I got the idea for this post from my friend Sammy, and the idea is to list thirteen positive things and connected to me (at least, that’s what I gathered from her brief intro). This list is in no particular order, except for the order in which they occurred to me. So, without further ado, here are thirteen positive things from 2013:
Tag: Writing
Review time!
Well, I’ve finished reading another book, and this one was really good. Kindar’s Cure by Michelle Hauck takes place in the kingdom of Anost, and follows Kindar, second daughter of Empress Eugenie Stefanous, as she seeks out a cure for the disease that is slowly robbing her of life:
Princess Kindar of Anost dreams of playing the hero and succeeding to her mother’s throne. But dreams are for fools. Reality involves two healthy sisters and a wasting disease of suffocating cough that’s killing her by inches. When her elder sister is murdered, the blame falls on Kindar, putting her head on the chopping block.
A novice wizard, Maladonis Bin, approaches with a vision—a cure in a barren land of volcanic fumes. As choices go, a charming bootlicker that trips over his own feet isn’t the best option, but beggars can’t be choosers. As Mal urges her toward a cure that will prove his visions, suddenly, an ally turns traitor, delivering Kindar to a rebel army, who have their own plans for a sickly princess.
With the killer poised to strike again, the rebels bearing down, and the country falling apart, she must weigh her personal hunt for a cure against saving her people.
On querying
As I caught up on my blog reading this morning after taking yesterday off to try and finish Kindar’s Cure (I failed, but I hope to have it done before tomorrow’s over), I ran across these two gems from Janet Reid. I love reading her blog (and QueryShark); I’ve learned a lot since I started.
Anyway, these two tidbits made me laugh, the first because it’s totally true and the second because, well, I’d like to see that happen (the drinking editors under the table part, followed by that letter). So, please to enjoy:
There is no right way to do this. There’s the way you do it (which you’ll kick yourself for doing) and the way that Other Writer did it (which will make you think Oh, I wish I’d done that instead!) The reason is that the grass is always greener in the other WorryWart’s pasture.
Here’s where I’m very much NOT the dream agent for very good writers. I’ve read a couple darn good novels this year that I had no idea what to do with. I passed with great sorrow BUT the author deserves an agent who knows what the next step is, and I didn’t. I mean short of sending it out to every editor I’ve drunk under the table with a cover letter that says “this is good, buy this” (Ok, I’ve done that but it’s not really a strategy you want to encourage.)
To read the whole post, click here. As always, it’s chock full of wisdom.
(c) 2013. All rights reserved.
Related articles
- A Publishing Choice: Guest Post By Michelle Hauck (chasingthecrazies.wordpress.com)
- Querying Overview: What a Query Letter is (and isn’t) (michaeljmcdonagh.wordpress.com)
- 5 Best Blogs on How to Write a Query Letter (progresspublishing.wordpress.com)
- What #Queryfail Taught Me About Agents and Writers (michaeljmcdonagh.wordpress.com)
What a weekend!
How was everyone’s weekend? I spent mine mostly offline, fighting a migraine and watching TV. Lots and lots of TV. But it was good, because some of it qualified as research for The Lokana Chronicles. After last week’s writing class and my two-day Reign marathon and a bunch of Wikipedia-browsing, I’ve got a bunch of ideas for revisions (which I’d just resumed and will now have to go back over, but at least it’s only a chapter or two). I decided the book needs to be split in half, so I’ve got a lot of work to do because, once I’m done revising, I’m going to have to figure out how to wrap up the first half so that it feels like a complete book and then do the same for the second half.
Oy. Vey.
We had some snow over the weekend that made for lovely inspiration, but I felt too miserable most of the weekend to do much about it. I finally got a chance to sit down this noon and work on a new short story, but then the phone rang, and there went half my lunch hour. Hopefully I can get some more writing done tonight – that would be awesome! I’m still feeling a bit blah, though, so I guess we’ll see what happens.
Still hungover
So I haven’t posted in a few days. Kind of unusual. Okay, wow, so it’s been more than a few days – it’s been a week. I’ve been doing a lot of writing, though, and a crap ton of rewriting, and I think it’s going well. But I’m still dealing with that book hangover. I just can’t get those books out of my head.
I’ve spent far too much time the last couple days on Tumblr and ogling all the pretty pictures and listening to pi while thinking about The Hunger Games and America and analyzing the series and thinking about how I can’t remember being stuck on a book like this ever and I finally decided something:
Are they real?
c. 50 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“Are you working through lunch again?” the man asked as I pulled out my notebook.
“Yeah, but this is fun work,” I replied, smiling. I plopped the MS for The Lokana Chronicles down on the table.
He bent closer to inspect the title page. “What’s this? A novel?”
“Yep. And here’s the sequel,” I said, removing the MS for Remnants from my purse. It hit the table with a thud.
He took another look. “You wrote these?”
My waitress joined us. “You’re a writer?”
“Yep.”
Her eyes widened. “Wow! I always see you writing in your little notebook…”
“This is usually what I’m working on,” I said, smiling again.
I told them a little about my work and the man asked if he was part of my story. I said no. Then he asked,
Writing, then and now
My parents in our living room. Those lovely bookshelves went from floor to ceiling. 🙂
Well, once again, I didn’t get my post up on time. I’ve been spending a lot of time writing lately, although not on The Lokana Chronicles or Remnants. I’m taking a writing class online, and in our second class, we received a prompt. My homework was to work more on what I’d come up with for the prompt in class, and it’s been a challenge.
I got called into work yesterday afternoon and since I had to drive over there and drop the boys off anyway, I left in the morning like normal and spent three lovely hours at the library working on this new story. It reminded me of when I was younger, and I would take over the living room to write, or spread things out in my room.
There wasn’t really much to take over in the living room, since my sister lived with my grandparents and my dad lived at his desk in the dining room, but it was the space I wanted. Often a friend or two would join me and we would stay up till the wee hours of the morning writing and giving each other feedback. And also dancing to Gaelic Storm.
And now, an interview!
As promised, I have an interview for you with the lovely Will Macmillan Jones, author of the hilarious Banned Underground books. It might have taken me a little longer than I first thought to get this posted, but what can I say? Writers are not necessarily the most organized lot. (Some may very well be, but I most certainly am not.)
KK: So, now that you’ve done it a couple of times, what’s it like to put out two books a year?
WMJ: What’s it like? Let me see…imagine being run over by a lawnmower, thrown in a washing machine, a tumble drier and finished off in an old fashioned mangle. It’s hard going. As you know, I don’t write especially long books, mainly for commercial reasons. But even so it is very hard work, both creatively and practically. But actually quite rewarding too. I can now look at my dressing table and see a line of my books. Yes, I’m really that sad as to have them on show in my bedroom, so that I can see them when I wake up.
KK: I see nothing wrong with that. In all honesty, I would likely do the same thing. 🙂 They say it takes three books to see success. Do you feel like that’s true? Why or why not?
Fruitful
In my post from Tuesday (that should have gone up Monday, but was delayed), I talked briefly about all the fruit we have at our new place and how it reminded me of summers at my grandparents’ farm. I’d intended to get back to that in my post from yesterday (again, delayed), but I ended up going a different direction. So today, let’s take that trip to Grandpa and Grandma’s house.
My grandparents lived on a farm about half an hour away from us. My grandmother lived all but six months of her life on that farm, as it had been passed down through the years from one generation to the next. It’s a century farm, and I’m proud to be part of that tradition, even though the acreage has been sold off and all that’s left now is crop ground. I’d like to someday buy the acreage back, but so far, no luck (the one time it was up for sale, the timing was just not right and we couldn’t do it *sigh*).
When I was little, the acreage included much more than it does now. When you turned in the driveway, the house was on the right and the old garage was on the left. The old garage has now been leveled, but the foundation remains, and the new owners put up a basketball hoop. Just west of the old garage was a corn crib, which I believe still stands, and to the west of that was a barn. It was lost in a fire several years ago – the new people had heating lamps in the barn for some animals, and somehow the place caught fire. If it hadn’t been for a passing fireman, of all people, the whole farm might have burned.
Moving memories
So, I didn’t get my post uploaded yesterday for the October Blog Challenge. I was a little bit busy yesterday, busier than I thought I would be, anyway. We closed on the purchase of the acreage we’re moving to, and it involved a lot of driving – to the boys’ daycare and back (an hour round trip), to the acreage for the final walk-through (forty minutes round trip), to the bank for the closing (an hour round trip), back to the acreage to drop off some things (another forty minutes round trip), then back to the boys’ daycare to pick them up much later than I had thought I would be (another hour round trip). In between all of that driving, the closing took about an hour, we had to eat, there were errands to run…By the time we ate supper, it was after 8:00 p.m. It was a very long day.
Seymour was planning to take another load out to the acreage today, in addition to buying some things to start working on the basement right away. Since we haven’t yet sold our house, we won’t be moving right away, which gives us time to do some remodeling and painting before we have all of our stuff in there (and it’s going to be a tight fit – we’re moving to a smaller house than what we currently have, and we have a lot of stuff). That’ll be nice. But I’ll be glad to be finished with remodeling.
So, how does this relate to memoirs and backstory, or even to relationships?
Suddenly they all died. The end. 