Be My Valentine, Second Annual Poetry Night and Radcon are coming!

This week will be super busy for me.  I have two author events and hope to see you!

For Seattle readers, I will be reading at Be My Valentine, Second Annual Poetry Night at Barnes & Noble.

Writing Group, Performance, Author Reading
Calling all romantics, all writers, all poets! Bring your own writing or a love poem by a favorite author and join us at our Second Annual, Be My Valentine Poetry Night. If you are a fan of the Spoken Word, this is the night to celebrate love!

Thursday February 13, 2014 7:00 PM
Downtown
Pacific Place, 600 Pine St Suite 107, Seattle, WA 98101, 206-264-0156

Then on Saturday, I’ll be off for RadCon “The big Con with the Small Con feel”

RadCon is a Science-Fiction Convention held annually in Pasco, Washington. They cater to all genres of the SciFi community.

Who wants to see my schedule?

SATURDAY

Sat Feb 15 12:00:pm	Sat Feb 15 12:30:pm	Elizabeth Guizzetti
2209		Now I know what I am going to be reading. Chapter 7 from Other Systems and Chapter 3 from The Light Side of the Moon
Elizabeth Guizzetti

 

Sat Feb 15 12:30:pm	Sat Feb 15 1:30:pm	Women in Comics
2205		Our comic professionals share the underground history of women in comics!
Roberta Gregory and Elizabeth Guizzetti

 

Sat Feb 15 4:00:pm	Sat Feb 15 5:30:pm	Dropping The World
2203		You have a great world! It’s filled with lively characters, detailed scenery, and complex economic systems. How do you ease audience into this world without overwhelming them with data in the first chapter? Our experts will discuss and share tricks to avoiding the world-building data dump of writing.
S.A.Bolich, Voss Foster, Elizabeth Guizzetti, Peter Jones, and Kay Kenyon

 

Sat Feb 15 5:30:pm	Sat Feb 15 6:30:pm	Griping About Grammar
2205		Love it, hate it, but you can’t live without it! Or can you? How much of a part does grammar play in reader’s experience with a story? Does it really matter? Or will you lose readers to poor grammar? Join our writers and editors as they debate over the importance of grammar! Warning, some knowledge of proper grammar may be learned during this discussion.
John Dalmas, Elizabeth Guizzetti,  Andrea Howe, and Kamila Miller

SUNDAY

Sun Feb 16 11:00:am	Sun Feb 16 12:30:pm	Getting into the mind of the Religious Fanatic
2203		Uber villain or bit player, what are they like? Are there any useful generalizations? Are they likely to be suicidal and does that depend on the religion or the person?
Luna Flesher, Elizabeth Guizzetti, Guy Letourneau, and Rhiannon Louve,

An Author’s Life: Don’t bug me, I’m Beta Reading!

This week and the previous was spent beta reading. I read a manuscript for a friend which blew me a way. I read a part of a serialized manuscript for another friend which is I liked very much, but left me questioning something–this is not a bad thing btw!   (During this time, to break up my focus, I also read Stephen King’s Joyland but I doubt he cares about my opinion.)

Rosie says, “Constructive Criticism is priceless, but being a jerk is never acceptable. If you are a jerk, I will eat you, because jerk is a flavor I particularly love!”

I joined a writer’s group two years ago. I remember it was two years ago because it was right as I was querying Other Systems and I signed my contract for publication right near my birthday in 2011. Now just for a definition: Beta-reading is NOT editing. Though sometimes I point out grammar things that annoy me, mostly a beta-reader is looking for plot holes, pacing issues, out of character actions, or other things I find confusing.

When I first started beta-reading, I read small pieces of a manuscript because that is how the group is set up. Mostly a single chapter. However a single chapter doesn’t give me the overall view in regards to the whole of the story. Also once the author changed something after the critique I got very confused when I read the next chapter.

What I learned for me is short pieces work well for character development or getting facts straight. I admit the last time I brought a chapter to my author’s group, I was asking specifically if a chapter in The Light Side of the Moon which deals with drug use.  All I wanted to know was does this person’s experiences seemed correct.  I have never done drugs so I had no experience, but I guessed at least a few people in the group had, and I was correct. Though marijuana is legal where I live, it’s stinky so I have no interest in smoking it.

Now that I have written a few books, I particularly like reading full manuscripts, because I can identify anything that annoys me as a reader: plot holes, pacing, the amount of sex, swearing, translation issues. Even if the book is written for the target market for the novel.

When I met with the first friend so I might give her my critique –yes I am not saying anything about it purposely because I don’t have permission–we talked about how one of the best things about beta reading is sometimes you learn from a mistake that you see the other authors make. Also there is nothing like seeing the development of a manuscript from the moment I read to it being released. I read a few chapters a few years ago, now I read the whole thing and I am really excited.

Same thing with the one I finished the second one this morning. One will be later this year and I think the next one is next year. It’s fun to read the final version.

So writers while reading is important to an author so is beta reading. If you are a writer, chances are you have writer friends.  Go forth and beta read. Any time that you are giving your friends comes right back two fold.  1) these are the folks that critique my own work and (2) you learn things from critiquing.

Next week: I will write about how to accept a critique of one’s writing.