Posted by Christine on Jun 28, 2010 in General, Randomness |
For the past few weeks I have been madly working on rewriting and revising a novel I originally wrote back in 2008. At that point the novel was called Reunion. At the moment I am playing with new titles, two that are high on the list at the moment are Cat’s Moon, or Cat’s Reunion. However, titles are not the point of this post. I wanted to share with you an odd little fact. I started this novel in April of 2008 and finished the original draft in October of that year. In the mean time I also wrote a short story, one I have also since revised and updated. The short story is called “Braveâ€. The short story introduces a girl named Jessica and tells the reader a brief story about her life in western Pennsylvania. Now, here’s where the odd part comes in. I wrote brave to explain one line in Reunion. Yup – one line – the line… “Yeah, well, I asked Jessica out in October and she told me no. She told me, very politely, she didn’t date rich, handsome, blond guys.†Spoken by Ian, a secondary character, to Kyle, one of the the main characters. This line intrigued me – I just HAD to know WHY she said this. I mean what was it about rich, handsome, blond guys? I knew she had a reason, a good one too, for not dating guys “like that†but I wasn’t sure what it was. I also knew she came from a specific type of background. So I decided to write her story. To be fair I’m still writing her story –because I’m writing a novel about her, but it started with a short story that answered the question what is it about rich, handsome, blond guys. That turned into “Braveâ€. And the opening line of “Brave†– just to taunt you… If we hadn’t used a condom I’d be living a normal life right...
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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 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 12, 2010 in Randomness |
Welcome to my Weekly Update. Rejection Queen Status Update: – I have currently received 4 rejections – Deb, I think that makes us tied. I have to admit #4 hit a little hard, not entirely sure why, but I’ve moved on and am looking forward to the next round of queries. – I still have 6 outstanding queries, one will be a rejection if I don’t hear anything by June 8th as per the agents web site guidelines. – I have 12 agents researched and I hope to do some further research this week to add another 5 to 6 agents. I would like to have between 15 and 18 for my next round of queries. I hope to send my next round of queries by the end of the month. – The next round of queries will have a slightly tweaked query letter – nothing major, and off course it is personalized to each agent but the body essentially stays the same, and most will be accompanied by a **shudder** synopsis. Other writing News: – The Synopsis: I work on this in chunks of time until it drives me crazy then I put it aside for a few days and come back to it. I really don’t understand why it’s so hard for me but my brain has a mental block against this particular document. It will get done, and I will do it to the best of my ability but it will get done slowly. – The Youngest Brother: I had an idea that led me down a thought path and I think I am going to significantly change the direction of one part of the plot line in this story. It should solve one of the major problems I was facing and I think it will also open up some other avenues I wanted to explore. – YA Urban Fantasy: I’m having so much fun with this story. A great deal of research time has gone into it and I am learning a lot about the Navajo People and the roads in Arizona from Google Maps. 🙂 I don’t actually know how the story ends yet, which is odd, generally I know the end fairly early in the story. This time the end is eluding me. Personal Life: – Mothers day was wonderful in our house and I wish a happy belated mothers day to all the mothers I know. – The “day job†is going great and I am enjoying working with kids who aren’t mine again. I have started saving pennies for SiWC. Thus concludes my weekly update. I wish you all happy writing (or reading) and sunshine this...
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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 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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