A New Week of Edits and Book Trailers!

Thank you all so much for your kind thoughts and advice last week for IWSG. I enjoyed reading them as I went about the business of the week. It was busy and I didn't get to visit as many blogs as I'd hoped. There were doctor and dentist visits and this...

Elaine's Cake 

Reception set up.

It's the first wedding cake I've done in years. I believe I missed the stressful excitement of helping make someone's special day even more wonderful. However, I'm glad it's over!

This week I dig back into the third round of edits for Talia's next story installment--Search For Knowledge. Things are going well and we are down to the nitty gritty clean up. Hopefully, I'll have an idea when it might be released soon. Right now I just know 2016, this year! Yay!

I keep trying different background music for the book trailer. What do you think of this one?

My next post will be the blurb. I need help!
Hope you all have a great week, catch you later!

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Last Friday I had cake day. A friend has twin girls and they wanted a Thing 1 and Thing 2 birthday cake. Now my mind immediately went to a topsy turvy design. I mean, come on it's Dr. Sueuss! However, I didn't have the time or all the right supplies. Plus my friend said she wanted it simple. And for those of you who know I can't draw, I traced this on wax paper and then did a "toothpick" transfer. ;)

My own Thing 1:
I crossed the 10k mark with Last Christmas. There are still scenes in my head so I'll keep moving forward. Right now it's really weak in spots but it's first draft so that's fine. Here's a sneak peak at some first draft stuff. Q4U: Is her reasoning for not going further weak?

Most of the office lights had been turned off in an effort to set the holiday mood. Strands of light filled garland hung from the tops of the cubicles giving the area a soft glow. A large Christmas tree stood at the head of the conference table, its reflection twinkling in the large windows behind it. Katrina’s co-workers mingled everywhere, but she was oblivious. All she could focus on was Austin McCurdy.

They danced in the dimmest part of the room they could find. Katrina rested her cheek on his shoulder and lost herself in his warmth. His hands trailed slowly down her side, skimming the edge of her breast on their way to her hips sending shockwaves through her. She tightened her grip on his shoulders and pressed herself closer.

“Austin,” she whispered, “You make it hard to be good.”

“You’ve been good all year, and technically my job here is done.” He moved his hands into her long blond hair and tilted her head towards him. “I love your hair down like this.”

He took a few steps backward, drawing her with him until they were inside a cubicle. The next thing she knew, Katrina was sitting on his lap at someone else’s desk. Part of her wanted to laugh at the absurdity of office love, but when she looked into Austin’s eyes all she could think about was giving in. Giving in to what he wanted. What she wanted even more.

She leaned in and he met her half way. His lips were gentle, tentative, as if he were waiting for her to pull away. And then his arms pulled her closer and his tongue skimmed her mouth, looking for a way in.

“Austin—” She pulled back and caressed his face. “I need to go or this is going to get out of hand really fast.”

“Kat—”

Katrina placed a finger over his mouth to stop him, “One week Mr. McCurdy. In a week your contract will officially be over and you’ll no longer work for Harper and Harper. And then I expect you to be on my doorstep.”

“Are you sure I can’t take you home?” His fingers intertwined with hers.

“This is one promise to myself I intend to keep. No office entanglements.”

“Then I’ll call you in time for New years. I’ll put off returning to Los Angeles just for you.”

“Flatterer.” Katrina blushed and pulled her hands free. “Until then, Merry Christmas Mr. McCurdy.”


And Thing 2:
I also started working on my "connecting" novella for the Sendek series. You  may recall that I decided to scrap Search for Knowledge a few weeks ago. For the most part I still feel good about that decision even though it puts me behind on getting the next book out in that story. However, it felt flat and a bit forced in lots of places. And no one wants to read that.

Ryce's story will answer a lot of the questions about these new mage and Talia's plan for them. And he's always been the planned antagonist for the 3rd planned book. I figured, let's just get to it! So my four books will turn into a real trilogy after all. It's a relief on so many levels.

And for those of you who've read the first book--Jaron's demon is coming back. ;)

Weekend Epiphany?

First, in the last seven days, I've made three cakes. They've kind of been last minute, and I think a bit lack-luster.

My daughter's death by chocolate cake. It was really yummy.

A neighbor's movie themed cake.

My son got the left over fondant from earlier in the week.

So, what about that weekend epiphany?

It seems my emotional well being has been more of a roller coaster lately than normal. This could be due to living on an average of four hours of sleep, or it could just be that it's time to re-evaluate my life.

There are two desires in my life that are at odds with one another. The writing dream and my family. For the last three years, I've struggled to find that balance to keep both sides happy. And failed miserably. It seems I must sacrifice one for the other, but I know it doesn't have to be that way.

I thought about the posts I've written lately about not quitting. Then I realized something. Maybe it's time to tweak the dream.

I'd already decided that one day I would be willing to go the small publisher route. But I wanted to exhaust my agent list first. This weekend I realized that in order to keep my family in tact (and happier than it is now), I needed to move this writing thing along.

My agent querying is even slower than the publishing world. I've only queried 23 agents over the course of a year. I know a lot of people do that in a month. I don't know why I'm so slow. Perhaps it's the underlying fear of actually succeeding? Or the fear that I'm just not ready--for whatever reason.

But I am ready. And this weekend I realized, I don't care how it happens. I just want my book out there so other people can enjoy it.

This week I'm attending the Muse Online Writer's Conference and pitching to one agent and three publishers. If one of them says yes, and their vision fits with mine, I'm going to say yes. I know there will still be a lot of work before the actual release date, but at least things will be moving forward again. I also have three agent queries ready to go. I might send them too, since I've already done the work. I dunno know though. My heart just isn't in it this week. (Update: I think its because when I pitch I make a much better impression than I do in my queries. With one pitch down, I have a request for a full. I guess I answer questions in a way that gets people excited about Sendek. Now if only they would see that in the MS...)

It might be the wrong decision, but for the first time in a long time, I feel at peace. At least I decided something.

What do you think? Should I stick it out, or go with a small publisher? Say anything you want, this is a free blog and you won't hurt my feelings. :) I also know several of you are with small publishers. Please share your favorite thing about going this route.

Personal rejections and my really big nose...

...or at least pictures make it look big.

Today is sort of a "catch up and get back on track" post. Several mini little posts that will make this rather long probably.

Ok, first things first. Camp. It was amazing as ever and the kitchen ran smoothly thanks to the wonderful women that came to help me. I have one picture of the cake--just know I think its a horrible picture, but I'll post it anyway.

Here are my church girls in their Phineas and Ferb skit. I love that they always do something fun. The fireside girl is my oldest daughter K. She worked a long time on her costume and was really excited. 

 Here is K getting bounced off the blob. She loved this and did it more than anyone else from what I hear. I managed to get down there one day toward the end of the week. She had perfected her landing for maximum push. I actually caught air going off and I'm considerably heavier than her.

Here is my hubby going off for the first time. I wish I had video taped it so I could reply the sound effects over and over. Let's just say he was surprised at being blobbed!

Ok, it was 9:30PM on Friday. A week with no AC and no time to "fix" my hair. The cake was pretty close to what I envisioned, but the heat made it look a bit melty to me. The girls loved it though. It had six different flavors in it: Snickerdoodle, French Vanilla, Orange Juice, Neopolitan, Chocolate Mint (with Andes mint filled marscapone moose filling), and plain chocolate. They ate almost all of it!

This is what my hair is supposed to look like when I fix it. I got a new haircut in time for camp to help me feel cooler. See, my nose is knobby or something. Or maybe its just the fat cheeks? I'm losing weight, but not in my face yet.

While I was at camp, a letter came in the mail for me. My hubby saw that it was from a literary agency and got all excited. Since he was coming up on Friday he wanted to bring it to me, but was afraid it might be bad news. Well, the only way to know for sure was for him to open it. It was a rejection so he didn't say anything to me about it until I found it on Saturday after getting home.

Funny thing? It actually made my day. I was giddy with this rejection because I felt like it was a marked progression from the form rejections I received during my last round of queries. Here is what it said:

Thank you for the opportunity to consider Sendek. I thought your story line was very interesting and original (yay!). I also liked your main character Talia and how determined she was. Unfortunately, I found it to be a little bit confusing. I would have liked to know why Talia thought she was going to die (see I took out the dream!), and have other aspects of your story clarified earlier on. Also, I found it difficult to jump from Talia's narration to the other characters and felt that it interrupted the story. (This is all stuff I can work on fixing!)

I hope that my loss is another agent's gain, and I wish you the best of luck in finding the right home for your work.

This was one of the times I wish I could have written back and started a dialogue. You know, something along the lines of:

"I was considering moving A B and C around this way to give the reader more time with Talia before the other characters come into play. Do you think that would make it less confusing?"

"Do you think I should rewrite all of Talia's POV into 3rd person?"

"So, if I started with her dream (show it), could I get a way with that?"

"What else did you want to know earlier?"

Knowing that when I do get an agent I can talk all these little details out makes me so excited. That's why I want to try for one before going it on my own. I've always needed and valued others thoughts to validate my own thinking. Yeah, I know I need to get over that, but it is what it is. I like being on a team.

Anyway, that was my first paper rejection and I'm saving it because of the hope it gave me. My idea is interesting and original! Whoo hoo!

Oh, and for my birthday yesterday, I got a flip camcorder thing. So, I'll be working on that vlog for Wednesday! See you then.

Late Friday full of cake!

This has been a busy two weeks for cakes. Three. Count them...

ONE (two days warning)

Heffalump

 Two (the birthday boy decorated his own cake.)

 It's Crater Bey Arena

Three (three day warning)

Kadoosh!

This is my favorite out of all of them!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Hopefully we will get back to writing related topics next week.