Young Adult and Middle Grade Author
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG
Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.
Remember, the question is optional! [Read more…] about I’m Back! And Just in Time for #IWSG Wednesday
This month I featured Yolanda Renee. She has been a great guest, and I hope the feature helped make her books more visible out in this wildly competitive world of books. Be sure to take a look at all of her work, including Parallels: Felix Was Here, an anthology The Insecure Writers Group made possible.
[Read more…] about Books. Books. Books. AND Insecurity Pride Day!
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| Thanks Ninja Alex |
The awesome co-hosts for the December 7 posting of the IWSG will be Jennifer Hawes, Jen Chandler, Nick Wilford, Juneta Key, JH Moncrieff, Diane Burton, and MJ Fifield!
Talk about being insecure. Well, this IWSG post is the most insecure one I’ve ever done, but I wanted to test out something, and what better place than here among friends? That’s what I kept telling myself. Anyway, in spite of my good common sense, I’m posting my idea this month. What you’ll see is a work in progress with a rough draft of my first Instant Book. If you have some suggestions about how to use this as marketing tool or (Heaven Help Me!) how to create a video, I’d to hear them.
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| Brain Child of Alex J. Cavanaugh
The awesome co-hosts for the March 2 posting of the IWSG are Since Tara Tyler and Christine Rains invited me to be a part of the MEME HOP, I’ve become besotted by memes. Here’s my IWSG short story told in memes. |
My little man’s pointing to my email subscribe field at the top right of this post. My next email goes out mid-March, so hope you’ll sign up because there’s some good stuff this month and a surprise. Here’s a list of what Special Offers have already gone out since I started my email list.
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| Brain Child of DL Hammons
You can send your entries, starting April 1-30. Then the contest starts May 18. Wish I could jump in, but I’m booked solid all spring. I’ll be stopping by though to see what you guys are submitting. There are always great stories.
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| Arlee Bird and tons of others make this work! |
Have you signed up? Get going. April’s here before you know it. HERE’s the link.
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Alex Cavanaugh’s Brain Child
Awesome co-hosts today are Allison Gammons, Tamara Narayan, Eva E. Solar, Rachel Pattison, and Ann V. Friend!
Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!
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What’s so strange then about being just a little INSECURE?
Nothing, but to ease any tension–should any of these be nagging at you–I’ve come up with some alternative uses for you… and me. Don’t thank me, please. I’m preparing for all of these after this post goes live.
Any other uses for Insecure Writers that you can think of? For heaven sakes share! But call me first because this was my idea. And read on because there’s some free books and a $100 dollar gift certificate waiting for you below.
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| Visit EVERNIGHT TEEN to see all of their books. |
By Carla Davis
I decided to give Double Negative a try because the sample dragged me in from the first paragraph until I had to read the whole thing! It’s so rare to see well done first person, but this book does it masterfully. Hutch has a real voice that must be rendered in the way the author has chosen. No lazy writing here!
By ltg584
I could tell within pages that this book was pure genius and it only became more apparent the deeper I was pulled into the story. I devoured it as quickly as I could… and now it’s over! 🙁 I wish there was some way that it could be a series, just so I could have more! I have already been perusing the author’s other works, debating over which one to read next.
By Night Owl Reviews
Double Negative is just amazing. Reading it felt like being on emotional roller-coaster.
I’m proud to be an EVERNIGHT TEEN author. Enjoy this tease from my book, Double Negative.
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| “My life was going, going, gone, and I hadn’t been laid yet. I couldn’t go into the slammer before that happened.” Hutch McQueen |
I see her before she sees me, but when she does, man, does she shoot lasers at me with her eyes. I walk fast and stop her at the edge of the lawn. “Look, I’m a sleaze, okay? I’m sorry, but that’s just the way I was made.”
“What do you need?”
“Nothing.” That’s pretty much the truth at the moment. By using one eye to read I’m doing more of the homework. If I hold one of them magnifying glasses over a page I can even look up words in the dictionary, so while it takes a lot of time, I can almost get through Deek’s assignments. Still I don’t want to take any chances. Nyla’s brain could be the difference between me staying a junior for a long time or making it to my senior year. I need to be on her good side.
She passes me and starts toward Larkston High.
“I said I’m sorry. Liz and me . . . well we kind of—”
“Just shut up.” She keeps walking, her eyes down.
“I came to try and—”
She wheels around so fast I run smack into her and have to back up.
I’m offering two eBooks of Double Negative during Evernight Teen’s super celebration. All you have to do is say you’d like a copy and leave your email in a comment. I’ll put your name in the “hat”.
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| SIGN UP HERE |
Fall is officially here and nights grow longer. Spookiness wraps its arms around you and you shudder in the chill of October. It’s the perfect time of year to look under the bed before climbing in to sleep. And guess what you’ll find there–besides those dust bunnies and the last page of your manuscript you lost in April. . .
Yep, there they are huddled together, waiting, hoping to keep you tossing in those sheets and sleepless with them nagging at you.
But just in case you don’t have a good left hook, SIGN UP for the IWSG and get the help you’ll need to see you through the dark and stormy nights ahead.
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| ENTER HERE |
Oh and speaking of Insecurities: There’s nothing like a contest to give you the jitters. The Great Time Lock Disaster has been entered in the Cover Wars Contest over at Masquerade Crew this month. If you like the cover, it would be great to have your VOTE.
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| Amazon |
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| Alex Cavanaugh |
1) I finished that manuscript I’ve been wrestling with for weeks, months–let’s be honest–years. It went to my all time favorite editor. She liked it. Then I sent it to an author who asked to read it. I’m still chewing my nails about that. Maybe there are really 3 Insecurities in this one paragraph, but I’ll bundle them into a unit.
2) I set up a Special Offers Mailing List and that was a huge Insecurity Issue for me, but I have a good start on my list of people who are willing to let me invade their inboxes once a month and offer them books or other rewards for taking up their time.
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| Denise Covey, Yolanda Renee |
3) I entered the WEP August Challenge and posted a bit of description. There were some excellent entries in this HOP, so I had every right to be Insecure.
4) My WIP is at 26,000 words and I’m terribly Insecure about it because I’m experimenting with it, so I’m either going to make something good or something really bad.
5) I was hugely Insecure when I invited Barry Lyga to be a guest on my site. I’m still experiencing fan-girl symptoms. He’s a super writer.
Well, that’s enough about my Insecurities. Now I’m off to see what others have to say about theirs this first Wednesday of September.
Here’s to fall!
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| Alex J. Cavanaugh |
I used to think that insecurity would vanish as I grew older and improved my craft. That is not the case.
If anything, I think it has increased in size and duration–like, it’s no longer gorilla big; it’s gorilla ginormous, and it’s there all the time.
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| Photo Credit |
So why?
My theory is that the more you come to understand what you’re up against in the publishing world, the more you anticipate those hurdles and know just what it takes to get over them. There’s something positive about having that knowledge, but I think that knowledge also is anxiety producing, which leads to insecurity, and which leads me to write posts like this every first Wednesday of the month.
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| Hosts The Madlab Post & Write Game |
I’m also posting on The Road Trip this summer while I take a road trip or two with Mario the Muse. He and I needed a break and new scenery. If you have time I’m featuring a few bloggers on my latest post. It could be YOU, so come take a peek.
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| On the road with Mario |
Do you have a theory about this thing we label as insecurity? Taking any road trips this summer? Want more books to wrap up your summer reading?
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| Thanks ALEX CAVANAUGH The LINKY’s at the bottom ( if Blogger hasn’t done another fail on me). Visit some others and boost their SECURITY. |
Nobody escapes the thought that they may not MAKE it. They may not SUCCEED. They may not be the BEST or win an AWARD. Even the most successful among us have considered this emotion, this very real part of our human condition. Here are some of the quotes I dug up to share with you on this February IWSG Wednesday.
And then there was Diane
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Let me introduce The Muffin Commando Squad. The very fun, very exciting and very capable Yvonne Ventresca, Patricia Lynne, Elizabeth Seckman, Tara Tyler, Tammy Theriault, Carrie Butler and Tyrean Martinson are the Muffins with the most fiber in town. We’re going to be one super team.
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| MATUSIC
And what are those Kargrandes? Anyone?
The Muffins are armed and ready if they show up.
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| If I keep welcoming this year maybe it will stay around longer. |
I’ll be at Dianne Salerni’s Blog today, talking about the ideas that knitted together to create Sudden Secrets. Hope you’ll stop by to say hello.
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| Thanks Alex J. Cavanaugh |
