Love all year long Contest (With prizes from agent Weronika Janczuk!)

I know you've all celebrated Valentine's Day already. But I haven't. You all know I'm Brazilian, right? Well, here in Brazil, we celebrate Valentine's Day on June 12th. Which means this Sunday I'll be all snuggled up with my fiancé enjoying a romantic day. Oh, yeah! I love celebrating Valentine's Day! And I thought you'd like to celebrate it with me! (Not by being part of the snuggling, of course. That'd be weird.)

So I'm having a contest! (Yeah, I knew you'd like that better than snuggling with me.) Yes, that's right. To celebrate Brazilian Valentine's Day, I'm having a love scene contest this weekend, judged by literary agent Weronika Janczuk, of Lynn C. Franklin Associates, Ltd.!

Are you excited already? Read on to know the details, then!

THE ENTRY

To enter this contest, you should post a love scene from a finished manuscript on your blog this Sunday, June 12th. The excerpt must have a maximum length of 750 words, but it could be less if it ends on a hook (remember, sometimes less really is more). There is no minimum word count.

The scene we're looking for can show love in all kinds of ways, in all kinds of genres. The scene should be romantic, but not necessarily a kissing scene. We're looking for any kind of love here. Cozy, sweet, complicated, new, old, platonic, mysterious, full of tension, warm... As longs as feelings between a couple are being shown, that's fine with me. Give us anything that will make us tingle and feel the love, which could include or not physical manifestations. Feel free to submit a scene full of kissing and sexual tension, but don't feel obligated to do so! Platonic scenes of love that is still blossoming or that the MCs haven't owned up to yet are welcome too. All kinds of love are accepted here! (Wow, I feel almost hippie now!)

That said, be careful with those physical manifestations. Sex scenes are okay, as long as they're not explicit and help move the plot along. In our guest judge's words, "no sex for the purpose of sex; sex needs to contribute to the romantic arc in some way." Think more erotic romance, less erotica.

But even if there is no sex, every love scene should somehow move the plot along. Other than feeling all warm and fuzzy, we also want to get a general idea of your story and see where it's going. The ideal entry will have more than just love (although the love really is important, in case I haven't mentioned that). "Anything that is well written, appropriate, and appropriately hot/emotional," said our judge.

WHO CAN ENTER

Finished manuscripts ONLY. No WIPS, please.

This time tere will also be some genre limitations. This is an Adult Fiction and YA ONLY contest. No MG or chidlren's fiction for this particular contest, please. Within Adult and YA fiction, any genres will be accepted.

HOW TO ENTER

Enter your link on the Mr. Linky below. On Sunday, June 12th, post your entry on your blog. Then go to the other blogs and comment on people's entries (be nice!). Use the feedback you get from your readers to improve your scene, then email it to me at gabrielalessacarvalho@gmail.com. Put "LOVE CONTEST ENTRY" on the subject line and attach your entry as a .doc file.

Here is how your entry should be formatted:

Name: Awesome Writer
Title: My Super Finished Manuscript
Genre: Something adult or YA
Entry word count: No more than 750
Manuscript word count: A number completely appropriate to my genre
Link number: (This is the number your link is at on the Mr. Linky tool. Just so I know I have everyone's entries.)
Scene (750 words max.)

Email me your entry by June 13th (Monday) at 11:59 PM (EDT). Please don't send it in late, I have a lot of reading to do before I can forward it to our judge!

FINALISTS

We'll have a minimum of 7 finalists on this contest, regardless of the number of entries.

BUT, as (very smartly) suggested by Ms. Janczuk, if we have lots of entries, then the number of finalists will be 20% of all entries. That means the more entries we have, the more finalists we have! (Great, right?) If 20% is a decimal number, I'll round it up. But remember, I'll only count as entries the ones I get on my email, as .doc files and with the proper subject on the subject line. So if there are 100 links here but I only get 20 emails, I'll consider those 20 as the total number of entries.

Finalists will be chosen by me and announced here by Wednesday, June 15th. Their entries will be forwarded to guest judge Weronika Janczuk.

THE JUDGE

Our guest judge will be literary agent Weronika Janczuk (applause, please). Weronika Janczuk (pronounced: Veronica Janchuck) is a literary agent with Lynn C. Franklin Associates, Ltd., in addition to being a writer, student, lit mag editor (x2), Pole, and more. Even though she just moved to a new agency and is very busy, she has kindly agreed to be a guest judge here, which is beyond thrilling!

Both Weronika’s love for writing and her love of reading contributed to her professional interest in publishing. Her career began in 2009, where she interned with Brian Farrey at Flux/Llewellyn in Minneapolis/St. Paul. She also worked in different capacities with Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency, Kathleen Anderson at Anderson Literary Management, Mary Kole at Andrea Brown Literary Agency, and Bob Diforio at D4EO Literary Agency, where she also worked as an agent.

On a more personal note, she was born in Ontario, Canada, a few months after her parents immigrated, and since then has lived in Ontario, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. She now divides her time between New York City and the Twin Cities.

She speaks/reads/writes both English and Polish fluently and hopes to add French to the list before long, and she writes YA, literary, and historical fiction.

Weronika finds time for all of these interests by reading quickly, watching very little television, and living with less sleep on the weekends. She does, however, love to spend a bit of time now and then with ‘80s and ’90s music, witty (published) novels, funky art, and nice, good, smart people.

You can learn more about Weronika and her submission guidelines on her website, www.weronikajanczuk.com.

WINNERS

Winners will be chosen by Weronika and announced by Friday, July 8th.

THE PRIZES

Ha! That's the part you wanted, right? Well, here are our wonderful prizes by our wonderful judge Weronika Janczuk.

1st place: Critique of query + 25 pages
2nd place: Critique of query + 10 pages
3rd place: Critique of query


Ready?

Ok, that was long. So to summarize.

1 - This is a love scene contest judged by agent Weronika Janczuk.
2 - To enter this contest, you must enter your link on Mr. Linky below.
3 - Post your entry on June 12th and get feedback. Your entry should be an excerpt from a finished adult or YA manuscript, and it shouldn't be longer than 750 words.
4 - Polish entry and email it to me as a .doc file no later than June 13th, 11:59 PM (EDT). My email address is gabrielalessacarvalho@gmail.com and your subject line should read "LOVE CONTEST ENTRY".
5 - Check back on June 15th to see if you're a finalist.
6 - Check back on July 8th to see if you're a winner.

Really ready? Then go! Enter below and show me some romance!