losers and winners.

I am a loser.

1. Epic blog fail happened when I didn't post the winners of my lovely little TITLE contest. Lame-o.
2. My sister nominated me for a blog award days ago. And, yeah, I just realized.
3. I went to Las Vegas and put on 7 pounds thanks to Jessie at B-Word Blog and her freezer full of ice cream.

Please forgive me for my complete and total lameness this last week. To make up for it, I've chosen more than one winner.

I LOVED all your titles. Seriously. They were so much better than anything I came up with.

And now . . . (insert drum roll) . . . the WINNERS!

For the title I've chosen to smack on my manuscript and query: 

Leslie Pugh

Deceive Me Once

For the titles that made me laugh out loud: 

Iain

A Mole in Sheep's Clothing

Cathy

Whack a Mole

For the title I would use if I hadn't chosen Leslie's:

Jeigh

The Erin Summerill Book of Awesome

For the winners:

You have just won yourself a head shot shoot with me, Erin Summerill. I will shoot you and it will be awesome. Then you can use the picture as a head shot for facebook, blogger, your upcoming super awesome book . . . you get the picture.

If you don't live in Utah, you can pass your award along OR you can come to Utah OR you can wait till I'm in your neck of the woods. I travel a lot so it's not a stretch. England is on the list of places to go in the next year.

Email me whenever you want to cash in on your prize of awesomeness. Erinsummerill(At)hotmail.com.


Thank you to everyone who sent in titles! I LOVED them. And if you happen to see me out with my camera, just pull me aside and I'll shoot you.

give me a title and i will shoot you.

My Ma, the gloriously white-haired woman I'm often with, used to ask me, "Is that a threat or a promise?"

Hopefully this post is the latter. But either way, I want to walk away from this post with a title and I need your help. So threat or promise, I will shoot you if you're the one to help me.

Here's my BIG-O PROBLEMO: I have a book I want to query, but I have NO title. I used to have the world's greatest title, but then another author who is far cooler and better paid than I had an epiphany to use a title that's just like mine. She has an agent. I don't. 

So I need a title. 

Here's the DEAL-O: If you provide a title that I like the most, I will shoot you. (See pic below. That's my best Shooter McGavin.) I am offering a free headshot photo shoot to the one person that provides me a new title for the book that I describe below. 

Rules:
Enter as many times as you like. I'll pick a title in one week. Hopefully it will be yours. If it is, you win the shoot. If you live out of state, you can schedule your head shot for when I'm in your neck of the woods, or you can fly to Utah. Or, be generous and give away your prize. It's up to you.

My Book in a NUTSHELL-O: 
Seventeen-year-old Milla spent the last eleven years at the Youth Training Facility--a private school that prepares kids to become CIA operatives. But when she fails the CIA entrance exam, she's devastated to find out she's going to be Released to live as a Civilian. A nightmare, since the only home she's ever known is with the CIA.
When a face from the past shows up and offers Milla a place in the DOA, a deep-cover operation for the Department of Defense, she signs up. The catch is she isn't one of the team until she passes Induction--training for all new recruits. Sounds easy enough until missions go awry and training kicks her butt, as well as breaks a few bones. To make matters worse, Milla finds herself in the middle of a mole hunt. She must figure out who she can and can't trust at the DOA Compound, and how the hot combat trainer is involved in all the mole mystery, before she's Released from the program, or worse, her life is compromised.

**The old title was: Deceive Me (Which is too similar to Shatter Me and Destroy Me)

DISCLAIMER-O: In the off chance I have an epiphany of my own and come up with my own title, I'll still choose the title I like second best to my own. Then that person will still win! 

Thank you!

Random Act of Kindness BLITZ!

A smile. An encouraging word. A thoughtful gesture. Each day people interact with us, help, and make our day a bit brighter and full. This is especially true in the Writing Community. 

Take a second to think about writers you know, like the critique partner who works with you to improve your manuscript. The writing friend who listens, supports and keeps you strong when times are tough. The author who generously offers council, advice and inspiration when asked.

So many people take the time to make us feel special, don't they? They comment on our blogs, re-tweet our posts, chat with us on forums and wish us Happy Birthday on Facebook.

Kindness ROCKS!

To commemorate the release of their book The Emotion Thesaurus, Becca and Angela at The Bookshelf Muse are hosting a TITANIC Random Act Of Kindness BLITZ.  And because I think KINDNESS is contagious, I'm participating too!

I’ve decided to blitz Peggy Eddleman. 

I picked Peggy because she is first my number one writing partner. And Second, she's a great friend. Without her, I wouldn’t be the consistent writer I am today. She’s has encouraged me more times than I can say because I’m pretty much a twit that loses writing confidence ALL THE TIME! But Peggy pushes me. She keeps me going. And I wish I could give her the world. But today I’ll be giving her...(insert drum roll) 
Can you feel the tension as you wait for me to reveal my gift?
Without further ado, I am offering Peggy Eddleman:
 FREE photography for LIFE! (HA…lame. She already has that). 
So I will also be giving her a gift card from HARTS. Our favorite little gas station.

PEGGY EDDLEMAN http://peggyeddleman.blogspot.com/. If you have a minute, please stop in and tell her how awesome she is!

Do you know someone special that you'd like to randomly acknowledge?

Don't be shy--come join us and celebrate! Send them an email, give them a shout out, or show your appreciation in another way. Kindness makes the world go round. :)

Becca and Angela have a special RAOK gift waiting for you as well, so hop on over to The Bookshelf Muse to pick it up.

Have you ever participated in or been the recipient of a Random Act Of Kindness?  Let me know in the comments!

a ridiculously awesome conference and hot people.

Of course I'm the last to post. Thank you ADD-brain, I'm always the last. But better late then never, eh?

If you're not from Utah then you may have missed the LDS Storymakers conference. (If you are from Utah and you missed it, there's no excuse. Shame. What could be more important?)

Public bashing aside, I want to now discuss my roll at the conference. Like last year, I was the photographer, and most definitely like last year, I'm sure a few of my friends picked up agents. (Cue Snow White: one day my prince agent will come...) Whatever. I'm not sad, or jealous, or pulling my hair out in angst in the hopes that one day, ONE FREAKING DAY, someone will offer me representation. No. Not at all.

I'm cool like that.

And to prove it, here are some of the pics I snapped at LDS Storymakers of people I'm so not jealous of. Because, I'm chill. I can appreciate how awesome they are by staring at their photos All Day Long! (Cue music from Psycho).
Really, though, I was surprised with all the awesome things people had to say about me. Here are some snapshots and quotes.

Howard Taylor: I believe I can fly when Erin is nearby

 Jessie Humphries: You're looking good, you good looking photographer, you.

 Weronika Janczuk: Now if everyone could write like Erin . . . 

 Julie (JUDO) Donaldson and Nichole Giles: We love Erin. 

 Michelle Wolfson: Had Erin pitched to me, my blog post wouldn't have gone viral. 

 Peggy Eddleman: Erin, my your shoes look nice.

 Molly O'Neill: I think the next big thing out there is Erin's Contemporary Spy novel.

 Janette Rallison: You look hard at work just like me. Hence the pink construction hat.

 DPK and the Duckett: Did you hear how awesome Erin's story is?

Ok, so in all honesty, maybe those weren't the exact phrases I heard, but they were close. Other than listening to people talk about me *wink, I shot a few head shots. Check out the awesome writer and agent and editor ladies below!

Writing Conferences and SECRET 27

As I write this I'm sitting in a blogging seminar at LDS Storymakers 2012 (a writing conference for anyone who wants to learn anything about writing). I'm here as the official photographer, not just a creepy person with a big-A camera.

What I'm learning is apparently I shouldn't have left my blog dead for a month and a half. Sorry about that.

So here I am, jumping back in with both feet, sharing secrets like a secret BOSS.

Secret 27: I do voice exercises in the shower

Fourteen years of teaching aerobics have shot my vocal chords to hell. Honestly, sometimes when I wake in the morning I sound like an old man with smoker's lungs. My voice is scratchy, deep, and manly. Give me you're phone number and I'll call you first thing (say 10:30 am) and you'll see. Full man mode.

It helps to warm up those vocal chords in a hot shower. Warmups include random sounds, sometimes a song, other times screechy noises that might have a feline-like quality.

Either way, if you're ever listening to me shower and I sound like a screechy cat, then you shouldn't be judging, but asking why you're the creepy hanging by my bathroom door. Just saying.