A Community of Writers
Jan Bear is the author of a new book, Target Marketing for Authors, second edition, a work of book marketing nonfiction published by Author Impact Publishing.
Learn how to sell your book by talking to the people who already want to buy it. Target marketing is the foundation of every good marketing plan. Target Marketing for Authors takes you step by step through the process of defining and understanding the ideal reader of your book.
Buy Target Marketing for Authors
Nancy Lane is the author of a new book, Pretty Chrysanthemum and Other Stories, a mainstream collection of short stories published by Open Books Publishing.
These 16 short stories remind readers how family is at the core of human experience and how relationships, especially those between parent and child, rely on the power of love to overcome challenges. Five stories feature historical content, touching on issues still relevant today. Eleven contemporary stories also pose challenging situations, including a father and daughter on the run with an AMBER alert issued about them and a woman’s adult son missing after crashing his car in the desert.
Buy Pretty Chrysanthemum and Other Stories
Valerie Brooks is the author of a new book, Tainted Times 2: second in the Angeline Porter Trilogy, a psychological noir thriller published by Black Leather Jacket Press.
Former criminal defense attorney Angeline Porter has killed two leaders of an extortionist mob in self-defense, and the new leaders want her money and her dead. How long will she have to hide out in the hot, humid hills of Kauai? Then she discovers something startling—she has a sister she never knew about. But FBI agent Gerard Duvernet tells her this sister has connections to the same mob that’s after Ang. Will justice or blood ties win out?
Buy Tainted Times 2: second in the Angeline Porter Trilogy
OWC Writing Contest in 2020 will focus on mystery. Submissions will be accepted from December 16, 2020, through midnight, PST, January 31, 2021. Submit through Submittable using the link on our website.
Fees are $10 for OWC members, $20 for nonmembers, $5 for high school or college students.
First Prize: A two-day stay at Colonyhouse or a virtual mentorship session with published author.
Second Prize: A virtual mentorship session.
Third Prize: A full critique of your submission by a published author.
Honorable Mention: 1-year OWC membership.
10 pages of a mystery novel in 12-point times or similar typeface
Standard margins
No author name in manuscript
Attached manuscript named with title of entry
Use this link to submit to the contest
We are are pleased to have Valerie J. Brooks as our final judge. Valerie is a longtime member of OWC who has generously contributed her time and talents to developing writers. She is the author of an acclaimed femmes-noir series, as well as an in-demand workshop teacher. Watch for an upcoming workshop for OWC.
Contest winners will be announced and will read from their entries at our Virtual Contest Gala on Zoom in March 2021, date and time to be announced.
Acclaimed author Valerie J. Brooks writes femmes-noir psychological thrillers where the women are badass and take center stage. The first in the Angeline Porter Trilogy Revenge in 3 Parts was a finalist for the Nancy Pearl Book Award and a winner in the International Readers’ Favorites Thriller Awards. New York Times bestselling author Kevin O’Brien called her second book Tainted Times 2 “a real nail-biter from first page to the last.”
After studying film noir in college, Valerie found her noir voice for fiction. She received an Elizabeth George Foundation grant and was the recipient of five writing residencies. Brooks teaches workshops and classes in how to write noir. She reviews mystery, suspense and thriller novels, podcasts, and streaming shows on her blog.
Brooks lives in the McKenzie River Valley in Oregon with her husband, Dan, and their Havanese pooch Stevie Nicks.
Robin Dayle is the author of a new book, A Long Winter’s Night, a Regency romance/Christmas story published by The Night Mail.
Where do two lonely hearts and screwball comedy collide. At a Regency Christmas party, of course.
Duels, fools and the Polite World’s rules; which will win?
In madcap pursuit, through a long winter’s night, Anthea and Gerrard chase their dreams, hoping to catch the love that eluded them long ago.
Buy A Long Winter’s Night