Reading, writing, and editing...

Since Stacey and I have been revamping AoE and neck deep in the editing process, I’ve found myself more focused on the formats and writing techniques of other writers than I have been in the past. I’m not going to name specific books or authors, but there have been a lot of Ahha! Moments to be had recently. The first thing I’ve noticed is that some of the books written by authors on my favorite list are really, really simple. While the descriptions are present, they’re not over the top, they aren’t embellished with unnecessary words, and they’re really straight forward and to the point with just enough description to give readers just enough information to create their own pictures in their head.

Another observation I made came when I started to read the latest release of one of my favorite authors. Now, I’m not sure if her writing has always been this way or if my view of reading has just changed, but with this particular book I am seriously disappointed in the quality of the writing. It feels like either she didn’t edit it correctly herself or her editor is seriously slacking on the job. The dialogue is choppy, the descriptions are mediocre at best, and I find some of the characters (who I used to adore without question) annoying as hell. I think I’ve been so critical of Stacey’s and my writing lately that it’s started to transfer to my views on the books I read, which can be a good thing in some instances, but kind of a drag when I really just want to be swept away by a story and not distracted by the numerous mistakes between pages.

I know this is a pretty random blog topic, but for some reason it’s been on my mind a lot lately. Strange thing is, I’m really not a big fan of editing, but now that I’ve started I can’t seem to stop. It’s really starting to affect the entertainment value of the books I read. I’m afraid by the end out our current editing on AoE I’m going to need some kind of 12 step program to get some control back lol.

Anyway, I just thought it was an interesting observation. We’ll see how far it goes. In the mean time, we’re almost to the halfway mark on editing AoE and there shall be querying in our future. Good times!

T-Minus Eleven Days

In the back of my mind, I have Europe's, It's the Final Countdown, playing in my mind. Eleven days until graduation and it has been a long and hard journey. The sacrifices I have made to become a college graduate....and I hope that it's well worth it.

Today, I spoke with my aunt and she asked me what I planned on doing with my degree and I said, "Nothing, until I know what my writing career is going to look like." And then I continued the conversation by saying that I have become very ambitious and want a literary agent before September. That might sound aggressive, but I don't think it's aggressive enough. As soon as school is out, we are going to finish perfecting AOE, formatting it into a formal manuscript and then sending out our query letters.

You can say that we are fairly nervous; I hope we get a bite soon, because I think if we don't then it will deflate our spirits, but we do have a list of top twelve agents in our genre that we will send our queries out to first.

Julie Barer
Barer Literary, LLC

Jim McCarthy
Dystel & Goderich Literary Management

Ginger Clark
Curtis Brown, Ltd.

Anne Hawkins
John Hawkins & Associates, Inc.

Barry Goldblatt
Barry Goldblatt Literary Agency, Inc.

Irene Goodman
Irene Goodman Literary Agency

Wendy Schmalz
Wendy Schmalz Agency

Susan Schulman
Susan Schulman Literary Agency

Bill Contardi
Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.

Laura Rennert
Andrea Brown Literary Agency

Jodi Reamer
Writers House

Rosemary Stimola
Stimola Literary Studio

Kate McKean
Howard Morhaim Literary Agency

Alan Nevins
Renaissance Literary & Talent

And then after that, we are going to query everyone in that genre.....no particulars until we get either rejections or partial submissions, or even maybe full submissions...I'm hoping for the full requests. And if we are lucky, we will become as famous as Stephanie Meyer or Lauren Kate....either or.

Then we can start living our lives the way we want to. The End.
P.S. Charlaine Harris' new book is coming out today, Dead Reckoning.

Dealing with Rejection

re·ject (r-jkt)
tr.v. re·ject·ed, re·ject·ing, re·jects
1. To refuse to accept, submit to, believe, or make use of.
2. To refuse to consider or grant; deny.
3. To refuse to recognize or give affection to (a person).
4. To discard as defective or useless; throw away.
5. To spit out or vomit.
6. Medicine To resist immunologically the introduction of (a transplanted organ or tissue); fail to accept as part of one's own body.

When sending out query letters, receiving rejections is inevitable, but how you handle the rejection tells a lot about your character.

Not all forms of rejection are true rejections, I think that is the important thing to remember. After going to the writers workshops, we found out that there are three types of literary agents:

1) The ones, who after reading your query letter, don't even take the time to respond because they aren't interested via it isn't there genre, your query letter sucked, or they aren't excepting clients.

2) The second type are the agents who will respond, but what they say is limited like, "I'm sorry, but we aren't interested."

3) And then the third type of agent, are interested in your work even though they don't cover your genre or they were really fascinated with your query letter and they will respond with a somewhat rejected non-rejection, which makes you feel like you had them hook-line and sinker until you told them it was a YA novel.

"Thank you for your query, which I read with interest. Unfortunately, I am not the right agent for your work. Do not despair as another agent might feel quite differently. Thank you for considering me. I wish you the best with your writing."

Chuck Sambuchino said that if you receive the third type of agent rejection, that you are on the right track with your query letter, but the agent might not be interested in the genre.

So, I am hoping that with Age of Eden, we will receive the third type of agent response and be able to walk away from the experience with our pride still intact. Because even though it's a rejection, it still says, that they were interested in your book, but they don't handle that type of genre and they are confident that another agent would feel quite differently....so there is hope on the horizon.

And now I am stepping off of my soap box. Everyone have a safe and happy Easter!

How to Write a Great Query Letter

This is Chuck Sambuchino's blog on how to write a great query Letter:

Think of a query as a three-part monster, broken down into three paragraphs. At the top of the page, you will have your contact info, as well as the mailing address info for the agency and the date. After that, you have your three paragraphs:

Paragraph One:

1. Explain what the work is. So - what are you writing? What is the genre? The length? The title? Is it complete? State all the basic info upfront so the agent will immediately know if this is a type of work that she represents.

2. Explain why you're contacting this agent. Did you meet them at a conference? Were they recommended by a friend? Did you see an interview online where they said they were looking for steamy romances and you're writing one such steamy romance? Show them why you picked them out of the big pile, so they have a reason to pick you out of a big pile.

Paragraph Two:

1. Pitch Your Work. This is the most difficult part. You have to boil your book down to about 3-6 sentences and explain what makes the story interesting. You've got to get to the hook. What is the irony - the catch - that makes this story interesting? If your story is simply about a police officer who retires and adjusts to a new lifestyle, that has no hook. But if you say that this newly retired police officer decides to get a sex change, and finds that the police union wants to cancel his pension, and his old friends won't speak to him - then you've got a hook. You've got a unique, interesting idea for a story.

Paragraph Three:

1. Explain who you are and why you're qualified to write this work. Do you have publishing credits? Are you a journalist? Have you won any awards? Have you had short stories published? If you're pitching nonfiction, this becomes the most important section of the query because you will have to prove that you are the ideal person to write this particular book.
Keep in mind that if you don't have anything to say or brag about, you can just keep this section short. Tout your accomplishments quickly and humbly. You want to say "I'm not brand new and I take writing seriously." You don't want to say "Yoo-hoo! Look at my accolades! I'm the man, if you didn't know it, sucka."

2. Thank them. Thank the agent for considering your project. Ask them if you can send more. "Can I send you the first few chapters or some pages?" "Can I send you the full book proposal?"

Writer's Workshops

The writer’s workshop and book fair was unbelievable this weekend.

Friday’s Sessions was About: Everything you need to know about literary agents by Chuck Sambuchino, he is the writer of the Guide to Literary Agents and Formatting & Submitting your Manuscript

He has some interesting concepts, and on his blog he announces new literary agents who are hungry for new clients so join his blog.

He also said a few other things like, 9-10 of the literary agents that you receive a rejection from, is because the agency isn’t even taking clients or don't even accept your genre of work. And you should never send queries to 2 people in the same agency. And one more thing too, if a agency kicks you a letter back after the 20th try, that means it’s time to change your query letter so you can send it out to other literary agencies….and if you’ve sent it to every literary agent possible, change your query letter and change the title of your book and then resubmit it to the literary agents. If you’re writing a series of books, don’t even start the second book until you have found an agent bc most likely they will send you back a 10-15 page rewrite to your manuscript before they will publish you, so it is redundant to write the second book if the first book will be flipped upside down and the story line gets changed.

Getting it Done:Productivity and Muse-Wrangling for Writers by Allie Pleiter, she is a romance novelist. I got her email address and asked her how she got published...it was really interesting, she has her own blog as well….apparently networking is the “in” thing now lol and she teaches people what kind of writer they are, are you a big chunk writer or little chunk writer? I’m both…lol.

How to Write a winning query letter by Cavanaugh Lee, we received three different “Winning” real query letters. So, hopefully it can give you an idea about what you should need in yours….but you should know, Laurell K Hamilton sent out 110 queries before she was ever signed, Cavanaugh Lee sent out 175 and Derek Kent, sent out almost 1,000 before he was ever signed. It’s about persistence and determination.

Writing for Children and Teens by Cynthea Liu, she is the founder of authors now and wrote a book about Writing for Childrens and Teens.

Saturdays Session was About:

Ghost stories

Thrillers

Then we went and met about 100 authors, and met about 10 authors from YA genre, who told us to sign up at the www.scbwi.org website, it costs money to enroll in the membership, but apparently it is a phenomenal way to get your foot in the literary door. Not to mention, that we should be trying to participate in every book fair and writers workshop, locally and regionally, just to get our names out there. And most of the time there are editors and agents at those larger events, and you can pitch stories and ideas to them, without having to go through a quary letter.

Then We had a workshop with the YA fiction authors, they told us about how they all got published.

And then We took one class that was called How to get published…it was about starting small instead of big, to gain a bio for your quary letter, he recommended writing for local and regional papers and journals, just so you have the experience for your bio.

I know this is a lot of info to swallow, but I’m hoping that you can benefit from making the connections via networking websites and whatnot….and of course you know about www.agentquary.com

And reading up on the submission guidelines bc each agency is different.

I hope this helps.

The power of dreams in a storyteller's life...

Almost four hours ago, I laid down to get some sleep after an exhausting (yet fantastic) weekend with Stacey going to workshops after workshops and having one on one conversations with different YA authors at our local annual Writer's Convention. It was one big information fest and, honestly quite a bit overwhelming, but there's nothing like being near other writers or hearing the success stories of published authors to get the creative juices flowing into overdrive and, evidently, inspiring detailed dreams that feel so real you wake up talking to yourself.

Now, for as long as I can remember I have always been an avid dreamer. I'm not one of those people who forgets their dreams upon waking because my dreams are usually very detailed and, while often odd in content and completely random, I remember almost every detail without even having to try. Knowing that, the dreams I've had tonight are some of the most vivid I have ever experienced in my life. In four hours I had three dreams, with three separate, I'm going to refer to them as storylines, and three separate sets of characters whose lives are so different in comparison that even now I am completely blown away at how clear my recollection is of them.

The last dream I had, which was about forty-five minutes ago, was so amazingly real and slightly terrifying, that once I woke up I had the strongest urge to write it down because everything about it seriously screams to be written into something more. I remember the names of the people in my dreams, their location, what they were wearing, what their lives are like, what the conflict is between them, and the incredibly disturbing yet realistic nature of what brings the two people together. It's so strong that right now, even if I wanted to forget it, it would be impossible. Maybe it's not rational, but I feel like it's something I have to write down right now without thinking or planning ahead, because the "storyline" is so focused I don't need any of that.

I guess I'm really just kind of jarred because this has never happened to me as a writer before, though I've heard of similar things happening to other authors. Stephanie Meyers wrote Twilight based off a dream that she had and look how far that franchise has come. So, I have to wonder how often do other authors use their dreams as a foundation for the "worlds" they build within their books. Is it a common occurrence? Are they as vivid and demanding as some of the dreams I've experienced? Or maybe I'm just completely insane and irrational, which is a definite possibility lol.

Whatever it is, on a personal level, I don't believe dreams like the ones I experienced are meant to be ignored. Especially when they are so detailed I'm fooled into forgetting what the boundaries between dreams and reality looks like and am temporarily unable to tell the difference between the two. I find it terribly exciting actually and it makes me want to start writing immediately. Granted, I all ready have a couple of writing projects that take precedence over this right now, I'm definitely going to keep in in mind because it's something that needs to be produced into fiction.

But, anyway, yeah...so I know this is a completely off the wall post that comes completely out of left field, but like I said before I seriously felt like it needed to be written. Now maybe I can get back to sleep and dreams some more. Right now, I feel like there is an entire minefield of future plots out there just waiting to be discovered in dreamland and I seriously can't wait to get started.

So, until next time, this Jennifer...signing off.

Happy April!

I received my graduation invitations yesterday. I just can’t believe that my collegiate career is coming to a close. Seven years of my life has been devoted to furthering my education. Why that long? Because I changed my major three times. I originally started to go for an associate’s degree and midways through that journey I decided that a bachelors would be more beneficial this day in time. So, I continued taking classes and on May 14th, I will receive my bachelors in business management. It’s unbelievable. It has been the longest journey of my life and I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that I will be a graduate.
After that day comes, I can then, give all of myself to my professional writing career. We will literally have AOE: Hell to Pay finished and wrapped up in just a couple months. Then it will be time to start sending out query letters to literary agencies. Which I think will be the most difficult part, I mean, how can you give a descriptive brief synopsis that describes your life’s work in a page or less? Either way it goes, it must be done if we ever plan to accomplish getting our works published.
On a more cheerful note, Jennifer is in the middle of tackling a chapter in AOE: II- *SPOILER*It’s in regards to Ava’s journey to Eden, we finally mapped out her trip and this is the first official stop on her trip. I can’t wait to see what Jennifer has wrote, because the next chapter after that, is all me.
Everyone have a fantastic day and don’t forget to live your life like W.W.S.D…What would Stacey Do? LOL, have a good one.

Yes, it's true. I am in fact alive!

Sooooo…rumor has it that I’m a slacker who has tragically become a slave to procrastination. True story? Sadly, yes.

While, I whole heartedly admit that my partner in crime has it far worse than I do, as far as being busy, full of stress, and lacking in free time, I on the other hand have no reasonable excuse for not posting on the blog more than I have. It’s been over a month since I took the time to write down my thoughts about anything that isn’t related to school and that’s just sad and pathetic. And yes, dear readers, I am ashamed.

On a good note, tonight after talking to Stacey, I decided (without conferring with her, which I will do later today since it’s past 4 in the morning lol) that I was going to do some editing on the chapters that we’ve all ready done for AoE: Hell to Pay. I had originally said that I believed it would be a better idea to leave the editing alone until after the entire book is finished, but right now, I feel somewhat detached from the storyline and I need a reminder of what we’ve done and where we’re going. It’s one of those things where I know where the book begins and where it ends, but finding that middle section is eluding me a bit at the moment. Hence, the getting reacquainted with the story and the characters. I don’t know how we’ve gotten so far off track with this book, but we’ve got to get our booties right back on the train and get moving.

I think Stacey and I both need to come up with some form of a schedule where we can start regularly writing on the book. Even if it’s just one or two chapters a week, that’s better than the big old nothing (aside from the chapter 2 that Stacey so brilliantly shot out…I swear she’s an overachiever. ;) ) that’s been the last couple of months. Every little bit helps and I want to get this book done so that we can do revisions on book 1, get it polished and perfected so that we can start working on getting it queried, which is a frightening thought in and of itself.

I swear, there’s just so much more to writing than I ever thought there was. Though I do absolutely love it, writing is hard work. It takes diligence and dedication that I admit I’m struggling to master.

Anywho, I’m drowsy as hell at the moment and my thoughts are starting to bleed together. Seriously, my fingers are typing without an effort on my part. I swear, sometimes they have their own brain that is frequently smarter than the one in my head lol. Sure sign that it’s time to sleep when my fingers start thinking for themselves. So, goodnight, sleep tight, and watch out for vampires…they bite!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I don't know if it's the vibrant color green, the warming temperatures or the sun that has brought me out of my shell today, but I dove into writing a new chapter in AOE 2. I only whimmed out 1200 words but that was better than the 0 that I would have completed today. Jennifer did some massive research on some of the significant places that we will be presenting in the book. She has our journey mapped out as well too, so when the time comes, we are going to let our hair down and go to town.

I haven't ever talked about my weekends but they are always busy, busy, busy. It seems like I spend my weekends playing catchup with my family. Tmw night is my neices play, Saturday morning is my nephews soccer game, then saturday afternoon is my neices soccer game, then some of my husbands friends have demanded that we make it out to the social scene with them...most likely a resteraunt or a karaoke bar...who knows? Then Sunday, is cleaning, laundry, putting out my patio furniture, putting together my new pergola, seeding the grass, and taking down the christmas lights.

If anyone would care to come and contribute a helping hand, my door is open. Until then, Happy St. Patricks day, and don't forget to get your green on!

Busy

This semester started out like a nightmare, but has slowly gotten a little better. My spanish class still leaves me banging my head on a daily basis, and I don't know how anyone in the history of the university that I attend, has ever aced an economics class...so sue me, right now I am barely passing.

It's been a while since I have connected onto the blog. There is a reason behind the lack of postings. It has been an extremely hard last few months, I have had like zero time to even recooperate from the chaos.

But never fear, Jennifer and I talked yesterday and we are going to start laying out and outlining the second book to aoe. Of course, we have already started writing it, but with us not working on it for the last month, we are afraid that we lost our groove. But, scouts honor, the day I graduate on May 14th, the week after that will be like a hurricane. I am going to start jotting down pages like its nothing. Right now, it doesn't make since for me to start writing if I don't have time to complete a whole idea, scene, or chapter. So when I eventually get the chance to sit down and take a few deep breaths, my head will be in my laptop and the tapping of keys will be like music to my ears.

So don't get discouraged, because we sure aren't. And never fear, we got this.