You and me... and me and you...

So here we are. You. Me. Henry. My desk, a stack of journals, lousy illustrations by yours truly, stacks of paper scraps with chicken scratch all over them, and of course, one steaming hot cup of coffee (thanks, Lovemuffin!).

Now what?

I feel as though I'm in a three-ring (Or is it ringed?) circus. (If you'd like to picture me as the clown, fine. I wear a size ten shoe anyway so my feet being humacious is something I'm used to. But I will *not* wear that big red nose. Sorry. I have to draw the line somewhere.) I have this women's fic piece I've been working on, the second book that would come after FLORA (which may or may not even go anywhere so is it really smart to work on it all of the time? Obviously not. I'm not writing it, anyway, just jotting down ideas as they come.), and the WiP that came to me not that long ago, which I think is a pretty darn good idea if I do say so myself but will involve lots of thinking and brain wracking and hard work and well, I'm in lazy mode because it's the holidays and whatnot -- you know how that is, right?

So when I get into this mode of ideas crashing through my head, I go back and forth constantly from journal to journal, and not a whole lot of actual writing gets done. (Plot points? Yes. Dialogue? Once in a while. But word count? Nuh-uh.) When the day is done, I pretty much have nothing to show for it. Very frustrating.

I'm trying to decide which project to focus my energy on, but this deciding stuff is for the birds. Lovemuffin wants me to work on the shiny new (YA) WiP, instead of going back to the adult one. He's proud of the idea I've come up with -- him actually saying "Well I think you should work on such-and-such" is quite a big deal. But... I want to be lazy! (How dare I want something like that, right? Writer's can't be lazy! Hello, Jessica! What are you thinking?)

Ooh look. Donuts... on an eraser. Do you think it tastes like donuts?

Progress Makes Perfect

Da da dah da dah dah da dum, da dah dum da da dum dum dah dum dum....

Imagine me wearing a tall drum major hat (chin strap pulled tightly on my chin), and baton in my hand, marching proudly down the street.  Then add the song the band always plays, which I can't think of at the moment (too excited), but all you have to do is look at the way it goes up there on the first line and you should know exactly what I'm talking about.  (Or not.)

Anyway.  I'm celebrating.  *throws confetti*  Know why?  Because I'm halfway through the first draft of Flora, my YA WiP (for you non-writerly pals out there, that's short for "young adult work in progress").  Even typing the word "halfway" makes me excited.   

Coffee toast, anyone?

Obviously I still have a long way to go, I am only half way done.  And it is only the first draft, with many rounds of editing to come once it's finished, but still.  I'm proud.  Proud of myself, proud for sticking it out.  Yay!

I'll be posting a blog later in the week about one tool that's helped me get this far.  But today, I'm just going to throw confetti every so often.  I'm having fun, enjoying my progress =)

Happy Monday everyone!

Gardening and writing are a lot alike

A few weeks ago our family planted a garden. We'll be eating plenty of cucumbers, cantalope, bell peppers, tomatoes, and even yellow watermelon (hopefully) in the next few months. But before spending hours in the backyard cutting out grass, leveling the ground, making a wooden frame and bringing in dirt and soil, we germinated most of the seeds under a grow light in the house.

It took less time than we expected to see plants sprouting out of the soil, and with only a little time, effort and water, our seedlings became big and strong. The next step was transferring them to a larger container so their roots could grow, and then it was time to get them accustomed to the sun. It's been really windy here the past month, so along with getting used to the sunlight, the little plants also needed time to get used to being whipped around.

Planting day was a laborious job, and not a fun one, in my book. I followed the girls around, tsking them for not packing the dirt in enough around the delicate little plants, or getting tired when they were only halfway done. But we survived the long afternoon, and it is now time to deal with the task of weeding and watering, and the enjoying the process as we watch them grow.

Two weeks ago we realized we'd forgotten to germinate our squash. My mother-in-law even came over to help, and we sat around the dining room table, preparing the soil pods, organizing the seeds, and labeling them with little signs. After a week or so, I decided it was time to move them outside. And then... I got preoccupied with my writing.

This is how they ended up.

See what happens when you don't give them the time and effort that they need?  These plants used to be nice and strong... now they are ugly and weak.  I was staring at them the other day, frustrated with myself for wasting everyone's time, and then I realized...

Gardening and writing are a lot alike. For one, it's easy to see the end result in the distant future, to automatically expect the big, bountiful production that's bound to arrive, eventually, at the end. I'm going to have big juicy watermelon, tons of plump tomatoes, and a bunch of cucumbers. And with the latest piece I'm working on, I'm going to have a neat ending, everything will come together, and the story will be wrapped up all perfect and nice.

But nothing is that easy. Rewards don't come without hard work, and the little things, preparations that go into gardening, like consistently pulling weeds and watering to keep the plants alive can be monotonous and time-consuming.

It's exactly the same with writing. The day to day process may not be fun, but making time everyday to consistently crunch out words and ideas in order for an entire story to come together - well, that can be just as monotonous and time-consuming as gardening, if not more so.

And just like with gardening, it doesn't take long before you start feeling worn down and stop seeing the fun in it, if you forget to look at the work right under your nose and only focus on what should happen in the end.

I'd like to be able to say that after my little gardening epiphany, things picked up and both my garden and my WiP are in tip-top shape. That would be the perfect ending to this post, don't you think? Sure, the garden is doing well, and for the most part I've gotten over the fact that our chance to have squash this year has been squashed. (Ha ha.) My writing, on the other hand? Well, that's a bit of a different story. (Bah-duh-dum)

I know the beginning, I know the end, I know the middle. Actually, I know the entire story line, but the problem is, there are two. The main one has been obvious from the beginning, but the secondary one, yeah, not so much. So instead of looking at the ending and being frustrated that I can't get there as soon as I'd like, I'm going to cultivate my ideas, store them as they come to me, and write them down. Every. Single. Day. And eventually, just like with our garden, I'll have produce. It may take longer than the summer, or who knows, maybe one day I'll go from having a few ideas to suddenly knowing the entire thing.

Either way, I plan on sticking with it, no matter what. You know why? Because nothing feels better than showing off something you grew with your own hands. Well maybe one thing does - showing off something you wrote all by yourself.

Metaphorically Speaking

Metaphor

–noun

1.

a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance

I've been reading On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner, something I probably should have done months ago, but hey, better late than never.  A specific passage caught my eye this morning and it completely explained why I love reading books by Jonathan Tropper.  (Warning - his books are definitely rated "R" - don't want anyone rushing out to read his work, only to be offended by my recommendation.)

The eloquent Mr. Gardner says,

The writer sensitive to language finds his own metaphors, not simply because he has been taught to avoid cliches but because he enjoys finding an exact and vivid metaphor, one never before thought of, so far as he knows.

I found that as my own story came together and the voice shined through the words, I came to appreciate the occasional metaphors - how Hallie would compare things when explaining how she felt.  Here's a passage from ILYU -

I pulled one of his t-shirts over my head and made my way to the kitchen, the sunlight pouncing on me like a cat through each window, hunting me down to chide at my alcoholic indiscretion the night before.

How many of you enjoy using metaphors?  Do you find them hard to write, or do they come easily?  I thought I'd give people the opportunity to share lines from their WiPs, so if you'd like to, feel free to do so in the comments section.

Also, speaking of works in progress, Suzette Saxton and Bethany Wiggins over at Shooting Stars have a contest going on until the 28th of this month.  The winner receives two first-five page critiques from none other than Suzette and Bethany themselves!  So if you'd like two more pair of eyes to check out your work and give you feedback, head on over there and enter the contest!

Happy Monday!

Finish Each Day and be Done

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I've learned this myself the past two weeks.  It's funny.  (Not laugh out loud "ha ha" but more like strange... I didn't want to say strange though... which I have now done, so go ahead and insert your choice of word there, I guess.)  You just don't realize the time and work people put into writing until you're the one doing it.  My fellow writers out there know what I mean, and my fellow readers (who aren't writers) think they know what I mean, but, and I say this in a very polite way, they totally don't.  First time writers don't know either.  We're probably in the same boat as the "readers", getting all excited with the idea of writing, skipping past the in-between stuff and straight to movie deals and recognition, and of course, tons of money.  Talk about delusional.  That's not remotely how it works,  due mainly to the fact that at the beginning, it takes people pointing out that you're not awesome far from ready to submit your better than anything anyone has ever written ghastly work to agents.

So then the process evolves, turning into one more process, another few weeks of editing, to where you know the story is better than it was before, and you think you're ready to submit... and guess what?  You're still not.  It's emotionally and physically and definitely mentally draining.  Meanwhile, like most people, you're trying to continue doing the things you have to do, are obligated to do, holing yourself up often, away from everyone you know in order to do this crazy thing you hate yourself half the time for ever having wanted to do in the first place.

Eventually you get to the point where you can call it "done".  Finished.  Perfect Acceptable.  I think I'm close to that now.  Think.  And hope.  Hope with my entire being that I'm close to calling it a day.  To the point where I can actually submit this thing that's taken over my life, made me ride the biggest roller coaster of my life, want to pull out my hair, shout from the rooftops how proud of myself I am for sticking with it.  And then... it's time to query.  But I won't go into that right now.  That's a whole other blog post.

The point of this post?  Taking two weeks off from everything but just writing and doing what I'm obligated to do around here was the best thing I've ever done.  In fact, I'm sure I'll need to do it again soon.  I learned that the expectations are too high many times.  We set a very high standard for ourselves, and it's not that we shouldn't live up to them, because we should, but we all need a lot more time to get there than we allow.  Doing our best each day and then calling it that, a day, is the only way to survive this process.  

It's kind of like the new mom syndrome, where tons of people are telling you "Take a nap! Sleep when the baby sleeps! Take advantage of quiet time, don't do your dishes and the laundry - just rest!", but you don't do it.  You don't leave the laundry, the dishes, for the next day.  You try to get it all done.  And for what?  It's still going to be there when you wake up the next morning, and the next one, and so on.  But for some strange reason you're convinced that no one knows what they're talking about, that you're stronger and can make it through unlike everyone else without taking time to rest. Then after a month or two the advice kicks in, and you realize how foolish you were not to have listened.  Writing is the same way.  Writers know what they're talking about, people.  It's not a marathon.  It's a journey.  There's no finish line you have to cross in a designated time frame, three months, six months, a year.  

I thought I'd be done in a few months.  That was back in May.  I'm at nine months. I still find it hard to say.  It used to make me feel depressed.  Feel like I sucked because I still hadn't finished.  But I did.  I finished three times, and now I'm near completion of number four.  Four drafts, hours that would make up weeks, at least, of this last round of editing.  And that's a good thing.  Polishing is good.

 So I'll continue working, doing what I know, what I feel needs to be done.  At the end of the day, no matter how much time I've put in, effort is the only thing that matters - more than word counts, page numbers, or anything else. Expectations have to go out the window.  They just do. Goals, on the other hand, goals are good too.  And my goal?  To do the possible, what I'm capable of - to finish each day and be done with it, until I wake up again the next morning.  That will get me there, in the end.  And I'll know I did everything I could.

 

Hiatus

hi⋅a⋅tus

 

–noun, plural -tus⋅es, -tus.

1.	a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc.

I'm on hiatus.  I've pulled myself away from the internet, though I'm not sure for how long.  Initially I'd thought a week would be long enough get my thoughts together, fix my editorial issues, ect.  But here I am a week later, and I don't feel a whole lot better off than I was seven days ago.

Last week started off great.  On Monday I took all of the wonderful advice my blogging friends gave me to heart, and sat down with Hallie, my main character.  The two of us had a nice, long talk, and she told me how she felt, what she saw, the things that went through her mind.  I discovered a new way to open ILYU, and though it may not work in the long run, I'm quite satisfied for the time being.  

I was able to get quite a bit accomplished until Wednesday night, and really feel as though I've got Hallie's voice the way I want it.  (That and the new beginning are the two main accomplishments I am proud of.)  But then, after spending endless hours cutting, pasting, deleting, typing, re-typing, and doing exactly what that quote says, something along the lines of "This morning I took out a comma, and tonight I put it back" (I know the quote, I've tweeted it, but I don't have time to look it up right now), my mind went on hiatus too.  No matter how hard I tried on Thursday or Friday, my thinker was done, worn out, finished.  I was very disappointed in myself, to say the least. Even yesterday afternoon, after finishing a book that wasn't at all how I thought it would be, I figured, "Hey, perfect. Lesson learned - don't do that with your WiP." but when I sat down to work, the screen felt like one of those hypnotizing swirling things going round and round while someone said "You are getting sleepy..." and I couldn't focus.

So anyway, to get to the point...  Staying away from my favorite sites, twitter, blogger and facebook, mainly, taught me one thing.  Actually, I take that back, it taught me two things.  The first thing I learned (or was reminded of, actually - this wasn't really a surprise to me at all) was that my time management sucks.  I realize I'm not the first one to say this, but the whole writing/platform thing is very time consuming.  I keep having to remind myself that though a platform is necessary, it's no use if there's nothing to platform.  Which means that the WiP is numero uno, and the platform thing comes after that.  Wayyyyyy after that.  Like my dessert to reward myself for getting everything else done first.

The second thing I learned was that I miss being on those sites, talking with people, seeing what is going on with everyone.  You all mean more to me than you will ever know - this internetal (yes, just made that up) tie to other writers out there is the lifeline that keeps me going day after day.  (I would say I miss my Bejeweled, but that would be lying, because the one thing I did allow myself to do every night, after the kids had been fed and my eyes burned so bad that I wanted to gouge them out of the sockets, and brain was so mushy I could barely form whole sentences, much less get them to leave my mouth, was a few games of Bejeweled.  It didn't require words, or commas, or thoughts, really.  I used it as my wind-down, my way to relax after trying to think all day long.  Oh and not that I'm bragging or anything, but I do have a pretty decent score. Hee hee.)  I want to thank you all for your advice, not only as comments on my blog, but as posts on your own sites, blogs, twitter, ect.  Like many readers I don't always have the time to acknowledge your posts, but they mean more than you'll ever know. 

So I'm still on hiatus.  This week is going to be crazy anyway, between the kid's birthday tomorrow and Valentine's Day and everything else.  But next week I'm going to resurface, slowly, and with purpose, and hopefully come back with much work accomplished and lots of great quips and advice to tweet again.

The Words We Choose

According to George Orwell in Politics of the English Language, a writer should ask him/herself a few questions with every sentence that is written.  (I haven't been able to put questions one through four into action yet, as I would rather finish my latest editing and then go back over it with a fine-toothed comb to ask questions such as these, but I thought I would share his advice now anyway.)

George Orwell says,

"A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 

1. What am I trying to say? 

2. What words will express it? 

3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 

4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? 

And he will probably ask himself two more: 

1. Could I put it more shortly? 

2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?"

As I re-read these questions today I realized I've already been working on the last two - especially the "could I put it more shortly" one.  I've read over my WiP billions of times (well it feels like billions) and I'm just beginning to see sentence after sentence (after sentence!) with *completely* unnecessary words.  It's as though I had blinders on, and someone took them off a few days ago, enabling me to finally see the whole picture.  

Deleting those unnecessary words is a relief for the most part, but now I have yet another problem.  Yep.  Word count.  I'm starting to panic about my word count again.  (Luckily I'm copying the latest draft over into my "current" draft one chapter at a time, so I have no clue what my true word count will be when I finish.  I can't imagine how much I'd freak out if I saw words dropping from my final word count right now. Gasp!)

So do any of those six questions affect you at all, my writerly readers?  If so, what have you done to resolve those issues?

 

The Query Bandwagon

Saturday night as I lay in bed trying to fall asleep, I fell off the bandwagon. I don't know where it came from, but out of the blue, with no warning whatsoever, I began to panic. My heart was racing. I tried to be inconspicuous as possible, and squeezed my eyes shut trying to calm myself down, even though it felt as though I could barely breathe.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Queries. Queries! QUERIES!!!

It was time to query! (Panic!) I was at the next stage of the game, the part where writing my query was in order. (Or polishing it to perfection, rather.) I guess for some reason my brain just hadn't put two and two together yet. Writing query + querying agent = possible rejection. (REJECTION!) Duh. Yep... that's how the process works.

It was as though I'd already been defeated - because I was lying there, assuming to be the stereotypical writer who sent query after query and received rejection after rejection. I very well may be that person, in fact. But my point is, how in the world was I to know that yet, at 1:00 in the morning, lying there in my bed on a Saturday night (or yes, technically Sunday morning)?

I spent a few hours researching agents yesterday. First I went over the ones I'd found a few months ago. At the time I'd searched for days - going through books, perusing the internet, ect. to make sure I'd found just the right people to query. But at that point I wasn't where I truly needed to be with the WiP, so I'd stuffed everything away into a folder and went back to editing.

When I sat down to my folder, a few of the agents I'd found months ago were still fresh in my mind. They went in the "First Query" pile. (Ten agents is all I'm going to attempt for my first time. I don't want to sit around knowing there are tons of them floating around in cyberspace waiting to be read, possibly read and rejected already, or I'll be freaking out for months.) After a few hours, counting a few I'd found already and the new ones I'd jotted down to look up, I finally had nine agents in my "First Query" pile. I just needed one more - the one, incidentally, that I'd been trying to find the most.

A few specific authors have reminded me of myself in ways. One in particular reminded me of myself a bit too much. I kept pointing out similarities between that book and mine to Lovemuffin as I read it. The first time I pointed something out, he laughed. "Ohhh no." That was his reaction. Like "Oh great, that sucks for your sanity." The second time - "You aren't changing it!" - his voice a few decibels louder. (Basically what he always says when that frantic look spreads across my face which, loosely translated means, "Heck no you are not changing it. I've dealt with this crazy woman in my house for over 6 months now. I've been as supportive as I know how, and I'm about to tell her to find a new place to live - and will for sure if she thinks she is going to change that book one more time"!) Then a few hours after I had taken a break at agent number 9, coming across the closest thing to my WiP yet he says - "You're always going to find some similarities!" (I imagine him looking like Charlie Brown yelling that as I type this, but in reality, he didn't really yell with his arms shoved down to his sides and his hands bunched into fists. And he was right, what he said was true. But I didn't want to hear that. I'm not sure what I wanted to hear, actually.)

"But... listen to this!" I yelled as he shook his head and walked out of our bedroom. I read two separate sentences, within a few paragraphs of each other. He didn't respond. (Which, I'm thinking, was probably the best thing he could have done, for his own sake.)

A few hours later I went back to looking for agents again. The author of that one book, the one I'd been searching all over the stinkin' internet to figure out the agent for, the one that I'd waved in Lovemuffin's face a few hours earlier in fact - that information was still eluding me. It was driving me crazy. I cursed Google. I cursed Wikipedia. I cursed authors for not listing their agents' names on their websites. How dare they. Didn't they know they were making it harder on me? I mean really.

I logged into the site I'd begun using to track queries and decided, what the hey. I'll just type in Women's Fiction, and see what happens. Well... three hundred agents happened. Some accepting queries, some not. Men, women, agencies I'd never even heard of. Eight pages of agents who, at one point, were either currently or recently receiving queries of women's fiction.

I stared at the pages. Where do you start? Click on the first one and go down the line, researching? (That sounds obvious, doesn't it? But I was trying to find a method for my madness, I guess.) I read about thirty agents' names, their agencies. Then I just clicked on one. A random link, random name. Neither meant a thing to me. And get this. Not only was it the agency representing the book I'd been going crazy looking for, but an agency that represented THREE authors I was familiar with (that particular one included).

Was it an omen? Did the sky open up and a lightning bolt came through my ceiling along with a deep voice saying "You shall now query this agent!"? No. But I can't tell you the relief I felt. That urgent, pressing, you're-running-out-of-time-fast feeling I'd had since Saturday night, was gone. Boom. Just like that.

I'm not clueless or naive enough to think that finding that specific literary agency/agency meant they'll eventually represent me. But after finding my number ten, I feel ready to take the next step. Who knows what will happen next - but for now, at this moment at least, I feel peace.  I'm back - nice and comfy, legs crossed, with my hands locked and resting behind my head - relaxing on the Query Bandwagon.

A resolute New Year's resolution

2010 is only a few days away.  As I finish packing away the last of the Christmas decorations and organize piles of new gifts our family has accumulated over the past few days, I'm trying to put my finger on just what exactly this year's resolution is going to be.

For me, the same few things come to mind each December as the year draws to a close. I need to start working out again.  It wouldn't hurt to lose a few pounds.  Maybe I should resolve to be more organized.  Or maybe I need to practice letting things slide once in a while and occasionally just go with the flow.   Do more activities with the kids.  Plan more outings with Lovemuffin, things we can do as just the two of us.

The only thing I know for sure as I look into the future, is that I want the next step in this whole writing process to begin.  I'm anxious, anticipating the results from editing, wishing I knew someone else - a non-partial person who could sit back and sift through my work with unbiased eyes and tell me that I'm either 1) truly ready to start querying or 2) still need to fine tune a few things - at this point either one  would be fine with me, because it would mean progress, a push in the right direction.

But I don't have that - someone I can sit down with and talk to, or ask questions.  (Not locally anyway.)  I'm on my own here - learning from what I can find in books and online, learning by reading work of other authors - deciding for myself what I do and don't like in their writing, then comparing it to my own voice and my own work, respectively.  

I'm pretty close to the timeline I set a couple of months ago and this is right where I wanted to be.  So I'm thinking the best resolution for 2010 would be to continue moving forward.  To push myself, keep the goals I've assigned to this project, set dates (not set in concrete, but dates nonetheless) to keep me going in the right direction.  

These next few months might possibly keep or take away my sanity.  But I'm going to be resolute - I'm not going to give up, no matter how discouraged I get.  Because it's just like Dorrie (my favorite character in Finding Nemo) says - "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...what do we do? We swim!"  And I'm going to do just that.  I'm going to swim along (even if it's upstream and difficult or frustrating at times), and push myself until I get to the next step, then the next one, and so on.  I resolve to push forward and give this my all - to take a break when I get tired, ask for support when I need it, and ultimately, in a few months, (hopefully) have something new to report regarding "I'll Love You Until". 

In the meantime, I plan to continue working on two new ideas that have been in my head (which is what writers are supposed to do, from what I understand - move on to the next project, while waiting on the process of the previous one).  

So there you go.  My resolution for 2010.  What's yours?

Hey! They stole my line!

Have you ever felt as though someone stole an idea from you, even though you'd never said a word about it?  My fellow mothers out there know exactly what I'm talking about - we've all been caught saying "Hey - that's what I was going to name MY baby!"  or "Wow, I like that name, I think I'll use that!"  *hangs head in shame for the second one*

I’ve been working on a new WiP for a little over a week now, and maybe I’ve been under a rock the past few months or something (I'm willing to admit I probably have been), but when I came up with the name Collin as a character in my new WiP, I was pretty darn proud of myself.  I didn’t know any Collins personally. I wasn’t able to recall hearing the name Collin at all in recent years, and I spent days researching names online until I’d found the *perfect* one for my character.  I was happy as a clam, sitting at my computer for hours on end, writing “Colling this” and “Collin that”, in an inspired writing frenzy.

Then Lovemuffin and I watched The Ugly Truth.  And what is the main male character’s name in The Ugly Truth?  (Those of you who’ve seen it, please feel free to say it with me…)  Collin!  Suddenly I was seeing and hearing Collin all over the place  - especially in TV shows and magazines.  Oh, and Made of Honor?  I've seen it at least five times.  Can you guess what Kevin McKidd's character's name is?  Colin!  (So I had heard the name, even though I didn't realize it.)  I was like WHAT?  Who do these people think they are?  They stole my name!  

 It didn’t help that a week before I’d realized Collin was the new “Andrew” (or whatever the popular name is at the moment – like I said, I’ve been under a rock I guess, so I have no clue what “the” popular name is at the moment) almost an entire scene I’d thought up (and was quite proud of) was played out right in front of my eyes on  a TV show.  And about a month and a half ago I was watching a rather popular movie – a love story mind you, written by a very famous author (which had been adapted into a movie), when halfway through the movie I realized the main male character’s name was the same as one of my mine in I’ll Love You Until!

I pondered over that last dilemma for over a week, worried it would look as though I’d copied that particular story.  But do you know what I finally decided?   After much contemplation I said to myself, “Oh well!  This movie may be a few years old, but I’d never read the book, I just barely watched the movie – no one ever told me the plot – and I’m NOT changing my character’s name!”   Good for me, right? 

One reason the same story lines and names appear quite often, in my opinion, is the fact that we are constantly inundated with media, especially those of us who frequent the internet. We can go youtube, twitter, myspace, facebook, and so on and so forth, in a matter of seconds.  Videos, stories, comics, interviews and pretty much anything we can think of are constantly flashing before of our eyes.  TV shows are debuting and being cancelled faster than I can say “Hey, I think I’m starting to get into this show.”, and movies are accessible more than ever before, thanks to redbox, Netflix, itunes and other convenient services.  And so, with all of those ideas and stories appearing before our eyes and soaking into our subconscious, how can we not be influenced by it all? That has to be how Collin got into my head.  (The other two issues though, they must have just happened to be coincidences.)  

The whole situation got me thinking, so here are my questions for this week -  How many other writers have dealt with this same issue?  What was your reaction when you saw a key scene in your writing show up on a weekly sitcom, for example, or when a particular setting you’d thought as original ended up being already written by someone else?  Did you revise, and change it?  Or stand firm with your decision?  

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

 

 

Please put your hands together for...the introverted author!

I've decided that I'm a performer.  It all makes perfect sense now.  That's why I am scared to death to meet strangers, but I have no problem being in front of strangers if they stay...strangers.

In high school and junior high I loved being in plays.  I sold Avon for years, and had quite a large customer base, if I do say so myself.  I've thrown tons of bridal and baby showers and birthday parties.  Want me to volunteer somewhere? No problem.  Stand in front of a group of people and give a seminar?  I don't think I'd give it a second thought.  All of those things involve meeting mainly large groups of people -- always on my terms.  But tell me I'm going to meet someone new, and even worse, that there's only a few people, and I totally and completely freak out.  Because that makes it personal. Which is scary. Personal and performance are two totally different things.  Keep this in mind as I tell you what happened to me earlier this evening.

For the past month or so, I have been trying to get together with a few local authors that I found via the internet.  I haven't met them yet, though we've been trying to get together for a while.  A few weeks ago one of the authors was nice enough to inform me about a local published author speaking at the library here in town tonight.  She thought going would benefit me, and I did too.

Now let me just say that my normal modus operandi is to plan on something like that up until hours before, and then flake (or freak) out and not go.  That day always ends up being insane (and today was) and I use that to help me feel better about not going.

Today I refused to give in to my usual routine.  I stood in the bathroom all sweaty and stressed tonight after warming up left-overs for dinner (while getting to hear complaints about this or that, not to mention yelling at the kids to "Please leave some for your dad!") and visiting with a friend for a bit.  I tried to start my flat iron a thousand times (no matter how many times I punched the breaker and turned on the iron over and over again -- for some reason, the light wouldn't go on). 

Then I decided to try something different and plugged in my curlers. What-do-ya-know, they worked just fine.  After going to an outlet on the opposite side of the house and testing the flat iron (yes, of course it turned on) I went back into my room and plugged it in again for about the tenth time, and the light lit up immediately. (What the?)

So back to the sweaty and stressed part.  I stood there trying to do my hair.  Curlers? Or flat iron?  Curlers. No...flat iron. Wait....  I finally decided the flat iron would make me less sweaty than the curlers.   After doing my hair and getting dressed (amidst kids coming in and out -- one had a hurt ankle and was crying, another was working on a book report, and the other was bugging the one who was trying to do a book report before finally deciding to tell me the events of her day in great detail and at an even greater decibel) I started doing my makeup.  At that point my brain was screaming "Don't go! Don't go! Don't go!" but I'm so proud of myself -- I ignored it.

I sat outside for a few minutes to cool off and contemplated not going again.  Five minutes after the event was supposed to begin, I got into the car.  (Being on time is never my strong suit anyway.)  I blared my ipod all the way there to get myself pumped. I can do this. I can do this!  I. Can. Do. This.

Parking turned into a small feat for some reason, but after the fourth try I finally parked in the stall correctly (nerves, I'm telling you), and forced myself to get out (Sanitizer? Check!  Cell phone? Check!  Purse? Yes in deedy!) and walk down the long sidewalk to the library's front doors.

One deep breath and I was opening the door.  And of course this huge whoosh of air blew over me as I walked in (air conditioner?  Psycho winds?  Little devil flying over to land on my shoulder and scream "Don't go in!" one more time? I dunno) -- my hair went flying everywhere and all onto my lip gloss.  But I kept walking.  And let me just tell you, my readers -- I'm glad I did.  

If you're wondering what I did next, I really didn't do anything.  I snuck in as discreetly as possible and sat in the back where no one could see me.  Then I listened. I listed to this woman and mother and wife tell her story of queries and refusals and queries and more refusals, and self-publishing when she gave up on the queries, and then I listened to her talk about finding a publisher. And getting a deal.  A five book deal.  

I found myself excited FOR her.  Happy for this person I'd never met.  Excited and proud for this person who'd decided one day to write for fun, who had only a few short years later made a name for herself, able to stand there in our library and say that she had a publisher and an editor and that her next book was coming out in a few months.  

To be honest, it was just downright inspiring.  Not from a "okay I'm totally going to do this and be fine and get a five book deal too" point of view, because I know it's not that easy, and the likelihood of that happening to me as well is very small.  It was more along the lines of inspiring because she did something she loved and had an absolutely wonderful result.

I can't wait to be that person.  At the rate I've been going lately it may be years from now, but I do want to be that person.  Someone who can stand up in front of people and speak/perform in front of a bunch of strangers (which will work out great, because that's what I do well) and my loved ones and say "I am an author!  And I'm published!"  It's going to be awesome.  I can't wait to have my family sitting there in the back of the room, with the same proud smiles on their faces.  

This will happen, my dear readers. In time.  Someone will say, "Put your hands together for Jessica Brooks!".  I will stand there holding the microphone, after the usual insane day, and tell my story.  And hopefully someone else will be inspired.

Dear Blog...

Dear Blog,

I miss you blog, I really do.

Haven't been on here much, it's true.

I'm just so busy, how 'bout you?

When's my next post? I have no clue.

The thing at the school is keeping me busy.

In fact, these past few days, I've actually felt dizzy!

Everything should calm down by the end of the month.

(I couldn't think of a rhyme, my brain's gone all fizzy.)

Until I can post about my writing once again,

The least I can do is check in now & then.

So here I am, doing fine -- and my writing's been...

Well let's just say that it's been.  

Been waiting, been on the back burner, been lonely, been begging for some attention.  (And I'm obviously out of practice because that poem was atrocious!)  There's a lot going on around here at the moment, but as things pop into my head I'm jotting them down.  One person I've wanted to receive feedback from will finally have time to read/critique my WiP in the next two weeks or so, and then hopefully I will be off and running again, and maybe even finalizing the entire thing. (One can hope.)

I just remembered... I did do one writing-involved thing the other day...I entered Nathan Bransford's contest.  Just for fun.  I can't wait to see who he chooses...most entries were far more interesting than mine;)  (And at the insane rate of contest entries he's receiving, I think it will take him quite a while to read through all of them!)

I miss the time-consuming aura of constantly writing and typing -- and can't wait to get back to that very soon...but I will say, I don't miss the writer's bottom or crooked neck. So until I can post on here again, my readers, I will leave you with a neat poem by Judith Pordon -

BLANK BEAUTY  Beautiful blank pages  kiss our  imaginations  with backgrounds  that demand precision.  Our black letters cross  on tightrope lines,  curving  without wavering  across deep, invisible currents.  These beautiful blank pages  are promises of our  reflections.  Our gentlest strokes  of darkness upon light.

You asked, I answered...

To those of you who asked questions after my "Interrogation" post, thank you!  I'm going to jump right into the answers, so without any further ado...

Anita asked if one of my characters is ill.  The answer is no. Not a single ill character in the book. Wow.  They must use a lot of sanitizer.

Candee asked which one of the characters most resembles me and why.  Well, Hallie Barnes, the MC (main character) is definitely the most like me.  She's my age, she has children, and her personality is a bit like mine as well.  I've found that I write best about what I know, and I know a lot about those things! =) She's also different in a few ways as well, the main one being that the big issues she deals with have never happened to me personally.

Betsi wanted to know if the timeline in the book is longer than a year.  And the answer is...no.  It's actually just a few months' time.  There's a little bit of backstory which goes back a few years, but the actual time frame only goes through about three seasons.  She also wanted to know if there were any lemurs.  I hadn't thought of that, but there could be a possibility!;)

Bethany asked a question, and I actually spoke about the answer quite a bit in my second post here on blogger. But I'm going to re-tell it anyway.  One night last May, a few weeks before school got out for summer break, I was lying in bed thinking as usual, while trying to fall asleep.  A scene suddenly popped in my mind, where my (now) MC and another person were in the middle of a very awkward situation.  I could see the looks on their faces, understand what was going through my MC's head, and in the next few days things just evolved from there. I had to figure out who rest of the characters were going to be, and once I did that, the story line just sort of began to come together.  Of course, throughout this process a lot has been modified (plot-wise) for flow purposes, but not a thing has changed about the scene that sparked me into writing in the first place.  I've always enjoyed writing, it's definitely one of my strong suits, so there really wasn't a question of "if" I could do it in my mind, it was more like "how" was I going to do it.

What have I learned about myself through this, Sierra?  I think I've learned that though some things end up being harder to do than we initially thought, it doesn't make them not worth doing.  I knew going into this that there would be a lot of hard work, but obviously plots and hooks and showing versus telling and all of the other things we have to incorporate sometimes get in the way of the "dream" part of writing and require a lot of time and effort (as most first time and even seasoned writers would probably agree).  But I know I can do it.  I can follow through, I can work hard and not quit, and I can use any frustrations I have and turn them into inspiration. I've also learned that I have some great friends that I've met via the internet who continue to help me when the going gets tough.

The "what have I learned about what I want in life" question, at this point, is an easy answer.  Along with being a good, involved mother and wife, I want to share this story (and any future stories I write) with others.  I want to entertain my readers -- to make them laugh,  make them cry,  make them not want to put the book down, and I want to hopefully have them sit back after reading the book feeling better to have read it.   And of course I want to be known for my writing, if I'm being honest.  But that option is still quite a ways away.

So there you go, the answers to your questions about my WiP.  And again, thanks so much for asking!

Interrogation

It has been a while since I've said a whole lot about my WiP from an informative point of view.  I mean sure,  I'm constantly tweeting or blogging updates about the writing process -- my word count, my frustrations, and most recently, the tools I use to keep me going.

But it just occurred to me that I haven't said a whole lot lately about the story itself.  Occasionally people are considerate enough to ask how my work is going, and it's hard to say a whole lot in answer to that question.  One reason I find difficulty with that specific question is because when one writes, things are constantly changing.  Characters evolve, scenes appear (and then disappear), dialogue emerges.  (Lately I've been hacking away at all of my unnecessary adverbs.  Oh how it pains me to let them go.  But I have to...I know I do.)  Plus, as writers, we tend to treat our current WiP as our baby.  We're very protective of everything about them and don't want too much to get out before everything is done exactly how we want it.  Not to mention, if the entire story was already out there, who in the world would be interested in buying the book when we (hopefully) get it published?

So after explaining all of that, the reason for the title of this post.  I wanted to give my friends, Romans, countrymen  -- oops, sorry, got a little carried away there, anyone want to tell me the line that follows? -- a little peek into my story, the story that's taken up so much of my time, so much space in my mind, so much of my emotions. (Has anyone noticed that I tend to do things in threes?  I noticed that recently in my writing -- I'm constantly explaining things in groups of threes. Odd.)

I thought I'd do something a little different to give everyone a bit of dirt on the storyline.  It's not a contest per se, but let's just pretend it is one, because that will make it more fun. *flashes a cheesy grin* In the comments section of this post, feel free to ask me anything you would like to know about "I'll Love You Until", and in three days I'm going to answer five of those questions.  (Right now my brain is warning me that I may not even get ASKED five questions...but I'm totally ignoring my brain.)  Keep in mind that I'm obviously not going to answer things like "What happens in the end?"  or, well, for some reason that's the only question I can think of that I won't answer at the moment.  But I'm not going to give anything away that would ruin my teeny-tiny chances of getting my novel out "there".  So I'm sorry if that just made all of you reach for your mouse to hit the "exit" button...but this is my un-contest, and those are my rules.  I'm going to have to reserve the right to choose which questions to answer, though hopefully this will be a fun experience that will leave you all wanting to know more. *throws head back and lets out an evil laugh*

Well what are you waiting for, people? Ask away!

I got the bug.

So over the past few days I got the bug again.  Finally.  I was starting to get a bit worried, I will admit.  Life is time-consuming, and with so many things needing fixing in my WiP, I was feeling overwhelmed.

But a little time off has done wonders.  My house was clean...for a millisecond.  And I cleaned out a lot of places that had been stuffed full of anything and everything for over the past year or so.  Enough to fill two trash cans.  Talk about feeling empowered.  

Speaking of empowered, that's the perfect word to explain how it feels when you have gotten something accomplished in your writing.  It could be thinking of a new scene, or funny dialogue, or even just watching the word tally go up as you type along on the keyboard.  This time my writing bug gave me all of the above.  It was refreshing.  And now I'm on a roll again, with ideas popping into my head at the strangest times of the day.  I love it.  

One of the things that started my writing up again was music.  We writers use many different tools to get us in the "zone".   When I'm in a slump, I go searching for new songs.   Songs I can rock out to, songs that make me sad, songs with words that make me think.  I blare them in my car, play them as I do laundry, listen to them over and over again until my kids know all of the words right along with me.  And it never fails... within a few days I've got feelings and ideas flowing through my veins again.  So here's to music, for giving me the writing bug.

The Writing Process

Writing.  Sounds so simple, doesn't it?  Stuff comes to your mind, you write it down, a story forms, you build on that story. Protagonist, Antagonist. Characters, dialogue, plots, sub-plots. 

It sounds so simple. You think of a story, decide to share it with everyone, and in a matter of weeks/days/months/years, after being sucked into a world of your own and neglecting almost everything else around you,  you're done.  As you move on to the next step of querying, a satisfying feeling of completion washes over you.  But...are you really finished?  Most editors and publishers will think not.

Writing can be compared to many things, but for the moment I'm going to compare it to shoes.  You buy the shoe, insert the laces.  Now do you expect to walk around?  No.  The laces still have to be pulled up together, looped around, and tied.  It's pretty much the same when it comes to writing.  The writing part is getting your shoes, and lacing them nice and neat and even.  

But learning how to tie them tight enough to stay in those loops as you walk around all day long is the hard part.  That's the publisher/editor process.  They take what you have (if you've followed the insanely long guidelines/rules) and help you get the laces into nice, perfect, symmetrical loops.  Guidelines like:

Were the characters believable?  Were they the type that people could relate to?  Did you do your story in third person point of view? If so, did you go too far with the he's, she's and they's? How about first person point of view? Too many I's? Did the first person point of view come across too telly? (My new word.)  You made sure to show enough, and not tell the whole time, right? And how about talking? Did the main character talk too much and not tell -- oops -- I mean, show the story to the readers?

And speaking of readers - did you pull them in enough at the beginning? That first sentence, the first paragraph  -- was it good enough?  How far into the story did the readers have to get before they come across the hook?  Was your hook good enough?  Was the it the real reason for the story? Did it even tie into the story at all?

Did you go overboard with adverbs? Adjectives? Throw in too many just's or that's? Are there too many words? Not enough words?

The story line wasn't too dark, or too light, or too heavy, or too preachy, or too full of dialogue -- right?

Let's not forget originality.  Is your story original? Will it stand alone in a book store and say "Read me -- I'm different. I'm entertaining. I don't sound like every other chick lit or nonfiction or mystery or romance out there."?  Or is it just like ten/twenty other stories that have just been published or are being submitted to agents as I type this?

Many times we aim our frustration at the person teaching us to tie our shoes (a.k.a.the one who edit/critiques our work), because writing, like tying shoes at first, isn't really as simple as we all make it sound.  It takes so much time and effort to get the loops right and tight enough, and sure, other people learned to tie their shoes the same way eventually, but that doesn't really make it any easier, does it?  

The term the writing process is used for a reason.  Aside from coming up with a story line, characters and a beginning, middle and end, there's so much writers have to worry about before a book can even be considered as finished. Not to mention, so much that needs to be done before it's even considered to be good.

And that process can get you down. It can get you frustrated, give you writer's block, make you want to bash your head against the keyboard, tear up your journals or notebooks, go shopping and blow tons of money, eat endless amounts of chocolate, devote more than a normal amount of time to watching movies or reading books or even scrubbing the grout in your shower, clean your house, do yard work, smoke thousands of cigarettes, boycott your computer.  Simply having fun while writing a book tends to be the last thing on a writer's mind when they are re-writing for the tenth time, because something doesn't make sense, or flow, or well, all of the things I mentioned above.

That being said, I don't think any of us would choose NOT to write.  But I know a lot of us are forming ulcers in the process.  Ulcers we, in a twisted, masochistic sort of way, want to have, but ulcers nonetheless.

And...CHECK! Moving right along...

Yesterday was quite a good day.  Did I cross everything off of my "to do" list?  No.  Did I get my house picked up? No.  Did I even finish this time-consuming novel already so I can stop boring everyone with all of the little details? No, of course not, that would make my life (and yours) seem way too easy.  I was able to cross about three out of ten things off my list.  Not too exciting, I know.  But the most important one, the contest submission, that got crossed off.  (It was down to the wire, the last date you could have on the postmark actually, but I made it!)  

So now that that's done...I've received a few viewpoints now about what I've written so far.  Of course any kind of criticism is hard to take, and any kind of praise isn't enough (more, people - I want to hear more! lol).  But I think in order to be the best we can be, we need to hear both. (Long as it's somewhat even, I think I'll survive.)

That being said, a fellow writer friend whom I've gotten to know very quickly (thank you internet!) has brought up a few things, and they are making me think.  Some, I have no idea what to do about yet - or if I'll do anything - but I think I've found the solution for one area in particular. 

It's crazy to me how one day the negative feedback can knock you down (sometimes for only a few minutes, sometimes for hours, or a day, just depends) but then, as you figure out where you went wrong, or how you can make it better, that excitement comes back and makes the whole process fun and exciting again. (Because, I'll be honest - after a while, editing takes the enjoyment out of this process. It drains you.)

So that is where I'm at, dear readers. I'm moving right along, re-writing this time but in a fun way,  a "I'm going to entertain myself as I right this" way.  This is a good place to be.  I'm enjoying it.

Oh - and I totally forgot to mention the other reason I thought it was a good day.  I never win anything. Ever. Never, ever EVER.  Something went wacko for a few moments of time (I picked up a lucky penny, perhaps?) because I won a pack of things from fanbolt.com and it arrived in the mail yesterday.  Whoo boy is it fun to open something up with your name on it and pull out a bunch of  free stuff. It was like Christmas in August.  Totally made my afternoon. And Lovemuffin's. He was sportin' the hat and claiming things for himself the second the bag was opened.

Well I'm off to re-write for a few more minutes, and then I'm going to try and cross a few more things off my list. I'll leave you all with an interesting blog post that I came across this morning titled The Writer's Baggage.  It's aimed at writers, but I think those of you who don't write may still find it entertaining, and it gives a little insight to a "writer's world".  I really related to #6 - A dog, not a cat.  My dogs have spent hours lying by my feet as I work on this thing.  It's like a little silent support system. (With the occasional loud groaning - those of you who have heard my German Shepherd stretch will know what I'm talking about - he's like an old man.) And as for #9 - I'm new enough in this journey that those do not apply. I still love journals and plaques and whatnot. Just thought I'd clarify that.  You can read The Writer's baggage  here . Okay I'm off to find me some stickers.

I Have Five Minutes - and GO!

I stay on these here blogs (even my own) way too long. So I've given myself two - wait no, five minutes regardless of typos to bring up a few things and get off of here.  (What's that? I couldn't understand you - I was laughing so hard at the suggestion that I'd ignore typos...) 

 1)  Today has been a crummy day - but I'm putting on my big, size ten shoes and kicking this attitude to the curb (Soon. Hopefully.)  It's just been one of those all around, brain hurts, nothing sounds good anymore, my shoulders feel like I have concrete blocks sitting on them, I-got-an-critique-and-I-didn't-like-it kind of days.  The critic was right and even made a few valid points, but after staring at a screen for 3 days it probably wasn't what I should have read at that particular time.  So I had gotten up to 67,500 and now I've gone back down to 66-something or other.  I'm going to say 67,000 is my new magic number, but I think I have probably driven you all nuts because every day my number goal changes.  So today, 67,000.  And who knows, tomorrow could be a billion.  (And while I was typing this, it just occurred to me that I should have seen this coming a long time ago - I mean, when in my entire life have numbers and I gotten along anyway?)  

2)  I received another neat blog award that sadly I haven't even been able to look at yet, because I feel soooo guilty that I haven't even passed out the previous award to five more blogs like I was supposed to! (Procrastination as usual...my house is proof of this.)  I promise here in the next few days I will be finally giving out those five, and then bringing up the next one and thanking the lovely lady who gave me this new one, and so on and so forth.

3)  I added a new gadget to my blog - "Quick Links to Answer the Important Questions" - so check it out. (Let me know on here if there are other questions you'd like me post links to - or if you have a link that I might want to share.)

4)  There was something else important to say but my brain is mush so that's all for now I guess.  This actually took twenty minutes - between the kids coming in every 30 seconds (can someone please call me by my NAME for a couple of hours now?) and whatnot.  (If I just used whatnot in a previous paragraph I apologize. My head feels like whatnot right now.  I know that makes no sense. See? And there's my point.)

To enter or not to enter...

There are a few contests coming up in the next few weeks, and I'm seriously thinking about entering two in particular.  Obviously, the chances for winning these are slim to nothing, but I am hoping, if nothing else, it can be a great learning experience for me.  Plus, I won an online contest the other day  (it had absolutely nothing to do with writing, just entertainment stuff - check out their site here) and thought maybe my luck will stick around just a little bit longer and help me out with these contests as well.  (Doesn't hurt to try, right?)

The first one, which is a scholarship to the Backspace Agent-Author Seminar in NYC (you can read all about the contest here), requires you to send in the first two pages of your ms.  Pretty simple, right?  

Contest number two states you must send in 20 pages of your ms (a little more details can be found here).  The 20 pages can be taken from the beginning, the middle, it doesn't matter - pages from wherever the author  chooses. Which at first I thought was really neat, because I have a few specific parts that are my favorite. (I am assuming this is normal, correct?)

The problem with the second contest is - the pages I would love to submit are areas in the story line that would totally and completely give away the plot.  (And who wants to give away the plot of a story that is *hopefully*  going to be published eventually?)  If you had the option to spend money on just one movie ticket, and someone told you all about the highlights and best parts, and maybe even the ending of a specific movie, would you still go see it?  I don't think I would.  Most likely I'd pick a different movie to watch - one I would find entertaining and still suspenseful.

So that is my dilemma.  Contest number one will just require polishing my first two pages, and making sure I'm done with the ms by September 4th-ish.  Oh - and writing a darn good query letter. *insert butterflies in my stomach and most likely lots of hair pulling here*

But contest number two is the one I really want to enter - only I can't decide what to do about the whole page thing. Help.

WiPs - What do expect from your reviewers?

After being on vacation at the coast for a week, we are now back home and trying to get back into the "normal" groove of things.  School begins in two days, and somehow the kids are going to have to get back into the normal bedtime and early morning schedules - not sure how that's going to work!

I am happy to share that I did indeed get some work done while we were gone.  I've reached 63,500 something words, and I've come to terms with the fact that my goal of 70,000 just isn't going to be met, because in order to achieve that goal I would have to add too many extra elements. (Which might, in turn, take away from the current story line - and I sure don't want that to happen!) So now, my new goal is 65,000.  Tops.  Hopefully I'll find a way to get there.   *crosses fingers, knocks on wood, and looks around for salt to throw over my shoulders*

With that being said, I think the book is finally at the point where I can look at it and say, "It's almost finished!" and actually, truly mean it this time.  (And that is quite exciting, as many of you writers out there know.)  There are a few kinks I have been trying to work out (one in particular that I have picked apart - why do we do this to ourselves?), and a few I have already been able to fix...but, like Lovemuffin told me late last night, "Sometimes you just gotta call it, and let it go."  

So that is what I am trying to do.  I'm going to let go for a week or so, no matter how hard it is going to be to not pull up my WiP even just for a few minutes, and I'm going to force myself not to read a single paragraph or line of dialogue.  That way when it comes back to me (about to receive second opinion soon - hello again crazy nerves and butterflies in my stomach!) I will be able to apply any feedback I receive with a slightly cleaner slate, at least. 

Speaking of opinions, I've chosen a few questions to ask the lucky (or unlucky I guess, depending on how you look at it) few who are critiquing my WiP, and would love to hear if any of you have specific things you ask your reviewers.  (Questions like, "Were you able to connect with the protagonist throughout the story?", for example.)

I came across this post on Nathan Bransford's extremely useful blog  http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2009/08/guest-blog-week-critiquing-critiques.html (written by guest blogger Rick Daley, another insightful blogger, and here's his blog - http://openquery.blogspot.com/  **Can someone please teach me to post links an easier way?**)  So I thought I'd share.

 Always sharing my thoughts on the love of life, writing and coffee -

coffeelvnmom (Jessica)