Querying

I submitted my first round of queries in early April.  Of the 9 I sent out, I received 5 no's and 4 silent treatments.  I revised my query in late May and submitted to 6 more agencies.  Of the 6 I sent out, I've received 4 no's and 1 request for a full submission.  The full submission request came in four days ago and I've been wound up tight ever since!  And I thought waiting to hear back on queries was hard!!  I'm just glad I already have another WIP to help keep me occupied.  It's best to write, write, write while you wait, wait, wait...right?!

The Book of Your Heart

This is an interesting post from Beth Revis, author of Across the Universe, that I came across on Twitter.  I don't know if the only manuscript I've ever completed qualifies as the "book of my heart", despite the way it almost completely consumed me, but the article was thought-provoking nonetheless.

The Writing Process

The post title suggests, erroneously, that there is only one.  I just wanted to share Kristin Cashore's honest and humorous take because I think it will resonate with so many of us who approach the daunting task of writing in a similar fashion ;)

I needed this!

Feeling discouraged about your writing?  Thinking of quitting?  Wondering if it's worth all the time and energy?  Then listen to this interview from Ira Glass on the whole writing process.  Came across this gem on Absolute Write's website.

 

Diving In

So here I am on my brand-spanking new blog attempting to make my very first post.  By no means is this my first blog ever, but it is my first for this exciting/frightening endeavor which I initially embarked upon roughly 3 1/2 years ago.  To elaborate on what's written beneath my profile, after years of thinking, dreaming and talking about writing, I finally decided to actually DO IT!  And after 3 1/2 years of toiling late into the evening--often continuing into the wee hours of the morning--I realize now why I'd put the dream off for so long.  Writing is hard work, people!!!  Especially when you're a homeschooling mom for a very rambunctious six year old ;)  The only way I was able to stick to the overwhelming task was to treat the endeavor like a legitimate job.  It's been an exhausting process!  I've worked on at least three 400-page manuscripts, each having undergone several revisions.  If it's true that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill, then I imagine I'm already a third of the way there!  As it stands, out of the three manuscripts I worked on, I have one that I'm very happy with.  I've labored over it, groaned over it, came close to pulling my hair out over it.  And now it's time to see if it was worth all the effort...