Where's Lenny Lee Birthday Bash!

Man, as the few of you who still visit here are well aware, I rarely blog anymore. But when I heard about a blog fest to remind Lenny how much we love him on his birthday, I was in!

 

Lenny is a great kid, a fun blogger, and someone we all miss! If you happen to not know Lenny, you can find out some more about him at his blog, Lenny's World, and be sure to follow him for updates about his posts. If you do know Lenny, and are curious to know more, you can find out a little bit from my posts, here, and here.

But either way, Lenny hasn't been blogging much lately, and while of course we understand, and don't expect him to do anything that isn't comfortable, we just thought it would be nice to let him know we miss him, and he is in our thoughts.

Happy Birthday, Lenny!

Something ...

Hi readers. It's been a while, I know. I'm sorry (no I'm not, I've been writing).

I'm just putting something up so my blog looks like it still exists. I think next week I'll put my new query up, and ask you all what you think.

For now, here's a song:



Have a great weekend!

Blogging ... at YA Confindential

So ... after Sunday's games, both the incredible, and the abominable, I don't have a lot for you guys. Moreover, I've got the day off, so I can only direct you to my post at YA Confidental, a rather depressing piece on the state of bloggging in general.

Hopefully you guys get it.

Oh, How I Miss You Blogfest Announcement

So, I am yet again involved in hosting a blogfest spearheaded by Alex. Yes, Alex J. Cavanaugh, blogger of note, and Ninja of prominent reknown.

However, this fest is actually the brainchild of Andrew Leon. Yes, that Andrew Leon, from Strange Pegs. Teacher, writer, blogger, and author extraordinaire of The House on the Corner, and the Shadow Spinner series.

Anyway, here is the description we've agreed upon, for how to go about this fest, and why we started it in the first place:

I Miss You Blogfest

November 16 2012

Hosted by Andrew Leon, Matthew MacNish, and Alex J. Cavanaugh

The bloggers we really miss…

and the ones we would really miss!

Do you have a couple blogger buddies who aren’t posting as often? Those who’ve pulled back and seem absent from the blogging world? Do you have blogger buddies you are grateful they are still around and would miss if they vanished? Now is your chance to show your appreciation and spotlight them!

On November 16, list one to three bloggers you really miss and one to three bloggers you would miss if they stopped blogging. Then go leave a comment on those blogs.

Our blogger friends are special – time to let them know!

Sign up below:

TKP Has a Blog!

I wasn't going to even post today, but The Kindness Project Blog (link is also permanently in my sidebar, under Group Blogs) has launched, and I want all of you to go follow it, STAT. Sure, my Google Reader and the Blogs I Follow in my Blogger Dashboard still seem to be broken, but I'm sure they'll fix them eventually, so I haven't stopped following blogs.

You shouldn't either.

That is all.

Kristen Wixted Mini Interview

Man, since I've been on hiatus so long, I think I kind of forgot how to blog. I used to be so good at it, writing series, publishing flash fiction, featuring successful queries, along with critiquing good ones that needed just a little work. But now, it's all I can manage to eke out three or four sentences.

Well, I'm doing it to you again today. I'm over at Kristen Wixted's (an awesome writer and blogger I've actually met IRL). She has a new series she's calling Quick Questions with Kristen, which are basically just fun, light, mini-interviews. Here is the link to mine.

Happy hump day.

A Tutorial Over at Project Mayhem

I'm still on hiatus, and I'm getting a lot done, thank you. So I'm not really blogging today, but I did write a post for Project Mayhem that I would appreciate it if you would read. It's called MS Word 2007 - Document Map, a Tutorial, and if you don't know what that is, it might be extremely helpful for you, if you're a writer. If you do know what that is ... well you can just stop by and say hi. Thanks!

High Ate Us

Before you read this, head over to Afterglow Book Reviews, and read my recommendation of Karen Amanda Hooper's Grasping at Eternity.

Back? Okay. I have some announcements.

First, if you're not watching The Newsroom, on HBO, you're missing a great show. I never got into The West Wing when it was on, but I can definitely see why so many people think Aaron Sorkin is a genius.

Second, if you didn't see Roni Loren's post about using photos in your blog posts, go read it, STAT. It's a sad lesson, but an important one all bloggers must learn.

Finally, in more sad news, I'm going to be taking a break from blogging. Lately it's gotten in the way of writing and critiquing I've needed to be doing, and traffic and comments have been down anyway, so it feels right to step back and re-evaluate for a bit.

Don't worry, I'm not quitting, I enjoy it too much for that, but things have gotten so busy at work lately, I really only have time for writing or blogging, and writing has to come first. There is no news on the agent front, so I'm trying to just focus on some projects I have in the pipe, and hopefully things will work themselves out while I'm not worrying about them.

This may only last a week, or it may last a little longer, but you can still look for me at both Project Middle Grade Mayhem and at YA Confidential in the meantime. Otherwise, thanks, as always for your support.

Summer Vacation Blog Hiatus

Grrr. I suppose the Spanish are due congratulations, and my Azzurri got much farther in the tournament than I expected, but still. Grrr.

Now the pundits are having the conversation of whether this Spanish side is the greatest national team in the history of the sport. I don't know about that, but they did trounce us yesterday, even without Villa or Puyol. I don't think there will ever be a team better than the Brazilians of the 70s, but this Spanish side may be a close second. If they win the next World Cup it will be hard to argue.

Anyway, as you probably noticed from the title of this post, I'm going out of town, and the blog will be shut down until at least Wednesday July 11th. Or maybe I'll try to schedule something for Tuesday the 10th, so I can get two queries in that week, we'll see.

In the meantime, since I know you'll miss me, I wanted to point you to some things you can read, in case you haven't had enough of me already. And seriously, there's no need to read all this crap today, just come back if you need a QQQE fix while I'm gone.

Some of you who've known me longer have probably seen a lot of this stuff, but some of my new readers may not have:

Creative Writing:

Lake Argo, a Fantasy/Sci-Fi vignette, which was published in the Vine Leaves Literary Journal Issue One

The Deafening Silence, a bit of Contemporary Flash-Fiction, which was published in the anthology: Literary Foray, from Static Movement Press

Cubic, a Fantasy/Horror short which was published by Underneath the Juniper Tree

Babysat by the Man in the Moon, a Flash-Fiction memoir, which is unpublished

Dragon on my Back, a piece of Horror Flash-Fiction, which was published in the anthology: Literary Foray, from Static Movement Press

Older Interviews and Guest Posts:

Interviewed by Jessica Bell at The Alliterative Allomorph

Interviewed by A.B. Keuser at her self-titled blog

Gender & Publishing, a guest post for Justine Dell

Best Old Posts:

How I showed a Facebook Scammer what's up

Hold on to 16 as Long as You Can, or Why I Write YA

I should probably stop linking now. Even I'm getting bored. But do me a favor, if you see one you've never read, and you want to visit, be sure to follow the blog it's on, and be sure to leave a comment, a few of those posts are hurtin' for comments!

And have a great week and a half, I'll miss you all dearly!

Middle Grade Madi

So my daughter, Madison, has decided to start a blog.

I don't know exactly what she intends to do with it, but she loves to read, and enjoys writing, so imagine it will have something to do with books. She's only got one post up so far, and it really just links back to something she's already done here, which you may have read, but she'd really appreciate if you would follow her, and she'll probably have some MG book reviews up sometime soon.

You can find her at Middle Grade Madi. Thanks, and Happy Mother's Day!

Blogging From A to Z

The day of reckoning has arrived! Just kidding. It is almost that exciting though. Today is the day the sign-up for the Blogging from A to Z April 2012 challenge opens up.

Sign up using the linky list at the end of this post!

A bit daunted by the concept? Fear not, you don't have to visit everyone, and it's easy to schedule several short posts ahead of time. We want to keep our posts short anyway, because the main point of the challenge is to meet new bloggers. In fact, this year, we're suggesting that all you commit to is visiting the 5-10 blogs below your name on the linky list. If you find you have time for that every day, then you can start to visit more.

No idea what I'm talking about? No worries, you can find the official A to Z blog, here. Or the A to Z Facebook page, here. If you somehow have lived in a hole for the least few months, you can meet all my other co-hosts, here.

And you don't have to sign up right now, either. If you want to mull it over for a while, no problem. On Wednesday (because this list is going to grow FAST, and slow down my blog load times) I'll be moving the list to a page right under the header of my blog. You can find it, here. Or, you can sign up at the official blog, anytime, here.

Please enter the HTML code carefully so that it is accurate. If you enter your link incorrectly, please notify us so we can correct it. You can find our emails in the CONTACT US tab on the A to Z Blog. If you do not plan to participate in the Challenge during April or your purpose is to lure visitors to an advertising site, please do not enter a link as it will be removed, save us the time and trouble.

That's it! Here's the list:

UPDATE: I have removed the A to Z sign up list, to improve load times for my new posts. Please visit the A to Z sign up page, to join the challenge.

So What Does It All Mean?

First of all, thanks so much to everyone who reads this blog. Even if you only lurk, or even if you only clicked "follow this blog" once, years ago, and never came back, I appreciate your support.

For me, personally, this journey to publication is something I could not ever have achieved alone. To have friends, people who truly understand, that is what makes it all bearable.

Some of you are new here, so I will give you a little history. I started this blog in March of 2009, almost two years ago. At the time, I'd given up on wanting to be a writer, you know, a real writer. I hadn't written a thing in months, and I was so frustrated by how difficult it seemed to be to break into the publishing industry, I was ready to give up on my passion, and settle for the table scraps of a life the corporate world was willing to give me.

The real reason I was discouraged, though, is that I was trying to do it alone. I did not know a single other person who was a writer. I was not in contact with a single person who was a professional in the publishing industry. Sure, I researched query letters, and I wrote to some agents, but I wasn't going about it right. I didn't connect with anyone.

So long story short, before I go on for way too long about all this, I started a blog, met some amazing people, and now feel more energized about my creative passion than I ever have in my entire life. I've had short stories published, I've met agents, editors, and famous authors, but most importantly, I've begun real friendships with people whose love of writing is the same as mine.

Back when I first started, I remember looking up to bloggers who had a thousand followers like the were some kind of paragons.

I remember first meeting Elana Johnson, and she already had just over a thousand followers at the time. We became friends, and she has probably taught me more about the ancient and honorable art that is the query letter than anyone, except maybe:

Lisa and Laura Roecker have been friends of mine for a long time. They were always so nice, and were one of the first people to lend their fame to my blog, offering their support to someone just starting out. I remember being so excited watching them reach that thousand follower milestone.

I think I met Shannon Messenger before she had a thousand followers, but she's been so famous for so long, it's hard to remember. What with being the queen of the writing/publishing conference circuit, and running WriteOnCon with the ladies listed above (and Casey and Jamie), it's hard to imagine how Shannon found the time to respond to my inane comments, and send me rambling emails (which I loved, hugz, Shan).

Rock Star of the literary world, Nathan Bransford probably had more than 2500 followers when I first started reading his blog, and in fact, his blog was probably the only thing that inspired me to start a blog more than watching that movie, Julie & Julia (yes, I'm a dork, deal with it). In spite of all the people he interacts with and helps, Nathan still always found the time to respond to questions in his forums, and had the best attitude of any publishing professional I knew.

Now ... now that I'm here, wherever here is, I hate to have to tell you: having a thousand followers really doesn't mean a thing. It's just an arbitrary number, and while it's fun to look up there and see it, it means so very little compared to real, human connections, or something tangible, like actually finishing a manuscript.

I'm not saying that if you're inspired to build a popular blog with a big following that you shouldn't go for it, because you should, but I am saying that now that I've reached this milestone I'd hoped for for so long, it puts things in perspective. Things like: writing a novel, finishing the manuscript to the point where it is submittable, earning author representation from a literary agent, and selling a book to an editor, that's what really matters.

At least to me.

What about you guys? Where are you in your journey? Do you care about having a lot of blog followers? Do you read and follow the blogs I mentioned? Because if you don't, you should.

2012

Well, first things first, Happy New Year everyone! May 2012 bring you everything you're hoping for.

Before we get back into the swing of things around here, I've got a couple of announcements.

Thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh, whose continued friendship and support seems to be able to net me followers, even on days when I'm not posting. His post from yesterday, featured me along with four other awesome bloggers who are all nearing 1000 followers. If you don't follow Alex, or you don't follow the bloggers he mentions, you should go take care of that.

Other than that, 2012 will probably be a bit different here at the QQQE. I've almost got this novel ready for submission, and I've got a couple agents waiting on me, so I'll be posting less often, and reading blogs less often than I'd like to, but I expect to make up for missing quantity with some great quality posts.

For one thing, my good friend and personal inspiration, Adam Heine, has recently signed with an agent for author representation, and he's going to be sharing and analyzing his query letter with me this Friday, harking back to the series of Successful Queries that are probably what first put this blog on the map.

In the same vein, I'll be doing a lot of query critiques early this new year, but if you have a letter you think might need a little work, feel free to send me an email. And if you are an author, or you know an author, whose query letter landed them an agent, and they'd like to help others by analyzing why it worked, get in touch.

You might notice I changed my blog photo. I do not actually wear my hair like that. I'd probably be fired from my soul-sucking day job if I did. I shave my own head, because there's very little left up top, so I was messing with my daughter over the holidays, and showing her what a mohawk was, and we took that photo. Just for fun.

Finally, I've got some big news coming up, about some exciting things I'll be taking part in this year, but I can't reveal it just yet.

How was your holiday?

Announcement, and One Last WFC List.

Good morning, friends (Monday, you can suck it). How is everyone?

So I'm still thinking about all the changes I want to make to my blogging habits, but I do have a new schedule tentatively worked out, for now.

You'll see a new page up there, across the top. Blog Schedule, I think I called it. I published it last week, so I can't remember exactly what it says, but I'll paraphrase it for you, and hopefully I'll be close. Basically I'm going to use Mondays and Fridays as my main blogging days for now. Mondays will be about whatever and Fridays will usually be a query critique, unless I don't have one scheduled. These will also be the days I read your blogs.

I will sometimes post on Wednesday or Thursday (Thursday for query critique intros, Wednesday for other random stuff) but I won't be reading blogs those days. I wish I could, and maybe I'll get back to it more, when I finish these revisions, but right now I have to finish this book. I have an agent waiting on the full, but I told her I want to cut it to a reasonable length first.

So anyway, like I said, nothing is set in stone right now, but that's how it's going to work for the next little while.

Now I want to introduce you to the writers I met at WFC who I haven't had a chance to mention yet.

Rob Ziegler is a friend of several of my friends, and it's funny, because we hung out a few times before I realized that he had a huge book release going on for the con. His novel Seed was the featured release at the Night Shade Books party on Friday night. It was a pretty big deal. I'm reading it now, and it's incredible (blurbed by Paolo Bacigalupi, hello). The only thing that sucks is I never saw Rob after Friday night, so I didn't get my copy signed. you can find Rob at his website, or on Twitter.

Another friend of all my friends (and another Night Shade Books author) Bradley P. Beaulieu is the author of the epic fantasy series: The Lays of Anuskaya. The first book is called The Winds of Khalakovo. I got to hear him read from the second volume, The Straits of Galalesh, and it was very good. If you visit his website, you'll see that his novels have some incredible covers. You can also find Brad on Twitter.

I just happened to end up at Frederic S. Durbin's reading, because some friends were going. I'm glad I did, because the short story he shared with us was very entertaining. Frederic's first novel, Dragonfly, was released by Arkham House in 1999, but he has a new MG novel, The Star Shard, that will be out in February, next year. You can per-order it an Amazon. You can also find Frederic on his website, or his blog.

So that's it. I've got something special coming up later this week, but until then, have a good one!

Lessons from WFC

Before I get to the bad news, I want to highlight some other writers I met at the Con, who I didn't get photos with, or who don't blog.

• I saw William Alexander on a Kidlit panel that I missed the first half of, because I was at a reading. I thought he was brilliant, but didn't have the balls to introduce myself until the last day. What? I'm shy. Anyway, you can find Will's book at the Goblin Secrets website, or you can check his writer website, or you can follow him on Twitter. I haven't read his book yet or anything, so I can't tell you it was amazing, but the guy had some great philosophies about reading, storytelling, and salamanders.

• Sandra Wickham is actually a friend of Simon's, but I somehow didn't end up with any photos of her (which is a shame, because she's a beautiful lady). More importantly, she's a writer, and an editor for inkpunks.com. I got to talk to her about my book, and hear about some of the short stories she's had published. She was very nice. You can visit Sandra's website, find her on Twitter, or just click through to the inkpunks' site, above. And yes, that photo on Twitter is oh her on the Iron Throne, does it get any cooler?

• Okay, so admittedly I did have a photo or two of Jane Kindred, but I want to mention her again because not only was she very cool, and a friend of several of my friends, but she was on a panel with Charlaine Harris, Nancy Kilpatrick, Kate Elliot, and Malindo Lo, which is a table full of literary rock stars, and Jane absolutely killed it. You cane find Jane on her website, on Facebook, or on Twitter.

All right. That's all the highlights I have time for. I'll try to share some more next week.

Now I have to get to the bad news.

This biggest lesson I took from WFC is that I spend too much time blogging, and don't take my writing seriously enough. Maybe seriously isn't the best word. I do care a lot about my writing, and when I spend time on it I take it very seriously, but the problem is I don't spend enough time on it.

I spend a lot of time every day writing blog posts, and reading and commenting on other blogs. A LOT of time. I love it. I love connecting with other writers. I love helping people with their queries. I love getting comments on topics I care about.

But what I realized at WFC is that it's writing books that really matters. Actually, not so much writing books, but finishing books. Nearly every person I met there was published. Published, or at least involved in publishing in some professional capacity.

I may be a prolific blogger, and I'm not saying blogging hasn't made a huge difference in my life and in my writing career, but it's also taken up a lot of my time that could have been spent writing and revising.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I'm pretty sure I won't give up on blogging, and I'm not going to stop helping people with their queries, but it's become clear to me that my writing has suffered for the sake of my blogging, and I just can't allow that to continue.

Maybe I'll reduce the days of the week I post. Maybe I'll post every day, but not read and comment on other blogs. Maybe I'll just take a hiatus. I don't know. I have to let myself process it all a bit more, but there is one thing I know: I need to finish this book.

Blog Marketing Critique by Laura Barnes

Today I'm getting my blog critiqued by Laura Barnes. I don't know Laura that well but she's a Marketing Consultant, and a writer of Middle Grade Fiction who runs the blog, Laura B Writer.

She also runs a really cool service on her blog, called Blog Critique, where she critiques other writer's blogs from a Marketing Standpoint. My blog is not really a commercial venture, but I do one day hope to have a book to sell you people, so maximizing my blogs marketing potential seems like a wise think to at least think about.

Anyway, you can find Laura's critique of my blog, here.

Pay It Forward Blogfest

This is all about volume, so I'm going to keep it slick, and easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy. Here are three blogs I have only recently discovered:

Wine and Words at: Quiet Commotion

Joshua at: Vive Le Nerd

Mike at: Sub-Radar

Go read them. Follow. Then visit the rest of the blogs on the linky list, and follow them too. Do it.

And if you're here as part of the blogfest, because you found me on the linky list, please be sure to click that "Join this site" button over there on the right. If you can't see it, hit F5.

Thanks, have a great weekend!

One More Day

The blog fest is up to 175 people! I'm sure Alex hosts things with more blogs than that all the time, but I never do blogfests, so I'm a amazed, and maybe, just a little, overwhelmed.

It would be cool to see the list reach 200 blogs, but I think we're approaching saturation levels, so I don't think that's likely. I've got a lot of writing and critiquing to get done today, so I'm just going to say:

Thanks everyone for taking part in this! I really look forward to visiting all your blogs tomorrow and over the weekend, and meeting tons of great new people.

Have a great Thursday! See the post below this one if you have no idea what I'm talking about, or need to sign up on the linky list.

Some Pay It Forward Blogfest Tips

I've been getting a few questions from friends and followers regarding the blogfest, and since it's coming up on Friday, we might as well talk about it now.

First things first: you don't have to include the linky list on your blog, or in your post for the festival.

In fact, if you want to promote the festival, it might be better to post about it tomorrow, and tell all your followers, to see if we can get any last minute sign-ups. But when it comes to the actual post, don't worry about. Unless, you know, you want to.

If you do want to make the list a part of your post (or your sidebar) keep in mind that because of the nature of the linky list code, it DOES NOT show up in blogger's preview or compose windows. You can't see it, but it's there. You have to add it in the "Edit HTML" window, and then trust that it will show up in your post. Or you could just link to Alex and my blogs, and let people use the lists we will have up there.

When it comes to what else you really want to include in your post the day of, it's up to you. You can explain the idea behind the fest in your own words if you like, or you could just link to my original announcement, or Alex's. After that, as long as you link to three blogs you enjoy reading and think people should follow, the rest is up to you. All I would suggest is to keep it short and simple, and remember that the point is to find and follow as many new blogs as possible.

When it comes to accomplishing that, you could theoretically start following the blogs on the list now, and I don't mind if you want to, but it kind of takes the fun out of seeing how much new traffic we can all get in a single day if we don't wait.

So for now, enjoy your day, and feel free to post the list on your blogs tomorrow (if you don't have something planned) to see if you can get your followers to join. It would be awesome to see 200 blogs in one festival!

Pay It Forward Blogfest

Today is the official announcement of Alex and my Pay It Forward Blogfest. I know we've been hinting at it for a while, and we know how excited you've all been (hopefully), so we're happy to announce that it's finally here.

Well, that is, the announcement is finally here. The actual blogfest isn't until Friday, October 14th, but that gives you plenty of time to sign up on Alex's linky list. Please sign up, and then be ready for the madness to ensue two weeks from now.

Here is how the blogfest will actually work: The idea is to introduce everyone to everyone else. We want this to be an easy post that allows you to meet and follow as many other bloggers as you can. In your post, we would like you to please list, describe, and link to three blogs that you enjoy reading, but that you suspect may fly under the radar of a lot of other bloggers. Or they can be famous blogs, as long as they're awesome.

But don't stop there! Certainly visit and follow all the blogs that are featured in people's posts the day of the blogfest, but those don't have to be the only blogs you visit. You can visit everyone who enters in on the fun, and signs up on the linky list. In the interest of time you don't even have to leave comment. You can just follow, and come back another time. After all, we all know we don't have time to visit every blog we enjoy every single day.

So that's it. Please sign up in the linky list, and we will see you in two weeks!