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January 29, 2010
Fat Plum's Book Boot Camp is Back!
What is Book Boot Camp? It is an intensive six-week workshop designed to take your work in progress from mediocre to marketable!
To quote yesterday's Publisher's Lunch, the newsletter of www.PublishersMarketplace.com, it read, "Even in the digital age, the power of meeting face-to-face cannot be underestimated."
While this quote was in reference to attending the London Book Fair, the writer was correct. Face-to-face meetings can be a powerful way to impact your writing.
Book Boot Camp's small group sessions offer writers targeted feedback specific to individual writing projects with a focus on improving the manuscript, taking it to the next level. Constructive, targeted suggestions cover content, editing, and marketing concerns.
The format is positive and comfortable yet focused and intense. Each attendee will read aloud from his/her work in progress each week and receive specific suggestions to be applied to the writing project. Other workshops often invite attendees to read only once or twice over the duration of the course. At Fat Plum's Book Boot Camp, we're hitting your project hard each week, shaping it into a more readable, marketable manuscript by the end.
There will be a maximum of 8 attendees in the session. By keeping the group small, each reader will receive plenty of individual critique time each week!
Due to the stressed economy, we at Fat Plum decided to keep the cost of the Boot Camp the same as it has been since 2007. The fee is $240 for six three-hour sessions.
So what are you waiting for? For additional information, click on the "Register Now" button above and enlist today!
Posted by Judy at 09:08 AM | Comments (0)
January 06, 2010
New Year's Resolutions
Today, the doorbell rang at 12:40 PM and, to my surprise, my new oven was being delivered early. The delivery was supposed to arrive between 1:00 and 4:00. Ordinarily, I would have expected it to show up at 5:00 or even be postponed until tomorrow. So this was great! I hoped this promptness was a sign of how my new year would proceed -- shorter waiting periods, increased productivity -- you get the picture.
While I chatted with one of the delivery men about the broken oven being a great excuse for going out to dinner instead of having to cook tonight, the other man fell silent. He was reading something hanging on my kitchen wall. He chuckled and said, "I like Dad's number three the best." It was then I realized just what he had read.
A little too early on January first, my teenaged daughter pulled out a piece of bright yellow poster board and a big pack of Sharpies(TM). At the top of the poster, she wrote in jaggedy, angularly artistic letters: Unbreakable Resolutions. She proceeded to create a bulleted list of five points for each family member and then added a column for the family as a whole, titled "Everyone." Under this category, she listed chores and responsibilities that generally fall on me, so I was quite happy to see that list evolve.
Once the poster was fully and colorfully decorated, we each had five "unbreakable" blanks to fill. "My first one is easy," I told my daughter. "Write 'EXERCISE'." She laughed and scribbled it in beside the number one.
"Guess you'll have to dust off those old YWCA and Club Membership cards," she said.
I laughed too, but the sad fact was, she wasn't joking. Hopping on an elliptical machine once every ten days did not constitute exercise. And at home, Wii Fit was fine as long as no one else was around to watch. But it seemed I could fill a room with the click of the Wii controller and a ting of the intro music. I guess everyone wanted to witness my best Warrior pose.
I didn't commit any further than the word "Exercise" on line one, however. I wasn't about to add specifics about how many times a week I'd attempt to go. After all, this was the year of the "Unbreakable Resolution." And no way was I going to be the first family member to crack.
I added such achievable resolutions as gagging down more calcium (I hate how huge those horse pills are) and using my new Envirosax bags, given to me as a gift from my dear friend Julie. I knew those were two things I could surely accomplish. But my entries numbered four and five remained unwritten.
My oldest daughter is a college student and she promised to update her list by text messaging entries just as soon as they came to her. But we all could write her list for her: 1. Study Harder. 2. Get More Rest. 3. Get More Rest. 4. Study Harder. She is a collegiate swimmer on an intensive training trip at the moment so, of course, she sent the message that "Swim Faster" should be added to her segment of the family poster. NCAAs, here we come (hopefully)!
My son's list constituted such ideas as "Clean Room", "Talk Less in School", and "Actually DO Physical Therapy Exercises." Those, of course, were all written in his older sister's handwriting. Had he come up with his own resolutions, they would have read something like, "Play More XBox" and "Golf Everyday."
My middle daughter's list of five encompassed such entries as "Stop Procrastinating" and "Strive to Achieve ALL Goals Made." Wow, she went easy on herself this year. She also added a sixth parenthetical point that read: GET A BOYFRIEND. Ahh, isn't that the resolution of every girl her age? But it was her first entry that hit home for me. She wrote the simple words, "Finish Play."
"Wow," I thought. "That's a doable goal." My daughter had begun writing a play last summer and she really could finish writing it this year. After all, she had twelve months to do it.
She had twelve months, and so did I. That was when I stepped up to the plate with my big number four: Finish Novel. And for me, this year, that goal's unbreakable!
So there, I've done it. I've committed in front of all of you to complete my novel and put it out there for the world to see. (Don't worry, I've already warned my agent that it's coming!)
And now, it's your turn. What doable, unbreakable resolutions do you have the courage to commit to this year? Write them in the comments section below, and you won't feel all alone in tackling this year's goals with vigor. No more allowing another year to slip by. This turn of the decade, 2010, is the year for you to be productive!
Oh, and in case you're wondering what point the delivery man got such a chuckle from. It was Dad's number three: Stop Speeding. Can you guess whose handwriting that one was written in?
Happy New Year! Wishing you a productive, happy, and healthy 2010!
Judy
Posted by Judy at 01:35 PM | Comments (17)