Thanksgiving Blog Hop … day four!

With the craziness of NaNoWriMo this month and other writing stuff I’ve got to do, I’m taking a small break. For the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I’m going to post small snippets or pictures of things that I’m thankful for. I’ll post some small editing advices of things I’ve learned over the years. I may even announce a very exciting event coming up. Who am I kidding? I WILL announce it by the end of this week!

What is it, you ask? Agented/Published authors or industry interns are teaming up with aspiring writers to read entire manuscripts and help shine up their teammate’s pitches to present to agents in January. So get your manuscripts ready. More details this week.

My fourth thankful thought…
 
I am so thankful for my critique partners. Erica, Shelley, and Shannon, even after critiquing LIBRARY JUMPERS several times, they worked tirelessly behind me during final edits before it went out on submission. They’ve also read all or parts of my middle grade, THE BRITANIKA JOURNALS along with my newest and dearest CPs, Marieke and Rebecca.
  

 

Erica keeps me from adding everything and the kitchen sink into my work. We talk on the phone almost every day about plots. She knows my crazies and helps me work through them. We have an ongoing joke “get rid of the cats”. Yes, I had shape-shifting cats in there. Hey, I thought they were cool. But I realized, after much whining, that it was only me who thought that, and removed them. Plus, she doesn’t mind if I pass out on her in a hotel room.

Shannon is an amazing writer. Not only is beautiful on the outside, she is in the inside. She’s such a giving person, and I loved hanging out with her at the RT Booklovers Convention! She catches all the mistakes. She helped me find where my main character was being off putting to her love interest. Actually, my character was kind of mean to him. She helped me discover how to get the reader to fall in love with my characters by how they treated each other in various situations. 

Marieke is a seriously awesome critiquer. She knows her history. She helped to get THE BRITANIKA JOURNALS polished before submissions. She gave me great insight into the time period and places that Max and Annika journey to. I love reading Marieke’s work, she’s so wonderful at descriptions. She’s read tons of slush so she know what works and what doesn’t.

 

Won’t you join me on this journey of thanksgiving? Sign up on the linky below,  post pictures or thoughts of thanks from now until Thanksgiving, hop around during the month, and get to know each other. I look forward to visiting each and every one! Start posting today or join in whenever you like.