NEW Website & blog! Update your links to www.ciarastewart.com

My pretty new author website is up and running! My blog has moved. Please update your links to http://www.ciarastewart.com and stop by to say hi. You can still read old posts here, whether you want to know 13 reasons Jacob is better than Edward, you’re curious about my take on steampunk romance, or you’re looking for books like the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Old posts have also been exported to the new blog, but many of the photos are no longer working.

I hope you stop by and check out the fabulous site designed by Will Design for Chocolate. This was my Christmas present from Mr. Wonderful. Isn’t he the best?

Go to www.ciarastewart.com

Contest for Aspiring Paranormal Authors: FIGHT CLUB!

Romance in the Back Seat (which has great author interviews, if you didn’t know) is hosting a contest for unpublished paranormal romance authors. The set up is similar to the American Title or the Next Best Celler: parts of the story are published online for the audience to vote on. The stories with the fewest votes get kicked out of the contest, the others go on to the next round, where more of the story is published and voted on. The contest starts October 1st with 8 contestants, and RITBS is still looking for entries. I’m not sure what the grand prize is.

Aspiring Paranormal Authors can enter by visiting here and emailing RITBS. (All questions about the contest should be directed to RITBS, as I am only passing on the information.) For the rest of us, visit RITBS on October 1st to VOTE for your favorites.

Good Luck!

The Regency Romance Hero

I’m over at the DIK blog today (last day!) discussing the Regency Romance Hero. Come join me!

The Steampunk Romance Hero

Ahoy! A new breed of romantic hero has been spotted on the horizon, quickly sailing toward our island on his airship. How shall we recognize this paragon? Let us check A Natural History of the Romantic Hero for informative clues…

Come join me at the DIK Blog today for the rest of my post!

The 4 Heroes of the Apocalypse

Rumor has it from the Romance Writers of America national conference that Post-Apocalyptic fiction is hot. I am eager to get my hands on the new batch of heroes that announcement will inspire…

Come join me on the DIK blog today for the rest of my scintillating post on Post-Apocalyptic heroes!

In New York? Brush elbows with Oodles of Great Agents

The Backspace Writers Conference in New York is unique. There are no pitch sessions: no sweaty palms and nauseated tummies. There are no workshops on plot, character or dialogue. The entire weekend is devoted to the business side of writing with some of the best agents in the business as the teachers. Thursday, you will have the opportunity in small groups to dissect your query letters so that they sparkle and shine. Friday the same will be done with the opening two pages of your manuscript. Though there are no formal pitch sessions, there will be plenty of opportunities to talk to agents in a relaxed, informal setting (better for you AND the agent!). This is the type of conference I would love to go to if I lived closer to New York. Unfortunately, Seattle is the opposite end of the earth. A beautiful end of the earth, but really, really far away from Anywhere Business Oriented.

Backspace Agent-Author Seminar
November 5 & 6, 2009
Radisson Martinique, New York City

Check out the list of participating agents:

Jeff Kleinman (Folio Literary Management) • Paige Wheeler (Folio Literary Management) • Jennifer DeChiara (Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency) • Colleen Lindsay (FinePrint Literary Agency) • Elizabeth Evans (Reece Halsey Literary Agency) • Emmanuelle Alspaugh (Judith Erlich Agency) • Stephany Evans (FinePrint Literary Agency) • Gina Panettieri (Talcott Notch Literary) • Laney Katz Becker (Folio Literary Management) • Diana Fox (Fox Literary) • Jason Allen Ashlock (Movable Type Literary Group) • Joanna Stampfel-Volpe (Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation) • Elisabeth Weed (Weed Literary) • Scott Hoffman (Folio Literary Management) • Michelle Brower (Wendy Sherman Associates) • Daniela Rapp (Editor, St. Martin’s Press) • Matthew Mahoney (Ralph M. Vicinanza Ltd.) • Holly Root (Scott Waxman Agency) • Jennie Dunham (Dunham Literary, LLC) • Alexandra Machinist (Linda Chester Agency) • Miriam Kriss (Irene Goodman Agency • Janet Reid (FinePrint Literary Management) • Lois Winston (Ashley Grayson Literary Agency)

I’m a 2009 Golden Gateway writing contest finalist!!!

Yesterday I awoke to happy news that my apocalyptic dark paranormal romance entry is a finalist in the 2009 Golden Gateway writing contest. Sponsored by the online Romance Writers of America chapter From the Heart, the Golden Gateway contest judges the first 50 pages of a manuscript plus a synopsis. Three judges, at least one published, review the entry and critique it. The top five entries in each category go on to the final round. (My category is, obviously, paranormal.) I now have 4 days to polish my entry and resubmit it for the final judge, Latoya Smith from Grand Central Publishing. She will read all five entries and rank them 1 through 5.

Friends keep asking me if the winner gets a publishing contract. Sadly, no, but I get to put on my future quiry letters and announce at pitch sessions that the manuscript I am pitching is a finalist. It gives my work a little extra weight: someone has judged it and found it awe inspiring. Validation!!

Off to polish my entry. Wish me luck!

Fairy Tales and Writing Workshops

What is your favorite fairy tale? Do you prefer the dark originals or the Disney retellings? In Neil Stevenson’s THE DIAMOND AGE, he writes that the original fairy tales encourage “subversiveness,” and that this lesson is imperative to grow an inquisitive, free-thinking mind. I had always thought of the original tales as being cautionary, not encouraging rebellion. Heroes and heroines break the rules and get set upon by evil. Have I been looking at them the wrong way?

I came across a new creative writing tool for Seattle area writers today. The Fairy Tale Factory offers workshops in writing fairy tales. Students will study the genre and learn to compose their own stories. The six-week workshops focus on learning to plot tightly and explore one’s own creativity. I have always loved Fairy Tales–Baba Yaga, the Firebird, Raven, along with Rapunzel and her ilk. Gruesome originals, humorous fractured retellings and Disneyfied happily-ever-afters. Patricia C. Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Book 1: Dealing with Dragons) is one of my favorites for the way she weaves in traditional fairy tales with a twist.

Wednesday nights, September 16 – October 21: Intro to Writing Fairy Tales

Spend six weeks in the land of Fairy. Learn the basic rules of the genre, plus a variety of approaches to fairy tales as readers and as writers. Study western European tales from the late middle ages to modern times. Write a lot! Writing exercises assigned after each class. By the end of the course you will have written at least one original fairy tale of your own. All experience levels welcome.

Blake Snyder 1957-2009

The writing world is shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of well-known script writer and writing coach Blake Snyder yesterday. A guru of story structure, Mr. Snyder gave workshops to both the Greater Seattle RWA and at the Romance Writers of America National conference last year in San Francisco. His book, Save the Cat!, is one of those writing craft books that is never far from my side. I remember sitting in the workshop thinking, “Break through!!!,” and I know many of my fellow writers agreed with me. Mr. Snyder broke the Hero’s Journey down into fifteen easy to use, recognizable steps. He could explain how almost anything fit his 15 Beats, even a Tide commercial. I won an autographed copy of his book at the workshop and spoke with him briefly. He was incredibly personable and seemed to truly be interested in each writer’s development.

Mr. Snyder, you will be missed. Thank you for the workshop and book that have allowed my own writing to progress in leaps and bounds.

To see notes on Blake Snyder’s 15 Beats from the GSRWA workshop: click here.

To visit his website, buy his book and read more information about his life and passing: click here.

Will knit for Steampunk

If you attended the RWA National Conference, you may be aware that Steampunk is in. Still don’t know what it is? It’s already to late to get on the writing bandwagon. Steampunk is Victorian romanticism mixed with futuristic steam powered technology. Steampunk events coming to Seattle:

August 9: The Steampunk band Abney Park presents The Circus at the End of the World

October 23-25: Seattle Steamcon

Now that you have an event you need a costume. This is my favorite part! (Not that I personally own a steampunk-inspired costume. I just like looking at them on the internet.) You can find lots of ready made ones online, but part of the thrust of the movement is a do-it-yourself initiative. Get ready to let your imagination fly and create. Since I’m a knitter, I’ve been perusing the perfect knitted costumes on Ravelry. This is the costume that, if I weren’t writing and traveling and had a lot more time on my hands, I would make myself. You won’t be able to look at the patterns unless you’re a Ravelry member. It’s free. Sign up and friend me.

left: Edwardian Collar by Zehava Jacobs (available for $5 on etsy)

right: Miniature Top Hat by Lara Breese (available for download for $5)

left: Corset Cover by Veronik Avery from “Knitting Classic Style: 35 Modern Designs Inspired by Fashion’s Archives”

right: Lacy Skirt with Bows by Kat Coyle from Greetings from the Knit Cafe

left: The Point About Cuffs by Vicki Square from “Lace Style”

right: Spatz by Zoe Bogner (available as a free ravelry download!)

To complete the outfit I’ll need a long sleeved blouse and a pair of black laced boots, which technically I could make, but as the white rabbit said “no time! no time! no time!”

Another thing to remember is that Steampunk costumes are inspired from a time that never was. You do NOT have to be historically accurate to a certain part of the Victorian Era. Borrow from your favorite time periods throughout history. Mix and match. As the organizer for Seattle Steamcon, Diana Vick, wrote on the website, “Steampunk needs historical accuracy like a dirigible needs a goldfish.”