Monthly Archives: April 2012

Writing to a Deadline Part 12: The Slap of a Rejection

Posted on April 30, 2012 | 38 comments

After a week of waiting… Rejected.

Wow.  That stung.  I read the email.  Well, that’s not true.  After the words “Not ready for publication at this time.” I pretty much skimmed it.

Two things stuck with me off the bat.  George was an unnecessary character, and the opening was confusing.  What??????????  George is the catalyst!  Deep breath… don’t scream.

Being a good little camper, I shut down my computer, and walked away.

I stewed over it for a while.  What were they talking about?  How could they say these things?

Then I took my own advice.  It was a nice day.  I got on my bicycle, and just rode.  I thought over those two comments, and cleared my head for an hour or so.  Once I was able to deal with it, I went back to my computer to read it again.

It’s very hard to take your own advice when something happens to you.  I have walked a few people through this very thing, but never myself.  I’ve sent out work before, but they all saved me this heartache by not answering my queries at all.  This time, I got the definitive “No”.

But was it really a no?  I read it again.  It wasn’t a yes, but it wasn’t completely a rejection either.  They gave me a full-page type-written list of areas they thought were lacking in the story.  Someone thought it through, and let me know everything they thought was a problem.

In my own advice to others: “If someone took that much time, they must have seen something in it that they liked.”

I printed out the page, went to my room, closed the door, and read it over and over.  I realized that if I took their advice about the character George, that the characterization inconsistencies that they pointed out with three other characters would just naturally fall in line.

The last line of the email stated:  If you would like to make changes and resubmit before the deadline date, please send the rewrite directly to “********”

Wait a minute… Go past the normal submission channels?  Hop over the other entries right into a special mailbox?

Not quite so much a rejection anymore, is it?  Thank God I submitted two weeks early!

Seven days for a rewrite, taking out a major plot element.

Gotta go…. Got something to do. 🙂

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What are you writing?

Posted on April 29, 2012 | 44 comments

I just hit another milestone.  15,000 hits.

When I started blogging nine months ago, and no one seemed to be out there, I never dreamed that blogging would ever turn into a hobby, or that there would be so many people reading me.  The Versatile Blogger, Creative Blogger, Leibster award, 7 x 7 Link Award, ABC Award, and One Lovely Blog awards were pretty cool, too. – Thanks to all 🙂

Nathan Bransford recently did a blog post that said (paraphrasing) don’t try to create a network, try to make friends.  Funny, I feel like that’s what happened here.  I see all these little avatars on my screen, and I do feel like I know the regulars.  It’s kind of cool.

What is really cool, is that I am starting to make connections with people in the industry as well.  That is something I really never expected in a zillion years.  I have some ideas brewing, but in order to channel my enthusiasm for the good of all… I need a little input.

I’d like to know a little more about you guys as a group.  So, I am wondering, what do you write?  I’d love it if you’d click on the two polls below so I can get a gage of what the mix is out there.  As always, the comment section is open below for you to add additional fun-loving rants.

Don’t be shy guys… contribute.  You never know what’s going on in my devilish little mind.

Thanks!

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Marketing your novel while querying.

Posted on April 28, 2012 | 8 comments

How do you do this?  Should you do this?

Everything I’ve read, and every author I’ve spoken to says: “Yes.”

When I pressed the submit button to the Publisher for my novelette LAST WINTER RED, I mulled for a little while about how important Marketing was to them.

Now, don’t let that surprise you.  All publishers are interested in authors who are marketable or able to market themselves.

As I’ve said before, my Facebook page stinks. (From my perspective)  My website/blog, however, I spend a lot of time on, and I am very proud of it.

I hoped they would see the value of that.  But then, as I thought it over, I took it a step further.

I decided to post my LAST WINTER RED query on my website.  I gave it its own tab.  But that was boring, and I don’t do boring.  I need to spruce it up a bit.

As most of you have noticed, I have an arsenal of artwork, and I am more than capable of manipulating graphics and text to bend to my will. (All of this artwork is copyrighted and paid for, by the way.  Don’t copy it—that’s stealing)

A short while of scanning brought me to a model that looked just like my MC Emily.  Throw an ashen Victorian dress on her and plop her into the snow in the middle of the woods.  Perfect.  Now, add the red cloak, laying on the snow.  Pout, Emily, you’re sad and confused.  Walla! Instant marketing piece.

If you look long enough, and if you are willing to pay for it (it’s not too costly) you can almost always find exactly what you need.

Now, I plopped this “advertisement” up really quickly, and spent more work on the art than the text since I used the actual query that I submitted to the publisher.  I’m not crazy about the tone of the query for the advertising purposes, but I wanted to get it up quickly, in case the publisher stopped by.

In the next few days, I tightened the query to be a little more readable, and make it look better visually in conjunction with the picture.

A little extra effort shows that not only am I marketable, but I will also be willing to, and have already, marketed my novel.

Please take a look and let me know what you think!

Is this a great idea?  An awful idea?  Whattya think?

Click the LAST WINTER RED tab in my title bar or click HERE to take a peek.

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Posted in General Writing Tips, Marketing Madness, Senseless Ranting

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Writing to a Deadline Part 11: To submit, or not to submit?

Posted on April 27, 2012 | 41 comments

This is where uncertainty creeps in.

I’m done.  I can’t make it any better than it is… at least not in the next few hours… So I just sit and stare at my screen.

I made the mistake of beta-reading my writing buddy’s submission, and her final version knocked my socks off.  It also made me sick to my stomach.

Yeah.  You guessed it.  Mine suddenly stinks.

What was I thinking?  I’m a Science Fiction Writer!  I explode things.  It’s what I do.  What the heck was I thinking with this Dystopian Romance?

But are they just being nice?  Were those just required “cheerleader” Whoots? And one of them didn’t like it at all!

But the other submission is so much better than mine.

But what if all the others are that good?

I’m afraid.

Sweat pours down my temples as my finger hovers over the submit button.

Maybe if I rewrite the climax one more time?  Maybe I should read it once more for syntax errors?

I took a deep breath…

And I pressed the stinking button.

Relief swept over me.  Tension left my muscles.

Now for the worst part…Waiting.

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The return of the The Monomaniacal Middle Grade Reviewer (Wolves of the Beyond)

Posted on April 26, 2012 | 10 comments

The Monomaniacal Middle Grade Reviewer Returns!

Yay!  I finally tied him down    bribed him   convinced the MMGR to do another review.  Here we are with Wolves of the Beyond. Uncut, and uninterrupted…. well, maybe a little interruption, but too funny.  I had to leave it in!!!!!

No Retakes!

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Book Banning

Posted on April 25, 2012 | 41 comments

I recently read an article on why China’s internet censors ban the word “salt”

(Because the government is trying so squash rumors that extra salt intake will protect you from radioactivity)

It led me on a rabbit trail to banned books in the USA.  Now, I expected to see a list of really old books.  Huck Finn was on the list, for instance.  I would expect that… back from the days when people didn’t know any better.

But there were quite a few contemporary novels intermingled with classics like “Catcher and the Rye,” “Of Mice and Men,” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” that really surprised me.

I guess these books are not banned in the sense of the government coming in and taking them off the shelves (which can happen in other countries… we don’t have to worry about that here in the USA)  So I suppose they are saying that certain novels are “banned” by certain groups of people…. Which I would translate to “I don’t like this, so no one else should read it either.  Please don’t read it.”

I remember this happening a few years ago when Da Vinci Code came out.  Controversial?  Sure it was.  But it was FICTION.  The problem was that it was fiction researched so dern well that people believed it.

Oddly enough, Da Vinci Code was not even on this particular list.

Here are the contemporary novels on the list that really jumped out at me.  Get ready to say, “Huh?”

Harry Potter—Not just one.  The whole series (Use of anti-religious themes and use of witchcraft and sorcery)

Golden Compass (Anti-religious themes)

Hunger Games (Sexually explicit, violent, unsuited to age group)

Twilight. (Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence, unacceptable for age group)

Hmmmmmm.  Let’s think about this for a minute.

Think

Think

Think

 

Had enough time?

Soooooo….. anyone else want to trash their current WIP to start writing something controversial?

Hmmm.   Let’s see.  Who can I REALLY offend?

Someday these groups will realize that if you “ban” something, it will just make people want to read it more.  It’s human nature.

Someone ban my novel.  Please?

It’s too…. Ummmmmm…

Extra-terrestrial.  Yes!  That’s it!  Other planets are BAAAAAAD!

Yes!  We must ban this!

Note:  Please censor yourself while making comments.  Do not come out and bash any particular group who may not have liked one of these novels.  I honestly don’t know who banned which, and I don’t care.

Proof is in the numbers that banning does not work… that’s the point of this article.

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Flash Fiction Tuesday – The little Pink Monkey comes to life

Posted on April 24, 2012 | 9 comments

Setting the timer for five minutes.  This is what I came up with.

The computers shut down, and the lights in the building go off for the night.  The little pink monkey smiles.  He unhooks his Velcro hand from the cubicle wall, and jumps to the desk.  He scuttles around the keyboard, and swings over to the chair, using the legs to slide to the floor.  A mouse runs across the carpet, and the little pink monkey hides behind a chair leg.  He’d find a way to catch that varmint for Eric’s Mom.  He knew it was driving her nuts.  First, though, he needed to figure out how to get back on the desk, because the lights were coming back on.  Did it really take that long just to get this far?

Omigosh… Did I just unintentionally start a middle-grade-like novel?

I’m not really liking this one, but it’s what I came up with when I set the timer.  I guess I can expect some good and some so-so five-minute shorts.

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Writing to a Deadline Part 10: Rewrite and Beta Blast

Posted on April 23, 2012 | 7 comments

If you’re just hopping into the insanity that is my writing life, check out my previous “Writing to a Deadline” posts or this won’t make sense.

Okay… fixed that climax.  Yeah!  I did it.  Oh no!  Now I am at 10,280 words!

That’s a whole page over!  Ugh!

Edit madness:  Extra word here, extra word there.  Unnecessary clause?  Can I tighten that dialog a little?  Does this person need to smile?  Is that dialog tag necessary?

Okay, I’m done.  Right?  Am I?   ARRRHGHHHH!

Beta Blast!  Call in the two people who the story really seemed to resonate with (Don’t bother with the person who didn’t seem to get it from the beginning)

Sorry, guys… I know it’s a lot to ask… but I need it back in two days.

Wait….  Wait….  Wait….  Tear a fingernail off.  Wait….  Water the plants… again.  Groom the dog… again (not that she’s complaining.)

Then the panic moment happens.  Through a writer’s group, I find out that someone submitted, and got a positive response.  Not an acceptance, but a request to make changes and re-submit through private channels.

Oh No!  There is a possibility that they will close for submissions if they fill all five slots.

It’s okay… take a deep breath.  I decided that I need to submit NOW, even though there are two weeks left until the deadline.

My two betas came back with minor changes.  Of course, while I was waiting I made changes of my own, so I pleaded for one more read.  Yeah, I can be annoying that way.

My worst writing nightmare is that all of these people call in the favor at the same time while I am up against a deadline of my own ***gack***

Okay… their responses come back.

Remove that comma, change that word…

Easy fixes.

Slow and steady.

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Cancer leaves Scars that you Cannot See

Posted on April 22, 2012 | 32 comments

For those of you who may not be aware, I recently went through my second round of Cancer surgery.  If you’re interested in the kind, or the details, click here or here.

I’m cured at the moment.  Everything is fine.

Something unexpected happened to me the other day, though.

I sat on the floor, packing up the paperwork after finishing our taxes for the year.  I set one folder aside—the one with all the important investment information.  I realized that I was the only one in the house that even knew this folder existed, so I didn’t want to bury it in the filing cabinet.

My husband entered the room, and grabbed something from the table.

“Sweetie,” I said.  “Just in case anything ever happens to me, I need you to take this blue folder to a financial advisor.  He will tell you what to do.”

His face grew pale.  His expression blank.

I held up the folder.  “I will keep it on top so you can find it easily if you ever need it, okay?”

He stared at me for a moment more, before he burst into tears.  “It was just a little cancer spot,” he sobbed.  “You’re not allowed to die!”

I sat on the floor, stunned.  Actually dying was the furthest thing from my mind at the moment.  I was just trying to be a responsible adult.

I jumped up and held him, his tears dampened my blouse.  “Sweetie, that’s not what I meant.  I just want to make sure you and the kids would be okay if…”

“Don’t say it!”  His body shook in my arms.  “I can’t do this without you.  You can’t die first.  You can’t leave me alone.  I need you.”

“Sweetie, don’t worry.  I’m not going to die.”

We held each other for a while, silent.

My husband is my rock.  He stood beside me, holding my hand while they cut the cancer from my arm.  He changed my bandages.  He took care of me.  It never occurred to me that he was just as scared as I was.

For the first time in months, the children didn’t interrupt our brief moment of intimacy.  He needed that.

Maybe I needed that too.

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By Request — Lay versus Lie – Take Two & National Macaroni Day!

Posted on April 21, 2012 | 10 comments

It’s National Macaroni Day!

Yay!  I finally have a reason to use my Macaroni font!  Oh, Macaroni, how do I love thee… Let me count the ways… Okay, I will not soliloquize about pasta, but it’s tempting.

Today we are going to bring back a topic near and dear to everyone’s hearts…  The dreaded Lay vs Lie conundrum.

I ran into a lay verses lie problem in my Writing to a Deadline Novelette “Last Winter Red”

I went back and checked my notes to make sure I got it right.  This was a tough one.  I followed the rules, and used the one that fit, even though it sounded wrong.

Everyone said it was wrong!

One person said, “I know you used the right version, but this sounds bad.  I’d use the wrong one.”

Agreeing with her, I changed it.  Then went for another round of betas, and had to change it again!

I am so confused at this point, that I actually considered re-writing the scene so that little girl is not laying in that stinking bed.  Ugh!

I finally landed on one that no one complained about, but I still don’t think it’s grammatically correct.

Oh, well.

If the publisher mentions it, I’ll let you know.

Happy

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