Posted by Christine on Sep 23, 2009 in Randomness |
I have to admit to some butterflies in my tummy that seem to be getting more and more active as I count down to SiWC. It’s my personal deadline. I started writing Red and Grey over 18 months ago and I have been working hard on it ever since. It has been written, rewritten, revised, edited and is being revised again. At SiWC I’ll pitch it. Because the truth is by then I will probably have hit the point of diminishing returns. The point where I am just second guessing myself and failing to see what I should see in favor of seeing what I think I should see. At that point I will probably need an editor, something I cannot afford to pay for myself. Have I had other people look at it- you bet – the first ten chapters have been through my critique group a half dozen times. I used what I learned there and applied it to the rest of the manuscript. I have two years of classes and conferences under my belt – I listened and took notes. Learning as much as I could and applying it as best I could. In addition four trusted readers have been sent the entire manuscript to read and pick apart – one has already gotten back to me with his feedback and the other three are working on it. So, I’m pretty sure I’m doing everything “the right way” (If I missed something obvious please tell me so I can do it quick ) In the end it’s going to come down to two things, fifteen minutes sitting across the table from an agent or editor and convincing them with my incredible pitch that my writing is worth their time to read -because of course once they read it they will ADORE Red and Grey J, and writing a Query letter that basically makes them fall in love with Red and Grey before they even lay eyes on it and makes them want to read it – because – well see above. Hence the butterflies. I know, brilliant writers are not suppose to have any trouble writing queries – I know this – I’ve read the blogs of thousands of agents who have said it a hundred different times in a hundred different ways. They give the format, tell the writer what to do and what not to do, a fairly simple looking list of rules. Don’t call them the wrong name and gender. Duh! Don’t call your story the wrong genre, yeah I get that – little research might be needed but you can get that. Keep your hook short and sweet but completely and totally enthralling. Sure no problem. Make sure you tell about your characters and give a complete sense of who they are. Well, uhm see it kind of took them an entire...
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Posted by Christine on Sep 23, 2009 in Randomness |
YEAH yeah yeah. It’s been a while. What can I say. I’ve been busy you know – working on a book and all. Pitching Red and Grey in a few short weeks if you really want to keep track of me follow me on Twitter or Friend me on Facebook – but I will try to keep up here too.
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Posted by Christine on May 5, 2009 in General |
Today I stumbled on two different blogs about dreaming – not the I fell asleep dreaming but the dreaming of a future dream. This is one of them. I dream, I think all writers dream. I totally get the quote from J.K Rowling in the above blog. Some of my characters I just love. They live in my head and talk to me. Sometimes they argue with me while I’m writing. Sometimes I end up going a completely different way because I have to compromise with what they want. I desperately want to share them and their stories with the world. I want other people to love them as much as I do. And yeah – I dream of a Cinderella story. I worry though, because I already got one in this life and it seems unlikely that a person is entitled to more than one Cinderella moment in a lifetime. Still I just can’t stop hoping and dreaming because I really want to tell people my stories, I want people to love my characters and I want my stories to touch people. I dream of one day seeing my name on the cover of a book, it’s a huge dream, but I’m not going to stop pursuing it because to me it’s worth dreaming. So I urge everyone out there to keep dreaming your own big dreams, who know – maybe we do get to have more then one Cinderella story in a life...
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Posted by Christine on Apr 18, 2009 in General, Randomness |
10) Zombies don’t make webs 9) Zombies only eat your brains, they don’t try to take over your house. 8) Zombies only have two legs, even if they are decomposing and slimy, there are still only TWO! 7) Zombies move slowly and moan a lot to let you know they are coming. Spiders are much stealthier they sneak up on you…in your own house. 6) Zombies can’t crawl on you. 5) Zombies can’t hide in your bed without giving themselves away (they make unusual lumps and once again with the moaning). 4) Zombies cannot descend form your ceiling to the middle of your living room and hang there – mid air waiting to strike. 3) Zombies don’t have exoskeletons, in fact, their bones are soft and worm eaten. 2) Zombies come one size fits all – unlike the spider who can range from tiny to huge and hair covered. And the number 1 reason spiders are worse than zombies: The worst a Zombie’s can do it kill you, spiders can seriously creep you out. In fact the only thing creepier then Spiders, is zombie...
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Posted by Christine on Jan 19, 2009 in Uncategorized |
ISED 3/5/3000 An Article By Chelsea Cole. Humanity is a tenacious race. We rarely set our collective mind to a task that we don’t achieve. Except perhaps peace, but that begs the question is our collective mind set towards peace? Interesting question, but one to pursue another day, getting back to the point. When we decide to accomplish a task it gets done. No where is this theorem of mine proved more precisely then in the field of colonization. Seven hundred years ago humanity occupied one planet, on minuscule little world in a tiny corner of space. Today humanity resides on fifty worlds in twenty solar systems. Those of us who live comfortably on established planets or moons, like Trina-Vare, Landerstone, Titan and Mars sometimes forget exactly how difficult and dangerous colonization is. I look out my window and see a city, trees sway in the distance, and I can walk out my door and breath the fresh clean air they help create. For millions of people the reality of life is much different. The Branderstine/Weiss Colonization effort made contact this past week letting the Interstellar confederate government know they have established a dome on the planet Ablestine, humanities fiftieth and most recent world, and begun the introduction of oxygen producing algae to the planets only liquid water, a small ocean. For those of you not familiar with colonization, when a planet has liquid water but no breathable air the first task is a dome. This allows people to survive; it regulates temperature and recycles air. Building a dome takes about eight months of labor all done within the confines of a regulatory suit. People tend to work in ten hour shifts, since twelve hours suits are the lightest and easiest to perform manual labor in. The next step is algae. While it is possible to synthesize small amounts of water it is not possible to turn a planet without water into a livable place. Water, in some form, solid, liquid or gas must be in place. Ablestine has large amounts of water present in gas. There atmosphere is think with it. Algae introduced to the liquid water will begin the process of oxygenation. Trees will be next on the colonies agenda. I arrived at Ablestine the day after they finished their dome. It was an impressive structure. Huge, covering ten square miles, it houses all of the almost 1,300 colonists. Air locks lead in and out of the dome and allow people to interact with the planet’s surface. I arrived at night and was taken in through the main air lock. I saw little those first hours as most of the colony was enjoying sleeping for the first time in their own beds. At breakfast in the community dining hall the next morning I met Corina, my guide around the planet. She is a small vivacious woman with...
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