Query Contest

To celebrate her move to Nancy Coffey Literary, Suzie Townsend is doing an awesome query contest. Submit your query to her between 9-10 am EDT tomorrow and she'll respond with complete honesty. Totally scary, but so awesome at the same time.

Plus, in the comments she said that if you query her for the contest and she rejects you, you can resubmit your revised query later as a regular query. And if you've queried her before and been rejected, you can still submit to the contest. So cool, right?

You can check out all the details, here. Don't wait. The entry window is really small. Good luck to all of you who enter! :)

WANTED: Stream of Consciousness Recorder

Recorder should be especially accurate in capturing the perfect phrasing for my query letter that runs through my mind right before I fall asleep. I need it as soon as possible, so if you have a Stream of Consciousness Recorder I can borrow or you know where I can get one, please let me know in the comments. ;)

Blog Chain: Mistakes

Seems like I just did one of these... So, it's blog chain time again. Laura started this round. She asked:

Regarding your writing career, what’s the best mistake you’ve ever made and why?

I think, at this point, my best mistake would have to be querying too early. That probably doesn't sound like a very good mistake, but if I hadn't queried when I did, I don't know if I ever would've realized that draft wasn't good enough. And if I hadn't realized that, I never would've started over, and I'd still be trying to perfect a draft that would never be good enough. It had way too many problems. So, yes, the few rejections I got were painful, but one personalized rejection (even though it was only one sentence) was all it took to put me on the path I'm on now and put me just a little closer to being the writer I want to be.

So, what about all of you? What's your best mistake?

Cole is up tomorrow and be sure to head over to Shaun's blog to check out his awesome mistake.

My Baby's in the Drawer. Now What?

I blogged before about putting my first born in a drawer. Horrific thought, right?

Well, I’ve since eaten my words on that one, so maybe I shouldn’t even mention this, but I’ve also heard that until you write a million words, you shouldn’t even try to get published. So does that include everything I’ve written? In my whole life? Or is that just since I decided I’m awesome enough to write a full-length novel that other people will actually want to read?

What do you all think? Should that first novel be put aside as just a practice run? Do you really need to write a million words before you should even consider querying?

Maybe it's True...

Agent Janet Reid* posted this quote on Saturday—almost as if she was reading my mind and knew exactly what I needed to hear, right at that very moment. Spooky.

Don't let the judgment of any editor (or agent) poison the intense, intimate, and necessary relationship that you have with your own work. Keep the two things scrupulously separate. The self that writes may need to be a delicate and protected creature, but the self that submits to magazines (and agents) ought to be as tough as a rhino's butt.

Christian Wiman, editor, Poetry
"Poets & Writers" May/June 2009

The fact that Janet Reid may have mind reading capabilities doesn't do much to dispel the myth that literary agents are superhuman ninjas. Great quote, though. ;)

Also, I will be unplugging for the rest of the week. Have a fabulous Thanksgiving, everyone!

*For the record, I've never queried Janet Reid. She doesn't rep what I write.

NaNos and Partials and Crits, Oh My!

Not much to say about NaNo except that it has turned into NaNoNoWriNoMo. Say that five times fast. :) It's not NaNo's fault the story isn't working. I have too many non-writerly distractions right now. I'll get back to it later, after the craziness that is my life dies down. This is the kind of craziness that goes away, so I'm not just procrastinating. Seriously. Okay, so maybe a teensy bit. Don't tell.

In the good news arena, I got my first partial request this week. I'm trying not to get too worked up about it, but it is my first, off the first batch sent out with my shiny new query, so yeah. I can't help it. I'm totally freaking out. :) Woohoo!

And my friend and uber awesome crit buddy, Tere Kirkland, is in need of fresh beta eyes (preferably, still attached to living people) for her very cool YA Paranormal, EVANGELINE. If you're interested, head on over and give her a holler. You might as well follow while you're over there. Then you can say you were one of the first. :)

Sorry I've been so absent lately. I'm still trying to check in when I can, but my life really is all kinds of crazy right now. I hope you're all doing well, and I'd love to hear about your progress or good news or whatever you'd like to share.

Happy Wednesday! :D

WIP Wednesday - NaNo Complications

It's been a while since I've done one of these.

As many of you know, I've been working on my final round (haha) of revisions for like forever now, but for some reason, I just haven't been able to get motivated to get them done. So, last week I unplugged for NaNo, and suddenly, working on my revisions was very appealing—so appealing that I finally finished them. Woot! I even got a few queries sent out. Forward progress! Yea!

But that meant I didn't start on my NaNo project until Friday, so I'm a little behind on that. Even with as little time as I've spent on it, I've learned a few things about my writing process and why the just sit down and write methods that NaNo requires may not be the best methods for me.

I was surprised to find that I can make myself sit and pound out 3000 words in just a couple of hours and not stress too much about word choice. I've been able to convince myself that things like that can be fixed in revisions. Problem is, I've been writing scenes to get a better feel for my characters and their personalities, and I'm finding that I probably won't be keeping those scenes, or they need to change dramatically to fit the storyline.

Plus, after about 8000 words, I hit a wall. It seemed like everything that was happening was so boring, even though the potential was there for some really intense scenes. And my POV character was coming across as a huge jerk. So, I decided to do a little experiment.

I took one of the scenes that was bothering me and rewrote it from another character's perspective. It worked beautifully, creating so much more tension. Now I've decided to do alternating POV's, switching with each chapter.

So, what? Writer's do that all the time. What's so experimental about that?

Well, first, it's all in first person, so it's been challenging trying to keep the two voices seperate. Second, this other character has a huge secret that is going to be difficult keeping hidden if he's narrating.

So, basically, I've just made things much more complicated for myself when I'm already behind. But I feel like I can move forward again, so maybe it's not so bad. However it turns out, it will be a learning experience, if nothing else.

What about all of you? Any progress or anything to report? Just need to vent? NaNo is my worst nightmare because... ;D

Showing Off Her Nunchuck Skills

A while back, I posted a review of Elana Johnson's awesome new ebook, From the Query to the Call. I found out later that anyone who purchases that ebook, gets a query shredding from the Query Ninja herself, Miss ElanaJ.

So, I took my query that had already been through the wringer with some awesome help from Suzanne Palmieri and great advice over on Beth Revis's blog, and sent it over to Elana. She applied her ninja skills and helped me polish it up. Now it's all shiny and sparkly. That's what ninjas do, right? Make things shiny and sparkly? ;D

Head on over and check it out, if you'd like. I'd love to hear what you think.

Happy Tuesday!!

BTW: I know it's nunchaku, not nunchuck. My reasoning is long and boring. I'll spare you.

Feeling Lucky--Good Thing or Bad Thing?

Guess what?

I won another contest. Over on Christine Fonseca's blog. I know. Totally crazy. Seriously, I never win anything, ever. So, I want to know what this all means. I'm not normally a superstitious person, but now I'm wondering if this is a sign. :)

Okay, only kind of, but something weird is going on. My husband says it means I should start sending out queries. I still have about 100 pages left on my revisions. I know I said something a while back about a goal, but sometimes the real life things must take precedence over the make-believe things. So sad.

This last revision is just a final once over, checking punctuation and making sure all my changes flow. Although, I did completely rewrite the beginning of chapter two last night. I'm starting to think if I don't get this baby out there, I'm never going to be able to cut the apron strings. There will always be something needing improvement. Always.

It's so close to ready. I'm just hoping my luck will hold for another few days. If it's not gone already. ;)

So, what do you all think? Do you have periods of time when you feel luckier than others? How much do you think luck plays into querying and getting requests and offers for representation? Or do you think it's all just a matter of skill? You know, like bo staff skills and ninja skills. ;D

Book Review: From the Query to the Call

I know many of you are already readers and followers of Elana Johnson’s blog. If you’re not, why aren’t you? Go follow her now! Good stuff over there. Anyway, if you haven’t heard, she has a new ebook, From the Query to the Call, coming out next Monday, September 14th.

I’m very excited to be a Sneak Peek Reviewer! Now, I know I’ve talked about other books I’ve enjoyed, but never in an official book review. So please be nice, and keep your hysterical laughter to yourselves. ;) And please don’t let my inability to craft the most eloquent review ever, negatively affect your opinion of Elana’s ebook, because it is made of awesome!

When I first started thinking about querying, I spent hours online, researching how to craft my query letter and all the steps involved in getting published. There’s a lot of information out there, and just gathering a little here and little there, it was a couple of months before I felt like I had any idea what should be included. Even then, I was very overwhelmed.

If I could go back in time (though, using time travel to change the past is totally illogical for the perfectly sane reasons noted here, see #3), I would tell my fledgling writer self to buy this ebook and save myself a lot of time and a lot of headaches. Elana took all the information floating around out there in cyberspace, filtered out all the extraneous, contradictory, confusing tidbits and packed all the good stuff into a neat, concise little package.

In Elana’s always a pleasure to read, laid back style, she’s mapped out all the steps to crafting the most awesome query letter ever and everything leading up to that oh-so-exciting and totally nerve-wracking call from an agent. She’s also included examples and breakdowns of several successful queries and interviews with agented authors about their experiences in getting an agent. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one terrified by just the idea of that phone call.

It’s a quick read, only 63 pages, which is great, because then you can get back to the most important thing we do as writers--writing. (Or blogging. ;D) And you’ll walk away feeling totally prepared, maybe even excited to write your query letter. I know we all want every advantage and weapon available in this daunting process. So, if you're ready to submit your work to agents, I highly recommend adding From the Query to the Call to your arsenal.

For more information, check out the official website or Facebook page for From the Query to the Call.

WIP Wednesday

I know the title of this post implies I actually made progress this week, but I was very busy making badges, and um, um... Crap. Okay, okay. So, I've been a major procrastinator this week. It's been a bit frustrating, but I think I've figured out my problem. I'm going to have to sit down and write an actual outline for this one, hence, my procrastination.

I'm sure I could do an outline, but my desire to actually do it, is minimal, dropping it down on my priority list. I'm going to let that one simmer at the back of my mind for a while and focus on my first novel.

I sat down and wrote the first words of that one on Sept. 15th of last year. At that point, I was a tiny bit delusional about the publishing process, and I thought for sure I'd be published by now and making lots of money. Pretty funny, huh? Go ahead. I'll wait until the hysterical laughter subsides.

Are you done now, so I can continue? Anyway. So, the upcoming Sept. 15th marks the one year anniversary of me starting this whole process. Yes, I know. It was very smart of me to figure that out, so I could point it out to all of you. I'm feeling brilliant this morning. ;)

The point of this post is more to make me accountable than anything else, because I've set a goal. And if I don't share it with someone besides my husband, my chances of accomplishing it reduce significantly. My goal is to be done with the final round of revisions on Embrol and have a big batch of queries sent out by Sept. 15th. It will be difficult, but I don't think it's totally unreasonable.

So, how's it going for all of you? Making progress? Any goals you want to share? Any confessions about your delusions regarding publishing? :D

Just Grow Up and Get Out, Already!

I vaguely remember posting something a while back about my first novel being ready to query. Seems so long ago…

My query was awful, resulting in several rejections. I revamped the query with the help of my awesome bloggy friend, Suzanne, and several suggestions from a critique session on Beth Revis’s blog. It still needs a little tweaking, but I think it’s pretty close. I’m itching to test it out, but I’ve hit another speed bump.

I rewrote my ending a couple of months ago and sent it off to one of my crit buddies. She sent it back with lots of very helpful red marks, prompting me to look at the rest with a more critical eye.
I hadn’t looked at the ms in almost two months, and we all know how much things can change in that amount of time. When I started going over it again, I realized it could still use some work. So, I think I’ve decided to do one last round of revisions. It makes me kind of grouchy every time I think about it. It’s never ending! Never. Ending.

So, I’m wondering. How do you know when you’re done and ready to submit? When is it time to say, I’ve done all I can, and set that baby free?

Perspective

Apparently, I was due for a good, strong dose of perspective. I’ve been really stressed and whiny lately. I won’t go into detail, but we own our own business and with the wonderful economy, well, you know. Same crap a lot of people are going through right now. That stress seems awfully trivial after this past weekend.

As some of you already know, my 9-year-old daughter was in the hospital over the weekend with appendicitis. We were very blessed to catch it early, and it was removed without any complications. We only had to stay in the hospital two days and two nights, and she’ll be back to school tomorrow. It could have been so much worse.

It really helped me see my life from a much different angle. I’ll take financial stress any day over having one of my kids in the hospital. I am so grateful my kids are healthy. I have the utmost respect for parents who have kids who spend months and months in the hospital fighting terrible illnesses. I can’t imagine enduring that. I’m exhausted after only a couple of days.

A few things I learned (or was reminded of) this weekend:

*I have the BEST sisters in the world. They, along with my awesome friend Tori, stepped in and took my other two kids so my daughter could have both Mom and Dad at the hospital with her.

*I really, really like my bed. Really. =)

*I can look at blogs on my cell phone. I’ve had internet on my phone for over a year, but I’ve never taken the time to really see what it was capable of. Had some spare time this weekend and a whole new world of cell phone usage has opened up for me. Not sure if that’s a good thing. :-S

*Staying in the hospital is a lot like querying. There’s waiting for test results, wondering if the news will be good or bad. Waiting for the surgeon to come tell you what the plan of action is. Waiting for the surgery to be done, hoping it will all go perfectly. Waiting for the surgeon to release you from the hospital. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. And then more waiting. :D

Thank you, everyone, for your supportive comments and emails. You guys are the best!

So, anyone else have any enlightening or harrowing experiences recently? Any good news you want to share? I’m totally up for some good news. :D

Ack! Saturday? There's no blogging on Saturday!

Ha! Yeah, right. The addiction must be fed seven days a week. I'm not in denial, though I probably should be.

I know I don't usually post on the weekend, but I wanted to let you all know that my query and first 250 words are up for critique over on Beth Revis's blog. Pop over and check it out, if you'd like. Please don't feel like you have to comment, but all thoughts will be much appreciated. :D

For those of you who've read my opening before, I'm seriously considering chopping the first scene, so what's posted may not be what you except. And it's likely I'll change it again. As often as I rewrite the stupid thing, you'd think I was addicted to that too. I'm not. Seriously. Oh, no. Wait. What if I am? Okay. Enough rambling. ;)

Hope you're all having a fantabulous weekend!

*Some good news I received as I was writing this: Abby, You've Earned $5.00 in Borders Bucks! Woohoo! Looks like we're going to the bookstore today. :D

Warm Fuzzy Preserves - Anybody Know Where I Can Buy Some?

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to store some confidence and good feelings for all the crappy days? When you're feeling down, just pop open a jar of warm fuzzy preserves and you're good to go? It's amazing how fleeting those feelings can be.

Several rejections on my query, combined with a whole slew of other things that have been weighing down on me lately, got me thinking about how quickly we can lose the confidence that’s so necessary in this business. It amazes me how one day I can read something I’ve written and think it’s total crap, but go back to it a week later and think it’s brilliant. And, of course, that works in the reverse as well, probably more frequently. Unfortunately.

It’s difficult to maintain confidence in your own work, especially with the abundance of exceptional work already out there. I often find myself comparing my work to others, even though there should be no comparison. Other than the technical aspect, my writing should be my own and whatever so-n-so does over there, should have no bearing on whether my work is good enough. Yet, even knowing that, I tend to hold myself to unreasonable standards, which only contribute to those ‘am I good enough’ feelings.

Negativity is effortless for me. I wish I could be the kind of person that always looks on the bright side of things. I try, I really do, but some days, the dark, self-destructive thoughts just overpower everything else. Fortunately, I’m blessed to have a loving and supportive family and an undeniable faith in something greater than myself that give me a safe place to fall when I’m feeling the worst. And being able to express myself creatively has provided me with an outlet for those dark thoughts that would otherwise stay locked inside.

Whether it’s through drawing, painting, or writing, the act of creating something has a way of pulling me out of those dark places. Maybe it’s the pride of knowing I made something beautiful, in my mind at least. Maybe it’s that little feeling of power that I’m capable of creation. Whatever it is, creativity is my most effective tool for bringing me back to reality, even if it means I’m totally immersed in some imaginary world.

And of course, I couldn’t do it without all the amazing friends I’ve made through blogging. You guys are all so supportive and totally awesome!

So, do you ever have those days where you feel like nothing you ever do will be good enough? And what do you do to combat it? Is losing yourself in your work enough or do you find you have to step away and come back when you feel like you can have a more objective perspective?

Scary Mary

Just have to say that rejections suck. I guess they’re responding at least. Can’t complain too much about that.

So, all this rejection has got me analyzing the heck out of my query, and while I was procrastinating working so hard on it, I came across this recut trailer for Mary Poppins. It seemed like the perfect example of how emphasizing different parts can make it seem like a completely different story. Maybe I’m not emphasizing the right parts. I don’t know. I’m trying to be patient until I get a few more responses. We’ll see how that works out. :)

Enjoy!