Tag: Writing

Submission Update

Following up is always a good thing. I first heard this stressed as I interviewed for engineering positions. It wasn’t just about the interview – a potential employee must also think about sending thank-you notes for the interviews as a follow up. It was something polite to keep your name in front of the people who might be offering you a salary.

It is different with publishers, partly because I’m always thinking they’re busy people and I shouldn’t be bugging them about whether or not I got accepted. There does come a time when it becomes allowable to ask, rather than simply waiting forever.

I submitted another short story to Hadley Rille Books for an anthology called Footprints. The piece is called “Burning Bright” and I am pretty proud of it. It’s longer than most of my short stories; I have not yet learned to vary lengths. I either seem to write short shorts or novels. It’s something to work on.

I contacted the editor – he said it should be about a month, but I hated to ask around the holidays – and I got an update! My story made it through the slush pile and into the final group. He also warned (not sure if that’s the proper term, but I’m going to run with it) that about 1 in 3 pieces in the final group would make the anthology. That’s a lot of submissions! He also said to keep my fingers crossed, but, I tell ya, it makes it really hard to type.

(And, yes, that does mean I’ve tried it once.)

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New Year’s Resolution

… or something like that …

This year I’m going to complete another novel, science fiction this time. I may take part in NaNo again, but I’m going to decide that at a later date. I love the competition and the friendly cheerleading to get to the goal, but I also know I need to focus on a specific goal and not just a wordcount. However, NaNoWriMo rules state it must be a new project, so I figure I’ll worry about that next September or October.

Until then, Audrey calls!

To my other writing goals for the year, I think I may try more songwriting. I will definitely be writing a few more short stories. I’d like to be one of those writers who sends out several submissions a week, but I’m not sure how fast I can write, edit, and polish them – especially with a novel on my hands.

I think the novel is the more important focus for my long-term goals, so the short stories might be the part to slide. Several of my current short stories could be expanded into novels; it’s difficult to make the choices sometimes.

I’ll be flexible and I’ll keep writing. that much I know!

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Graduate School

I wonder what it takes to go to graduate school for an MFA. I hear about people doing it, but while I looked into it, it’s difficult to know if I have what it takes.

I check out the question on the application. I did my undergrad in engineering, which means I haven’t studied much literature or writing in a college setting. Does that mean others have an edge? Possibly. I do know the program has admitted engineers and doctors before.

Friends who know others in the program say the most important part is the manuscript. I suppose that’s for the best, since it’s also the part that I feel most comfortable with. I know how to write. I know I have a lot to learn, which is why I’d like to try grad school.

A friend of mine once said his trouble submitting things wasn’t whether he was good or not. He knew he was good. He just wasn’t sure if he was good enough. Good enough meaning to not be ridiculed with his submission to editors who read far too many pieces to be kind when someone can’t follow rules. I prefer to think of it that way, rather than that some of the writings from others are so awful as to be only fodder for jokes. (But in my head I know both are probably the case.)

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Blog Tours

The Angeline Jellybean tour continues at Vivian’s blog today.

Participating in the tour, I’ve been thinking ahead to my own book. I will have a blog tour near its release date. I wonder who to include, how to get the word out, and where to get the niche audience who really wants my book. Finding all of that isn’t easy, but it also isn’t impossible.

(It better not be impossible, because I’m going to do it anyway!)

I’ve been reading up on things and figuring out how to do that. One resource to find blogs by category or country or on a global scale. This blog is ranked there! … I’m ranked below 19 million others, literally. I’m taking heart that I’ve only been blogging here for a few months and only very consistently this month as a reason to keep coming back.

One day I’d love to be able to connect the niche audiences to books they’d love but haven’t heard of yet. I love even more to write them, but reading a story is so much faster.

Check out your favorite blogs for their ranking and audiences at Alexa.

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Of all the amazing things…

I finally released the lyrics to Michelle Tuesday, after we chatted about them a couple hours and I tweaked what I really wanted to say. She’s very helpful to understand how to make it come through once I had a draft down.

She played it for me live, over the computer, and then recorded it.You can find it on YouTube: Another Piece of Me. I’m delighted with how it turned out; while I could tell words could be set to music it doesn’t really play in my head.

I’m looking forward to trying this collaboration again with Michelle. We’re definitely having fun!

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Self-Publishing

Sometimes I wonder what exactly to say to someone who decides to self-publish. There are a hundred different reasons to choose any given publisher and there are benefits and drawbacks to each decision.

For self-publishing, the onus of the work rests solely with the author. This includes writing, editing, marketing, selling, and probably a few other things I can’t think of off the top of my head. It sometimes gets a bad rap, too, because anyone can do it.

They dont actually have to do editing, of course. A person could choose to pen fifteen pages of an endless litany of “I will not smash cars” and self-publish it. Not that anyone would buy it or be extremely happy about receiving a copy, but it could be done.

I’d like to meet someone who could market that, though. I bet I could learn a lot! In the meantime, I’m in search of a word that isn’t congratulations (from dictionary.com “an expression of joy in the success or good fortune of another”) and means more of a “good luck on your endeavor.” I’ll reserve the congratulations until it’s a successful venture.

All of us need the luck, no matter what publishing route we take. We work to achieve any published status and we earn our laurels based on factors not always under our control.

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Holiday Cards

I wait for them in the mail, but don’t usually get as many as I send. I’m trying to update my list, so if I haven’t heard from someone in several years (at least 3) I usually figure they’re not into the card thing. If there hasn’t been other contact, it’s time to take them off the list.

But I did find one useful thing about holiday letters for people I haven’t been in touch with the best: they get updates on me they don’t always hear through the friend grapevine. Sure, everyone manages to share the pregnancy and the relocation, but somehow the upcoming novel dropped off the radar.

If only I could tell them all in person. Maybe next book!

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Colors of Friendship

I have a lot of friends and am thankful for all of them. One thing that I have always attempted to do is portray friends in fiction as they are in real life. So many elements of stories are inspired by actual events, whether they’re ‘based on true events’ or simply to add the feeling of reality.

One problem I face in that attempt is what happens in real life is differentiating characters. We see differences between people when they’re standing in front of us, but in short stories especially readers get confused. It forces me as a writer to dig deeper to really show different nuances, but I notice that isn’t always readily apparent in everyday interactions.

Another big problem is that truth is stranger than fiction. I have a short story on friendship that a few readers commented, “I don’t believe anyone could ever be like this.” I’d made the person less extreme than she really acted, so I never figured out how to really reconcile the story. Friendship takes many forms, and each of them depends on the dynamic between the two or more individuals who are together.

Then there’s the question of what makes friends not be friends anymore. It comes up more in my YA than it does in science fiction, likely because the teenage years are such a volatile time. Each time I write that, I wonder about friendship itself. I pick relationships apart and then analyze what I know about people.

It might not always help some ‘real’ relationships that seem doomed, but it has helped me make more realistic interactions for my characters. Next up ought to be someone who gets a phone call out of the blue from someone who’s been out of contact for two or three years. But after that amount of time, are the two still friends? It’s a question I haven’t yet been able to answer. Most of the time, I’d say no.

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Collaboration

I’ve been working on some song lyrics for a friend of mine. It’s not something I’ve done before, but she’s a singer and this poem-type thing started popping out of my head. I felt a tempo behind it and so I played with it enough to get a chorus and verses.

When I spoke to Michelle Tuesday about it, she was pretty excited. I let her read my draft last night. Turns out she wrote a song yesterday, too, but her efforts at lyrics might be revamped into something with a bit more of a message. (I got to read it – I can’t wait to actually hear it.)

I had to laugh because our original plan -yes, we had a plan- was to start collaborating in February when some of our other projects had died down a little, but I guess our imaginations just ran wild and when inspiration strikes, it must be captured. She’s very talented musically, and I’m trying to be patient to see what she comes up with.

I’m hoping it’s just the beginning, but I don’t have song ideas popping out of my head every day.

Listen to Michelle Tuesday:
Youtube: WDCBrandiwyn
MySpace: Brandiwyn

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Honest Scrap Award

Honest Scrap Award
Honest Scrap Award

Wow. This award can make the rounds, but it’s about honesty in the telling. I’d hope everyone is all about telling it like it is, but the beauty of anonymity sometimes means people take advantage while others can express themselves better.

Part of the honor means sharing ten honest thing about myself, preferably interesting. Right, because the easy part about being honest is sharing the boring parts. The boring parts to one are sometimes the interesting parts to someone else.

So, the interesting facts:
1. Critters are cool. This includes spiders and snakes and all manner of creatures, fictional or not.
2. I found out what snow was when I was 8, and I’m still not happy about it.
3. I have a lot less trouble driving manual transmissions than automatics, which is one reason why my husband and I were thrilled to get our hands on a Cadillac with a stick shift.
4. One of my goals is to visit all 50 states before I turn 50. I’m currently 31 and have visited 37 – not to mention 5 foreign countries. I love to travel.
5. I’m learning to play guitar.
6. I practice yoga every day, and have for several years now.
7. My dream is to see my novels in bookstores and have people love my stories.
8. I realized recently that my protagonists had a nasty habit of all being closet artists, so I am broadening their horizons, and mine, by making them interested in other things.
9. My friends consider me something of an enigma, though I don’t understand why.
10. I’m expecting my first child on April Fool’s Day, 2009.

7 Blogs to Nominate:
Dawn Arkin (Can’t see her blog, but I know she has one.)
Crys Calderwood
Elysabeth Eldering
Jamie Eyeberg
Karina Fabian
Susan Smith Thompson

Part of the fun of this award is reading in other blogs what the winner thinks is interesting about herself. I had trouble coming up with the list, but a friend rattled off several ideas when I only had about two left.

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