No News is . . . Boring!

Sorry I haven't been blogging much, but as my list of agents I am waiting to hear from gets smaller, my submitting life is getting . . . well, boring. And rather than bore you with what is NOT happening, I am just not blogging.
I did send out a partial yesterday, but it was not for Chain, it was for my Other project. Nonetheless, that was cool too.
I should finish up my editing on Cymbals tonight or tomorrow and then I just have to do two-hundred pages of disk changes. (groan) That means I have to take the changes that are currently hand-written and type them all in. Boring as I'll get out, but at least it doesn't take that much time.
So when I move up next week, who ever grabs it first gets book two . . . how's that for motivation to come help me move in?:)
Just to make you jealous, I am hoping to get it out to one of my readers down here on Sunday. (I guess that mean a niener, niener, niener is in order?)
Well . . . that's pretty much it. No news at all. Sorry. (Shrug.)

Ciao!

Damyon is the Man!

Well, I gotta tell you, I've been working on some scenes I forgot to add in the first time around and one of them includes Damyon breaking some bones . . . with his bare hands, of course. He is so the man. Damyon is one of those characters who I hope so badly everyone will love as much as I do. (sigh) He's wonderful.:)
To those of you who are waiting, I have less than eighty pages left in my edit and, though it will require a lot of polishing before I consider it finished, it will be ready for readers in about a week.:) Yea! Finishing a book is such a rush!!

Ciao!

Bubble, Bubble, Toil, and Writing.

Well, I have a new project bubbling, but I'm not quite ready to say anything about it, but ask me next time you see me and maybe I'll spill.

I've taken a few days' break from editing Cymbals, but got back to it today. Kenny is done working and so I get a little bit more time to work on it and am still hoping to have the first heavy edit done before we move . . . in 10 days!!!! (and a few more exclamation points for good measure)!!!!!!!!! I am really trying to get it done before we move because I have a guy named Aaron (who was the lead in the play I just directed . . . you try writing a book while you're directing a major musical!) who gave me a great critique and wants to read the sequel and he is moving in August. Pretty much the only time I can be sure to get it to him is if I am still here to make sure one of my sibling-in-laws took it to him. So I have a week to finish up the last eighty pages and then get it all typed in. Not much time but I think I can do it . . . unless, of course, the lid bubbles off my new project . . . then I might be doing some major scrambling. But that's another story. Hehe, literally, another story.

I'm still feeling rather discouraged, but I think it has as much to do with wanting to move as anything. I love my in-laws and it has been a really good experience living here with them, but I want out. I told Kenny the other day that I am fighting the shrinking box. I was doing pretty good until I went up to work on my house. When I came back from that the box had shrunk to infinitesimal proportions. Everything seems discouraging right now. It is major work to rally my spirits enough to face the day . . . after that effort, I don't have enough energy to rally my spirits on the publishing front. (shrug) But that's life.

On a brighter note, Kenny and I are singing in church tomorrow and it is this beautiful song by Sally DeFord that we've sung before and just love. So that will be fun. And I'm really tired so I need to go to be. Wish I had news for you guys, but I don't. Sorry dad.;)

Ciao!

Sigh . . .

I got a rejection from Kristin this morning. I'm starting to really believe that all of the agents are going to pass on it. I also got a stellar review from a reader who had some excellent advice which I will put into the manuscript before I get it all polished up for publishers. I don't really have much to say, I'm just feeling discouraged.
On top of that, I've been listening to a book on tape by Danielle Steele. It mentions that it is Danielle's 66th bestselling novel and it is SO badly written. It's like a first-draft that no one bothered to read over twice. Inconsistencies, repetition of phrases, ridiculously unreasonable character flaws, it's truly awful! The story is interesting enough, but the writing is abysmal. So I'm listening to this thinking, how can this crap get published while my book is scarcely getting a look!?
(sigh) So It's one of those days.
It was really disappointing to get a rejection from Kristin. I really thought that she would like it. I'm trying to remember that Nephele still has the full as does Joe and that I still haven't heard back from some of the other partials I have out. But it's hard to focus on that.
Sorry this is such a down post, but I'm frustrated. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

Ciao!

Heading out of Town!

I am leaving tonight or tomorrow morning to go to Utah to get all of the painting and renovations done on our house before we have piddly little things in the way like, yanno, furniture. So I will be out and with no (or extremely limited) internet access for the next nine days. Miss me!!:) I will spend about an hour each night working on Cymbals and will hopefully make some good strides on it. It is currently 92,000 words long and I will not even feel comfortable with it until it is over 100,000 words and I am shooting for 105,000 which is how long Chain is. I am having so much fun with it and cannot wait to share it with you! So I think I will leave you with one more little teaser. Have a great week, I know I will!!

**

She’em stopped. Norine walked a few more paces before turning around to look for him. “Do you remember me?” he asked.

Norine shook her head. “Should I?”

She’em grinned. “You tried to kill me at Fala ab Candidus.”

Norine’s eyes widened. He’s a spy! He’s one of Gambrin’s men. She spun and tried to run but he grabbed her wrist. She tried to twist her arm away but the man’s grip was like a steel vice!

She’em chuckled. “Not like that, Miss deMontrel. I was one of the rescue party.”

Norine stopped struggling and tried to calm her breathing. She smoothed her skirts and tried to salvage a speck of her shattered dignity. Of course he wasn’t a spy; Ferren wouldn’t leave her alone with a spy. But she still felt anxious and awkward—as if she were stepping too heavily and breathing too loudly.

She’em looked at her. “May I call you Norine?”

“Certainly,” she answered automatically, then blushed again wondering what exactly he was asking. She looked pointedly at her wrist and She’em released it. She turned and continued walking down the hall. She’em fell into step beside her.

“I came running after you when you were leaving The Ruins. You threw a piece of the wall at my head.” He laughed, his deep baritone voice filling the hall. “Not that I blame you. I probably looked rather savage."

Norine ducked her head in apology. “I don’t remember. Everything is still a blur.” She paused. “I hope I didn’t hit you.”

She’em looked at her playfully. “I’m too fast for that.”

He was staring at her. She couldn’t help staring back. When had she stopped walking? Abruptly, she cleared her throat and turned, mounting the stairs with hurried steps. When she reached the opulent suites Ferren had stayed in the last time he was here, She’em opened the door for her.

“Should I light your lamps?”

“I’m quite capable,” Norine replied tersely.

“Of that I am sure,” She’em said with a grin and a quick bow. Then the door closed and he was gone. **

Ciao!!

Full Sent!

It's interesting to send out fulls. Because, quite frankly, partials mean nothing. As do fulls requested off of a query. Because all that really means is that they liked your query. In fact, they have companies that will read your manuscript and write your query for you just to get your foot in the door. So if you hire someone and get fifty requests for partials does that mean you are a better writer or have a better story than someone who only got ten requests?
Of course not.
What matters, in my not-so-humble opinion, is what they say after they have read your writing. That is why rejections on my query are so easy for me to shrug off. They didn't like the two paragraphs I wrote about my book. So what?
But rejections on partials are quite discouraging because it means that they looked through a window into your story and said, "Meh, that really not much of a view," and they turn away.
But a request for a full after reading the partial is important. Agents are simply too busy to request the full manuscripts on stories they are not seriously considering representing. They don't ask for fulls just to find out whodunit, or whether the couple is going to get together at the end. They don't care that much. There are too many manuscripts in the world to justify requesting one you are not very seriously interested in.
Which, of course, leads the writer--me--to the next obvious conclusion. Nephele is seriously considering representing me. And I admit, it is a bit of a stretch, but not much. Because that is what a request for a full implies. Then, as much as I try not to, I start planning for the future in my mind. What will I say when she calls? Can I have the sequel ready for her to read if she wants to? Where will she submit it first?
I did the same thing with Joe. I don't think that way about him anymore because I haven't heard from him. On the other hand . . . I haven't heard a no yet.
But with Nephele I have a new piece of white paper to defile with my colorful, child-like hopes. It's far from a done-deal . . . but it's miles up from the slush pile!
It's been an interesting few days because I was feeling really, really low the other night and suddenly, with one request for a full, my hopes are resurrected and stronger than ever . . . at least until they deflate over the next few weeks.
The phone in our house does this double ring thing if the call is long distance and, quite frankly, I don't know how much longer my poor heart can put up with the drastically increased rate of beating I require from it each time I hear that double ring. But, almost without fail, it is Amy wanting to talk to her mother. (sigh)
And the waiting begins again tomorrow. The compulsive e-mail checking, the ears perking up at long-distance rings, obsessively checking Kristin's blog, trying to get some idea of where I stand with her, and, of course, watching for the mail truck. Ahh, the life of a writer. Didn't know it was so glamorous, did you?

Ciao!

This is Me Squealing! Aaahhh!

Well, I've been kind of bummed the last 5 days because Joe's exclusive ran out and he still has not gotten back to me. So I was thinking I would go ahead and nudge Nephele since it has been eight weeks today since she recieved my partial and she says she responds in six to eight weeks. So I sat at my computer with a blank e-mail in front of me and just as I was deciding what I would say, I decided to wait. I was busy this morning because I am watching my friend's kids (4 of them) while she is out of town. So I shut down my computer and decided to let it be . . . at least until tomorrow. So I had a small break from babysitting and got into my e-mail and had an e-mail from Nephele. So, of course, I braced myself for a rejection--most of the others have been, why not hers? But she requested the full! So I will go out tomorrow morning and get a new ink cartridge and two packs of my uber-paper and print her out a nice copy and send it out. (sigh) It might have to wait until Wednesday because I am still babysitting till tomorrow evening, but by the end of the day on Wednesday it will be on it's way to California! Yea!! The moral of the story is, don't send out that nudge when your gut tells you not to! That would not have been the best impression. (This is me doing the happy dance.) Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah! Hey!

Teaser Time!

So it has come to my attention that that some of y'all out there are actually reading this. So I thought I would have some fun. Some of my best ideas come to me when I am doing my first edit (which us why none of you have read book two yet) and boy I had a doozy today that I have been playing with. I thought I would post a teaser . . . just to get you excited.:)

"

“So,” Tenni said under her breath, squeezing Norine’s fingers, “your brother’s an excellent kisser. Did you teach him that or is he teaching you?”

Norine hands dropped for just a moment and Tenni seized her opening, slamming the heel of her hand into Norine’s face. Norine’s eyes pulsed with pain and she staggered backward, blood pouring from her nose. Tenni’s jaw dropped. “I-I’m sorry,” she stuttered. “I aimed too high, I expected you to—ugh!” Norine’s head slammed unto her stomach, throwing her to the ground, knocking the wind out of her. She gasped for air as Norine slapped her face, making her see stars for an instant. Tenni gathered her wits as Norine raised her arm to strike her again. She kicked her leg up and caught Norine around the neck, dragging her back down to the floor. The other women around them squealed and screamed as the two women rolled around on the floor, striking at one another’s faces and kicking wildly.

Suddenly a pain like nothing Norine had ever felt before shot up her arm as it twisted behind her. She opened her mouth to yelp, but heard Tenni first. Norine opened her eyes to see Damyon holding both women with their arms tightly behind their backs. Tenni was whimpering quietly and Norine could not stop tears from welling up in her eyes as she gasped at the searing pain in her shoulder.

“That’s enough of that,” Damyon said, his voice low, but snapping like a rawhide whip. “If I let you go will the two of you be civil?”

Hehe, this a fun scene.

Ciao!

List Dwindling.

Well, I recieved a rejection yesterday from Scott, so my list is down to Joe, Kristin, Mary Beth, Nephele, and Shawna. And I still have queries out to Robert (no weblink, sorry), Michele, Christine, and Miriam. After I hear back from these people, I'm done. I'm finished querying agents. From there I will go straight to publishers and see where the slush pile gets me.:)
Joe's exclusive expired yesterday and I still haven't heard from him. At this point I'm afrain no news is probably bad news but I'll hold out a little bit of hope. I expect to hear from Kristin any day between now and in two months.:) And the same with Mary Beth and Shawna. I am thinking that I will nudge Nephele on Monday because her blog mentioned that at the end of last months they had some e-mail issues. So I would hate to be sitting around waiting for another two weeks if she either already sent a reply and her computer screwed it up, or she never recieved it at all. (shrug). I'm getting way discouraged. Ammon told me his friend Josh (who has had a copy of my manuscript for six months) was going to give it back because he just didn't have time to read it (goes to school, works full-time, you know the type.) Well, like the day before he was going to see Ammon he had a spare hour and started to flip through Chain. Well, now he won't give it back! LOL! Things like that make me feel good because I know that readers would like this book if I could just get it out there.
I will pass 90K words today on Cymbals. I am anxious to get it done and out to my betas for two reasons. First, because I know they all want the end of the story! And I know they will really enjoy it. The first book never made me cry . . . the second book does so frequently, even though I know what is going to happen. If someone liked the first one, I suspect they will love the second. Scuze me tooting my own horn, but the first book is great--the second book is fabulous! The other reason if that people will tell me they like my book again. I need that sometimes when all these agents are telling me they don't. (sigh) So what I expect to do is work on both books throughout the summer, and in the fall, when my hubby starts law school, I'll pass the time by sending it out to publishers. I'll start with the big ones (Tor, Daw, Baen, Ace, etc.) but I have some fun-looking smaller presses on my plan B list . . . boy I hope I don't have to get that far.
I just don't want to shelve this series. It would be one thing if I was just getting lukewarm reviews from my betas, but out of the fourteen people who have read it, I've recieved four lukewarm reviews and ten stellar ones. I think that's pretty fair odds; don't you?
(Sigh) Just feeling a little down on the book one front today. Excited to get more done on book two though. I refuse to stop work on book two just because I don't know if book one will be published. Don't think about that, don't think about that . . . well, hubby's up, better go say good morning to him.
Ciao!