Posted by Christine on Dec 29, 2010 in General, Monthly Updates, Randomness, Updates |
Happy December one and all. In our house we exchange gifts on December 25th. This year, much like many past years… and many future years I imagine… Christmas had a distinctly bookish theme. Yes, my family believes in supporting the publishing industry at Christmas each year. We do, after all, have a personal stake in seeing it not fail 😉 This years the total number of books my five person family swapped – 41. Yup – 41 books changed hands among us. The most went to my eldest son, he got 10. The lions share of his new books where series starters. We are trying to help him find some new and interesting addictions…I mean reads 😉 Others were continuations of a couple series he was already hooked on. I scored at the bottom of the list this year – I got 7. Not that I’m complaining, they are all books I am excited to read. Including an anthology of Steampunk short stories I’m itching to start. Just thought it was funny I ended up getting the fewest books- usually I get the most. 🙂 How has your month been? (mine has been good) Did you see the eclipse on Winter Solstice? (to cloudy here) What are you most looking forward to in 2011? Next blog post – My New Year...
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Posted by Christine on Oct 25, 2010 in General, Kudos, Randomness, Updates |
I know I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again, but just for that ever elusive “record†I love the Surrey International Writers Conference (SiWC). If there is a better conference put on by a more wonderful group of amazing and talented people, I’m not aware of it. SiWC is the perfect size, not so big you get lost in the crowd not so small that no one with a big name comes. Kathy Chung the conference coordinator this year did a spectacular job. All the presenters were amazing and in each session I learned some tidbit that will help me along as a writer, or a person. So yes, I love SiWC. In addition to all that, it was fantastic to see my writer friends and catch up with them, Rose, Elissa, Tyner, Pam, Peggy, and Angela (P.S. there is an interview with me on her site – more on that tomorrow) of the Book Broads not to mention the countless others I don’t have the space to name. Then there are all the new people I got to meet this year at Surrey. Allow me at this point to take a quick moment to say congratulations to Tyner for his story placing second in the Annual Surrey International Storytellers Award Contest. Excellent job. 🙂 Plus this year I got to meet in person two of my Tweeps who I have been conversing with all year on Twitter but never set eyes on(@natgreyangel and @LornaSuzuki) . That was way cool. Amidst all the wonderful, and there is so much wonderful, there are always a few moment or a few speakers that stand out. For me this year there are four people I would like to mention/thank in particular. kc dyer : I can’t begin to say what an awesome and inspirational person kc is. She has been so important to me as I’ve progressed as a writer. I’m not sure I would have gone past my first year of writing if not for her belief, encouragement, and support. This year sitting in her panel on steam punk and having a blue pencil with her was fantastic. – kc – thank you so much for our words of advise on how to strengthen my manuscript and for providing them in such an optimistic and encouraging way. I came home eager to get started and excited about the possibilities this year held. Arthur Slade: I’ve never stalked anyone before, this past weekend Arthur Slade was generous enough to allow me to stalk him around the conference. Meaning I attended each session he gave or sat on a panel in and even got behind – or in front –of him in line to eat a couple of times. Not too shocking given the size of the conference and my interest in the steam punk genre. 🙂 In all...
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Posted by Christine on Aug 4, 2010 in General, Updates |
A status update? For real? Yup, here I am giving a real live status update so without further ado… Rejection Queen Status Update: – Rejections to date: 17, including the rejection of my outstanding partial. – Outstanding queries: 6 Other writing news: – Outside of the contest I have actually 22 rejections on Red and Grey. I was starting to feel a little discouraged but… I got over it and I’m getting my next round of queries ready to send now. – Everyone keep your fingers crossed for Cat’s Revealing which is currently with the editors at Brava in the Writing with the Stars contest. – I am currently working on the sequel to Red and Grey. I would like to have it finished by the end of the year. Personal Updates: – I didn’t get to read nearly as much as I wanted to on vacation. I was far to busy doing stuff. Have you ever noticed that about vacation, that you come home and need to relax and recover from all the “go, go, go†? – My family and I did have a wonderful time on our trip and I am excited have spent time with my husbands family and with my sister in...
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Posted by Christine on Jul 7, 2010 in General, Updates |
Rejection Queen Status update: – Rejections to date: 13 towards the crown – Outstanding queries: 8 – Outstanding partials: 1 Other Writing news: – Cat’s Revealing is off to the Brava contest. – Red and Grey is in the submission process. – I will be working on something next but I am still not sure what yet. See my last blog if you are interested in what’s going on with that. Personal News: – Next week I leave for a two week vacation and I will be offline for the duration of that trip. I will try to post on Monday before I leave, but then I will be silence until our return from TN and FL. – When I get home from vacation I will be sending another round of query letters for Red and Grey, at least that’s the plan....
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Posted by Christine on Jun 24, 2010 in General, Updates |
Yeah, yeah, it’s not Wednesday. I know. I’m late. Sorry. I’ve been obsessively busy. See below. Rejection Queen Status Update: – Rejection Count as of today – (drum roll please) 12 Deb – I think this puts me in the lead. – Number of outstanding Queries – 9 – Number of outstanding partials – 1 – Number of agents researched/waiting to send – 12 (these are the ones sitting in my binder waiting for me to get off my uhm… butt and write them letters. 🙂 ) Other Writing: – The reason my blog is so neglected is I have been breathing new life into an old manuscript. First I added about 38,000 words to the story, adding a completely new plot line, new characters, a car bomb, kidnapping, and fight scene. Then I had to go through two edits to cut over 3,000 words. All this over the past two weeks. I am currently working on the third edit – I still need to trim about 960 words from this puppy to get it ready for the contest I want to send it to. Personal Notes: – My children are no longer in school, this means two things- more time with my kids, and less time to write. 🙂 – Vacation is quickly approaching and I can’t wait to see one of my first readers who lives on the other side of the country from me. Oddly she is in Florida and I am in Seattle – the two settings in which the novel I have been working on for the past two weeks take place. It makes me miss her...
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Posted by Christine on Jun 2, 2010 in General, Updates |
Rejection Queen Status Update: – Rejection count as of today – 8 – Outstanding Queries as of Today – 10 – Outstanding partials – 1 Other Writing: – This week I have dragged out a manuscript I had tucked under my bed and have been doing major revisions and rewrites on it. I just finished a first quick read through during which I added over 2,000 words to the manuscript and fixed a ton of passive voice and “tellingâ€. My next step on this rewrite – adding a completely new plot twist to the story. – I have put writing something new on hold this week to work on revisions and rewrites of this older manuscript. Personal notes: – School wraps up in three weeks and they will be crazy busy weeks full of school functions like field trips and...
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