Thoughts on the New Year

Well,

I don't have too many thoughts because I am uber tired. Was up until midnight last night listening to my daughter cry. I felt so bad for her. She got into a mess of her own making, but in her innocence had no idea it would blow up the way it did. This older guy was being really nice to her (he's seventeen my dd is almost fifteen) the ice princess was flattered even though she knows he is going out with a friend of hers, a 20 year old superviser at the rink. (All rink people) Heck, I know he was flirting with her and she flirted back... she just recently discovered she has that power, you know? YOU KNOW! So he asked for her number and she gave it and later that night they text messaged back and forth a bit. I know because I was reading them. (My dd and I are tight) It was totally innocent. (Well, as innocent as it can be for a seventeen year old male, freaking pervs that they are)

And that was the end of it. Or so she thought. Last night she was running the DJ booth at the rink with her 20 year old friend and the friend was ranting about her boyfriend getting text messages from some girl (only she named another girl) The ice princess freaked out because she knew it was her. (How the supervisoer knew and what gave her the idea it was this other little girl, I have no clue) The ice princess called me in a panic because she didn't know what to do. Tell the truth. It's no big deal. HA! It turned out to be a big deal. The girl wasn't mad at ice princess she was mad at her boyfriend and flipped out on him. While ice princess was there. Crying. Sheese. The girl has some issues... why is she dating a seventeen year old in the first place. Poor dd. Being a homeschooled chicky she has never played those flirty games in school and watched the drama unfold. She was like OMG! I didn't mean to cause this!

Sigh. She is so almost fifteen... everything is bigger than the world. And she really doesn't want the truth that this too shall pass and isn't the most important thing EVER! So I am super tired. But she did give me a great idea for my next skate novel! LOL!

Anyway... on to the next year. Thoughts.

This will be the year that I sell! (thinking positive here) I honestly didn't think I would get Jenny Bent as an agent so that prooves that miracles can happen. Now I am thinking about my career as a whole. I want to put out the ice skating series. I want to do some YA time travel books. I want to write a couple of adult books... maybe a few cat books. Then a couple of Single titles books. And some anthologies.

Not all this year though:)

I'll save some for next year!

Is there anybody out there?

I guess the blogging world isn't the only one that slows down at this time of year. I have had a horrid time getting a hold of the experts who promised they would get my email questions back to me before the holidays. ARG! I have three articles due day after tomorrow and as it stands I can only do one today. The rest are waiting for people to get back to me!

And the one I do have all the info for is one I am really dreading. It's a medical and every paragraph will be hellish as I check and recheck all of my facts. Besides, I have a week till my agent gets back and I would really rather work on that. My WIP... cause as soon as the first one sells I want to WOW them by having another fabulous proposal ready to go:)

It is going pretty well... I am having trouble with the transition from the present to the past. I mean, she's freaked out, but I don't want her to spend the whole book scared. Yawn. And I have to introduce and establish a bunch of new characters. It's time for me to head to the End of the Oregon Trail Museum for research! I think I am going to ask one of my CP's to go with. Will be fun.

Festive Festive

What a blast!

Got books!

Am reading!

Merry Christmas!

What a wonderful Christmas Eve with the family. There were many lovely gifts, though less this year than last ... inflation is getting to everyone. But that didn't matter, we all made merry anyway and when the FIL passed out his checks (the gift that keeps on giving) everyone was VERY surprised by the number of 0's on the end. HO HO HO!

Now we must get the teens to head to bed so we can have our sips and wrap gifts together. it's traditional:)

What else is traditional? Well, I really hate tinsel on a Christmas tree so Santa always finished decorating our tree. he would put up the tinsel that is so messy and our kitties eat and also the candy canes our doggies would eat. So even the tree was different when my children come out to open their gifts in the morning. Even as teens, they look forward to it. Because I take my tree down on the 26th, there is less of a chance of our cats geting sick.

Also. Well, there is a very important inanimate object in our family called Scamper. He is a beaver. A very important beaver. Once he spent 3 weeks at the movie theater. Another time he spent two months at our church. Every year he gets a stocking all to his own and even though Scamper's mama is a lovely and poised almost 15-year old girl, she still asked tonight... "Did you remember to get stuff for Scamper's stocking?" Yes, baby we did. This year Scamper is the proud owner of a hershy bar (Which he will share with mama) and a Canadian Quarter.

Merry Christmas to all!

Thanks for the Felicitations!

I had a truly wonderful day. The US Posty was kind and brought me a big fat checky... I was able to buy what I needed for my dh and some festive alcoholic beverages. Gifts for friends... that sort of thing. Very nice.

My son bought me Sk8er Boy by Mari Mancusi. Remember I write YA and need to keep up on the market:) And also a bar of imported dark chocolate. My daughter cleaned the house instead of giving a gift... which as nice a gift as you can get and dh had already taken me to dinner at the macaroni grill. All in all a good day!

Happy Birthday to Me!

YAY for me! I am offically old!

Plan on spending the day shopping and sleeping and eating nummy things!

Tired

How many phrases and words can we think of for I'm tired? You can relate? Yeah. Me too.

I'm bushed
I'm beat
I'm whacked
I'm hammered
I'm exhausted
I'm numb
I'm drowsey
I'm sleepy

Thinking of craft

I have some great CP's. They not only tell me (in detail) what is wrong with my writing but they tell me how to fix it. We just finished having a discussion on deep POVand what it means. Since I have finally decided to go third with my WIP, they told me to go deep. Add sensory elements to fix the reader firmly in the characters head. One of them found a great link to show the difference between deep POV and shallow or limited POV. Check it out... it was a lightbulb going off in my head. I think one of my daily exercises before I begin writing will be to read this:)
I even made my husband read it in case he thought that what I do is ridiculously easy. HA!

One of the things my agent told me was that I am a natural at dialogue. About seven years ago I wrote a YA book. It was pretty bad, but one of the things my writer friend told me was that my dialogue rocked it. It was everything else that needed help. Part of me wonders where I would be if I hadn't stopped writing fiction to working at nonfiction, but on the other hand, I think it was a good training ground. And even my dialogue takes work to make it sound not just natural, but naturally teen-like, as well. Before I send my chapter in for a crit I will go over my dialogue and ask myself, is it young? Does it sparkle? Trust me, my cp's let me know if it's not. I think that's what second and third drafts are for... adding the sparkle.

Sometimes in order to do that(add the sparkle) you need to kill your darlings because sometimes those are the very passages that keep you from thinking of the big thing, the thing that will make the difference between a scene that works and one that doesn't. I think of them as concrete... they keep my mind focused in the mud and won't let it free to entertain other ideas. My prologue was a perfect example. My CP's didn't really like it even though they thought it added a lot of tension to the plot of the book. My agent felt the same way... you may remember me sweating over the prologue last week. In my desperation to come up with something that worked, I threw out all the rest of my preconceived ideas of what it should be. Only in letting it go was I able to come up with something completely new and fresh. Something that sparkled.

So what will the week bring? I dunno. Probably not a sale, though a woman on a list made a sale last week. YA. The market is definetly out there. But I am looking forward to the New Year. After last weeks pitch it was sent to ten interested editors. I think that is one of the perks for having a big name agent. You have editors dropping stuff to listen to them and read what they have to offer. No doubt it is because they offer quality. Hee. I like the sound of that. Someone thinks my stuff is quality! Will keep you updated!

Dilemma

I spent all day Thursday working on my WIP and switching it from third to first. Now I am not so sure it's what I want. I wanted first person past, but my tenses were all over the place and I thought maybe I should just go back to what I know. But... I am not sure. Should I ask my agent and her assistant to read a couple of pages of each and see what they think? After all, this will no doubt be the next thing they rep for me after my series sells. I am so uncertain here.

I really felt her voice strongly when I was finishing up with On the Edge. Then she got shy on me. No, I mean really... her shyness became a part of the book. I even wrote a synopsis for her a couple of months ago and the girl wasn't shy then! But... I really don't plan on having another POV in the story. So maybe I should just go with first person.
I wish I had a clear path with this one.

May have to hit up additional friends with this one.

Be-otch, You Fat!

And how did this happen?

Last year I took off about forty five pounds and was in striking distance of goal weight. But last spring something snapped in me and I started on a seven month eating binge that leaves me 60 pounds overweight and totally demoralized. Honestly, it was about the time I got the regional magazine position, started writing fiction in earnest and got a promotion to contributing editor with a national magazine. At the time I contributed it to stress. But wait. There's a pattern. I started sending out queries and with every request for a partial I ate more. The requests for fulls had me stuffing those candybar cookies (Who the hell thought up those things?) into my mouth at unbelievable rate.

It isn't stress. I am afraid of success. Someone said on her blog the other day that fear of success was really just fear of failure, because the higher you get the harder you fall.

I am far too driven to ever stop trying to succeed, so I eat to mask the fear. How insecure is that, eh?

So I guess I will join the rest of the US and hit the gym in January. I know how to do it, I've done it before. I just don't know how I will find the time, but I think I am gonna have to get a handle on this. After all, I am going to soon have to have the stamina and energy for all those book tours, yes? Not to mention publicity photos. Though I think that my book will be one of those without the author picture!

Snort!

Talk about productive!

Nerves must make me produce, because I wrote an article, sent out a bunch of emails for my next three articles, critiqued three chapters for one of my Cp's and typed up the Christmas letter.

I should get some kind of award!

I also managed to straighten up the house once, though that is kind of moot now. Of course, you don't see me writing that I worked on Colorless today! Now I have a bunch of running around to do.

I also got a partial list of who they sent a copy of the book out too, but I don't think I will share that now. I will just wait till I get an offer:)

Wish I were more interesting and witty...mind is just too full of other things!

And All is Well

Sigh of relief here. They lurved the prologue. Thought it was smashing. They are sending out the manuscript today. Will send me list of editors when they are done.

So excited.

Now rationally I know it may be weeks or even months. The other part of me (the part that was in hiding yesterday) believes editors are going to be fighting for it. It is a series after all, and for all they know I may be the next Meg Cabot. Which I have every intention of becoming, so hey. Am plotting my next career move as we speak. I have many good ideas and am working on my next proposal. Of course, it all depends on this first series selling.

I fell asleep thinking about my next series. Trying to plot it. Figure out how the series is going to be connected. I am thinking it should all be connected by the neighborhood. An odd little neighborhood shaped like a wagon wheel, though from the air it is more like a star. Not sure though. It's a paranormalseries and all Time travel...that much I do know.

I have the first book plotted and I am working on it, though I am going to have to change it from first person to third. One of my Cp's likes it in first, but I am having a horrible time with the tenses, so I'm takin the easy way and going back to third.

So send a little prayer out with my manuscripts. What a wonderful Christmas present that would be, eh?

Insecurities

Oh, Lord do I have em.

Just when I thought I was safe from them, I find myself wondering when my agent is going to realize that she made a mistake.

I got the the rewritten prologue back and they didn't care for it. Said the tone was too different from the book. I could toally see that and rewrote it and sent it back... the tone matches the book and really raises the tension. It is now almost 2:00 their time and I have heard nothing. Nothing. They were supposed to be sending it out today. What if she hates it. What if she decided the book sucks and is trying to figure out away to rescind her decision?

Oh God, that's it, right?

See, I told you I had them.

The pit in my stomach is down to my feet and I am ready to go back to bed and pull the covers over my head.

Productive day

Finished up everything I needed to for the proposal except my bio. I am not sure how to go about that. I relied on my excellent Cp's for help today and as always they came through with some good feedback. I also managed to send out some interviews and organize my articles. Not too bad.

Have to write up two articles tomorrow, get the newsletters printed out and addressed and get megan to the rink for the holiday show. She has a lesson in the morning, and then my son has to work too. Guess who will be doing his school work on Saturday. The life of a mom is amazing.

Speaking of Amazing... my husband is amazing. He called and said that he knew I was under the wire and told me that he would do whatever it took to keep me at the computer so I could work. What a doll! This form a man who used to hate me pecking away!

Boy how things change, eh?

Just a tiny nervous breakdown... really.

I felt just a wee bit overwhelmed last night. Wednesdays are like that for me. So much driving. So little working.

My agent (I still get a little thrill when I say that) my agent, my agent, my agent. Ahem) would like to start sending out submissions next week. That means I have to get the revisions finished, write a synopsis for book two in the series, change the current synopsis to reflect the change and get a bio together.

I also have two articles due, interviews to conduct and an unholy schedule to keep for my children. Oh, and I have to make sure they get their school work done. Not to mention Christmas. Oh, did I mention Christmas? SHHHHH!

The skate club newsletter needs to go out and I have two proposals to get together before the new board meeting.

I have the holiday skate show on Friday, a party afterwards, my RWA Holiday party on Saturday and we have to get the tree on Sunday. (I didn't say the C word!)

OH and did I mention the 50 pounds I have to lose before Atlanta? Sheese how did that happen? I took off forty last year and ran two and a half miles. then I gained fifty and got shinsplints.

Okay, if I don't stop I am going to have another mini nervous breakdown now.

So what does it all mean?

I woke up this morning and wondered what it was all about. Not the headache. I am pretty sure that was due to the margaritas I inbibed at the Mexican restaurant. Family took me out to celebrate and then we listen to and sang, "Beverly Hills, That's where I want to be.e.e, all the way home."

But what does it mean now that I am agented? I have extra input on my book. I have someone who is actively selling the book. That's good! Someone to help me make decisions on my career? I hope so. Someone with more knowledge on my side in the publishing world. That counts for a lot. But honestly, in my day to day life, I still have 14 assignments waiting to be done, another novel to work on, critiquing to do for my Cp's and work to do for the magazine. Do I feel more professional? More... Acknowledged? No, that's not it. Affirmed? Yeah, that's it. I feel like my dream of writing fiction has finally been affirmed. Not that I am more of a writer than I was yesterday... It just helps that three talented agents all told me I was good and wanted the privilege of selling my work. It just does.

So now that I have stopped crying and cheering and doing the happy dance, I guess I will have to get back to it and write.

It's Official

I signed today with Jenny Bent from Trident Media.


Can't even begin to express my joy and thankfulness. Am so excited about the future! She asked for a small change to the beginning of the book, but other than that.... WOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Time keeps on slipping slipping slipping...

Into the future.

Tick tock tick

doo doo do doo

Now can anyone tell me who said that?

And the waiting begins

I can't believe that my career will change in just the next few days. Not sure what is going to happen yet, but I am excited for it to begin. Usually things happen so quickly you don't really have a chance to think about it. It is odd standing upon the precipice watching things happen.

I am glad I will be gone most of the day at the figure skating test for my daughter. It's at our rink so I have to be there. She is nervous. She is afraid of passing because it's a big test and she doesn't know if she is ready for the level she will be going into. (Boy, do I know how that feels) I know she's ready and her coach knows she's ready, but she doesn't. She does know that no matter what, we will love her and it will be okay.

As for me, I do know that I am excited to get on with it. To go to the next level and then the next level. In spite of my own fear that I'm not ready for it. Like my daughter, I know that I am not alone. I have some good friends and six CPs who are totally responsible for me getting to this point.

Right now, I'm happy observing. For the first time in a long time, the waiting isn't driving me nuts.

Have to Chuckle

About how many agents are reading ON THE EDGE this weekend.

I couldn't get anything but the occasional R for the last three months and now I have people wanting fulls left and right. Talk about psychology. One agent wants it and the book suddenly becomes more valuable in the eyes of the others. Think of the gulls on Finding Nemo. Me. me. me. me. me.

Of course, I have only had one offer and I am pretty pleased with her. We'll see.

Must dash.

BIG THINGS

Are afoot.

I got an offer of representation today. Not from the same big unnamed agent who asked for a full yesterday. Someone else. Someone that I already feel a connection with. had a nice conversation with her today. I contacted the agent from yesterday and several others who had fulls. I should know by next week who I am going with. It never rains but it pours, eh? I know, cliche, but apt.

Spent all day on the phone. Have a dozen articles due this month, but they will have to wait. Today is for joy. Drugged and happy joy. Am so excited and happy.

Real thankful too.

big things?

Might be afoot.

We'll see. But I have a much shorter wait time. Suffice it to say tht some big named unamed agent wanted an exclusive full. When I replied that I couldn't give that to her she said fine, just let me know if someone offers representation so I can have a chance and by the way I will let you know by the end of next week.

So if it's a yes. (And Lord, I hope it's a yes) Then I will have to make a hard decision on who I want and let the others know. Of course if she says no, I will cry a bit and go on waiting. But the adreneline was worth it.

Oh, I took off my shirt last night and tweaked my shoulder. How tweaked? Enough to take me to urgent care for painkillers. They have no idea how it happened. Probably pinched a nerve. Welcome to the forties.

LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!