WRiTE CLUB and Other Hodge Podge

Sorry for delaying the WRiTE CLUB quarter-finals for a week, but I felt Monday’s post had an important message that couldn’t wait.  Anyway, the voting was really tight last week with three votes being the largest margin of victory, but here are our quarter-finalists:

Anne Shirley

Jamie Stuart

Casey Brooks

And the fourth wildcard selection, which had the most number of votes amongst the non-winners, had to be decided by tie-breaker…which is me.  This is exactly why I’ve kept myself in the dark regarding our WRiTER’s real identities, so I can focus solely on the writing.  My choices came down between Lily Mason and Lucky Left Hook, and I chose…

Lucky Left Hook

Both writers demonstrated masterful command of the material and offered very compelling pieces, but in the end I chose the submission I lingered on the longest.  Kind of like an aftertaste, but in a good way.

The first quarter final bout will be next Monday…with the voting remaining open for two days…and the second bout will be posted on Wednesday, also open for voting for two days.  Our two finalists, once selected, will have one week to prepare a new 500 word submission to WOW the hungry crowd in the final round.  I can’t wait!

                                                                                                                                                                         

I also have some other stuff going on I wanted to let you in on.  On Friday, February 24^th, I’ll be guest posting on the A to Z Challenge blog.  I’ll be revealing DL’s A to Z Survival Guide, so you’ll definitely want to check that out.

Next Tuesday will be Alex J. Cavanaugh’s CassaFire Catch Fire book launch blog party, which I’ll be taking part in, so make plans to stop by for that.

Keeping with this year’s philosophy of making it uncomfortable in my comfort zone, I signed up for the DFW Writers Conference in Dallas May 19-20.  I’ll be tackling my first pitch session that weekend and I’m already hyper-ventilating.  If anyone is attending that particular conference or if you’re a blogger in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, give me a shout and we’ll see if we can arrange a get together!

And finally, my wife’s favorite author is Diana Gabaldon.  She was reading Diana’s blog recently and came across a particularly interesting post.  My wife thought of me…and you guys & gals…thinking the article would be informational for us.  She was right.  It you ever wanted to know why it takes so long for a manuscript to go from the author’s hands to the bookshelf, read Diana Gabaldon’s post here.

Happy Hump Day everyone!  :)