Don’t Miss The Writers Helping Writers AMAZING RACE!

Posted on October 21, 2013 by S.J. Maylee

Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi at Writers Helping Writers (formerly The Bookshelf Muse) have added two more books to their Descriptive Thesaurus Collection: The Positive Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Attributes and The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Flaws. To celebrate, they are hosting a race, and not just any old race, either. It’s the…

Writing is hard, isn’t it? Create the perfect hook. Make your first page compelling. Craft an amazing 25 word pitch. Knock out a query that will blow an agent’s mind. On and on it goes. And sometimes, well, you just wish someone would help.

WISH NO MORE!

From October 21st until October 27th, Writers Helping Writers is posting an OPEN CALL for writers. You can fill out a form, requesting help with critiques, book visibility, social media sharing, blog diagnostics, advice and more.

An army of Amazing Racers are standing by (ME INCLUDED!) waiting to help with your submissions. How many people can we help in a week? Let’s find out! Did I mention there are Celebrity Racers too–amazing authors and editors who know their way around a first page. Maybe one of them will pick your submission to help with!

Each day this week, there’s an AMAZING giveaway, too. So stop in at Angela & Becca’s new Writers Helping Writers website and find out how to take advantage of this unique, pay-it-forward event for writers. I’ll see you there!

HELP THE ELF: I Found Santa’s Missing Nice List!

Posted on December 19, 2012 by S.J. Maylee

Hi everyone! As you may remember, a few weeks ago PETE the Elf had a touch too much Eggnog at the Holiday Christmas Party and as he stumbled home, he lost Santa’s NICE LIST.

The North Wind scattered the papers to all four corners of the world, and The Bookshelf Muse put out a call to help find them in order to SAVE CHRISTMAS.

Ever since I read about it, I’ve been on the lookout. And then today, EUREKA!

Yes that’s right…I found part of Santa’s missing NICE LIST. There it was, fluttering in the wind, half caught under the corner of my welcome mat. And shock of all shocks, I recognized the name, and I bet you will too.

Here it is below:

NAME: Angelica Dawson @AngelicaDawson

LOCATION: Blog ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~Goodreads

NICE LEVEL: 93%

NAUGHTY LEVEL: 7%

OBSERVATIONS: Angelica is a great critique partner, is very generous with her time and never fails to make her partner work harder, find better words and it works everytime, EVERYTIME! Could eat more vegetables. Especially Broccoli.

RECOMMENDATION: a) Coal b) Gift

~ ~ * ~ ~

Because poor Pete is dashing all over the place trying to hunt down the rest of Santa’s missing Nice List, I decided to take care of this one myself. Angelica, I feel so blessed to know you! Enjoy the gift I sent to your inbox this morning and have a wonderful Christmas!

How about you, Readers? Is there someone you’d like to say Happy Holidays to, or tell them how much they mean to you? JOIN US! There’s plenty of days left until Christmas, and sometimes a kind word can lift people up in a way that they really need. It’s as easy as sending a free ecard or email note, posting on a Facebook wall or sending out a tweet. So go ahead and spread some kindness and cheer!

Photo credit:

assorted gold baubles (christmasstockimages.com) / CC BY 3.0

Random Act Of Kindness BLITZ!

Posted on May 14, 2012 by S.J. Maylee

A smile. An encouraging word. A thoughtful gesture. Each day people interact with us, help, and make our day a bit brighter and full. This is especially true in the Writing Community.

Take a second to think about writers you know, like the critique partner who works with you to improve your manuscript. The writing friend who listens, supports and keeps you strong when times are tough. The author who generously offers council, advice and inspiration when asked.

So many people take the time to make us feel special, don’t they? They comment on our blogs, re-tweet our posts, chat with us on forums and wish us Happy Birthday on Facebook.

Kindness ROCKS!

To commemorate the release of their book The Emotion Thesaurus, Becca and Angela at The Bookshelf Muse are hosting a TITANIC Random Act Of Kindness BLITZ. And because I think KINDNESS is contagious, I’m participating too!

A couple of months ago I met an angel of a lady, Lani Rhea. Not only does she love books, but she’s a talented writer as well. I’d already been to her site a few times when our paths crossed, which reminded me how small our world really is.

She’s an angel to me in many ways. Not only does she listen to my bazillion questions, but she’s helping me on my writing journey. One question after the other and before long it was clear: we are kindred spirits.

By talking to her about my writing it became a little more real to me, not just something I do behind the walls I’ve erected. With her encouragement I found the will power and sent her the first several pages of my WIP and she sent me back a critique. The experience was tremendously exciting for me. Not only because it was my first critique, but I got to see all kinds of ways to improve my writing. I also got to see that my writing isn’t complete crap. I’ve been writing more, participating in writing workshops, and I’ve got serious honest to goodness plans for my writing.

So when they came up with the ROAK idea, I knew for certain I had to do a post about Lani. But what could I do for her?

In an email string one day I discovered her love for coffee. She drinks way too much, but I can’t really blame her. Yes, we’re kindred spirits all right. My hometown has several mom and pop coffee joints who roast their own beans…off to the roaster I went, bagged some beans and I’ve shipped them off to Lani to feed her addiction.

Someday I hope to meet Lani in person and give her the biggest dang hug you’ve ever seen. Until our stars align, please help me in giving Lani a virtual hug: Facebook Twitter Amazon Linked in

Do you know someone special that you’d like to randomly acknowledge?
Don’t be shy–come join us and celebrate! Send them an email, give them a shout out, or show your appreciation in another way. Kindness makes the world go round. 🙂

Becca and Angela have a special RAOK gift waiting for you as well, so hop on over to The Bookshelf Muse to pick it up.

Have you ever participated in or been the recipient of a Random Act Of Kindness? Let me know in the comments!

Love you, Lani. (((BigBigHugs))) I hope you enjoyed the RAOK.