Giveaway

Book Giveaway & Author’s Note!

~ The Spinning Pen ~ 1 Comment
Dust-by-Kara-Swanson-1331x2048
READERS:
WHO WOULD LIKE TO WIN A CRAZY AWESOME PETER PAN RETELLING?

You? Your daughter? Your best friend whose birthday is coming up? Your long lost cousin in Brazil? Your sister who is driving you crazy during lockdown?

 

Fantastic! You’re in the right spot! The SP is partnering with YA Author Kara Swanson to do a GIVEAWAY for her upcoming book, DUST!

*Intriguing summary below!*

The truth about Neverland is far more dangerous than a fairy tale.

Claire Kenton believes the world is too dark for magic to be real–since her twin brother was stolen away as a child. Now Claire’s desperate search points to London… and a boy who shouldn’t exist.

Peter Pan is having a beastly time getting back to Neverland. Grounded in London and hunted by his own Lost Boys, Peter searches for the last hope of restoring his crumbling island: a lass with magic in her veins.

The girl who fears her own destiny is on a collision course with the boy who never wanted to grow up. The truth behind this fairy tale is about to unravel everything Claire thought she knew about Peter Pan–and herself.

TO WIN:

Who is your favorite Peter Pan character? Comment & share –here on this post OR on your social media, use the hashtag, #SPDustgiveaway and you will be entered twice!

We will monitor this post on Twitter, Instagram, and here.

Winners announced FRIDAY on an IG live with Kara! Good luck! Continue reading →

The Querying Show: Episode 5 “Standing Out in a Crowd”

~ The Spinning Pen ~ 1 Comment

peter-lewicki-411606-unsplash

Welcome to The Querying Show’s 5th Episode!

Until the New Year you will witness every juicy (or completely stagnant) detail of our SP Staff Member’s querying life in the SLUSH PILE!

(Check out our rules and reasons in our intro post here!)

Will CR’s/Write_Or_Left achieve AGENT success? Or will it result with a querying and MS reboot? Dying to know? Follow us to see how Write_Or_Left ‘s querying journey will end up!

***Note: There will only be two episodes in November & December!*** 

SO…..Today is the 9th week of CR’s journey. On the last episode, we broke down his query to show you the most essential parts that a Query should have. Today, we will hear from CR and standing out in a crowd.

Let’s check in our with brave querying fellow and see how things are progressing. (Click here for Episode 1 & 2 & 3 & 4.)   Continue reading →

Query + Pages Critiques + Journals!

~ The Spinning Pen ~ Leave a comment

alisa-anton-144490.jpg

Pen Friends ~ Looking for a query critique or your first chapter looked over? Nova McBee, SP host (in charge of Author Interviews & Book Reviews,) is offering her 2nd out of 3 Giveaways in November. Don’t miss out. She does the majority of query critiques at the SP and has become really good at pinpointing just how to make a query successful!

Thanks for all of your support and being part of our writing community!

Check here for details: November Giveaway Part 2!

Signing off,

SP gang!

 

Summer Reading Challenge Wrap-up and Giveaway!

~ The Spinning Pen ~ 17 Comments

SPRC Wrap-up

Can you feel it?

Summer is drifting away before our eyes here in the Northern Hemisphere. And it’s been quite the season! Here at the Spinning Pen, we’ve been traveling the globe, indulging in iced coffee, soaking up the sun, writing stories, and of course, READING ALL THE BOOKS!

If you’ve been hanging out with us for long, you’ll remember that we launched the first SP Summer Reading Challenge, and now that it’s September, it’s time to wrap it up.

So many books, so little time…

We’re dying to know: what books did you read this summer? Did you find a new favorite? If you checked out any of our recommendations, we’d love to hear from you. And if you discovered a gem somewhere along the line, we want to know that, too! We are all about sharing stories with friends.

(Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about the prize!)

And a GIVEAWAY!

If you read at least two books this summer (between June 1 and today, September 11), you are eligible to enter our giveaway for MORE BOOKS! That’s right, the winner will receive a $15 USD gift card for Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or my personal indie favorite Powell’s Books (can be used online if you’re not in the Portland, Oregon area). Never fear, international friends! You can enter, too! And if you win, I’ll send you a book of your choice (valued up to $15 USD) through Book Depository, provided that they ship to your country of residence.

Just use the Rafflecopter link below to enter. You’ll get 2 bonus entries if you read a book from our list of recommendations. (Open until 9/17/17.)

 

EDIT: We have our winner! Congratulations, Dawn S.! Thanks to everyone for participating. We’ll be back soon with more opportunities to read awesome books and win prizes.

Enter the Giveaway HERE!

 

author-dana-black

 

 

Dana, signing off to enjoy one last iced coffee and a good book!

 

 

Original Photo Credit: Jessica Ruscello

1 Year Milestone Giveaway

~ The Spinning Pen ~ 4 Comments

Pen Friends ~ It’s our birthday. We want to celebrate by giving YOU a gift! 

hands-summer-party-colorful-1

During our first year we have tried, succeeded, failed, learned, grown, improved, written a lot, won contests, interviewed authors, reached goals, lost, gained, laughed, cried, made friends, built a community of writers, inspired other writing communities, and oh boy, not only did we survive, but we are stronger and plan on sticking around! Continue reading →

Guest Post: What do you do with Failure?

~ The Spinning Pen ~ 19 Comments

Where are you in your writing journey? Are you NaNoing? Writing? Querying? On sub to publishers? In the midst of revisions? Taking time to read and improve your craft? Nurturing the seed of an amazing idea that’s taking root in your imagination?

Whichever of those things you are doing, or if you’re in a completely different place all together, I would like to take a minute to talk about something a lot of people would rather avoid.

FAILURE.failure
No one likes to experience it, and a lot of us hold back on our dreams to shelter ourselves. But you know what? I’m a huge advocate for failing. I say let’s fail. Let’s fail BIG TIME.

Let me tell you a quick story. Continue reading →