A Writing Contest That Fights Cancer

I received the email letter below from Margaret Turley who has been so pivotal in making this event a success. I know the deadline is close but if you have a short story or are in the mood to write one (page limit 4000 words), then here's a place to do that and also help out a very deserving charity.  Please support them if you can.

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The 2013 WUFC Writing Contest is open for entry submissions from April 16th, 2013–midnight August 15th. PRESS RELEASE

This year’s theme is The Drive to Thrive, with emphasis on Thriving verses merely surviving life’s challenges and obstacles.

Everyone over age 18 is eligible to enter. Subject matter may be on any topic as long as it follows the theme of The Drive to Thrive  Entry Fee is $30.00 per submission.

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Dear WUFC authors and supporters:  Today's Blog article is about the 2013 WUFC writing contest: The Drive to Thrive.  The submission deadline is only two weeks away, Midnight on August 15th, 2013. Here is the link for the blog article: http://margaretturley.com/the-drive-to-thrive-writing-contest.htm . This is the link for the WUFC (Writers Unite to Fight Cancer) website writing contest page:  http://writersunitetofightcancer.com/events/annual-writing-contest . Here is the link for the WUFC Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/440020176095884/ .

Please tell your family, fans and friends who may be interested in sharing their stories with a chance for publication.  Contestants must be 18 or older. They can enter any category they like. Fiction includes Middle Grade, YA, Mystery, Fantasy, Inspirational, Paranormal, Speculative, Romance, Suspense and Western. Non-fiction categories include Essay, Editorial, Inspirational,

The entry fee is $30.00 per submission. The entry fee will be waved for cancer patients upon request. There is no limit to the number of submissions a contestant may enter in the contest. Winners and Finalists will be published in THE DRIVE TO THRIVE Anthology - they must be willing to work with an editor at no charge to them - to polish their piece so that is publish worthy. Judges, editors and publishers donate their time and services so that all the money we gather from entry fees and the profits we make from the sales of the anthology can be donated to natural cancer research.

Mark your calendar for the WUFC Writing Contest Awards Ceremony on Tuesday September 24th, 2013 from 7:00 pm until 8:30 pm.  Plan to come support your friends who will be acknowledged as winners and finalists for The Drive to Thrive. James A. Owen will be our guest speaker and Vanessa Joy will perform songs from The Voice CD / DVD. A Keepsake poster is available to anyone who would like to pre-order before the Awards Ceremony.

Thank you for your support,

Margaret L. Turley, administrator 

Writers Unite to Fight Cancer 

Donate to Cancer Research     

Twitter: @ WritersCanFight                               

FB page for Writers Unite       

Linked-In Group: Writers Unite          

writersunitetofightcancer@gmail.com                                                      

1146 N. Mesa Dr. #102-202 Mesa, AZ 85201     

Enter to win enchanting jewelry in Kathryne Kennedy's new contest!

I'm celebrating the upcoming release of EVERLASTING ENCHANTMENT with a contest to win a gorgeous moonstone bracelet! This one has many more moonstone jewels than the one my heroine wears in the novel! And this time I bought the jewelry through a program from National Geographic, where local artisans create and get paid for their jewelry. For more details, visit the Contest page at my website: http://www.kathrynekennedy.com/contest.html

(You might need to refresh your browser if you've been to my website before, to make sure you are viewing the updated page.)

My Magical Best!
Kathryne

Fantastic Opportunity for Writers!

2013 Hot Prospects Contest
Sponsor: Valley of the Sun Romance Writers

****Permission to forward****

Looking to sign your first book contract, switch from a small press to a large
publisher or simply explore another genre of romantic fiction? Turn up the heat
on your writing career with the Hot Prospects Contest.

GRAND PRIZE: The grand prize winner of the contest will have their entire manuscript (400 pages, Courier, 12pt, Double spaced) reviewed by two professional editors at The Author's Red Room. TheAuthorsRedRoom.com

Announcement by a former winner:

I entered the Hot Prospects contest in 2011 and placed first in the Contemporary Single Title category and won the Grand Prize overall with my erotic legal thriller, Legally Mastered (now Legal Heat by Sarah Castille). The feedback I got from the contest judges was invaluable in helping me polish my book and that year I landed an agent, and a publishing contract with Samhain Publishing and then a second publishing contract with Sourcebooks Casablanca the following year. The Hot Prospects contest was very well run and I recommend it to all my romance writer friends.

Fee: $25 for Valley of the Sun RW chapter members
$30 for non-chapter members
Chapter website has PayPal capability. www.valleyofthesunrw.com

Postmark Deadline: September 1st, 2013
E-Submit Deadline: September 1st, 2013

Eligibility: The Hot Prospects Contest is open to any work uncontracted and
unpublished at the time of entry.

Enter: 3-5-page synopsis and up to the first 25 pages of story (30 pages max). Entry or
synopsis may be shorter, but neither may be longer than specified.

Categories/Judges: Trained judges for preliminary round

Final round judges

1) Historical/Regency

Editor - Holly Blanck, St. Martins
Senior Editor - Esi Sogah, Kensington

2) Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal

Assistant Editor - Kelly Quinn, Tor
Editor –Kristine Swartz, Assistant Editor, The Berkley Publishing Group 

3) Romantic Suspense

Editorial Assistant- Lauren Plude, Grand Central Publishing
Editor Samhain -Tera Kleinfelter

4) Contemporary Long/Single Title

Editor –Deborah Werksman, Sourcebooks, Inc
Editor at large, Sue Grimshaw, Random House

5) Series Contemporary
Associate Editor – Johanna Raisanen, Harlequin
Senior Editor Sweetheart Rose – Leanne Morgena, The Wild Rose Press

For More Information, entry form, and rules, see website at
www.valleyofthesunrw.com For questions please email Voshotprospects@yahoo.com

Those entries that do not final will be returned approximately October 30th,
2013 to help those who plan to enter RWA's Golden Heart.

Author Spotlight Vicki Lewis Thompson

The Heart Won't Lie

• Aug 2013
• ISBN: 9780373797639 (#759)

Just get up and ride…
Much to his family's displeasure, Michael Hartford pens popular Western paperbacks. But despite his cowboy image, he's more Central Park West than Wild West. With a major photo shoot coming up, he'll need to be a cowboy—not just look like one! And Michael has only a week at the Last Chance Ranch get the giddy-up in his game….

After a girl-fight scandal, socialite-turned-housekeeper Keri Fitzpatrick is cheerily unrepentant as she waits for the dust to settle. It's not long before she discovers Michael's secret and a whole lot of similarities…including an irresistible temptation to play Naughty Naked Cowboy!

But does this scrappy socialite have what it takes to ensure her would-be cowboy is both saddle sore and satisfied?

New York Times bestselling author Vicki Lewis Thompson’s love affair with cowboys started with the Lone Ranger, continued through Maverick and took a turn south of the border with Zorro. Fortunately for her, she lives in the Arizona desert, where broad-shouldered, lean-hipped cowboys abound. Visit her website at vickilewisthompson.com.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-heart-wont-lie-vicki-lewis-thompson/1114504380?ean=9781460316597

Love's Miracles by Sandra Lee Smith

This month I would like to introduce Sandra Lee Smith and her new book Love's Miracles.

Dr. Margo Devaull came to Dominic Zanelli's mountain retreat confident that she could help this Vietnam veteran overcome the torment that kept him apart from the world. But her training as a psychologist had not prepared her for the tragic, explosive contradictions brewing inside him. For here was a sensitive artist who could be gentle – and a man whose eyes flashed with violence and pain when he told her to leave and never come back. Yet Margo did come back, slowly gain his trust, and awaken the sleeping needs of his heart. Only by reliving her own wounded past and helping Zane confront a terrible memory from the war could she set them both free – and save their last chance for love.


Love's Miracles is available for purchase at Amazon

http://goo.gl/h5DB5

You can learn more about Sandra and her other books at

http://www.sandraleesmith.com

Shrouded in Illusion by H. D. Thomson Releases This Week

I'm super excited that my third book in my Shrouded Series has just been released this week. To celebrate my release of Shrouded in Illusion, I'm holding a contest for the entire month. By entering you have a chance to win a $25 gift card and 1 of 4 copies available of Shrouded in Darkness, the first in the Shrouded Series.

PLUS all three books in the series are 99 cents each for the entire week.

Amazon │ Barnes & Noble │ KOBO

Below is a snippet of Shrouded in Illusion.

The fear and unease she’d tried to bury resurfaced. Her heartbeat quickened and sweat thickened across her skin, causing her t-shirt to cling tighter against her body. She’d been here before. Skye didn’t have to search her memory. She’d lived, breathed inside these four walls as an orphan.

After passing several doorways, Skye stepped into a room to the right. A floorboard creaked beneath her weight. Broken blinds hindered the sunlight from struggling through a large bay window. A couple of desks, decades old sat like large bull frogs, bulky, brown and weathered. Laughter and tears echoed through the past and into the room, faint but unmistakable memories from Skye’s past.

Other children had lived here and died.

She paused, frowned.

A sound, possibly a footstep, resounded from the hall. She backed up against the wall beside the door. Forcing air in and out of her nose, slowly, quietly, she waited and listened.

Silence.

Cautiously, she re-entered the hall and found it empty, dark and ominous. Moving as quietly as possible, she eased back down the hall from where she’d started. By one doorway, ‘Office’ was stenciled in faded gray across the open door. Sadly even if there were filing cabinets inside, she didn’t think she’d find anything useful inside them. Still...

She slipped inside, past what looked like a waiting room and into an office with three tiers of metal files in the same faded beige as the walls outside. She eased two drawers open and found both empty.

Exactly where would years of records be?

Helplessness gnawed into her stomach. There must be a storage unit somewhere. They couldn’t have all been destroyed, could they?

As the drawer scraped shut, the noise almost masked the rustle of clothing. That and the sigh of someone’s breath alerted her too late. She gasped. A hand roughly clamped over her mouth, locking the breath in her lungs. Before she had a chance to latch onto the drawer handle, the person jerked her backward. Her fingers clutched at air.

Focusing past the panic, she forced her mind on the drawer and stared hard at the cabinet. The drawer flew from the cabinet, rushing past and grazing her shoulder but missing her attacker. Damn it. She couldn’t get to the person behind her without hitting herself.

Trying to bite at the hand across her mouth, she struggled against the steel-like arm around her stomach. A man. His scent of soap and aftershave filled her senses. Skye stiffened in shock.

David whipped her around and pushed her up against the nearest wall, his hand firmly latched over her mouth. The buckle of his belt dug into her stomach. She shivered as the heat of his body scorched through her clothing and into her skin as fear and a sick sense of excitement rushed through her limbs.

“Shhh,” he whispered by her ear, his breath feathering her hair back from her temple. “We’re not alone.”

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The 'Don't Miss It" Desert Sleuths WriteNow Conference Aug. 16-17

MEDIA CONTACT:

Roni Olson, Desert Sleuths Conference Chair:

602-740-9936, ronisays@gmail.com

Deb Ledford, Desert Sleuths president:

480-951-8702, djledford@cox.net

Polish, Publish, Promote

Writing conference open for all genres

Hear from the national president of Sisters in Crime (SinC) as well as a New York Times bestselling author and more at “Polish, Publish, Promote,” the annual WriteNow 2013 Writers Conference Aug. 16-17, 2013 at Millennium Resort, 7401 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, AZ.

It’s a day-long writing workshop for those writing in any genre, preceded by an evening reception, and sponsored by the Desert Sleuths Chapter of SinC, an international organization supporting the professional development and advancement of women writing crime fiction.

SinC president and award-winning author Hank Phillippi Ryan is among the conference speakers. Her latest mystery, “The Other Woman,” is the Agatha Award nominee, winner of the Mary Higgins Clark Award and was selected as a Best Book of 2012 by Suspense Magazine. An investigative and consumer reporter for Boston’s WHDH-TV, Phillippi Ryan has also won 28 Emmy Awards and 12 Edward R. Murrow Awards for her television work. www.hankphillippiryan.com/

In addition, Los Angeles resident Gregg Hurwitz will lead a writing session. The New York Times bestselling author of 12 thrillers, including his most recent “The Survivor,” Hurwitz’s novels have been shortlisted for numerous literary awards, graced top ten lists, and have been translated into 22 languages. He has also written comics for Marvel, (Wolverine, Punisher) and DC (Batman, Penguin) and produced and written screenplays for film and television. www.gregghurwitz.net 

Another conference presenter is Liz Fichera, who writes stories inspired by teenagers “who do extraordinary things.” Most of her stories are set in the American Southwest, and as one who relocated to Phoenix from Chicago, she finds the desert to be “an intriguing and mythic place.” Fichera has published two previous novels, and “Hooked” is her debut Young Adult novel from HarlequinTEEN. www.lizfichera.com/

Rounding out the panel of speakers are Kris Tualla, an award-winning and internationally published author of historical romance and suspense, with “The Hansen Series” and its spin-off, “The Discreet Gentleman Series,” at www.kristualla.com  Also, Connie Flynn, bestselling award-winning author of 10 published novels who teaches fiction writing at Mesa Community College. Writing paranormal romance, romantic comedy, action-adventure, contemporary fantasy and mystery/suspense she has been reissuing her legacy books in the Amazon Kindle store and is releasing a new romantic suspense, "Know When to Run," concurrent with the Write Now! Conference. www.connieflynn.com

Conference organizer Roni Olson announces that Jessica Trimble, publisher at Poisoned Pen Press, will be accepting a limited number of 15-minute pitches from writers for $15 on Aug. 17.

To cap things off, the Sisters in Crime Desert Sleuths Chapter anthology, “SoWest: Crime Time,” will be unveiled and on sale at the conference. This latest anthology contains 20 original short stories by author members of the Desert Sleuths.

Conference fees, which includes continental breakfast, box lunch and afternoon snack, are $95 for members; and for nonmembers, $115.

To reserve an appointment to pitch to Trimble, contact Desert Sleuths by email at desertsleuths@gmail.com.

Conference checks, payable to SinC Desert Sleuths Chapter, may be sent to P.O. Box 9352, Phoenix, AZ 85068.

To register online, visit www.DesertSleuths.com and click on WriteNow conference.