Beth Carpenter Books

I've received my official second prize, a Publisher's Weekly review of the Recalculating Route Manuscript. I'm pleased. See what you think. ABNA PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW Widow and former home economics teacher Marsha Davison is still trying to recover from the death of her husband, Eric, 19 months earlier when she meets Ben Mayfield, a wealthy retired geologist who invites her on a road trip along old Route 66. The ex-husband of a dear friend, Ben’s courtly manner and sense of adventure intrigue Marsha. Although initially she declines, Marsha decides to throw caution to the wind and she and her dog, Lindy, go along for the ride. After a nearly three-month jaunt on the road, Marsha returns to her home in Sedona, Arizona, and Ben to his in Texas, planning another roadtrip -- an East Coast one this time -- for the fall. But soon after returning to their respective homes, Marsha and Ben soon realize that their relationship is far from being a simple friendship, it’s turned t...

As I wait for the next round of ABNA to be announced, I’ve been thinking about the contest and what the experience has taught me. Here are a few lessons I've learned: 1. You can’t win if you don’t enter . It’s scary to put your writing out there, open to criticism and drama, but the whole point of writing is to share the story with an audience. Will the reviewer at Publisher's Weekly love it or hate it? We'll see. 2. A pitch is not a synopsis. A pitch’s job is to sell the book, to give the reader a taste of what the book is about and why they would want to read it. Clarity, brevity, and voice are important. 3. Writers are generous people . Of course, some writers are selfish, mean, and petty too, but through the forums I’ve seen so many that freely give their time and efforts to help other writers with no expectation of payback. 4. All feedback is useful. Sometimes criticism hurts, and sometimes it should be taken with a grain of salt. One person may ha...

I’ve started to take a real shine to black-eyed peas. Back on New Year’s Day, in spite of my historical dislike for the spotted legumes, I tried a new recipe for Hoppin’ John and ate my black-eyed peas for good luck. My, how it’s paid off. My book has just moved into the quarter-final round of Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. I never expected to make it this far. Out of 10,000 original entries, 500 (100 in each category) are still in the running. So far, they’ve been judged on the pitch and an excerpt from the first few pages of the book. Next, someone from Publisher’s Weekly will evaluate and review each of the manuscripts, and the top five from each category will move to the semi-finals. My original post about  black-eyed peas  talked about taking chances and trying new things. New things are scary. Writing a book was scary. Publishing with Amazon so that anyone out there can read and criticize it was scary. Entering the contest was scary, but I’m so glad I did...

After a month of obsessively dropping into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award forum for the latest gossip, I peeked tonight to find the titles moving into round two have been posted, half a day earlier than expected. I opened the romance list and …(drum roll, please)  … I’m in ! This is just the first cut, from ten thousand entries down to two thousand, based entirely off the pitch. I’m sure there were many excellent books, probably better than mine, that didn’t make the cut. Still, it’s gratifying to know the editors found my concept interesting enough to move to the next round. Next is the excerpt round in which judges score the first five thousand words of the book and the top five hundred contestants move on. Viners, top Amazon reviewers, will serve as judges and leave two reviews for each excerpt. I’ve got my fingers crossed that my Viners aren’t adrenaline junkies and maybe have a soft spot for old cowboys. It’s going to be a long wait until April 14 th to find out...

Remember all those black-eyed peas I ate on New Year’s day for luck? Well, now I’m hoping to cash in. I’m gathering my courage and entering Recalculating Route into the Amazon breakthrough novel award tomorrow. The first round is based entirely on the pitch. That means that out of 10,000 entrees, 8,000 of them will be cut without a judge ever seeing the book. Anyone who has ever tried to boil down a complete novel into a couple of paragraphs of sales copy will tell you it's extremely difficult. I’ve been frequenting the pitch thread and polishing mine for several weeks now. Sometimes I think it’s perfect and other times far from it, but it's certainly better than it was at the beginning. I’m impressed with the generosity of so many posters over on the thread who spend huge amounts of time helping with pitches. They’ve taken some real messes, and with subtle suggestions and questions, helped the writers turn them into something great. And remember, these are their competit...

Recently, someone criticized one of my books because one of the main characters had been divorced several times. She said people like this don’t change, and it was wrong to make him a hero. She had a point. The odds of someone with multiple failed marriages succeeding in love are low. But the story isn’t about averages; it’s about specific characters and the possibility of redemption. It’s about hope. I’m a lucky woman. I married my college sweetheart on the same day we graduated, we have two healthy children who are in the process of launching, and this year we’ll celebrate our thirty-second anniversary. We have very little drama in our lives. I’d highly recommend this path to happiness, but reading about it for two-hundred pages would bore you silly.   Much more interesting are people who have made mistakes or faced hardship and are struggling to overcome. I love characters that are flawed but likable, that I can root for and commiserate with. I love the satisfaction of a...

Eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day brings luck for the whole year. That’s the legend, anyway. Personally, I’ve never been a fan. I grew up with them and spent hours of my childhood hoeing, watering, and shelling them. According to my husband, by mother’s are the best, picked fresh from the garden, shelled with a few snaps thrown in, and home-canned with a little salt pork, but I could never develop a taste for them. I always managed to consume a few on New Year's but didn't enjoyed them until this year. I found a recipe in the newspaper for Hoppin’ John (black-eyed peas and rice), but not the traditional recipe I’ve used before with sausage and lots of cayenne. This one called for dried peas, a ham bone, and collard greens. I happened to have a bone left from the Christmas ham and some frozen spinach to substitute for the collards, so I gave it a try. Who knew black-eyed peas could taste so good? So, the lesson for me is to keep trying new things. Maybe I’ll event...