Internet outage

by with No Comment Meg & MattProgressStories

I couldn’t check in last night because the Internet stopped working. Unlike “the dog ate my homework,” this is no excuse. I was happily blogging away and couldn’t publish my post. Sometime between the time I started writing it and finished it to hit “publish,” I lost the Internet connection.

That said, I did get some writing done last night — a little more than 600 words on Meg & Matt’s story, which still needs a title.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I should do what I did during NaNo: Not waste time looking back at what I’d written before. If I let myself, I can spend a lot of time rereading and then not write anything new.

Now I’m on a roll

by with 2 Comments Meg & MattProgressStories

I sure am more productive when I can’t leave the house on my day off!

That’s not entirely true: I did make it to Starbucks for a couple of hours this afternoon. I got some writing done there — but I also did quite a bit at the house.

The end result: 2,702 words on Meg & Matt for the day — and I haven’t decided if the day’s over yet. (It probably should be. I have to be to work by 11 a.m. because we’re clearing the paper way early — by 7 — courtesy of the monster storm set to dump up to 5 feet of snow on Flagstaff Thursday and Friday).

Even if I don’t get anything else written tonight, I’d say 2,702 is a very good total — more than the last three days combined.

Why such a difference? Today, I was on a roll: the scenes seemed to write themselves. (It helped that they got to have nooky for the first time. For some reason, I have no trouble tearing through sex scenes that leave me tingling — and laughing.)

I was glad to leave Kara and Gareth behind and get back to the romantic comedy I do so well. (That was another one of Jennifer Ashley’s tips last weekend: “Learn how to write the story you write best.”)

For me, that’s romantic comedy — at least until someone tells me differently. 😉

I hope no one ever does that.

An hour later …

by with 3 Comments ProgressQuery Letters

Not long after I finished my last post, I decided to check my gmail account one more time. I certainly wasn’t expecting what awaited me there …

… a reply from one of the agents I queried this morning!

They want to see the first 30 pages of “Operation Snag Mike/Brad.”

I was floored — and thrilled at the same time. Once my heart stopped racing (and I texted the Boyfriend with the good news), I followed the instructions to upload the pages to the literary agency’s database.

Now, I get to wait. They said it could take up to two months to review the submission. That’s about the same amount of time until Golden Heart finalists are announced.

Good thing I have other stories to keep me busy in the meantime.

Mission accomplished

by with No Comment Query Letters

Checking in again: I didn’t spent quite an hour treating writing as my day job today (Monday), but I did accomplish what I set out to do.

That’s right — I sent out two query letters. Yep. You read that correctly. Two agents now have my query for “Operation Snag Mike Brad” sitting in their e-mail inboxes. I hope one of them likes the idea enough to request the full manuscript.

With the snow falling, we cleared the paper early tonight, so I’m about to head home. Maybe I’ll get some writing done.

Wait a minute — that’s not the right attitude. I WILL get some writing done. That’s better! 😀

Very little

by with One Comment ProgressQuery Letters

I got a little writing done today … very little. I’d say I wrote about a page — a far cry from the heady days of November when I was writing 2,000 words a day.

Guess I’ll look at the positive: It’s a page more than I wrote yesterday.

I’ve actually been a little lazy since finishing the first draft of “Blind Date Bride” last month. I haven’t been writing much, though I did finish my query letter … I think. I’m waiting for some feedback from my writer friends.

The problem is, I’m not sure what I want to work on now. I can’t make up my mind. I’ve dabbled with Cassie & Dustin’s story and today I wrote on Meg & Matt. I could also go back to Drew & Lainy’s story, or Bree & Mike’s.

I think, now that I’ve figured out how to print on both sides of the paper with the Boyfriend’s new printer, I’m going to print out a copy of “Blind Date Bride” so I can give it a good read-through. I didn’t want to waste 350 sheets on a first draft … even if it might be the best thing I’ve ever written.

Still struggling with that query

by with No Comment ProgressQuery Letters

With the holidays looming, I took a brief hiatus from the blog. Even though I didn’t blog about a darn thing, I continued writing — or at least thinking about writing.

That’s half the battle, isn’t it? By thinking about that darn query letter, I’m getting that much closer to getting it written.

Okay, maybe not. Right now I feel like my query letter has dragged me behind the building and is pushing my face into a snowbank while it kicks my a$$. But I feel certain I’m about to turn the tables and whip that bad boy into shape.

Even though I haven’t accomplished much on my query letter yet, I did manage to get more editing done on Cassie & Dustin’s story (the second in the series that also contains my 2009 GH entry). I think the head-hopping is now a thing of the past. (Of course, so are about 5,000 more words. I think the MS now sits at about 43K … so there’s more rewriting to be done.)

It never ends, does it? I certainly hope not.

P.S.: I also spent some time putting together the newest issue of High Country Highlights, the newsletter for Northern Arizona RWA. I’m looking to zap it out to members very soon now.

And I thought ‘the Black Moment’ was bad

by with No Comment Progressquest

I’ve set “Blind Date Bride” aside for a couple of weeks, letting it rest before I start editing. But now I’m at a bit of a loss. What next?

I have other manuscripts I could be editing/rewriting/expanding, including the two that follow my GH entry. (It’s part of a three-book series, “The Women of Willow’s Grove.”) Both are at least 10,000 words too short for a  category romance, and they need other help.

There are also two unrelated stories — one set in Indiana, one in Arizona — that are both about one-third written. Started after I joined NARWA, they don’t need as much in the way of life support …

But what I think I really need to do is start looking for an agent. That means sending Brad and Erin’s story out into the big, bad world. And that, of course, will involve writing a query letter.

That’s where the title of this post comes in. Even though it’s short, I’ve come to the conclusion that a query letter is quite possibly the hardest piece of the puzzle to write. Yes, harder even than the dreaded synopsis.

Why? Your query has to catch an agent or editor’s attention, conveying the heart and soul of your story, along with its tone. Emphasizing your qualifications, if you have any, isn’t a bad idea, either.

And it all has to be done in a single page.

That’s a difficult — but not impossible — task. I think I’m up to the challenge. I’d better be, if I expect to ever see publication.

Coming faster now

by with No Comment NaNoWriMo 09Progress

With just a little more than 8,000 words to write to hit the 90K mark needed for a single-title contemporary, I’m finding words are just pouring out of my head an onto the page.

Where was all this enthusiasm last week, when I needed it to end the NaNo with a less-pathetic word count?

Oh well. If  I can keep this momentum going, I’ll soon be typing the momentous words: “First draft complete!”

How exciting that will be! I’ve never finished a full-length MS before. All my others are category length. I can’t wait.

First up? Setting it aside for a few weeks, at least, before a read-through. In those weeks, I’ll be starting to shop for an agent for “Operation Snag Mike/Brad,” the GH entry.

Now that I’ve decided to get my rear in gear, things are starting to happen for me. How thrilling! 😀

They got it!

by with No Comment NaNoWriMo 09Progress

I just checked my delivery confirmation via the U.S. Postal Service and nearly had a heart attack: No record of that number on file.

It turned out, I incorrectly entered the tracking number from my receipt. When I typed in the correct number, the computer told me my GH entry was received. Woo-hoo! That’s a load off my mind.

We had a great, inspirational NARWA meeting Saturday — and for once I didn’t have to come home and go to work. I was off all weekend, so I got to come home from the meeting all inspired to write … and actually do it! I wish that’d happen more often.

With the GH entry off my plate, I devoted the weekend to catching up on the NaNo. I didn’t succeed, but I did write about 6,000 words on Saturday and Sunday, bringing my NaNo count up to 20,000+.

Pathetic compared to most people’s, I’m sure … but it’s still 20,000 more words than I had at the end of October. And I realized I don’t have quite as far to go to finish as I thought … Only about 16,500 to get my MS to 90,000 words.

So … I finally let Kari and Damien get busy. Figured they needed a couple of happy sex scenes before I break them apart and get them back together.

I was sick last night, so the word count didn’t grow much Monday. And today it was back to work. I’m going to try to do a little writing when I get home from work, but I’m still pretty wiped out from my bout with the 36-hour bug. About the time I finish this blog and my other one, I’ll probably be ready for bed.

Post office says it's been delivered!

2 pounds, 13 3/4 ounces

by with No Comment ContestsProgress

That’s how much my Golden Heart entry weighs. It’s 36 pages of 6-page synopsis and 210 pages of the first 42 pages of my MS.

How do I know how much it weighs? Easy — I put it on my trusty kitchen scale. (I knew there had to be a use for it besides weighing food!)

I have decided it’s time to let my entry go. I can’t read through it one more time without going absolutely bonkers. Besides, If I hang onto it much longer, I’ll be paying extra for express shipping — and since the Boyfriend is fronting me the money to pay for the mailing, he’d appreciate it if I didn’t have to do that.

I felt an enormous sense of accomplishment after printing out those six copies. I called one of my NARWA friends and told her that it was done. She’s still working on her entry (in a different category).

As an aside, my Brother laser printer works great. I bought it a couple of years ago, fairly cheap. At the time, I had an iMac still running on OS9, and it was one of the few printers that was OS9 compatible. I’m glad, because my pages look beautiful — much better than they would on an inkjet printer.

I plan to head to the Post Office either Thursday or Friday, depending on when the Boyfriend gets me that money. My next NARWA meeting is Saturday, and I have the weekend off.

Now, instead of devoting it to finishing the GH entry, I can concentrate on upping my NaNo word count. I managed to break 14.5K today, but that’s still low compared to everyone else.