Happy Birthday Blog!

Technically, my blog's first birthday was yesterday. But stuff happened, so the party is today!

I definitely didn't know when I starting blogging how awesome (and addictive) it would be. It's been so amazing meeting lots of new friends and talking about writing with other writers.

So, here's a cheers to all of you, my rockin' blog friends! A walk down memory lane:

My first blog post, So the Journey Begins... Through the summer I was just blogging for myself and not trying to connect to anyone. But then all of the sudden in October, I posted Begin the Begin, and my very first non-family commenter appeared! After that, things happened very rapidly and my followers grew pretty quickly.

Then in November, I had my first big querying breakthrough. I wrote about it in Good News and Bad News. Then, in January I wrote a fun post, Top 10 of '10, about all the crazy writing things that happened in 2010. Shortly after that, I wrote Recipe for a heart-racing, knot-in-stomach, loss-of-breath good time, which is just sort of funny.

It's been great getting to know you guys, and I look forward to another great year!

An Awesome Contest!

Over at Shelley Watters' blog, Is It Hot In Here Or Is It This Book, she's having an agent critique contest! The first stage of the contest is to post your first 250 words and other writers can blog hop around and critique each other. Then on May 31st, you submit your polished 250 on Shelley's blog, and Judith Engracia of Liza Dawson and Associates will pick one to receive a 10-page critique and maybe request more pages! I love these sorts of contests. So, here's the first page of Countless, my urban fantasy novel. Critique away!

He had found his prey at last. From across the room he took in every detail of her face, though he knew it well. The full lips, thin nose and most of all the deep green eyes. Green like a highland meadow or a piece of lustrous sea glass. His eyes traced the moon-pale curve of her calves down to her stilettos. She had raven hair this time.

One hundred and ninety-four years had passed since he’d last seen her. That time when he’d killed her had been different than the times before. He’d made it so that when she came back, she wouldn’t remember a thing. Their times together. The power they’d shared. The life they’d almost had. She’d chosen another path. Taken pity on humanity, decided she didn’t want to go through with their plan. And worse than all that, she’d fallen in love with one of them.

So now, as he watched her, he took a moment to appreciate the beauty of it. She stood here before him, completely oblivious to the fact that she was being hunted. Totally unaware that though she may look human, as he did, she was not. And this time, there would be no temporary death. He had discovered a way to end her forever. She thought of herself as a human now, so she would die like one. Permanently. He had taken her powers, her memories, her lives and her love. Over and over and over again. Now he would take the very last thing he could. Her soul.

Silence So Loud

I haven't gotten any rejections since May 17th. I guess that's not really that long ago. Nine days. But who's counting, right?

It's not like I want to get rejections. But when you hear nothing, you just get a little paranoid. For instance, remember how my email got hacked? And I sent all of my email contacts emails saying to please disregard any previous emails with strange links? Well, of course there were no strange links in any queries I sent. But what if the agents misunderstood? What if they blocked my email? What if all the agents have blacklisted me because someone sent spam emails from my email address????

I don't really think this has happened. Well, the first one I kind of wonder about, if they just deleted my query because they thought in my second email I was saying it was the spam email. The rest of it I know is not logical. But that's just how paranoia works. It creeps in. It's usually not logical.

I am staying busy writing on both my MG book and my new adult book. And truly, I'm not obsessively checking my email or having constant meltdowns. I’m pretty chill about querying, since I've been at it awhile. But the last couple days the silence has been eating at me just a little...I don’t want to hear bad news, but hearing nothing at all is sometimes worse.

So, who else is walking through the frightful realm of QueryLand? What amusing paranoid thoughts are you having?

Since We're Not Dead...

A few public service announcements:

1) I have succumbed to Twitter mania and started an account. Still learning the ropes, but please pop over and follow me so we can be birdies together.

2) Me and hubs went to a beer tasting today to benefit the national Animal Shelter Foundation. Man, does supporting a good cause taste good.

3) Still querying. Still getting rejected. No squee news to share. Yet.

4) Still writing. Little Dude is still asking me almost every day to read more of the new MG. Want to be motivated to write? Bear children.

5) Saw the movie Thor. Thor is delicious.

And that's all for now, writer friends! What did you guys do today when the world was supposedly ending?

What's Your Number?

My Saturday started off real swell, with my email getting hacked and spam emails with links to undoubtedly shady websites getting sent to all of my contacts and just about everyone I've ever sent an email to. Meaning all of you guys, other friends and family, and every agent I've ever queried included the ones that are currently reviewing my manuscript. SOOO fun, let me tell you. So, you probably got a real email from me saying to disregard the first email that wasn't really from me. Alas, I cannot assist you with fashion deals, the secrets to supreme health, finding your perfect love match, or otherwise discovering the universal key to eternal happiness.

On to better news, I've gotten the first chapter done of my new MG novel, and Little Dude has approved of it. I read it to him the other night and he laughed at some of the lines (that were supposed to be humorous) and asked lots of questions and wanted to know when the next chapter would be ready. Yay! I'll make sure I mention this in the query letter. Um, yes, I'm totally joking.

So, what's any of this have to do with my blog title? Nothing. I just got to wondering the other day how many blogs you guys are following, because I feel like I'm following a ton! But maybe in relation to other people's blogging habits, it's not that many. What's my number? 183. That means I'd have to visit about 26 blogs a day to get through everyone in a week. Which is a lot when you work full time and have kids and a hubby to attend to. Oh, and a book to write. So, what's your number? Spill!! And have an awesome Monday.

Too Inspired?

Is there such a thing as too much inspiration? Probably not. Inspiration is always good stuff. But I do find myself torn between two story ideas right now.

I have been planning for the last half year or so to write something that little dude can read. Something whimsical and fun and without all the angsty sexual tension that's in my current book. Wait, in about everything I've ever written since the age of 14 or so. So, something clean, probably more middle grade than YA.

But, there's also another story leaping about in my head, an adult story with a very loud voice. This one really speaks to me more clearly than the other one, but I already told little dude I was going to write one for him this year.

Soooo, I decided to start on the MG because that was the plan all along, and I'm not going to go back on my word. I actually starting writing a story about seven years ago that I had originally planned with adult characters, but realized is exactly the whimsical stuff I need for a younger audience. So, I'm going to adapt that one, minus the romance I'd initially planned. Though I may cheat occasionally and work on the other adult story :)

How about you guys? What do you do when you have competing stories? Do you ever skip between age categories?

Neurotic Behavior Coming to a Writer Near You

So, writer friends, I am back in the query saddle.

That sentence deserves to stand alone, doesn't it? Do you hear the dramatic music playing in the background? Like the Inception music. Deep and dangerous, and you just know something scary is going to happen.

I've sent out six queries in the last four days. I already got one rejection (gotta love those supersonic ones). At first when I send them, I feel this excited little ball of hope rise up inside me. What if this is the one? What if an agent writes me back and says, "I really like this. Send me more!"

I know it will happen one day. And I also know it's unreasonable to really want this first book to get published (I've written a lot of others, but this is the first finished one). But come on, let's get real. Of course I want to get an agent for this first book, and of course I want it to be published! I'm willing for that not to happen, but I'd really love it if it did.

So of course the crazy is settling into my brain. The waiting. The heart-lurching that occurs every time I see I have a new email. The dreams. Yep, even in my sleep I'm dreaming about agents. I dreamed one agent said he liked my book, and he said it was because my main gift was my "colorful" writing. In the dream this made total sense to me, but when I woke up, I was like "huh?" What the frig does that mean? It sounds the same as when someone says something is "interesting".

The whole thing's a total thrill ride. So if I seem weirder than usual, you'll know why! How about you? Whatcha up to? Anybody on the query roller coaster with me?