Sorry I haven't been posting very often. As the title suggests, my crazy life has taken over my literary life. Today my husband is having a minor surgery but it has consumed our lives in a very major way. And not to be outdone in the atte tion-getting department, of course my daughter chose today to have a fever.
The days leading up to today have been jampacked as well. Even as I write this I realize it all sounds plausible enough, but it reeks, REEKS of excuse. I am a writer, for Gods sake. I should thrive on this. I should find any tiny moment to take a step back and look at the hilarity of the shenanigans I find myself in and write, write, write! I chide myself now for not doing so because some of the things lately in the house, you would not believe.
But I digress. We leave soon for Hospital and I will try and be somber now for the moment calls for it. But I swear, I will return because I have some funny stuff for you later, I promise.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
It's All So Insignificant When You Watch the Miners From Chile
I'm at work, not working, because my eyes are filling with tears again. I have the miner's rescue on live feed and I keep checking in to the action all day. I am moved beyond words. The pettiness of stupid phone calls and my own day to day silliness stupefies me as I watch Claudio Acuna, miner #25, embrace his wife and baby daughter for the first time in 70 days after he thought he might never see them again. And I complained that the kids made a mess with their cereal this morning.
That dear man has black sunglasses on to protect his precious eyes from the light as he has seen nothing but darkness for over two months. And I complained about waking early.
His wife is jubilant. He is gently lowered onto a stretcher to be taken to medical and checked over. He sits up a final time and carefully smoothes a Chilean flag across his legs and body. Clutching a black and white photo of his little family, he is taken away. He raises his arm and waves as he goes, victoriously. And I am so happy for him. There is no way I can work today.
I think I will go home and hug my kids.
That dear man has black sunglasses on to protect his precious eyes from the light as he has seen nothing but darkness for over two months. And I complained about waking early.
His wife is jubilant. He is gently lowered onto a stretcher to be taken to medical and checked over. He sits up a final time and carefully smoothes a Chilean flag across his legs and body. Clutching a black and white photo of his little family, he is taken away. He raises his arm and waves as he goes, victoriously. And I am so happy for him. There is no way I can work today.
I think I will go home and hug my kids.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
An Agent is Possibly Interested!
So, there I was just minding my own business on a lazy Sunday when an email popped onto my phone. I wasn't expecting anything urgent, so I didn't check it right away. When I finally did, I was blown away.
The agent that I met at the Southen California Writer's Conference last month (the one that killed us saving for it) the amazing Bree Ogden, emailed me back from my probably way too chatty query for BOTH The Detention Demon and The Ghost and the Guys (yeah, I know, I broke the cardinal rule about querying more than one ms at a time, but I'm telling you, I really felt a connection with her).
Her email was, well, it was really encouraging. It said she was very interested in my manuscript and would like to see perhaps a partial or a full and apologized for the delay in contacting me. But, because this is my life and not, say, Lauren Conrad's, there was a catch. She was out of town for the rest of this month and until mid November judging the SCBWI contest. :-(
But it went on to promise to get back in contact with me. I will remain optimistically hopeful. Plus I can be spitefully grateful that I can say "I told you so" to my husband over the $$ spent on the conference. Even if it doesn't land me an agent, I think it at least got me a nice contact and maybe even a friend. And in this industry, who couldn't use a friend? :-)
The agent that I met at the Southen California Writer's Conference last month (the one that killed us saving for it) the amazing Bree Ogden, emailed me back from my probably way too chatty query for BOTH The Detention Demon and The Ghost and the Guys (yeah, I know, I broke the cardinal rule about querying more than one ms at a time, but I'm telling you, I really felt a connection with her).
Her email was, well, it was really encouraging. It said she was very interested in my manuscript and would like to see perhaps a partial or a full and apologized for the delay in contacting me. But, because this is my life and not, say, Lauren Conrad's, there was a catch. She was out of town for the rest of this month and until mid November judging the SCBWI contest. :-(
But it went on to promise to get back in contact with me. I will remain optimistically hopeful. Plus I can be spitefully grateful that I can say "I told you so" to my husband over the $$ spent on the conference. Even if it doesn't land me an agent, I think it at least got me a nice contact and maybe even a friend. And in this industry, who couldn't use a friend? :-)
Friday, October 8, 2010
Another Nice Rejection
Just a quickie here...I am dog tired. Got another rejection today, but this one was very nice. From Logan Garrison of the Gernert Company. I had high hopes for this one, really loved what I had heard and read about him. But as I said, the rejection was nice. I quote now:
"Though what you've written promises to be a thoughtful and compelling book, I'm afraid we were unable to find a place for it at this agency."
Conjures up a lovely visual of grief-stricken agents racing around their offices, rending their garments and gnashing their teeth, crying out loudly, "There must be a place for this brilliant new talent! What do you mean we have no room? Oh, the injustice of it all!"
Perhaps this is a slightly skewed version of the reality, but let me have what little solace I can, thank you. I find it pitiful enough that I am now clinging to and finding hopeful tones in my rejections. Let me have that, at least. Tell me you haven't done it yourself. Ah. I thought so. Nay-sayer no more, my friend. Tsk, tsk. Let he who is with agent cast the first stone. But if you did, likely you wouldn't be reading this blog. *sigh* Have a good night. I clearly need the rest.
"Though what you've written promises to be a thoughtful and compelling book, I'm afraid we were unable to find a place for it at this agency."
Conjures up a lovely visual of grief-stricken agents racing around their offices, rending their garments and gnashing their teeth, crying out loudly, "There must be a place for this brilliant new talent! What do you mean we have no room? Oh, the injustice of it all!"
Perhaps this is a slightly skewed version of the reality, but let me have what little solace I can, thank you. I find it pitiful enough that I am now clinging to and finding hopeful tones in my rejections. Let me have that, at least. Tell me you haven't done it yourself. Ah. I thought so. Nay-sayer no more, my friend. Tsk, tsk. Let he who is with agent cast the first stone. But if you did, likely you wouldn't be reading this blog. *sigh* Have a good night. I clearly need the rest.
Friday, October 1, 2010
SERIOUSLY? ANOTHER ONE??
Normally I don't post during the day ( I'm supposed to be working; I do have a day job) but it is lunch time and I was browsing Wonderwall again and another post nearly made me toss my apple pecan chicken salad from Wendy's (lovely, by the way, try one). Another reality star (read: stupid talentless tool) got a book deal. This one will blow your mind.
Remember the bling ring? The one where the arrogant teens broke into celebrity homes and stole things because they felt somehow entitled to have the same things the celebrities had earned? (and I even use the term "earned" loosely here). Well, the ringleader, who ALREADY got herself a reality tv show for her crime, has now earned herself a book deal. Really. The only good thing is that a ghostwriter got herself one sweet gig. I now quote directly from the wall:
The book is described as "'Gossip Girl' goes to Hollywood. It is a cautionary tale as well as a guilty pleasure; the reader is plunged into the crazy, out-of-control world of one of Hollywood's most infamous party girls." No word on whether the protagonist has a penchant for robbing celebrities' homes or spends time behind bars, but our money's on no.
Makes me want to scream. The best part of the snippet is the last line:
All this makes us wonder what the criteria are for getting a book deal: A reality show? An arrest record? A pulse?
I couldn't have said it better.
Remember the bling ring? The one where the arrogant teens broke into celebrity homes and stole things because they felt somehow entitled to have the same things the celebrities had earned? (and I even use the term "earned" loosely here). Well, the ringleader, who ALREADY got herself a reality tv show for her crime, has now earned herself a book deal. Really. The only good thing is that a ghostwriter got herself one sweet gig. I now quote directly from the wall:
The book is described as "'Gossip Girl' goes to Hollywood. It is a cautionary tale as well as a guilty pleasure; the reader is plunged into the crazy, out-of-control world of one of Hollywood's most infamous party girls." No word on whether the protagonist has a penchant for robbing celebrities' homes or spends time behind bars, but our money's on no.
Makes me want to scream. The best part of the snippet is the last line:
All this makes us wonder what the criteria are for getting a book deal: A reality show? An arrest record? A pulse?
I couldn't have said it better.
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