Posted by Christine on Jul 9, 2007 in Publishing, Scottsdale |
This weekend I wrote a short story. Well actually I wrote the entire thing on Friday night then spent most of the weekend adding, rearranging and changing it. The story is set in the same universe as Lexi however it is unrelated to the Coradonna Lost story. Sort of. I have never really written a short story like this before but I wanted to enter a contest at a conference I am going to and I needed a short story to do it. So I decided to try. I like the story I wrote but I have to admit that I think short stories are a little harder then novels. There is no time to develop plot, or characters or anything. I prefer writing longer things where the story has time to take shape and the characters have a chance to learn and grow. Not that I will not try my hand (or pen) at another short story. I have several ideas of events that happen in Lexi’s world that would fit a short story format. But I think that this will be a skill that takes some time to hone and perfect. I will be working on this particular short story for a few more weeks before I send it off to the contest. I am not crossing my fingers that I will win, however I am excited about the experience of giving my work away to someone to be read. Things are on hold with Coradonna Lost right now and will be for a while. I am working on it but very slowly and I am not sure that I will send the next round of queries until September after some more editing and such. I may change my mind but I know that I have some work to do before the next round of queries is ready to go out and I am not sure I can get through that before...
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Posted by Christine on Jun 28, 2007 in Randomness, Scottsdale |
Sorry it has been so long since I posted last I have been having a lot of family time. All my children are out of school now and my time to write and Blog has dropped off dramatically. Over the summer my Blog might be more sporadic. I will try to post at least once a week though. So what has been going on. I have joined an online critique group and I have the first chapter of Coradonna Lost up for critique right now. I am hoping to learn things that will help me on my second round of submissions. No I haven’t sent those out yet – summer and kids and all. Also I am hoping to find out if the story grabs people in the first chapter. If not then I need to do some revision before sending out more queries the first chapter needs to suck the reader, or agent in. I have also been reading ( I was up till 1 am today reading a library book), lots and lots of books. Science Fiction books. I have been trying to see what is out there and what it is like. I have read a few books on terra forming and several space operas. I have liked some and not liked others. There are several themes that seem to repeat in Science Fiction that give me a great deal of hope for my own story as it seems to function within these themes while still having an original story line. Ok enough for today. I will post again as things...
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Posted by Christine on Jun 18, 2007 in Publishing, Scottsdale |
This morning when I opened my e-mail I saw it sitting there among my many other e-mails. A reply to one of my queries. They are all sent now, but this was the first reply I received. My stomach knotted and my heart beat picked up. Where they requesting a partial, or was it my first rejection. I tried to coach myself, it’s a rejection, no big deal, all authors get rejections. But still I couldn’t help the little thrill of excitement that it might be a request for a partial. Maybe someone wanted to read my story. I opened, read and replied to all my other e-mail first as an exercise in patience, and because I was dreading opening that particular e-mail as much as I was desperate to read it. When all my other correspondence was done and I had no more excuses I opened the e-mail. It was a rejection BUT…. It was the kindest most polite and gentle rejection I could have imagined. The agent didn’t rip apart my query, they didn’t say my idea sucked, they simply pointed out that this project was not right for them. They encouraged me to continue to submit to other agents. So I want to tell them Thank you. Not that rejection is ever easy to take, but it is so much easier when it is done gently and with kindness. It was in my opinion the perfect first rejection. One that was harsh would have been shattering. Not that I wasn’t disappointed, even after all my coaching I felt the little lurch you feel in your stomach when you have received bad news. I felt terrible they didn’t want to read my story. Then I realized something- I am an author now!!! Not just a writer but an author. I have received a rejection. How many published authors and even FAMOUS authors received a rejection? I will not venture a guess at the actual number but I will say from what I have read A LOT. So I am in good company. So what does this mean, well I still have 6 queries out that I mailed as a first round of queries. This is only my first rejection and I am working on my second round of queries now. So this basically means that I am going to keep going. There are still many many options out there. I will keep everyone up to date as the responses to my queries come in. I can only imagine that this is the first of many rejections. But I look forward to the “YES” that is coming. Who knows, it may get here today...
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Posted by Christine on Jun 12, 2007 in Randomness |
Ok guys this is rough- really rough – but I just thought I would give you a little taste of what I worked on this weekend. I haven’t done any grammar/spelling revisions on this, in fact this is only the first draft I haven’t even done any content editing. Anyway- here is a nibble for your reading pleasure.- this is completely unrelated to Coradonna’s Children it is the beginning of a fantasy. Tory opened her sleep clouded eyes at the gentle shake of her shoulder. Her mother knelt next to the bed and gazed at her with her dark brown eyes. A shiver of fear raced down Tories spine. Something was wrong. “Listen to me love,” her mother said earnestly. “I am going away for a while. I want to tell you something before I go though. Are you listening Tory?” Tory nodded and reached up to rub the sleep from her eyes. “I’m listening mommy.?” “Good girl, I have a very important job for you Tory. Your job is to live. Do you understand, no matter what happens, no matter what you have to do, lie, cheat, steal, kill, you must live.” “Mommy?” Tory was appalled by her mother’s words, they were the opposite of things she had been told all of her short life. “It is very important Tory. Do you understand your job?” “No mommy, I thought those things were bad.” Tory objected. “I know honey, but I need you to survive, no matter what. Even if you have to do bad things.” Her mother wrapped her in a warm hug, the kind that had always felt safe to Tory in the past. Tonight it felt scary. “I am going to have to leave you sweat heart.” “I want to come with you.” “I know and I wish you could but where I am going they don?t like Halflings.” Her mother squeezed her even tighter and Tory felt wetness on her cheek from her mother’s tears. “Will you come back?” Tory could hear the desperation in her own voice. “I doubt it Tory, but even if I do you will be gone love.” Her mother moved back and stroked her hair as she met her eyes. “Uncle Eric is going to come and take you away, so you can be safe.” “I want to stay with you.” Tory whined, desperate to elicit her mother’s agreement. Her mother had tears streaming down her cheeks. A noise in the hall made her glance over her shoulder. When she turned back her dark eyes were set with determination. “I know Tory, and I want you with me, but that is not in the makers plans right now.” She spoke quickly with determination . “I love you Tory, more than I ever imagined I could. Never forget that.” “I love you too mommy.” The child barley whispered now and fear...
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Posted by Christine on Jun 8, 2007 in Randomness, Scottsdale |
After so many many hours spent with Lexi, Damian, Meredith, Sonya, Levi and all their friends and families I am in need of a break. I am officially putting aside this manuscript until Monday. Three whole days without them. To some this might not seem like a lot, but to any mothers out there, imagine three whole days without your children. What do I plan to do this weekend. Hang out with my hubby and kids (we are all going out to dinner tonight), play outside if the weather is nice, catch up on housework, and if I get some time to write in the evenings I am going to work on something different. I pulled out four older stories I had started about 6 months ago. I reread the beginning of them all. Two are unsalvageable at this time, thank God for progress! They helped me see exactly how my writing has improved over the past few months. Two I think have potential. I think I might revisit them, if not this weekend sometime in the future. I also have another idea that has been bouncing around my brain for a few weeks now. A fantasy with political intrigue, religious intolerance, rebellion and a bit of romance. I put the first chapter on paper yesterday afternoon and I don’t hate it. The idea is not fully formed yet, for example I don’t know how it ends. However I think I would like to play with it for a while. Once all my query’s are out for Coradonna Lost I will be putting that aside for a month or so waiting to hear from the agents. I think during that time I will visit these other worlds and see how they might develop and evolve. I wish you all a happy and relaxing weekend....
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