A B N A Vets Forum Introductions, please

Hi Im Ally,

I am one of the no doubt thousands of lurkers that walked the hallows of the ABNA forums.

I didnt get the chance to join in as I have not bought anything from Amazon so they would not allow me to post!

I have one thing to say about that is --- what a buncha....

Anyways I am glad to be here now I have posted the rejected excerpt and I hope to get some feedback as to what other peoples impressions of it are. Now I want the HONEST truth. I am a big girl and wont cry! LOL

I will do the same in return as I work my way through all of yours!

Thanks again to Leah for allowing me the chance to get to meet some of the other folks that  took the plunge!

Talk to you all very soon!

Hi! I posted a little bit on the ABNA forum, Jessica A. Jett. I'm glad to be here and thankful to Leah for providing this and introducing me to this new helpful community. I joined yesterday and have already recieved 4 reviews. I'm a little behind at the moment, but within the next few days I'll start reviewing my little heart out.

I am a member at writing.com by the same name, Jezzilin, if anyone would like to look me up.

Jezz

Now that I've gotten to a more comfortable feeling with this site, I think I can safely go on.

I am happily rejected. Once I knew, I worked on my query letter that needed a bit of revising and began to send off to agents.
I have read some of the other rejects and aside from one that was really bad, all were outstanding. I hope to find some here and thankful  to be among such wonderful rejects.

Just saw this thread so figured I'd jump right in...:-)

I'm Rhonda, I'm a born and bred Trini, which means I live and work in Trinidad and Tobago in the Southern Caribbean. I've been writing since I was 8 and I only got serious about being published at 21. A few years later the marvelous Ellen Datlow at Scifiction suggested I join the then Del Ray Online Writers Workshop. I've been there seven years now, and it's now the OWW or the Online Writers Workshop and I can testify to Leah's truth that peer review makes you grow leaps and bounds. I even managed to sell a fantasy short of mine to Abyss and Apex year before last.

I've been actively seeking publication for about 4 years now, and entered the contest, but I didn't make the semis. No surprise there, I've been rejected too many times to count now. But I plan to keep giong. I have no plan B to writing, as a matter of fact, I'm living my Plan B as an Analyst at a pharmaceutical company lol.

I joined this list to take advantage of the new and vibrant commnunity of writers which has sprung up around this contest. Amazon may or may not have made the right decisions (and there is a lot of room for doubt, based on the excellent work posted here that was rejected) but writers need all the support they can get. I hope to share the reviewing skills I learned at the OWW and also benefit from a new group of writers with the common goal of pursuing our joy - writing. So...

Nice to meetya ::grin::  

Amen to that. I"m staring to wonder what the criteria was, frankly. Not to mention whether it was such a good idea to leave the first cut to reviewers who have no credentials other than that they are popular on Amazon.

Rhonda

Hi all - I'm one of the ABNA outies.  The benefit of being an outie, of course, is that I'm no longer a slave to the boards on Amazon.  So I've joined up this board (thanks Leah).  Frying pan, fire ... what's that burning smell?

Paul Fenton was my name on ABNA (I know, I am the king of creativity).  I never posted anything from my entry over there, so now that PW is out of the equation, I'm looking for reviews.  My entry, Natural Selection, has done the rounds of a fair sackful of agents and editors, so I'm no stranger to rejection.  Be as honest as you want to in your criticism - whatever doesn't kill me can only make me stronger (although I do kill easily, so please bear that in mind) - and I promise to participate as much as my job, wife, kids, dog and DIY list will allow.

My bad.  Been checking in here every few days, but still haven't posted a Hello.  So hi, everyone.  I'm Theresa, a Romance junkie.  I just can't help myself.  I also belong to Writing.Com, where all of my work is posted.  The link is:

Feel free to pop on over there and check out my stuff.  Today I posted my rejected baby, A Perfect Fit.  Since I know what they think of it at WDC, it would be great to get some fresh feedback.  I've read some of Diane's work today, and look forward to reading more of the VETS.

Honestly at this point, I choose to believe that it all came down to a matter of opinion and nothing more.  In case you didn't know, Dr. Seuss was had Cat in the Hat rejected 21 times before it was finally picked up. 

Bumping this thread for a new member --

Hi, my name is Jessica.  I entered the ABNA competition after my mom handed me a teeny, little newspaper article mentioning it.  I entered my first novel, The Color of Chamomile Tea (a women's fiction novel).  After uploading everything, I told only two people--my husband, and writer, Alice Hoffman.  Then...I forgot about it & live my life.

When I received the email stating I was advancing (along with 4,999 others) I felt an odd sense of accomplishment.

I began visiting the ABNA forum around January 13th and was shocked to see a whole community of people there!  Unfortunately, I did not advance to the semi-finals.  But, to be honest...I'm busy being a mom and I wouldn't have had the time to go on a whirlwind book tour anyway (HA HA!).

Check out my stuff & offer a review...

Thanks! 

Bumping this thread for the new members to introduce themselves.

Welcome, all!

Thanks, Leah, for issuing a renewed invitation to everyone to migrate to this site. It'll take me a while to figure out how to use it, but I'm glad there's going to be a way to keep up with my fellow contestants in the first-ever ABNA competition. I've really enjoyed the forum on the ABNA site (as a lurker during the first months, and as a contributor during the last month) and I will miss it.

My name is Mary W Walters and I write fiction. I do a lot of other stuff too but that's the only activity that uniquely defines me as far as I'm concerned. (Except maybe being a mom, but my sons are old enough to define themselves so I don't worry about that too often any more. And being a friend defines me too, I guess. I have many fine friends and I treasure them.)

Speaking of friends, I am having trouble figuring out how to invite people in this group to become forum Friends so I can communicate with them directly. I have had an exchange with one other writer who is also new to this site, where I thought I was sending her an invitation to become a friend, and she agreed, but she has not shown up in my friends "folder." Advice -- of the step by step variety -- would be most welcome.

The rest, we'll learn as we go, I guess.

Thanks again, Leah.

Best wishes,

Mary

How to invite friends, and respond to friend invitations:

To add a friend you go to their profile, by clicking on their avatar, or, if you know their screen-name, by searching it under "writers."  The box in the upper right hand corner of the profile has all the means of contacting people.  The "add as friend" link is in the upper right of that box.  Once you've clicked on it, the invitee will get a message in which they have the option of accepting (green button) or declining (red button.)  If someone has invited you there'll be an little icon at the top of your screen, beside your inbox icon (the little envelope) -- two little people, green and orange, I think -- you click on that to get your invitation.

Hi.  I'm Dora.

By day, I write and edit nonfiction.

At night, after I put my little ones to bed,  the writing demons take over. 

I started writing novels 15 years ago.  I've completed 42 manuscripts, though some are a great deal more polished than others. 

Because I love my 'real job' and I write my fiction primarily for my own entertainment, enlightenment and growth, I'm not particularly aggressive when it comes to marketing my fiction. I have a hard time settling down and doing all that 'business' stuff like entering a contest or sending a package off to an agent or publisher, because I'd really rather be writing.   Since the writing does take time from other aspects of life, I feel I owe it to those I love to make an effort now and then to show some return on that investment. I'm always enormously proud of myself after I've suffered through completion of a submission package and sent it off.  I remind my husband what a martyr I am and then make a beeline for the computer.  I've just bought myself another three months of guilt-free writing!

I've heard of professional students.  I guess what I am is... I'm a professional amateur author.

Though I write across several genres, the themes of my fiction always involve the concepts of temperance and tolerance. 

Hello! My name is Kristin Buzzelli and I am an ABNA vet (does anyone else feel like this is a self help group? :) I entered a mainstream novel in the contest, got a wicked awful PW review and lukewarm to really nice peer reviews. I made the first cut, but doubt I will survive the next cut, which is okay. Of course, I'd love to win, but with writing I've learned always to hope but never expect. I've been writing steadily since a young age, but have tried to take it on as a serious pursuit instead of a hobby in the last year or so. I've really enjoyed having an online writing community in the ABNA forums. I really enjoy other writers, but haven't had much luck finding a group to suit me before this. Thank you Leah for setting this group up!

Hi Leah. Hi Everyone.

Thanks again for setting this up, Leah.

I'm Valya Dudycz Lupescu, and I entered my novel, The Silence of Trees, in the General Fiction category of the ABNA. I've been writing in various capacities for the last 10 years, and I've worked in Academia, as well well as the Corporate worlds. My family and I currently divide our time between Chicago and Frankfurt, Germany.

Now that I'm out of the running for ABNA, I plan to focus my energies on the second novel and try to enjoy Springtime in Frankfurt (which is really lovely).

Good luck to all those who are moving on.
I saw a few names of the Top 100 in this group. Congrats!

~Valya

Bumping this up for a couple of new members.

Hello, I'm Meg and I'm proud to join the ABNA's groups.

 

My novel was a Historical Fiction (aka Western Chick Lit -did you read that reviewer?)  Lasso My Heart.  It's posted on abnabooks.com, but I'll post the excerpt here too.

 

I'm also a part of Helium.com where I make money off of articles I write (isn't that great?!)

 

I hope to be around here for a while.  See ya around!

 

Meg

Hi, I'm Beth!  I'm writing under my maiden name, Beth Ann O'Leary, but in reality only my dad still calls me Beth Ann (or Bethie Ann, to be precise).  My ABNA entry was in historical fiction.  Divided is a story of immigration and motherhood, based loosely on the life of my mother's great grandmother from County Louth, Ireland.  If there's one thing I learned from ABNA it's how much that book needs to be revised!  The dialog, especially, needs work, but I feel I've taken it as far as I can on my own.  When I have the cash I'd like to hire some kind of editorial consultant (preferably someone very familiar with Irish patterns of speaking).

I'm excited to be working on something new tentatively called, The Waiting.  You'll see the short story/first chapter of the novel here on Writer's Cafe.  It's set in current times in my hometown of Worcester, Mass, so the dialog is a breeze!  I know how these people talk, for sure.  I would say that I write women's fiction, but not "chick lit."  Even Divided was as much a women's story as it was historical.