The End feels like The Beginning

I’m celebrating The End.

My second manuscript, Until Death, has made it through a first draft, and subsequent rewrites. YAY! to writing The End--again.

Until Death is written from two points-of-view and explores grief, love, and how to live in the face of imminent death.

Since Jake Riox’s near-death-experience he’s haunted by visions, premonitions of how others will die. But despite the warnings, death still comes.

Emma Connors’ father is dead and her mother may as well be. When she meets Jake, so full of anger and raw emotion, she has a desperate need to help him, as if helping him will rid her of her own nightmares.

But then Jake sees Emma’s death; he vows to fight Fate and win this time, even if it kills him—again. Emma is just as determined to save Jake from his re-occurring nightmares, and will risk her own life, if need be. As Emma and Jake work through their grief and the thrill of first love, they try to stay a step ahead of Fate. But death is closing in and time is running out.

Yay! I am just so excited about this manuscript, because this time The End feels like, maybe, just maybe it will be The Beginning.

I could be totally wrong, of course, but I think (hope, pray, all possible appendages remain crossed) this manuscript has real potential in catching the eye of an agent, and hopefully one of my top five.


With my fist manuscript, I didn’t have that same sense, so this is new to me.

The other thing that’s new for me: I miss Emma and Jake. Weird, huh? I promised myself to put the manuscript aside for a few weeks while two writer friends and my mentor do a full ms critique. Then I'll take one last look through before sending it out in January. But I keep thinking about them. What will they get each other for Christmas? What would they do to make this Christmas less painful for them, what about New Years . . .

So to preserve my sanity I’ve opened a new doc file, created a title page, and have begun book two titled, Essence. Perhaps a fruitless task since no one has even looked at book one. And I’ve heard of so many whose second book has been passed on by their editors, but what the heck. I did write Until Death as a standalone with potential threads that could be used in a second book.

Here’s to new beginnings. What are you working on?

Hilarious Thanksgiving

If you want to laugh check out JibJab. But make sure you have a few hours, it's addictive.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Close Your Eyes, Now Write

Have you ever tried it? Closed your eyes and written a scene? I hadn’t and never even thought of doing it, until last night.

It was almost midnight. I was exhausted. All these thought and visions swirled around in my head that were not well formed enough yet and I was certain if I waited, went to bed, they’d be gone.

The scene I was working on was a near-death-experience (NDE) scene for one of my characters. I just finished reading numerous, amazing accounts of real NDE’s online. My eyes closed and my fingers tapped the key board.

At first, I raised my eyebrows in a desperate effort to keep them open, but quickly gave up and figured, what the heck, this could be interesting.

It was strange not to see the letters appear on the screen in front of me, to trust that I was hitting the correct keys. I was certain I would open my eyes and find I’d written, amdla knfsl;d khr aweyra;k and have to start over. But after peeking a few times to find readable, full sentences I let my lids drop and my fingers fly.

It proved to be an enlightening and productive experience. Even more so because the NDE scene I wrote is purely visual and emotional, devoid of sound, touch, smell, or taste. By closing my eyes it heightened my own inner senses.

Cool, huh? Try it. You don't have to scrunch them shut like the boy in the picture, just saying. Unless you want to, of course. Let me know how it works for you.

(Follow this link if you want to read real NDE accounts.)

"Bright Star"

I watched the movie BRIGHT STAR this weekend; the story of the poet John Keats and his love, Fanny Brawne. His words and poems touched me in such a new way, and as a writer I live for those “aha” moments where something springs forth and offers new understanding or appreciation for the written word. I hadn’t read much of Keats before, but now I can’t get enough. This dialog from the movie (thanks to Faith for sending it to me) below struck a chord with me and I thought I’d share:

Fanny: I still don't know how to work out a poem.


Keats: A poem needs understanding through the senses. The point of diving into a lake is not immediately to swim to the shore but to be in the lake, to luxuriate in the sensation of water. You do not work the lake out, it is a experience beyond thought. Poetry soothes and emboldens the soul to accept the mystery.


And really, isn’t this what we all strive for as writers, for the reader to experience something “beyond thought,” regardless of what style we’re writing? I can only hope to one day write words that another can experience. In the meantime, I will luxuriate in the sensations his words give.


I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite quotes and end with the poem BRIGHT STAR believed to be written for/about Fanny. It’s no wonder she fell in love with him!


"You are always new. The last of your kisses was even the sweetest; the last smile the brightest; the last movement the gracefullest.” — John Keats

"I cannot exist without you - I am forgetful of every thing but seeing you again - my Life seems to stop there - I see no further. You have absorb'd me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I were dissolving... I have been astonished that Men could die Martyrs for religion - I have shudder'd at it - I shudder no more - I could be martyr'd for my Religion - Love is my religion - I could die for that - I could die for you. My creed is Love and you are its only tenet - You have ravish'd me away by a Power I cannot resist." — John Keats



" Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art--
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death."
— John Keats

How to look for an agent—Or rather what I’m doing.

I have writer friends who are beginning the process of looking for an agent and have asked me what I do, how I go about finding agents to query. So I thought I’d blog about my process.

It’s taken me soooo long to get to this point. To say, “I’m ready to send my baby out.” Sniff. How she’s grown and changed, it’s hard to believe the time has come to let her go out into the world. After two complete re-writes, numerous revisions, after writer buds have critiqued my full manuscript and its then gone through another set of revisions, I can say with confidence that my MG fantasy, SYDNEY PARKS AND THE BAYAB is done-done enough for agent’s eyes to review.


And I say, “done-done enough,” because we all know—if I’m lucky and I find an agent and then an editor, it will go through more revisions still. This prospect is one I welcome; we all want our work to be the best it can possibly be, right? This brings me to the first item on my agent wish list.

1. I wish for an editorial agent.

Now, an editorial agent is not a critique buddy, of course, but a set of professional eyes that can make suggestions (some give more than others) before sending a manuscript out to editors. Editors that will hopefully see promise in the manuscript and see new ways still to make the story even better. This is the process I’m hoping for, dreaming of, working towards.


So back to looking for agents and my wish list:

2. I wish for a business partner who can help me build a career in writing for children, and not just interested in selling the one manuscript. In other words, I’m looking for a long-time business relationship.

3. I wish for an agent who has interest in the genres I want or am writing: YA paranormal romance, MG historical fiction, possibly YA verse, and obviously MG fantasy.

4. I wish for an agent I feel comfortable with, one that I don’t feel intimidated by. This is hard to know without meeting them, but there’s enough online now that you can get a general idea of personality.

5. And it would be wonderful if they handled foreign rights, too, but hey.

So make your list. What is most important to you. This helps to narrow the sub list. Because there is everything from husband-wife agent teams, to the more corporate atmosphere, to everything in between.


I bet you’re thinking: Who the heck does she think she is, making a list? Seriously. Shouldn’t she be happy with any agent that would want to represent her? Yes, I’d sure be tempted, definitely, which is why I only send queries to agents I’d really like to work with.

What I’m saying is: make a list and research before submitting.


Is researching time consuming? Yes.

When I get a rejection does it sting a bit more because I’ve spent two hours reading blog archives and interviews, and in the process learn said agent's favorite color and what kind of pet(s) they have as well as the kind of queries they prefer? Absolutely.


My mantra: It only takes one yes.



Here’s how I research:

On occasion I’ll look on Amazon or visit my favorite local bookseller, RJ Julia's to check out the acknowledgement page inside books that fit into the genre of the one I’m querying. A thanks to the agent is usually posted there. But that’s not always the most constructive way to spend time, though it’s a great and fun way to add to the towering pile of books-to-read.

The best way (for me) has been to peruse Publishers Marketplace, Agent Query, and sometimes Query Tracker. And, I absolutely LOVE Casey McCormick’s blog, Literary Rambles. Casey spotlights different agents and has links to interviews and so on. A real plethora of information (thanks Casey!!) And last, the Verla Kay boards is an awesome source of information, but can be a time suck because it’s easy to get off track with so many interesting threads going on over there. Though worth the time, definitely.

Once I find five agents that I think might be interested in my manuscript I Google them. Most have been interviewed or have blogs. I read their archives and such. If I still think we could be a good match then I’ll make sure to find out what kind of query they prefer and get their most up-to-date sub guidelines. Some want short queries (two to three lines about the manuscript), others want voice and may tolerate a slightly longer (though still one page) query. I have a few query versions and choose the one that I think best suits the agent. And I always open my query with something personal so that the agent knows I’ve done my research and that I’ve chosen them for good reason.


I also check out the author’s they represent, read some of their books, their blogs. If it’s an agent I haven’t queried yet, but plan to, I might post a review of one of their author’s books on my blog.


Afterwards, when all that is done, I hold my breath and click send. EEK! Then try desperately to forget about how much I SO want this next step to happen that I might just DIE from the waiting and do my best to stop my fingers from checking email for the millionth time because--just maybe.

But mostly I bury myself in my current wip, UNTIL DEATH, a paranormal romance that has a different twist to it that I’m hoping will make it stand out.

And if you want some more tips, hop on over to a great blog I just discovered (and clicked on back here to add in her info), Janice Hardy's blog, author of The Shifter called, The Other Side of The Story.

So tell me, what do you do? I’m sure there are other ways to go about it. I would love to hear your stories. And if you have an agent, how did you two connect?

I won!

That’s right. Me. Out of 275 entries, I actually won an ARC of THE EXTRAORDINARY SECRETS OF APRIL, MAY, & JUNE, by Robin Benway over on the First Novels Club blog.

The premise of the book sounds awesome. Here’s the description posted on Amazon:


“I hugged my sisters and they fit against my sides like two jigsaw pieces that would never fit anywhere else. I couldn’t imagine ever letting them go again, like releasing them would be to surrender the best parts of myself.


Three sisters share a magical, unshakable bond in this witty high-concept novel from the critically acclaimed author of Audrey, Wait! Around the time of their parents’ divorce, sisters April, May, and June recover special powers from childhood—powers that come in handy navigating the hell that is high school. Powers that help them cope with the hardest year of their lives. But could they have a greater purpose?


April, the oldest and a bit of a worrier, can see the future. Middle-child May can literally disappear. And baby June reads minds—everyone’s but her own. When April gets a vision of disaster, the girls come together to save the day and reconcile their strained family. They realize that no matter what happens, powers or no powers, they’ll always have each other.


Because there’s one thing stronger than magic: sisterhood.”

But that wasn’t the only reason I wanted to read this book. I’m working on my own YA paranormal written from multiple points-of-view. I thought what better way to study how it’s done than to read Robin Benway's book written from three viewpoints.

So back to winning. Because I never win anything. Not lotto. Not the scratch tickets my favorite patient gives me each time I see her. Not raffle tickets. Nothing. Nada, zip, zero. But take me to see a hypnotist’s show or a comedian, have them ask for a “lucky audience participant,” um, yeah, that’s right. Do they not get that I’m scrunching down low in my seat for a reason?



But. Over the past year I have actually won four books. Four! All on amazingly awesome blogs like this one. Who knows, maybe my luck is changing. But I think I’ll stick with watching comedy on television, just in case.



Thanks again to the writers from the First Novels Club: Donna Gambale,  Sara Konkowski, Janine Leaver Burgan, and Frankie Diane Mallis,

THE HELP

I’m almost done reading THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett—now, one of my all time favorite books ever and I know I will be reading it again and again. Written from multiple points-of-view about what it’s like to be a black maid and white woman in Mississippi during the 1960’s. Yes, it is that good that it’s still in hardcover when most others would already have gone to soft cover. But it’s worth every cent.

However, this recommendation comes with a warning attached. I can’t stop thinking about the characters. They are with me in the car while I’m driving, which is usually when I do my best plotting for my own stories. I wonder about them, how they are as if they’re real. Last night I even dreamt that Minny, my favorite character in the book, told me to clean the floors (which really do need attention, ahem) so’s she can see her big self reflected in the shine.

Seriously, I think I’m losing it. But today, I know.

Here I am Saturday afternoon with the house to myself for a few hours, a rare occurrence, a perfect opportunity to work on UNTIL DEATH, my YA paranormal romance. But can you believe old style southern dialogue keeps trying to ooze out my fingers and find its way onto the page? After all, my main character is from present day Massachusetts and should not be inclined to say things like: sho nuff he’s got that grin on his handsome face as if he’s gone eat me up fo’ supper.

Oy! I can only roll my eyes and click delete. Kathryn Stockett, I need help getting THE HELP out of my head. Sigh. But how inspiring really, to write something that can be so encompassing, so real, so . . .

Anyway, here I go, back to my wip, hoping to get into the head of a contemporary teen and push aside Minny, Skeeter, Aibileen, and Hilly—for just a little while.

Curious, has a book gotten under your skin like this one has mine? Or am I the only crazy one?