Finding Fraser, and a New Short Story (and Contests)

nother mini review to add to last week's batch!

A couple of nights ago I finished Finding Fraser by k c dyer.

I met Jamie Fraser when I was nineteen years old. He was tall, red-headed, and at our first meeting at least, a virgin. I fell in love hard, fast and completely. He knew how to ride a horse, wield a sword and stitch a wound. He was, in fact, the perfect man.
That he was fictional hardly entered into it.
At 29, Emma Sheridan's life is a disaster and she's tired of waiting for the perfect boyfriend to step from the pages of her favorite book. There’s only one place to look, and it means selling everything and leaving her world behind. With an unexpected collection of allies along the way, can Emma face down a naked fishmonger, a randy gnome, a perfidious thief, and even her own abdominal muscles on the journey to find her Fraser?

What people are saying about Finding Fraser:
"Jamie Fraser would be Deeply Gratified at having inspired such a charmingly funny, poignant story--and so am I."
--Diana Gabaldon, author of the New York Times Bestselling Outlander series
"I loved this book. It transported me to a Scotland I wished I'd grown up in. Everything about it is a delight, and it's all authentic—the environment, the characters, the dialogue and the sheer enjoyment of it all."
-- Jack Whyte, best-selling author of, most recently, The Guardians of Scotland series
"Finding Fraser is an absolute must-read for any Outlander fan. The story is both hilarious and romantic, as well as guaranteed to have readers turning the pages until the wee hours to discover if the heroine finds her very own Jamie Fraser."
-- Laura Bradbury, author of the best-selling My Grape Escape series

It's not difficult to read on the Kindle app when I've got such a fun book to read! Emma's adventures and her growing love for Scotland make me want to visit the country all over again -- especially as I still haven't been further north than Edinburgh!

You don't need to have read Outlander to follow Emma's journey, though some of the insider references are fun to spot. Emma even has a real web presence, sharing blog posts and photos from her trip.

Does she find her Jamie? I won't give anything away... If you're in Vancouver on 11 June, you can attend the Finding Fraser launch party! And if, like me, you're many miles away, you can always live vicariously through the Finding Fraser tweets:

As for my own writing, the best part about setting goals for ROW80 (the writing challenge that knows you have a life!) is adjusting goals as new events crop up. This week I've shelved all other goals (typing Larksong and transcribing Wallace's correspondence, mainly) in favour of something entirely new: a short story!

Neil Gaiman tweeted about a contest the other day. The Word Factory in the United Kingdom is hosting a fable-writing competition, based on an opening line supplied by Neil:

The deadline is 30 June. I wondered if I would have any time to write a story, and also wondered whether I could even have a decent idea in relation to governments. Then, that night, I had a dream... I love it when story ideas come from dreams. This one was perfect. I started scribbling as soon as I woke up.

I was 1,000 words into the story before I reread the fine print on the contest. Hidden in the middle of the page are the three words "UK entry only". Argh!

But now I've reached 1,800 words. I'm about 1,000 words away from the end. I must finish. And today I realised -- I can submit it to the Surrey International Writers' Conference contest! Perfect timing. Especially as the deadline for this contest is only 18 September.

My submission in 2013 was shortlisted! We'll see what happens this year...

Someday I'd love to attend Surrey. In 2012, I even hosted a virtual Surrey International Writers' Conference, over on the CompuServe Forum (where else?).

As far as revamping my goals goes, I'm also hoping to participate in Camp NaNoWriMo in July! We'll see about this one, as we're expecting houseguests in the middle of the month. But I find NaNo a great way to draft story ideas I'd like to explore.

Have you entered any contests recently?