Tag Archives: writing

Substack

Hello! Here’s another post from the great beyond to let you know you can now find updates on me through Substack. I’m still not abandoning my webpage because there’s so much history to it and I still love the look of it, plus I hope one day I’ll be able to add links to buy my books and such. But since I’m here, I’ll give a brief update. My book has been on submission for about a year now through my agent. In that year I have received full requests that ended in rejections and flat-out rejections, but no one has critiqued my writing itself. My book is still out there and I still have hope that Love, Sax, and All That Jazz will find the right home! While it’s been a year of this process, there are months that can pass by when someone is looking at your book before they give you a yes or no, so it’s a long game for sure!

I have been trying to work on a new book, but this time last year I found out I was pregnant with our second child, and she came in November, right after Thanksgiving! I’m still figuring out life as a SAHM to an extremely active preschooler and a chill baby and the time to write. It’s not as much as I would like, but I feel that when I do it and make myself focus, I can get some words down, and progress is progress. I’m liking this current project, a YA murder mystery with friends to lovers adapated from Agatha Christie’s Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?. I occassionally share snippets about it on my Instagram, where is the place you’ll find me most these days.

Delayed News

If you told me a decade ago that I would be writing my blog post sharing such exciting news three months after it happened, I would have been dumbfounded. But such is the sad state of my blog. But trust me, I’ve shared this elsewhere.

I have an agent!

*Cue confetti*

I signed with Stephanie Cardel of Lighthouse Literary in December, and we hit the ground running. Over the holidays and all through January I was revising, last month we sent our first round of proposals to publishers, and for now it’s just obsessing waiting and brainstorming/plotting/writing new and revised story ideas.

I have added a sign-up form on my About page for my newsletter, which I have been sending once a month since January. Get signed up to stay in the loop, since you know I’m not going to be prompt on here. Perhaps one day I’ll write out a “how I got my agent” post, but the short of it is that while I did not have to query long, this was a long process in terms of the years of hard work I put into getting this book in the best shape I could before I queried, wanting to be sure that I did not repeat my first attempt in 2017 of not being nearly as ready as I had hoped and believed.

I’m very hopeful for what’s to come. 🙂

Monthly Recap: September

I hate how late this recap is! I’ll try to do better next month…

Books I Read

Finished my reread of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

A Dash of Dragon by Heidi Lang and Kat Bartkowski

#bookstagram Images of the Month

Watched

Sing (cute), The Secret Life of Pets (forgettable), and Wonder Woman (finally, I know – I really enjoyed it but maybe not quite as much as everyone else).

September Happenings

I went on vacation in Savannah (the week after Irma hit)! I still want to talk more about this in a future post, but you can read my thoughts on two of the city’s bookstores here and just know that I really enjoyed my time there! It’s such a beautiful city.

My birthday! I turned 31 and it wasn’t even too painful, ha ha. It was a good one, with several celebratory dinners around it.

I attended the SCBWI Midsouth Conference for the fourth (I think?) year in a row, and it was such an enriching experience, as usual. But it didn’t start out roses and rainbows.

For the first time, I paid for a critique from an editor. You can do face-to-face or written, and I chose the latter. I submitted the first ten pages of the WIP I have been pouring into pretty much since my first SCBWI conference, and had recently revised due to feedback from various CPs. I thought it was in pretty good shape and was hoping for some constructive criticism. While the feedback I got back from the editor wasn’t flat out negative, it wasn’t very positive either. I understood some of what she was saying, but some of it was clear she just wasn’t getting the story. Whether that was my fault or not, I don’t know, but that was the reality.

But I immersed myself in the conference and didn’t worry too much about the critique. Then came time for our optional critique group, which is where you’re assigned to a group to critique a few pages of each other’s work. Between getting the paid critique and just already getting a lot of feedback on Earthbound, I decided to share the beginnings of a new story I just recently started working on and haven’t even completed a draft of yet. The response from those in my group was so positive that it really kind of blew me away, and definitely encouraged me. I could feel in my soul what my next course of action was – shelve Earthbound for now, give it time to simmer, and focus all my efforts on my new project.

So I’m excited! It can be hard to move on from something you’ve spent so much time on, but I honestly feel really liberated. Earthbound would be a hard sell for a debut author; this new contemporary is much easier to grasp onto. If I can write it as well as I believe I can, I believe getting an agent with it will be very possible. And here’s hoping that I can bring Earthbound back out one day, once I have that trust in place. My goal is to have my first draft of Love and Sax finished by the end of the year.

Also, these ladies are my writing lifeline!

Looking forward to in October…

Needtobreathe concert! I get to see my other favorite band this month and I cannot wait!

How was your September? 

Podcasts I Enjoy About Books & Writing

Sometimes when I’m working, driving for a decent length of time, or engaged in some other activity where I would like a break from music, podcasts are perfect for 20 min – 2 hrs. of time that need to be filled with chatter. I listen to a variety of podcasts ranging from Star Trek discussion to a Christian radio show and several more, but today I thought I would focus specifically on four podcasts I enjoy that focus on books and writing.

Books

Owl Post is a fairly new podcast that is a must-listen for any fan of the Harry Potter books. Each episode is an interesting discussion of a chapter of the books, and they’re still early in the first book, so it won’t take you long to catch up! I tend to pick and choose my way through episodes of most of the podcasts I listen to, but I’m subscribed to this one and actually listen to each episode quickly after it airs (rather than my usual tactic of keeping a backlog open for myself).

I love the premise of Overdue: a podcast about the books you’ve been meaning to read. I only download the episodes where I have read the book or know the story already, but I’ve enjoyed every episode I’ve listened to. The hosts provide both humor and insight into the books they discuss.

Writing

You know you’re listening to a world-class writing podcasts when one of the hosts is Brandon freaking Sanderson. I’ve been listening to Writing Excuses for a few of their seasons now and they do such a great job of providing fresh and insightful writing advice every week.

Punch It is a very different podcast from Writing Excuses, but it’s fun. The hosts of this podcast were long-time hosts of a Star Trek Voyager podcast called To The Journey, and they seriously gave me a new appreciation for the show through their discussion. So when they decided to embark on this new endeavor, I knew I had to check it out. The show is still pretty new, but they discuss the writing of TV shows and movies, either how they themselves would write it or how effective the writing was. Star Trek is still a regular focus of the show as well, which I appreciate.

Do you have any favorite podcasts about writing or books?

A Quiet Beginning to a New Year

I haven’t been very inspired to post lately, and I thought I might make myself write some reviews. But then I thought, why don’t I just share what’s on my mind? Isn’t that why I created this blog in the first place?

I like the idea of resolutions, goals, and new beginnings like most other people, but I don’t like the hype of New Year’s and I don’t like making promises I won’t keep. So this year, I kind of just decided to not really make any real resolutions. I thought this was a good idea, and then I read somewhere that not making resolutions or goals because you’re afraid of failing is not a good reason to not make them, and I thought, ouch, OK. But then I still didn’t made any.

I don’t want to make resolutions just for the sake of making them either though. I like having direction but right now the only direction I feel really compelled to go in is to keep doing what I’ve been doing. So last year I hoped would be the year I would start querying agents, and it wasn’t, so now I really hope it’s this year and will continue to work towards that. I don’t have any big goals otherwise. I do anticipate things will change in my life, for example, I know my husband and I will be moving into a new house this year, but it’s not like anything I am resolving to do majorly different. Basically, I am just going to keep going forward until I feel it’s time to make changes. I feel like I am usually aware of what  needs improvement in my life and can usually devote myself to at least taking small steps in the right direction.

I asked for this big calendar for Christmas that is all the months together, so you see the year at a glance and you see it more so by weeks than months. It’s a neat idea and I wanted to write all kinds of things on there, but right now it’s just blank. Part of me is upset by this, but then I realize I don’t want to write things on there just to fill up blank spaces. When I get ready to send my story to beta readers, I will write the day I’ll send, along with a targeted deadline for my next step. I’ll fill it out as I go, taking one goal at a time. I don’t want to say today I will query by May and then life happens and it’s too early or I get some crazy creative mojo and it’s late.

So there has been no pomp and circumstance for me in 2016, but I aspire to be do my best everyday. To each day be realistic with what I need to get done and find out how I can do it. And if I mess up that day, I don’t want to beat myself up; I’ll start fresh again the next day.

One thing I am working on pretty faithfully these days, since it’s clearly not this blog, is my new bookstagram Instagram account. Please check it out and follow me if you haven’t already! I’ve gotten a decent number of likes and comments and such, and try to do the same for other accounts, but I don’t have very many followers.

How’s this new year looking for you? Do you have a lot of big resolutions, or has it been a more quiet beginning?