Come on over to my LiveJournal Blog!

After attempting to keep two blogs for a while, I've decided I'm going to just blog in one place! 

For anyone who wants to follow my ramblings, you can find me on LiveJournal

I'll be keeping my Blogger blog to follow people still though!

I'm on Twitter!

 It took me a while, but yes, I have succumbed to Twitter. Come follow me! 

In other writerly news, I'm back into my newest WIP and loving being able to work on something that is NOT under contract. I feel such a freedom right now. This new project is like nothing I've attempted--two, alternating first-person POVs, violence, sex (nothing gratuitous of course!), a made-up world. I'm giving myself permission to go too far, write messy, go off on tangents, etc... all to figure out what the story needs, and what it doesn't. There are no expectations right now from agent or editor, so it's all good.

House Hunting

Hubby and I are looking at a house today a few towns over. A really nice historic New England town, with really good schools, a farmers market in the summer, countryish winding roads...the house has 12 acres and a view. A view! Of a mountain! 

Now let's hope it's not a dive on the inside. 

And let's hope it's still for sale when the second half of my book advance comes in. You know, in like 5 months. 

Hey, it's good to dream. 

WTF? Church Sign

There is a church in town that has one of those billboard signs (similar to a McDonald's or Wendy's fast food sign saying over 80 billion served, etc...) Each week they have some new word of advice up there about God and life and love and peace. I usually drive by, give it a read, and either appreciate it or think it's cheesy, or giggle at the lack of proper punctuation. 

Yesterday my husband and I were driving by and this is what it read:

"Marriage is God's protection for women and children."

WTF?? It took us a full moment for that to sink in. My husband and I kind of looked at one another and did the whole squinty eye thing, wondering if we'd read that correctly. 

This sign absolutely infuriated me. What was this church trying to say, that women and children are vulnerable unless they have a big strong man to protect them? Or was it a more religious sign, meaning women who bear children outside of wedlock will be shunned? I couldn't figure it out, and the more I tried, the more angry I became.

So, what do YOU think this sign meant to say? I'm curious about different takes on this, and promise not to argue with ANY opinion. I'm a pretty laid back kind of gal :-) 

Today at The 5 Randoms

It's been a while since I last posted (my primary blog is over on LJ) but this blog is a lot of fun too, and I wanted to share with anyone who follows it this week's theme over at The 5 Randoms

We're daydreaming a bit this week, selecting the perfect Hollywood actors who would play our protags and antags. 

This all started when one of our Randomites, Amanda Marrone did a blog interview which included a question of who she thought would play her main character well. Amanda answered Miranda Cosgrove. Turns out Miranda's mother saw the mention on Google Alerts (yay for Google Alerts!), and after some agent contact, requested Amanda's book for Miranda to read. Wow, right? 

Come on over to The 5 Randoms and let us know who you think could pull off YOUR main character!

My Author/Agent Revision Process

I was asked recently (by Sus aka Gottawrite Girl) how my agent and I work together to revise my manuscripts. We both agreed that we love to hear all the different ways authors and their agents work together. 

So far, Agent Ted and I have worked on two manuscripts together. One being my first contracted YA novel, and the other being my MG mystery (that is hopefully going to go out to editors soon). I've come to the conclusion that I will never EVER pass to him a complete manuscript that needs little to no revisions before an editor looks it over.

Ted is the best kind of agent. He sees the strengths of my writing, and asks for me to give him more. He doesn't just say, "Yeah, this is really good. Let's see what an editor thinks now." He works with me on everything from tightening the plot, to developing characters just a little bit more, to developing an satisfying ending. He doesn't want to send out my work to editors and risk getting rejected because a character's motivations were weak, or because the resolution at the end was shaky. 

With EVERLASTING, we went back and forth for 6 solid months before we both finally agreed the novel shined. A week after it went out to editors, we had mega interest, lots of offers, and ultimately, an auction ending up in a six-figure deal. I have no doubt that those results would not have occurred without tireless revisions.

After a multiple page revision letter addressing very specifics requests, Ted made notes inside each version of the manuscript we worked on, asking questions that helped me narrow in on a problem. Mostly, the romance aspect was severely lacking and I had a very, VERY difficult time injecting the kind of lusty romance he knew would make it sell fast and hot. Now, of course, I'm hooked on romance :-)

Anyway, that's my agent/author revision story. Thanks for asking, Sus!

The revelation has hit!

I've been patiently waiting for the revelation for Book #2 to smack me upside the head--the revelation that would tell me what my novel is lacking and the story line that will allow me to really fall in LOVE with it. 

It arrived this morning while drinking my first cup of coffee. Bam! It jumped out from behind the giant block of self-doubt and angst I'd developed, laughing and pointing at me. "You're soooooo slow!" the revelation said, choking on its giggles. Yeah, yeah. I know.