Contest winner & the Year of Patch

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

---

First, the winner of a free chapter edit

Blee Bonn’s first-last line contest on her blog has generated a winner. 1st Place and winner of an edit from me is Sherry with the following first and last lines from her first chapter:

1st line:
It was always just another day and another dead body - until it was someone you knew.

Last line:
“That’s Shelia’s head…but it’s not her body.”

Congratulations, Sherry.

---

The Year of Patch

I’m declaring—actually, hoping and praying—that this will be the Year of Patch, the year that my vampire kitty-cat character wins the hearts, minds, and veins of readers everywhere.

I’m in the final stages of production—the text should be pretty set, now that an editor has gone through it for grammar, typos, etc., and I’ve given it a final read-through and tweaking. Found a continuity error that I, my editor, and my reader-spouse missed over and over. Fingers crossed that there are no more embarrassing goofs that remain hidden.

I’m awaiting blurbs and reviews. The first blurb has come in from Sophie Masson, an Aussie writer and author of an internationally-selling adult fantasy trilogy, Forest of Dreams. Sophie wrote:

Funny, original and very adult, The Vampire Kitty-Cat Chronicles is like no other vampire novel you'll ever encounter. For starters, it's narrated in the snappy tones of cat-about-town Patch, the undead feline, with his unique take on humans, live and undead. Then there are the details of vampire life, sometimes gory, sometimes gruesome, sometimes gross, sometimes laugh-out-loud-funny, and often all four together; and then there's the breakneck pace as Patch and his pals battle an election and dirty tricks, cops and a crazy church, not to speak of a certain entanglement with a glam Siamese. Enter the vampire underground with a most unusual guide!

My To-Do List still includes:

• Finishing the book trailer. The sound track is done, a friend is doing Flash animation
• Podcasts. Lagging on this. Have the intro and outro music by the Grateful Dead ready, but need to record all the chapters.
• Launching the website. Most of the content is done, I’m just waiting for another friend who is expert in WordPress to put up a template and populate the pages
• Setting up related items. I’ve designed a coffee mug and couple of t-shirts, but need to set them up for purchase in a store on the website.
• promotion, promotion, promotion

With your help, maybe this could be the Year of Patch. It all depends, of course, on the quality of the book, but I know how much readers have liked that.

The second big factor, though, is you. I hope that a little later in the month, when most of these ingredients are ready, you’ll help me spread the word to your reader friends. I won’t ask you to buy the book, but to become my “Street Team” and visit the website and then pass it on to friends.

A shout-out to you!

Every day, I appreciate the contributions that you make to FtQ—witness the long string of comments, insights, and helpful thoughts recently for Christine’s submission. While this is “my” blog, it is also our blog, and I couldn’t be happier about that.

If FtQ has been useful to you over the past year, I’d love to hear about it. I’d also be interested in hearing about what other things you’d be interested in seeing here other than the floggings.

Meanwhile, have a fine holiday, and a great writing and publishing new year!

For what it’s worth,

Ray

© 2010 Ray Rhamey

Comments

[Christine H]

I sincerely hope it's the "Year of Patch" as well! Thank you so much for all that you do to foster the unpublished.

I feel the same way about my blog - I want discussion! I love these interactions, and am very grateful to everyone who commented and gave advice.

Best of luck to you, and may the Vampire Kitty-Cats be with you.

[Lesley]

I would be interested in instant answers to grammar queries, as it seems 'that' a lot of helpful people, who know their stuff, tune 'in to' this website.

For starters, in the above paragraph I have two queries. Should, IN TO be INTO?

And ...

I have used 'that'. Is it unnecessary?

[Ray Rhamey]

Lesley, I'm no grammarian, but "that" in this sentence is fine. I think it can be looked at as a rhythm thing--often the word is not necessary, but the beat of a sentence may be better without it. As for "in to," I would have used the two words for this usage. My dictionary suggests that an obsolete usage might qualify for the single word.

[Kat]

I would be more than happy to blog about Patch for you! I'm writing about self-publishing for the second month in a row, and would love to use it as an opportunity to plug Patch for you.

Best wishes,
Kat J.

[David]

Hi Ray, I wish you the best of luck with the Year of Patch. Sounds like you have a lot of work done, and a lot still to do. Count me in as a customer when it becomes available. For the FtQ site, I find it extremely useful the way you run it now. I learn so much from every flogging. As for changes I'm not sure I'd recommend changing anything, although the occasional contest (like Blee Bonn's recent first line/last line contest) is fun for spicing things up.

[Richard Davies]

I'm a part of an online critique group called Critique Circle. Once you are up and running I'd be more than happy to direct fellow writers (not a few of whom have been published) to your website. I could start a discussion thread, link the website in my signature for when I post, mention it on my info page and put it in the 'library' of recommended books.

This usually includes a link to Amazon for people to buy it or review it if they wish.

Not a lot, but who knows? Sometimes it's the pebble that starts the landslide.

As for FtQ there's nothing that I could recommend that wouldn't take up a lot of your time. I do agree with David above however, something like a six monthly competition would be a welcome addition. Especially for a free line edit from yourself.

[Ray Rhamey]

Thank you, Richard. You'll see when things are go here on FtQ, and I'll try to remember to send you a note.