SOLD!!!!

Not me, The Boy. But close enough! I've mentioned before that The Boy is a writer in his own right. You can find some of his stuff here. He's very modest about his talent but let me tell you, he is amazing. His first finsished story, The Deserts of Vast Eternity, made me cry when I read it. And it was about the fifth time I'd read the thing. I can't wait until that story becomes well known so that y'all will know what I'm talking about. It is such a beautiful tale. The story he sold, Halloween Night was one he shot out one day on a lark - isn't it amazing how these things work out?

Anyway, rather than use my own words to describe his sale, here it is in his own words from his site:

GOOOOAAAAALLLL!!!!!

Today I made my first ever fiction sale, a totally non-Gtame related short-story entitled "Halloween Night," to Shimmer Magazine. If you haven't heard of Shimmer, check it out, it's really a great magazine full of awesome new speculative fiction: www.shimmerzine.com. More details as the story gets closer to publication.

I can't wait to see him in print! Wohoo for dreams coming true!!!

(p.s. that picture that he used is one of our two cats... the one that doesn't help me write...)

TIME, Time, time...

Curses, even as I type this I just remembered one more thing I have to do tonight: pack. Which means I should have done laundry. Eh, that will have to wait until later.

It seems that my whole week has been like this, like a total whirlwind. I finally get the best news (an agent wants my partial wohoo!) and all of the sudden the rest of my life crowds in. One of the partners I work for wants every case in the 9th Circuit on quashing subpoenas briefed by Monday (I learn about this 3pm Friday) which means working all weekend and even getting into work at 4am on Monday (trying to swipe all the proper swipe cards spots and get to the doors while they're momentarily unlocked at that hour is like a brutal video game).

So Monday when I drag my butt home at 6pm I can't see straight, Tuesday is a mandatory firm event, Weds I finally have a night to focus on the partial when I find out at 4pm that my step-brother is coming to stay. That caused a panicked and early exodus from work to come home and clean clean clean. Thursday was another firm event and Friday is a business trip. But the truly mind-numming part was a trip to THE DMV.

But that is a story for another day... today's story is that I've yet to finish polishing up that partial. And the agent just posted about how she's all caught up and ready for some new reads. Ack! Tomorrow is a business trip, I anticipate another working weekend but I'm going to try my best avoidance tactics. This will be the weekend I finish the partial (and see my sister and nephews I haven't seen for months).

Life. I guess this is really what it's all about. Really, now that I blog about it, I have nothing to complain about. In fact, life is pretty damn good. Thanks to the fury of the weekend I'm ahead on my hours for the month which means I can enjoy the rest of June. And an agent wants to read my work. And I get to see my sister and her kids whom I adore! Huh, how's that for a change of perspective?

And did I mention that The Boy sold?

Big big day tomorrow!!

So tomorrow (Friday) is the pitch slam. This is where I get to send out my pitch to Agent Kristin Nelson who is top o' my list of favorite agents.

How did all of this come about? Well, Dorothy started a yahoo group and invited agents to answer questions. Last week it was Jenny Bent and she graciously agreed to review one sentence pitches. Her critiques were short, honest, and to the point. Exactly what everyone needed. Unfortunately, I missed it all.

This week, the guest agent is Kristin. All week a group of us has been honing our pitches to the requisite one sentence. Today we get word that 2-3 sentences is ok. Yipes! As The Boy said...

"now you should take the run ons and break them into two sentences, the way God, Strunk & White intended."

and he's right, a lot of us just took out the periods and went hog wild with the run ons.

So far my project has only been between me, The Boy and The Family. It's scary to let the idea into the world for comment. So far it seems to be good (and I love that other people love it). Now it's time to hear what Kristin has to say...

fingers crossed...

(and unfortunately I leave town soon after the pitch slam so any readers out there will have to wait until Sunday to find out what she says - think of it as my version of suspense!)

So bad...

Yes, yes, I've been a terrible blogger. If it makes anyone feel any better, I've been an even more terrible writer. I've turned into such a slacker! Ugh.

Well, the good news is that I'm hoping to crank some work out tomorrow. And when I say work, I mean work on the WIP. See, that's the thing about my job being all about the billable hour: when there's no client to bill there's nothing to do. Sure I have some things here and there to work on, but nothing that can sustain me for 8+ billable hours per day for the next week until phase II of my big case kicks back up. Grargh!!!

So, this week agent Kristin Nelson has been a visitor to one of my chat groups. On Friday the group is doing a pitch slam which essentially means posting a one sentence pitch of our work. No one is quite sure if Kristin is reading in order to request material or critique, but since she's one of my favorite agents it doesn't matter to me; to me this is a big deal and great opportunity.

I've been working on my pitch and am just about ready to let the WIP out of the closet (inside joke with the storyline...). Maybe I'll post it here tomorrow and see if anyone has anything interesting to say about it.

But, as The Boy says, I must beware putting carts before chickens. First... there comes the writing. Must write, must write, must write.

Well, that was unexpected...

So last night I wrote another scene to the current WIP (which I love, btw). And after reading the recent addition to The Boy (who gets to hear it all), he and I were discussing the Plot (yes, with a capital P). You see, for a while I haven't known how it all will end. And you may have noticed by the progression of the sidebar that it's about time for me to figure that out.

Anyways, so as The Boy and I were driving to get dinner he said, "I know you might now want to hear this but..." and he went on to tell me that perhaps THE main love interest (out of 3) should end up with someone other than the protagonist. This was something I'd already considered and was actually glad to hear someone else confirm my thoughts (fears?).

As I was pondering how this would affect the book all of the sudden everything clicked into place. The Plot, the climax, the resolution. It was all clear.

Of course, it's gonna take a ton of editing and whatnot. But it's nice to know how it all ends :)

So, loyal readers, how do y'all handle plotting, plot twists, and figuring out how it all ends?

Guacamole

Best recipe ever:

1. 3 ripe avocados
2. 1 large red onion
3. 2 ripe tomatoes
4. 1 jalepeno pepper - no seeds and chopped almost to death
   
5. cilantro
6. salt to taste
7. secret ingredient: Rose's Lime Juice
   

The key is to mix it all with your hands - it's the personal touch that makes it good. You might ask how Rose's Lime Juice came to be the secret ingredient - good story. The Boy and I were making Guacamole to go with our margaritas one summer afternoon after studying for the bar when we realized we were out of pure lime juice. No way were we going back to the store and no way were we not having our Guacamole. But it just wasn't right without the lime. So we added Rose's figuring, why not? It was the closest to lime juice we had on hand. And let me just say that the touch of sweetness is just what the chef ordered.

Enjoy!

Nosey Neighbor

I'm fascinated by one of our neighbors in our apartment building. First, a bit about where we live... for a brief while it looked like The Boy and I would be on our way to practice law in NYC. So we were already prepared for the high rents, etc. So when we found out we weren't going to NYC (thank goodness!) we realized that we had a big chunk of rent money already set aside. Never wanting to leave anything to waste (or spend wisely...) we decided to go for it and live it up for a year in our new city. This meant renting a penthouse apartment (honest - it really wasn't that much more expensive than our more reasonably priced back-up plan) that over looked the city and came with trash and maid service (see, another way we justified the cost).

So a lot of our neighbors are pretty tony. There's this particular couple across the hall that moved in a few months ago and The Boy has been lucky enough to walk by their place when the door was open. The place is apparently so put together that The Boy thought it was one of the "show" apartments set up by the management (let me just tell you that no one would make that mistake if they saw our apartment...).

And then a while back as I was doing walking lunges down the hallway I just happened to notice the letterhead of a competitive law firm pressed up against their garbage bag (see, this is where the trash service makes it so much easier to be nosey). So when I passed by again I took a closer look (really, I just wanted to see if my neighbors worked at a rival firm).

The first few words regarded the prenup they had on file. So our neighbors are a client of a rival firm and they recently inquired about or filed a prenup. I guess this is the best place to interject and let y'all know that these neighbors produce an inordinate amount of trash. And I mean, an ungodly amount. Where we might have 1 or 2 bags per week they have 8 by the end of the weekend and at least 1 every day after. I come home from work and the hall outside their apartment is lined with JCrew, Nordstrom, Tiffany, etc bags. It's to the point that it's a running joke between The Boy and I.

So seeing this prenup really got us wondering. But that's not the point of this story. So the other day I'm dragging myself home from work after a 12 hour day. Let me just say I was tired, headachey, pissed - all the worst I could feel. And as I walked past the neighbor's apartment I heard a man sobbing as he said, "But you promised me you wouldn't do this..."

At first I thought it was a joke - histrionics over the phone. But then I heard the guy again saying, "you promised you would help me and I can't believe you're doing this to me!"

It was real, he was seriously upset and yelling, clearly sobbing. I can't remember what the woman said, but it was something in rebuke. It was an all out fight and a part of me flashed back to the prenup, wondering if that would ever come back into play.

And I stood there listening, wondering what the hell was going on and totally fascinated by this glimpse into another life. But it sounded like their voices were close to the door and wary of being caught I slipped into my apartment to gush to The Boy. Thinking he'd admonish me for my nosiness I was suprised when he told me to get back out there and find out more. Normally I would have but I'd already gotten enough of a glimpse into their inner life.

Instead I walked over to The Boy and told him how much I loved him.