Free Fall Friday – Sharing Note

I thought I would share a nice note that Susan Harris sent me the other week. In it she points out how much she gets from reading everyone’s first pages that are critiqued each month. I point that out, since over the years, I have seen that it take a while for new writers to realize this. Here is what Susan sent me:

I was one of the four writers lucky enough to have my first page critiqued last month by Zack Clark and I need to say thanks! What he said was tremendously helpful and a shot in the arm as well. I appreciate you working so hard every month to pull this together. This is the first time I ever submitted, so it was a double thrill when I read through Free Fall Friday and saw: Who Stole Ben Franklin? in the line up. I faithfully read the critiques every month and I can’t tell you how many times I could say, Oh, yeah, I’m doing that too. Or, I better make that change as well. Or…whatever… you get what I’m saying. And I often forward these critiques as well as other tidbits from your blog to my little writer’s group. You’re a great help.

Thank you Susan for letting me share your note.

Emily Seife associate editor at Scholastic Press, has agreed to be our Guest Critiquer for October’s First Page winners. She works with award-winning authors such as Cynthia Lord, Philip Reeve, Daphne Benedis-Grab, James Proimos, and many others. She is an editor on the Infinity Ring multiplatform series, and is the author of The Hunger Games Tribute Guide. Emily is especially looking for: Young adult and middle grade fiction: stories with a strong voice and emotional core, contemporary humor, magical realism, mystery. She says she is not a good fit for: high fantasy, paranormal.

CALL FOR ILLUSTRATIONS: Please remember to send in your illustrations for October. It is a great way to get seen and keep your name out there to get noticed. Send them to Kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail.com with October Illustrations in the subject area. Please submit .jpgs at least 500 pixels wide.

For writers who like using a picture prompt, you may use the above illustration by Shawna JC Tenney for inspiration. Shawna was featured on illustrator Saturday April 20th. https://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2013/04/20/illustrator-saturday-shawna-jc-tenney/

WRITERS Sending in a First Page: Please attach your double spaced, 12 point font, 23 line first page to an e-mail and send it to kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail(dot)com. Also cut and paste it into the body of the e-mail. Put “October First Page Critique” or “October First Page Picture Prompt Critique” in the subject line. Make sure you have your name on the submission, a title, and indicate the genre.

DEADLINE: October 24th

RESULTS POSTED: November 1st.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy