Ahh… Summer

July 18, 2011July 17, 201122 Comments

So, we’re most definitely in the throes of summer around here. Back in May I was kind of dreading this season, thinking it would drag on forever, what with the preschool break, my husband’s deployment, and the long daylight hours. In fact, so far it’s flown by, and I’ve been very busy.

There’s been lots of work–both revising (Where Poppies Bloom) and rewriting (Cross My Heart–you know you love my color-coding). I’m starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel in the revision department. The rewriting… not so much.

There’s also been lots of time spent with this little cutie pie. Holy cow does she keep me busy! (I’m currently staring at this picture and wondering when I started looking so OLD… Eek. Time to up the SPF, I think.)

My kiddo and I have spent lots of time exploring our lovely Puget Sound “beaches.” We’ve found crabs and broken seashells and pennies and bits of jelly fish. Sadly, there’s been no swimming.

Don’t worry though–when it gets too hot, we risk our lives on backyard toys like this.

In quieter times, I’m been prepping for a very Tangled 4th birthday bash. So far I’ve got the kingdom flags, hair flowers, invitations, and a costume fit for a Princess (there’s a tutu too!). If only I could wrap my head around food, activities, balloons and party favors.

I’m also trying to put a dent in this insanity. (Don’t judge. You know your To-Read pile is out of control.) It’s hard to make the piles shrink when I just keep buying books, but hey, I suppose as far as vices go, this one isn’t too terrible. Any recommendations on what I should read next?

There’s also been running, cleaning, library trips, play dates, baking (Death by Triple Chocolate Brownies–yum!), yard work, a local Peter Pan play, pedicures, and time with family… whew!

On Wednesday my kiddo and I are headed to Phoenix to visit my parents and bake ourselves to perfection at 110 degrees. Should be lots of fun! Unfortunately, my blogging will probably slow (or stop) during the next week, but I look forward to returning refreshed and rested. 🙂

How’s your summer shaping up? Any fun activities you want to tell me about?

Time Management (Or Not)

June 27, 2011June 26, 201118 Comments

Lately I’ve thinking a lot about 2006. It was a weird year. I was living in Tennessee about two-thousand miles from my family and lifelong friends,my husband was deployed, and I was childless. Since I’d had a roommate or lived in a sorority house all through college and my husband and I got married two weeks after graduation, 2006 was my first experience with living completely alone. It was cool. I could eat whatever I wanted, watch whatever I wanted on TV, sleep whenever I wanted, go wherever I wanted. Granted, I was teaching full-time, but from about 4pm to 11pm, I could do as I pleased.

Now, whenever I think about 2006, I ponder with equal parts bewilderment and annoyance the following questions: WHY THE HELL DID I WASTE ALL THAT FREE TIME?! WHY DON’T I HAVE ANYTHING TO SHOW FOR IT?! WHY WASN’T I WRITING SERIOUSLY BACK THEN?!

Lately, there just does not seem to be enough time in the day. Thanks to yet another deployment (the fourth of my eight year marriage, in case you’re curious), I am essentially a single parent. Luckily, I have a sweet, well-behaved, awesome-to-hang-out-with child, but holy cow does she keep me busy! I feel like I’m running her all over Western Washington (ballet and swimming and play dates and Spanish) all day everyday, and when we aren’t rushing to one of her activities, there’s grocery shopping and lawn mowing and house cleaning and bill paying and dog walking… plus, I’ve recently decided to run an organized 5K, so there’s exercise to fit in to the day as well.

Did you notice that I didn’t list writing on my above list of activities? That’s because by the time my kiddo goes to bed, I’m too exhausted to sit up straight, let alone add to my WIP word count. Still, I’m trying hard to fit it in. I’ve got three different projects in varying stages of ~~crazy~~ completion. Where Poppies Bloom is close to being “done” and hopefully on submission, Cross My Heart is being replotted and rewritten (I’m REALLY excited about where it’s going!), and Bus WIP is… well, very much still a WIP.

I’ve come to the realization that I’m going to have to do some serious prioritizing to ensure that I’m getting everything I need to get done DONE, and that includes writing. But for me, there are a few things that will always come before I sit down at my computer to work:

~Family. My daughter (and my husband, when he’s home) come first.
~My health, including exercise and nutrition (I will never be one of those people who’s working so hard that oops, I forget to eat).
~The cleanliness of my house. I simply can’t clear my head enough to write when I’m surrounded by clutter.
~Reading. I consider it professional development, plus, I really enjoy it.

And there are some things I’m more than happy to let go of in order to get the words down on paper:

~TV, Movies, Magazines. Thank goodness for DVR and Netflix. 🙂
~Hobbies. Once upon a time, I fancied myself a quilter (no, I am not eighty), but that little pastime has kind of gone by the wayside over the last few years.
~My Social Life. If you don’t have a four-year-old who my daughter likes to play with, I’m probably not spending a lot of time with you. Sad but true.
~Sleep. Overrated.
~Social Media. This is a hard one because often it goes hand-in-hand with a successful writing career. BUT, there’s no writing career if there are no complete manuscripts.

So, I’m curious… how do you prioritize your time? What are you willing to sacrifice for writing? What comes first for you?

RTW: Music and the WIP

April 27, 2011April 26, 201113 Comments

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This Week’s Topic: If your WIPs were a song, which song would they be?

I hope I’m not alone in the enormous amounts of time I spend searching for, downloading, and listening to the ideal songs for my works in progress. There’s something about the perfect playlist that sets the stage and gets me in the mood to write. Each of my WIPs have a playlist, and on those playlists there’s a song or two that speaks so perfectly to what I’m writing that it almost becomes a theme of sorts.

Take Cross My Heart (formerly Loving Max Holden), currently in re-writes. There’s lots of country on the playlist because Love Interest Max is totally into classic country (as am I :)), but there’s one song in particular that sets the mood for the story: Taylor Swift’s Mary’s Song (Oh My My My). It’s all about growing up and falling in love with your next door neighbor. My favorite lyrics: Take me back to the creek beds we turned up / Two A.M. riding in your truck and all I need is you next to me / Take me back to the time we had our very first fight/ The slamming of doors instead of kissing goodnight / You stayed outside till the morning light…

The manuscript I’m currently querying, Where Poppies Bloom, has a sort of dark and depressing playlist, which is appropriate to the mood of the story. The song that rings truest–the song that makes me think of Poppies every single time I hear it–is The Band Perry’s If I Die Young. My favorite lyrics: A penny for my thoughts, oh no, I’ll sell them for a dollar / They’re worth so much more after I’m a goner / And maybe then you’ll hear the words I been singin’ / Funny when your dead how people start listenin’…

My latest and greatest, Bus WIP!!! and I are still getting to know each other, but I’m just about 7K in and I’m starting to get into a groove. Bus WIP!!! has a playlist full of songs about coming into your own, growing up, and discovering who you are. Like the songs on my Poppies playlist, they tend to be on the slightly depressing side (Jeez… what’s with me and my penchant for painful music?), but there’s a glimmer of hope in most of them too. The song I’m currently loving most on this playlist is Anna Nalick’s Breathe (2AM). My favorite lyrics: “Just a day,” he said down to the flask in his fist / “Ain’t been sober, since maybe October of last year.” / Here in town you can tell he’s been down for a while / But, my God, it’s so beautiful when the boy smiles / Wanna hold him… Maybe I’ll just sing about it…

So, if your WIP was a song, which one would it be?

That’s YAmore!

February 10, 2011February 11, 201125 Comments

It’s time for Oasis for YA’s Valentine’s Day BlogFest! Here’s how it works, straight from Oasis for YA’s That’s YAmore Blogfest page:

We love blogfests. And we love good YA romance. So we decided to combine the two in our first annual That’s YAmore Blogfest.

Starting the Friday before Valentine’s Day, we invite you to post 250 romantic, swoon-worthy words from your YA WIP. Then check out the entries from some of the other participants. (Just be sure you have a fan and/or a cold glass of water on hand.) We know your Valentine will appreciate you getting yourself in a romantic state of mind…

So, my steamy contribution is from the contemporary YA WIP I’m currently revising, LOVING MAX HOLDEN, about a girl who’s in love with her best friend’s brother:

Our linked hands rested on the seat between us the whole way back to our neighborhood. Max parked in his driveway—still free of Ivy’s car—then walked me across the lawn to the front porch of my house, just way I’d imagined. “Like a real date,” I joked.

“I still owe you dinner.”

“Have you been holding on to your Bunco winnings all this time?”

“I have, actually. I knew that money would come in handy when you realized how bad you want me.” He stepped closer, grinning, and circled his arms around my waist. “So, how about it?”

“Ivy can’t know about this, Max. Not yet.”

He rolled his eyes. “Fine. If I keep my mouth shut you’ll let me take you out for real?”

“Maybe if you kiss me goodnight after.”

“I can probably manage that, although I kind of wanted to kiss you tonight too.”

“But there’s no mistletoe,” I said with mock seriousness.

He leaned in until his nose was barely brushing against mine. “Like I give a shit.”

And then he kissed me, soft and slow, like he was certain there were a thousand more kisses in our future. I nestled in, absorbing his warmth, dangerously close to collapsing from the sheer bliss of it all. But he held me tight, his arms safe and secure around me. When he ran his tongue along my bottom lip, I shivered with a new kind of want. There was nothing in the world better than kissing Max Holden.

So, that’s Max and Jill… I kind of love them. 🙂 If you’re curious about the aforementioned mistletoe kiss, you can read that excerpt HERE. Also, please do visit my critique parthers: Heather Howland, AE Rought, and Jus Accardo. They’re participating in That’s YAmore too, and well, they’re fabulous.

Don’t forget to visit That’s YAmore Blogfest to check out all the other steamy entries.

New Year, New Phase

January 3, 20117 Comments

First of all, Happy New Year! Somehow I flaked on posting a friendly New Year message, but please know, I wish you nothing but the best in 2011.

Second, I’ve just started querying again. Weirdly enough, I feel excited about it. Before I get into all that though, let me update you on my last querying effort.

It began last July, after I’d written, revised (and revised again) Loving Max Holden. I’ll be the first to admit, MAX is what most would refer to as a “quiet book.” It’s about relationships and growing up and finding yourself. It’s not hooky or high concept. Still, it garnered several partial requests from some pretty fabulous agents, and even some full requests after that. Then the responses started to come in. I got a lot of “tremendous writing!” and “this flows so well!” and “you are so talented!” BUT that positive stuff was always followed up with something along the lines of “unfortunately, this isn’t right for the competitive market.”

So, I absorbed that (and complained about it, initially) until the light bulb in my head flickered on. I needed to write something bigger. Something that might be more appealing, easier to hook agents, and (hopefully) eventually editors. I thought hard about what I wanted to write throughout August until I started to flesh an idea out. A ghost story. A ghost story that was a flying leap out of my very contemporary comfort zone.

Still, I sat down to begin writing at the beginning of September and spent the next two months typing away, alternately thinking this WIP was the most amazing thing ever, and also the most moronic. I think my CPs thought I was nutty every time I talked to them about it. When I finished, I put it aside for several weeks, then read over it again and ended up kind of loving it. What I’m now calling Where Poppies Bloom needed some work, of course, but when my writing mentor and CPs finally read it, they kind of loved it too.

Now, I’ve taken their feedback to the manuscript and incorporated their thoughts and brilliant ideas, and this baby is finally ready to go. I sent a few queries out this morning, and I feel cautiously optimistic about responses. In fact, I’ve already started checking my inbox obsessively. (What? I’m not the only one who does this, right?)

And in case you’re wondering, I haven’t given up on MAX just yet. Thanks to one of my genius CPs, I’ve some ideas about how I might be able to rewrite that story in a way that’s bigger. The only problem is, I can’t decide if I want to tackle that next, or begin something completely new…

Seven On Sunday

November 7, 2010November 7, 20102 Comments

Yep, Seven on Sunday… Or maybe just a more organized method of posting all my random thoughts for this last week. 🙂

1) I’m on vacation!!! Well, really, I’m visiting my parents in Phoenix, but it’s in the eighties, sunny and my parents are eager to cook and clean and entertain my daughter. So, yes, it’s just like a vacation. My original goals for this trip were: revising, writing, and reading. I’ve done a fair amount of revising, some great reading and zero writing. Poor WIP. Still, who wants to be cooped up inside with a laptop when this awaits outdoors:

2) While flying from Seattle to Phoenix, I sat next to a wriggly and very cute three-year-old (okay, I’ll claim her) and, awesomely enough, an aspiring screenwriter. When I pulled out the paper copy of my MAX manuscript to start a (hopefully) final edit, he asked if I was an editor. Um, no. Not officially, but I am editing my own book for the billionth time, and better yet, I totally do it for free! That’s when he began to tell me about trying to break into screenwriting, and it turns out we had lots in common. Let it be known: I usually like to be left alone during flights, but it was cool to talk to a “real” (read: not online) person who shared similar goals and motivation.

3) I mentioned editing MAX above. I just finished a fairly extensive revision of it, where I converted the whole 74,000 word manuscript from present tense to past tense, and expanded on many of the supporting characters. Why would you do that? you might be wondering. Well, a lovely agent who I greatly respect recently read MAX and suggested that the supporting characters weren’t as well-developed as the main characters, and that (in her opinion) the book would flow better and be more “reflective” in past tense. While she passed on the manuscript, she invited me to revise it with her feedback in mind and resubmit it to her. So yeah, that’s what I’m doing. It’s hard, but you know what? It’s coming along, I appreciate her feedback more than I can express, and I look forward to sending it back to her!

4) On a similar note, a week or two after receiving the revise and resubmit email I mentioned above, I got an email from another absolutely awesome agent who had read the first three chapters of MAX. She liked the voice of MAX and, surprisingly enough, thought it flowed really well. She requested that I send her the rest of the manuscript. Honestly, I have to say, I kind of agree with her. I love MAX in present tense (though I certainly like it a lot in past tense too, especially now that that’s done!) and I think voice and flow are two of my strong points as a writer. I can’t wait to hear back from her on what she thinks of the rest of the story. Anyway, my point here is: Writing (and reading) are so subjective. What works for one person sometimes doesn’t work for another. More often than not, you have to trust your gut.

5) Just wanted to link to this awesome post by the lovely Hannah Moskowitz who, I’ve decided, is wise beyond her years. Read it. You’ll feel better.

6) I’ve read two really great books recently (well, three actually, but I already raved about Mindi Scott‘s Freefall here). The first, Dirty Little Secrets by CJ Omololu, and the second, The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney. Both are excellent, and both are must reads for anyone who enjoys contemporary young adult fiction.

7) Daylight Savings: Ugh. Hate it! SO unnecessary! I am such a summer person. Such a lover of warm weather and sunshine and a golden tan. I so hate when it gets dark at four-thirty in the afternoon. I hate the cold, rainy Pacific Northwest winters. I hate soggy grass and umbrellas and rain boots. I hate… okay, let’s just say that I’m already looking forward to April. 🙂

Another vacation pic... me and my Cutie Pie at the Phoenix Zoo (which was fabulous, in case you're wondering!). 🙂

RTW: Comparables

October 20, 2010October 19, 20107 Comments

Road Trip Wednesday is a “Blog Carnival,” where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing or reading-related question and answer it on their own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

Today’s Topic: Who are your comp titles/authors?

Though I know it’s important to know who you compare to within your particular genre, I sort of hate this question. It feels so arrogant to measure my work up against anything already out there, particularly books that I love. But, whenever I am asked what books my manuscript Loving Max Holden compares to, I reference Sarah Ockler’s Twenty Boy Summer and Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty. (Just realized both of these books take place during the summer. Max takes place during the winter. Hmm…)

I reference these books not only because they are awesome, (:)) but because I feel they’re similar to Max both in their realistic teen girl voice, and in the way that they deal with family dynamics. Max also shares the general mood, tone, and voice of some of Sarah Dessen’s books (in my opinion Max is steamier!), but I never use her as a comp because it feels too obvious. Lots of contemporary YA fiction is sort of Sarah Dessen-esque, right?

As far as Where Poppies Bloom, um… can I pass? Poppies is still a work-in-process (though I am about 2/3 of the way through the first draft–yay!) and although I’ve been reading quite a bit of paranormal romance lately, I’ve yet to find anything I’m comfortable comparing it to. If you have any great paranormal romance recommendations (particularly those that might deal with ghosts!), I’d love if you’d leave the titles in the comments.

RTW – Friends

September 22, 20104 Comments

Road Trip Wednesday is a “Blog Carnival,” where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

Today’s Topic: If you went to school with your characters, would you be friends?

I’m going to use my characters from Loving Max Holden, the contemporary YA romance I’m currently shopping to agents. I feel like I know them better than I know my actual, real life friends anyway.

Shy Jillian is a self-proclaimed blender. She’s not pitiful, but she often lacks the confidence to go after what she really wants. She’s dependable, smart, cynical, and her sense of humor is pretty dry. Honestly, she’s a lot like I was at seventeen… so yes, OBVIOUSLY I’d be friends with her! 🙂

Jillian’s childhood friend and next door neighbor, Max, is very much her opposite. If he were an animal, he’d be a Golden Retriever. Popular, fun-loving, confident, loyal. If I had gone to high school with him–much like Jillian–I would have been envious. He seems to have it all, and effortlessly so. So, no, I probably wouldn’t have been friends with Max. Not because I wouldn’t have wanted to be, but because I would have viewed him as out of my league.

Truth be told, if Jillian’s seventeen-year-old outlook on life is based loosely on my own, then Max’s is based loosely on my husband’s. I often tell him that if I’d known him in high school, we wouldn’t have been friends. Funny how well we do together as adults! 🙂

Friday Five

September 17, 2010September 22, 20102 Comments

It’s a random one today… Five things I’ve been thinking about all week:

1) If You Really Knew Me – MTV’s new reality show (actual reality! not Jersey Shore-like trash!) is so thought-provoking and authentic and heartbreaking. Real teens are featured. Though they’re stereotyped at the opening of the show, as things progress we see that they’re layered and often troubled. Many have had rough childhoods and are carrying more baggage than I am at almost thirty. The show’s message is acceptance and empathy, encouraging teens to “be real,” without the usual preachiness of adult produced “helpful” television. Anyone who writes YA or is considering writing YA should give it a shot for a up-close look at teen issues today.

2) Agents/Querying – Funny how querying can almost be–*gasp*–fun! At least, that is, when you’re getting a decent response to your queries?submissions. My first querying effort with a novel that went nowhere was nothing but discouraging. Though I know the query was well-written and the first pages had voice and conflict, I only got two requests for additional material (both went nowhere) out of about two dozen queries. Yeah… that book, though it still holds a special place in my heart, had a fatal flaw: Lack of compelling hook.

The book I’m querying now (have been since mid-July) has had a much more positive response, for which I’m grateful. Five agents are currently considering it (two of them would be absolute DREAM agents!) and though the waiting game is no fun, I’m in a much more optimistic place. Even if this particular book doesn’t land me an agent, I know now that I’m moving in the right direction and that makes me think that someday (fingers crossed!) I’m going to get there.

3) Stolen by Lucy Christopher – Oh. My. God. THIS BOOK. So beautiful and genius! Here’s the twisted thing: I read Stolen, about a kidnapping and a crazy, damaged, delusional villain of a man and at the end… I don’t know… I actually wanted the protagonist, Gemma, to end up with him. There was a deeper connection there. A mutual understanding. An intimacy. Yes, it’s so totally wrong, but Lucy Christopher layered these characters so brilliantly that the ending left me just as confused and torn as Gemma was. I’m passing this one on to my mom and my sister-in-law, just so I’ll have people to talk to about it!

4) Conversely, I read another book this week that I didn’t like much at all. It’s a recent release with an awesome premise that’s gotten all kinds of attention: great blurbs from authors I respect, tons of twitter/blog love, I’ve even seen it in magazine ads. Some of my writing friends have read it and were totally into it. So, yeah, I was all pumped up about buying and reading it. Then I did and I was… disappointed? I found the plot fairly predictable, the dialogue annoying and the voice too snarky.

I make a point to feature amazing books on this blog (see #3 above!), but when I read a book I don’t care for, I usually just let it go. I’m not one publicly trash the work of someone else, which is why I don’t do actual book reviews. Still, I’m mentioning this book today because I can’t help but wonder what all of these people are seeing that I’m not. I mean, I know we all have differing tastes, but I was just SO disappointed by this read. Yet, others loved it.

Has this ever happened to you? Do you question the taste of those who thought differently from you? Do you trust their future recommendations?

5) Preschool – This is writing related… I swear! My beautiful and adorable daughter started preschool last Friday. She cried the first two days when I dropped her off , then (and this is a direct quote from her!) “dried her tears and felt much better.” So, I get four extra quiet hours of writing time a week now! Not much, but I’ll take whatever I can get. I spend those hours at Borders, soaking up the awesomeness of the published books around me. Plus, my daughter is making new friends and coming out of her shell a bit. And that makes me a very happy mama!

What’s New?

September 7, 2010September 22, 2010

I recently realized that I haven’t done an update post in a while, and thought this might be a good time. But, before we begin, if you haven’t had a chance to take a look at the improvements I’ve made to this little corner of the internet, please do. Above, I’ve added ABOUT ME, LOVING MAX HOLDEN, and WHERE POPPIES BLOOM tabs. Check ’em out!

First, I’m stilling querying and waiting on replies for my YA romance, Loving Max Holden. I’ve had some good responses and have gotten several requests for pages. I’m currently waiting to hear back about two full submissions (both requested from partials) and two partial submissions. My absolute dream agent is currently reading my full. I can’t fully express how much this both terrifies and thrills me. I also have four recent queries still out and am hoping for more requests. Fingers crossed!

Second, I’m beginning a mentorship program through Savvy Authors with romance writer Lori Wilde. During the six month program, my classmates and I will: Learn the nuts and bolts of creating a novel from start to finish, emerge from the class with a completed, revised novel, learn the ins and outs of marketing our fiction, and have fun while developing new writing skills. I’ll be working on my new paranormal YA romance, Where Poppies Bloom, and I’m so excited to begin. I’m absolutely thrilled about getting feedback from an author with so much experience and success. If you’re interested in learning more, click HERE.

Finally, I just got home from a mini-vacation with my husband and daughter. We drove about four hours southwest to the Oregon coast where we enjoyed fun in the sun, sandcastle building, kite flying, yummy food, and great shopping. This trip was two-fold. First, we packed in some lovely family time, and second, I saw first hand the small, touristy coastal towns I’ve based the setting of my next book on. Astoria, Seaside, and Cannon Beach were all on my radar when I started building fictional Bell Cove for Where Poppies Bloom. Now that I’ve spent time in each of these cities and absorbed their ambience, I’m certain I’m on the right track. We detoured to Portland on the way home, specifically to visit Powell’s Bookstore, an enormous independent new and used bookstore. One word: AMAZING. Now that I’ve been, I’ll be tempted to drive south for all of my book buying. Anyway, here are some inspirational photos from our trip: