Friday Fricassee

And so September creeps in.

I've got to tell you how blown away I am by the response to my plea for blog support for the Baker's Dozen overflow critiques.  More than 60 of you have offered your blog space, and I've done nothing more than stare at all the emails in my box.  Paralyzed by your eagerness!  And not sure how to proceed.

I mean, I don't really have the time to look at more than 60 blogs and decide which ones to choose.  And anyway, I'm not sure how fair that would be.  So I'm going to go through them in the order they were received (seems fairest).  I'll peek at each one, and unless it's a major train wreck or it doesn't seem active enough (i.e., the blogger isn't active enough; I need go-getters to hang with this project), I'll pop an email to verify.

I'm thinking 10 blogs.  If we get the full 500 entries (and that might not happen), there will be 440 left over.  That will give each of 10 bloggers 44 entries to post.   It'll be optional for the entrants, too, so you'll actually only be posting the ones who get back to you.

Does that sound fair?

Anyway, everything else is going smoothly behind the scenes.  I'm gathering agents (and loving the enthusiasm I'm seeing!) and special editor and author critters for this year's auction.  I will post the early auction info NEXT WEEK!  Because submissions are going to happen earlier and in several smaller, more manageable chunks (at different times, to accommodate wide time zone spreads).

Also we'll be having some logline critique sessions to get you in shape.

Whew!  Start spreading the word.  This is going to be a HUGE amount of fun!

Also this week, I went through some beta testing with the awesome Michael Wulf, whom we have to thank for the automated submissions.  Guess what!  We're MUCH closer to having an online submission form--I LOVE it!  And he's fixed the formatting issues for the email subs as well.  Wait until you see how cool things are going to be!  (Yeah, this guy is amazing.  I think I would have run away screaming a long time ago if it weren't for him.)

He's even created a lottery system.  So when we've got those uber-popular SA contests (you know, the ones that include MG and YA and SFF all at the same time), you won't have to play hover-over-the-mouse.  Everyone will get an entry number, and the bot will draw the winning numbers after the time window closes.

Yep.  Fun stuff!

(And huge thanks to Corinne Duyvis and Holly Bodger (and her hubby) for helping with the beta testing.)

Okay, I'm off for a day of lots of rabid writing. Gonna hit 60K this weekend, but I have some tricky stuff to work through first.  Hoping today doesn't have TOO much staring in it.

Have a glorious weekend!