competitions | Jackie Ashenden - Romance Author

To the Bat – ahem – Writing Cave!

Jackie Ashenden — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:39:00 +0000

Talk about timing. I go camping with the family (let us not mention tents and the dismantling of said edifices in the rain) and the next day find out that I have won a full request from a pitch competition! Argh!!!

Why the argh? Well, I’m camping for a week with patchy internet access and no access at all the manuscript I pitched! Cue more argh! The only thing I could do was sit in my tent and think fiercely about all the tweaking I needed to do for it. Sigh…

Anyway, this is all to say that having just returned from my trip, I am now heading in to the writing cave to polish up my ms and make sacrifices to the gods of publication for a little bit of success. Wish me luck!

PS. Many thanks to Jami Gold for running the competition and also to the editors at Entangled for providing such a great opportunity!

PPS. Congrats also to Jo P for her successful pitch too!

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Problems and Other Miscellaneous Announcements

Jackie Ashenden — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 23:05:00 +0000

Quick post to blow my own trumpet about a little pre-conference RWNZ contest which I finalled in! Yay! Entries go off to Lucy Gilmour at M&B for a final placing and when she arrives in NZ in August, I get to have a 10 minute face to face pitch session with her. I’m really thrilled about it but nervous – the ms has a heroine who is a bit different and not sure I’ll be able to pull it off. Oh well, can only try eh?

Also Dr Jax is proving hard to pin down to answer my questions. I think he’s avoiding me. Mostly due to the fact that I have spent the past two weeks moaning to him about my chess WIP. He definitely does NOT want to hear anything more about my writing, I’m sure of it. He can pretty much tell that if I start hanging around him when he gets home from work, doing things like half-heartedly sweeping the floor or moving crumbs from one side of the bench to the other, then I want to talk about my WIP. I never come out and say it you see, I want him to ask me how it’s going. And I do that mostly because I’m a one note record and I know how boring I’m being but I just can’t HELP IT! When I have a problem with my WIP, g0ing away and thinking about something else never works. I HAVE solve it first. It’s like an itch that HAS to be scratched and I can’t concentrate on anything else until I’ve scratched it. It’s kind of tiresome. Part of what makes it tiresome is the fact that I have to talk out my WIP problems. Often he doesn’t even need to say anything, I solve it just by telling him what the problem is. But that can make it difficult when he’s not around to talk to (and no, talking to the air does not help).

So – what do you guys do when you have WIP problems? Talk it out? Walk it out? Shower endlessly??

PS And speaking of the Chess wip – I have finished it!!! And now it will go in a drawer where it will NEVER be seen again – at least not until I’ve got up the courage to edit the stupid thing.

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Bad Romance

Jackie Ashenden — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:51:00 +0000

I know it’s a Lady Gaga song but hey, it’s just crying out to be used as a blog post title too. And hey, my writing is all crap at the moment so it’s a fitting title. Anyway, I’ve been slack on the blog front. Mainly due to the massive plunge into ‘why do I bother’ territory. Been 11 weeks now since I sent off my two chapters. Not very long really (you really know you’re a writer when 11 weeks becomes ‘not very long’). I kind of hoped I’d hear sooner because two chapters isn’t even a full partial but….well….not as the case may be. Still, I did email her to ask about the New Voices comp and whether I should enter and she did reply. Apparently the experience should be fun and I should give it a go. I don’t know if will yet. Depends on how much of a masochist I am and considering my feelings about writing at the moment, I’m thinking not. But, well, you know me, up and down ALL the time so by September I may be feeling entirely differently.

Oh and the ed told I would be hearing ‘very soon’ about my sub.

Anyone want to take a bet on how long ‘very soon’ is?

In fact, I think I might run a wee sweepstake to help with the NTAI. Post how long you think ‘very soon’ is and the person who guesses the closest to when I hear back will win a prize. Don’t know what that prize may be – probably a book or something. Oh and depending on how long ‘very soon’ is, you may be waiting a while to hear who wins…;-)

Note: Yes, I’m complaining. Yes, I know I should be patient. But a little vent now and then doesn’t hurt. I’m even feeling better now for having done this blog post.

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So What Do I Do Now?

Jackie Ashenden — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 01:02:00 +0000

Okay, so here I am, still waiting. No drama though. In many ways still waiting is good. Everything is still a possibility, nothing has been rejected. Yet. Groan. My only problem is feeling sick every morning as the Inbox of Doom fills up with emails.
Anyway, in order to help the NTAI along a little, I’ve been working on a couple of entries for a contest run by the RWNZ. It’s a specifically category contest which is why I’m entering. Got my stories sorted bar some minor editing, just have the minor detail of the synopses to go. Did I mention how much I hate writing these? Yes? Well, I’m going to say it again mainly for venting purposes – I HATE synopses. Right. Will shut up about it now.
After these entries have been posted I then will have to think about which wip is the next wip. I’m leaving the Frenchman to simmer for a while before editing so in the meantime I shall have to press on with something else. And I think – seeing as how I’ve finally got the conflict sorted – it shall be Kate and Alex, my Feel the Heat entry. After so long, it’s about time eh? And actually, quite looking forward to it since they’re turning out to be one hot couple – I love it when they fight.

More on that anon, but first I need to annouce that I have been nominated for the 5-5-5 tag by the lovely Suzanne Jones. Thanks Suzanne! This is: 5 questions, 5 answers, 5 blogs to tag.
So here goes:

Question 1: Where were you five years ago?

1. I was a librarian in a university library.
2. Had only one child (not even thinking of number 2!).
3. Was trying and failing to write the great New Zealand novel because I was too busy writing romance stories instead.
4. Thought that internal conflict was something you got after eating too much chocolate.
5. Never dreamed I’d even get close to getting published.

Question 2: What is (was) on your to do list today?

1. Finish my competition synopses – fail.
2. Put away my supermarket shopping – fail.
3. Clean up my bedroom – fail.
4. Tidy my study – fail.
5. Get totally involved with my new wip to the detriment of everything else – success!

Question 3: What five snacks do you enjoy?

1. Coffee. Yes, it does count as a snack!
2. Dark chocolate.
3. Pretzels.
4. Cheese.
5. Chocolate martinis. What? They also count as a snack. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Question 4: What five places have you lived in?

1. Wellington.
2. Auckland.
3. Chiswick (London).
4. Golders Green (London).
5. Romancelandia (where I still live in my head).

Question 5: What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?

1. Seduce my virgin secretary.
2. Keep a string of racehorses/polo ponies.
3. Buy vast mansions in London, Paris and New York.
4. Make secretive large charitable donations.
5. Claw my way up from a poverty stricken background, make shed-loads of money on the stock exchange and finally wreck my terrible revenge on those who wronged me.

Nominating 5 bloggers: Argh, I always hate this part. All the blogs I check out are cool but CPs get first dibs.

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