I Love Contests

More contests! Yes, I do love contests. I love the excitement, the anticipation... Of course, the losing part isn't so great, but as authors we're used to rejection, right? I don't think I've actually won a contest since high school. But hope springs eternal in a writer's heart, so I'm on board and fired up for the contest duo going on this week. Elana Johnson (elanajohnson.blogspot.com) and Shelli Johannes-Wells (faeriality.blogspot.com) are having fun contests that are kind of linked but kind of not...Check out their blogs for more details. There are all kinds of prizes, including query critiques, which I personally would love to win. I've polished my query to a high sheen--I can practically see myself when I read it--but no takers yet.

Speaking of rejection, two of my queries came back...rejected. Which only makes me want to win that query crit even more. I've got this great novel but a not so great query (I'm allowed to say that because it's my blog, right?) It's funny, isn't it, how hard it is to append a complimentary adjective to any reference to your written work? I have an overpowering urge to backspace all over the word 'great' until it's obliterated. Every writer thinks their novel is great. If I say that, people will think I'm uppity/arrogant/misguided/naiive/self-serving/____________ (insert your word of choice). Anyway, nobody has to believe it (except maybe my mom). Now getting an agent to look at it is another matter.

That's why I love contests!

Let the Battle Begin

I sent out a query letter on Saturday. Such a small thing. But I admit, I was a teensy bit EXCITED!!!

Deep breath. This is the first query letter I've sent out in close to a year. I backburnered my WIP, then did a reedit, then rewrote my query letter (again). I also started another project. And yes, all that took almost a year. I also needed to step back and get some objectivity. I needed to ask myself, is this novel really worthwhile or am I just deluding myself?

Thanks in part to a new critique partner (Diane, you rock!), who took the time to read my novel to her two children, I've decided the answer is yes, this novel is worth going to battle over. I'm happy to say her two kids loved it. Her son even said it was one of his three favorites, up there with The 39 Clues and Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. That was high praise and I'm honored. (And yes, my novel also has boy and girl twins, so he definitely likes twins!)

You know, even if agents aren't banging down my door, I'm excited to hear that kids love it because I wrote it for them! I wrote exactly the kind of story I would have loved to read at that age.

So I'm coming out swinging. I sent three more queries yesterday. I'm not holding my breath. Just breathing a little deeper and holding onto it a little longer.

Of Chaos & Contests

You know, it's been a rough week. Without going into details, it's been the roughest of my life. There's a part of me that wants to wallow and just stare out the window for hours. And I have done some of that. It takes time to process when something really bad hits you out of the blue. But I decided pretty quick that I didn't want to stay curled in a ball, wallowing. I want to move forward. I don't want to look back on 2010 as the worst year ever. I want to be able to look back on it as the worst AND the best year ever. So I've got to make that happen. The thing that has helped me the most, besides hugs from my daughters, is my writing. I have a renewed sense of purpose. So I will be busy writing....and networking, and taking part in writing contests. Contests are a great way to get feedback, a great way to learn and hone your skills.

Mary Kole at kidlit.com is holding a contest this month. Submit the first 500 words of your finished novel and she will pick the best ones and dissect what makes them work. Now that's a great contest--a chance to get expert advice on a novel opening. Even if I don't win, I'll learn a lot by what she says about the ones that do win. Of course, I'm planning on winning! Call me the eternal optimist.

Here's the link to the contest rules: kidlit.com/kidlit-contest/

Got a novel you think is ready? Submit!

Writer's Block? Take a Trip!

Back from the holidays, renewed and reinvigorated. Well, sort of. I think I ate a few too many carne asada tacos in Mexico. But they were soooo good. Time away is actually a great writing tool. Sometimes it's hard for me to put away a WIP and give it space, but often that's just what it needs. Like giving bread dough time to rise. I always return with a fresher perspective, and often things I was blind to are suddenly illuminated.

Getting away physically helps so much too. New sights and sounds and a change from the routine do amazing things for my creative juices. It's so easy to get stuck in a daily routine and not even realize how dug in we are. I'm definitely one who loves the comfort of the known and established. But when I travel somewhere new, I feel parts of myself opening up that sometimes have fallen asleep without me even knowing it. It's hard to describe, but maybe you know what I mean. Sometimes even a long car ride on a road I haven't traveled is enough to do it--to spark a feeling of curiosity, excitement, longing, and feeling a little bit more alive than usual.

I've run across a few people who are addicted to travel--who work just long enough to save up enough money for another trip and then they hit the road and stay there until the money runs out. In a different lifetime, I think I could be one of those people.

So my sage advice-- travel whenever possible! And then write off the trip and tell Uncle Sam it's professional development for your writing career.

Why I Don't Write

This was actually the title of an essay I wrote in college, which was a takeoff on Joan Didion's essay, Why I Write. She explained why she wrote; I explained why I didn't. I don't remember what all my reasons were back then, but I know what they are now: 1) time; 2) time; and 3) time.

I know, everybody's got the same complaint. Still, I can't help wishing I was musical instead of writerly (is that a word?). My husband can pick up his guitar and play for 15 minutes and then put it back down. Imagine trying to write in 15-minute blocks! Some people probably manage it. My creative juices are like car oil in the winter--takes a while to warm up and start circulating. For the first half hour I've got sludge running through my veins. And finally things start to liquefy, the words are heating up the page...and then oops, time to go to work. Time to cook dinner, time to help with homework, time to go to bed.

And then there's that little part of me that dreads it...dreads sitting in front of the blank screen because what if the muses don't visit that day? What if my juices are like sludge for three hours straight? Any writer knows the feeling, it's like trudging uphill through mud in tropical heat carrying an anvil. Fun stuff. So yes, this is a really longwinded way of saying I didn't write today. But I made some pretty good chili for dinner and I lent a listening ear to my husband, who had a rotten day. So that counts for something, right?

Blog Neglect/New WIP

I thought about disowning this blog. I mean, what kind of terrible person ignores their blog for months on end? I was going to slink away without a backward look and pretend I never knew it. But then I decided to own up to it, and even put my name on it. (It was anonymous before.) So here's to new starts. And speaking of a new start, I've begun a new MG novel. Yep, put the old one in a drawer (back-burnered, but not forgotten) and have taken a totally new direction. My last one was fantasy adventure, which was loads of fun to write, but I'm kind of O.D.'d on fantasy worlds right now. So this one is totally reality based, humorous (hopefully), and written in first person. The m.c. is a 13-year-old girl, and I'm amazed at how easy it is to write in her voice. A little scary, actually. Like there's a skinny 13-year-old with attitude sitting in the back closet of my personality, going Oh yeah, it's finally my turn, And I'm actually wondering if she's a little too immature, now what does that say?!

I jumpstarted my wip with a "writing getaway," which I strongly advise to anyone who's stuck. It's kind of like a romantic getaway--you go to a cheap hotel but instead of romancing, you're writing. No phone calls, no t.v., no kids/hubbies/pet, and no internet (okay, maybe a little internet). So, thanks to my husband for managing the mayhem while I was gone. I'm up to around 50 pages and am purposely trying to write fast and not edit. Which means it's pretty rough, but that's okay because I like to edit. Editing is a relief. It's facing the blank white page that's tough. And if I write fast, my internal critic doesn't have a chance to get ramped up. She's sounds kind of like a 13-year-old too, come to think of it, like-- THIS SUCKS...and other helpful bits of advice. So am ignoring her for the present, and plowing forward.

I'm suffering from a rather severe case of peer envy. Since it's been a few day *ahem* since I've blogged, I thought I'd look at some other writer's blogs, hoping to make myself feel better. They're probably busy too, I thought. They probably haven't blogged much recently either. I checked five blogs and they'd all posted either today or yesterday! Some with photos and pretty colors and interesting content and everything! Some were having contests. In fact, you should probably be reading their blogs.
Well, I sniffed, obviously there just not as busy as I am. Clearly, none of them have day jobs or spouses or children or chickens (yes, I have 10). Obviously, they're so busy blogging they don't have time to do any REAL writing. And then I read about a couple of their soon to be published books. So I'm feeling a bit deflated--kind of like a popover after you stab it with a fork. Repeatedly.

Does everyone else in the world get up at 4 am and pound away at the keyboard? I actually did that when I was eight months pregnant and I wrote a screenplay, but that baby is now 12 years old. There's been a strange time warp in my neighborhood and 4 am actually comes much earlier now than it used to. Even if I do manage to stumble out of bed and crawl to the computer, my bleary eyes don't even focus for at least half an hour. Then, the day goes by in a blur and by 5 pm, if you could graph my brainwaves I'd look like a flatliner.

Okay, enough whining. Have you noticed I like to whine? I picked it up from my kids. Anyway, how do people do it? I'd really like to know. How do you have a life, a job, a family, chickens, and still find time/energy to write?