Not much is happening here beyond work. I know it’s not exciting to read about. Heck, it’s not exciting to write about either. *wg* Therefore I’m taking the weekend off…starting now.
I’ve printed out Anna’s edits. I’m going to make notes on Monday, so that I can tackle them point by point. The goal is to get them to her by Tuesday the 12th at the latest. We’ll see if I make it. 
I will also mail out the urban fantasy next week. Yah!
Tomorrow we have dinner reservations with friends, so that should be nice. We’re also trying to decide if Shrek 3 will be worth the price of admission. (It’s not getting good reviews. 
But we love Shrek.) Also, may go to a few open houses.
I plan to spend the rest of my day reading some of the books in my TBR pile and watching the monster DVD’s that I haven’t managed to view. Have a terrific weekend. Catch you all on Monday.
Archive for May, 2007
Returned a few hours ago from having lunch with the girls. It was nice to get out and talk to other writers. I RARELY do that offline. We joked about it counting as a social life. *ggg* Sadly, that’s true. I don’t get out much and I do not tend to meet people socially. I used to be better about doing things like that, but writing full-time has changed my personality quite a bit. I’ve gone from fairly social to hermit-like in the last four years. It’s strange, but not entirely uncomfortable.
Also got my hair done today. I think my guy did a good job. He has a new assistant that started today. He’s a young guy with striking blue/green eyes. There’s something ‘different’ about him that I can’t quite put my finger on. I don’t mean different in a bad way. I found myself wanting to spend a few hours talking to him. I can’t really explain it. He was just interesting.
Managed to finish typing in all the edits last night. Three hundred pages and eight hours later, I cried uncle. All my notes added up to thirty-something pages of new material. But at least it’s done. All that’s left is to have dh read through it and then it’s off in the mail to Jenny. I’ll print out RED tomorrow, so that I’m ready to start editing it on Monday. My goal is to get them done in time for the Harlequin edits to arrive. Yeah, fun times all around. (wg)
A quick reminder that there are only 14 days left in the Brenda Novak auction. If you haven’t had a chance to bid on an item, there’s still time. 
I managed to type in the first sixty pages worth of notes. My manuscript has gone up about seven pages so far and I haven’t even hit the heavy stuff yet. *ggg*
There’s a cool interview up on Dear Author with Heather Osborn. If you ever thought about submitting something to Tor, Heather gives you a really good idea of what she’s looking for in a manuscript.
Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I have a hair appointment to get a cut and color. You didn’t think that color was natural, did you? (wg) Afterwards, I’m meeting up with Isabella Clayton and Cassie Ryan for lunch. That should be fun. It’s the first time in a LONG time that I’ve met with authors in the area. I’m really looking forward to it.
Oh, almost forgot. If anyone out there has the ability to stop the allergy thing that seems to be taking over the planet right now, I’d appreciate if you’d make it go away. I’m sick of sneezing.
First off, I have to say how much I HEART Anna Genoese. Not the first reaction you’d think a writer would have to edits, but there you have it. Her comments have made my year. Yeah, you read that right. She’s made my year. I am floating, which is making it a tad hard to concentrate but there are worse things to have to deal with.
I’m still typing in the changes to the urban fantasy. I’m not the fastest typer and there are a LOT of things to add. (And my handwriting might not be the neatest.) Once I’m done, I am going to dive into the edits for RED. I’m actually getting excited about doing them. I haven’t visited this world since I submitted the manuscript, so it’ll be kind of nice to see it with fairly fresh eyes.
Went to see Spiderman yesterday. It was okay. Not as good as the first two movies. The best part about it was the trailer for Pirates, Yo-Ho and Harry Potter. (wg) Less than two weeks until Pirates hits the theaters. In the meantime, I’m going to have to go see Shrek…and do a whole LOT of work. That’s my excitement. Anything cool and amazing happening out there in blogland?
I am a thinking blogger…who can’t seem to get the jpeg that accompanies this entry up.
Thanks Charli!
1. If and only if you get tagged write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Optional: Display your award proudly.
Blogs that make me think:
John Scalzi’s Whatever
Crazy Aunt Purl
Bookseller Chick
Aleuromancy
Feministing
Bonus sites:
Tess Gerritsen
Paperback Writer
Sorry I didn’t manage to pop in yesterday. I spent the afternoon reading through the urban fantasy for I SWEAR the last time. No, I’m not done yet. Big sigh. I hope to make a dent in it today.
I’ve realized as I’ve been doing this that there are some things that I really need to work on, if I want to move to the next level of writing. I absolutely must get better at world-building and description. I doubt I’ll ever be a flowery describer…unless I’m writing historicals, but I do need to become a LOT better at it. World-building is self-explanatory. I’ve pulled out a couple of craft books on both subjects. I’m going to work my way through them, while reading the novels that my dh recommends. He knows a few that are excellent at both world-building and description. I also need to drop the amateur reactions that I seem to stick all over my books (ie characters nodding a lot, tilting of heads, jaw tightening, etc.) Ah, the things we notice when we’ve read a manuscript a dozen or so times. *ggg*
The Brenda Novak auction is still going on. There are twenty days left to get your bid in. Thank you to everyone who’s placed a bid for my critiques.
I heard some depressing news yesterday on Gennita Low’s blog. Apparently, Wal-mart and Target have stopped carrying all mid-list authors as of April 2007. Their policy is to only stock best-sellers (ie Nora Roberts, Linda Howard, Danielle Steele, etc.). Keep in mind, that those outlets make up for 60% of ALL author sales. So if your book isn’t in there, you’re automatically down to 40% of the market.
What does this mean?
If your favorite author isn’t a best-seller, you won’t be seeing their books much, if at all. You’ll probably also see a lot more authors ‘disappearing’ because they aren’t selling enough books for the publishers without those retail outlets factored in. If this doesn’t sit well with you, then I suggest you write Wal-mart and Target. I know I will be. And before you ask, yes, I believe the publishers should be pitching a fit over this.
To balance out the bad news, I saw some great news today. PBW announced that she made the New York Times Best-seller extended list with Night Lost. Woo Hoo!!! YAH!!! That is so cool. I have my copy. Do you have yours?
Da Rulez:
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Dont forget to leave them a comment telling them theyre tagged, and to read your blog.
1. I don’t like knick-knacks.
2. Overly cluttered houses stress me out.
3. I married a man from Scotland after leaving a seven year relationship.
4. I walk like I’m always in a hurry. (Fourteen years at an airline will do that to you.;)
5. I almost converted to Judaism years ago.
6. I love sushi.
7. I exercise four to five days a week.
8. I once shot my brother with a BB gun to see if it would hurt. Apparently, it does. *g*
I’m only tagging two people, Paperback Writer and Chey.
I mentioned at the end of last month that all my revisions/edits are supposed to arrive this month. I’ve been rushing to get this urban fantasy into shape so that I can send it off to my agent and have a clean plate for RED and REVENGE OF THE SKY GODDESS. I found out today that edits for RED are set to arrive on Monday. :-O That only leaves five days to clean up the urban fantasy. Yikes! Luckily, I don’t ‘think’ I’ll need all five days to do it. I’m down to the last few notes. Wish me luck!
I am kind of looking forward to diving back into RED. It’s been a long time since I’ve read the whole manuscript. I think it’ll really help jumpstart the writing for the next book in the series. Hopefully the world will feel fresh to me again.
Other than that, it’s been a slow day here. Thanks to Shiloh, I’ll be doing a MeMe tomorrow. I’m still formulating my revenge. (wg)
Today I have a bunch of errands to run after I finish my morning walk. One of which, the Post Office, will take longer than necessary. I cannot figure out how this system works. Is the idea to raise the price of stamps (again) and put the least amount of people behind the counter? I’m seeing a direct correlation here. (shaking head)
Last night at 1:00 am, I finally managed to finish reading my urban fantasy. I should probably preface this by saying this is the first time I’ve done so in one sitting. It’s an entertaining enough story, but I have no idea how it would be classified. Scary, I know. Sigh. Today, I’ll type in my changes and wait to hear from two friends who are currently reading the full manuscript. Once they’re done, it’s off to dh for a final read before I send it to my agent.
The weight loss is still going well. As of this morning, I’ve lost ten and a half pounds. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but that’s HUGE progress for me.
Started reading Beth Ciotta’s ALL ABOUT EVIE the other day. It’s so cute and funny. I keep cracking up at Evie’s antics. Any woman who has reached a certain age will find the story poignant. I don’t normally like contemporaries without major suspense subplots. What can I say? I’m a bang, bang–explosion kind of girl. (wg) I’m glad I made an exception and bought this book. In the interest of full discloser, Beth is a friend. But keep in mind that I don’t recommend books just because they’re written by one of my friends. If I did, I’d be here ALL day and into next week. Not to mention, I’d be beyond broke.
