How I Spent My Summer

Clearly, I spent my summer NOT writing.  While this makes me sad and somewhat antsy to get going again, all in good time. 

June was the last time I posted anything here, and that's just downright shameful.  But it is what it is.  The summer months were crazy dealing with health issues, car issues, a crazy social schedule, and then, finally, a lovely beach vacation with my good friend Barra and her family.  Getting away from it all was EXACTLY what I needed.  I came home refreshed and raring to go.  I've started writing a new story, but so far it's really only in the beginning stages.  As in, first chapter is all that's been partially written.  But it's a start.

The past couple weeks I've been working almost every day on my query letter for Where We Fell.  I still need to update my agent list, but I think I'm juuuuuust about ready to start the scary submission process.  I believe in this book.  Everyone who's read it says my writing has come a long way since the first story- and for the record, I still think that one was good, too.  Just needs some more work   (and someday I swear I'll go back to it).  Thanks to some major help from my sister in law- I think we've emailed back and forth at least 79 times now- here's where my query stands right now:

If only Jane had given Connor the five minutes of her time he’d begged for, he wouldn’t be lying unresponsive in a hospital bed, stuck between this world and the next. But Jane had been upset, still raw from the pain he’d caused her, so instead she’d practically shoved him into the car with someone who’d had far too much to drink that night.

 

Feeling desperate and full of guilt, Jane heads for the old well in the Patterson fields. Town legend says that the ghost who haunts its crumbling ruin, Gabby King, grants wishes to a rare few she deems worthy of her help. Jane has always thought the stories of Gabby were just silly fairytales, and even if she did believe them, she isn’t sure she deserves anything at all. Yet if a simple wish can save her boyfriend, she’s willing to try.

 

To her surprise, Gabby not only exists, but wants to give Jane the chance Gabby herself never got with her own first love. She offers to send Jane into the space between; the place, Gabby explains, where souls go to await their destiny on earth. Connor’s soul is there in a perfect world created by his mind, and if Jane can’t convince him to leave he’ll never wake. Gabby warns Jane of the dangers a living soul faces to enter this realm; she must go back when Gabby calls or she will get trapped there herself.

 

However, once in the space between, Jane realizes persuading Connor to leave is not going to be easy. He's angry, resentful, and has brought all the pain from that fateful night with him. But Jane will do anything to bring him back, even if it means trading her life for his.

 

WHERE WE FELL is a contemporary young adult novel with paranormal elements, complete at 75,000 words.

So I ask you, dear loyal readers of this blog, what are your thoughts?  Does this sound like something you would want to read based solely on the query?  Pretend you don't know me.  Seriously.  I will listen to any suggestions at this point.  These are soooo hard to write, and I only have one shot to impress an agent.

I have a lot more to discuss, but I shall save those thoughts for another blog.  Hopefully I'll get back to posting on a semi-regularly basis again here soon.

Thought for the day:  How can you have a beautiful ending without making beautiful mistakes? (this was from a fortune cookie and I just loved it.  I cannot take credit for this thought.)

fatty fat fatty

This weekend, my sister in law and I had a grand ol' time shopping, drinking margaritas and just hanging out together.  The good news?  I scored 7 books on my to-read list at Half Priced Books, my favorite store on the planet.  They practically had to kick us out at closing time.  The bad news?  We did a bit of clothes shopping, too, and while trying a few things on I realized I have to face facts: I've gone up at least a pant size.  This does, however, explain why all my current clothes feel like they're squeezing the freaking life out of me.  Sigh.  What happened to my super fast metabolism??  It seems like with each passing day it slows down more and more.  Getting. Old. Sucks. 

However, I felt so awful about this discovery that it actually kicked me into gear and yesterday, after a loooong day I made up my mind to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather by going on a nice run/walk around my 'hood.  I still can't run consecutively for any great length of time, but I walked fast and kept setting little goals for myself, like "Ok, as soon as I get to this driveway, I'll run all the way down this road til I get to the parked car" and so on.  I ended up being out for just under a half an hour, burned almost 300 calories and went 2.15 miles. 

And I felt so much better when I got home.

I mean, sure, the aches were already setting in by the time I got out of the shower (damn hills in my neighborhood are deadly) but I was just so proud of myself for going out and being active.  Especially when all I wanted to do was curl up on the couch and relax, maybe nap off some of the margaritas from the night before.  Now I just need to keep this mindframe going.  If I can hit the gym at least twice a week, and maybe start up a spinning or zumba class too, I'm confident I can shed a few pounds and tighten back up in just a couple months.  After all, summer is coming!  And with any luck we'll be enjoying the beach in the Outer Banks at the end of July.  I'd prefer to not be forced to wear a muumuu down there, too.

In writing news, I still have those last final pages to write.  But I have been working on my query letter nonstop for the past week, thanks tosome wonderful critiques from the folks at AgentQueryConnect.com.  It's come a long way already from the original version, and I think I'm jussssst about there.  After this latest revision I'll probably take a little time to step back from it so I can view it with fresher eyes later.  But I'm pretty proud of the progress I've made with it.  Getting criticism from people who haven't read the story helps so much, you don't even know.  I'm way too close to it and everything seems important to leave in.  It's nice to get that kick that says "hey dummy, why is this here?"  Ok, they're a bit nicer than that, but you know what I mean.

I'm excited for my Friday off this week, when I plan on writing that damn ending already and hopefully starting revisions, too.  I have so many ideas to implement, it's crazy.  Super excited to share this story again with my readers when it's revised.  Smiley face.

The Return of Three Things Thursday

After a brief hiatus, I'm back with another round of Three Things Thursday.  This week's three things are totally random, mainly because I have a lot going on in the ol' noggin right now.  I can't keep my own thoughts straight long enough to think coherently for longer than five minutes at a stretch.  So, here you go:

1) I recently posted my query up for critique on AgentQueryConnect, the site I used last year where I got a ton of suggestions and comments from some very helpful peeps.  It's been posted for a couple days, and as you'll see here, I've already posted my first revision based on some feedback.  Now I'm just waiting for more.  If you're curious to see how it develops, keep checking back over the next week or so.

2) I'm falling behind a little in the 2012 Goodreads Reading Challenge.  Sad face.  I'm currently 5% behind, or 3 books behind, if I want to get to my goal of reading 75 books for the year.  That's not too bad, but it's still stressing me out a bit.  Even though it's totally just an arbitrary number I assigned to myself, now that I've set it I don't want to end up disappointed. I'm sure I'll catch back up at some point- if we go on vacation, I usually go through at least 3 books during that week.  If you're curious, right now I'm reading the HILARIOUS Jessica Darling series by Megan McCafferty.  I'm on book two, Second Helpings, after flying through book one, Sloppy Firsts, last week.  I needed something a bit more lighthearted after reading several "serious" novels, and this series is perfect. I've laughed out loud several times, including a huge snort yesterday when Jessica talked about her friend tripping this one guy and then kicking him "in the teabags".  Bahhh.

3) So, in early November I decided it would be a good idea to cut bangs.  I've enjoyed them for the past 3 months or so, but now it's time to start the growing out process.  I thought I might start to document said process here, totally stealing the idea from Heather Armstrong of dooce.com, who is also posting random pics of her hair-growing-out process.  We'll call today Day One, even though I technically decided two days ago that it was time to start growing them.  Here's how they look today:

Not the most flattering of pics, but you get the idea.
And that will conclude this Thursday's blog...the weekend is almost here, kids!

MIA

So, my last blog post was what, almost two weeks ago?  Whoopsie.  I skipped my Monday post this week because I really didn't have anything to say about the WIP, because I really didn't even crack open my laptop last week to look at it.  Again, whoopsie.  But that's really because next time I work on it, I hope to actually FINISH the first draft.  So I want a good chunk of time to sit and write, not just an hour here or there.  I am hoping that happens on Sunday.

Last Thursday I went on a spur-of-the-moment day trip to Toronto with my boss.  Over ten hours in the car = lots of chatting time, and I happened to mention that I'm finishing up writing my second novel.  He was all sorts of impressed, to which I wanted to reply, "Dude, you haven't read it.  It might completely suck." But still, it was nice to hear encouraging words.  He asked me if I wanted him to ask around in his Entreprenuer's Group if anyone had any publishing contacts, and I was like, uhh ssssure.  I figured he would forget about it as soon as we were out of the car. 

To my surprise, he did send a request out to his EO group, and someone actually responded, saying they would be more than happy to talk to me, even setting up a date and time to call.  At first I was completely excited, even though of course the WIP is nowhere near being ready to submit yet.  It's still an opportunity to maybe get some insight from the guy and submit later, right?  So I spent some time working on a rough draft of a query- something I hadn't expected to be doing for another month- just so I could really organize my thoughts about what the book is about.  I didn't want to babble like a fool on the phone to the guy.

Well, then I started doing a little research on the company.  I knew the guy is not an agent, but as it turns out he is the CEO of a vanity publishing company (I won't mention the name), and basically they assist "independent authors" (in other words, unagented) in editing, publishing, promoting and marketing their books.  For a fee.  A big fee.  A gigantic, no-way-in-hell-could-I-pay-it kind of fee.  Nor would I even if I could afford it.  It's not necessarily a shady thing, it's just another route for authors to take to get their work published, if they so desire.

But I have faith in this WIP.  I just have a feeling an agent will see the potential in this one.  I know my writing has improved since In My Mind's Eye- this story has more depth and stronger voices. Just more "oomph", as I've mentioned before. So, while I'll still talk to the guy (provided he actually calls for real), I know it won't be the road to publishing for me.  I'd much rather find an agent who believes in my work, instead of paying someone to believe in it.

But hey, at least I got the first draft of my query out of it.  I may post it at a later date, but it's definitely going to go through some critiques first on the AgentQueryConnect website I was on last year.  Aaaaand let the nerves of having complete strangers critique my work begin once again.

Happy September!

Ah, my favorite time of the year is just ahead...hoodies, apple cider, gorgeous colors...I love fall! Today already feels extremely autumn-like, with the gloomy skies and the slight chill in the air. I would much rather be all cozied up at home with my coffee and my laptop, but alas, duty calls.

A glorious 5 day weekend came and went, but at least I got a TON of writing done! And I do mean a ton, especially after I had that slump the week before.

Total Words Written: 4,972
Total Hours Spent Writing: 6.5
Total Word Count Overall: 28,743

Do you see that?? I almost wrote 5,000 words! YAY ME. Ah, if only I had a day or two off every week. Imagine how productive I would be!

So I'm getting closer to the halfway point- my total word count goal will once again be 70-80k, just like with IMME. Where I'm at now feels like halfway, too. I wrote a bit of a turning point last week, and I'm still just as excited to keep going. Everything about this story feels like it's flowing better. I'm sure there will be plenty to clean up in revisions, but overall I'm still feeling really good about it.

As far as IMME...I still haven't sent out any more queries. I know, I know...I should keep plugging away with it. I know it's got potential. I just think my WIP has a lot more. I'm too excited about the new one these days or something.

Anyway, being that it's already Tuesday (!) and I haven't had a chance to sit down and write yet this week (I was a complete and utter waste of space yesterday, which I'm feeling slightly guilty about. I had a little too much fun at a friend's party on Sunday and couldn't do much of anything other than eat greasy food and lay on the couch like a lump), I better keep my goal on the lower side this week. I'm going with 2k, and I'm not even totally sure I'll hit that, quite honestly. I'll just have to hope for a very productive Sunday! But at least I got a bit ahead last week. I feel really, really good about that! Maybe next week I'll give my readers another look at it, too.

Happy Fall!!