When I started this blog, one of my main goals was to have a real-time recording of my thoughts and process as I worked towards my ten year plan.* Part of my reasoning was that I really enjoy going back and reading author blogs from before they were published/agented. As I've said before, it is so inspiring to read about their process, their doubts, their lives from before. Especially knowing what the after is like.
Another part of the reasoning is that I have a terrible memory and I thought it might be fun to walk down memory lane. And in fact, the other night I did just that. I went back to reminisce about when I got the idea for WIP and what it was like to work on it. I'm so happy with the end result of WIP that it's easy to forget about the doubts along the way (they were there, folks) and that's what I wanted a memory of.
I also went back and reminisced about the stress of my agent hunt -- the over thinking, the agony. It makes me laugh now, and it's hard to remember just how stressful that whole thing was. How much trouble and time it took to put together every submission package -- hours!! And in the end it all worked!!
It's so strange and awesome to suddenly be on the other side of all of that. Just the other day, a guest agent came to one of the loops I subscribe to. I was thrilled and eagerly read all of her posts, sopping up all the information. I was half-way through before I realized "I have an agent (!!). I'm past this stage of 'what are you looking for in a query letter.'" Oh my God I have an agent!!
I think that's when it really hit home what getting an agent really meant. That I'd hit this goal, accomplished this milestone. All of the sudden, whether to personalize your query letters is no longer a worry of mine. Now I can look back at some of my random fears (incorrectly formatting sample pages in an email) and realize that most of those worries are useless. That it really does come down to the story -- to the pages themselves and not how they're formatted. But that's so much easier said from the comfort of being represented :)
And the best and funniest part of all, is that I was on a message board recently when someone came on and stressed "how do I format an email query?!" and I was able to respond the same way so many people responded to me. "Relax, here's how I did it, relax some more, it will all be ok."
The thing is, that's useful advice for every step of your career. So now, instead of stressing about what's next, I'm leaving that in my wonderful and accomplished agent's hands and I'm starting in on my next book. That is, after all, what this is all about :)
_________
* JP and I have a ten year plan to be able to support ourselves with our writing in 10 years, which would be by the beginning of 2016. Wow, that's the first time I've ever figured out the exact year and that feels like SO FAR away!!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
What happens when an agent likes your work...
Hey Y'all! Thanks for the congrats! Today I'm the guest blogger at the Manuscript Mavens. They've been blogging about agents this week and it's been awesome reading. I was so excited to be able to contribute what I did once I got "the call."
Maybe this weekend I'll actually share with y'all some details about the book!
Maybe this weekend I'll actually share with y'all some details about the book!
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
It's Official -- I'm now agented!!!
Yes, that's right, I just signed with an agent!!! Wahoooooo!!! I'm now represented by Jim McCarthy with Dystel & Goderich Literary Management!!! It's still all so surreal! Gosh, there's so much to write about! The process, the decision making, what my book is about :) I don't even know where to begin!
I'm sure I'll be posting about all of that over the next few days, but for now I just wanted to share my fabulous news. I couldn't be more over the moon! Jim is fantastic and I can't wait to work with him -- plus he has tons of fun clients that I've loved getting to know.
I promise to write more soon!
I'm sure I'll be posting about all of that over the next few days, but for now I just wanted to share my fabulous news. I couldn't be more over the moon! Jim is fantastic and I can't wait to work with him -- plus he has tons of fun clients that I've loved getting to know.
I promise to write more soon!
Big News!
Yes, big news coming soon. I should have posted last night, but with the champagne and all... :)
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Agent research -- what do you really know?
Sorry for the blog silence as of late -- new job, following up on agent submissions, all of that fun stuff. But trust me I've been thinking about y'all and wondering just how much I should post about my agent search. Originally I was going to have a query tracker (sans agent names) where I would list every query, request, rejections, etc. But then a friend pointed out that you generally don't go into a job interview shouting out how many rejections you've gotten.
So that's left me a little gun shy on posting. After all, this blog is out there for all to see, maybe even a potential agent (yes, I know they have much much better things to do).
While I contemplate how much of the details of my search to post (feel free to chime in the comments with your thoughts), let me talk about something else I've been pondering and that is agent research.
Now, when I first started the query process, I was committed to personalizing every query letter and really knowing the agents I was submitting to. I didn't want to take a scattershot approach; rather, I wanted to take a measured and educated approach. And so in my research I set out to find those agents that I thought would like my book and want to offer representation. After all, that was my goal: find an agent who wanted to represent my book.
I started my research with the agents I already "knew," and then moved on to the agents whose blogs I read regularly. I then looked at the hot selling YA books and figured out who their agents were and wrapped everything up with a few recomendations from friends. In the end, my list contained about 13 agents to query first.
As part of this research I read their clients' books, I looked up their recent sales, checked out their websites/blogs, and agent-query. I created a large index card for each agent with their contact information, their preferences, and any other tidbits. On the back of each card I kept a log of what I'd sent out and when and any responses (this was in addition to a spreadsheet with the same information).
I was really really proud of my approach. I knew a lot about these agents, enough that when people posted on loops about them asking questions, I was able to answer them. I felt great about the way things were going.
But now I question my approach. Because when I started to look past all the stats I'd compiled, what did I really know about these agents? What did I know about Agent A other than the fact she had some hot YA sales? What did I know about her style, her history, what she's like to work with? The same with all the agents -- what did I really know?
When I started this whole process, a friend asked who my top choices were and I had to shrug. I felt like I was back in 9th grade when someone asked me who I wanted to go out with and my answer was "whoever wants to go out with me." Or when I was in law school during job hunt season and people asked what firm I wanted to work for and my answer was "whichever firm hires me."
And you know what happened in law school? A bunch of firms gave me offers and I had to choose and suddenly I realized that I'd positioned myself to get the offer, but hadn't prepared myself for what happens after that. How do you choose which firm to go to when they all pay the same, are all located in the same place, all have lots of attorneys, etc? I didn't even know what questions to ask to differentiate one firm from another -- honestly, to a 1L or 2L they were all pretty much fungible.
I would never intimate that agents are fungible, but sometimes when all you're looking at are the basic stats, it can get overwhelming. You can have a list of agents who all charge standard rates, who all work at well-known agencies, who all have a good solid track record with some phenomenal sales. You can have a list of "essentials" and it's pretty likely you'll find a lot of agents who fit your criteria.
And so how do you look past the initial research in order to figure the best match?
I guess what I'm saying is that, while I'm proud of the research that I did, I feel I fell short and was short-sighted. I think I should have looked beyond just "will this agent want me," and perhaps looked a lot deeper into "if this agent wanted me, woud I want this agent and would we make the best match?" In looking over my list, I can equivocally say that I would be honored to work with every agent on it. But is that because they are great agents, or because they would be a great agent for me?
Like interviewing for jobs in lawschool, it's hard to be picky when all the power rests in the employer hands. I'm just saying, sometimes you have to be prepared to figure out what's what if that power ever shifts to your hands.
What do you think? What sort of agent research do you think is necessary before querying? How did you approach these things?
So that's left me a little gun shy on posting. After all, this blog is out there for all to see, maybe even a potential agent (yes, I know they have much much better things to do).
While I contemplate how much of the details of my search to post (feel free to chime in the comments with your thoughts), let me talk about something else I've been pondering and that is agent research.
Now, when I first started the query process, I was committed to personalizing every query letter and really knowing the agents I was submitting to. I didn't want to take a scattershot approach; rather, I wanted to take a measured and educated approach. And so in my research I set out to find those agents that I thought would like my book and want to offer representation. After all, that was my goal: find an agent who wanted to represent my book.
I started my research with the agents I already "knew," and then moved on to the agents whose blogs I read regularly. I then looked at the hot selling YA books and figured out who their agents were and wrapped everything up with a few recomendations from friends. In the end, my list contained about 13 agents to query first.
As part of this research I read their clients' books, I looked up their recent sales, checked out their websites/blogs, and agent-query. I created a large index card for each agent with their contact information, their preferences, and any other tidbits. On the back of each card I kept a log of what I'd sent out and when and any responses (this was in addition to a spreadsheet with the same information).
I was really really proud of my approach. I knew a lot about these agents, enough that when people posted on loops about them asking questions, I was able to answer them. I felt great about the way things were going.
But now I question my approach. Because when I started to look past all the stats I'd compiled, what did I really know about these agents? What did I know about Agent A other than the fact she had some hot YA sales? What did I know about her style, her history, what she's like to work with? The same with all the agents -- what did I really know?
When I started this whole process, a friend asked who my top choices were and I had to shrug. I felt like I was back in 9th grade when someone asked me who I wanted to go out with and my answer was "whoever wants to go out with me." Or when I was in law school during job hunt season and people asked what firm I wanted to work for and my answer was "whichever firm hires me."
And you know what happened in law school? A bunch of firms gave me offers and I had to choose and suddenly I realized that I'd positioned myself to get the offer, but hadn't prepared myself for what happens after that. How do you choose which firm to go to when they all pay the same, are all located in the same place, all have lots of attorneys, etc? I didn't even know what questions to ask to differentiate one firm from another -- honestly, to a 1L or 2L they were all pretty much fungible.
I would never intimate that agents are fungible, but sometimes when all you're looking at are the basic stats, it can get overwhelming. You can have a list of agents who all charge standard rates, who all work at well-known agencies, who all have a good solid track record with some phenomenal sales. You can have a list of "essentials" and it's pretty likely you'll find a lot of agents who fit your criteria.
And so how do you look past the initial research in order to figure the best match?
I guess what I'm saying is that, while I'm proud of the research that I did, I feel I fell short and was short-sighted. I think I should have looked beyond just "will this agent want me," and perhaps looked a lot deeper into "if this agent wanted me, woud I want this agent and would we make the best match?" In looking over my list, I can equivocally say that I would be honored to work with every agent on it. But is that because they are great agents, or because they would be a great agent for me?
Like interviewing for jobs in lawschool, it's hard to be picky when all the power rests in the employer hands. I'm just saying, sometimes you have to be prepared to figure out what's what if that power ever shifts to your hands.
What do you think? What sort of agent research do you think is necessary before querying? How did you approach these things?
JP's stories
Hey y'all! Just wanted to do a drive-by post to let y'all know that two of JP's stories are available online now! They're both short (flash pieces) and are both fantastic! So go read Another Side of the Park up at sixsentences.blogspot.com and The Pirate, Landlocked (one of my favorites!) up on Flashquake.com. Then go post your thoughts on his blog!
JP really is a super-talented writer -- I just love all of his work! I'm a lucky lucky girl.
JP really is a super-talented writer -- I just love all of his work! I'm a lucky lucky girl.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Sex in Romance Novels
I have a confession to make: I skim through the sex scenes.* Sometimes I down-right skip them all together. I didn’t used to. For years I read every word, and then I started to get a little antsy that the sex was slowing down the action, the plot of the story. And so I started skimming over them, just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. But just recently I’ve started whole-sale skipping the scenes. I wish I could explain why. I think a big part of it is that they’re boring to me. I don’t really care about the sex, I find some of the scenes generic and often those scenes throw off the pace of the entire book.
When I first started writing romance and doing research, I learned that every sex scene needs to have a purpose (other than just sex). And I’ve definitely read sex scenes that did have a purpose: they exposed parts of the character we may not have seen before, we learned some important details. But more and more these days, I feel like the sex scene is just there because some readers expect it; I don’t feel like I learn anything or that it adds to the development of the plot or the characters.
I think I’ve become more aware of my change-of-heart because I don’t read as many romance novels any more. These days, I tend to read books that have romance, but in which romance is not the sole plot. So I’m not as used to the traditional romance conventions.
But I also feel like the trend towards erotica has played into my sex-scene-skipping state of mind. I really feel like in some books the sex is there just to have the sex because that’s what is selling. As I said before, it doesn’t feel like the sex is there to deepen any kind of developments in the book. I also feel like sex scenes have grown really really long, and to me 20 pages of sex in the middle of a plot intense book just throws me off. I just don’t need the level of detail that is required to have such a long sex scene.
I read one book this year* that had 4-5 sex scenes, each about 20 pages long. That’s almost 100 pages of sex interspersed throughout a 300-400 page book! I’m not prudish, I don’t care that so much of the book is dedicated to sex, I just didn’t feel that the sex in the book played any real purpose. This was literally the first time that I just skipped -- wholesale -- entire scenes.
And I didn’t miss anything by skipping those scenes! That’s how I know that they weren’t there to deepen the characters, plot, etc, because I missed nothing by skipping them. It’s just so hard to reconcile this with the maxim that every scene in a book must count, must pull its weight. I’d always thought that if you can skip a scene in a book and it makes no difference, then that scene shouldn’t be there in the first place.
So what role do these skippable sex scenes play then? Are they there because of convention? Because readers like to read about sex? Because I’m somehow missing something even though I’ve read hundreds and hundreds of romance novels over the years? I mean, it really could just be that I don’t get it -- which is fine.
But the other thing that’s frustrated me recently with the more erotic books I’ve been reading is that there is so much focus on body and sexual attraction. It used to be that a man might fall for a woman because of her wit, the way she carries herself in a ballroom, etc. Now I feel like it is always the hero imagining the heroine with her clothes off. Every time he sees her -- that is all he thinks about. I know this is supposed to make things steamy and sexually tense, but it honestly grosses me out a bit. Perhaps it is the feminist in me that wants to yell out “Hey! That chick is more than just a body under some clothes!”
One of the things that I have always loved about romance novels is that the love isn’t just about looks or how hot the heroine is. Julia Quinn was a master at this -- men falling for women not because of their looks but because the heroine is so much more than looks (remember poor Penelope?). I guess I feel cheated when everything -- every look, every aside, every thought -- is about mentally undressing the H/h and wanting to get each other in bed. Because I wonder what kind of relationship that couple can possibly sustain if its basis is just in sex.
Now, I have no problem with sexual tension -- yum! But I feel like even the tension has gone by the wayside. I mean, if you have to pack in 4-5 sex scenes, how much tension can you have before they fall into bed together? And then you often end up with stupid miscommunications being the reason they’re apart because once you’ve thrown the H/h in bed together you’ve erased a lot of obstacles to their jumping into bed together again in the future.
Of course, thinking back on some of my favorite books, it’s unfair of me to say that it’s the number of sex scenes that troubles me. But rather, I think it’s the overwhelming focus on sex that some of the books I’ve read recently have. Like I said, when the relationship between the H/h is so based on sex and nothing else I feel cheated. I like to watch the relationship develop. And sure, sex can be part of that relationship, but shouldn’t be a disproportionate part. Don’t misunderstand me, I have no problem with sex in any books; I’m just trying to figure out why some books I’ve read recently have left me feeling a little frustrated.
Am I over analyzing this? We all know I’m prone to that. But this whole issue has really been weighing heavily on my mind. It makes me wonder if I’m just done with romance novels, which was once the staple of my reading diet. Maybe I just had a bad run of books -- it happens. What do y'all think?
_______________
* To the extent that any books I discuss could be recognizable, I’ve removed them from my list of books I’ve read this year. So don’t be looking at my list of books I’ve read and wondering which of them spurred this rant, you aren’t going to find it/them listed there.
When I first started writing romance and doing research, I learned that every sex scene needs to have a purpose (other than just sex). And I’ve definitely read sex scenes that did have a purpose: they exposed parts of the character we may not have seen before, we learned some important details. But more and more these days, I feel like the sex scene is just there because some readers expect it; I don’t feel like I learn anything or that it adds to the development of the plot or the characters.
I think I’ve become more aware of my change-of-heart because I don’t read as many romance novels any more. These days, I tend to read books that have romance, but in which romance is not the sole plot. So I’m not as used to the traditional romance conventions.
But I also feel like the trend towards erotica has played into my sex-scene-skipping state of mind. I really feel like in some books the sex is there just to have the sex because that’s what is selling. As I said before, it doesn’t feel like the sex is there to deepen any kind of developments in the book. I also feel like sex scenes have grown really really long, and to me 20 pages of sex in the middle of a plot intense book just throws me off. I just don’t need the level of detail that is required to have such a long sex scene.
I read one book this year* that had 4-5 sex scenes, each about 20 pages long. That’s almost 100 pages of sex interspersed throughout a 300-400 page book! I’m not prudish, I don’t care that so much of the book is dedicated to sex, I just didn’t feel that the sex in the book played any real purpose. This was literally the first time that I just skipped -- wholesale -- entire scenes.
And I didn’t miss anything by skipping those scenes! That’s how I know that they weren’t there to deepen the characters, plot, etc, because I missed nothing by skipping them. It’s just so hard to reconcile this with the maxim that every scene in a book must count, must pull its weight. I’d always thought that if you can skip a scene in a book and it makes no difference, then that scene shouldn’t be there in the first place.
So what role do these skippable sex scenes play then? Are they there because of convention? Because readers like to read about sex? Because I’m somehow missing something even though I’ve read hundreds and hundreds of romance novels over the years? I mean, it really could just be that I don’t get it -- which is fine.
But the other thing that’s frustrated me recently with the more erotic books I’ve been reading is that there is so much focus on body and sexual attraction. It used to be that a man might fall for a woman because of her wit, the way she carries herself in a ballroom, etc. Now I feel like it is always the hero imagining the heroine with her clothes off. Every time he sees her -- that is all he thinks about. I know this is supposed to make things steamy and sexually tense, but it honestly grosses me out a bit. Perhaps it is the feminist in me that wants to yell out “Hey! That chick is more than just a body under some clothes!”
One of the things that I have always loved about romance novels is that the love isn’t just about looks or how hot the heroine is. Julia Quinn was a master at this -- men falling for women not because of their looks but because the heroine is so much more than looks (remember poor Penelope?). I guess I feel cheated when everything -- every look, every aside, every thought -- is about mentally undressing the H/h and wanting to get each other in bed. Because I wonder what kind of relationship that couple can possibly sustain if its basis is just in sex.
Now, I have no problem with sexual tension -- yum! But I feel like even the tension has gone by the wayside. I mean, if you have to pack in 4-5 sex scenes, how much tension can you have before they fall into bed together? And then you often end up with stupid miscommunications being the reason they’re apart because once you’ve thrown the H/h in bed together you’ve erased a lot of obstacles to their jumping into bed together again in the future.
Of course, thinking back on some of my favorite books, it’s unfair of me to say that it’s the number of sex scenes that troubles me. But rather, I think it’s the overwhelming focus on sex that some of the books I’ve read recently have. Like I said, when the relationship between the H/h is so based on sex and nothing else I feel cheated. I like to watch the relationship develop. And sure, sex can be part of that relationship, but shouldn’t be a disproportionate part. Don’t misunderstand me, I have no problem with sex in any books; I’m just trying to figure out why some books I’ve read recently have left me feeling a little frustrated.
Am I over analyzing this? We all know I’m prone to that. But this whole issue has really been weighing heavily on my mind. It makes me wonder if I’m just done with romance novels, which was once the staple of my reading diet. Maybe I just had a bad run of books -- it happens. What do y'all think?
_______________
* To the extent that any books I discuss could be recognizable, I’ve removed them from my list of books I’ve read this year. So don’t be looking at my list of books I’ve read and wondering which of them spurred this rant, you aren’t going to find it/them listed there.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
A new home for Daphne
I'm hoping y'all can help JP and I find a new home for our wonderful female lab-mutt Daphne.As some of you may recall, JP and I adopted a black lab last November. She'd been hit by a car and the woman who rescued her from the road paid for the surgery to have her back right femur repaired (it was broken clear in half). When we adopted Daphne, we thought her leg was healed, but then found out it wasn't and that she'd have to have the leg amputated. However, we were able to find an orthopedic vet surgeon in South Carolina who fixed her leg -- today you would have no clue at all that she was so so close to having her leg amputated. She loves to run around and is super fast!
Unfortunately, it turns out that her leg was not the only damage from the car
accident. After visiting a few vets, we ended up going to a vet neurologist (yes, my dog has a neurologist) and learned that she has brain damage from the accident. Because of some of the symptoms of this brain damage, JP and I have made the incredibly difficult decision to find a new and better home for Daphne. It breaks our hearts to do this, but we find it a much better alternative than putting her to sleep, which some professionals have recommended. I'm pasting JP's letter to various shelters below in the hopes that maybe one of y'all will be able to help, even if it's just in passing this info along (we initially found out about Daphne from a long email chain). I know most of y'all live far away, but if it means finding the best home for Daphne, JP and I are willing to do what it takes to get her where she needs to go. Please feel free to email me at any time at Quitclaim [at] gmail.com. Thanks!
My girlfriend Carrie and I adopted a little black lab with a broken leg, who we named Daphne, back in November and December of last year. As much as it pains me to do so, I'm writing now to ask for your help in finding a new home for Daphne.What no one knew when we adopted Daphne, or could have known, is that she suffered significant brain damage when she was struck by a car last October. We have since realized that much of her gentle behavior during the time she was with her rescuer was probably due to the intense pain she was under from her broken leg. We saw indications of her problems while she was healing, but ascribed it all to her being caged constantly.
Unfortunately, we have come to realize that this wasn't entirely the case. We tried to train her with some of the best trainers in the area, but with poor results. Ultimately, we took her to a neurologist who confirmed that her problems are physiological in nature and unlikely to be cured. Because of her special problems, Daphne needs a very special home that can take good care of her.
Unfortunately, we have come to realize that this wasn't entirely the case. We tried to train her with some of the best trainers in the area, but with poor results. Ultimately, we took her to a neurologist who confirmed that her problems are physiological in nature and unlikely to be cured. Because of her special problems, Daphne needs a very special home that can take good care of her.The perfect home for Daphne would be someone who lives in a rural area, who is athletic and capable of wearing her out, and who can put in some serious training time on a daily basis. She is very affectionate and craves human contact, but has difficulty figuring out what "appropriate" is. She is spayed and in great health, weighs about 45 lbs and is two years old (we think). Anyone who takes her needs to be aware that she is "special needs" and be prepared to deal with it, which is one reason we are asking for your help in looking for a new home.
Daphne's brain damage has two major effects (and many bizarre and interesting minor ones): 
First, she gets agitated very easily by any kind of stimulus (from loud noises to human presence), and when she does, she obsessively spins in circles. These spins can vary from large loops around the yard to incredibly tight circles and wild barking when she gets extremely excited. Second, and far more problematic, she is essentially untrainable. She knows how to sit, but we believe she may have learned this before the accident. Beyond that, she can only learn any kind of behavior with an extraordinary amount of effort, and anything learned is quickly forgotten, whether in hours, or days, regardless of how well she is reinforced. She simply can't retain anything. This is especially problematic because Daphne has a very strong impulse to play-bite. While we've managed to lower the frequency of these bites, we have been unable to get rid of them entirely, and you can never be sure when she'll do it. For that reason, she would not be good with children.
First, she gets agitated very easily by any kind of stimulus (from loud noises to human presence), and when she does, she obsessively spins in circles. These spins can vary from large loops around the yard to incredibly tight circles and wild barking when she gets extremely excited. Second, and far more problematic, she is essentially untrainable. She knows how to sit, but we believe she may have learned this before the accident. Beyond that, she can only learn any kind of behavior with an extraordinary amount of effort, and anything learned is quickly forgotten, whether in hours, or days, regardless of how well she is reinforced. She simply can't retain anything. This is especially problematic because Daphne has a very strong impulse to play-bite. While we've managed to lower the frequency of these bites, we have been unable to get rid of them entirely, and you can never be sure when she'll do it. For that reason, she would not be good with children.Daphne is a sweet and loving dog, but her inability to learn coupled
with her high excitability makes her very difficult to handle. That said, I believe she can be trained to behave herself, and possibly even beyond-- at one point she learned to heel for nearly a week-- but it will take a lot of attention and patience, and acceptance of the fact that one day she may wake up and everything she's learned will just be gone and need to be relearned from scratch. Also, we have taken her to the mountains on several occasions, and she gets along much better in that environment. One of the reasons we have decided to give her away is because we believe the city (suburbs) is just too high-anxiety for her. In a rural, low-distraction environment with a lot of attention, I believe she could be a very good dog.
with her high excitability makes her very difficult to handle. That said, I believe she can be trained to behave herself, and possibly even beyond-- at one point she learned to heel for nearly a week-- but it will take a lot of attention and patience, and acceptance of the fact that one day she may wake up and everything she's learned will just be gone and need to be relearned from scratch. Also, we have taken her to the mountains on several occasions, and she gets along much better in that environment. One of the reasons we have decided to give her away is because we believe the city (suburbs) is just too high-anxiety for her. In a rural, low-distraction environment with a lot of attention, I believe she could be a very good dog.Please let me know if you know of anywhere we can look to find a place for Daphne. What she really needs is someone who has experience in dealing with brain-damage in an animal, and we simply 
don't know where to begin to look. Both doctors and trainers have suggested putting her down because of the difficulty in dealing with her, but we are convinced that she could be very happy in the right environment. We will keep her and care for her until we can find another home, because we love her very much, but I think she would be much better off away from the city and with owners who can devote substantially more time to her than we can. Let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions that might help.
Sincerely, JP and Carrie
don't know where to begin to look. Both doctors and trainers have suggested putting her down because of the difficulty in dealing with her, but we are convinced that she could be very happy in the right environment. We will keep her and care for her until we can find another home, because we love her very much, but I think she would be much better off away from the city and with owners who can devote substantially more time to her than we can. Let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions that might help. Sincerely, JP and Carrie
Yay JP!!
So what does a full time writer do all day? Run errands apparently. Wait for agents to respond to query letters. Read. Sleep. Yes, I've been pondering what to write next, but haven't taken the leap to a new project. Probably won't for a little while -- I figure I should concentrate on the new job for a bit.
Anyways, there's big news in our household this week! My fantabulously amazing boyfriend, JP, has had some awesome writer news. First, he had a piece accepted by Six Sentences, then he learned that flashquake bought another of his stories, and the biggest news of all is that he sold a story to Ideomancer! He is a true testament to perseverance and I could not be more excited for him!! I can't wait until the rest of y'all can read more of his stuff and see what a fantastic writer he is. Truly, the man is phenomenal! Yay!!!!!
I have all sorts of things I want to blog about, but Blogger is lagging so badly I can't stand it (I type like 2 sentences ahead of what is appearing on the screen - grrrr!). So instead I'm going to go back to bed and read -- ahh the life of a fill time writer :)
Anyways, there's big news in our household this week! My fantabulously amazing boyfriend, JP, has had some awesome writer news. First, he had a piece accepted by Six Sentences, then he learned that flashquake bought another of his stories, and the biggest news of all is that he sold a story to Ideomancer! He is a true testament to perseverance and I could not be more excited for him!! I can't wait until the rest of y'all can read more of his stuff and see what a fantastic writer he is. Truly, the man is phenomenal! Yay!!!!!
I have all sorts of things I want to blog about, but Blogger is lagging so badly I can't stand it (I type like 2 sentences ahead of what is appearing on the screen - grrrr!). So instead I'm going to go back to bed and read -- ahh the life of a fill time writer :)
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Quitin' my day job
Well, today was officially my last day of work. I've quit to become a full time writer.... for a week and a half. Then I start at the new firm -- very very exciting. I'm drinking a glass of champagne as I type and am about to head out for a celebratory meal.
You know sometimes, you have to take stock of where you are in life. I feel like we spend so much time focusing on goals and what comes next, that we forget about now. We forget about celebrating where we are.
And you know what? I'm pretty darn happy right now :)
Don't forget to recommend some books for me to read during my time off!!
You know sometimes, you have to take stock of where you are in life. I feel like we spend so much time focusing on goals and what comes next, that we forget about now. We forget about celebrating where we are.
And you know what? I'm pretty darn happy right now :)
Don't forget to recommend some books for me to read during my time off!!
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
So...
It feels like I've been running around a lot recently -- checking, triple checking submissions guidelines, buying submission supplies, getting writing ready for submission, quiting my job, cleaning my office.
I'm not sure what will happen to me at the end of the day tomorrow -- my last day of work for almost two weeks. I think I might come home and collapse. Because I certainly feel like collapsing now. Even having everything ready for submission, putting the query packages together was a little stressful. I think about all the "Don't's" you read about on agent blogs, and I realize how easy it is to make mistakes, even having done tons of research and really preparing.
For example, it wasn't until the last minute that I remembered the SE aspect of the SASE. Even though I'd specifically bought stamps this morning and had them next to my keyboard! The font of one of my headers was a slightly different font than the rest of the text. I opened two packages for fear I'd mangled the agent address. I'm talking 3+ hours to get 5 submissions out the door.
But they're done! Now I just have to clean out my office, haul everything to my car, and relax for days and days.
Which brings me to the real important part of this post: my TBR pile has dwindled. I need -- nay crave! -- recommendations! I want to spend my days lolling in a reading induced stupor. It has been too long since I've been able to read without the pressure of my own WIP rattling around my brain.
So, what are y'all reading these days?
I'm not sure what will happen to me at the end of the day tomorrow -- my last day of work for almost two weeks. I think I might come home and collapse. Because I certainly feel like collapsing now. Even having everything ready for submission, putting the query packages together was a little stressful. I think about all the "Don't's" you read about on agent blogs, and I realize how easy it is to make mistakes, even having done tons of research and really preparing.
For example, it wasn't until the last minute that I remembered the SE aspect of the SASE. Even though I'd specifically bought stamps this morning and had them next to my keyboard! The font of one of my headers was a slightly different font than the rest of the text. I opened two packages for fear I'd mangled the agent address. I'm talking 3+ hours to get 5 submissions out the door.
But they're done! Now I just have to clean out my office, haul everything to my car, and relax for days and days.
Which brings me to the real important part of this post: my TBR pile has dwindled. I need -- nay crave! -- recommendations! I want to spend my days lolling in a reading induced stupor. It has been too long since I've been able to read without the pressure of my own WIP rattling around my brain.
So, what are y'all reading these days?
Monday, August 20, 2007
A Huge Thanks!
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: One of the things I love about the writing community is how much everyone looks out for each other. Everyone is just so amazingly awesome! I know, I know, that's not the case entirely. Sure, there are scandals and people who try to manufacture scandals and backbiting. I see all that out there and yes, even indulge in reading some of those blogs with a shocked gasp.
But the people I've dealt with have been amazing. Have gone out on a limb when they didn't even have to climb the tree. Who have been there for support and for advice and have answered twenty-million questions, 19,999,990 of those questions being really insignificant and nit-picky.* Who have read my manuscript (again and again), read my query and synopsis (again and again) and really put a lot of effort into giving insightful comments. Who have read my blog and cheered me along the way. Who must have dropped what they were doing at times because their responses cam so quickly. And who fish-slapped me when it was necessary.
I really can't thank y'all enough. Seriously -- I would not have been able to send the full manuscript of WIP out today to an agent who requested it without y'all.
It makes me want to succeed so that I can do you all proud.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I'm waiting for the day I can not only repay those who helped me out, but also pay it forward.
__________
* Yes, I admit to standing in Office Dept today, staring at all the paper options and trying to determine whether there really was a difference between 113 brightness and 115 brightness and does it matter that the 115 is for color stuff and am I going to be able to use 24lb with my printer... Like I've said before: when you have so little control over the outcome of things, you (*ahem* I) cling to those insignificant details that I can control. And I went with 115 brightness and 24lb. You do not even want to know about my envelope dilemmas...
But the people I've dealt with have been amazing. Have gone out on a limb when they didn't even have to climb the tree. Who have been there for support and for advice and have answered twenty-million questions, 19,999,990 of those questions being really insignificant and nit-picky.* Who have read my manuscript (again and again), read my query and synopsis (again and again) and really put a lot of effort into giving insightful comments. Who have read my blog and cheered me along the way. Who must have dropped what they were doing at times because their responses cam so quickly. And who fish-slapped me when it was necessary.
I really can't thank y'all enough. Seriously -- I would not have been able to send the full manuscript of WIP out today to an agent who requested it without y'all.
It makes me want to succeed so that I can do you all proud.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I'm waiting for the day I can not only repay those who helped me out, but also pay it forward.
__________
* Yes, I admit to standing in Office Dept today, staring at all the paper options and trying to determine whether there really was a difference between 113 brightness and 115 brightness and does it matter that the 115 is for color stuff and am I going to be able to use 24lb with my printer... Like I've said before: when you have so little control over the outcome of things, you (*ahem* I) cling to those insignificant details that I can control. And I went with 115 brightness and 24lb. You do not even want to know about my envelope dilemmas...
Friday, August 17, 2007
Let me 'splain. No, there is to much. Let me sum up... (with goals updates!)
I have so much blog fodder that it almost hurts to blow it all at once. But, here goes:
First, I just finished sending out four email queries. Yay! I still have six snail mail queries to send, but those shall wait until Monday. How did this come about since you've been avoiding actually sending queries for months now, you ask?
Well... last weekend when I went to the mountains, I took my draft of WIP on a USB key (my laptop screen broke so I was using JP's laptop). Of course, on day 1 I realized the file on the USB was corrupt. So much for a weekend of working on WIP! So I decided that I'd just man up and make the final changes in hard copy. And as soon as I thought those words, my chest seemed to tighten.
Because once I made those last pesky changes, I was done. I had to send out WIP.
So I spent the rest of the weekend avoiding anything having to do with WIP.** And I realized that I've seriously been dragging my feet for fear of submitting. Which is strange because I have NEVER been afraid of submitting before.
Still I had my plan: I would be submitting by Labor Day. Why Labor Day? Because I quit my job a week ago!*** This means that not only have I had a ton of free time recently, but also that I would have a full 1.5 weeks of time off before starting the new job (the day after Labor Day). What better time to play at being a full time writer and taking my time polishing revisions, sending queries?
Then the wrench. I got a fish-slap email mid-week that basically told me to please please please get on with it. And JP echoed the sentiment. And I thought, "they're right." JP pointed out that while I'd zoomed through revisions 1 and 2, I was seriously dragging feet on this round. He also pointed out how ironic this was seeing as how I'd queried, and sent a partial, of my last book to an agent when it wasn't even close to being written, much less revised. He pointed out that I'd swung too far to the other end of the spectrum.
How true. So I decided I'd send all my queries on Friday (today). I reasoned that I would still have at least a week before any requests came in, and during that time I could finish up the revisions. Especially since the majority of work was typing in changes I'd made on the hard copy.
I set to work. I made notecards of each agent with pertinent information.**** I wrote pithy personalized intro paragraphs for each agent (and again got fish-slapped for letting those hinder my forward movement).
And then, a truly amazing thing happened: I got a request for the full manuscript!
So, in addition to getting the query stuff together, I now had to get cracking on typing in those revisions -- I did not want to keep this agent waiting! Still, I was pretty certain I could get all queries out on Friday.
As always happens, a thing or two came up at the end of the week, something that took top priority (and was my pleasure to do). So I didn't get the synopsis revised quite the way I want it to, and I didn't buy envelopes. For that reason, I'm not *quite* ready to send out to a few agents.
But that's ok. What's an extra day when I get to take the time to make sure I'm totally happy with my submission package? So many people made fun of me for the insane way I fretted over my query letter, but in the end, I love it. It's been tweaked just the way I want it. Sure, no one else will notice the difference between the last draft and the final draft, but I do. And it gives me that little bit of extra confidence.
Hence, I have big goals for this weekend:
PS: Ack, and squeee on starting submissions!!!!!!!!
__________________
* Nevertheless, amazing weekend!
** We even stayed an extra day, deciding on Saturday to ditch work on Monday. How great is that?
*** Yes, I have a new one - going from litigation to trusts & estates, which I've always loved.
**** In case you're curious: name, agency info, contact info, what they want (query, synopsis, pages, etc), and anything helpful to know (who they rep, if they hate rhetorical questions at the beginning of a query, their response time, their blog address, etc.)
First, I just finished sending out four email queries. Yay! I still have six snail mail queries to send, but those shall wait until Monday. How did this come about since you've been avoiding actually sending queries for months now, you ask?
Well... last weekend when I went to the mountains, I took my draft of WIP on a USB key (my laptop screen broke so I was using JP's laptop). Of course, on day 1 I realized the file on the USB was corrupt. So much for a weekend of working on WIP! So I decided that I'd just man up and make the final changes in hard copy. And as soon as I thought those words, my chest seemed to tighten.
Because once I made those last pesky changes, I was done. I had to send out WIP.
So I spent the rest of the weekend avoiding anything having to do with WIP.** And I realized that I've seriously been dragging my feet for fear of submitting. Which is strange because I have NEVER been afraid of submitting before.
Still I had my plan: I would be submitting by Labor Day. Why Labor Day? Because I quit my job a week ago!*** This means that not only have I had a ton of free time recently, but also that I would have a full 1.5 weeks of time off before starting the new job (the day after Labor Day). What better time to play at being a full time writer and taking my time polishing revisions, sending queries?
Then the wrench. I got a fish-slap email mid-week that basically told me to please please please get on with it. And JP echoed the sentiment. And I thought, "they're right." JP pointed out that while I'd zoomed through revisions 1 and 2, I was seriously dragging feet on this round. He also pointed out how ironic this was seeing as how I'd queried, and sent a partial, of my last book to an agent when it wasn't even close to being written, much less revised. He pointed out that I'd swung too far to the other end of the spectrum.
How true. So I decided I'd send all my queries on Friday (today). I reasoned that I would still have at least a week before any requests came in, and during that time I could finish up the revisions. Especially since the majority of work was typing in changes I'd made on the hard copy.
I set to work. I made notecards of each agent with pertinent information.**** I wrote pithy personalized intro paragraphs for each agent (and again got fish-slapped for letting those hinder my forward movement).
And then, a truly amazing thing happened: I got a request for the full manuscript!
So, in addition to getting the query stuff together, I now had to get cracking on typing in those revisions -- I did not want to keep this agent waiting! Still, I was pretty certain I could get all queries out on Friday.
As always happens, a thing or two came up at the end of the week, something that took top priority (and was my pleasure to do). So I didn't get the synopsis revised quite the way I want it to, and I didn't buy envelopes. For that reason, I'm not *quite* ready to send out to a few agents.
But that's ok. What's an extra day when I get to take the time to make sure I'm totally happy with my submission package? So many people made fun of me for the insane way I fretted over my query letter, but in the end, I love it. It's been tweaked just the way I want it. Sure, no one else will notice the difference between the last draft and the final draft, but I do. And it gives me that little bit of extra confidence.
Hence, I have big goals for this weekend:
celebrate the start of submissionsfinish typing in revisions on WIPre-write a scene on WIP; layer in a thing or twosend full of WIP to agent (hurrah!)- finish revising synopsis
obsessively check email since one agent I queried has a very very very fast turn-aroundsend partial to agent who requested on Saturday!- send rest of queries (6 queries left to send)
um... more celebration?!
PS: Ack, and squeee on starting submissions!!!!!!!!
__________________
* Nevertheless, amazing weekend!
** We even stayed an extra day, deciding on Saturday to ditch work on Monday. How great is that?
*** Yes, I have a new one - going from litigation to trusts & estates, which I've always loved.
**** In case you're curious: name, agency info, contact info, what they want (query, synopsis, pages, etc), and anything helpful to know (who they rep, if they hate rhetorical questions at the beginning of a query, their response time, their blog address, etc.)
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
The Query Letter: like an interview - be specific! (updated already!)
There's so much good advice out there about how to write a query letter. I think my favorite has to be Diana's who suggest having a CP write the blurb for you since they have more distance from the minute details of the story. Naturally, this is my favorite advice because it is the one that gets me out of having to struggle through the actual writing of the pitch :) (I'm really only partially kidding, while I did struggle and struggle and struggle to craft a pitch, Diana tossed her thoughts at me and it was dead on point -- cutting through all the details that were just clogging my attempts).
I'm sure most of y'all know all the resources out there available to the query writer. There are author articles on how to craft it, and there are also agents out there who actually post query letters (or pitches/hooks) and critiques. Miss Snark's crapometer, for example. Rachel Vater often does this.* So does Evil Editor, and authors have even held their own hook critiques at FFF (Fangs, Fur & Fey).
I've read through tons of these. Not only to find out what people are writing about, but to discern how agents read pitches (and natch, they all read them differently). One common piece of advice oft repeated is: be specific.
This didn't really hit home until I read this query and critique on agent Nathan Bransford's blog.** As he says, it's a fine query letter. And the comments themselves have lots of great critiques. I give big props to the author who allowed Nathan to use her letter as an example, and I wish her luck. But the biggest thing I realized in reading her query was the lack of details. About her main character, Pat, she writes "As a devastating accident further pulls him into the lives of those around him and Pat makes a shocking decision..." and I'm thinking -- what accident? What shocking decision? The accident and decision are clearly important to the story, why describe them so generically?
Seriously, reading this query letter was like opening my eyes, again. I really wanted to know these details, because without them there was just no way I could make any kind of judgment on the book itself. Imagine the effect on the query if rather than writing "devastating accident" she wrote one of the following:
- he leaves a child in the car when he goes to work on a hot day
- a bridge collapses during rush hour
- a student on the campus (this is set at UNC) opens fire on a classroom
- he forgets to turn off the stove and the house burns down
- he leaves confidential information out on his desk and gets fired, his company investigated by the FBI.
- he leaves the gate to the yard open and a child's dog gets out and is hit by a car.
I mean, what scope of accident are we talking about here? Personal? Community-wide? State-wide? Country-wide? Each of these different options would take the story in immensely different directions. It lets us know how big the conflict is, what the stakes of the story are.
Think of how many books out there can be summarized: a man and woman meet, overcome obstacles and fall in love. This is the most generic plot for a romance novel there is. Would you request pages? Probably not. You have to put in the details - you have to make this book about THIS hero and THIS heroine and THESE obstacles. You have to describe your book in such a way that there is absolutely NO WAY that it will be confused with another plot. Then you'll know you've taken your query about of the generic and into the specific.
That's when an agent can actually consider the merits of your pitch. Does it mean you'll get a request? Nope. But it does mean that at least the agent can judge your actual book, your actual plot, your specific idea and not just reject you because she can't get a handle on what it is you're writing.
Sometimes I think of query letter writing like an interview. You have to go in there, do your best, but show them who you really are. They know what they want and if they say no, it's because they know better than you do what works for them and what doesn't. But the key is that you have to show them who YOU are, not just some cardboard cutout of a interviewee. I know that when I'm interviewing people, those that stand out show me their personality, show me more than just a law student looking for a job. That's what you have to do with a query letter -- get beyond the generic (law student) and get to the specifics (law student who worked at the coroner's office and writes romance novels in her free time).
Since I originally wrote this, Nathan has added another query critique which is very much on point. As part of his crit, he writes:
_______________
* look around March 27, 2007 - that looks to be the end of her slew of hook crits. She also posts recaps of her slush pile and what grabbed her or didn't grab her. Excellent way to learn her tastes if anyone is thinking of querying her!
** Nathan critiques query letters on his blog every now and again. In fact, there's a crit of one up this week.
***UPDATE***
Since I originally wrote this, Nathan has added another query critique which is very much on point. As part of his crit, he writes:
And then the details of the plot and relationships that make up the rest of the query really could have happened anywhere. They aren't infused with the uniqueness of the setting, which they could have been if they were attached to details that convey that uniqueness. If your selling point is your setting, nearly every event you describe should build on that selling point.Exactly! Be specific, show off those details! So for those of you who have successfully written queries, do you think details are important? Will a good premise trump details? What details of your own letters do you think made your hook stand out?
_______________
* look around March 27, 2007 - that looks to be the end of her slew of hook crits. She also posts recaps of her slush pile and what grabbed her or didn't grab her. Excellent way to learn her tastes if anyone is thinking of querying her!
** Nathan critiques query letters on his blog every now and again. In fact, there's a crit of one up this week.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Email submission question(s) and other stuff...
As Erica points out, I mentioned on the Manuscript Mavens blog (in a comment) that I equated querying with interviewing and that I'd written a post on point but just hadn't actually posted said post. Well, you're gonna have to wait until next week until I post it because I still have to put in links and whatnots and right now I'm on a strict deadline: leaving for a long weekend in the mountains in just a little bit. So I'll be blog silent over the weekend (which, really, I guess isn't that different from when I am here and just lazy...).
This weekend will be a writing retreat of sorts for JP and I -- the mountains are always so inspiring! Although, since JP is hooked on Harry Potter, it might be a revision-input weekend for me and a reading weekend for him. Either way, utter relaxation!
So here are my submission question(s) (because we all know I love to sweat the details)... it's about emailing query letters. I'm assuming you cut and paste the query letter into the email and, like a business email, you put all your contact info right after you 'sign' your name. Then I'm assuming you do something like write FIRST FIVE PAGES in all caps and paste those in and then do the same with the SYNOPSIS (I want to put the pages first, I think they're my strength). I'm also assuming that you single space these things, but put in a double space (ie extra blank line) between paragraphs (for everything: query, pages, synopsis).
My first question: is that right? Am I supposed to format the email query differently? What do y'all do?
My second question: fear of gobblety-gook.* What I mean are, those weird symbols that show up in some emails where there should be a quotation mark or something else. How do I avoid this? Cut and paste from plain text? Convert the email to plain text? Don't email from Outlook? My account is gmail - does that add/delete any strange stuff? I'm just nervous here because Miss Snark used to harp on this issue and I'm not sure how to avoid it.
My third question: If they ask for 5 pages, can I just flub and send 5 pages and a few lines? I mean, they won't be able to tell... heck, what if those 5 pages cut off mid-sentence?**
My last question: anything else I should be thinking about with email submissions? Any tips, tricks of the trade, anything you can see that I'm missing? Did I just miss all those articles on the web directly on point?
I know, these are such minor things. And trust me, I really really am not one to overly sweat the small stuff (some sweating is appropriate). But the last thing I need/want is to get dinged for something stupid like sending an email with weird symbols if there was something simple I could have done to get rid of them.
Thanks for the help y'all! I can't wait to hear y'all's thoughts!
______
* Many of you may not know that "gobblety-gook" is actually a legal term such as "make sure that associate does not give you a memo filled with gobblety-gook"
** if that were the case I'd just finish the paragraph. But what about for snail mail submissions - do you just cut off mid-page when the guidelines say to send the first 5 pages? Or do you cut off the start of that dangling paragraph so there's a clean ending?
This weekend will be a writing retreat of sorts for JP and I -- the mountains are always so inspiring! Although, since JP is hooked on Harry Potter, it might be a revision-input weekend for me and a reading weekend for him. Either way, utter relaxation!
So here are my submission question(s) (because we all know I love to sweat the details)... it's about emailing query letters. I'm assuming you cut and paste the query letter into the email and, like a business email, you put all your contact info right after you 'sign' your name. Then I'm assuming you do something like write FIRST FIVE PAGES in all caps and paste those in and then do the same with the SYNOPSIS (I want to put the pages first, I think they're my strength). I'm also assuming that you single space these things, but put in a double space (ie extra blank line) between paragraphs (for everything: query, pages, synopsis).
My first question: is that right? Am I supposed to format the email query differently? What do y'all do?
My second question: fear of gobblety-gook.* What I mean are, those weird symbols that show up in some emails where there should be a quotation mark or something else. How do I avoid this? Cut and paste from plain text? Convert the email to plain text? Don't email from Outlook? My account is gmail - does that add/delete any strange stuff? I'm just nervous here because Miss Snark used to harp on this issue and I'm not sure how to avoid it.
My third question: If they ask for 5 pages, can I just flub and send 5 pages and a few lines? I mean, they won't be able to tell... heck, what if those 5 pages cut off mid-sentence?**
My last question: anything else I should be thinking about with email submissions? Any tips, tricks of the trade, anything you can see that I'm missing? Did I just miss all those articles on the web directly on point?
I know, these are such minor things. And trust me, I really really am not one to overly sweat the small stuff (some sweating is appropriate). But the last thing I need/want is to get dinged for something stupid like sending an email with weird symbols if there was something simple I could have done to get rid of them.
Thanks for the help y'all! I can't wait to hear y'all's thoughts!
______
* Many of you may not know that "gobblety-gook" is actually a legal term such as "make sure that associate does not give you a memo filled with gobblety-gook"
** if that were the case I'd just finish the paragraph. But what about for snail mail submissions - do you just cut off mid-page when the guidelines say to send the first 5 pages? Or do you cut off the start of that dangling paragraph so there's a clean ending?
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Still a blog slacker (Now with Updates!)
The funny thing about being a blog slacker is that I actually have a ton of posts that I've written during breaks in the day and emailed to myself. But I've been too lazy to edit them to put links in. Seriously, how lame is that? At some point I just may give up and present link-free posts. Especially since most of the people and books that I link to in my posts are already in the sidebar.
Anyways, I'm home sick from work today. Supposed to be resting. Over the weekend I had some severe pains in my lower right abdomen (not a good quadrant for pain) and went to the doctor on Monday afternoon (I didn't have a doc in town yet, so getting an appt took some finagling). Well, he ordered a CT scan STAT and off JP and I went to the hospital (which was in the middle of a code red -- not very reassuring) whereupon he read Harry Potter VI and I read the last in Golden Compass Trilogy as I drank my radioactive lemonade and had IV's put in with more radioactive juice. All that fun stuff.
Many hours later I was cleared for appendicitis and other maladies I can barely pronounce. But the doctor still doesn't know what's causing the problem. So here I am at home today, hoping that this rest will help.
Natch my laptop is broken (screen isn't working for some reason and I was too much of a wimp this past weekend to take advantage of tax-free days to buy a new one) but I have a fab external screen to work off of if need be (and I can pilfer JP's laptop when he's at work). Of course, that's the cart before the horse. Right now I'm still revising WIP on paper. I only have about 100 pages left to do.
Hmmmm... home all day, 100 pages left to revise. Coincidence? I think not! Onwards, friends!
_______
Seriously, doesn't two posts in one day at least start the journey to my rise from blogger slackdom?
I'm reporting in to announce that I've finished that round of revisions I mentioned above. Hurrah! Natch, while I thought this would be a "light" revision on paper, it was most definitely not. The pages are rife with red ink. So lots of edits to now type in (boo hiss!). Also, there are a few places where things really need to be changed and moved and those will have to wait for another final final revision (boo hiss). Oh, and I kept forgetting about that stupid dog again so now I have one revision that is dedicated to putting that dog in all the scenes. Sigh.
This does not, however, delay my agent time table. I still feel that I'll be sending out letters in the next few weeks. I have the agent list done, the agents researched, the query letter ready, and the synopsis almost in final draft. I just have to make sure that if I got requests, I'd be able to turn the ms around same day. And I still should have some good time to work on these things coming up...
I'm amazed at how long it took to hammer out those revisions today. Seriously. Time absolutely flew by, but still. A full day of work to get 100 pages revised. And some of those scenes needed no work (others, OTH...).
Oh, and I had to work around this, which was not easy: I know it is an odd angle, but notice that he is on a stack of pages, on the computer, and batting at the pages I'm editing. Helpful little beast, eh? He gets away with a lot because he's cute.
Anyways, yay for reaching today's goal, boo for pushing the finish line farther away, yay for still getting closer to submission time!
Anyways, I'm home sick from work today. Supposed to be resting. Over the weekend I had some severe pains in my lower right abdomen (not a good quadrant for pain) and went to the doctor on Monday afternoon (I didn't have a doc in town yet, so getting an appt took some finagling). Well, he ordered a CT scan STAT and off JP and I went to the hospital (which was in the middle of a code red -- not very reassuring) whereupon he read Harry Potter VI and I read the last in Golden Compass Trilogy as I drank my radioactive lemonade and had IV's put in with more radioactive juice. All that fun stuff.
Many hours later I was cleared for appendicitis and other maladies I can barely pronounce. But the doctor still doesn't know what's causing the problem. So here I am at home today, hoping that this rest will help.
Natch my laptop is broken (screen isn't working for some reason and I was too much of a wimp this past weekend to take advantage of tax-free days to buy a new one) but I have a fab external screen to work off of if need be (and I can pilfer JP's laptop when he's at work). Of course, that's the cart before the horse. Right now I'm still revising WIP on paper. I only have about 100 pages left to do.
Hmmmm... home all day, 100 pages left to revise. Coincidence? I think not! Onwards, friends!
_______
***UPDATE!***
Seriously, doesn't two posts in one day at least start the journey to my rise from blogger slackdom?
I'm reporting in to announce that I've finished that round of revisions I mentioned above. Hurrah! Natch, while I thought this would be a "light" revision on paper, it was most definitely not. The pages are rife with red ink. So lots of edits to now type in (boo hiss!). Also, there are a few places where things really need to be changed and moved and those will have to wait for another final final revision (boo hiss). Oh, and I kept forgetting about that stupid dog again so now I have one revision that is dedicated to putting that dog in all the scenes. Sigh.
This does not, however, delay my agent time table. I still feel that I'll be sending out letters in the next few weeks. I have the agent list done, the agents researched, the query letter ready, and the synopsis almost in final draft. I just have to make sure that if I got requests, I'd be able to turn the ms around same day. And I still should have some good time to work on these things coming up...
I'm amazed at how long it took to hammer out those revisions today. Seriously. Time absolutely flew by, but still. A full day of work to get 100 pages revised. And some of those scenes needed no work (others, OTH...).
Oh, and I had to work around this, which was not easy: I know it is an odd angle, but notice that he is on a stack of pages, on the computer, and batting at the pages I'm editing. Helpful little beast, eh? He gets away with a lot because he's cute.
Anyways, yay for reaching today's goal, boo for pushing the finish line farther away, yay for still getting closer to submission time!
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Everything's comin' up Milhouse!
Usual disclaimer: sorry for not writing more. It's been a fantabulous week around here. First, I bought my first rug off eBay (you would not believe the deals) and it arrived on Thursday. Looks amazing and the cats are still going nuts (they cannot help but shimmy and wallow all over it, see pics to the right - that would be my cat with no shame* in the middle and JP's cat sniffing around the edges). Even now, when I pass the living room and catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye I get a little shimmer of excitement. I feel so adult having a real rug! Natch, now we need adult furniture to go with it...Unfortunately, I can't really talk about the other great news. But just soas y'all aren't thinking I got an agent or something like that, I haven't even begun to submit WIP so hold your horses. My great news has to do with my other professional life. Can't really talk about it, but it does look like I'll have some time in the next few weeks to finish polishing up WIP and submitting it. Woot!
But the best news of all is that my CP and friend Erica just signed with an agent. I cannot express how thrilled and excited I am by this news. First of all, I LOVE LOVE LOVE her book Trevor and the Tooth Fairy. I read it in one night. Literally, I kept saying I had to go to bed and I could not for the life of me put it down. Erica totally knows how to ratchet tension and up consequences. I was constantly amazed how she could continually make life difficult for her characters. I have wanted to share this book far and wide, I know so many people who would love to read it and I can't wait until it sells so everyone can have as much fun reading it as I did. Second of all, Erica is a total inspiration. She's been writing for a while, studying the craft and writing about it, and this year she set a goal of getting an agent.
And boy did she go after that goal. She did her research, polished the letter, and sent it out. She approached it all like a pro, even muscling through setbacks. She has worked so hard to be where she is, and she so so so deserves it. Even though I had nothing to do with her getting to where she is, I'm still so proud.
So it's been a banner week! The next few weeks will be interesting, but I hope that in three weeks I can announce that WIP is officially done and out the door... this is a goal I definitely intend to keep!
How about y'all? What fun, great, exciting news do y'all have to share?
___________
* seriously, you should click on that picture. It gets even worse when you can get a close up of my cat.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
A new winner!
I've drawn a new winner for the Secret Society Girl give-away: DIANE (posted at 3:51). Yay! Shoot me an email at quitclaim [at] gmail.com to claim your prize!
Sorry to not post more, but I'm hitting the road to go meet my new niece :) I promise that this week will be fun filled blogging!
Sorry to not post more, but I'm hitting the road to go meet my new niece :) I promise that this week will be fun filled blogging!
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Real quick...
Hey Kiki - I still haven't heard from you about your book win. Just in case there's something going wrong with my email, drop me a comment here to let me know you're trying to contact me and we'll figure it out. On Friday, if I haven't heard from you I'll redraw another name.
Hope everyone is having a great week!
Hope everyone is having a great week!
Sunday, July 15, 2007
My apologies
I'm sorry for the lack of blogging recently - lots going on in my non-writing life and for some reason my computer is acting up (screen going dark for no reason at all...). Hopefully, with all the Nationals hoopla, y'all haven't noticed my absence.
First order of business: Kiki - I still haven't heard from you! Email me at quitclaim [at] gmail.com (that's quit as in "quit your job" and claim as in "I claim you as my own") to claim (haha) your signed copy of Secret Society Girl. For the rest of y'all waiting on books - sorry for the delay, totally my bad!!
I'm still plugging away on revisions. I find that it's so easy to get overwhelmed and hard to figure out where to start. Right now I have tons of comments in the ms itself, and I don't really know how to move on to the next step. Man, I feel like a broken record on this blog. At least I have my first round list of agents put together.
Natch, today I watched a series of bad horror movies while JP worked. I tried to resist, but couldn't stand being in the other room while a flick dubbed The Reeker was on. Seriously. The Reeker.
Anyone got some good scoop from Nationals?
First order of business: Kiki - I still haven't heard from you! Email me at quitclaim [at] gmail.com (that's quit as in "quit your job" and claim as in "I claim you as my own") to claim (haha) your signed copy of Secret Society Girl. For the rest of y'all waiting on books - sorry for the delay, totally my bad!!
I'm still plugging away on revisions. I find that it's so easy to get overwhelmed and hard to figure out where to start. Right now I have tons of comments in the ms itself, and I don't really know how to move on to the next step. Man, I feel like a broken record on this blog. At least I have my first round list of agents put together.
Natch, today I watched a series of bad horror movies while JP worked. I tried to resist, but couldn't stand being in the other room while a flick dubbed The Reeker was on. Seriously. The Reeker.
Anyone got some good scoop from Nationals?
Monday, July 09, 2007
Nationals Advice: be a friend
As I'm sure y'all know with all the internet chatter these days that RWA (Romance Writers of America) is having their national convention this week in Dallas. Originally, I was signed up to go but then bowed out for various reasons. While I hate to miss the excitement and hanging out with so many writers (and friends), ultimately I'm glad I made the decision I did (I decided to put that money towards a few smaller conferences during the year).
With nationals approaching, there's been tons of great advice about what to do, what not to do, etc etc. I highly recommend Erica's series of posts on point as well as Blogging National - a blog compiling various blogs about nationals.
I had this whole post planned with my own advice, but after thinking about it, I realized I only had one big thought on the topic: be nice and find that writer who looks lost, alone, scared, and go up and introduce yourself, ask her* to join you for lunch or whatever. Think about if that were you in that corner and be that person you'd want to come help you out.**
Last year I knew so few people, and those that I did barely know had really great friends that they only saw during this one conference and already had plans with. I have to say that during that first night I felt very alone and it took everything I had to take myself downstairs and attend the first few events alone, just putting myself out there. And I'm generally not a shy person! I was very lucky that I ran into Kelly R. at the chick lit cocktail hour early on and that she and TARA basically adopted me (and me them, hence why I'm a member -- they're just such cool women!). I also met another aspiring author who knew some people, but not many, and we became fast friends - meeting up for events like the awards ceremony and dinner out.
Everyone at nationals is there because they love to write and are dedicated to it (else they wouldn't be there - nationals can be a huge commitment). So automatically everyone there has something in common, something to talk about and to spark a conversation.
Be the savior of someone's day and be their friend. I'm not saying you gotta be besties, but if you see someone looking tentative around the bar, invite them into your big group. Talk to the person next to you at the workshops or include them in your conversation if they seem interested. Just try to make sure everyone feels included in the weekend, that's my advice :)
___________
* I say her rather than him or her because I've found that the men seem to stick out so much that lots of people easily chat with them -- at least from my observation.
** This is, in fact, my rule for all social gatherings: to make sure no one feels left out.
With nationals approaching, there's been tons of great advice about what to do, what not to do, etc etc. I highly recommend Erica's series of posts on point as well as Blogging National - a blog compiling various blogs about nationals.
I had this whole post planned with my own advice, but after thinking about it, I realized I only had one big thought on the topic: be nice and find that writer who looks lost, alone, scared, and go up and introduce yourself, ask her* to join you for lunch or whatever. Think about if that were you in that corner and be that person you'd want to come help you out.**
Last year I knew so few people, and those that I did barely know had really great friends that they only saw during this one conference and already had plans with. I have to say that during that first night I felt very alone and it took everything I had to take myself downstairs and attend the first few events alone, just putting myself out there. And I'm generally not a shy person! I was very lucky that I ran into Kelly R. at the chick lit cocktail hour early on and that she and TARA basically adopted me (and me them, hence why I'm a member -- they're just such cool women!). I also met another aspiring author who knew some people, but not many, and we became fast friends - meeting up for events like the awards ceremony and dinner out.
Everyone at nationals is there because they love to write and are dedicated to it (else they wouldn't be there - nationals can be a huge commitment). So automatically everyone there has something in common, something to talk about and to spark a conversation.
Be the savior of someone's day and be their friend. I'm not saying you gotta be besties, but if you see someone looking tentative around the bar, invite them into your big group. Talk to the person next to you at the workshops or include them in your conversation if they seem interested. Just try to make sure everyone feels included in the weekend, that's my advice :)
___________
* I say her rather than him or her because I've found that the men seem to stick out so much that lots of people easily chat with them -- at least from my observation.
** This is, in fact, my rule for all social gatherings: to make sure no one feels left out.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Update light...
Hello world! Yes, I am back from my sojourn South. It was not NEARLY long enough. My vacay in a nutshell: sleep, eat, drink, read, sleep, crab, lay about, read, soak in the sun, sit on the dock, crab, sleep, drink, eat, repeat repeat, repeat. I didn't even bother pulling out my computer, didn't think about work or WIP.
So today I'm jumping back in with both feet. I have my "command station" set up, as JP calls it, and am diving into revisions. Right now I'm tranferring and incorporating line edits and comments into one document. Then, I plan to make a list of all global comments and a list of how to fix the issues. Then I'll read back through (on hard copy) making the changes. Then, once those are put back in, I'll hopefully have a final draft! Remember, my goal is to start querying July 23!
I'll write more later. For now I just wanted to check in, post today's goals, and leave you with a picture we took at the beach house last fall during an especially high tide at night under a full moon (it was amazing):
So today I'm jumping back in with both feet. I have my "command station" set up, as JP calls it, and am diving into revisions. Right now I'm tranferring and incorporating line edits and comments into one document. Then, I plan to make a list of all global comments and a list of how to fix the issues. Then I'll read back through (on hard copy) making the changes. Then, once those are put back in, I'll hopefully have a final draft! Remember, my goal is to start querying July 23!
I'll write more later. For now I just wanted to check in, post today's goals, and leave you with a picture we took at the beach house last fall during an especially high tide at night under a full moon (it was amazing):
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Updates and Thanks!
Just wanted to re-announce the winners: Kiki and Heather, send an email to quitclaim [at] gmail.com to claim your books!
As for how my weekend goals went... well, here's the thing. I'm not good with last minute change. And I'd already planned on a weekend of sloth and girlie movies since JP wouldn't be around. I did make the edits on the first section of WIP, though. And then I watched The Holiday (ok), Stomp the Yard (I love any movie with dancing) and Catch and Release (which I actually really really liked). I also mowed the lawn, mangled part of the driveway grass with the new edger (turns out, edging is harder than it looks which is why I was afraid to try it out in the front yard where everyone would see me) and killed lots and lots and lots of weeds. I also read On Chesil Beach. So a full weekend nonetheless.
The big news is that JP's case settled (after his side handed the other a stinging and unexpected quasi-defeat) and so we are off to the beach today. Hurrah!! That means sun and sleep and booze and crabbing and reading and revising WIP and yay yay yay!
My other big news (at least in my life) is that I got the critiques back from Diana and she too loved WIP! And then proceeded to tell me all of the plot points I'd dropped, which I really needed to hear (turns out, if you ignore the plots, they won't go away!). Now I have all the crits back from my beta readers and feel sufficiently removed from WIP so that I can dive back in and really get it good. Right now my goal is to start submitting it July 23 (to avoid post RWA crush).
This is the first time I've ever had something substantial of mine critiqued by someone who isn't living with me.* And as I said before, it's scary to put yourself out there like that. I was relieved that they both loved it, impressed with the depth of their thoughts, and just flat out honored by the amount of effort they put into something that wasn't theirs (karma baby). What's interesting is that there was some overlap between their comments, but by and large they all touched on different aspects of the story. And thankfully, they don't contradict each other! Just thinking about their comments makes me shiver with excitement and say "yes, that is so right and when I make that change I know it will all click into place even more."
So I wanted to send out a big thanks to Diana and Erica for being such great friends, for taking the time to critique my WIP and for all of their hard work in helping out writers everywhere with their blogs, their advice, and their dedication to the community. Y'all rock!
And now I'm off to the beach! See y'all on Sunday or Monday!
______
* I was going to say sleeping with me, but my mother reads this blog.
As for how my weekend goals went... well, here's the thing. I'm not good with last minute change. And I'd already planned on a weekend of sloth and girlie movies since JP wouldn't be around. I did make the edits on the first section of WIP, though. And then I watched The Holiday (ok), Stomp the Yard (I love any movie with dancing) and Catch and Release (which I actually really really liked). I also mowed the lawn, mangled part of the driveway grass with the new edger (turns out, edging is harder than it looks which is why I was afraid to try it out in the front yard where everyone would see me) and killed lots and lots and lots of weeds. I also read On Chesil Beach. So a full weekend nonetheless.
The big news is that JP's case settled (after his side handed the other a stinging and unexpected quasi-defeat) and so we are off to the beach today. Hurrah!! That means sun and sleep and booze and crabbing and reading and revising WIP and yay yay yay!
My other big news (at least in my life) is that I got the critiques back from Diana and she too loved WIP! And then proceeded to tell me all of the plot points I'd dropped, which I really needed to hear (turns out, if you ignore the plots, they won't go away!). Now I have all the crits back from my beta readers and feel sufficiently removed from WIP so that I can dive back in and really get it good. Right now my goal is to start submitting it July 23 (to avoid post RWA crush).
This is the first time I've ever had something substantial of mine critiqued by someone who isn't living with me.* And as I said before, it's scary to put yourself out there like that. I was relieved that they both loved it, impressed with the depth of their thoughts, and just flat out honored by the amount of effort they put into something that wasn't theirs (karma baby). What's interesting is that there was some overlap between their comments, but by and large they all touched on different aspects of the story. And thankfully, they don't contradict each other! Just thinking about their comments makes me shiver with excitement and say "yes, that is so right and when I make that change I know it will all click into place even more."
So I wanted to send out a big thanks to Diana and Erica for being such great friends, for taking the time to critique my WIP and for all of their hard work in helping out writers everywhere with their blogs, their advice, and their dedication to the community. Y'all rock!
And now I'm off to the beach! See y'all on Sunday or Monday!
______
* I was going to say sleeping with me, but my mother reads this blog.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Winners and Weekend Goals!
So sorry for the delay in announcing the winners! I had to wait for my independent name picker (i.e. JP) and he's preparing for a trial and has been MIA recently (yes, in the end it wasn't my trial that kept us from our week at the beach, but his trial. Go figure!).
Anyway, I was so thrilled to have so many entries -- Thanks and welcome to all the new readers!! The two names JP drew from the hat are:
Congratulations Heather and Kiki! The first one to email me at quitclaim [at] gmail.com gets their choice between the books! So email me and I'll arrange to get y'all's books to you!
For those of you who haven't visited my blog a lot (or ever before the contest) let me introduce you to my weekend goals. A while back, as a way to get accountability in my writing, I started to post my weekend goals and then updates on whether I accomplished anything. Well, I've been a bit slack and it's high time I get back into it.*
This morning I got my WIP back from Erica who did a kick-butt critique on it. I mean, she really dug in and made tons of wonderful and spot-on comments (even though I'm sure this was not really the type of book she was expecting!). Thanks Erica!! I'm still all giddy because she wrote in her email that she loves this story. LOVES THIS STORY!! YAY!!! I've gotten really great positive feedback from Diana (who's also muscling her way through WIP right now) but no one other than JP has every actually read the end before. So I was quite tense and scared and nail-bitey fearing that everything fell apart after the first 20k. But Erica loves this story! She even put in an exclamation point in her email :)
Of course, she found some plot problems (less plot problems and more "would they really do this?" stuff), some places where the heroine is too stupid to live, stuff like that. And she was right. But the good news is that it's fixable. It will take work, but I'm excited about it - because she brought up really good points and I know this is going to make WIP better.
So y'all can guess what my goal is for this weekend: start making edits on WIP based on Erica's crits! Yay!
I'm hoping to get the "easy" edits done by Tuesday because there's a good chance that JP's trial will be done then and we can still make it down to the beach. I'm hoping to be able to print out WIP and take it with me for another read (or I may wait for Diana's crits before reading it again -- right now I think I have some good distance and I'm afraid of reading it again before getting her thoughts and then not having distance.**)
Right now, I'm sitting on my couch with the wooden front door open so I can see out the glass door to the front yard. The air has that green tint to it - you know, that odd darkness of a storm creeping into the evening. The cats have been fighting over who gets to look out the door at whatever happens to be hopping, crawling, or darting across our yard. And the cicadas (or chucharras as my mom calls them) are going to town. To me, that is summer: the buzzsaw chirrups of chucharras in that odd slant of dusk.
So, what about y'all? What goals are you working towards?
_______
* y'all may notice I'm late in posting my goals. Naturally, that is because I knew I'd have to do something if I posted them and so I put of posting them so I could put off doing stuff. This is all about procrastination, after all...
** Yes, yes, way overthinking.
Anyway, I was so thrilled to have so many entries -- Thanks and welcome to all the new readers!! The two names JP drew from the hat are:
HEATHER and KIKI
Congratulations Heather and Kiki! The first one to email me at quitclaim [at] gmail.com gets their choice between the books! So email me and I'll arrange to get y'all's books to you!
For those of you who haven't visited my blog a lot (or ever before the contest) let me introduce you to my weekend goals. A while back, as a way to get accountability in my writing, I started to post my weekend goals and then updates on whether I accomplished anything. Well, I've been a bit slack and it's high time I get back into it.*
This morning I got my WIP back from Erica who did a kick-butt critique on it. I mean, she really dug in and made tons of wonderful and spot-on comments (even though I'm sure this was not really the type of book she was expecting!). Thanks Erica!! I'm still all giddy because she wrote in her email that she loves this story. LOVES THIS STORY!! YAY!!! I've gotten really great positive feedback from Diana (who's also muscling her way through WIP right now) but no one other than JP has every actually read the end before. So I was quite tense and scared and nail-bitey fearing that everything fell apart after the first 20k. But Erica loves this story! She even put in an exclamation point in her email :)
Of course, she found some plot problems (less plot problems and more "would they really do this?" stuff), some places where the heroine is too stupid to live, stuff like that. And she was right. But the good news is that it's fixable. It will take work, but I'm excited about it - because she brought up really good points and I know this is going to make WIP better.
So y'all can guess what my goal is for this weekend: start making edits on WIP based on Erica's crits! Yay!
I'm hoping to get the "easy" edits done by Tuesday because there's a good chance that JP's trial will be done then and we can still make it down to the beach. I'm hoping to be able to print out WIP and take it with me for another read (or I may wait for Diana's crits before reading it again -- right now I think I have some good distance and I'm afraid of reading it again before getting her thoughts and then not having distance.**)
Right now, I'm sitting on my couch with the wooden front door open so I can see out the glass door to the front yard. The air has that green tint to it - you know, that odd darkness of a storm creeping into the evening. The cats have been fighting over who gets to look out the door at whatever happens to be hopping, crawling, or darting across our yard. And the cicadas (or chucharras as my mom calls them) are going to town. To me, that is summer: the buzzsaw chirrups of chucharras in that odd slant of dusk.
So, what about y'all? What goals are you working towards?
_______
* y'all may notice I'm late in posting my goals. Naturally, that is because I knew I'd have to do something if I posted them and so I put of posting them so I could put off doing stuff. This is all about procrastination, after all...
** Yes, yes, way overthinking.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Guest Blogging!
Hey all! Today my post is over at the Manuscript Mavens: come say hi and get another chance at free books!
I'll be drawing the names of our own winners this evening, so keep those comments rolling!
I'll be drawing the names of our own winners this evening, so keep those comments rolling!
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