EEEEEEEE!!!!!

Okay, so I'm a little excited. . . just a wee bit! The very first agent who requested my work last summer (it wasn't "quite right" for her at the time) has now requested to see the revised ms!!

No, it's not a guarantee, but it means a couple of things -

1. My book/query/ is memorable enough for her to say "Hey, I remember this, liked it, want to give it another chance."

2. Revisions and editing by a professional can help immensely and I will never send in an un-edited piece of work again. Ever.

3. Takes some of the pressure off waiting for the editor at Tor.

Ah. I can feel the relaxation start already.

This week. . .

What a busy week! My riding club is hosting a ride out of our farm tomorrow and it has been non-stop busyness here trying to get everything ready. What that means for my writing is, in a coconut shell, nothing good.

In fact, I predicted that while being so busy, unable to do anything but preparations (I even had to take a couple of days of work) that THIS would be the time I heard back from the editor at Tor, just to complicate my life a little more. Alas, I was wrong, I am creeping up on 7 weeks and still no news.

Next week, once life has settled back to its normal hectic pace, I'll be re-submitting my ms to 3 of the agents who requested it last summer, to see if they will take a second look at it. That is after I do some more last minute checks on the ms. I found a great list of four things to search for in your ms before you send it off, which means one more quick (I hope) revision. Of course, I will be saying that a few more times I'm sure.

Writing Partner

There is a picture of my cat, Faline aka Feemie aka Squeakie that would have been posted along with this if my computer wasn't being a pill but as it is you will have to do without for now.

As I speak she, Falene, is circling my office, preparing to leap onto my desk, covertly dodge around my printer, then finally plop herself into my lap. This is where she sits when I am at my desk, most times with her front legs and head draped across one of my arms. Makes it interesting to write.

Better yet though, is when she crams herself between me and my laptop. Oh yes, she does.

Ah well, she keeps my lap warm and my spelling questionable, but she also provides warmth for my cold typing hands and entertainment when she decides the words being typed should be chased across the screen.

What I can't wait for is when I can put her name on my business card as my "Office Manager" because I'm working from home as a full time writer. Has a nice ring to it wouldn't you say? Squeakie, Office Manager. Mabye I can put one of the dogs down as a consultant. ;)

Cut and Remove

The novel I am working on is coming along very well, in fact I'm ahead of schedule. This is very good as the next couple of weeks are nutty busy with the other side of my life. You know, work, riding club and family. All of which I love. . . but . . .

One of the things that I have happened upon recently was the whole idea of cutting out a massive amount of writing and redoing it. How realistic is that? I asked myself. Would I ever need to do it? At the time I didn't think so until I saw that the second book in my Chronicles series needed to be from a different characters point of view. Which meant that the 30,000 + words I had already written were just. . . practice.

Oh well, it didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would. In fact, I found that the new story is a better plot, better idea than the first one I had. So my piece of advice is this.

Don't be afraid to chop up, remove or otherwise make massive changes to your MS. You may find like me, that the new work with a fresh start is miles ahead of what you first thought was your best idea.

Reading Anyone?

This is a shout out to those who might be interested in doing a little rough draft reading for me. As I am working on my next novel (not too far into it yet) I would like to line up some readers who aren't afraid of a bit of bad grammar and a less than polished manuscript. This way, if I give you a time line it will help me get my book finished, knowing that I have committed to have it into my first readers hands in a set amount of time. For those of you interested, this is what I will be looking for :

1. Someone who can read the rough draft in a timely manner. In other words, if you don't think you could finish it in under a month this won't work. The idea is for me to move along quickly in the process. Q-U-I-C-K-L-Y.

2. Someone who has read at least a few fantasy/urban fantasy books, otherwise you won't like what I write no matter how good it is.

3. Someone who won't just tell me how much they love it. Yes I do want to hear that you love it, but I also want to hear what bugged you about the characters, which parts of the plot you got confused about or just that you didn't like the ending. Whatever it is that you didn't like, I need to know.

Those three things are what I am hoping to find in my first readers. I already have a couple, but would like to round that number up a little as I like to get a few different angles on the book. If you're interested let me know and we can go from there, set up when I would send you the rough draft etc.

A new Focus

No news is good news. . . right? Although to be fair, I would like any news at this point as it has been just over four weeks since my submission into the publishing house. I know, I know, it can take a long time, six weeks is an average and of course from my last blog it could be said that six months is not unreasonable.

To make it more bearable, the waiting that is, I will be turning over a new leaf today. No more multiple checks a day on my email, no more thinking about when I will get the response, no more anything about THAT book and from now until I hear from the publisher I will focus solely on my writing.

Really I will. But before I do, just one more check on my email ;)