Posted by Christine on Jun 24, 2010 in General, Updates |
Yeah, yeah, it’s not Wednesday. I know. I’m late. Sorry. I’ve been obsessively busy. See below. Rejection Queen Status Update: – Rejection Count as of today – (drum roll please) 12 Deb – I think this puts me in the lead. – Number of outstanding Queries – 9 – Number of outstanding partials – 1 – Number of agents researched/waiting to send – 12 (these are the ones sitting in my binder waiting for me to get off my uhm… butt and write them letters. 🙂 ) Other Writing: – The reason my blog is so neglected is I have been breathing new life into an old manuscript. First I added about 38,000 words to the story, adding a completely new plot line, new characters, a car bomb, kidnapping, and fight scene. Then I had to go through two edits to cut over 3,000 words. All this over the past two weeks. I am currently working on the third edit – I still need to trim about 960 words from this puppy to get it ready for the contest I want to send it to. Personal Notes: – My children are no longer in school, this means two things- more time with my kids, and less time to write. 🙂 – Vacation is quickly approaching and I can’t wait to see one of my first readers who lives on the other side of the country from me. Oddly she is in Florida and I am in Seattle – the two settings in which the novel I have been working on for the past two weeks take place. It makes me miss her...
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Posted by Christine on Jun 11, 2010 in Follow Friday, General |
Okay, I have to make apologies to everyone. I haven’t blogged for a week and I’m sorry. I don’t really have a good excuse except I was sick. But I can blog from home so I guess that really doesn’t count as a “good†excuse. So on to today’s Follow Friday Blog. Today my Follow Friday goes to a good friend and a wonderful artists Jeff Greer. Jeff is a personal friend of mine and my hubby’s he is also an incredibly talented musician, both guitarist and vocalist. You can find his music on iTunes or if you live locally you can check out his gig at the Park Pub on June 26th 2010. In addition Jeff recently auditioned for America’s Got Talent – you’ll have to watch this season(5) to see if he made it onto the show. However Jeff’s true passion is people. Jeff has a heart for working with the marginalized in society and acting to end slavery. He is involved with the local homeless community where he shares his musical talents each week. Beyond that Jeff takes the time to research and understand where products come from and if slave labor is being used to manufacture/obtain them. He does more than just talk about the problem, he takes the time to learn about it, get involved and make life style adjustments to try to effect change. In addition Jeff is passionate about ending sex trafficking. Jeff works to find ways to raise awareness of the issues of sex trafficking, slavery and homelessness with his music and to help create a society where social justice is the norm, not the exception. Jeff is a person to watch, I believe that he will, along with my hubby (but that is a Follow Friday for another day), change the world. So take a few minutes to check out his music and his web site. It’s worth your...
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Posted by Christine on Jun 2, 2010 in General, Updates |
Rejection Queen Status Update: – Rejection count as of today – 8 – Outstanding Queries as of Today – 10 – Outstanding partials – 1 Other Writing: – This week I have dragged out a manuscript I had tucked under my bed and have been doing major revisions and rewrites on it. I just finished a first quick read through during which I added over 2,000 words to the manuscript and fixed a ton of passive voice and “tellingâ€. My next step on this rewrite – adding a completely new plot twist to the story. – I have put writing something new on hold this week to work on revisions and rewrites of this older manuscript. Personal notes: – School wraps up in three weeks and they will be crazy busy weeks full of school functions like field trips and...
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Posted by Christine on May 31, 2010 in General, Randomness |
“Where there is life there is hope.†This is a quote attributed to Cicero that I was taught as a child, well, a slight variation was taught to me “Where there is breath there is hope.†same general idea. However as an adult I have learned something new. The mark of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting different results. We as a race tend toward tenacity. We will attempt to do the same thing over and over despite multiple failures. Sometimes this is amazing, for example it has led to humanity taking flight, and going to the moon. I believe if enough people put their minds too it eventually that tenacity will lead to humanity living on other planets. Mars anyone? (Personally this is the direction I think our space program needs to be taking but no one has asked me.) However there is a fine line between tenacity and insanity. There are times when doing the same thing over and over does not in fact help our cause. See our continued reliance on oil despite the dangers it presents to the environment and the risks associated with offshore oil drilling. Hmmm, yeah, I’m suffering from disillusionment over the oil hemorrhaging in the gulf. I suppose the same could be said for query letters. 😉 But the fact is whether it’s tenacity or insanity I’ll continue to send them. Cause let’s face it, Cicero was right. As long as there is life there will be hope. So in honor of humanities tenacity I have reposted Forward Momentum in the Chelsea Cole Files. ...
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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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