Big News!!!

So... phenomenal news. But I'm not ready to give all the details. There might have been too much champagne to write a coherent blog entry :)

Will sum up tomorrow :)

National Book Award nominees

So my creative writing professor from college, Jim Shepard, was nominated for the National Book Award for his book of stories, Like You'd Understand, Anyway. I think this is awesome because he is a fantastic writer and I'm so happy that now more people will be exposed to his work. I took every class I could from this man and loved them all. My only regret is that I didn't take them more seriously, that I didn't spend more time and effort on them. Of course, I'm sure most students feel this way at some point.

I learned a lot from Prof. Shepard. Looking at WIP, I realize just how much of it I owe to the classes I took at Williams. It's written in the voice I developed there and definitely has elements that would make Prof. Shepard smile. I'm sure I'm not the student he expected to get somewhere with her writing :)

Jim Shepard is a brilliant writer, a phenomenal professor, and I couldn't be happier for him!

Yay for JP!!!

My amazing boyfriend JP has been on a roll recently with the awesome writing news and it gets better and better: he just made his first pro sale!!! He sold his short story "Spamdemonium" to Jim Baen's Universe and will be one of their "Introducing new authors" in the June 2008 issue. This was an acceptance 480 days in the making (you thought waiting to hear back from agents was tough!?). I couldn't be more excited for him and for all of y'all who now get to read more of his awesome writing. While you're waiting for his next story to be published, you can always check out his flash fiction website -- he and his brother trade pitches (story ideas) each week and write, no editing, just writing.

Yay JP, congratulations!!

To write...

This week on the League of Reluctant Adults they're talking about pet peeves and writing eccentricities. It got me thinking about what I need to write, and what my pet peeves are. Um... *thinking thinking thinking*... uh.... I don't know?

Seriously, last year, when I started on WIP I got into a habit of coming home from work, turning on the fire, pouring a glass of red wine, and hammering out 2k words before JP got home from work. It was November when I started, dark by the time I got home from work. This became such a habit that I began to think this was the only way I could write. In fact, one weekend I decided to write outside and I couldn't. There was sun and light and (slight) warmth and what I was writing was dark and scary and cold (it was winter in my ms). I began to think that I couldn't write in any atmosphere except the one I'd been used to.

Then I realized this was not a good thing. I did not want to get in the habit of needing certain things to write. I didn't want it to have to be dark outside, to have to be cold, to have to be alone. To me, that led to superstitions and limitations. Because I'm an attorney (with a new job in a new practice area to boot!) I take my writing time where I can get it. Whether that be early morning, in the mountains, in a hotel room, etc.

So every time I think "oh, I prefer to write without noise" I sometimes challenge myself to write with noise. I think sometimes its easy to find obstacles to writing, and I'm trying my hardest to eliminate as many of those as possible.

That being said, what are my pet peeves and eccentricities? Once I enter my character's head, it's hard to leave. I don't like being interrupted because I'm afraid of loosing the flow of where I am. For me, interruptions are things like cats that can't settle down, people who strike up conversations (I don't mind answering a question or two, but when I'm writing I'm not prepared to set the writing aside to chat). If I have to get up to grab something, leave the room, etc., that's not a big deal. Really the only thing that stops my flow is having to leave my own head -- basically to interact with other people for more than a sentence or two. I'm not the most fun person when I'm in the middle of writing a scene :)

But at the same time, I also know when to put the writing down. When to say "scene's done, writing is over for the night" and resurface into the real world.

What about y'all, what are your writing pet peeves and eccentricities?

At this moment...

Right now I'm in Hotlanta for a work conference. And I'm listening to the house trance version of Sweet Emotions because this is my work computer and I don't have any of my own music on it so I have to go the internet radio route. Interesting. The room actually has an iPod radio thingy but I left my iPod in the can and don't feel like calling for them to bring it around just for that.

Clearly, you can all see that I am, once again as the title of the blog alludes, procrastinating. I have a print out of WIP in front of me. Lots of sticky notes. Colored pens. Highlighters of every shade. Right now I'm taking a break. Really, I should get back to editing. Because I've already used a big portion of the break trolling the internet finding free internet radio (iTunes - who knew?). Of course, after all of that effort I remember that I hate to listen to music while I'm editing. But this room seems so... quiet.

JP has promised to call me before bed to check-in on the status of my edits. I guess if I don't want to disappoint him I should get back to it. Naturally I started on the easy edits first... sigh...

What are y'all up to these days? What makes you procrastinate and what's your favorite form of procrastination?

Back to life

I just love the mountains. Somehow, going there just makes the weekend seem longer and more refreshing. Ahhhh...

Meanwhile, in the blogosphere, there has been some chatting about what sort of response times one can expect from their agent. Kristin started it with her post here. Then Jennifer Jackson and Nephele added their thoughts (and the comments are worth reading on all of those).

I'm never one without thoughts and opinions and I have strong ones on this topic. But right now I can't complain because I have a fantabulous agent who is amazingly responsive :) I'm curious to know what y'all think: what should an author expect from an agent in terms of responsiveness (whether they are repped by that agent or not, though those are very different situations!).

Finally Friday...

This weekend I head to the mountains. Those of you who are regular readers will know that I love the mountains and that they're a great place for writing. This time around, I think I'll sit down with WIP and try to read it. First of all, I haven't read this most recent version. Sure I've read the parts that I was revising before sending subs out to agents, but I've never really just sat down and read it like a reader. Second, a lot of the feedback I've been getting is from people who read the book in one sitting. So I'm curious to see what that experience is like. I'm sure I'll find edits to make as I go through -- I'm not sure I could ever read a book I wrote and not find something to change. But I want to try to not let that editing urge dominate :)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'm constantly impressed by the other writers in this industry. Of course I hear the horror stories of back-stabbing authors, but I've never met one. In all of my dealings with other authors during my agent hunt, everyone has been amazingly helpful and honest. I had people just randomly emailing me to say that they heard I had an offer from their agent and was there anything they could do to help make my decision easier.

So I've met some fabulous people over the past month! Especially three fellow writers who are represented by my agent, Jim McCarthy: Mark Henry, Richelle Mead, and Michelle Rowen. Read their blogs, buy their books -- these are awesome people!! I've been taking a peruse through Michelle's archives on her blog and let me tell you: totally inspirational! Y'all know how much I love archives, how much I love the excitement of them. These rock!

Onward!

One of the best feelings I had finishing WIP (or at least typing "The End") was that I finally knew where the story was going. Sure, I had a lot of revising to do to pull it all together, to smooth out the path my characters took, but I knew where everyone would end up. It was a huge relief to me, suddenly I no longer had to carry everything in my head. I no longer had to walk around with the characters banging against my skull.

Literally, while writing WIP I was like a zombie. I was obsessed. WIP was all I could think about. Poor JP -- we'd be walking or at dinner or just living life and I'd say "what if..." or "what about..." or "what do you think if...."

There was a lot of whingeing too. Thankfully JP is also a writer and understands the constant attention your characters and plot demand!

For the last few months, my mind has been focused on other things. Revisions, agent searching, query letter structure. And that was a different kind of stress, one I could lock away when I had other things to do. I have to admit, it was kinda nice :)

So it's strange to be starting on the next project, the new WIP. Not only was there a little bit of "First WIP came out of nowhere, it was so easy to write!" (which are pretty much all lies and myths that have grown in my head over the past year), but there's also been a lot of "How am I ever going to follow that up? Where do I even start?"

I've known for a while what I want the general plot of New WIP to be, but that doesn't mean much. I still needed a place to start, a place to go. Actual words to put on the paper.

And then the other night the first line popped into my head, much in the same way that the first line to WIP popped into my head. I'm a first line kinda girl -- once I have that it's off to the races.

Now I'm 4k in. Already I can feel the characters starting to crawl in from the corners of my mind. Soon enough, they'll be my constant companions and I'll be back to where I was before -- always thinking about the plot, trying to figure out where everything goes and how it will end.

But for now, I'm just enjoying the excitement of starting something new. Of all the possibilities that come with the beginning of a story -- all the avenues to explore.

The Other Side...

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 :)

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* 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!!

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!

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!

Big News!

Yes, big news coming soon. I should have posted last night, but with the champagne and all... :)

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?

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.

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?

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* 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 :)

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!!

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?

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...