#MIRACLE GIRLS Is A Finalist for a 2014 #IndieFab Book of the Year Award in #LGBT and #Religious Fiction

That's pretty nice.

It's About Time We Get A Little Juice on This #Lit #Blog: Are #BookFest Prizes Fake? And Is There Any Such Thing As #Hormone-Fee #Chicken?

In response to my question about being a sucker or not for entering a major book festival operation, a fantastically tart little mouse, calling himself Stephen Cing, said this:

“Perceived value”. LOL. You paid almost a hundred dollars to have your name drawn out of a hat. Like, “No Hormones Added” on chicken packages. Or air in the bottom of packages. Nice. So yes, if you’re looking to sell prose to those who cannot even read labels, and are instead distracted by shiny stickers, inflating value through illiterate means is the way to go. It’s not a scam, but it’s much like fraction-reserve banking, like a Ponzi scheme. The consumers are idiots greater than the schemer. Seriously, anyone who needs and seeks perceived value will never have enough dignity to make it as a literary author.

Is it true?  Are shiny stickers the sign that a writer will never make it as a literary author? Are chicken packages claiming to have no hormones also a lie?  Please help out and put your two cents in.  Let's have this blog revisit its former glory with a good old fashioned literary debate, shall we?

Anyone Going to the #AWP Conference? I'll Be On a Panel, Thursday, April 9 at 10:30 called #Rejection! Everything You Always Wanted to Know (But Were Afraid to Ask)

@AWPWriter, I'm on this panel with Jill Bialosky,  @robspillman,  @melissa_stein,  and  David Baker. The panel is described as: "Top editors from W. W. Norton, Tin House, and the Kenyon Review join emerging writers (including a literary-rejection blog author) to dish about exactly how submissions are evaluated, what it’s like to rebuff so many labors of love, the mysterious hierarchy of rejection slips, whether and how the best work really gets published, tips to avoid surefire rejection—and how to maintain faith in your work and your voice even when rejections keep piling up. Audience questions encouraged!"  Maybe you'll come by and say hello?

#Finalist for A #Lammy Along with #SarahWaters, #FrancineProse and #Anne-Marie McDonald. Who Do You Think Will Win? Hint: #NotMe

 It's cool to be nominated for a prize with people whose work you love. I LOVE the work of the famous writers on this list of finalist nominated for a Lammy Award, and I am going to read all the other books too. It's all very exciting. Three of my all time fav books are Household Saints, Tipping the Velvet, and Fall on Your Knees. So there you have it. I will be delighted to lose to the new novel of any of these wonderful writers. Call me cray, but it's true. I just hope I get to meet them in New York at the Ceremony on June 1st. Congratulations to all the nominees in all the categories too.

A Nice Honorable Mention in the #LosAngelesBookFestival --Legit or a Scam? You Tell Me.

Spiritual book category, which is lovely.  However, this blogger claims it is a scam, but my publisher thinks it's just grand. And this blogger defends the award.  What do you think?