because we love this writing community so much! So, there are 205 entries.

- These entries have been divided into 5 groups ranging from 38-45 entries each.

- They were divvied up based on genre. In the end that turned out to be 3 groups of YA, 1 group of Adult, and a combined group of Picture Book, Middle Grade and New Adult.

-There have been 4 judges assigned to each host blog. They will be visiting under their secret names.

Here are the host blogs along with the secret judge names assigned to each blog:

Adult: Jaye Robin Brown - Wallflower, The Revisionist, Lumpy Space Princess, Apple
YA 1: Falling For Fiction - Princess FluffyPants, Lady Luna, Molly Loo, Hopeful
YA 2: Robin Weeks  - Miss Mary Mac, Missus Braidyhead, Beezer, Hopey
YA 3: Cassie Mae - MacGuffin, Yappy, Husher, Lady Blingley
PB/MG/NA: Look down. They're on my blog:) You can also find them to the right under the title and number. And here are the ridiculously fabulous secret judges assigned to me - Baby, The Rooster, Violet, Sugar Magnolia

- The above judges will read through each entry on their assigned blog. They can comment and give helpful feedback on any that they want, BUT if they want yours to move on to the Agent Round, they will say, "You've got my vote!"  Does this mean you move on? Nope. Each of the four judges will pick their 10 favorites. At the end, the votes will be tallied up and if there is no obvious winners (which is very likely), judges from the other host blogs will pay you a visit and help until we have an obvious top 10.

- There will be 10 picked from each of the 5 blogs giving 50 of you the opportunity to move on to the Agent Round.

- Judges will have until Thursday to pick those they want to vote for.

- The finalists will be announced Friday!

- Anyone can give constructive criticism on the entries, but only the secret judge votes will count.

I think that's it, but as you all know, I usually forget something, so if you have any questions, please ask away!

Logline--Take two and First 250 words

So tomorrow is the Bakers Dozen entry deadline and I am pleading for a little end-of-the-line help. I have my log line below with two possible endings and my first 250 words and once again my mind is mush and some crit love is much needed. Whatever you can give would be great!

Logline ending 1:

Seventeen –year-old Kali Addison is time. So when her father’s time machines are incinerated making her the sole time machine on earth, she is hunted by a corrupt government who wants to reproduce her and anti-time travelers who want her dead. If either of them get their hands on her before she remembers how to use her powers to protect herself, then its times up—for everyone.

Logline ending 2:

Seventeen –year-old Kali Addison is time. So when her father’s time machines are incinerated making her the sole time machine on earth, she is hunted by a corrupt government who wants to reproduce her and anti-time travelers who want her dead. If either of them get their hands on her before she finds and destroys them, then its times up—for everyone.

I am looking for ending help as well as your thoughts on the logline.

Now for the first 250 words:

Picking at my fingers is an art form.  I start by prodding the side skin around my nail until it lifts enough for my teeth to yank it away. This calms me until the pain comes, which it always does.  I don’t like pain.  It reminds me too much of my life so I move on to biting the actual nails, chipping away until all that’s left of my fingers are angry red stumps.

I do this now watching my friends goof off in a line that snakes around a side wall leading to a check point, which, beyond that, leads to further lines and check points.

The endless foray and clusters of people whispering in hushed tones in the starch white building aren’t enough to make my friends shut their pie-holes for once. Greer has to pull Sages hair in a playful manner and she has to love tap him back while Flip laughs out loud at them both, not concerned one bit about the on-lookers dumbfounded glances in their direction.

I break from biting my nails long enough to duck my head when Flip calls me out in that pompous way he’s so good at. “So Kali, where you takin’ us?”

He did that on purpose. Jerk. He wants people to know I’m here, using my father’s time machine to travel. The last thing I want is a bunch of paparazzi swarming us. It’s why I wear the stupid bumble bee glasses and ball cap. But it’s the only thing he wants and when Flip’s around, it’s all about him.

That's it! Thanks for all your help:)

Gearin' Up to Get an Agent Week 2 Wrap-up and Week 3 Here We Come!

Well folks, we are half-way through our little blogfest.  Are you having fun yet?

So far we have thrown out our writing questions to the blogosphere and we have put our writerly minds together and come up with a most interesting story about a peculiar girl named Dio who loved a rotten-egg-smelling-Grandoolex-spaceleaper.  Did I get that right? 

It was an absolute blast watching a story come to life and getting to know some of you blogfesters even more.  We have some serious talent is all I'm sayin'.

If you've come to read the masterpiece that is The Rocky Tale of Dio Franklin, don't worry I have it, but it did end up being 28 pages double spaced on Word, so I gave it a home in my Pages section.  Go here to see what happens when a bunch or writers are told to link a story together through blogs in a 24 hour period.  Good times!

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Now for the grand prize of week 2.....

MARCIE BRIDGES

You have won a double query critique from Rach Harrie over at Rach Writes.

Enjoy!

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Blogfest News

Week 3 is right around the corner and for those ready to query, this week is designed for you!  Sign-ups for the Query Contest, judged by once an agent, always a writer, Lora Rivera, will begin Monday!

Here is a refresher of the rules for this portion of the fest....

Week 3Query Critique Contest

Rules:
I think this one is pretty self explanatory. If you are ready to query then we are ready to help.

-Visit my blog starting Saturday and sign up in the linky I provide so others can visit your blog and give HELPFUL advice on your query. 

-We will hop around giving our input until Tuesday.

-Tuesday take your polished query and email it to me deanabarnhart@gmail.com

-Wednesday I will pick the top 5 or 10 depending on number of participants and post on my blog

-Friday, Lora Rivera will pick a winner and he/she will get a choice of a query critique or a first 5 page critique.

One thing about Lora and her critiques...
She may not be an agent anymore, but she still thinks like one. She has told me her critiques are very thorough, therefore I believe they are extremely beneficial!

Sound like a plan man?  Alright then, I'll see you Saturday:)

Until then...

Keep writing.  Keep learning.

Back to the Drawing Board

Yesterday I got my full critique back and (eye pop) it needs a ton of work!  Instead of discouraging me like I thought it would, however, it thrilled me to receive this feedback.  Since I wrote my book there have been things that have irked me...like Janie annoys me sometimes (she is the main character), Jonas is wishy washy (he is the guardian angel), and the beginning felt wrong. 
After I had read and edited my 390+ page manuscript more times than I care to count, the last thing I wanted to do was go on and do major changes.  I mean, seriously, where would I begin?
What I needed was a fresh pair of eyes and those eyes gave my some excellent suggestions with the very things that have bothered me.
The only thing that bums me out is that I don't know if I can pull all of this off by the conference in Feb!  I may have to actually cancel and go to a later one.  It breaks my heart but I don't want to pitch something that is unpitchable (is that even a word?)  Any hoo, not gonna let it get me down...just heading back to the drawing board.

Full Book Critique

I am super duper pumped!!!  Let me tell you why...

I have done it.  I finally edited my book enough on my own that I feel satisfied to send the whole thing out into the world for some other opinions.  I am scared to death, let me tell you!  I spend enough time telling myself that it could be better and to possibly get a confirmation from others that it's true is terrifying, but you know what?  It has to be done.  I can only learn and grow from this process right?  These are the baby steps that I need to take in order to really become a great writer.  If I live in my own cocoon then I will never grow. 

For anyone out there looking for some awesome critique groups I am part of two.

A Writer's Block is a group that I joined last year and we do a chapter critique a month.  I love this group for grammar and immediate insight per chapter.  Plus as I have gotten to know these ladies I have grown to love them.  They're awesome!!!

Mormon Mommy Writer's is the other group I am a member of.  I am fairly new to this group but still just as excited about it.  Personally, for m this group will help me because I am writing an LDS Romance and this group can relate to that kind of perspective.  You don't have to be a Mormon to be a member of this group however.  With MMW, they have a critique group for chapters as well as a full book critique.  I opted for the full critique and hopefully can get some tips on my book as a whole.