flash!blog

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It's been an insanely busy week at work (and it's only... Wednesday? That can't be right...). I've wanted to blog, but probably won't have time for a real, actual, worth-your-time post until tomorrow. So for now, I'll leave you with the following, potentially empty promise: Super interesting blog to come soon!

(Also, I've received my 4th rejection- again a positive one. I feel like I'm on the right track, just haven't found the right person. Plus, I still haven't heard back from some of my top picks! There's still hope... right? RIGHT?)

quick query update

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Received my second rejection last night, but this one was less form-like and more "you're a strong writer and I enjoyed your pages, but...". This is a positive thing I think. Rejection is natural, all part of the process, but positive rejection is, well, encouraging. Despite the fact that I couldn't get to sleep last night because I was thinking about how I was going to compile a list of the hundreds of agents I'm beginning to fear I'll have to go through before anyone hops on board, I do feel that I'm on the right track and am keeping my fingers crossed that the right agent for me is just around the corner.

I'm still waiting to hear back from a few of my top top picks, but in the meantime, four more query letters are on their way out into the world today. Got to keep moving forward.

Positive vibes, thoughts and prayers are ALWAYS welcome :)

don't fret lil novey, your mom thinks you're cool

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So I just received my first official rejection letter. I have to admit, I feel kind of proud. It's like a badge of honour. Ok, it's more like a participation ribbon, but it's a participation ribbon that says "I put myself out there and I'm part of this crazy system now!" or something like that... In all honesty, the first rejection, while disappointing, wasn't at all unexpected (I'm not dellusional) and the agent who penned it is an agent for whom I have such immense respect that the whole thing hasn't got me down. It's just left me hungry for more replies! I'm getting close to the point where I can enter phase two of my querying (the phase where I begin to query more widely), but I'm still anxiously awaiting for more replies from phase one (my fantasy league agent picks).

In honour of Lil Novey's first official rejection, I want to share a little more about her with you. For starters, her working title, which is Chameleon. (*gasp!* Does this revelation mean I can no longer call her Lil Novey?). As I said in a previous post, the idea for Chameleon struck me like a bolt from the blue while I was on vacation and the title struck me pretty immediately as well.

Here's the gist:

The overwhelming pressures of high school are enough to leave anybody feeling lost, but sixteen-year-old Brynn Davis knows what it feels like to actually disappear. When a chameleon bite leaves Brynn with the uncanny ability to camouflage herself at will (rendering her completely invisible), she finds herself fumbling to grasp at the responsibility demanded by her unfamiliar and temptingly powerful new gift, a struggle that is only heightened as she unwittingly becomes aware of its dark origins.


Ok, so that was just a little taste, clipped and pruned from my query. As you can imagine, sixteen-year-old-girl + invisibility = wacky hijinks ensue. Throw in a hot guy or two, some hilariously colourful BFFs and you've got yourself 102,000 words of YA fun. At least, I think it's fun and I really hope some lucky agent out there thinks so too :) More than fun, I think the story has a lot of heart. Having grown up in a small town (well, small city), I wanted all of the quirks and charms that go along with that existance to shine through in Brynn's world and I feel the story is that much richer for it.

I think I'll leave it at that for now. I really hope there comes a day when Brynn and my other darling characters (who, let's face it, are practically real people to me now) will get to have their day in the sun, but for now, it's back to the query-grindstone as I remind myself, it'll only take one "yes" to make my publishing dreams come true. *sigh*

mother mother, can you hear me? i'm just calling to say hello

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Happy Earth Day Blogonians! (yeah yeah, I'm working on it...Blogonians, Blogophiles, Bligabloogs... hmmm, I kinda like that one...)

In honor of our dear, sweet mother earth, who has nothing but unconditional love for we, her unappreciative tenants (ok, she has unconditional love aside from the odd natural disaster... mama's gotta lay the smack down every now and then), I hope everyone takes a little time out of their day to think about what they can do to help care for and sustain our ailing mother earth. Putting her in a retirement home is not an option.

If I didn't have to be at work today, I know I'd want to be out there planting trees (I hope there comes a day when my schedule is flexible enough that I can do stuff like that on earth day). Trees are amazing and here's a few reasons why:
-pretty
-that oxygen thing
-fun to climb
-home to birdies
-provide excellent shade on hot summer days
-atmospheric around Hallowe'en
-they make books, which I'm clearly a huge fan of
-that cool rustling sound they make when there's a breeze

Another thing I like to do on earth day is spend a little time with my good pal David Suzuki:



Let's face it, the guy could not be more awesome. If you want to spend a little time with DS too, I HIGHLY recommend checking out his website , which is full of useful tips and information for how we can reduce our carbon footprint.

I hope everybody has an educational earth day! Post dedicated to Lil Novey still to come!

what's good for the gander is good for the gander a second time

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Canada geese update! I overheard someone describing how they'd witnessed the male Canada goose attacking a car in the parking lot. Will the madness ever end? The most entertaining part of this follow up story was that apparently the goose spent a good long while checking out his own reflection in the shiny door of the light blue sedan before pecking the crap out of it. Are these vehicular attacks maybe just a symptom of the Canada goose's poor self image? ....maybe.

The weekend went by FAR too quickly. Boyfriend and I had a little gathering at our apartment on Friday night and many drinks were consummed, leaving me in a weakened state on Saturday. After a late breakfast/lunch/it-didn't-sit-very-well-either-way, we decided to hit up the theatre in our building for a matinee showing of I LOVE YOU, MAN. It was just about right for the kind of relaxation I was in the mood for. I've always enjoyed both Paul Rudd and Jason Segal (since seeing the former in CLUELESS about a million times back in highschool and seeing the latter in the still-mourning-over-it revelation that was FREAKS AND GEEKS) and neither was disappointing in I LOVE YOU, MAN. Good fun all around.

Sunday was far more productive. Finally got around to purchasing an air purifier thing so that I can breathe a little more easily at night when sneaky kitties try (and often succeed) to have a good night's sleep on my head. Girl kitty Huntley (on the left of sidebar kitty pic) will often settle for sleeping at the foot of the bed, but boy kitty Oliver (on the right of sidebar kitty pic) stakes his claim on my pillow every night, only leaving a tiny corner of the pillow for me to rest the top of my head on (to be fair, I've never been one to use the whole pillow anyway). This is how it's been for well over a year now, since they were kittens. When we first brought them home back in the fall of 2007, I'd wanted to lock them out of the bedroom, but boyfriend was all, "They're so tiny and cute and oh, look, they can't even jump up on the the bed they're so small." That changed rather quickly and now I don't have the heart to lock them out despite the fact that I have a mild kitty allergy.

Wow. I really didn't mean for this blog post to turn into a such a long tirade about kitty-related business. I guess sometimes these things just can't be controlled.

No news on the query front, but I'm hoping I'll have something to report before too long as I start to send out more letters. I'm also planning to do a blog post soon that does Lil Novey a little more justice in terms of what the heck she's all about.

For now, I must get back to work...I'm proofing a ms that somehow got severely screwed up at some point in the editing process. We're talking ZOMG YELLOW POST-IT FLAGS ALL OVER THE PLACE! I wish that were an exageration. It's not.

ganking the pick-up

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The long Easter weekend was a much needed break, right up until I came down with some sort of unfortunate flu (actually, I guess it was still a much needed break). Illness aside, it was a productive weekend with me getting lots of feedback about Lil Novey from the family and I managed to enter all of my "final" changes into the manuscript, finally putting me in the position to begin the query process.
A few days into that and I haven't heard anything back. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but you can drive yourself crazy thinking of all the reasons it could be good or could be bad. I think I'll be safest to just distract myself and wait. I feel ready for anything, even crushing defeat (yeah, we'll see about that...). Seriously, my heart pounds uncontrollably every time I check my email.

Here's a fun spring story for ya:

Yesterday I was cutting across the back parking lot behind the office and had a little encounter with our resident Canada goose couple. Apparently these guys have been using the back lot as their spawning grounds for years. Having had my share of terrifying experiences being chased across campus by a Canada goose or two when I was at university (those geese were EVERYWHERE! I think one even sat beside me in first year psych. Damn those Canada geese and their mindgames!)

So I'm cutting across the lot and Mama Canada goose is all, "You'd better not come near me. I'm protecting my nest!" so I give her a wide berth, not wanting to find myself in a situation where I'm forced to run screaming from the parking lot when there are other people around (if there hadn't been other people around, the running/screaming probably would have happened the moment I spotted said geese). Anyway, my eyes dart around on the look out for Papa Canada goose, knowing he can't be far. I catch him a few meters away, getting completely medieval on this big black pick-up truck. That's right, the goose was fighting the pick-up truck because it was parked too close to the future birthing place of his young (at least, I assume said young haven't been born yet). It was a full-on beak to bumper brawl so intense, Papa Canada goose didn't even seem to notice I was there. I guess the moral of the story is, you're safe from nature as long as there is something nearby that is pissing it off more than you are. I solute you Papa Canada goose, for the lengths you'll go to keep your young safe from something that was not only far bigger than you, but also probably would have lured your daughters into the extended cab's backseat with empty promises of love and forever.

april snow brings may...?

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Oh April, why do you hate me? Every year you come around, briefly teasing your tantalizing sunshiney wares only to throw on a terry-cloth robe and dump more snow on us. Can't you just cut us a break for once? I'm really not a big fan of this whole winter turns to spring for a splitsecond before it turns to blazing hot summer thing we have going on in Southern Ontario. I like spring! I want to experience spring! Stop bogarting all the spring weather, April!

Today I want to blog about the sometimes difficult need to act (at least somewhat) professional in a professional environment. You know how when you were a kid you could get away with pretty much anything? I mean sure, your parents would lay out a set of rules for you to follow (be kind, share, don't lie, stop throwing stale gingerbread cookies at your sister), but in general, if you instictively reacted to something in a certain way, it wouldn't stand out as odd or unacceptable because you're just a kid. In fact, anything weird you did would likely end up being seen as adorable or funny.

As you get older, this starts to change. You have to start acting like an adult. You have to suppress any childish thoughts or reactions you might have. If you're in the middle of a lively debate, you're not allowed to resort to "So's your face!" or "Sucks to your asmar!" and if you're in a meeting where one collegue debunks another colleague's presentation, you're not allowed to point out that the presenter "got served".

Have you ever been in an office environment and gone to the washroom throughout the day only to run into the same other person every time you go? The few times that's happened to me, my brain always flashes to this scene where we stand side by side at the sinks and I jokingly point out that we must be on the same pee schedule and they look at me as though I just told them I have the plague. You just can't say stuff like that, funny as the situation might be. It makes me kind of sad.

Another one I experienced recently was my childish instinct to freak myself out when I'm going up or down the stairs (worried that someone is chasing me.. something I thank my sisters for). Sometimes I'll be going down the stairs at work and I'll hear someone heading down the stairs a few floors up. Convinced it's some "scary man" who somehow got into the building, I have to keep myself from running down the stairs like a crazy person to get away from them. You know how once you think of something stupid like that, it sort of compounds and extreme silliness ensues? Thankfully, I'm yet to actually flee in terror. A lively imagination can be a dangerous thing.

TLNTHC part 2

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So here we go! Part 2 of my riveting tale of The Little Novel That Hopefully Can aka Lil Novey.

Upon our return from Cuba, I was a little worried that Lil Novey, so precious and precarious in its infantile stages, would not survive my return to work schedule, but Lil Novey proved to be strong (she was, as it turned out, the story I'd been waiting for) and I not only found time to work on her every day during my lunch break, but absolutely relished in the opportunity to see her so often, even on those days when I started to wonder where she was headed (though I did have a very trusty outline, which I'll probably talk about in a future post on my writing process). Then the biggest help of all came along: Summer hours.

Summer hours in the publishing biz undoubtedly vary from company to company, but here at HQN Ent, it means working a little later from Monday-Thursday and getting every Friday afternoon off. Friday afternoon swiftly became a time for me to polish up that week's worth of lunch-break writing. Things were moving and the excitment inside me was building as I came to realize that Lil Novey had a lot of potential to be Lil Book One in a Lil Trilogy. I sat back and crafted rough outlines for Lil Book Two and Lil Book Three and that helped me to better shape my character development in Lil Novey.

Anyway, 2008 passed as years tend to do and before I knew it, it was December and Lil Novey's first draft was nearing completion. I cannot explain to you the feeling of pride and accomplishment that comes from realizing that you've written a complete manuscript. As you're writing it, you start to lose track of how many words/pages it is, how much work has gone into it, but when you write that last sentence and finally step back to look at it as a whole, you can't help but be overwhelmed by the enormity of it. Many authors refer to their manuscripts as their babies and though I'm yet to birth a human baby (I don't mean for this to sound as though I've birthed a non-human baby...I consider my cats to be my babies. I just didn't birth them), I think I understand where that reference comes from. Here lies this thing that couldn't exist with you. It's such an extension of who you are.

At the end of 2008 and into the new year, I started my first and second round of revisions, working feverishly to correct this and tighten that. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself actually laughing at some of my own dialogue (this probably makes me sounds like a bit of a loser, but I tend to see it as my characters who are being funny, not me, so it doesn't feel like I'm some lame-o laughing at my own jokes. Ok it kind of feels like that). Anyway, much anguish was put into these first few rounds of editing as I found myself suspended between the joy of having finished it and the impatience of knowing it still had a long way to go before I could send it out for agent consideration. There was nothing I could do, but keep working on it.

After my own editing was finished, I promptly sent it out to my family (I'm very lucky to have a family of teachers with a keen eye for typos, grammar and continuity errors) and that's sort of where Lil Novey currently sits. Though Lil Novey is a YA novel, typically aimed at 14-18 year old girls, my Dad was the first to finish it and provide me with three typed pages of edits and feedback, all of which I was extremely greatful for and have dutifully applied to Lil Novey.

With Easter weekend only a few days away, we plan to gather as a family and discuss Lil Novey. My parents have refered to it as a book club discussion and I have to say, I'm very excited to be able to talk about all these characters I've grown to love with the most important people in my life (who I also love). I'm hoping to take the feedback from that session and make my final (are they ever truly final?) revisions to Lil Novey before sending her out into the world to be seen by important agenty-type people and the like. It sort of feels like I'm preparing her for her first day of school. I really hope she shines.

TLNTHC part 1

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So in my first post (hi little post down there!) I said I wanted this blog to be more of a record of my writing ambitions so I might as well write a little introduction to explain where my writing has been and where it's hopefully headed. I've decided to call this post "part 1" because it's getting latish and I'm quite sleepy, which I know is going to mean either a condensed version or a two-parter and since I really suck at condensed versions...

Like most who enjoy writing, I've been writing since I was very young. I can still remember these little stories I'd write in elementary school (fully illustrated in 16-colour pencil crayon glory... side note: boyfriend's mom tried to convince boyfriend and I that "pencil crayon" isn't a real thing. They're apparently called "coloured pencils". I remain unconvinced.) Anyway, my teacher would bind the stories we wrote in these flaps of cardboard covered in old wallpaper scraps to give them nice sturdy covers and they were THE COOLEST THINGS EVER! I'm not certain about this next part, but I think it was a bit of a "If you keep writing em, I'll keep binding em" deal and I somehow ended up with like ten of these puppies by the end of the year even though the original assignment was probably for us to write one.

While stories were clearly a big part of my life at school, they were an even bigger part of my life at home with my sisters and I always coming up with extremely in-depth plots surrounding our many stuffed animals, our Barbies, or ourselves playing the parts of characters from Jem, Saved by the Bell, Ghostwriter, you name it. Some of the Barbie-related storylines got pretty intense with the children (the skipper dolls) always throwing wild parties, getting involved in games of chicken (the pink Barbie jeep managed to withstand a lot, including many trips down the stairs) and a completely hilarious plot line wherein the Ken doll father of my family (each sister had a family of dolls and they were all neighbours) would go batshit crazy every time he ate this certain type of chili pepper and would enter some trance where he would kidnap the Barbie wife of my older sister's family and then take off with her (in the pink Barbie Jeep, which almost always ended up rolling off a "cliff" otherwise known as another trip down the stairs). This plot line got so involved that my Barbie wife eventually hung a poster of "chili peppers to avoid" in my dollhouse kitchen so that she'd remember to never cook with them again. Thinking back about this both makes me laugh uncontrollably and wonder if nine-year-old me was just a little bit certifiable. I'm going to stick with the excuse that I was just extremely creative :) We had a lot of fun.

As I got older, I continued to write in school and won both of the only writing contests I ever entered (one was a poetry contest for the Royal Canadian Legion and the other a Ghostwriter short story contest for TVO). Writing was in my blood. So much so that after finding myself extremely bored after the very first session of OAC (what used to be senior year in Ontario high schools) Physics, I marched right into the guidance counselor's office and dropped it. "How can you be sure you won't need this for university?" he'd asked me. "I don't see how Physics is going to help me study English, you foolish man of guidance!" I said, then laughed maniacally. Ok, I made that part up, but the point is I knew I wanted to study writing and that's exactly what I went on to do, graduating five years later from the University of Waterloo with an honors degree in Rhetoric and Professional Writing.

I have about fifteen or so ideas for novels floating around inside my head. The hardest thing to do over the years has been to focus on any given one for more than a month or two at a time. At one point, I was getting pretty far with this one story idea, but then the third person narrative started to feel all wrong. I realized I needed to rewrite it in first person, but it suddenly felt like such a pain and I couldn't bring myself to do it so I shelved that story, convinced I'd go back to it after a few weeks apart. What I didn't realize at the time was that it just wasn't that story's time yet. I had another story in me that needed to be told first.

A year later, the story that needed to be told still hadn't reared its head, but I was working on another story idea all together. This one was for a children's chapter book, a mystery about a kid detective (which I'm still excited about and still plan to write one day). Everything for that felt like it was coming together, but again, the excitement to pound it out just wasn't there.

Fast-forward to May 2008. Boyfriend and I are on vacation in Cuba and while floating around in the resort's pool, I'm struck by this idea that pierces my brain so sharply that I have to fling myself from the pool's warm embrace and feverishly search my bag for the notebook I take everywhere. I start writing, the words flowing from me as though they're being dictated from some part of my brain I didn't know was there. Those lines of dialogue were the beginning of what would turn out to be the first novel I ever passionately finished writing, TLNTHC (The Little Novel That Hopefully Can), which I'm going to call Lil Novey for short (actual title along with description surely to come in a future post when I feel more confident about putting it all out there...)

I think that's all for now because I really do need to go to bed, but stay tuned for TLNTHC part 2: Lil Novey's journey from Cuba to 102,000 words.

things that are made of win

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The following things are made of win (and puppies and rainbows and warm gooey chocolate chip cookies which I can't eat at the moment because I, in a moment of befuddlement, gave up chocolate for Lent):



1] My eee PC. Yes, there are currently better models of this pc out there (there's a lot to be said for not buying the first model to come out), but mine is small, and cute, and oh yes, it's PINK! This puppy has come in oh-so-handy for writing on the go and I recommend it to anyone who wants a light cheap laptop or enjoys pretty pink electronics.


2] This video. I cannot tell you how many times I've watched this. It is essential viewing if you're breathing. I laughed, I cried, I wanted to go out and buy a Roomba and adopt a litter of kittens.

3] Guilty pleasure songs. Everybody has a few and I think people should dance about to them in their pjs with pride (in the privacy of their own homes of course). It's entirely likely I'll randomly mention a few of my own guilty pleasure songs in future blog posts so I'm hoping this "made of win" post will give said future mentions an edgy coolness :)

4] Feel good songs. These are sort of like guilty pleasure songs except you're not embarrassed to tell the world about them. My current happy song is You and I by Ingrid Michaelson. I'm starting to think it's impossible for this song to NOT put me in a good mood.

5] FreeRice.com English word definitions quiz site with a twist. For every word you define correctly, they donate 10 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program to help end hunger. Literary nerdiness + charity = big win.



6] Cadbury Mini Eggs. These little delights are absolutely what I'll be eating like they're going out of style as soon as this whole Lent debacle is over with. Cadbury = pure yum.

7] Mike's cover song blog. Whether you're a fan of cover songs or not, you gotta respect the topical categorization and witty post titles. Cover songs are pretty fun on their own, but they're more fun when Mike has done all the work of finding them for you :)

there's a blog in my soup!

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I've blogged before, but it's always felt too personal to really put out there. This time, well, it's still going to be personal, but it's going to be a little more, oh shall we say, polished? That doesn't mean I don't expect quirky stream-of-consciousness posts to sneak their way onto this blog, but it does mean I'm going to try and keep it a bit more topical.

Let's compare:

Blogs of the past: ramblings of a somewhat-still-angsty-despite-her-age twenty-something girl
Blog of today: ramblings of a somewhat-still-angsty-despite-her-age-though-certainly-not-as-angsty-as-before twenty-something woman, who after many years of honing her craft has finally finished writing a novel and wants to keep a record of her journey toward (all fingers crossed) publication (one can dream and oh yes, she dreams)

Blogs of the past: infrequent meaningful posts scattered amongst too-frequent bursts of rediculousness
Blog of today: more consistent journal-style entries that contain a varied mix of life stuff, work stuff and writing stuff

Blogs of the past: pretty floral backgrounds with coordinating fonts
Blog of today: hey, I never said this blog would be completely different...

So that's my goal: to maintain a regular blog that will be a little less personal than blogs of the past and will hopefully one day be something I can look back on as a record of the time, effort, blood, sweat, tears, and cookies (yes, cookies) I put into writing my first novel.