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 9, 2010 in General, Randomness |
I’m a huge proponent of watching TV with your kids. I mean, it’s essential to know what your children are watching on television so you can discuss it with them if they have questions or concerns. Also, it helps you understand where they are coming from. But mostly because I’m a member of the infamous Generation X and, according to some at least, we never grew up. I seem to enjoy some of the superhero cartoons almost as much as they do. 😉 This week my children learned three important life lessons from superhero cartoons, we discussed them all as they came up and I enjoyed exploring the deeper meanings. 1) NEVER split yourself into more than one – it may seem like a good idea at the time but it never works out. Not once this week, but twice we watched a show where the super hero tried to split himself in two so he could battle the villain and keep personal commitments/have fun. In both instances this came with similar problems. First, the split caused a divide in the hero’s personality that was unpleasant at best and downright unlikable at worst. Second, the split caused a divide in power. As a complete whole the hero fought better and was stronger than their parts split up, even when those parts tried to work together. So we can see it is never a good idea to try to split ones self into more than one. On a deeper level, what this reminds us is that life is full of difficult choices we have to make every day. We can’t do everything and be everywhere. Something my kids are learning even now, and an important lesson for adulthood. Being able to decide what’s important and being able to say no and walk away sometimes is vital. Unfortunately, upon occasion that means sacrificing what you want to do for must be done, and this is part of learning responsibility. 2) NEVER fight your own evil doppelganger – they know all your strengths, weaknesses and secrets and they WILL use them against you. After all, they’re evil. So on the surface it might seem like a good idea to fight your own doppelganger if they show up, after all you know all their weaknesses too. But being a hero lets face it you are a lot less likely to use what you know against someone. The evil doppelganger on the other hand – not so inhibited. So get your teammate to fight the other “you†because they have secrets, and strengths that you probably don’t know about. You simply cannot fight yourself. It doesn’t work. Wait let me say that again – you can’t fight yourself. You just can’t. Granted I don’t actually think my children have evil doppelgangers and I hope I raise them not to fight their dreams. With any...
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Posted by Christine on May 5, 2010 in General, Updates |
Rejection Queen Status Update – My rejection status is up to 3. Watch out Deb, I’m gaining on you. 😉 – I have 7 outstanding query letters at this point. One says that no response within eight weeks should be taken as a rejection. That means if I haven’t heard from them by June 8th then I will count them towards my rejections. – I have 12 agents researched, several of them require a synopsis with submission. *sigh* I have spent significant time working on my synopsis this week – see below – in preparation for submission to these agents and I hope to submit by well, hopefully by the end of the month. Other Writing News – My synopsis. I have to admit I have no idea why this is so hard for me, but there seems to be some sort of mental block between me and the synopsis. I worked for 16 of the last 48 hours on it and I am taking the next 48 hours off of it. At moments I worry that publication hangs on this particular piece of fiction then I will never achieve that elusive dream. However, I don’t give up easy and on Friday I will once again tackle the synopsis with renewed vigor. It is after all, just one more dragon to slay. – Writing challenge, bronchitis got the better of this one. The goal was to write 14,000 words in two weeks, or 1,000 words a day, usually this is pretty doable for me. However I was sick and went away for one of the two weekends with my hubby to celebrate our 15 yr anniversary. (Yeah – I’m still excited about that one.) Anyway my partner in the challenge and I extended the deadline to midnight tonight and I will be spending my remaining hours between now and midnight working on getting my word count up – weather or not I’ll hit 14,000 is still a mystery. 🙂 – The Youngest Brother has been on my mind a lot lately even though I haven’t been writing on it much. I decide to make some minor changes in how I am going to develop the story and I think it will flow better because of the changes. As a result it will also open up the option of writing some short stories about Red, so that’s exciting. Personal Notes: – I have resumed work at a day job, just part time, but it’s a very good thing for my writing in at least one way. It means I will be able to afford to go to SiWC this year. WOO HOO!! – With mothers day right around the corner I just want to take this opportunity to say** I have the greatest kids in the world and I adore them**. They encourage me to be creative and make me...
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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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