Seressia July 2nd, 2008
My brain is actually feeling like a string of poppers right now, ideas popping up all over the place. And the GREAT ATTEMPT TO MOVE UP continues…
I managed to squeak three more pages out on RODE HARD during lunch and some story tightening. Jackie will be so pleased.
Now break out your flowcharts, cause I’m about to “talk” in code:
We’ve hit the five week mark on UNSOLD CONTEMPORARY PROJECT #1, still sitting at Avon. I also did two more pages and some perfecting on UNSOLD CONTEMPORARY PROJECT #2, polishing the proposal (synopsis and first three chapters.) That’s also about the length of time that UCP#2 has been with Agent #1. I emailed a query letter of UCP#2 to Agent #2 on Monday, whom I’ve contacted before with something else. I heard back from her Tuesday. She’s not looking for a project like this right now, but referred me to Agent #3. (HOW %$#@! COOL IS THAT?) So I emailed Agent #3 shortly thereafter after checking out the company’s website (most awesome sales record.) Hopefully she’ll ask to see the proposal.
Another thing I did this past month was join PASIC, the Published Authors Special Interest Chapter of RWA. So far, I’m enjoying my membership. They are a very active group and full of information. And they have industry chats, including one on Monday night with an agent, we’ll call her #4. I talked to Agent #4 about the MC genre, and her agency is looking for international and multicultural voices. I think I can qualify. So after the holiday, I’ll send UCP#2 to her.
What, you thought all I was doing was writing on 4 projects at once? Silly rabbit.
I’m driving down to West Palm tomorrow to hang with some friends of mine, and then I’ll start a new method of writing, called “The Anywhere but Home” method.
Seressia June 30th, 2008
So the weekend wasn’t as productive as I’d hoped it would be, which is why I’m still sitting in my office, working on fiction. In fact, the next three nights will probably find me doing this. I have no idea why I seem to work better here than in my own home, but it certainly doesn’t bode well for the whole dream of writing fiction full time does it? I mean, do you think they’d let me lease my desk after I quit? Sure they will.
While I didn’t get a spectacular load of pages completed, I did send out two queries today, one to an editor and one to an agent, for two separate projects. Query letters only at this point, though formal proposals are ready to be sent. No, that’s pretty much all you’re getting from me. I don’t want to jinx myself.
One agent that was on my list was someone I’d had a face to face with last year. Here’s a tip, children: don’t procrastinate. I let life and holidays and other crap get in the way of sending the requested submission in, and now she’s left the agency. I’m happy for her, but it’s teh suckage for me. Sure, she’s gone off and gotten hitched to a gorgeous romance-hero sort of guy with lots of money who gives her fireworks (okay, that’s all conjecture on my part) but what about me?
On the bright side, if I’d signed with her and she’d called to tell me she was leaving, I’d be far from calm right about now.
The writer’s life, it is like a road maintained by the city,a little bumpy, a little rough, with happy surprised spots of smoothness.
Seressia June 26th, 2008
What I want today is more vacation days. A lottery win that enables me to retire from my full time job would also be nice. I do think I would probably have to have property in which I would have to “go” to my office, whether that’s the garage, the pool house or a turret room, so that I could get into the mindset of being “at work” and thus be more productive.
And yes, I am writing this post during my lunch break. I have a new wireless broadband toy that enables me to surf while I’m not at home. No more paying for access while at Starbucks or Barnes and Nobles or (as has seemed a lot lately) the airport. I haven’t decided whether I want to boot my DSL yet, but the thought of getting rid of the home line (which is only there for the DSL anyway) sounds lovely. Because if someone’s calling and they can’t pronounce my name, it’s probably not someone I want to talk to anyway.
Anyway, I only have two weeks of vacation. Most of those vacation days are used to attend writing conferences, with a few squeezed out to actually go away and recuperate. Next year, I’ve already decided to go to Romance Slam Jam (March 12-15); PASIC (RWA’s published author chapter) Power Conference March (19-21); and the ROmantic Times Booklovers’ Convention (April 22-26). The only way I’d get a decent vacation next year would be to tie it to Labor Day or Memorial Day, which I normally try to turn into Writing Weekends.
I want more vacation days.
Seressia June 19th, 2008
While I was away at Book Expo, Monica Jackson posted a wonderful post over at Blogging in Black (where I’m posting something less controversial on Friday) in which she asks:
My question why finding books by black authors in one place is more important than the principle a generation once struggled to achieve?
She asks a great many more questions that I think are definitely worth a read. So please click through.
Seressia June 17th, 2008
Isn’t this look into the mind of a writer fascinating? Not.
Must remember to order a real Mojito at dinner Wednesday.
Seressia June 17th, 2008
Tuesday, I got six pages done. On the wrong story. It’s a side project that I’m hoping will be my first New York sale, so it needed to get done, but still…
Wednesday will be a low production day as I’m going out for lunch and typically meet with a writer friend for dinner as well. I may have to break out the paper notebook. I’m going to hope to have three pages before my midnight turn-in.
Shoulda bought a lottery ticket today.
Seressia June 16th, 2008
I finished my script (yea for me) got handed something else but provided enough counter-argument to table it for a bit. So the day job was very productive. Sorta worked through part of lunch (note to self: wear noticeably large airplane-tech headphones during lunch) and had to get groceries, so the total today was only 5 pages.
Five pages more than I had though, and they are smokin’ hot pages too.
Tuesday’s goal is five pages, which may or may not include writing a synopsis apiece for RODE HARD and the upcoming THE SHARPEST EDGE. Yeah, pantsing sucks. Even though I live in my head 90% of the time and have the story in my head, it helps to also to have stuff written down (and printed out) to refer back to. Especially given that I won’t be able to sequester myself this weekend, because I’ll be in Virgina with the fabulous Bridget Midway.
Now off to bed.
Seressia June 16th, 2008
Here’s the new cover for the mass market release of my third book, Three Wishes, which will be out the first week of October:
Other than the fact that the guy doesn’t look like he’s old enough to have a seven year-old daughter or be a surgeon, I like the cover well enough.
Seressia June 16th, 2008
Mercury is still retrograde for three more days, and I am a Gemini and I always feel it. Nothing else explains how carrying my laptop from the cabin porch to my bed somehow turned the screen upside down. I mean up was down and left was right and I was trying not to freak out. I managed to correct it, but I took that as a sign to just enjoy my vacation and hit the ground running on the 16th.
So I’m home and the 16th is here. Here’s my plan for today: At work, I have a script to complete for a training video I am working on. Day job stuff, of course, it completely outlined. I do intend one day to apply some of those tools to writing but I need a break in due dates to make that work, and hopefully can put into some sort of templates that I can hand out in workshops.
Lunchtime is used for writing. I allow myself one lunch break out of the office a week. It’s when my friend Lynne and I go for Mexican and talk…writing. Every other day, I’m at my desk with my sack lunch or carry-up from the cafe downstairs. I am usually quite productive during that hour.
Stay at work until I finish the script (hopefully it will be complete during regulation hours). Then spend a couple of hours at my desk with the laptop, working on one of my writing projects. Come home and read email while watching Friday’s recorded Dr. Who, and the Adult Swim lineup from Saturday.
Hopeful time to leave work: 8 PM. Hopeful fiction pages created: 5-10. Will update on Tuesday’s post.
