Doree Anderson

Let's chat about critiquing. This seems to be the most popular time of the year for writer's to jump on the contest wagon. Every where you look, some chapter, somewhere is holding their "Fall in Love", Best Line, Best First Page, or First Meeting contest, etc. And for a small price you can send in your "however many pages they want," and you'll get a top notch critique on your work. Well, I will say that I am usually delighted to get all the feed back I can on a submission. Winning is not the reason to submit. I think of it as a small price to pay to see where I'm at and what needs tweaking. I do not know if I enjoy the rather rude comments that I've received and so, let's chat. Critiquing is not an area for one frustrated writer to rip into another one. It is for beneficial criticizing. In other words, I didn't pay money to have another writer whine about something I wrote. I did pay money to receive constructive criticism! If you sign u

I got a request ---- ye'haw. That's right. Caren Johnson Estesen Literary Agency asked for my manuscript "Excuse Me, Do You Smell Feta Cheese? .... I'm so beside myself that I had to take a few days to let it sink in. And now that it has, I feel like I'm holding my breath - that's the wait part. I'm handling it pretty well, though. I can now go a few days, oxygen deprived and I'm sure it will be a lot more to come - bring it on. What do they say - What doesn't bring pain, wasn't earned. It's all about the job. Authors must really like a roller coaster ride, because we hop on board more times than we care to admit. Honestly. Silly people, I say. Oh wait, I'm one of them! And I'm loving it. :-) Anyway, I finished the manuscript and then, what do I do? I tear it up. Yep, that's the disease. See, its this good, we think, but it can be this much better. I removed the part about Dani's brother Maxwell because, he's the star of