Rules for Successful Writing -- Giveaway Results!

Last week I posted some of popular author Janet Evanovich's writing tips (as found in her craft book, HOW I WRITE), and asked for your additions. You guys didn't disappoint. You gave great suggestions!
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FringeGirl said: You can't please everyone, so don't worry if someone doesn't like what you wrote.
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Amy Sue Nathan said: #1 Put everything near you that you need while you're writing. For me, a morning writer, that means coffee, both pairs of glasses, my phone and my Flip Dictionary. Then I don't have to get up. Ever. #2 Give your readers credit, they're smart. Meaning, don't overwrite or over explain. Allow the reader to think and figure things out along the way. It engages them and makes them turn the page.
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Jessica Nelson said: Trust your voice.
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Liza said this worked for her: Recently when I was stuck, I wrote a conversation between two characters. I hadn't written to the point in the story when that conversation happened yet, though I knew it would. So I wrote it. It helped me move forward, in that made me consider how my characters would get to the place where that conversation happened. I'm about to write another conversation to help me along again.
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Lynn said: Don't stop writing. Write everyday, even if it just for 15 minutes. And those minutes have to be focused writing.
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Wendy Miller said: At the exact moment you feel like quitting... don't.
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Lissa said: I prefer to write first and then check out the rules.
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Savannah Rose said: Write "something" every single day even if it's not part of your WIP.
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Ginger said: It seems that any quiet meditation on any piece of writing I'm working on is the "miracle grow" to make it blossom.
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Patti's thoughts: I would add, quit second-guessing yourself.
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Deb Shucka said: I would add that a successful writer needs community - other writers to commiserate with and to provide fresh perspective.
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Mary Warner said: I guess it goes along with what was already said, but one of my own rules would be to remember that writers block only stops you if you want to be stopped. After all what stops you (or me at least) isn't that I have no ideas, but I have no "good" ideas.
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Laura said: #1 - Just write. (No matter what, write every day.) #2 - Be concise. Less is more.
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Jill Kemerer said: Persistence. We have to believe in our writing even when it's bad. Maybe it means tucking our WIP away after too many rejections and starting a new one, but we can't quit.
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Tana Adams shared this: A writer who writes is the best writer a writer can be. I think so often the actual writing is the last thing to happen.
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Helen Ginger said: Help other writers. Even when you think you're a newbie and don't know much, there's someone who has less experience than you who could use some advice. Join a group or attend writer meetings that fit your genre or ask another writer what they're working on.
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Karen Lange said: I think that perseverance and discipline are key factors in the writing equation too. These things help me press forward to do something I feel called to do.
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Melissa Marsh said: I always feel that you must ignore the trends and write the book YOU want to write.
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Analisa said: [Be] a reader. I don't think you can write well if you don't read well.
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Jeanette Levellie said: My best tip is to pray for yourself as you write, that God give you words to most help your readers and show them God as He truly is. And to love your readers. Okay, that's two. Here's a third: Never stop growing. Never say, "I know all there is to know about writing." The day you say that is the beginning of the end of your creativity.
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Thank you all! These were wonderful tips.
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To visit any of these writers, go to this post (its comments, to be specific) to follow their links.
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And now... Our giveaway winner... whose name was randomly pulled from a hat (my new, super-cute, hot-pinkish/purple ball cap...) is...
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LYNN!

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Lynn, congratulations! Please e-mail me at jannawritesATyahooDOTcom. Include both your mailing address and the title of a book you've been wanting, which I'll order for you from Amazon. I'll order your choice and have it sent your way!

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Thanks for playing along.

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And thanks for being a part of my blog, by following, commenting, reading, all of it. I appreciate every one of you!

Giveaway winners... in poetry!

I'm away from home,
didn't expect to be.
But still, I've got the winners
of the books I listed--all three!

Instead of Giveaway Guy's help,
because he's not with me,
I've put to the task my mom--
We'll call her Giveaway Grandy.

And so now I've got
everyone's names in the pot(s).

Let's draw, Giveaway Grandy.
(I have no pictures. Sorry!)

Up first, Willow Run.
And our winner is...
Angie Muresan!

And next, for Midnight Pearls:
pull our name, Giveaway Grandy...
Lisa Dovichi!

Last is for Flirting With Pete...
Wendy Paine Miller!

Congratulations to the winners! If you could each send your mailing addresses to jannawritesATyahooDOTcom, I'll send the books out just as soon as I can.

Thanks, everyone, for participating! And congrats again, ladies.

Book Giveaway: Two Young Adult, One Women's Fiction

The notion has hit me, and I can't ignore it. Time for another giveaway!

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Many of my followers read and/or write YA fiction, and I know some of you have kids who'd enjoy these titles. Check 'em out!
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Willow Run

by Patricia Reilly Giff

new paperback, Yearling

this may actually be Middle Grade?

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Back cover copy:

Margaret "Meggie" Dillon's life in Rockaway, New York, has been turned upside down by World War II. Her older brother, Eddie, is fighting in Europe. And she's heard that anywhere but Rockaway, her grandpa would be turned in because he's German and might be a spy. But Grandpa became a loyal American citizen long ago. Could he be taken away?

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Meanwhile, Meggie's father has announced that they must help the war effort and move to Willow Run, Michigan, where he'll work in a factory, building planes. Meggie is sad about leaving Grandpa and her best friend, Lily, but she tells herself that Willow Run will be an adventure.

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There Meggie meets Patches and Harlan, other kids from far-off places whose parents have come to do their part in the war. And she faces questions about courage, and what it takes to go into battle--like Eddie--and to keep hope alive on the home front.

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Once Upon a Time: Midnight Pearls

(A Retelling of The Little Mermaid)

by Debbie Viguie

new paperback, Simon Pulse
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Back cover copy:

In a quiet fishing village seventeen years ago, one lone fisherman rescued a child from the sea. He and his wife raised the girl, Pearl, as their own daughter, never allowing themselves to wonder long about where she came from--or notice her silver hair, unusually pale skin, and wide, dark blue eyes.

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Pearl grows from a mysterious child into an unusual young woman, not always welcomed in the village. As all the other girls her age find husbands, she has only one friend to ease her loneliness. One very special, secret companion: Prince James.

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But their friendship is shaken when trouble erupts in the kingdom--a conspiracy against the royal family combines with an evil enchantment from beneath the sea. Now, just when Pearl and James need each other most, bewitching magic and hints about Pearl's past threaten to tear them apart... forever.

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And now, because YA isn't my niche but women's fiction is, here's a third title!

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Flirting With Pete

by Barbara Delinsky

like-new (read by me) hardcover, Scribner

Janna's dust, no extra charge!
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Barbara Delinsky has written many bestselling novels over the past two decades, including Searching for Peyton Place, An Accidental Woman, The Woman Next Door, and Coast Road.

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For this book's summary (which is too expansive for this already-long post), see here.
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To be entered for this giveaway, leave a comment with your title preference. If you're interested in more than one, just say so (you can only win one, though). At contest's end--next Tuesday, May 11th, 8pm CST--I'll categorize names and hold three separate drawings. Giveaway Guy (my hubs) will draw our winning names, which will be announced in Wednesday's post.

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Good luck! And have a lovely weekend. :)

Caption This

Such a sad, sad day. Look at that frown.

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This was me, nearly 30 years ago. Look at that hair.

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There's a simple story, but I want to know what your first thoughts are. How would you caption this photo?

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Let's make it a contest!

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Leave your caption (one per person) as a comment. Entries will be taken until 8pm CST on Sunday, February 21. Best caption will be announced Monday, February 22. Winner will receive their choice of one of the following from me, all of which are new and in hard cover:

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Two Little Girls in Blue by Mary Higgins Clark

Hey, Good Looking by Fern Michaels

The Hunt Club by John Lescroart

Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah

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All I ask is that we keep it clean, this is Little Me we're talking about. Okay, Big Me likes to keep it clean, too.

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Now get creative and caption this!

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Photo copyright: ME. May not be used elsewhere without permission.