Novella Submitted

Well, I did it.  My first time submitting to an epub.  I've got the category romance subbed with Harlequin while I still have queries for it out to agents, and now the first novella in what I hope will turn into a series is in an epublication editor's inbox. 

In three years, I've gone from taking up my dream to become a published author to this point.  I'm really proud of what I've accomplished so far.  I've still got a long way to go, but just knowing that I began this journey, took my time with it and have gotten to where I have more than one finished, polished work out there on offer makes me want to pat myself on the back.

I spent time in the playground (created world) of someone else, creating stories with characters not my own.  Thank you, Joss Whedon, for allowing your fans to play that way.  I learned about story structure, beta readers and proper formatting.  I also found a great bunch of writers/readers online that I now call friends.  During this time, I worked on my grammar, sentence variety and dialogue.  I enjoyed every minute I spent writing stories that I could never make a dime off of.  Stories that fellow fans could enjoy. 

When I felt like I could do original fiction justice, I still had a lot to learn, but I had the confidence to know I could finish a story if I put my mind to it.  I knew I could handle tough critiques and many hours revising and editing my stories.  And I enjoy every minute of the process.  I don't find it tedious or boring.  I love writing the first draft; I look forward to making corrections and adding and subtracting from the first draft.

I won't lie and say I enjoy writing query letters or synopses, but I love when they are finished to my satisfaction. 

I'm still not good at hitting send when I query an agent or submit a package to a publisher.  I get jittery.  My hands tremble, and I feel like I'm going to be sick.  I wonder if that will ever go away?  Probably not.  A little fear is a good thing.  It will keep my on my toes, and help me to stay diligent and professional.

I will be very disappointed if I get a rejection on the novella, because I love that story and I love the epub that I have subbed it to.  They are my first choice.  There are others out there and I do have a second and third choice that I'd be happy with, plus four others that I would be okay with.  After that, there are still options.

So, now, I will keep busy writing the two works in progress that I am most interested in right now.  I've got 14,000 of the sequel to the novella written and just under that amount of my single title fantasy story written.  Plenty to do to keep my mind off possible rejections.

Taking Care of Myself This Year

I am going to be good to my body this year.  To kick things off right, I've joined the Romance Divas team for the Biggest Loser Pound For Pound Challenge.  I've pledged ten pounds.  Wish me luck!

A New Year

The future looks bright and I'm raring to go!  I'm a list maker.  I make many lists every day.  One for things I need to purchase, one for chores I need to do around the house, and one for things I want to do by the end of the day to further my dreams to make a full time career out of my writing.  There is something so satisfying about crossing off items accomplished.

Now that we are in a new year, I need to think about my year long list of goals I wish to achieve.  I try to stretch myself with big goals, but have a few easy to accomplish ones as well.

1.  Submit All Business to an epub this Friday.
2.  Write the sequel to All Business by February 1.
3.  Continue to seek an agent and/or submit Do Not Disturb to publishers that take unsolicited manuscripts,      including epubs.
4.  Complete my YA Fantasy novel, do rounds of edits and be ready to query agents by September. 
5.  Work on the third novella in the All Business series. 
6.  Complete my Paranormal Romance.
7.  Work on Contemporary Vegas Romance.

By the end of the year, I would like to have a contract for All Business and hopefully one for the sequel.  I would also love to have a contract for Do Not Disturb, but I'm more confident about All Business.  If I can't find a home for DND by the end of the year, I plan to self-publish either on Smashwords or with CreateSpace.  I want to have books in all stages of planning, writing and submitting.  I would also like to improve my photoshop skills as I love making book covers.

What are your goals for the coming year?

Publish Post

Tools I Use

Every writer has their own routine and their own set of tools that help them keep moving forward.  I try to keep it simple.  Here are some of the tools I use to help me along.

I do all of my writing in MS Word.  I like being about to add notes and use track changes when I'm editing.  Before I could afford MS Word, I used the free program, Open Office, and it was almost just as good.  It has some of the same features and files could be saved as .doc files.

I backup my files using Dropbox, which is just an awesome program.  All of my writing file folders are kept in Dropbox.  I can access them from any computer, and no matter which computer I open files and make changes on, those chances will be there on any other computer, when I open the file again.  If my main laptop dies, I will still have the files on Dropbox and will be able to still retrieve them. 

When I am querying agents, I use Querytracker to keep it all organized.

If I'm stuck and need to push myself to keep writing, I will use Write or Die, which is just a lot of fun.  I recommend using the normal mode, because it's more evil to have to hear that song than to have my words erased.  LOL!  He's got a new editing tool that I want to check out too.

What tools do you use?

Got My 50,000 words. Moving On.

I did it.  Got my 50,000 words for Nano.  I had a bad month with computer woes and financial issues, but I somehow managed. 

Now that I've given myself a few days off from writing, I'm going to focus on submitting two of my completed stories, and I'll be writing two others.  I'm also thinking about what my realistic goals should be for the coming year.

Writing Contests & Nano Progress

I entered the first week of the Some Like It Hot writing contest with All Business.  Unfortunately, I did not place as a finalist, but I did win the random entry contest for a critique of the first chapter!  That's something.  I'm excited about the critique, and I'm looking forward to taking the advice of someone who knows more than I do. 

I am thinking about entering one of my other finished novels for this week's section of the contest.  It will depend on how much time I have to condense my synopsis from three pages to one.

I also entered the 'Tis The Season writing contest as well.  Voting has started.  If you could take a moment to read my excerpt, vote and comment, I would greatly appreciate it.  You don't have to register to vote.  I'm entry number three in the contemporary section. 

And now for my Nano report.

I got off to a good start at midnight and went to sleep with over 2,800 words down.  I plan to spend two hours writing later in the day.  It would be great if I could get 5,000 words written for day one.  It's always good to get a good head start for the month.  So many things can happen to take me away from my laptop for a day.  Like that little holiday, Thanksgiving, where my family expects me to come out of the writing cave and socialize.  :)

NaNoWriMo Time!

I'm a mere hours away from the starting line.


I've got my plot bunny file open, I've been charting out scenes, and I just make the file for the manuscript.  I've got the header set up and I've typed up the title.  It's just waiting for midnight.

I'm very optimistic about this year.  I hope to go well over 50,000 words before the end of the month.

www.nanowrimo.org

Good luck to the other writers who are participating this year!

What I Like

I just got done reading a book that reminded of me all the things I love to see in a book.  Strong characters, great supporting characters, and the author kept me strung along.  It was a long single title about two families.  The writing was sharp and I knew it was going to be good, when in the early part of the story, the writer was able to put that ache in my chest, that longing for the couple to find happiness.  There were peaks and valleys, but always, that ache was there.  

I want my stories to have that.  To give the reader the slightest bit of hope and put them on a roller coaster ride of emotions, with a satisfying HEA. I want the reader to burn dinner (like I did) because they can't stand to put the book down. 

One of these days...

The story was not perfect, by any means, but it was a great read.  Deborah Smith's Blue Willow.

Busy Life is Real Life Busy

Autumn is here in SoCal.  You can't tell by the wild and brilliant leaves, you can't tell by a chill in the air, but you can tell by how busy I've been.  The kids are firmly set in school, and I've become taxi-mom once again.  Through it all, I've trudged ahead with my dreams, snatching a free moment here and stealing a moment there.

Query letters have been sent to a total of sixteen agents with one request for a partial that resulted in a kind rejection.  I've had six more rejections, so I'm waiting to hear back from nine other agents.  With that story, I entered the New Voices Contest.  I was not one of the ten out of 800 plus entries to move forward to the second round. 

I have completed All Business and started on edits.  The sequel is now in the planning stages, with a ton of notes and a plot bunny form filled out.  I'm waiting for NaNoWriMo to start (November 01, 2010) to actually begin writing.  And it's killing me...

I was invited to join a critcircle and I gladly accepted.  There are four of us, and I'm really enjoying the process.  I've edited/beta'd many a fanfic in my time, still do for a few authors and I've done some critiquing for a couple of original authors, but the circle is something new.  I'm getting three opinions all at once, and it's been very helpful.  I'm planning to enter two contests near the end of this month with All Business and having so many eyes on the story before then gives me a little more confidence.  

When I get blocked or can't write for some reason, I like to play with photoshop.  I've created just-for-fun book covers for All Business and the sequel Risking It All.  I know I won't actually be using them if they get published by an epub, but they were fun to make and they gave me inspiration.

Queries, Partials and Contests.

An update on my queries.  I've had three rejections.  One request for a partial with a rejection coming after she read the partial.  I still have eight more queries out there.  I entered the Mills and Boons Contest, and I'm moving forward.

I plan to send out a few more queries next week, when I have time to pay close attention to what I'm doing.  In the meantime, I've been working and that has taken time away from my writing.  I would like have All Business completed and some edits done before Oct. 25th when I'll need the first chapter ready for a contest I plan to enter.  Here's hoping I can meet that deadline.  I have a chapter and half left to write, but haven't had time to write in a week.