Posted by Christine on Apr 30, 2010 in Follow Friday |
This week my follow Friday goes to another wonderful and motivating author Vicki Pettersson. My first year at SiWC (2007) I got to meet so many incredible authors, one of which was Vicki. I will never forget my meeting with her for several reasons. First off, because I was very nervous. It was the first time I was showing pages of my work with a “real author†while sitting across the table at a blue pencil. Also, this was a published author, and I wanted to be like her when I grew up. What would I say to her? Ms. Pettersson immediately put me at ease. How? She recognized the color of my nail polish. No seriously. I had gotten a manicure specifically for SiWC since I won the contest that year and she recognized the brand and the color as soon as I sat down and complimented me on it. I was needless to say tickled. The other reason I will never forget my meeting with Vicki, and why I find her such an inspiration, is because of the advise she gave me. When I met with her she was kind, caring and inspirational. She was also very honest. We talked for several minutes and I shared how I won the contest and had come to the conference for the first time to hopefully help improve my writing. She asked me what I was pitching this year and I explained to her that I had not brought anything to pitch and did not have a finished novel ready to pitch. She told me that conferences where great and they were wonderful for inspiring writers but she also warned me not to become a conference “junkyâ€. She challenged me not to come back to SiWC next year unless I had a novel ready to pitch. I am proud to say that I did go back to Surrey in 2008 with a novel ready to pitch and with the beginning of Red and Grey. Then I went back in 2009 with Red and Grey ready to pitch. I’m not sure that I would have had the motivation to do that if it hadn’t been for Vicki’s encouragement. So thank you Vicki Pettersson for being a wonderful author who both my husband and I enjoy reading and for being an inspiration to me in my...
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Posted by Christine on Apr 28, 2010 in General, Updates |
Rejection Queen Status update: – rejection count is holding steady at 1. – I have 9 outstanding queries right now. – I have 12 agents researched in my binder that I have not sent to yet. I plan to send to them once I get some feedback from the letters I have out now. Other Writing News: – Word Count Challenge – I have written over 5,000 words in a new YA Urban Fantasy story I started this for my word count challenge with my friend. I am really excited both about this story and about the fact that I am writing again. – I will work on my synopsis this week – something I admit I have been putting off since,well, forever. It’s time to just plant my butt in a chair and do it. Personal Notes: – I feel bad that I missed Follow Friday on my Blog last week. My excuse, the cabin I went away to had no internet connection!!!! IMAGINE. However I would like to direct you to my friend Deb’s Blog entry for the day. I swear she was reading my mind because I had planned to do my Follow Friday about Vicki last week and that is who I will be talking about this week. Uhm, Deb, this is getting a little creepy. 😉 – I had a lovely weekend away with my husband during which I played with a fun story but did no “real†writing. However I do some reading. Which is my other passionate pass time. – This week I started my “day job†again. The one that pays me money and requires me to call in hours and stuff. I enjoy my day job a great deal, it’s fun and meaningful to me. However it does cut into my writing time. 🙂 That’s all for this week. So until later my friends – happy...
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Posted by Christine on Apr 21, 2010 in General, Updates |
Weekly Rejection Queen Status Update: – My rejection count is still at merely 1 – I sent 5 queries last week so at the moment I have a total of 9 outstanding query letters. – I am hoping to send another two or three letters this week but not pushing it. Other Writing news: – Some people may remember back in February I entered a short story into a contest. I found out today I did not win that contest. – On the positive side, my writing has been slacking lately as I have focused on my query letter and other business type things. So I have entered into a word count challenge with a friend of mine. The project I’m choosing to work on is something totally new and different. I am going to try my hand at some Young Adult Urban Fantasy. For the next two weeks I will be focusing each day on trying to put out 1,000 words on a rough draft. The challenge started Monday so by tonight I should have 3,000 words – my count so far… 0. Go me… I’m a slow starter. 😉 Personal Notes: – I get to run away from home this weekend. Last time I did this it led to me starting a short story that turned into a novel length manuscript. That manuscript in turn has provided characters for other short stories and a “fun†novel I write on when I feel burned out on whatever project I’m currently working on. – Next week an author I met a few years ago at SiWC, Bruce Hale will be at my kids school leading a writers workshop. My children each have a signed book from when I met him at SiWC and are very excited about getting to meet him. Happy Wednesday everyone – I hope you all have a wonderful week and I wish you all high word counts and few rejection letters....
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Posted by Christine on Apr 20, 2010 in Randomness |
I’ve been waiting for today for fifteen years. No seriously I have. You see fifteen years ago today I stood in front of a Judge and married my then boyfriend of two years. The love of my life and partner in everything. I was eighteen and he was twenty-one. The naysayers gave us six months. Some didn’t even give us that long. After all we were just dumb kids. And even on that day I was looking forward to today, because for some reason 15 years struck me as the moment when I could look all of them in the eye and say one thing: So there you have it. My profound thoughts for the day. Well that and: Jason – I love you more today than I did fifteen years ago – I look forward to the rest of our lives together with great joy and excitement....
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Posted by Christine on Apr 16, 2010 in Follow Friday, General |
Today my Follow Friday goes to Kelley Armstrong. Not that she needs me to tell you to follow her – she is an amazing author as the New York Times has already recognized that. But the fact is she deserves it. Kelley Armstrong was the first of many authors who has inspired me on my writing journey. My story starts when I wondered in the fantasy/sci-fi section of my local book store preparing for my husband to go out of town. I decided to start in the A section and look for authors I had never read before. I picked up Bitten and Stolen. At the time I was the mother of three (still am), working full time, and a graduate student getting my Masters of Education. My husband was doing a lot of traveling getting his Masters as well and we were considering where we would be living when he finished. I also harbored a secret dream to write. I had started and stopped writing a few stories that only my best friend knew about. I figured I didn’t have the time or the talent to put into the pursuit of writing. One night, I went on the wonderful inter-web and looked up Kelley Armstrong. I found her brief bio. Something about it struck me. She has three kids – I think at the time I read it she was still working as a programmer – or maybe she had recently stopped. But something about how real she was… maybe the fact that her child took her picture struck me. By the way – it’s the same picture now that it was then. Something in my mind went CLICK – if she can do it, so can I. But, that’s not why she is getting my Follow Friday. We settled on moving to Seattle and because of that decision I ended up with the chance to meet Kelley Armstrong at SiWC in 2007. In 2006 I finished my first novel, a science fiction YA novel. In 2007, I sent about 10 queries on it – all rejected for very good reason. Had I known then what I know now I would never have sent queries. 🙂 However, in 2007 I wrote my first short story which took place in the same universe and with that story, “A Decade of Scottsdale†I won the 2007 Surrey International Storytellers Award. I also got to meet Kelley Armstrong that year and tell her the very story I just shared here. Not only did she listen, she let my husband and I sit with her at dinner one night. She accepted me as a friend on Facebook, and she returned my e-mail when I sent her a request for a favor. (And granted the favor I might add – thank you so much Kelley!) Later when I took my sister to one...
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