Out with the Old, In with the New (A Contest!)

So, it's 2008 and this is post number 200 on Jacqueline Barbour's Bodacious Blog. It is also, as it happens, the last.

But please, don't despair! (Yes, I'm sure you were on the verge of tears at the thought of no longer reading my ramblings, lol. Unfortunately, I'm not going to make it that easy for you to get away from me.)

You see, I've made an executive decision (and since I'm the executive of my writing career at this point, I'm the decider!) to use my Jackie Barbosa pen name exclusively going forward. At the time I contracted my first Jackie Barbosa book to Cobblestone Press, writing under two pen names appeared to make sense. But increasingly, the only manuscripts I'm working on are Jackie Barbosa books, and that's the name and the brand I want to build on going forward. (And I really must give special props to Maven Darcy Burke here for coming up with Barbosa for me. It still rocks!)

Plus, it's a lot less work! I've noticed the frequency with which I'm blogging has decreased exponentially in proportion to the number of different blogs I have to maintain.

Before the holidays, I mentioned that I would be holding a contest to celebrate my 200th post, and I still intend to do that. I also have another sale to celebrate, because two days after Christmas, Cobblestone contracted my latest novella, a contemporary first person called The Gospel of Love: According to Luke. This novella is scheduled for release in June, hopefully to be followed in quick succession by its sequels (bonus points to those who can guess the titles).

(You're all welcome to throw confetti, toot your blow-ticklers, and happy dance with me at this moment if you like!)

A final bit of news: I am scheduled to appear as an author-guest on The Spiced Tea Party blog tomorrow. I'm very excited about this opportunity and hope you'll come visit me there. But even more, I want to give you an incentive, so...here's how the contest will work:

1. Come visit me on Jackie Does Dish and post a comment on today's post (which will be virtually identical to this one!).

2. Come visit us at the Manuscript Mavens blog any day this week and post a comment on any of our posts. (We are blogging our writing tips, so it's a great week to drop by if you haven't before.)

3. Come visit me at The Spiced Tea Party and comment on my post there.

Anyone who manages to make comments in all three places between today and next Tuesday, January 15th, will be entered in a drawing to win one of the following three fabulous prize packages:

1. A $20 gift certificate to Amazon.com and a free copy of The Gospel of Love: According to Luke (which will be sent to you on release day, whenever that turns out to be).

2. A one-pound box of See's Candy (chocolate...yum!) and a free copy of According to Luke.

3. Any three of the following books (some are signed by the authors, some are not) and a free copy of According to Luke.

Books:

• The Duke in Disguise, by Gayle Callen
• A Study in Scandal, by Robyn deHart
• The Rest Falls Away, by Colleen Gleason
• The Secret Passion of Simon Blackwell, by Samantha James
• Spell of the Highlander, by Karen Marie Moning
• On the Way to the Wedding, by Julia Quinn
• From London with Love, by Jenna Petersen
• Bite Me If You Can, by Lynsay Sands

Now, how can you resist an offer like that? Go forth and comment. The winners will be announced next Tuesday on Jackie Does Dish.

And happy 2008 to everyone!

P.S. The Manuscript Mavens blog is a nominee in the Preditors and Editors Readers' Poll. We're hugely honored to have been nominated, but we'd love to win even more. So please, hop on over and vote!

And the Winner Is...

Erica!

She has won the prize in the 100th post on Jacqueline's blog contest.

In case you're wondering how I picked the winner, I put the names of everyone who posted on both my blog and Annie's into a spreadsheet and alphabetized them. Then I went to http://www.random.org and used a tool there to randomize them by the number values for each position in the list. Erica came up first in the randomized list.

So, Erica, you know how to contact me when you want to do your next contest entry!

Of Milestones and Manuscripts

Blogger is kind enough to inform me that this post is my 100th since I started this blog. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad one. It seems to me like I got to 100 rather quickly, which suggests I've been blogging rather too much and writing rather too little.

But either way, it's an exciting milestone and it got me thinking about a couple of other recently or soon-to-be-achieved milestones in my writing life.

• I started writing A Scandalous Liaison a little over a year ago. (The file's properties claim February 19, 2006 as the creation date.) I hope to finish the third (and I hope both final and agent/editor submittable) draft by the end of this month. I'll be taking Candy Havens' Revision Hell course, starting March 19, in hopes of achieving this goal.
  
• I found the Aspiring Romance Writers Yahoo! group and made my first post there on March 15, 2006. Through that loop, I met up with four of my critique partners, starting with Lacey and ultimately including Darcy, Erica, and Leigh. These ladies have all motivated and inspired me in countless ways. Without them, I'm sure I'd have given up on my first manuscript long ago.

All in all, it's been an amazing year. When I started writing Liaison, it was simply a compulsion. I had a story in my head and it had to get out. But then, about 40,000 words along, I started thinking, "Hey, this is pretty good. Maybe...just maybe...this could one day be a publishable book." And that led me to ARW, my critique partners, RWA, and contests. Contests I finaled in! Then, I actually finished the manuscript. (Oh, if you only knew how many quarter- and half-written books litter my past!) I was ballsy enough to query my manuscript to an agent. A little over a year after embarking on this journey, I'm eligible for RWA Pro status. In addition, I've submitted a manuscript to Ellora's Cave and, not to be beaten down by rejection, have already sent it on a wing and prayer to another publisher (Harlequin's Spice Briefs line is getting the next crack at it).

I know I still have a long, long way to go. But I feel I've already come an awfully long way.

So, on this 100th post day, I'm sponsoring a contest of my own. First, to be eligible for my prize, you must go over to Annie Dean's blog and comment on her 100th post. (She's offering either a $50 Amazon gift certificate or a box of Godiva chocolates--your choice--to the poster of the 100th comment, so there might even be something in it for you!) If you do that and post a comment here, I will enter your name in a drawing for my prize, which is to pay your entry fee for an RWA-chapter sponsored contest of your choice, not to exceed $35. We'll work out the details later!

Update: Lacey notes in her comment that I didn't specify a deadline for this little contest. Since Annie's already at 55 comments and counting, I don't think I can say it's closed when Annie gets her 100th comment. So, how about we close this next Wednesday?

UpUpdate: The winner of Annie's 100th comment contest was Carrie Lofty. I was number 99 and 101. How unfair is that? But you still gotta post on both Annie's blog and mine to be eligible for my prize.