Originally published at Nice Mommy~Evil Editor. Please leave any comments there.

Two weeks ago I advertised I was doing Golden Heart critiques for a fee. The response was somewhat overwhelming (and flattering) and I had a number of aspiring authors contract with me for Golden Heart critiques. But I also had someone, who wishes to remain anonymous, who felt the fee for the critique might have been a barrier for some writers out there who might have liked to utilize my services. So she generously donated the fee and I’m going to use this post to give away that critique she paid for.

The rules:

1. You must be entering the Golden Hearts this year. Please don’t try to enter to win a free critique of a work in progress that you have no intention of entering into the GHs this year. Clearly, I have no way of knowing this except the honor system, but I’m okay with that.

2. You must promise to pass it on in some way in the future. When or how in the future is up to you. I’m not going to follow up, but again, I’m just going to have faith that you’ll pass on the act of generosity in whatever way you’re able.

3. In the comments below, please paste the first line, and only the first line of your GH manuscript, along with the genre of your book. That’s it. I may choose the line/genre I love the best or I may let random.org do the deciding for me.

I’ll leave entries open until Friday, October 30th and will choose the winner by Monday. Contest is open to everyone who plans on entering the Golden Hearts this year and would like the chance to get a critique before entering. The winner will need to check back on Monday to see if they’ve won. I’ll have you contact me at that time. For the critique itself, the winner will need to send me their complete Golden Heart entry of no more than 55 pages and I will return it by mid-November.

Questions and entries should be made in the comments of this post. Good luck and thank you to the anonymous benefactor. Your generosity is so appreciated.

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Originally published at Nice Mommy~Evil Editor. Please leave any comments there.

Last weekend I was on Twitter bemoaning a craving for goat cheese and sundried tomatoes (no, I am neither pregnant nor smoking a little ganja). Specifically, I was hungry for a little concoction that Whole Foods has sold in the past. A small round of goat cheese covered with sundried tomatoes.

Lucky for me, my husband was in the area of the closest Whole Foods (about two hours away) but sadly, they were OUT of this miracle food. But again, lucky for me, he rocks and he got the “recipe” for goat cheese with sundried tomatoes and brought it home to me, along with a round of plain goat cheese. Seriously, he’s the best husband, and not just because he brings me cheese.

In reality, he didn’t bring me the recipe, just a list of the ingredients, so I did some trial and error, and what I’m sharing with you below is in no way exact or probably perfect. Don’t be afraid to change the proportions to suit your own tastes, this is a very forgiving recipe.

Making this, I found myself wishing I was a whiz at food photography (and had one of those nice dSLR cameras I’ve been pricing) because the finished product is easy to prepare and elegant to look at.

Ingredients:
A round of goat cheese. Mine was 1/3 lb. You can use bigger/smaller, no problem. Just make more of the below.

Sundried tomatoes in oil. I used 4-5 tomatoes that I pulled from the jar (btw, if you’re looking for these in your store, they’re usually by the pickled items)
1-2 Tbsp good olive oil (I used the oil I usually reserve for bread dipping)
1/2- 1 Tbsp fresh parsley
1/4 – 1/2 Tbsp fresh dill
1 Tbsp green onion
Kosher salt to taste
fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:
Throw all of the ingredients EXCEPT the goat cheese in a mini food processor. What do you mean you don’t have a mini food processor? They’re awesome! Here’s mine. I use it probably four or five times a week.

Anyway! Combine ingredients in food processor for 15 seconds until tomatoes and onions are finely chopped. Put goat cheese round on plate or bowl (you can slightly warm it in microwave for like…five seconds, but it’s not necessary) and top with tomato mixture. Alternately, you can put tomato mixture in a separate container for serving, for those guests/picky people in your house who like goat cheese but not tomatoes.

Serve with crostini, melba toast or crackers. To eat: spread goat cheese on crostini and then desired amount of tomato mixture. Put in mouth. Chew slowly. Close eyes in bliss. Moan. Sip a glass of good wine. Repeat.

A couple of notes: both dill and onion can quickly be overpowering, but sundried tomatoes also have a very strong flavor, so don’t be afraid of the dill and onion. What I would suggest is adding a low amount of each and then tasting, and adding until you like the taste.

This recipe is so easy to make up within seconds, that if you find you’ve run out of the tomato mixture, you can easily whip up more without worry. And the leftovers can be refrigerated and snacked on for several weeks.

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Originally published at Nice Mommy~Evil Editor. Please leave any comments there.

I posted this on Romance Divas last week, and I thought I should maybe share it here, too. In what appears to be a short time left before I end my period of being unemployed, I wanted to do some freelance editing and critiquing. While I am willing to do full length manuscripts and/or novellas (and interested people can contact me for pricing), I thought it would be fun to offer some help to those looking to enter the Golden Heart contest this year (especially after my post from yesterday!)

So I’m offering a Golden Heart critique special. For $75, I will critique your entire entry for the Golden Heart contest (entries are limited to 55 pages, for those wondering) and have it back to you with comments, critique and some line editing in time for you to make changes and ask any questions before the deadline of December 2nd, which is when the actual entries need to be in to RWA.

I’m not taking on a lot of these, and will fill my slots on a first-come basis. If you’re interested, or have questions, please email me at angelajameseditor AT gmail.com

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Originally published at Nice Mommy~Evil Editor. Please leave any comments there.

There’s something that every editor and agent wished authors knew about listing contest wins in a query letter/for a manuscript; they’re not going to necessarily make the manuscript more appealing to us, more marketable and often contest credits won’t make us take a closer look. Probably some of you are reading this and are fairly surprised, thinking that entering contests is one of the things aspiring authors are told to do. Well, sure you are, but that’s because most of the time, the people who tell you that are hoping you’ll enter a few contests where feedback is offered, and you’ll be able to incorporate that feedback into improving, if not your entered manuscript, then your craft on the whole. There are a few notable exceptions to that–such as the Golden Heart and other big contests where the goal is to get your polished manuscript in front of an agent and editor, and a win in those contests is quite noteable.

Here’s the hard truth: agents and editors know, from years of judging contests, that some contests can bring forth amazing entries, where the winner must clearly shine and the winning manuscript is a true gem, but other contests (and an increasingly larger number of contests) have too few entries and so, choosing a winner is not just difficult but nearly impossible, and can, at times, become a matter of choosing the best of the…not so well-written.

As an example, a few years ago, I had agreed to be the final judge in an RWA chapter contest. Somehow, I ended up in conversation with an author who was judging the first round of the same category I was to be the final round judge of. She commented on how poorly written the entries she was judging were, but that I could rest easy as she was scoring them low enough that they wouldn’t make it to the final round. But those very same entries were, in fact, exactly what I ended up judging. The contest had such a low number of entries, apparently, that low initial scores or not, those were the only ones available for the final round of judging. It’s not an ideal situation for the contest, the editor/agent judging or the authors who have entered.

All that said, I don’t want to discourage authors from either entering contests or listing contest wins in query letters. Because there are many excellent contests out there. And entering/winning contests can show an author’s dedication to his/her craft. But I tell you this so you’ll understand why your prospective agent or editor might not believe a contest win makes your manuscript more marketable.

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Originally published at Nice Mommy~Evil Editor. Please leave any comments there.

I very nearly forgot to choose the winners, but I’ve done so with the aid of random.org. Winners, please email me angelajameseditor AT gmail.com and give me your full name and mailing address, and I’ll send your prize out via Amazon. Thanks to everyone who entered, and to those of you who shared some thoughts about Kate with us.

Winner of Holding Out for a Hero is commenter #6: J

Winner of Kissing Santa Claus is commenter #13: Kira Daniels

Congratulations, winners! I hope you enjoy your books.

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