Brimfire

Agent Ventage over at Bookends Blog

Thu, 15 May 2008 00:54:11 GMT

Jessica Faust over at Bookends LLC has allowed writers to "vent" in this post. Yowsers! Some of those comments are quite frightening. Mainly, the ones from people who have agents and aren't happy. Those comments fill me with all sorts of terror. I think a lot of us writers look at the getting-an-agent thing as the big breakthrough, the beginning of our careers. To read that it sometimes is not.... Well, like I said, it's frightening.

This is such an odd career. Can I call it a career if I'm not agented/editored/published??? I think Jessica is brave for allowing writers to rant. I didn't comment. I accept that it's not easy to make it in this industry. There's a lot of competition out there and the stars have to align just right for things to work out sometimes, but in the end, I believe it will all be worth it. And I can't imagine not writing. Gosh, what would I do with myself? I might have to take up a real hobby like, um, stamp collecting.

(P.S. I actually did start a stamp collection when I was a kid. I had thousands upon thousands of the commonest stamps ever created.)

Hallelujah!

Sun, 11 May 2008 22:50:59 GMT

My MC has finally left work. It seemed like she was there FOREVER, but really it was only a chapter. Maybe a longish chapter, but I can streamline it later. Seriously, though, I started to hate that brick building. Trey suggested I blow it up. Don't know how that fits in with the plot, but I'm seriously considering it. Ooh, I can just imagine the satisfaction as the dust settles....

Writing

Sat, 03 May 2008 22:04:44 GMT

Well, hmmm. I just discovered a new character in my urban fantasy. She came out of nowhere, but will be super important in later books.

Yes, I'm plotting later books as I write the first one. The first one will stand on it's own, but if I have the opportunity, I'd like this to be a six book series.

Why six books? It just feels right, and I don't want to keep writing book after book after book just because the first few do well. I think too many series fall apart when the writers do this. One of my very favorite series has lost me. I couldn't put down the first five books. Seriously, I was reading them in parking lots, hiding behind my desk at work, and staying up until the wee hours of the night to finish them. They were my absolute favorite, but this last book, gosh, I don't know what happened. It's still sitting halfway read on my night stand, and I'm really not in a hurry to pick it up again.

This makes me sad. But it also makes me not want to have an open ended series with my book. I'm inserting little things that I can develop in the future, and I know the major conflict in (I think) each of the books. There will definitely be an ending to my series. If I get to publish it.

Anyway. Yeah, a new character just introduced herself to me. She's a bad guy, I think, but I also think she might be redeemable? I'm not sure. I'm still getting to know her. Even though she's really not in book one. At least, I don't think she'll be. Writing is a really weird experience sometimes.

But at least something clicked today. I haven't been writing much at all. I've got to get back into it. I was doing so well about a month ago, but I lost the momentum. I'm going to be productive this weekend. I need to finish another book, get it polished, and start querying again. I still have five partials out on my YA book.  It's strange, but I don't get all excited anymore when I get a request for a partial. I think I'm surprised more than anything else. Guess I've learned not to get my hopes up.

But, anyway, here's a cool Zokutou Word Meter for my progress on ATOF.

31,000 / 100,000
(31.0%)

And here's too hoping it grows quickly!

Agh. I guess I haven't learned not to get my hopes up. :-)

Tag!

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 03:34:13 GMT

Oooh, I've been tagged. It's my first time and I'm all giddy. :-)

meredith_wood tagged me in the nearest book Meme.

Here are the rules, peeps.

1. Pick up the nearest book. Yes, the nearest one. Don't cheat.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and post a comment to meredith_woodblog (your tagees will post to mine, etc.) once you've posted your three sentences.

The book nearest me is Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card. I actually haven't read this book but Trey has. I think I should give it a try when I'm caught up on my reading. (Like that'll ever happen!)

Here's my three sentences. (Okay. They're not my sentences; they're OSC's.)

"You will never find a document written by him that is not meant to be read."
"Would it make a difference if he was writing it under another identity? Which he thinks we don't know about?"

So, now my problem is finding five other people who haven't already been tagged. Hmmmm. Let's see.

dallastwin
kas2662
jackieduv
jenbarbiedoll11quiet_rebel

Prologues

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:23:09 GMT

To those of you who read Stephanie Meyer's Twilight: Did you like the prologue in her book? Do you think it was really a prologue? I liked it, but I think it was more an excerpt of the crisis in the book than it was an actual prologue. It definitely hooked me, though, and made me want to know how Bella got into that situation.

And today I read the prologue from an upcoming book called Evernight by Claudia Gray. She's repped by Diana Fox, who was mentioned on the Swivet today. The book sounds awesome and I can't wait to buy it, but she's done the same thing with her prologue: pulled out a pivotal scene that (I assume) comes from the end of the book. It has totally hooked me as well, and I need to know what happens before and after it.

So, this has me wondering: did Meyer and Gray send their original manuscripts out with this prologue or was this something their agents or editors did later to have that big hook in the beginning of their novels? I'm wondering if I should try this excerpt/prologue strategy on my books when querying agents. I guess it couldn't hurt. Hmmm. I think I'll go back to my query list. I've been putting off querying some agents who only take snail mail queries...

I still think the prologues of these two books are excerpts, though. But hey, if it works, it works. :-)

The Power of the Blog

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:46:50 GMT

I think I found another writer who's so good, he makes me think I can never be successful. His writing blows me out of the water. (Look, I have to use stupid cliches when he'd probably come up with some elaborate analogy that's totally deep and totally awesome.) The sad thing is, I haven't even read his books; I've only read his blog. If you haven't read kris_reisz take a look at some of his posts. In his latest one, he's basically saying "Hey, I bought a guitar." But the post is so much more than that. I feel like I know his old music teacher, like she might have been a cousin to one of my high school teachers. He can take a simple little story and make it deep and real. I'm so incredibly envious of his skills.

The only heartening thing when I compare my writing to his is that we have completely different styles. I don't know how to describe mine. I wish I could. But it's like describing voice in a person's writing - you know it when you see it but you can't explain what it is.

Anyway, I have to buy his books because I've read his blog. I guess that's a power of blogging. I think I'm going to have to Amazon the books, though. I've tried to find them at two separate Barnes and Nobles, but couldn't. I hate waiting for the mail to come.

Sweet!

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:04:56 GMT

Remember these posts from January? (They're friends-locked, so you might not be able to see them.) Well, no longer do I have to wait an hour and a half to print a book. Trey bought me a laser printer. <everyone cheers> It's wireless and awesome. I just printed fifty pages in less than three minutes. Let's test my math skills:

If my fancy-smancy new printer prints 23 pages per minute and my book is 340 pages long, how long will it take to print my complete manuscript?

340/23 = 14.782608..... minutes. That definitely beats an hour and a half.

I think I should petition to have this question added to the TAKS test (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills). :-)

-----------------------

We're supposed to have a soccer game tonight. It's a makeup from a "rainout" day, and I'm really hoping enough people show. I'm horrible at soccer, but I really, really enjoy it and it's great excercise. My excuse for my lack of skills is that I never played before last year, but I really hate being the worse person on the team. I mean, I'm not absolutely horrible, but my teammates so can't depend on me when they pass the ball. I'm kind of scared of the ball anyway. I'm much rather just run around and get in the way of the other team. Actually, that just about sums up my whole soccer strategy right there.

I finished the book!

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 02:30:16 GMT

Again. It's my YA book, the one out on submission. And let's face it, my previous ending sucked. There's really no other way to put it. A bunch of stuff happened all at once and then...nothing. Nothing but the words The End.

I thought I'd finished my new ending a week ago, but decided I needed to add another chapter from my protags POV to get some sort of finality to her story. Overall, I think the ending is much, much, much stronger than the first one. Hopefully, it's strong enough. I hate that I can't make this book completely stand on it's own. It's most definitely a trilogy. I don't know if that hurts or helps my chances of getting an agent/publisher.

But the even better news today is that I was productive writing (over 1,500 words today). This last week had been so slow. I think that might have had to do with work, but that should be better now.

I'm going to try to be productive on the urban fantasy. I'd still like to get it completed by the end of June. Wish me luck!

A couple of polls

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:12:17 GMT

And they're about my favorite Tuesday subject: American Idol.

Poll #1: Do you think Jason Castro is a dope head? Yes or No.

(Trey swears he is, but I think he's just cute. And relaxed. Nothing wrong with being relaxed.)

Poll #2: Do you think Jason Castro is Willow's brother? Yes or No.

(And by Willow, I mean Buffy's Willow. I think yes, because if you watch their videos side by side, they have the exact same mannerisms. I swear.)

--------------------------

Nothing new on the writing front, other than I've switched back to working on my urban fantasy. I just found out about something *really bad* that happens. It's great. :-)

The return of The NKOTB!

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 21:33:30 GMT

Picked this up from Jenny Rappaport The New Kids on the Block are reuniting after twenty years.

I admit it. I had a Jordan doll, an NKOTB pillow, several humongous buttons that teachers didn't confiscate at school. I even went to one of their concerts. It was my first. I think it was right before Donnie tried to burn down the hotel room in Houston? They split up soon after that. I was very sad.

Don't know how I feel about this reunion. I think I just want to laugh.

I Heart David Cook

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 03:26:49 GMT

Actually, I heart my husband more because he sent me flowers from London today. Very pretty flowers. It was a total surprise. He comes home Saturday, so that's great. There might be a chance that he has to go back for a few weeks this summer, and if so, I'm sooo going with him. Maybe this time we'll get to see some other parts of Europe - I'd like to go back to Germany. Plus, I have this totally cool book idea that I want set in a big city over there. I need to do research. :-)

Anyway, David Cook is awesome. I actually downloaded his Billie Jean song and another one from iTunes. Today, he sang a Dolly Parton (Pardon?) song about a Sparrow. I was very skeptical, but it rocked! And it was his own arrangement. Very talented guy.

I've been having trouble deciding on just who I wanted to win in this bunch of contestants, but it's definitely David Cook now. I love his voice and his style.

On the writing front, I've only written a few hundred words on my sci-fi book the past five days or so, but most of those words came today. I posted the complete first chapter on my sporadically updated website, so if you're curious, you can read it there. I like it.

Things I learned over Spring Break

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:01:43 GMT

(Spring Break was actually over a week ago)

I dedicated my entire Spring Break to writing.  I'd planned to spend all of it working on ATOF. I did work on it most of the time, I really did, but this darn sci-fi book kept screaming at me to write it.  I gave in on Friday and Saturday and Sunday, and it's all I've been thinking about this week during work. It's just sooooo good. I can't wait to finish it because I can't wait to let other people read it. That's kind of a different feeling for me. Usually I'm nervous as hell to let others see my work, but this baby rocks. And it's fun. Not that the urban fantasy isn't fun, too. I still love it and want to work on it, but sometimes I get worried about it being sellable since it has a vamp for the main character. I *think* my story is different and original enough - my MC's malicious Fey roommate gives it an interesting twist - but I'm sure everyone who has ever written a vampire book thinks this too. So, I guess we'll see eventually.

Anyway, this post was supposed to be about what I learned over Spring Break.  Here it goes.

1. I need a schedule. Sitting in front of the computer all day trying to write isn't going to work for me. I need to do something like wake up, write for two hours, exercise, write, lunch, write, then chill in the evenings with Trey. My problem is that I enjoy writing, even when I'm not getting much of it done.  I've got to discipline myself to stop and get other things accomplished.

2. I need realistic expectations. I had set myself a goal of getting halfway finished with ATOF, which meant I needed to write 25,000 words in a week. That so didn't happen. I wrote only about 3,600 words. In my defense, I did delete a lot of crap, so I really probably wrote closer to 5-6,000, but obviously fell a bit short of my goal.  So, I'm readjusting. I'm going to try to write 10,000 words a week. That's how many I wrote on the sci-fi book after I decided to let myself work on it.

3. Well, I'm sure I learned more, but can't remember.

I'm a bit behind in my word count this week, so I'm going to try to make up some lost ground today. Off to write.......

Mondegreens and American Idol

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 02:07:29 GMT

Bear with me. This all relates.

I had a seminar to go to today on What's New In Children's Literature. Basically, it's someone booktalking the best books (in her opinion) for K-6 published in the last year. It was pretty entertaining. I'm not going to go into details, but I learned a new word: mondegreen. A mondegreen is when you misunderstand something, like lyrics to a song. I'm sooooo glad I learned this word because I'm ALWAYS misunderstanding (mondegreening? :-)   lyrics. The best example I have of this is an oldish country song by Mark Willis (watch video here: http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/--2158439).

Now, I thought this was just the sweetest song. It's about how much this man loves this woman. Here's the beginning lyrics:
-----------------------
All I am, all I'll be
Everything in this world, all that I'll ever need
Is in your eyes, shining at me
When you smile I can feel all my passion unfolding

Your hand brushes mine
And a thousand sensations seduce me 'cause I
I do, share a shoe
-----------------------

So I'm listening to this song and I'm thinking, damn, he really must love her to be willing to share shoes with her.

I think on that. Then I start thinking maybe he's being symbolic or something. Maybe he means he's like, walking in her shoes, sharing experiences, ya know, something deep like that. So, this is how I sang the song for YEARS.  And. Around. Other. People. Why the heck didn't somebody correct me??? It wasn't until much later when I heard the 98 degrees version of the song (the country version is better, IMO) that I finally understood the lyrics were "I do, cherish you" not "I do, share a shoe". Gosh, did my face turn red.

So now, allow me to segue into American Idol. This has got to be the best batch of finalists in the history of the show. There are several contestants that I don't want to see kicked off EVER. I loved David Cook tonight. God, that song was HOT. I might even break down and download it. Plus, I'm grateful for David clarifying some lyrics for me. This one isn't quite as bad as the share a shoe one, but I've heard this song a BILLION times. I should have figured it out before tonight.  This is how I've heard it:

Billie jean is at my door
Shes just a girl who claims that I am the one
But the kid is not my son
She says I am the one, but the kid is not my son

Did you recognize the mondegreen? It's supposed to be "Billie jean is not my lover." Both versions make sense, but I think I like the real way better.

So, my question for you: do you have any mondegreens you'd like to share?

P.S. I just rewatched David Cook's performance. DAMN, he's good.

Fine. I'm going to do it. I'm going to actually vote tonight....

Scary fun.

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:39:35 GMT

So I took Trey to the airport yesterday. He's off to London for two weeks, so I'm sad (and incredibly jealous). But for Christmas last year, his mom bought us two web cams so we could talk to and see each other if he had to travel again. We played with these today, and they worked really well, but my cam kept having this freaky blog image thing show up.

Have you ever seen one of those movies where the director inserts random, split second shots into the footage to freak out the viewer??? I HATE these movies because they really do freak me out. Trey forced me and some friends to watch the sci-fi movie Sunshine a couple of months ago, and it has several of those flashes inserted in there. (Remembering it, I keep seeing a scary clown face, but I think it might have just been confetti with people celebrating.) Anyway, this blob that kept appearing on my image was super frightening, and it wasn't happening to Trey. It only stayed up for a few seconds most of the time, and I couldn't tell what it was. Then it started to take shape, and I swear to God it was a pink beret. Literally. Take a look:

scary picture

Trey, being the computer wiz he is, figured out that somehow, even though I'd never touched it before, the settings on my web cam were, uh, off somewhat. We figured out where to go to change them, and found this fun stuff.

Here's Trey eating the London Eye.

Trey as a ram (I think he looks like Princess Leia.)

Me in my Phantom of the Opera disguise (my fav).

Us in space.

Trey as an elf.

Webcams. Very cool.

Teaser Tuesday

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:24:29 GMT

I don't usually do Teaser Tuesdays, but I haven't blogged in a week so I figured, what the heck. This is the beginning of the sci-fi book I'm itching to write. Proper nouns are subject to change. Actually, all of it's subject to change. I'm kind of liking it right now, though. :-)

Forty paces.

More than once in her life, Ramie Ashden had dreamed of walking down the scuffed corridors of the G.C.S. Starcrusher, she’d just never dreamed of doing it in restraints and under armed escort. The dreadnaught was the flagship of the Coalition, a paradigm and a legacy with three centuries of history etched into its hull. The fleet’s best officers sat at its stations. In a few minutes, Ash would sit in its brig.

Thirty paces.

She scanned the faces of the men guarding her. They didn’t want to waste time with an interrogation. They wanted her dead now. After all, she hadn’t denied the charges. She couldn’t deny them.

Twenty paces.

She let her escorts see her tremble. They thought they knew what she was capable of, but they didn’t truly see her. They didn’t see a walking time bomb, and why should they? A medic had scanned her for traces of explosives. He had found nothing.

Ten more paces.

All right. Time to get back to the urban fantasy.

What's your greatest fear?

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:06:04 GMT

I might be acting a bit overdramatic right now, but it's something that I do worry about. One of my fears is that I'll run out of story ideas. I mean, seriously, what do I do after I've written these books that are in my head? Will I think of something else? Will that something else be as exciting as what I'm working on now? I don't have a shortage yet, but what if I someday finish (and sell - positive me is back :-) ) the YA trilogy, the six book vampire series (I don't know - I just like the number six), and the 65,000 sci-fi work in progress? What then? Sure, I have some other stories I've started over the years, but I'm not excited about those. They were started when I was in high school, which means they kind of suck. I'll need new ideas eventually. Will I be able to think of something?

I think so.

I sat through a four hour meeting at work today. While twiddling my thumbs, I decided to try to think of a new story. I wanted it to be sci-fi. I wanted it to be a romance. So I made up a man and a woman, gave them jobs, gave them pasts, and ended up with an awesome idea that I can't wait to write! I'm so excited about it. Problem is, I really like the urban fantasy I'm working on. I'm want to get it done. Agh! What am I to do? Write two stories at once?

No. Bad idea.

I know what I have to do: finish the urban fantasy first. I'll let myself write down moments of inspiration on the sci-fi book, but I'm not going to sit down and make a draft of it. I'll never get anywhere if I do that. But maybe the sci-fi can be an extra incentive to get the current WIP done. I'm a little less than 25,000 words into it (haven't cut out those first 10,000 words yet). My goal is to be halfway done by the end of Spring Break, which starts next week. Then I want to try to have the first draft finished by Conestoga in July. I think it's doable. I think.

What makes you want to give up writing?

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 07:02:26 GMT

You might expect me to say form rejections, but that's not it.  Though they can get depressing, they at least make me feel more real - like I'm not wasting my time when I'm sitting in front of my computer.  The partial and full requests help, they give me some hope that I can really be real one day.

No, the time when I briefly consider the idea of giving up writing occurs right after I finish an awesome book.  I mean, can my ideas and my writing ever really compare? Do I want to publish something that's not as great as what's already out here? Ah, hell. I'm really having doubts here. And I think I just broke my New Year's Resolution of being a positive, new me. It lasted two months, though.  Longest. Resolution. Ever.

Anyway, if you want to read a totally fabulous book, pick up Ann Aguirre's Grimspace. I couldn't put the book down. I started it today, finished it ~~today~~ in the wee hours of Saturday morning (and my real-life friends know I don't often stay up past my bedtime). I even skipped dinner.

Grimspace is a sci-fi book. If you don't read sci-fi, try this one. It might make you love the genre. It's about Sirantha Jax, a person who's able to navigate a ship through grimspace (kind of an alt reality that let's a ship travel super fast). You'll love Jax. She's tough, smart, resourceful. Unfortunately, people like Jax die in grimspace, so she's fighting to hang on to reality and life. Mix a little romance in with the science fiction, and you have a near perfect book. (Actually, the only reason I put in "near" was because the characters go "up the ventilation shaft" at one point, and Star Wars Ep. 1 so ruined that for me.)

Grimspace stands alone, but Jax returns in Aguirre's next book, Wanderlust (You have to LOVE these titles). If you want another author/book who might make you want to give up writing, try Linnea Sinclair's Gabriel's Ghost. Superb. I'm now buying ever Sinclair book I can get my hands on. I have Accidental Goddest waiting to be read, and I already read Finders Keepers (loved it).

I think these two authors are my idols now. I want to write like them.

Before I go to bed, I don't really want to give up writing. I can't. I love it too much, even when it's hard.

Fish Head

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:28:52 GMT

I think I found a better place to start ATOF. Damn. There goes 10,000 words.

Question for writers

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:35:36 GMT

Can you write off book purchases as a business expense on your taxes?

I just spent almost $50 at the bookstore (one book was for Trey :-) I could have bought more, but I thought if I added one more to my stack, Trey would make me put them all back (and that would have been VERY SAD). Books aren't so cheap nowadays, and I've been going through about 2-3 a week recently. I really might have to make use of a library. I guess that would solve my storage problem too, but when I like a book, I really, really want to own it. And I want to support the author. And I might need it again for future "research-ish" needs.

One of the books I bought was a hardcover. I really didn't want it in hardcover, but not because of the price (which is a valid reason). All the other books I have in this series are paperback, and it totally annoys me that I have five books of the same size and then one gigantic one next to them. I convinced myself it was okay because I'd already messed up the uniformity of the series by buying the UK version of book five when I was in London (I couldn't wait any longer!).

Anyway, those are my random book thoughts for the day. And I'm serious about the tax business expense question.

Music

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:22:30 GMT

I'm procrastinating writing, so I thought I'd blog about music today. Trey and I go to a lot of concerts, and I always feel energized after them. They make me want to write, to get my thoughts down and paper and create something. Friday's concert was great for that. We went with some friends and saw Alanis Morisette and Matchbox 20.

I love Alanis. She was good in concert, but she didn't play many of my favorite songs. She played "happy" music. I like the dark stuff, the music that's angry. She did play "You Oughtta Know" which is a great song, but she left out "Are You Still Mad" and "Sympathetic Character". Ah, well. I still enjoyed it. Alanis' music always makes me feel like I should be outside dancing in the rain under a street light.

Matchbox was great too. The last time I saw them was back in college. I'd forgotten what a good show they put on. Rob Thomas is amazing. The lyrics and passion in his music always gives me chills. I want to incorporate some of that emotion into my writing. He says so much with just a few words. Love that band.

Even though I had a great time, I don't know if I'll go to another concert like this one. The audience was SO different from what I'm used to. I hadn't really noticed it before, but at the other concerts Trey and I have been to, the guy to girl ratio is something like 4:1. It's a completely different experience. Guys don't screech the lyrics to your favorite songs. Now, I'm all about singing along, but don't try to overpower the band by screaming. Girls tend to do this more than guys. Or maybe girl voices stick out more? I'm not sure what it is. Sure, I sing along too, but I know I can't carry a tune so - unless I'm positive the speakers are loud enough to drown me out - I lip sing or whisper so I don't get on my own nerves.

My number one favorite band is still Hurt, though. I can't remember if I blogged about them before, but we saw them last fall for the first time (awesome!) and then we drove six hours down to Houston in January to see them perform again (even more awesome!). Now, that's a performance that'll get you pumped up!

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:41:07 GMT

http://lyonsliterary.blogspot.com/2008/02/vampires-are-not-dead.html

Hallelujah!

Websites, Gluts, and Spaceships

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:47:32 GMT

I've actually been quite productive despite the day job. I've been writing on my lunch break and it's paid off. I think I'll have the most skeletal rough draft done soon, and I seriously mean skeletal: a rough draft somewhere around 25-30K words. I guess it's more a fleshy outline than a draft.

Rachel Vater posted to her blog about writer's websites today. Her blog is one of my favorite agent blogs to visit. I get sad, though, because she only posts sporadically, but at least the posts are always insightful. I was surprised today because she recommends that unpublished writers get a website. I have a very simple one I made myself here, but I really want to get one that's done professionally. I've even done some research on it, writing down the links to sites I like and their designers, but now I'm really freaked because RV said a good, professional website could cost anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000! The Husband is so not going to go for that, at least, not until I have an agent. Maybe not until I have a contract with a publishing house. (Hey, look! Here's an instance of me being optimistic. See, my New Year's Resolution is still alive after two months. :-)

Now for the glut issue. Vampires: are there too many books about them? I've read two separate blogs this week. In one, an agent was reviewing a pitch that she really liked, but she commented "I hope it's not a vampire." (sorry, I'd link to the comment but I can't remember which blog it was from). Then, Kristen Nelson posted on her blog that an editor doesn't want to see any more vampire books either. This makes me sad. I love vampire books. Seriously. Tell me your book has a vamp walking around and I'll go buy it. Right now. I don't know why I like them. I just do, and I think a lot of other urban fantasy readers do too.

Lastly, Kristen Nelson posted today about children's science fiction. I'm quoting from her post: "If you didn’t already know this, SF children’s is a tough sell. It has to be the right balance between SF elements and a recognizable world that has a larger general appeal. Good author examples of successes would be Garth Nix and Scott Westerfeld.

This editor is dying for something that will be accessible to a wider audience and all she seems to be getting is space ship stories, zombies, and disaster scenarios—all of which feel tired or a bit old-fashioned."

I want to jump up and down and wave my arms. Pick me! Pick me! Stealing Ellum could so be this book (I think/hope). Alas, I've already queried Kristen, but I hope somebody else sees the potential in my story. There really isn't much children's sci-fi out there. I don't know why. My students ask for sci-fi books all the time and I have very few recommendations. Maybe this genre can take off in the future. I don't see why it can't.

Okay. Mucho apologies for the long post.

I don't want to stop!

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 04:19:42 GMT

I've written about 5,000 words today. Good words. Words with plot. I haven't written this much, been this productive since the summer and it feels good. This book is awesome. It's doing that thing where my characters surprise me. I love that. I love not knowing what happens next.

Well, okay, so I know most of what happens next, but it's the getting from here to there that's becoming interesting. Technically, I finished the book today. Yeah, there's a big span of like 90,000 words that are missing, but I wrote the last sentence. This book, unlike Stealing Ellum, actually has a darn good ending. Want to know the last sentence? You do, don't you?

Drum roll please. The last sentence of A Taste of Fey is............... I did.

heheh Anticlimatic? Not so much. You'll just have to read the book.

But this is so much fun. I don't want to stop writing. I'm terrified I won't be as productive again as I was this weekend for a long time. I need to finish this book. I have to assume that I'm not going to hear from the agents on Stealing Ellum for months, and I think I've received all the rejections to my queries that I'm going to. I hate not having writing related stuff in my in-box.

I want to have ATOF finished by July. Rachel Vater is going to be at Conestoga this year. She's an agent I met back in November at that New York writer's seminar. She's classy and smart and I love the books she represents. Not that I'd pitch mine to her at Conestoga. Even though she's so very nice, I tend to go mute around published authors/agents/editors. Yeah. It's something I need to work on.

I guess I gotta go to work tomorrow. This day job is so interfering with my productivity. :-)

Another one of those posts

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 01:42:04 GMT

I love writing! Yes, it's another one of those posts where I'm writing the best book in the world. I'm sure that it will soon be followed by another post entitled "I suck", but for now, I'm reveling in the feel of being productive again. And by productive, I mean counterproductive. I started the day with 14, 000 words and am down to 12,500 (which is a huge improvement to what I was down to around noon today).

I don't know if I'll ever have another day like I did last summer where I pounded out 11,000 words in one sitting, but today feels good. I've taken out a lot of crap and written a lot of good stuff. I can't wait to finish this book. When I go back and read what I've written, I'm so entertained. I want to read the whole thing! There's still things I don't know yet, but several grand ideas have formed in my head, pieces to the plot that will make it freaking awesome. This book gives me hope. If Stealing Ellum doesn't make it, I feel like this one will. I think it's got the extra spark.

I'm so excited, I don't want to go to sleep tonight. If I go to sleep, I'll lose writing time, and Monday morning will come too fast.

I HEART American Idol

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:41:35 GMT

I can't get enough of this show. I know I shouldn't be confessing this, but sometimes it brings tears to my eyes, especially during Hollywood week. All these people have a dream, something they're passionate about, something they want more than anything else in the world, and they're so close to getting it.

They've come so far. They know they have talent, but is it enough? Their friends, their parents, their brothers and sisters have told them they're good. They've told them they'll succeed, but the truth of the matter is so many don't, and the only opinions that really count belong to the three judges.

Is the writing industry so different from the music industry? I don't think so. I feel like a contestant waiting to hear the judges' proclamation. I've come so far, made it to a couple of full requests, a couple of partials, but none of this matters if I don't get that final yes. I wait for that yes, knowing just how slim my chances are.

I understand why contestants cry when they're told that they've made it. I'd cry, too, in their shoes.

Of course, the other reason I can't get enough of this show is because I have a mad crush on Simon. :-)