Teaser of the week

So, on FaceBook I started posting a little snippet of my novel once a week, just two or three sentences.  I figured I'd do the same here, but longer.  This is from my prologue.

She wore a pale blue skirt that just touched the back of her knees. His eyes traced the moon pale curve of her bare calves, down to her black stilettos, then back up to the raven hair cascading halfway down her back in loose curls. And although she was turned away from him, he knew her face – 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.

Only twenty feet separated them now. He moved forward with calm assuredness, closing the distance. Ten feet. He could smell her now, her soft fragrance of blossoming jasmine tingeing the air. Five feet. Reaching out a thin hand, his fingertips touched one perfect obsidian curl. Taking a deep, focused breath, he called on the dark magic that would end her existence, not only her body but her soul as well. His only regret was she had no idea what was about to hit her.

Begin the Begin

For any of you R.E.M. fans out there, you'll recognize my title as the name of one of their songs.  I was listening to it yesterday, and I really felt like it was meaningful for where I am right now.  I'm at the beginning of the beginning.  No matter what path I go down with my first book, I'm at the beginning.  The plan is for that beginning to be getting an agent and getting published and starting a kick butt career.  Of course, there are a multitude of other options, too, which I won't get too bogged down about now.  Maybe later - ha!

I got another rejection today, but I'm still feeling pretty good.  I suppose I might start to panic a bit if I get through the remaining 15 or so on my list, but for the moment I'm cool.  It only takes one person to like my work.  I don't need all of the New York agents to get in a hot cat fight over my novel, though of course I've fantasized about it.  Snicker.

Anywho, on a personal note my son rode his bike for the first time yesterday without training wheels, and it was a very exciting day.  He'd fallen down quite a bit in the few times we'd practiced before and seemed no closer to discovering his balance than he was when he started, then all of the sudden he had it.  Super neat.

Random Thursday

Not much new to share, other than I sent out a couple more queries last night. And I got lots of compliments on my not-quite-black Purple Rain nail polish at work today, especially since I rarely paint my nails.

I've added some links to my website and the blog... as I distract myself from waiting to hear back from agents I'll undoubtedly scour some more writing sites and keep adding to it.

Last but not least, I thought I'd upload a few pics that I've taken recently, because my blog seems to lack nice pictures. Sometime soon I'll have to start playing around with creating a book trailer for Eternal Memory and can post some of the pics I'm considering using. Fun!

The first hydrangeas I've grown (my favorite flower)

Literary Kitty, the purring prima donna known as Aislinn

Live Oak tree - being from the South, I'm obsessed with them

Query Crazy

So, this weekend I fired off four new queries, and did some rather exhausting research on Writer's Market to come up with a list of another fifteen agents to begin querying next. Oh, the fun. I've already gotten one rejection... but, the good thing about that is it doesn't feel quite so devastating as the first few. I can handle it calmly without feeling really personally put out.

So, today I promised to do nothing pertaining to my book other than write this post. I took my time doing normal stuff like make dinner, read the mail, help my son with his book report. Now I'm about to take a bubble bath and read Alice in Wonderland (which I picked up the other day; never read the whole book), maybe drink some wine, and then paint my toenails. Good night!

Mission completed!

I did it! I made it through the major edit I was working on, otherwise known as avoiding querying and thus rejection! I was lying in bed, completely unable to go to sleep, so I decided to go online and look at Anthropologie and all the pretty furniture I can't buy, and then I realized I should post an update to my weekend challenge!

I realize that was a very long sentence... I'm a little too hyped right now for 9 minutes to midnight when I have to wake up at 6:30. Anyways, I am very excited. I was also working on my query letter, which I'm going to let marinate for a few days. But this weekend, I query the world!

Oh, I've also added some links to good writers resources, which I'll undoubtedly be adding to when it’s not 9 minutes to midnight on a Sunday. One that I may have mentioned before is Query Shark, which I absolutely love and spent several weeks stalking and reading every post ever written on the site. I think my query letter and my book have greatly improved from reading it.

So, cheers to late night enthusiasm and optimistic hopes of publishing success!

This weekend

So, I'm down to 58 pages for my final edit (final, ha ha - well, at least for now). I guess I should say hopefully my last major edit before I get an agent, and then a publisher. 58 pages until I once again put myself forth for a chance to be ignored and rejected. Writers are masochists, eh? I've probably said that before, but it deserves to be said again.

Anywho, I am going to try and get those last pages done this weekend. That's an awful lot for me to accomplish in one weekend, especially considering I have plans tomorrow. But I'm in the last stretch, so I'm hoping the light at the end of the tunnel will help me finish.

On another note, the traffic to my website has increased over the last couple of months, which is cool. One day in the near future I will have exciting news to post there!

Long overdue blog post

So, I have been very remiss in my blogging lately. Nothing terribly exciting to report - I've just been going through another major set of edits before I begin querying agents again. Adding more inner dialogue for my main character, tightening up the flow (removing extra words, awkward phrasing, etc). I'm about two thirds of the way through.

Hopefully within a couple weeks I'll be back at work contacting agents... it's so nerve-wracking. While I'm editing I think about all the parts that I love so much, and how awesome I think the book is, but as soon as I send out sample pages I think how dreadful it is... alas, the craziness in a writers head.

So, this next go round I'm going to work on finding my Zen place when I query agents, and having a little faith. And I'll have my trusty blog to look back at when I get published and am asked how it all began.