Guess who’s turning 3?

That’s right!
Writer’s Round-About is celebrating it’s third birthday this month. We’re giving away some awesome prizes. So keep reading to find out how you can win!

Wow, can you believe it’s been three years already? Around this time each year, Writer’s Round-About grows and changes. We reflect on what worked, and what didn’t. We consider you, our readers, what you’ve loved, what you’ve hated, and where you’d like to see us go from here. If you have any ideas, suggestions or feedback, we’d love to hear from you.

After a strong three years support from freelancers, I’d like to focus our thoughts this year toward Fiction and the Craft of Writing.

Last year we opened the floor to writer’s from around the world and became a true “collaborative blogging project”. The contributions so far have been fantastic. As we look forward to the year ahead I’d like to extend a special invitation to fiction writers who are interested in promoting their books. There are so many fantastic reasons to get involved. Find out exactly “Why YOU Should Write For Writer’s Round-About“.

Becoming a Writer’s Round-About contributing author isn’t the only way you can promote your books here either. Ask me about our blog tours, author interviews, and book review opportunities.

So, want to know what you can win?

To kick off another year with style we’re giving away some fantastic prizes. Writers will absolutely LOVE these goodies. Trust me, I know, because I’ve loved them all myself and recommend them any chance I get. There are three prize packs and lots of ways to enter so there is no excuse not to get involved and spread the word.

1st Place [valued over $100]

• Anthemion‘s Writer’s Cafe Software with Storylines



• AND “How To Create Believable Characters” from Men With Pens
• AND “The Unlimited Freelancer” from Mason Hipp and James Chartrand
• AND Problogger‘s “31 Days To Build A Better Blog“

2nd Place [valued over $40]

• “How To Create Believable Characters” from Men With Pens
• AND “The Unlimited Freelancer” from Mason Hipp and James Chartrand
  OR Problogger‘s “31 Days To Build A Better Blog“

3rd Place [valued over $19]

• “The Unlimited Freelancer” from Mason Hipp and James Chartrand
  OR Problogger‘s “31 Days To Build A Better Blog“

How do you get your hands on this booty?

Because I like to give as many people as many chances to win as possible there are lots of ways you can enter. Some methods are worth more than others based on the effort required but it’s worth making a little extra effort to increase your odds.

1. Leave a comment listing your top 5 all-time favorite WRA posts. (5 entries)
2. Write a blog post on your own blog: (10 entries)
   • Fiction Writers: a fiction story about a birthday
   • Non-Fiction Writers: interesting non-fiction birthday facts

   You must include a link back announcing this contest to your readers.

3. Stumble this contest with StumbleUpon (2 entries)
4. Share this contest via Twitter. (max 1 entry in 12 hours totaling 2 entries per day)
5. Share this contest with Plurk. (max 1 entry in 12 hours totaling 2 entries per day)
6. Share this contest on Facebook. (max 1 entry in 12 hours totaling 2 entries per day)
7. Add @laffarsmith on Twitter, Plurk, or Facebook. (1 entry per network)
   • leave a comment if you were already my friend on any of those networks for a free entry.

Don’t forget to come back here and leave a comment to let me know you’ve done any of the above.

What about rules? Any of those?

Actually, not a whole lot. I’m going to reserve the right to disqualify for unsportsmanlike behavior. But anyone can enter and anyone can win. There are no limits on age, gender, or location. You can tell all your friends and talk them into entering even if they don’t want the prizes so that you can score them. You can bribe people to help you win. You can shamelessly promote the contest. So long as you’re keeping it fun and lively then you rock!

I guess the only really important rule is the deadline. We’re going to rock up those entries for three party-hard weeks! Entries close Friday June 25th 2010.

And YOU MUST LEAVE A COMMENT when you complete any of the above ways to enter so that I know you’re entered and can track all of your entries.

One final note before you go.

I’m sponsoring this contest myself but I’m hoping to offer more contests in the future and want to invite prize donations and competition sponsors to step up and help me out. If you’re an author would you consider giving away a copy of your book? Do you make cool pens? Do you ship wicked gadgets and gizmos? I’d love to plug your stuff and your business in exchange for the opportunity to give some goodies to the thousands of WRA readers.

Ok, now bring on those entries!

Let’s get this party started!

Don’t forget to leave your comments below when you enter!

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Next Monday, I’ll share with you a fantastic interview with Cindy where she shares her ideas for including family in our reading and writing passion. Meanwhile, read the competition rules below and get your entries in now!

Book by Book Contest

To enter the contest you must answer the following question in the comments below:
“How do you, or could you, share a love of language with your children?”

Rules for eligibility:
1. You must answer the question in the comments below.
2. Your answer counts as your first entry.
3. You must leave a comment to notify me of any additional entries.
4. Additional entries are only counted if you already answered the question.
5. You must be 13 years of age or older.
6. Entries close 8am Monday, 17th of May.

49 additional chances to win

1. Share this contest on Twitter (earns 1 additional entry up to once per day)
2. Share this contest on Plurk (earns 1 additional entry up to once per day)
3. Share this contest on Facebook (earns 1 additional entry up to once per day)
4. Stumble this post (earns 2 additional entries)
5. Share this competition in a post on your own blog (earns 2 additional entries)
6. Follow @laffarsmith on Twitter (earns 1 additional entry)
7. Follow @momdtrbookclub on Twitter and tweet (earns 2 additional entries) the following:
   • “I’m following @momdtrbookclub because of her blog tour (and contest) at @laffarsmith’s awesome Writer’s Round-About!“

Double Check Those Rules

Double check those rules and take advantage the 49 additional entries to increase your odds of being our lucky winner and don’t forget you’ve only got until
8am EST Monday May 17th to enter.
Good luck!

Get started by answering the question now!
“How do you, or could you, share a love of language with your children?”

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Dawn: Your latest novelette, “Eros, Philia, Agape,” plays with conventions established by Isaac Asimov’s Robot series. I don’t want to ask you that tired old question of “where do you get your ideas” but I am curious: Where did you get the idea for that specific story?

Rachel: The story has been compared to Asimov’s work a number of times, but I didn’t have his work in mind when I was writing. The major inspirations were two-fold.

I had recently participated in a flash fiction contest with open judging wherein there were a number of robot stories, which my friend Ann Leckie and I started calling coin-operated boy stories.

One in particular involved a woman who had ordered a robot as a sex toy, but she didn’t enjoy sex with it. She would have sex with it–which is, essentially, masturbation–but it read to me as this totally passive event, like she was having sex with the robot for the robot’s pleasure. I thought it was a bizarre construction of female sexuality. There’s this idea that women only have sex because men enjoy it–and that’s odd enough. But why would you masturbate with a robot if you didn’t get some pleasure out of it? Since the robot in the story wasn’t sentient, that’s like having sex for the dildo’s enjoyment. So that was the most shallow inspiration–my character was going to want her robot as a lover, not passively accept it for the robot’s benefit.

After I committed to writing a coin-operated boy story, I started thinking about something Octavia Butler said about how the American consciousness is shaped by slavery. She said it has distorted our ability to love. I chewed on that for a long time. In “Eros, Philia, Agape“, Lucian is, essentially, Adriana’s slave. He’s a coddled slave, and I think Adriana has made a sincere effort to give them freedom and make them equals. But she can’t really–Lucian’s origins are still in slavery.

I believe that people who love each other often wreak terrible things on each other through best intentions–and this is a story that involves that, too. They all love each other, but love is not a panacea.
I imagine the story as an essential moral ambiguity. There are no right choices for anyone to make; no ways for everyone to be healed; everything that happens involves pain. At least, that’s my interpretation. Others have read the story differently.

Dawn: It sounds like you follow the adage that a writer reads, constantly!

Rachel: This is good advice for other kinds of writers, too, but there are some reasons it’s a good idea for science fiction and fantasy writers that are specific to the genre. The kinds of technology and world-building that appear in science fiction and fantasy stories tend to build on each other in ways that you have to know if you’re going to write relevant material.

Technology that’s introduced in one set of stories–for instance, in stories by William Gibson–becomes foundational for subgenres, as Gibson’s did for cyberpunk. You don’t want to reinvent the science fictional wheel. Also, idea is primary to many science fiction and fantasy stories in a way that it’s primary to very few literary short stories. There’s a push toward innovation, to describing a kind of new technology idea that no one has ever seen before, or rendering an entirely new treatment of an old concept. You can’t innovate if you don’t know what the old material looks like.

Dawn: Yes, exposition is another challenge more prevalent in science fiction and fantasy, right?

Rachel: You have to build a world as part of your exposition. It’s a knotty problem. That’s why workshops aimed at mainstream writers sometimes fail for science fiction and fantasy writers. Most mainstream writers have never thought about how to solve exposition issues. They may also get distracted by things like not understanding what, say, a generation ship is, or that salamanders are associated with fire–things your audience would already know.

That doesn’t mean mainstream-oriented workshops can’t be useful to science fiction and fantasy authors — they have been massively useful for me — but it’s good to be aware of their limitations. Reading people who handle their exposition well (Orson Scott Card names Octavia Butler as a master at it, and I agree) seems to be the most useful tool.

Dawn: How can science fiction and fantasy writers market their work?
Rachel: There are a couple of websites– ralan.com and duotrope.com come to mind–that keep track of salient details of short story markets. Of course, they’re not going to do all the work for you. You have to figure out where to send.

It may be tempting to start with small markets where you feel like you have a higher chance, but don’t do it — a top-down marketing strategy is best. Aim high. Then, if the best market doesn’t take your stuff, try the second-best market.

You might start with Clarkesworld, Fantasy Magazine, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, Realms of Fantasy, Asimov’s Science Fiction and Fact, Analog, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Weird Tales, Interzone, Chiarascuro, and some of the other big hitters, and then make your way into the semi-pros, the well-respected token paying markets, and so on.

It’s relatively easy to figure out who the pro markets are because the Science Fiction Writers of America keeps a list of magazines that meet their qualifying criteria. Read widely, and then submit to the magazines that publish stories you like.

I do not recommend submitting to magazines whose stories you don’t like because you figure you can do better than that and they must be desperate for quality. Either they will reject you because they don’t like the kind of thing you do and you’ll feel bad, or you’ll be embarrassed by the credit later because it will associate you with fiction you think is inferior.

You can read stories and poetry by Rachel Swirsky at:

Tor.com
Subterranean Magazine
Fantasy Magazine
Weird Tales
Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Find out more at RachelSwirsky.com

Dawn: What about networking in the science fiction and fantasy community?

Rachel: Find places where science fiction and fantasy writers hang out, on Absolute Write, or Livejournal, or the Codex Writers Group if you qualify to join it–or wherever else–and keep your ear to the ground. Short story writers talk about magazines constantly, so you’ll learn the buzz. Those are the best methods, but if you’re still looking for stuff, I also recently wrote a brief article at Ecstatic Days about some of the ways I decide where to submit my work that lists a number of smaller magazines I like.

Join the conversation and share your comments on Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing Tips. Part 4 of our chat with Hugo and Nebula Award-nominee Rachel Swirsky. I hope you enjoyed this post from Writer's Round-About. If you'd like to read more like this visit the site and subscribe to our RSS.

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When Angela and Jodi of Wow! asked if I would take part in Sue’s blog tour this August I knew I wanted to be involved but I wanted to do more than just review “Fearless Confessions”. I wanted to give Sue as much launch as WRA could offer and not just for her book but the whole idea of writing fearlessly! As many regular WRA readers know, I’m a writer frequently plagued by fear and the idea of taking fear out of the writing experience appeals to me. What is the real secret to writing Fearless Confessions and can Sue’s guidance regarding memoir be taken into other writing genres?

Questions! The questions that sprung to mind compelled me to ask Sue to meet with me for an interview. But, to be honest, I’ve not had much experience with interviewing. That is where you come in. Sue is making herself available to our questions, I have a few of my own but would love to include your questions in my interview. What would you like to ask Sue? Do you have any questions about writing with fear?

As if having this opportunity to ask you questions might not be enough I want to give a copy of “Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir” to one special WRA Reader. I don’t know how many of your questions we will be able to include in the interview (hopefully Sue will have time to answer any that are not covered when she visits) but one of the questions submitted and selected for the interview will earn a copy of Sue’s book.

It really is that easy. Ask your questions in the comments between now and August 17th and you could win!

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This month we have some exciting features. The most notable being a fantastic Blog Tour with Sue William Silverman, author of “Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir“. I will share my review of her book on the 10th of August but in a few days you will have an opportunity to suggest questions for inclusion in my interview of Sue (tentatively scheduled for the 17th) and enter this months contest for a chance to win a copy of “Fearless Confessions“. Sue joins us again on the 21st with a fantastic post about using Sensory Description.

I have a few other posts lined up from me and I hope some other writer’s will consider adding contributions of their own this month. If you’re not involved in our collaborative blogging project find out how you can become a WRA writer!

With this fantastic line-up be sure to subscribe via RSS so you don’t miss a thing. Is there something you want to read about or a topic of particular interest to you at the moment? Leave your suggestions in the comments or send me an email. What would you like to see on Writer’s Round-About this month?

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While I was at the conference, I picked up an extra copy of her book, Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids, and I’d love to give it away to a lucky Writer’s Round-About reader!

How do you win? It’s easy, just leave a comment here and you go into the draw. It really is as simple as that. Of course, if you tweet the contest you’ll get a second entry into the draw and if you add a comment to Christina’s interview you’ll earn a third. Entries close May 31st, 2009 so act now!

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From time to time author’s send me a complimentary copy of their book to review on Writer’s Round-About. One book in my current queue is Michelle Goodman’s latest book, “My So-Called Freelance Life” and you recently saw my review of George Singleton’s “Pep Talks, Warnings & Screeds“. I always look forward to reading and reviewing other authors and constantly swell my bookshelves.

It is important to be an honest reviewer. I try to include the bad with the good rather than touting nothing but praise when I review. Even so, reviews are always subjective. The elements I like might be those that irk you and a fantastic segment you’d love to read might have registered as a mere blip in my reader radar.

In the interest of sharing real reviews from a range of reviewers I’ve always invited readers to submit your own reviews as a guest poster on Writer’s Round-About. Now there is even more incentive because I have fantastic books to give away to lucky reviewing readers.

How to enter:

1. Read a book about writing, freelancing, editing, or web tech.
2. Write an honest review between 400 and 800 words.
3. Add photographs, links, and a personal bio of up to 125 words.
4. Email your review to rebecca.laffarsmith@gmail.com with “Guest Post: Review” in the subject line.
5. Leave a comment on this post naming the book you reviewed, what you think of this contest, and any books you’d like to see as prizes.

The Rules and Terms

• Your review must be unpublished and you grant non-exclusive first rights so we can share these reviews on WRA.
• You may review as many books as you like, each review you submit is considered one entry.
• Your reviews must be honest and opinion-based. What did you like, dislike, etc.?
• Reviewing books should be fun and interesting. Enjoy the reading and reviewing process!

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This contest is simple. Share a pep talk, warning, or screed of your own on your website or blog for a chance to win. Don’t forget to link to this contest in your post and leave a comment here with a link to your entry.

Enter between now and March 30th. I’ll announce a winner on the 31st of March.

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On Tuesday, March 3rd, George will share a captivating guest post. You have the opportunity to greet George and ask any questions you may have for him during his visit. I will share my review of “Pep Talks, Warnings & Screeds” and discuss some of the topics highlighted in George’s book.

March is also the perfect month to stay tuned because later this month I will be giving away a copy of George’s book, “Pep Talks, Warnings & Screeds“, to one lucky winner. Subscribe today so you won’t miss out on the contest details.

Please, join me in welcoming George Singleton! I hope you’ll enjoy your visit, George, and congratulations on your continued success.

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Last Friday, September 19th, was International Talk Like A Pirate Day! This unique event created an opportunity for many people around the globe. For one day, differences were cast aside and a child-like freedom and joy-filled silliness reigned supreme across the world.

Did you take advantage of this jolly event to do something special?

I sure did! – Perth Pirates of PTUB

Thanks to the wonders of Plurk and Twitter, a group of Perthites got together at Little Creatures Brewery in Fremantle, Western Australia. We weren’t just the average Perthite computer geek however, we were PIRATE geeks.

From frocks to eye patches, tattoos to frills, and bandanas to booze, up to twenty men and women between twenty and forty years of age dressed for the high seas. This was one gathering more than merry enough to shiver me timbers. Thankfully, we didn’t raise too many eyebrows as even the staff had joined the fun of Talk Like A Pirate Day.

But what does a fun night out on the town really mean to freelancers?

Events, like Talk Like A Pirate Day, or upcoming Halloween, are opportunities to celebrate a social connection. For freelancers it is a fabulous excuse to connect in a diverse range of personal and professional capacities.

Pillage The Pirate Plunder

How can we get the most out of social celebrations?

• Send greeting cards or gifts.
• Remember:
  
• Keep your greetings short and simple.
• Personalize when possible.
• Acknowledge any greetings you receive.
• Organize or attend parties
• Remember:
  
• Get invitations out early.
• Respond to invitations swiftly.
• Plan in advance to increase likelihood of attendance.
• Send out an event reminder as it approaches.
• Add events to your schedule.
• Schedule a product launch
• Remember:
  
• Write High Seas Fiction or Maretine Non-Fiction? International Talk Like A Pirate Day might be your ideal launch date.
• Horror or Supernatural? Try Halloween
• Family and Children’s Books are great around Christmas
• Self-Help, Finance or Health at New Year’s
• Romance Novels for Valentine’s
• Books with religious foundations suit Easter.



• Write event specific content
• Remember:
  
• Publisher’s create their lists well in advance.
• Pitch or Query your time sensitive content early.
• Consider requesting a publication calendar.
• Theme your site, blog, office, etc.
• Remember:
  
• Keep any changes low key rather than dramatic.
• Follow standard Web Tips regarding font sizes, accessability, and color standards.
• Back up your original so you can switch back simply after the event.
• Sticky tape and paint are not friends.
• Host a themed contest
• Remember:
  
• Themed contests deserve themed prizes
• Carefully plan your deadlines
• Keep things simple.
• Consider, then share, the lesson
• Remember:
  
• Every experience offers an opportunity to learn.
• Not everyone learns the same lesson.
• It’s important to have fun regardless of the lesson.

Share The Rum With The Crew

There are a number of reasons these actions can reap rewards but the number one is that you’re getting your name, your brand, out there. Every time you put your name in front of a friend, client, editor, etc. you’re reminding them who you are and what you can do for them.

Often, freelancers spend extraordinary quantities of time in physical seclusion. Human’s flourish in social proximity. Being able to see, smell, touch, (and taste?), other people enhances the depth of relationships. Physical contact strengthens emotional bonds. These bonds lead to personal, and career, opportunities for the future.

Also, putting an image to a word is one of the most powerful memory tools available. A face to a name makes you more memorable. Your imprint on their mind means they are more likely to think of you for future business.

Finally, lets admit it, being social makes you more human. There are some ways you don’t want to be remembered; dancing on the table, or upchucking all over the shared nachos for example, but by letting your hair down you create a depth to the persona you’ve developed in your work environment online and off. You become human, and humans always appreciate knowing they aren’t the only imperfect being. Humans are more likely to hire or recommend other humans.

Find reasons to get out there and celebrate. Give of your time freely to social situations where you can have fun and be around people with whom you enjoy spending time. Share your contact details and make yourself available to these people. Be where people can know you. Be a friend!

Ultimately, getting into the social scene is great for your own sense of self, but it’s also fantastic for your business. Do you have other tips or ideas about ramping up your social networks to enhance your business prospects? Did you have a fun night out you want to share? Please, feel free to have your say in the comments! I’d love to hear from you!

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