Last year, Chico Writers Group hosted a number of write-ins as several took the challenge. This year, however, we won’t be hosting write-ins. We will most likely continue holding our write-ins at the library on Wednesdays between 9:30 and 11:30 am, except we might be moving to the inside portion at the back of the reference area where it might be a tad warmer (see diagram below). If you plan on coming and haven’t been before, you might want to stop off at the comment section and give us a holler so we know to be looking for you — and that you’ll be looking for us. If you have a laptop you’ll be using and require power during the two hours, we suggest you bring a suitable extension cord as the number of open and available outlets is limited. There are some nearby our location, but for some, it might be a stretch.

Click on the picture above to enlarge.

If write-ins are your thing, one of our members will be working with the Chico NaNo liaison, Lynn, and hosting write-ins at her offices on Rio Lindo Avenue after 5:00 p.m. Want more information? Go to NaNoWriMo.org and register. Once you’re done, edit your profile and select Chico, California as your region and be sure to sign up to allow the liaison to send messages to you. Still need more or can’t figure that out? Hit that comment box and let us know. Just be sure to use a valid email address so someone can respond.

Also, under the “useful links” category in the navigation column, you’ll find a recently added “Creating a Pitch” which was written by the novelist Camy Tang. Definitely worth reading and even bookmarking for future reference.

Yesterday various agents and editors got together on Twitter and posted a wild rash of reasons they will reject a query letter.  If you haven’t read the 140 or less character tweets we collected, now would be a really good time.

How do you write a winning query letter that won’t be labeled “fail” by these editors, agents and interns working in publishing houses?  We’ve collected a few really good articles that will help you get your foot in the door.  Take a gander: (hint: click the links as they’ll take you directly to the article we’re referencing.)

• Mystery author, S. W. Hubbard, has a great article here: www.swhubbard.com
• Ester Heller, Editor-in-Chief, Targum Press posted the following guidelines Nov. 2008: http://blogs.targum.com
• A summation of yesterday’s #queryfail experiment and lessons learned can be found here at the Belletrinsic blog: http://belletrinsic.blogspot.com
• Tara Lazar did a summation, too, that’s worth perusing and can be found here: http://taralazar.blogspot.com
• Colleen Lindsay, the literary agent (FinePrint Literary Management) responsible for yesterday’s #queryfail, has a site crammed full of useful information to pick through.  Start here: http://theswivet.blogspot.com and be sure to look around the site, it’s very useful!
• Jill Corcoran has a very well put together “how to write a query letter” post that’s very timely, too, as it was published on March 1st, 2009: http://jillcorcoran.blogspot.com Be sure to check out the posts she links to as well (run your cursor over the page to find the links which aren’t underlined).  Bookmark the post as it is a great resource!

Still need more?  Want a template of sorts?  Short of sending out the monkeys to write it for you (and no, we won’t do that — didn’t you read yesterday’s capture of the #queryfail tweets?), Nathan Bransford with Curtis Brown LTD provides you with a great “Mad Lib” style query letter.  Just be sure to change it up a bit so it’s more personalized!  Go check it out at: http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/2008/03/query-letter-mad-lib.html

If you have your own tips, winning recipe, experience to share, by all means, leave a comment!  Good luck, too!