Never Know Unless You Try

And Try.


And Try.


And Try.


We're going to Idaho today. We just decided. I'm frantically trying to make lists of a few things in my head and have to remember to text my sister to swing by and check on the dog if she's not busy and bring extra clothes for the kids. It may be a sort of "trip on a whim" but that doesn't mean I can do it without planning. Especially when we have a 2yo and 5yo to entertain. Plus, I need to make sure and take the camera so I can scout some locations /settings that could be really good for the current wip.


As I tweeted late last night - #mystressisselfinflicted!!


What's in Idaho, you ask? Amongst all the wonderful qualities I'm sure it has, not least of which is a dear friend who lives in the grand potato state, is the Powerball Lottery. I am determined to beat the "no one west of the Rockies ever wins" odds. And guess what? You can't win if you don't play.


And you really can't win if you only play one ticket, lose, let the negativity and odds against you lead you to giving up.


Oh, hey, doesn't that sound like, hmm, I don't know, maybe the querying process? Just saying.


We've got an uber-busy weekend between Idaho and lottery tickets, carnivals (for fun & wip research), fireworks, family bbq, more fireworks, and who knows what else will arise! What have you got planned for the weekend?


Hope everyone (in the US at least) has a safe and fantastic holiday!

Twitterly-dee, Twitterly-do

I love Twitter.

There, I said it.

You don't have to like Twitter, but of all social networking I couldn't give up at this point, it would be Twitter. Why, you ask? I've personally got a couple reasons.

#1) It's 140 characters. That's it. No extras. Unless you really want then, then you can go off and sign up for them. (TwitPic, Twishorts, etc)

#2) The opportunity to "chat" with people I wouldn't otherwise get to talk to. Like I've had convo's with Cindy Pon about sushi and persimmons and discussed my love for Tobey Bell with Susane Colasanti (go read her book When It Happens if you don't know who he is) while getting the latest news updates and participating in discussions with publishing pros with #askagent, #kidlitchat and #yalitchat

Oh, and I guess there's one more... a very important one, I think.

#3) Research. That's right. I said it. I thought I left it behind with my senior thesis in college too, but alas, no.  You see, I hate research. Oh, there are few things I despise more than research ... but what is not to love about how quickly you can get an answer on Twitter? Yes, you can do this with your FB status update too, I suppose, but I've found there's something so much more personal about commenting on someone's FB that often I hesitate to say anything if I don't know them. Twitter takes away the "wallflower" aspect for me.

What about you? Which Social Networking medium could you not live without if you could only pick one?

P.S. If you haven't already, don't forget to enter my Elizabeth Scott is Awesome contest - it's running through Sunday at Noon, EST.  Oh, and you can follow her on twitter too @escottwrites :)

Tweet, tweet!

Turn On Your Brights!

I'm going to try to keep up with my theme for this week based on the Quote of the Week.

When I first had this whole epiphany that I could be published someday I didn't think too hard about it. Wrote my book. Wrote a query. Sent it all on it's merry way. Lotsa rejections later, I realized I was probably going about this the wrong way. I think at the time, the best way I could put what I was doing was flying blind. Or driving at night with no headlights.

Unless you're a Transformer with excellent night vision or something, I don't advise this.

So I started researching.

• Publishing
• Queries
• Agents
• Synopses
• Trends
• Genres

My biggest lesson is that publishing is about 10% talent and all the stuff above and 90% luck. My ratios may be slightly off, but I don't think you'll find many people who will argue that there is much more on the talent / stuff side than what I'm estimating.

So with only around 10% of things in your control, wouldn't you want to turn on the brights of your car and light up anything along the road that might help you increase your odds?

Below I've gathered a few links I've found helpful through all my research. If you guys know of any that aren't on my list, please let me know! Knowledge is power. Even if my brain is at capacity and I'll have to purge some of the old stuff to take in the new stuff. . . I don't really know how to tie shoes, right? That's what velcro is for. . .

Anyway, here you go! These are just a few that I've used, so by no means think that is a complete list.

QueryTracker.net – This is a great database to track your queries and do agent and agency research. They also have a great blog they publish daily and a forum where you can meet other writers slugging through the slush.

AgentQuery.com – Another website where you can research agents and literary agencies.

Preditors & Editors – A good website to double check on agent reputations before you query and/or sign with one.

JacketFlap.com – This site is a huge resource for those who write for the children’s & YA markets.

WritersMarket.com – This is a subscription required site that is updated monthly with information about agents, literary agencies, publishers and other industry stuff. The writers on the staff also have blogs that provide you with a whole slew of helpful tips.

Publishers Marketplace – Much like the other sites listed above, this is yet another resource to research agents and publishers.

Here are a few agents who blog who I've found to be awesomely insightful and helpful:.

Nathan Bransford – Curtis Brown Literary Agency

Rachelle Gardner – Wordserve Literary Agency
Janet Reid – FinePrint Literary Management runs Query Shark
Jessica Faust – BookEnds, LLC

Also, don't be afraid to reach out to other writers in the vast blog-o-sphere. Start commenting. Join discussions. You never know who you'll meet and it's amazing how many great friends you may end up finding along the way!

All About Quantity

Firstly . . . Happy belated Autumn Equinox!!

I totally scheduled this to post on Tuesday, and then I guess in all the craziness of my being on a work trip (to San Jose, training people about stuff) I guess I didn't hit the Publish Post button. Duh... but anyway here you are!

So... quantity.

How many books have you written?

Me? I've written 4. Each one is less sucky than the one I wrote before it.

As I've written each book, I've seen how much better my writing has become. I've figured out how my flow works. And I feel more like I know what I'm doing when I'm writing.

My QUALITY has improved as my QUANTITY has increased.

I suppose that is what practice does for you, right? The more you practice (write) the better you get. Sweet.

But what about the publishing thing? Well, I think Ally Carter (author of the Gallagher Girls series & upcoming Heist Society) said it best on Twitter:

@OfficiallyAlly ...it all starts with a finished book and with lots of homework. Be prepared and patient and if you're ready an agent will follow.

I believe all the quantity is part of the homework. So is the agent research, the query/synopsis writing, the waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

Then, when Quantity meets Quality. And the stars (or planets) align. And mountains move. And you find a plate of magical cupcakes on your kitchen table. That is when the agent follows.

I am sure of it!

Now . . . where is my forklift so I can move this mountain???

What about you? Your thoughts on quantity & quality ? How many books have you written?

P.S. To those at the writer's conference yesterday, it was great to (finally) meet you! More on my writer's conference experience next week!

Thursday Thought: The Wheres

So today is the last full day in Mexico and I've decided that if I can't truly uncook my brain enough to write new words, I'm just going to take in EVERYTHING around me and use it as inspiration, yanno, when that part of my brain starts to work again.

Over the course of the last few months I've taken a lot more pictures of my surroundings than I ever remember taking before and it has really helped me in figuring out where something happens in my new wip as opposed to just being random about location.

I've mostly tried to base locations in my books on places I've been or am really familiar with. My new project has me thinking outside this box of "safe" places I can pick from and now I've gone a bit camera crazy, trying to find just the right place for each of the pivotal scenes. Well, the ones I've been able to find words for anyway. (See yesterday's post.)

So what places inspire you? Are they real? Have you been there? Or are they imaginary and you're always there?

Would love to hear your thoughts. . . I'm off to the office, then going to click some more pics of the area. Will put some stuff up to share when I get back home!

WiP Wednesday: Research

That's right, I said it. But what does it mean? Well, I did a little research here too ;-)

Wikipedia has 3 different definitions based on what type of research you're trying to do, but the relevant one here, I think, is the basic one, the first one wiki gives: "human activity based on intellectual application in the investigation of matter . . . purpose . . . is discovering, interpreting . . ."

It's a bit lengthy of a definition, but there it is in a nutshell, sort of. As much as you can despise research, to make anything more real, you have to learn more about it. Even if you live it and go through certain experiences within it, sometimes an objective perspective is really important to help you see things in a way that will help convey your story.

Like so many out there, I'm not a fan of research. It makes me think of assignments in high school and college. Delving into the dusty shelves of the library because heaven forbid any of the research I needed to do at that time was actually available online.

I knew my newly "finished" (using the term loosely here) project needed something. That's probably why I couldn't close the file and let it sit for a few days. So off to research I go.

All the topics I need to learn more about I find really interesting, so I anticipate this may turn into more books to add to my list of Recent Reads . . . speaking of which I need to post one of those . . . Will do soon! Anyway, some of the topics are folklore and legends, others are more around human psychology and I'm all about finding out how people tick.

Anyone else out there riding the research train? How's it going?