The Need Places First in 2013 Golden Palm Contest

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December 10, 2013

The Need Places First in 2013 Golden Palm Contest, Manuscript May Be Too Hot To Handle Indie author Dorota Skrzypek, also writing as S.L. Hannah, submits entry into New Adult Romance Category of the 2013 Golden Palm Contest, beats out the competition, but agent judging the category is not interested in reading entire manuscript. Los […]

The Need Places First in 2013 Golden Palm Contest, Manuscript May Be Too Hot To Handle

Indie author Dorota Skrzypek, also writing as S.L. Hannah, submits entry into New Adult Romance Category of the 2013 Golden Palm Contest, beats out the competition, but agent judging the category is not interested in reading entire manuscript.

Los Angeles/California/USA – WEBWIRE – Thursday, December 05, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Need Places First in 2013 Golden Palm Contest, Manuscript May Be Too Hot To Handle

LOS ANGELES, California (December 4, 2013) – Indie author Dorota Skrzypek, also writing as S.L. Hannah, submits entry into New Adult Romance Category of the 2013 Golden Palm Contest, beats out the competition, but agent judging the category is not interested in reading entire manuscript.

“The win is exciting, but the response a little surprising,” says author Skrzypek. “The contest doesn’t guarantee anything, but I really thought winning would mean getting through the sludge pile of a literary agency. Maybe this is just a sign of the times.” Big publishers having to compete against online giant Amazon and its record number of self-published authors are being more cautious than ever about investing in new talent and that’s affecting how agents screen their work. “The impression traditional publishers have left over the last few years is: prove yourself as an author on your own first, and then we’ll be happy to help you. Or maybe the story is just too ‘hot, hot, hot’ as per the judges score sheet,” adds Skrzypek.

In October of this year, Amazon, Kobo, and other e-book retailers cracked down on erotica by removing titles of works that depicted incest, rape and child pornography. Following in similar footsteps, the UK is banning pornography depicting rape and many authors fear books may be the next target. Even Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines video has been banned at over 20 Universities over fears the song glamorizes rape and its lyrics are sexist. While Skrzypek’s manuscript, The Need, does address some of these controversial topics the author argues there is a big difference between gratuitous sex in books written for shock value, and books exploring the psychological factors behind forced sex fantasies, the Madonna-Whore complex, and other studied sexual behavior.

Dorota Skrzypek, also writing as S.L. Hannah, is author of the Sex, Life, & Hannah book series. Her latest book, The Need, about a college-aged girl that falls in love with the woman holding her captive, is set for release in early 2014. With initial reviewers calling the book “one powerful piece of writing; well-told, honest and creepy as hell,” Skrzypek is anticipating the book to make a dent in at least one best-seller list. The Need is based on a screenplay written by Scott Frazelle. To find out more, please visit www.sexlifeandhannah.com.

Click here for the original Press Release.

The Need Finals in The Golden Palm

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November 15, 2013

This August I decided to do something I’ve never done before. I decided to throw the dice and enter The Need into four writing contests. I did this for a couple of reasons. One, I wanted feedback from people that didn’t know me and were not familiar with my writing, and two, I wanted to […]

Towards the end of September the results started coming in, and they were mixed. Some judges loved The Need, some didn’t care for it at all, most had complimentary and critical things to say about it. It reminded me a lot of the feedback I was getting from my beta readers, and it made sense. Not everyone is going to love what you write, that’s just a fact, but what you hope for as a writer is that your writing will stir something in people, whether good of bad, and they’ll get passionate about sharing whatever has stirred within them with their friends.

On October 21st I got an email:

Congratulations! The preliminary round of judging has been completed for the Florida Romance Writers 2013 Golden Palm Contest. I am happy to announce that your entry was a Finalist in the New Adult Romance Category.

Apparently I had stirred something, and this means a lot to me. Especially as I sit here, in New York City for the weekend, working on the third draft of The Need. Wish me luck, lovelies. I’m excited to get this book out to you.

Here are my favorite judge comments from all the contests I entered:

This is an extremely well written book by a very talented writer. You have an excellent voice and wonderful word choice and imagery. Definitely as good (or better) than many of the published works I’ve read. You should be extremely proud.

I think the female-female scene was unpredictable in a really awesome way. I usually don’t read scenes like this, but loved it just the same. Great stuff.

This is one powerful piece of writing. This story is well-told, honest and creepy as hell. You do a brilliant job of portraying the prey and the predator. I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything that made me so uncomfortable! Which means it’s very, very good. Excellent, in fact.

The author does a wonderful job of showing the inner conflicts and emotions of a woman who is unsure of herself and her place in the world.

The story is well paced, and it is very suspenseful, packing fine dramatic tension throughout the sample. High marks for originality, and highly intriguing, if not exactly appealing in the conventional sense. Dialogue is often strange, but remains plausible.

I must say I wanted to keep reading THE NEED when I hit the end of the excerpt. That says a lot. Once the story got going it really kept my interest.

Excellent title! Your characters showed various levels and types of need so the title is very apropos.

I applaud you for writing in first person. It’s challenging and not easy to avoid an over use of pronouns for sentence beginnings all the while keeping the flow going.

The Need

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July 1, 2013

I know, a proper life update has been due sine February, but as per usual the days slipped into weeks and then months… There are a lot of changes that will be coming down the pipe this summer. First of all, as soon as I am done with this second draft of a manuscript I’ve […]

I know, a proper life update has been due sine February, but as per usual the days slipped into weeks and then months…

There are a lot of changes that will be coming down the pipe this summer. First of all, as soon as I am done with this second draft of a manuscript I’ve been working on since November 2012, I will be creating an author web page for all of my books. As much as I’ve enjoyed ruminating over the pitfalls of dating and married life and writing the Sex, Life, & Hannah book series because it so perfectly goes hand in hand with all that, my author aspirations do stretch beyond contemporary romance crises, and I want you to be able to go on that journey with me. That being said, I will be writing one more book in the Sex, Life, & Hannah series because we all NEED TO KNOW who the hell Hannah ends up with in the end, but look for that in 2014, because right now my head is wrapped around this erotic thriller called: The Need.

A little back story. My husband wrote a screenplay in the summer of 2010 about a woman that gets trapped in a bizarre situation and tries to get out while fighting inner desires she never knew she had. It was sexy, it was controversial, and it didn’t require a huge budget. He started pitching it, and as most Hollywood stories go, got a few interesting bites, but nothing to get overly excited about. Of course at this point I was immersed in Sex, Life, & Hannah as well as trying to figure out the self-publishing business and working to pay the bills so there wasn’t a whole lot I could do to help. And then in 2011 we decided to produce a movie, which is a whole other story, so The Need got pushed to the back burner again.

Last year I hit a pretty pivotal mark as an author and self-publisher. First of all, I realized I love writing books and want to continue writing books as a career. It’s not about pet projects anymore or doing something just so I can prove I can, I want to build a library, and hit the best-seller lists and really make a name for myself in the romance genre. I also finally had an epiphany about how to get my books out there without breaking the bank. CreateSpace was a great print-on-demand platform and ebooks had really hit their stride; they weren’t looked down upon as the red-headed step-child of the book world anymore, they were a legitimate way to build your audience, and get serious agents and publishers interested in working with you. With this new inspiration and knowledge came the release of the Sex, Life, & Hannah Summer Season and the re-release of the first two Sex, Life, & Hannah books, and…a new approach to life as an author. Deservedly, after all that I took a few months off writing. I also joined the Los Angeles Romance Authors group (a chapter of Romance Writers of America) and thought about what to do next.

National Novel Writing Month (NanoWrimo) is this crazy writing challenge that happens every November and pushes your boundaries and your perseverance by asking you to finish writing a novel in one month. I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to try my hand at two things I’d never done before: write an erotic thriller and adapt that screenplay that had been kicking around our house for two years. Needless to say, I did not finish writing a book in a month, even with the stellar outline provided by my husband’s script. It took me until April of this year to finish a first draft, but it got me working on another book, which is the most important thing you can do as an author.

So…stay tuned for the changes coming ahead to the website, and my new book. Meanwhile, enjoy the summer, and if you need a good beach read, click here.