My THANK YOU

Love for all my writing friends and Cp's!!! Today, this is a big fat Thank You! To all of you. My work wouldn't be where it is, or even half as awesome if it weren't for you. I wouldn't have gotten any requests or agents interested in my stories if it weren't for you! 

I seriously want to Thank all of you. Those who read my blog, those who go out of there way to help outline/brainstorm with anyone. You people are amazing. 

Here's a post about Spoken. Thanks so much Sheri. You're truly awesome!

I'm Not ...

I'm not a skippy, peppy person however, I do love positive attitudes and manners. I'm not claustrophobic but if I'm in a tight space and people are blocking my exit my craziness kicks in and things get ugly, super quick.

So when I was mowing my lawn. I went down the path between the fences. I tell my neighbor, "Yeah I mowed between our fences." She asks, "Oh yeah, how far did you get?" My answer, "Not sure, I stopped as soon as I started feeling there was no escape."

I wouldn't feel like this either if someone "Ahem" meaning the people who live behind me wouldn't let their backyard look like a freaking rain forest exploded inside there. They've got weeds (HUGE) ones growing all over the place and over top their fence, which magically connects between mine and my neighbor next door to me. So yes we feel like the weeds are going to attack us back there. And whenever I mow I feel there is no exit except for the one behind me.

But this got me wondering, is this how some writers feel when they get writers block. Like there is no exits. No way to just escape the massive walls closing in on them. If so how do you solve this without going ballistic? Obviously you wouldn't want to throw punches at your computer screen or anything but how would one break through?

BEA, NYC ...

BEA and my down load on it all.

I had a connection flight, and the first flight was perfect, no one was next to me. Second flight ... oy ... Dude sitting to the left of me was fine, Dude sitting to the right, total nightmare. He was rude, angry and Smelled, like really bad. I now know how Edward from Twilight felt like as I tried to take in air from the person next to me, in order to NOT breathe in the rancid scent of smelly guy.

Cab drivers in NYC are NUTS!!! No really, they drive fast, and with a I DON'T GIVE A SHIT attitude. Blinders. I needed some horse blinders. There was a Chevy Aveo next to us, and Cab driver was headed right into the lane almost making the Chevy, and my passenger door ONE. I was like OMG OMG there is a car right there. Cab driver laughs like I'm a comedy act. I'm lucky I don't have heart problems I would have had four heart attacks from the airport to the hotel alone. To top that off, NYC people are Wacko's too, Cross walk signs, they are like Oh it's red, well screw it I;m going and almost get blasted by oncoming traffic. Again they don't really care.

At BEA though, it's truly Amazing!! I got tons of Books, most of them are ARC's that I can't wait to read!
Books: Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles (So excited about this!!!) Hostage Three by Nick Lake, The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle (Read- Totally awesome sauce cute! Met the author she signed my book, she's amazing FYI) Identical by Scott Turow, Skin by Donna Jo Napoli, The Deadliest Game by Hal Ross, and of course all my Month9Book author books: A Shimmer of Angels by Lisa Basso, Gabriel Stone and the Divinity of Valta by Shannon Duffy, Sidekick by Pab Sungenis, Pretty Dark Nothing by Heather Reid, Praefatio by Georgia McBride, My Sister's Reaper by Dorothy Dreyer. I have more books, but those are being mailed to me since I couldn't carry them all.

BEA is Fantastic though. There is so many authors, publishers, readers, bloggers, agents, people in general that are 100% super friendly and way cool. There is so many things to see too, besides the great books, swag, and terrific stuff you can score, cover reveals like Harry Potter has a new cover design coming out and it's AWESOME!!

I was working for some of the time, and walking for the next half loading up on books. Which if you go to BEA, FYI bring an extra suitcase to load up all your free swag, and books you scored. Or be prepared to ship out your books FedEx.

While I was there, I talked with the Agent who has my full, and she was super awesome, and her boss spoke with me too which was like Awwww this is so great, I feel like I'm in a dream! And can I just say, I felt as if I were going to pee my pants at first, because the whole time I'm thinking I hope I don't say something Stupid or Offensive. I think my meeting went really well though. Fingers crossed for her wanting me! :)




Did you go to BEA? What books did you get? If you didn't go to BEA, but had the chance to go what are the first booths you'd visit?

My Crazy week!

I've had the craziest week so far. In order to tell you about it I must go back to Thursday May 16th. My daughter's b-day is Friday May 17th so I was up all night making cupcakes for her class. I've never made cupcakes before FYI. However they turned out amazingly awesome. YAY! Friday I get most of my work done, then I'm off to the store getting b-day presents. So far everything is fine just super busy. So after the birthday party which lasted from Friday to Sunday, I was ready for Monday which is never like me. Monday's and I are like AHHH!

Monday rolls around and my daughter says she's not feeling so hot. Turns out she's got the flu. Ewww. I just got my house all put back into order too, so yeah this was like an AWWW MAN. Not only do I feel bad for her I keep thinking about all the recleaning of every surface I've got to do. And apart of me was cringing whenever I saw her touch anything. By Tuesday I thought this would go away but it didn't. She's still horribly sick.

Wednesday comes, and she's feeling remarkably better. I think OH THANK GOODNESS I can reclean. But that bubble was popped about hour later when the school calls and tells me I need to come collect my daughter. So, I do this. by the way the conversation on the phone was, "Her temp is a hundred and five." I thinking OMG my kid is freaking dying! Nurse apparently can't actually read the temp correctly because the slip in her hand says 100.5 but no matters I am taking her to doctor office.

I spent six hours between doc office/ xrays/ and back to doctor office, and the best they can come up with is that she's got a bad case of a stomach virus. Awesome. The whole time I thought they were going to tell me it was puberty which I'm so thankful its not that. But I'm sad she can't take any meds because it viral. Poor thing.

So for the most part of today I've been playing catch up, cleaning, and after this blog post I will reading, and gathering up all my things for BEA. In the mist of all my running around, errands and taking caring of my children, I did some querying. And do You know what?? I got a full request wahoo!! I am so excited about it, I jumped around like loon for a good ten minutes.

What's been new with you?

Query me

Query letters are a Bitch! I'm not even going to sugar coat it. But they are in fact masterful and can get your book in places you've been dreaming IF and only IF you do it right.

So what's the perfect Query letter look like?

Well, for starters it has a Hook, A snappy but well thought out entertaining summary, and an ending that leaves you with an Ouuuu! 

You must remember P's and Q's. Be polite, and remember your manners when writing a query letter.

Here's an example of a decent query letter:

Dear Agent, (Obviously not what I'd really address my letter. Mr or Ms Agent's name is the proper way)

I am seeking representation on my Young Adult, Sci-fi Romance, RUNAWAYS. (I'd also add in here the reason I was querying them above all else.)

Your Pitch "Hook"----->What if your blood contained all your secrets, like a diary, how far would you go to protect it?

Summary pitch "Short and snappy"---> In a time when juries will be replaced by truth telling devices, which not only projects your darkest secrets, but every emotion, thought, and reaction you’ve had throughout your entire life. And when seventeen-year-old Analee Summers is accused of murdering her roommate Mia Morgan, she must put her faith in her own blood to set herself free. But the court refuses to test her innocence using this device.

With the help of a snarky, guy named Brooks Rawson, she flees Winter Academy. However running from the law isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Especially when the guy she’s with is more like a overbearing cynic, constantly telling her what to do, keeping her isolated from others and moving them from place to place. Analee desperately wants her life back and knows the only way that will happen is if she finds Mia’s true killer. But discovering the truth might not be enough to set her free. RUNAWAYS is complete at 70,000 words.

This is the part you tell them a little bit about you. What kind of things do you actively do, publication history, etc.---->I am an active member of the YALITCHAT writing community.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you. (End with politeness)  

Sincerely,

Practice make perfect. Also join a writing group ones that have query critiques. A lot of them get down to the nitty gritty and really help your query letter shine. good luck

Profanity

Are you for Profanity in YA, New Adult, or even Adult? Are you turn off by excessive amounts of curse words in novels today?

I'll be honest I've got a potty mouth and my characters well, they tend to have potty mouths. However after reading over a lot of reviews made for other authors works I noticed there are some people down right offended when a character drops an F-bomb. Says the words Piss, Damn, or even Hell. Now I'm not one to judge for this doesn't bother me. I mean I heard all these words and few others on the school bus at age five. Yes, my youth was forever changed when I told my mother at the age of six "I'm going to piss." Instead of saying I'm going to pee. Soap not so awesome, in the mouth.

What's your thoughts?

N=NYC

Are any of you attending BEA?

I am and let me tell you I'm so excited to be seeing all the authors I communicate with daily. As well as the ones I've read all their wonderful published works from. But not only am I excited about all these things but just being in NYC brings me a thrill.

So if you were to go anywhere where would you go?