Cathy C. Hall Writes

Now, here’s a contest where I’m really feeling the love!

Hallmark is looking for card ideas for Valentine’s Day with the theme, “Love is a Funny Thing.” Believe me, with the Beneficent Mr. Hall, love is downright hilarious. And I’ve got a couple pictures to prove it.

Which is a good thing, because you’ll need artwork or pictures to send along with your card and scathingly witty remarks. Here’s the info and the how-to’s, and really, it looks easy-peesy.

Of course, you’ve got to think of something before you can submit. That’s probably the hard part. Well, that and finding the right pictures. Which reminds me. Anybody have a Zombie guy pic?

Because nothing says Happy Valentine’s Day like a Zombie.

Getting your pre-published book out there can be daunting, but as I mentioned when last we chatted, it’s helpful to be armed with knowledge of the publishing world. It’s also exceedingly helpful to know exactly what your book is, genre-wise.

So I thought I’d share agent Jennifer Laughran’s exceedingly thorough post, “The Big Ol’ Genre Glossary.” Because honestly, just because you wrote that manuscript doesn’t necessarily mean that you know what genre in which it fits. And you kinda need to know that bit of info if you’re planning to send out query letters to agents. Agents are funny that way. They expect a genre in the query.

And after you’ve read up on all those genres and your head is about to bust with brilliance, you’ll want a little mental break. You should zip over to the Internet Anagram Server and play around a bit. I put “Finders and Keepers” in the server and came up with a bazillion anagrams. But my favorite is “Endeared Pen Frisks.”

I’m thinking that’s a lovely name for a blog…if the genre were romance.