Entering Writing Contests Helps

I've mentioned several times how I honed my writing skills by entering manuscript contests. When Where Love Once Lived was nearing completion, everyone thought it was a romance novel. I didn't know any better, so I went along with what I was hearing from my writing friends. That worked to my advantage since there are probably more contests in the romance genre than any other. Also, I had the advantage of a having a story in the subgenre of inspirational where there was less competition.

I joined the Romance Writers of America and entered manuscript contests in chapters all across the United States. There was a fee for each entry and back then, many of them required multiple copies of printed manuscripts prepared and mailed in specific ways. I also had to provide return postage if I wanted to get the results. Later, when the use of emailed submissions became more acceptable, the process was simplified and less expensive.

The results were often worth the time and cost. A synopsis was required by many of the contests along with some limited number of pages from the beginning of the book. Some were based on a number of pages, others by chapter. Frequently, an anonymous judge would add comments about the synopsis as well as the manuscript. Some comments led to changes. One of the most significant changes that resulted from comments from a judge was to change an abortion to a miscarriage. The judge suggested the word abortion was too explosive at this time and that I could build in the same amount of emotion in the character who thought her actions may have caused the miscarriage. I was already having second thoughts about the abortion because of feedback from friends, but the contest judge was the first reader to offer a solution.

Other contest judges suggested specific wording in places to make the story more interesting. But there were some judges who were offended by my description of the bookmobile librarian, Liz Siedo, as being a bit hefty. I toned it down after that, but she's still large and proud of it. Along that line, I learned from a judge that clothing for large women is called plus size, not XXXL like it is for men.

By their comments, contest judges also let me know what wasn't clear. For example, in an earlier version of Where Love Once Lived, I had a reference to Sunset Valley being completely surrounded by Austin. Which it is. However, I guess the judge had never heard of such a thing and assumed it was a mistake. I took it out so as not to be confusing.

Another judge thought my reference to a real community called Travis Country was a misspelling of Travis County since the story was set in Austin, Texas which is in Travis County. I took that out, too. It was important to the story.

Entering contests helped me write the book and helped me make it better. I won two first places, one third place and was a finalist in another contest. Winning usually meant a chance to talk to an editor and or agent, as well as a chance to read your entry to other writers.

Suds In Your Eye by Mary Lasswell

This is a humorous story by Mary Lasswell about three retired women, Mrs. Annie Feeley, Miss Agnes Tinkham, and Mrs. Erna Rasmussen, who live in Southern California, probably San Diego, during World War II. Mrs. Feeley is a widow who runs a junk yard called Noah's Ark (it has two of everything) with the help of Old-Timer (her working man) after her husband died. She is uneducated and can't read.

Miss Tinkham, a retired music teacher, relies on rent from a home back east and she is looking for a less expensive place to live when she meets Mrs. Feeley.

Mrs. Rasmussen, also a widow, is a nationalized citizen from Denmark living with her daughter and her daughter's family, paying rent, cooking and taking care of the grandchildren. They insist that she get home by 10:00 p.m. Worse yet, her son-in-law doesn't drink and is a vegetarian.

Mrs. Feeley has no children, but she has a nephew, Danny Malone, who is a Chief Yeoman stationed on a ship, who apparently has lost his parents.

Mrs. Feeley invites Miss Tinkham and Mrs. Rasmussen to move into her one-room house and they build walls to provide privacy between the beds. Mrs. Rasmussen does the grocery shopping and prepares the meals. Miss Tinkham plays the piano. The two things the three have in common are their love of beer (thus the title) and their ability to get things done.

While Danny is home briefly, Miss Tinkham invites them all to visit the Spanish class she is taking and Danny falls in love with the teacher, Kate Logan, and she is instantly attracted to him. We know this quickly because of the viewpoint. Books written today are most often written in one character's point of view for each scene. However, this book came out in 1942 when it was more popular to use limited omniscient viewpoint, which means you have a God-like perspective of the story and can switch viewpoint from one character to another as needed, even within a scene. In other words the reader can read the minds of all characters in a scene, not just one.

The three ladies are struggling financially and manage to get by only by pooling their resources. Danny offers to help and is turned down. Then his ship leaves for a military mission and he is unavailable to help even if his aunt would let him.

Mrs. Feeley learns her junk yard and home are being sold because she hasn't paid her taxes for several years. Turns out the lawyer she'd hired to take care of it has stolen the money. If Miss Tinkham hadn't been there to read the letter to Mrs. Feeley, it would have been too late.

The three ladies and Old-Timer go to work at the tuna cannery to raise the money for the taxes by the deadline, plus a little extra for the trip to Tijuana the Spanish class has planned.

This book contains a few profanities that you wouldn't find today in a humor book and the only mention of Christian was this: Mrs. Feeley was glad to see that Kate Logan was a Christian when it came to drinking beer. It would have been almost too much of a disappointment if she had turned out to be the kind that liked the sweet stuff.

They manage to pay off the taxes and penalties and end up with enough money for the trip to Mexico with the class. While there, they find the lawyer and help the police catch him. Later, back in the United States, they get a reward for catching him.

Danny comes home and marries and Kate Logan and they have a huge party at Noah's Ark.

Great story.

There was more of a plot to the book than I remembered from reading in back in the 1950s. Although we didn't learn about the possible loss of the property until half way through the book, it was a significant event that put tension on the ladies to find a solution within a fixed time frame, the recipe for a good novel.

I think the reason I thought about Suds In Your Eye when I started writing about Liz Siedo and the bookmobile was that Liz gets things done and has a positive attitude about life, just like the three women in Mary Lasswell's books. I don't know yet, but I suspect Liz might enjoy a taste of beer from time to time.

Thank You, Mary Lasswell

I read all of Mary Lasswell books beginning with Suds in Your Eye published in 1942. My bookmobile novel was going to follow her pattern of humorous episodes acted out by a lovable group of women. In my case, Liz Siedo, the bookmobile librarian and her adventures. The first title I came up with was: Mrs. Pickles and the Bookmobile.

But on the way to writing the book I realized I didn't know how. Then, when I took an online novel writing class some forty years later, I was more or less forced to add more than humorous episodes. A novel, I was told, must have tension, ups and downs, conflict, protagonists and antagonists. By the time I finished the book it didn't resemble anything Mary Lasswell ever wrote, but still I'm thankful to her for getting me started.

Mary Lasswell comes to mind today because as I was cleaning out my bookstore I found a copy of Suds in Your Eye. Since I haven't read it in perhaps fifty years, and because it is relatively short, I moved it to the top of my reading list. I finished Shawna K. Williams' In All Things last night so I was ready for another book anyway. I'll tell you about In All Things later, but for now  all I'll say is READ IT.

I have no idea what I'll find when I read Suds in Your Eye again, but I'll let you know in a future post.