Good Things!

Yesterday was a great day to be a writer. First, I e-queried a N.Y.C. agent and she emailed me back and said she'd be "pleased" to read my entire manuscript after Jan. 15. Shock, surprise and excitement! Yes, I realize she'll most likely turn it down but to have her request a full M.S. seems like a good thing. At least I got past a query. So, I'm re-reading my M.S., touching up my resume and am preparing the package that she requested.

And then..

I got an email from Guideposts Sweet 16 and the editor asks me to revise 2 questions on the spec quiz I sent in Sept. It appears that they will probably publish it next year! Elation!

The blog may be neglected until Jan. since I must focus my attention on my M.S. and get that thing to New York. Cross your fingers!

Snow Envy

Yes, I have snow envy. The holiday season is in full swing and it's 76 degrees here today!! Not cool since I'm jogging around the neighborhood looking at lovely Christmas decorations as I pant from the heat.

Last night, I took a chance and posted my query letter to the Writer's Digest "query critique" forum. Within a few hours, I had two very helpful responses and I realized my query was all wrong. Format- great. Bio-great. Intro-you get the trend, great. But, the paragraph about the book morphed into an ugly 3-paragraph synopsis. Needless to say, I'll be revising that query this weekend.

I've been on break for only a couple of days and I'm ready to go back to school. Sad, I know. I'm already working on a paper and am buying the hundreds of dollars worth of textbooks that a I need. Luckily, most are paperbacks for my lit. classes and I'm happy to add those to my bookshelf.

TGIF! 

Book Doctors: Yay or Nay?

(I'm blogging twice today since I'm taking tomorrow off!) :)

Ok, so I'm editing my W.I.P and trying to decide if a "book doctor" is necessary. Do I get a critique of my M.S. and/or line-editing? Is that really necessary before querying agents or can I just do the best I can and go with it? Has anyone used a book doctor or editing service before? If so, were you pleased with the results?

on break!

I'm officially on break! Not seeing another textbook until Jan. 9 sounds pretty amazing right now. Though, I always say I'll take a break over the actual holiday break but I end up reading texts for next semester and getting a head start on any major assignments. Yep, I like to be prepared.

I finally got back to my W.I.P. today. I'm hovering around page 36 and am making the sweep through only for grammar and punctuation. Next, I'll go through it again and check facts, style and content. Editing and re-drafting is not nearly as much fun as writing, that's for sure!

Lastly, this is the final week of Harper and I'll post the round six results later.

end of the year totals

I'm enjoying my time off before school starts again in January. Five classes always keep me busy and I'm glad for a break before that starts all over again. Soon, I'll be in the process of tallying up my earnings, query totals, publications in new magazines and rejections for 2006. I'm working on compiling a set of goals for 2007 and will post those shortly before the new year. Currently, I have 20 queries out circulating and that's my highest total for queries out at once.

Seventeen Mag

I was on Seventeen's Web site today and came across their annual fiction contest. I forgot all about it!! I'm tossing around ideas for a submission and will get that in the mail by the deadline of 12/31. I'm reading all of the past winners and runners up and I'll try to mirror their writing.

I also really want to query CosmoGIRL and can't find their guidelines. I think I'll send an email and ask for them.

I entered my final piece into Harper and we'll see what happens.

11th Place in Harper Round 5

(These are Hungarian ice sculptures, by the way! How amazing!)

Oooh, what a killer! One spot off the top ten! I tipped my chair when I saw that. Now, that's frustrating! Argh! But, there is ONE chance left to win so I'm going to write my butt off.

I've been sending e-queries out like a crazy person. I have 19 magazine queries currently circulating and I'm working on #20. I figured I should plant the query seeds so they can sit in an editor's inbox over the holiday and be ready for reading when the new year rolls around. I've queried about 5-6 new magazines so it will be interesting to see what responses I get.

Back to querying! Happy writing!

Online Writing Classes

I've been contemplating what to do in between the time I get into grad school and finish my B.A. at F.S.U.

I think a couple of online writing classes sound like a good idea. But, what school to pick? I pulled a list of reputable online writing schools from Writer's Digest and the list looks like this:

* UCLA Extension School (courses can sometimes be used for graduate credit)
* Gotham Writers' Workshop
* Writer's Online Workshops (presented by WD)
* Institute of Children's Literature (I took classes from them a few years ago)

Anyone taken a course from any of these schools? How about another writing school?

The classes are expensive and it's hard to know what the classes are truly like until it's too late and you're already enrolled. UCLA is holding a free cyber open house for their courses in March, so I'll definitely check into that.

Agents and Queries

My novel draft is really shaping up today! I've divided 45,000 words into 35 chapters. At first, I wasn't sure how to decide where to divide the chapters and I finally decided to separate wherever it felt natural.

I dove into my 100+ issues of The Writer and Writer's Digest and marked every article I found on writing YA fiction and writing letters to agents. I used AgentQuery.com and found a great listing of agents that represent YA fiction. I wanted to start selecting agents so when my final draft is complete, I'm ready to start emailing. I wrote the query I want to send to agents and I'll just personlize it before sending it. The query was difficult to write but with the help of magazines, books and Web sites, I think my query is strong.

On another note....Harper round 5 finalists are announced today! Best of luck to the nearly 400 entrants! :)

Justine Query

Argh....in early August I sent a resume, clip and query to an editor at Justine Magazine. I've waited patiently for a response and finally decided to send a follow up last night. I headed over to browse Justine's Web site and it appears that the editor I queried is no longer there. Months of waiting and I should have sent a follow up earlier!! Ack! So, I resubmitted my query and I *hope* I get a response now.

Justine's new issue did a great spread on 3 young writers including Dallas Nicole Woodburn, a 19 year old author. I read her article "Idol Advice" in a writing magazine (Writer's Digest or The Writer, I forget) and have checked to see what else she has done. It's always good to keep an eye on the competition! :) Nah, I'm even thinking about contacting her to see if I can query a few magazines regarding her profile.

Today I'll be submitting my 5th entry in the Harper contest. This is the latest I've ever submitted. Normally, I submit Friday night but last night on a whim I decided to go to the Winter Festival downtown. There was a great parade, tree lighting ceremony and all-around holiday spirit. My favorite news anchors walked right by me and I babbled about that for hours. Yes, I love my news!

9th Place

Harper results are in...out of 480 submissions I placed 9th. Disappointing? Of course! Elated to be in the top 10? Oh, yes! There are still 2 more chances to try and win. A great entry won this week and the prompt will be fun to follow.

In other related news...I found a new teen magazine Six78th to query. It's for girls in grades 6-8 and hopefully they'll respond to my query.

One more week of school left and then it's writing time! I can't wait! Happy December, everyone!

Better than Eighth?

In under 24 hours, the winner of Harper round 4 will be announced. I know I'm not going to make it this round but there are still rounds 5 and 6! I'm starting to get nervous because there are only 2 chances left. In the first couple of rounds, I wrote 2-3 entries but lately, I decided it's better to concentrate on 1 entry. We'll see if that pays off or not. The last time I finaled, I came in 8th so I'm anxious to see if I do better than that! :)

One more note...Made Harper finals!

Harper round 4 finalists were announced and I'm surprised and honored to find my entry "Mission: Spell Book Swipe" in the top ten. :) If you're under 21, head over to Harper and VOTE! All of the top 10 entries are equally excellent and deserving of a win.

Check it out here...HarperTeen Fanlit.

Plans for Break

There is not going to be much writing this week aside from the Harper contest. Finals seem to get in the way and I'm looking forward to one month off before school starts again. My plans for break are shaping up:

Holiday Break Plans:

* Watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (I NEVER saw it over the summer! How embarrassing!) and the Devil Wears Prada (Oscar for Meryl Streep, perhaps?)

* E-query at least 10 editors (I've wanted to query Highlights since I started writing but never figured out the best query. Hmmm...) And, does anyone really send out paper queries anymore? I don't.

* Write an outline for a Harlequin American Romance. I've noticed that e-Harlequin offers free help on writing a Harlequin book and even offers a critique service for a fee. Has anyone used their services?

* Read at least ten books on my list that never grows any shorter

* Watch a few episodes of "Gilmore Girls" on DVD

and finally...

* Crack open my young adult novel that I wrote during NaNo and see if it's worth editing.

Semester's End

I am able to see the finish line of this semester. Whew! Two more weeks of school left and then...drum roll, please...I start my final semester! I did college quite unconventionally and it worked out better than I thought. I started college at 15 and went full time. (My college advisor was shocked and actually upset that I did it. He kept giving me the "you must not have a social life because all you do is school" speech. Imagine that, someone telling you NOT to do so much school!) I took about 4 months off and then started at a 4 year school. I crammed (and I mean crammed) two years of classes into one year and saved money and time by graduating early. I've met a couple of people who are trying to do this and it seems to really be catching on with certain students. On the other hand, I ran into a girl at school last semester who was in her sixth year of college. She said she was staying for one more semester because she loved the college's football games so much. I kid you not. I can appreciate college football (sort of!) but to stay in school for football seems kind of crazy. Maybe it's me.

I got my schedule set for spring. Classes look like: Article and Essay Workshop, Senior Seminar in Lit, a humanities elective, Modern British Novel and a communication elective.

Today's project: study for finals and find a teen counselor to give me quotes for an article.

Tomorrow: Harper finalists are announced! Cross your fingers!

Summer Scam

I was reading Ella's blog and her post got me thinking about an awful editor I had an experience with over the summer. I won't name any names but I definitely got burned. A few months ago, I replied to an ad for a magazine in my old town that was looking for freelance writers. I got an immediate response by email. The editor said he would like to meet me in person or do a phone interview to discuss my writing. I phoned him and he said he was impressed with my writing samples. He said the magazine was in dire need of writers and that he had 5 pieces he needed done immediately. I said I would do 3 just to be sure he liked my work. I said I would do them for free (to prove my writing was decent) and then he would pay me for future assignments. He sent me phone numbers and email addresses for the people he wanted me to interview. I spent HOURS upon hours on the phone and computer writing and interviewing for the articles. I submitted them early and he said he was thrilled. He asked if I would help copy-edit the magazine in addition to writing articles. I said yes and he said he would send me another assignment. Two weeks went by and I got worried. I sent an email- no response from the once quick to respond editor. A few more weeks passed and nothing. He never sent copies of the magazine (as he promised) and never returned my calls or emails. He got 3 articles written for nothing and now he's MIA. Yep, writing can be brutal and unfair. Sigh...

Winner!

So, I got up early and typed like a fiend. I trotted over to the NaNo "official" word counter and pressed "submit." Oh, yay for 50,000 words!! Woo hoo! My wrists hurt, fingers are cramped and I'm sick of staring at my computer screen. I'm off to watch a movie and relax. The next project for my NaNo draft, you ask? March 2007's National Editing Month or "NaNoEdMo." 50 hours of editing on the NaNo novel. Bring it on!

Interest to Romance Writers

Found two interesting things in the romance field yesterday. One is the Great American Romance Contest. Anyone participate or plan to participate? I don't have a finished romance novel and I think the book has to be completed but I'm not sure.

The second item of interest is that the Romance Writers Report is looking for new writers. How cool is that?! I sent the editor a query and asked if she'd consider me for a spot. That would be quite different and it would be fun to write something else.

Still chewing my nails off waiting for a response from Sweet 16. Yes or no, I just want to know! :)

My family put up our Christmas tree today so the holiday season has officially begun. I'm *so* ready!

Black Friday and Harper Results

The HarperTeen FanLit results for round 3 are posted. A VERY big congratulations to Mary for winning! You go girl! I'm so excited for her and she definitely deserved to win. Round 4 starts today at 3 and I'm ready to write and see what happens.

So, my chapter landed in 16th place out of 596 submissions. Not too shabby, I guess. :)

I'll be busy today trying to get my NaNo word count up. I'm at 42,000 and counting.

Happy Black Friday!

Happy Turkey Day!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!