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September Blog Hop!
Welcome to the September Blog Hop! Celebrate the beginning of fall with me and my blogger friends by hopping around, visiting our sites, and entering our contests! There are no limits – you can enter the contest on every blog. With over 40 blogs participating, that’s over 40 prizes you could win. Just click on the links below to move on to the next blog.
If this is your first time here, hi! I’m Jordan McCollum, an aspiring author. I blog about writing and craft around here. We just finished up a fun series on Clues in non-mysteries (aka how to foreshadow), and several of my older series are available as free PDF writing guides. On Wednesdays I (try) to do a Wednesday Writing link-up where you can share your latest, greatest posts on writing craft, writing life, publishing and all things related (but I slipped the last two weeks).
On my blog, you can win …
A $30 Amazon gift card!
Would you like to win this prize? You just need to do two things.
1. Become a follower of this blog. Check the sidebar: I have Networked Blogs/Facebook, and just last night I broke down and added Google Friend Connect. Just because I love you and want to make your life easy. See? You should follow me anyway 
.
2. Leave me a comment in the trail and tell me what you’d get with this prize.
That’s it! You are now entered. The contest ends on Saturday night, September 24th, at midnight MST, and the winner will be contacted shortly thereafter. Please either leave your e-mail address in the comment trail or make sure it’s visible through your profile so I can contact you to tell you that you’re the lucky winner.
Now go visit my other friends …
September Blog Hop Participants
| 1. Tristi Pinkston, LDS Author
3. I Am A Reader, Not A Writer 4. Mandi Slack 7. Pam Williams 8. Laurie Lewis 9. Kristy Tate 11. Stacy Coles 12. Kristie Ballard 13. Lynn Parsons 15. Sheila Staley 16. Cindy Hogan |
17. Jamie Thompson
18. Jaclyn Weist 19. Cathy Witbeck 21. Tamera Westhoff 22. Tina Scott 23. Lynnea Mortensen 24. Danyelle Ferguson aka Queen of the Clan 26. Bonnie Harris 27. Melissa Lemon 28. Mary Ann Dennis 29. Stephanie Black 30. Jane Still 31. Janice 32. Laura Bastian |
33. Tamara Bordon
34. Betsy Love 35. Maria Hoagland 36. Amber Robertson 37. Debbie Davis 38. Apparently, there is no 38. 39. Christy Monson 40. Carolyn Frank 41. Rebecca Birkin 43. Emily L. Moir 44. Ronda Hinrichsen 45. Lisa Asanuma 46. Joan Sowards 47. Jordan McCollum (You are here!) |
Come Celebrate The Release Of Watched With Us!
My friend Cindy M. Hogan has her first book coming out, and to celebrate, I’m part of a whole group of bloggers holding contests! The prize here: a copy of Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass.
And you could win lots of awesome prizes
and learn about
the hot new teen novel,
while making new friends.
Each of the following blogs is offering a different awesome prize!
(That’s 14 prizes!)
And the grand prize is a $25 dollar gift card to Amazon.
Quick, Fast Entry
Pick a blog, any blog to get started
(just click on the underlined name)
Better hurry! There’s only 4 days to enter -Tues., June 21st-Friday, June 24th
**(Need more details? More complete entry details at the bottom of the page)
1. Follow Rachelle Writes and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Rachelle’s blog. (If you do both you get 1 entry into Rachelle’s contest and one into the Grand Prize contest-You Must do both to enter either)
2. Follow A Writer’s Reality and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Melissa’s blog.
3. Follow Day Dreamer and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Christine’s blog.
4. Follow The Queen of the Clan and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Danyelle’s blog.
5. Follow Jordan McCollum and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Jordan’s blog.
6.Follow The Crazy Daze of Motherhood and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Jane’s blog.
7.Follow I am a Pistachioand leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Rebecca’s blog.
8. Follow Chasing Dreams and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Tamara’s blog.
9. Follow Ramblings of a Random Writer and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Betsy’s blog.
10. Follow Matthew Tandy-The Working Writer and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Matthew’s blog.
11 Follow Weaving a Tale or Two and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Donna’s blog.
12. Follow Tristi Pinkston, LDS Author and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Tristi’s blog.
13. Follow My Yellow Sandbox and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M Hogan and leave a comment about Abby’s blog.
14. Follow Watched and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M Hogan and leave a comment about that blog.
13. Enter all 14 contests and you get an extra 5 entries into the Grand Prize Giveaway. (19 entries)
14. That’s not all! Get 6 extra entries by buying Watched here(print book) or here(e-book) and sending a copy of your confirmation cindymhogan at yahoo dot com. Easy peasy. Wow! That’s 25 entries!
Have fun and good luck!
**More Details on how to enter
- Click on the blog name
- Follow that blog
- Leave a comment that you were there
- Jump over to Cindy’s blog
- Leave a comment about what you liked about the other blog.
Congrats! You’ve entered that blog’s contest and earned one entry into the Grand Prize Drawing!
Enter one. Enter two or how ever many you like, but…
If you enter all the blogs’ contests you get a bonus 5 entries into the Grand Prize Drawing.
That gives you a total of 19 entries to win the
Grand Prize- A $25 gift card to Amazon.
And don’t forget to get your copy of Watched for a bonus 6 entries.
(25 total)
Remember- you only have 4 days to enter.
(Tues, June 21st-Friday, June 24th at midnight)
and you must comment on both blogs for entry into each contest.
Individual blogs will award prizes on June 25th
The Grand Prize will be awarded on June 28th on Cindy’s blog.
Check back to see if you won! You have 2 days to claim your prize.
A big thanks to my awesome friends for joining in on the fun.
| 1. Rachelle Writes
3. Day Dreamer |
8. Chasing Dreams
9. Ramblings of a Random Writer 10. Matthew Tandy-The Working Writer 12. Tristi Pinkston, LDS Author 14. Watched |
The promised announcement
All right, last week I promised you some good news. Fortunately, this good news starts with C: Contest!
The first three chapters + synopsis of Façade, my current WIP, were named as a finalist in the Crested Butte Writers’ Sandy Contest, Thriller/Suspense category! Woot!
Even better, I get a chance to revise my entry with the judges’ feedback this week. Then, along with the other four finalists’, my entry will be winging its way to the final judge: Sarah Knight, senior editor at Simon & Schuster.
It’s weird just typing that.
So, I’m off to re-polish my entry!
One more big announcement: along with my mother and three sisters, I’ve started a craft blog! So, if you’re into knitting, quilting, scrapbooking, sewing, baking, home decorating or otherwise creating, please check out Wayward Girls’ Crafts! We have giveaways to celebrate launch week!
Photo by Jason Meredith
Prizes all around!
Today’s the big day: the Blog RSS contest conclusion. Did you see the secret message?
Well, someone did. <drum roll please>
will get The Power of Point of View by Alicia Rasley AND Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass.
But wait, there’s more!
Livia King, neuroscience grad student, writer, intrepid volunteer and very very soon to be bride, wins How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling by James N. Frey.
AND:
Deb Smythe wins How to Write a Damn Good Novel, II: Advanced Techniques For Dramatic Storytelling by James N. Frey.
Thanks to everyone who entered, and congrats to our winners!
Note to prizewinners: if you already have a copy of your prize, then we can talk substitutions. Email me with your shipping information: jordan (at) jordanmccollum.com
And there’s still more!
Don’t be disappointed if you didn’t win one of our fabulous prizes (I know it’s hard, but please try.) I have something for everyone.
Our blog series on deep POV has come to a close, but there’s always more to learn. I’ve assembled the posts from the blog series into a free PDF guide to deep POV—with bonus features not found in the blog series.
All our guides will be available on the new Free Writing Guides page.
What would you like to see for future contests and prizes?
Blog RSS Contest!
Are you an RSS or email subscriber to this blog? If so, you’re in luck. One day in the next two weeks, there will be a message in the footer of the post for subscribers only.
But that’s not all ! The more subscribers we get by August 15, the more prizes I’ll give out. So spread the word—tweet, email, Facebook, MySpace, whatever. As more people subscribe to this blog by email or RSS, I’ll post the secret message with final instructions more than once. (I can’t give an upper limit, because even I’m not sure how high I’ll go right now .)
Prizes
Like I said, the more subscribers we get, the more prizes we’ll have. Prizes may include:
- The Power of Point of View by Alicia Rasley AND Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass
- How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling by James N. Frey
- How to Write a Damn Good Novel, II: Advanced Techniques For Dramatic Storytelling by James N. Frey
- $20 gift certificate to Amazon.com
- $20 gift certificate to iTunes
Not a subscriber yet? Let’s fix that! You can subscribe to JordanMcCollum.com via RSS or email.
(And if you’re wondering “What’s RSS?,” you’re in luck once again. Here’s a simple explanation of how to get updates from your favorite blogs delivered to you for your reading convenience:
)
See? It’s easy and convenient. So subscribe today for a chance to win fabulous prizes!
And stay tuned for the stunning conclusion of our series on deep POV next week, followed by reviews of aspiring author websites!
If Hemingway were alive today
And now, we interrupt the blog series on deep POV for something completely different.
If Hemingway were alive today, he’d probably sue me for this. But he’ll have to be content to roll over in his grave.
Ernest Hemingway is often hailed as the greatest writer of the 20th century. My favorite story of his [supposedly] was allegedly the product of a $10 bar bet to write a story in six words:
For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
For me, no matter how many times I hear this story, it never fails to evoke an emotional response. That’s some powerful flash fiction. It has inspired several anthologies of flash fiction, including Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak: by Writers Famous and Obscure and I Can’t Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure.
But today I was thinking: what if Hemingway were alive today, in the age of the Internet? What would his poignant ad look like on, say . . . eBay?
Technically, I believe that’s still only one word . . .
How would Hemingway’s story look on craigslist? A local classifieds site? What should my other five words be?
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged contest, ebay, ernest hemingway, fun, hemingway, humor, six word memoir, six word story
2 Comments
Tooting my own horn
In the unlikely event that you’re not already reading the masterful blog of literary agent Nathan Bransford, I seriously recommend it. He’s a great resource for learning all about literary agents—what they do, how to get them, how not to annoy them and inadvertently sabotage your writing career with an ill-fated rhetorical question.
And apparently he’s also a wonderful human being, because instead of just being super kind to writers, he’s spending next week volunteering in a South American orphanage. No joke. Since he didn’t want his blog to lie fallow, he called for guest bloggers for next week. Out of over two hundred and fifty entries, guess who was one of the chosen five?
I know, can you believe it? (Um, me, guys. It was me.) So be sure to subscribe to Nathan’s blog and keep an eye out for five award-winning posts next week.
In the meantime, we’ll continue with our series on deep POV (though if my post runs on a Tuesday or Thursday, we’ll rearrange the schedule to accommodate that). And in other news, I’ve assembled our series on creating character sympathy into a free PDF guide.
Many thanks to Nathan, and I’m looking forward to the guest posts there as well as our continuing series here.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged award, character sympathy, contest, free guide, guest blogging, guest post, guide, nathan bransford, sympathetic characters
7 Comments
