Spacefreighters Lounge

Donna’s Journal

Action!
Actions I've taken as a writer. Where am I? What am I doing?

Just have time for a few words this week as we head down the final stretch to the RWA National Conference. As I was wrestling with my pitch and my wardrobe and various other concerns for the con, I got a phone call from the lovely folks in the Tampa Area Romance Authors chapter (in Florida, of course), telling me I’d finaled in the 2011 TARA contest with my second novel, Trouble in Mind!

As one of three finalists in the paranormal category, I move up to the final round now, for judging by editor Elizabeth Bistrow of New American Library. That means I get a chance to revise my entry, using all the feedback I’ve received from the first-round judges (and from judges in intervening contests) before I send it on. Plus I have to add a 1500-word synopsis (ack!). Of course, I have a 1650-word synopsis on hand and have to cut it to fit! (Did I mention all this is due in a week?)

Anyway, the hurriedly spiffed-up entry and synopsis is being sent off today. Wish me luck.

And, finally, the framework for my agent pitch has been hammered together and used to make up new business cards for passing out to all and sundry at the conference. Wanna see?

In a hidden war between alien slavers and Earth’s defenders,
love is the ultimate weapon.

The Grays need us. They have the technology to take us, to wipe our minds and use our bodies. And they’ve been stealing us off this planet for generations.

In the cold dark of space, Rescuers fight to save us from lives of mindless slavery. Sometimes they even bring us home again, to pick up our lives as if we’d never been gone. With their help, we forget what we should remember.

That there’s a battle going on in the skies above our heads. Between humans and aliens. Between those who would take our lives to exploit us, and those who would give their lives to protect us.

Between what the heart wants, and what the universe sometimes demands.

The Interstellar Rescue Series by Donna S. Frelick
Unchained Memory
Trouble in Mind
Fools Rush In

(There's some nicer formatting here which I'm unable to show you, but you get the idea.)

The other side of the card shows the old Unchained Memory graphic, with Interstellar Rescue now featured, and my contact information.

This weekend’s task will be to take the one-sentence descriptions of each book I’ve developed and put them on note cards, backed up with a few other notes about the books as talking points. I’ll try to commit those things to memory, but I tend to get nervous, so it helps to have something in hand in case the old mind goes completely blank.

So, there it is, my strategy for success. You’ve all been with me all the way (thank you, especially, Linda, Laurie, Sharon and Barbara for all your support), and I’ll carry all that positive energy with me to New York!

Cheers, Donna