2009

This year has not been the best year. Too much has happened - too many raw feelings and deep hurt to sort through. But through it all, I'm forever hopeful. Hopeful that once you hit bottom, there's nowhere to go but up. I've improved my relationships with certain extended family members - will not mention names. We've gotton to know each other better through our mutual mourning - I wish it had been through better circumstances. I finally completed revisions on my young adult fantasy novel, Voices in the Waves and have sent it to the editor that had shown interest last year. She actually sent me an email to let me know she has it! We have a new puppy, Neo. Well, he's not new. We've had him since fourth of July weekend, but every day he reminds us how to enjoy life's simple, precious moments. He keeps us busy and entertained. He's just so full of love and enthusiasm, it's hard not to be uplifted just being around him - even when he has accidents in the house and we have to clean it up with our noses pinched. :)

Some of my favorite writers' blogs...

One of my favorite writer's blogs for a breakout YA writer is Cindy Pon's, author of Silver Phoenix: http://cindypon.com/blog/

One of my favorite blogs of a well-known YA author is Shannon Hale's, author of Princess Academy and Goose Girl: http://oinks.squeetus.com/2009/05/born-in-the-bea.html

Evolution of a Novel

I started my first novel about five years ago. It was my teacher. The story took me into the world of characterization, setting, figurative language and at times a small bit of writers' block. When I first wrote the novel, my writer's group praised it and said what a great story it is. But I didn't realize this at the time, the novel was not even close to publishable. It needed to be fleshed out, more meat put into it, and setting and time frame issues resolved. Since then, I've added, deleted and changed several characters, and even the setting has changed in a few chapters. My fantasy world has come to life and I've begun to really see it. My characters have grown so close to me they feel like family. The entire novel feels like family, evil characters and all. After several drafts at a title, I've finally settled on my current working title. I like it and I think I'll keep it. More about that in later blogs. But for now, I work diligently to finish polishing it since an editor has asked for the full novel! Yay!

I dabble in illustrations and here's my first attempt at a draft of the cover. Hint: it's a fantasy novel. :)

Agent Blog

Here's a great blog by agent Nathan Bransford of Curtis Brown. Lots of useful information!
http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/

Revisions and Pseudonyms

I haven't written in a long time. We had a death in the family and I just couldn't bring myself to do any writing. This week, however, as I lay in bed with the flu (swine flu?), I kept my laptop on my lap and my fingers racing over the keyboard. So I'm happy to say that not only did I get through my entire novel and revised for plot, I also revised the title to something I absolutely love, and I came up with a pseudonym that makes sense! Now, off to revising for details, dialog, characterization, and all the other revision techniques recommended by Renni Browne and Dave King in their book, Self-Editing for Fiction writers. Another excellent book I couldn't put down was Manuscript Makeover by Elizabeth Lyon. Two great books for revisions. Now, all I have to do is apply the several dozen techniques and I'll be set. Maybe I'll be done in this lifetime. :)