An Agent's In-Box

Krista Van Dolzer is hostessing a contest and for any writers out there, it might just be worth your while to check it out.

Just pop over here and see if this is for you.

But for those of you who don't want to click over without knowing if it's worth it, here are the rules as they appear on her blog:

"The Rules

1. To enter, your manuscript must meet two conditions: First, it must be COMPLETE, POLISHED, AND READY TO QUERY, and second, it must be in one of the genres The Agent represents (which are listed at the bottom of this post).

2. IF YOU PARTICIPATED IN FEBRUARY’S ROUND OF “AN AGENT’S INBOX,” please DO NOT participate in this one UNLESS YOU HAVE A NEW MANUSCRIPT that meets the criteria listed above. I have a pretty good memory, and I will disqualify previous entries. If the entry slots don’t fill up by Tuesday, August 19, I may allow previous participants to enter, but I’m not going to make that decision right now.

3. All entries must include A QUERY and THE FIRST 250 WORDS of your manuscript. You must paste these items IN THE BODY OF YOUR E-MAIL; otherwise, I'll disqualify it.

4. THE ENTRY WINDOW OPENS AT 1:00 P.M. EDT (OR 10:00 A.M. PDT). Once the entry window opens, I'll accept the first 20 entries. I won't accept any entries sent before the entry window opens or after the first 20 slots fill up.

5. If your entry makes it in, I'll send you a confirmation e-mail with a post number. If your entry doesn't make it in, I'll still send you an e-mail, but it won't have a post number.

6. If your entry makes it in, YOU MUST COMMENT ON AT LEAST 3 OTHER ENTRIES.

The Prizes The Agent will select both the winners and the prizes. The Agent might pick 20 winners, or he or she might only pick one. The Agent might offer full requests, or he or she might only ask to see another page. It all depends on how good the entries are.

Please keep in mind that THIS CONTEST ISN'T FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. I've encouraged The Agent to treat the entries exactly as he or she would a normal batch of queries. Essentially, The Agent will be answering the question, "How much of the entry did you read, and if you didn't read it all, why did you stop?" I think this process will be instructive for all of us, but if you enter, you need to be prepared to hear exactly what The Agent thinks of your query and first page.

So get those queries and first pages polished up, then meet us back here on Monday, August 18, at 1:00 p.m. EDT! At that time, you may send your entries to kvandolzer(at)gmail(dot)com. Looking forward to it!

The Genres

MG fiction (all genres)
YA fiction (all genres)
NA fiction (all genres except erotica)"

REMEMBER THIS ISN'T MY CONTEST IT'S KRISTA VAN DOLZER'S SO IF YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE, HOP OVER TO HER BLOG BY CLICKING HERE. 

Hawthorne Street Fair - this weekend

Hawthorne Boulevard will be closed from SE 30th to SE 38th Avenues! Sunday event highlights include: live music all day, beer gardens (located outside Bazi Bierbrasserie with a live DJ and beer tastings, and at the Eagles Lodge with live bands during the course of the day: both beer gardens are family and pet friendly, and are cash only), kids events at toy store Kids at Heart including face painting, circus activities, prizes and more! PLUS our friends at Lounge Lizard have some surprises up their sleeves! Make sure you pop on over to Hawthorne Boulevard this weekend for this fantastic street fair!

AcroYoga

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story about new horizons and looking for the good in even the worst of situations. It's also a story about love and looking for a connection with another person and loving them.

Zora Hurston wrote this novel in 1937 in seven weeks.

It's the story of Janie Crawford, a young black woman who grows up during the course of the book and her search for love and her own identity.

Zora was a woman who wrote this story in a time when it wasn't easy to be an African American female writer.

Though the text might take a little time getting used to, it is well worth the effort. I would rate this novel a 7-8 on a scale of 1-10. It was a little slow in a couple of spots (one being the very beginning) but over all it was very entertaining and interesting.

SCBWI Oregon Retreat

If you want to get away and relax while being productive all at the same time, then you should check out the SCBWI-Oregon Retreat:

2014 Annual Fall Retreat

Date/Time
Date(s) - 10/16/2014 - 10/19/2014
3:00 pm - 12:00 pm
Location
Oregon Garden Resort
895 W Main St - Silverton, OR 97381

A Weekend Wedding

My brother got married over the weekend and it brought the family together from all over the country...well, at least from Minnesota, California, Washington and Oregon. And it was so much fun seeing family I haven't seen for quite some time.

And it was a wonderful thing to see young cadets doing an honor guard crossing of the swords for the bridal party.

And then--of course--there was the kiss that sealed the deal, while everyone stood by and watched.

And then we partied with food and fun.

All-in-all, I couldn't think of a better way to spend a weekend.

Cooking Class

I took an outdoor cooking class

At the Farmington Gardens  

where they have From the Garden to the Table classes

It was a sunny, warm day and it was fun to sit outside and watch the ladies cook and smell the aromas floating around the air, and they even fed us what they cooked. So it was a yummilicious time.

And on August 9th they'll be having another class on peaches. Wouldn't you like to learn how to make chilled peach soup?

I think it sounds interesting.