Posted by Christine on May 28, 2010 in Follow Friday, General, Kudos |
This week my Follow Friday goes to an entity and all the people who create and run that entity on a regular basis. I know it has to take more than one. That entity is the West Seattle Blog. Blogs are fantastic social media tools, there is no doubt about it. Heck, I’m using one right now. The West Seattle Blog, in my opinion, takes this tool to a whole new level of awesome. My husband and I have been reading the West Seattle Blog for years. Its part of what convinced us we chose the right neighborhood of Seattle to move into. (We also considered Freemont, but really, who wants to live in the center of the universe?) The West Seattle Blog covers everything from hard news, such as the SWAT standoff, to local interest stories that help members of the community stay connected to each other, local businesses and even nature, such as this piece on some orca’s. Not only that but check out these stories about a local Young Authors day, and the West Seattle Bookshelf from West Seattle’s own neighborhood bookstore (yup we have one 🙂 ) So as a resident of West Seattle, a writer, and user of social networking tools I have a great deal of respect and admiration for the West Seattle Blog and the people who make it such a wonderful community resource. Thank you West Seattle Blog for being so helpful and worthy of my Follow Friday this...
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Posted by Christine on May 26, 2010 in General, Updates |
First off allow me to begin by saying – Holy Crap – is this really the last Wednesday in May… and now, on to the regularly scheduled update. Rejection Queen Status update: – My rejection count has not changed this week – 6 – Number of outstanding queries – 15 (I sent 12 queries this week.) – Outstanding partials – 1 – Agents researched – 5 new agents, so I have 10 total agents that I am getting ready to send to in the next week or two. Hopefully by the end of the month. Other writing news: – What other writing, did you not read above I sent 12 queries this week and researched 5 new agents. That took like every spare minute of my time that I set aside as “writing†time. – I have three different writing projects going at the moment and they are all completely different stories in completely different genres. I need to pick one to focus on and finish in time for SiWC. But I can’t seem to make my mind focus on just one plot. It is enjoying skipping around too much at the moment. Personal Notes: – I finalized the details for my families vacation this week. Two weeks, one of which will be in the internet free mountains of Tennessee. I really love visiting the mountains but I always feel the technology withdrawal. How do they survive on a day to day basis without the...
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Posted by Christine on May 24, 2010 in General, Randomness |
It’s one of the hardest decisions to make when purging, what books to keep and what books to give away. But the shelves where getting crowded. I asked my oldest two children to help me. My eldest ( who is ten swears I have ten thousand books) I think it’s closer to 500. Either way, I have a lot. I took a big box into the room with me and told the kids “We have to fill this box with books.†I knew they would hold me to it, because I do this to them when we clean their rooms all the time. Purge, they would delight in a chance to turn the tables on me. But man, I hate getting rid of books. Thank god the kids helped. There were rules of course. Rule one- some authors are sacred, no book by them, or anthology with them could go. Some of those sacred authors include Anne Bishop, Kelley Armstrong, Vicki Pettersson, and Patricia Briggs. Or a number of other (look right for a more complete sample). Rule two – no signed book could leave, cause at heart, I’m a nerd. Rule three – I pick the books, not the kids. Rule four – The box must be filled. (By far the hardest rule) It was a long painful process, but in the end we did it. The box was filled. Some decisions were easy. There were at least five books I had duplicate copies of. This is what happens when I let the shelves get so disorganized and don’t sort by author. Not even I know what I own. The kids LOVED playing librarian. We had stacks and stacks of books around the room by author, anthologies, and subject matter. Then we shelved them logically. Some decisions were hard. Books I owned for years that had been on my “to be read†list just as long but other books I was more interested in and more passionate about always pushed them down the list. With regret I placed at least a few of these in the box. A few were books I read but didn’t enjoy that much. They were books I felt “Ehh†about. So I was okay with passing on to the next reader. Maybe someone else will feel passion for them. Some where my husbands non-fiction books that he was finished with (yeah we sorted through some of his too) I asked him about every single title first. Ones he had read, or ones he never planned to read. Besides he has his iGeorge now. He reads most non-fiction on that these days. I’m glad it’s over and the shelves are all sorted and in order and have room for growth. That means I shouldn’t have to purge again for a long time. **fingers...
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Posted by Christine on May 19, 2010 in General, Updates |
Rejection Queen status update: For some reason I feel like my count is off here but I am going to go with it. Here’s what I’ve got. – Currently I have 6 rejections toward my status as rejection Queen. Deb is still leading, but only by a few. – At present I have 3 outstanding queries I am waiting to hear back from. – Finally Drum Roll Please – I got a request for a partial that I sent off this week. WHOO HOO. So I have 1 outstanding partial. YAY!!!! – I am working on a current round of queries. I hope to send 10 by the end of the week and another 10 by the end of the week. Yup – that’s right, I want to get out 20 by the end of the month. Other Writing News: – This past weekend I accomplished the impossible, or the seemingly impossible. I wrote my 1 page synopsis and I don’t hate it. I also wrote my author Bio. – In addition I rewrote my query letter this week, I’m still working out the kinks on this new draft, but I think in the long run it is a bit more compelling. – I have been feeling a distinct lack of creativity in my writing – I think it’s all the “practical†writing I’ve been doing. What I really want to do is ditch my family for a couple hours and curl up with some pens and a Moleskine (and possibly some chocolate) and just write without the pressure of feeling like there is a query or a synopsis hanging over my head. But before I can do that I need to finish getting out this current round of queries. Personal Notes: – One personal note relates to my query schedule. Why the sudden push to get out Queries? Well I plan to go on a two week vacation this summer, one of those weeks I will be mostly without internet connection. So I hope to take most of July off from the business of sending queries and just do some good old fashioned writing that month. So I want to get out queries to all the agents I have researched prior to that. That’s about it for this week. I hope everyone is having a great middle of the week. We are getting rain and quite frankly it fits my mood today. 😉 Happy writing...
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Posted by Christine on May 18, 2010 in Godmothers and Brothers |
Just for fun today I wanted to share a little teaser from Red and Grey. Enjoy. Pushing the red hood off her hair she came around the curve in the path and jerked to a halt. He stood, head low between his shoulders, lips curled back in a vicious snarl showing sharp teeth that stood out in stark contrast to his dark grey fur. “Yes, I see what big teeth you have.†What a stupid thing to say to a wolf. How inane to be talking to a wolf? But this was a huge grey wolf with amber eyes. He took a step closer; his ears lay back flat against his head. The thick dark hair on the ruff of his neck bristled. She should scream, or run, something, but she couldn’t. Couldn’t bring herself to move. His teeth snapped at the air. Melody watched his muscles tense and bunch; the growl vibrated his chest. The wolf took another step toward her, the low sound coming from his chest almost constant now. His weight shifted to his rear legs and his body gathered. She’d seen this before. He was going to jump, at her? With teeth bared and jaw snapping? His body launched from the ground and flew at her. Still she couldn’t bring herself to move. She felt his paws hit her chest; his weight threw her back into the snow. Hope you enjoyed it. Have a great Tuesday, look for an exciting update tomorrow....
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