2010, the year that wouldn't relent (in a goodish way)

Somehow, I don't know how, it's November 10th. The last thing I remember, it was the middle of summer and the second half of the year was still stretched out before me. So what happened between then and now? A lot. And rather than write a 5000 word essay to explain it all, I'm going to try and keep this brief so that I can feel caught up without boring us all and then happily move on to other things!

In April, I got engaged. Later in April, we decided to get married in September. I suppose that decision was pretty primary in where my summer/fall have gone.

The wedding planning was non-stop and intense, but fun. After five years together, boyfriend and I felt there was no reason to draw out the engagement and with a venue in place (the charming historic farmhouse where my parents live), everything else just came together. Just like magic! Ok, not really, but with a little work and a lot of time, we made it work.

boyfriend got an upgrade; he's a husband now!

It was a wonderful day and we had a great time, even if it did rain during the ceremony (we thankfully had a tent filled with twinkle-lights as a back-up). The upside to the rain was that we'd chosen this as our cake topper:

who needs the sun when we have each other?

Looks like it was part of the plan all along, right? Yeah, we're clever like that ;)

So now we're happily married, had a wonderful honeymoon in Hawaii, and are on the hunt for a house (another all-too-time-consuming activity, but alas, we--or more accurately, our possessions--have outgrown our midtown Toronto apartment).

Between the wedding planning, the wedding itself, the honeymoon, the house huting and everything that goes along with them, I also became an aunt for the first time (on my birthday no less!), got a promotion at work (officially an EA instead of just an AA) and have read many books (both for work and for pleasure when I can manage it)!

like this, except less tome-like and more teen litish

Unfortunately, the busy life I've been leading has left a pitiful amount of free time to work on my next book, and that kills me because my excitement level for it has never waned. But now I'm back on track, trying to work on it when I can (though I find I'm working right through my lunch these days, which had previously been prime writing time). Along with finding a house, I want to make finishing this book a priority.

poor, neglected book baby

With mere weeks left in the year, I feel like I'm missing time, but there are many reasons to be happy it's November. Case in point:

oh, HermioRon, i heart thee so!

Also, the holidays are on their way and though November is still a bit early for me to start decorating, I can't help but feel a bit of holiday spirit bubbling up inside when I hear Christmas carols in all the stores (even if they did start playing them before Halloween, which, let's face it, is kind of insane).

Mostly, I'm just happy to be married now and have all the planning out of the way. It's good to finally get back to "normal", whatever that means, and have more time to write and look forward to everything that comes next!

it's too hexy for its jacket (so hexy it hurts)

Something very exciting is scheduled to happen this week, which I will blog about when the time is right..
But for now, I wanted to blog about the amazing, hilarious, fantastic, don't-read-it-until-you-have-time-to-read-the-whole-thing-in-one-sitting-because-trust-me-you-are-going-to-want-to HEX HALL by the incomparable Rachel Hawkins.

If you read one book this year, you should strongly consider making it HEX HALL. You will not regret it!


Meet Sophie. She's starting her first year at Hex Hall and you should too!

i think i just threw up in my mouth a little bit from excitement

happy february

I know, I know. I suck beyond the telling of it. I won't bother with excuses for why I haven't had time to blog. Instead I'll just say that there's much I want to blog about and will, when I have time. When that will be, I'm not sure at the moment, but I hope it's sooner rather than later. (When/if I ever get anywhere with this published author dream of mine, I can guarantee you there will be frequent blogging, but for now, the day job plus any attempt at pursuing the dream is taking up so much time. Still, I want to blog. I think it's important, even if nobody is reading.)

At the very least, I hope to blog soon about some awesome YA releases that are happening over the next several months, including one from my very own house's Teen imprint--THE IRON KING by Julie Kagawa. I can't say enough good stuff about this book. If you're reading this blog and you like YA, know that you must read this book. It's SUCH a page-turner. The unedited version of the sequel just came across my desk and I can't wait to dive in.



GO BUY IT!

i don't think i could forget

when productivity attacks (aka epic blog fail)

Yes, I'm the worst blogger ever these days. Let's just get that out there. But I have good excuses (note the "s"! You know it's serious when there is more than one excuse!). Seriously blogriends, the last thing I remember was August. I have no idea what has been happening since then and now. Like, it's November? Seriously? This isn't some elaborate joke?

Between querying, working on my WIP, working my full time job, doing the family thing, and doing the friend thing, I feel like I don't even have time to think, but you don't come here to listen to me complain so how about we ignore what an inconsistent blogger I am at the moment and focus on something good...

Umm, well, I don't really have anything good to share except that my total requests for Chameleon is now 15! That sounds much better than it is though because many of those 15 have since passed on the project, citing it isn't quite right for them, but always with lots of positive comments and encouragement and I just want to pull them all in for a giant group hug! And maybe while we're hugging, one of them might change their mind....... Ok, maybe not, but a few truly excellent agents still have partials and there is still lots of hope that it will be just right for one of them. This whole processing is just so emotionally draining because you feel torn between disappointment over rejection and understanding that if the project isn't right for them, then they probably aren't right for you so it's all for the best.

So, since it's November and I'm sure that this month (and next month) will go by so quickly that I'll wake up tomorrow and people will be passed out on my couch, covered in booze and cheetos, mumbling something about "Hooray for 2010!" and I'll be all "Frak, I haven't blogged since early November", I wanted to take a moment to talk about 2009.

I don't recall if I've mentioned this on the blog before, but my birthday is September 9th (or 09/09). This year, my birthday was 09/09/09, which was not only cool cause, come on, it looks cool, it's also cool because 9 has always been a lucky number for me. Because of the whole 09/09 thing, I always pick 9 whenever I have to pick a number for a lottery ticket, or place a bet on roulette or whenever someone at my gamblers anonymous meeting asks me to pick a number between 1 and 10 (ok that last part isn't true. I don't even remotely have a gambling problem. I've been to a casino like twice. Ok maybe three times, but I kinda just go to stare at all the lights and make fun of people. And I hardly ever buy lottery tickets. I shouldn't have even made that joke to begin with because you probably don't believe me, do you? Gamblers always lie about stuff....)

Anyway, the point is that 9 has always been significant to me and it's often paid off. Maybe it's just that I notice 9s more, but I see them pop up all over the place. The floor I lived on in residence at universtiy was even called Could Nine. I don't want you to think I'm some crazy numerology chick or anything (cause you know, liking 9s probably doesn't have anything to do with real numerology, which I know nothing about), but yeah, 9s = lucky number for me.

That took way too long to explain. You're probably super bored now and the pay-off is so not going to be worth it, but here it is:
Since 9 is such a lucky number for me, I entered this year thinking something big would happen. Not "I found ten bucks in the couch big", but big, life-changing even. One could argue that the fact that I finished editing a book and have been querying it to moderate success (success is clearly not the right word here, but you know what I mean) is big, but there's no permanence to it. If none of these queries pan out, I'm back at square one with the next book. Not the big life change I was expecting. I'm starting to feel it isn't coming.

Maybe I'm stupid for putting pressue on a year that has no say in whether or not it contains a 9. Or maybe something big will still happen. It's impossible to say, but I'm still holding out hope that 2009 has something good in store for me. Otherwise, I might have to break-up with you #9. And then I'd have to find a way to change my birthday... Or maybe we can just stay friends?

you say banned, i say recommended

A few thoughts on Banned Books Week:

*Banning a book just draws attention to it, alerting us to the fact that the book contains some form of honest, gritty, human experience. Anything that stirs up that kind of passion and emotion has got to be an interesting read.

*If a child is old enough to go the library without parental guidance, said child is also old enough to decide what they want to read. Kids are smarter than we give them credit for. They're going to pick something that interests them. Let them. Discovering what appeals to them will help them develop dreams and ambitions.

*Why anyone would want to discourage reading of any kind is completely beyond me. Reading questionable material is better than not reading at all.

*If a book's content is worth fighting, it's worth fighting for.

Conclusion: Read a banned book today! It will make you wiser, more worldly, and a whole lot more fun at parties!

hello fall

Fall is officially here. I love fall, but I hate winter so this is always a strange time. I guess all I can do is enjoy the fall weather as much as possible before the first snowflake falls (and truthfully, it's not the first snowflake I hate. In fact, I love the first day of snow. It's the months of snow that follow that I'm not too keen on).

Nothing much to report on the query front, which makes me anxious and sad. I thought September would bring more reponses, but so far it's been as quiet as August, only without the excuse of summer vacation. So I continue to wait and hope and hope and hope and, well, you get the idea...

I'm currently working on two story projects--one that I've been working on for a while, plus a new project I'm really excited about. So excited that WIP #1 might have to step aside so that WIP #2 can stretch out. WIP #2 is feeling good right now. It feels the way Chameleon did when I started writing it. More to come on that eventually...

things that are made of win, part 2

sometimes you just need a break

I know I've been a terrible blogger this summer. I'm sorry for that and unfortunately, I don't see things changing dramatically anytime soon. I do want to try and post something every now and then, but as long as I'm in the middle of this enormous confusing question mark that is the query process, things are going to be slow. I'm finding it hard to share the ups, when a down is just around the corner. That said, I'm going to try and get back into the swing of things in the fall, and who knows, maybe I'll eventually have some really good news to share, and I do want to try and post more about my WIP, which I am actually pretty excited about.
For now, this blog's sporadic nature can be attributed to "summer vacation" (the quotes are due to the fact that I'm not really taking much of a summer vacation this year, with the exception of the trip boyfriend and I are taking to Halifax over the Labour Day weekend).

Speaking of taking a break, have you ever wondered what a hummingbird looks like when it's sleeping? Ok, you probably haven't, but if you have, wonder no longer! It looks like this:


For some reason, I was thinking about hummingbirds on the way to work this morning. It's nice to know the little guys aren't moving 100 miles an hour 24/7. Everybody needs a break sometimes.

Quick QQ09 update:
I currently have 3 partials and 2 fulls out there (I somehow managed to go from no full requests to quite a few, with 2 more that have since been very encouragingly rejected--that is, the rejection letters were encouraging. The rejection itself was not.)
I also have 11 unanswered query letters.
I'm hoping to hear back from any of these 16 agents soon.
One truly amazing agent regretfully passed on a partial recently, citing the many things she loved about the manuscript. It was a little heartbreaking that she had to pass, but she made me feel pretty good about the story I'm telling and my chances for one day seeing Chameleon published. She also referred to it as "Spiderman for girls", which I love, and can't thank her enough for drawing the comparison. I'm going to have to keep that one in mind for future marketing of the book (you know, should I be lucky enough to be in such a position one day...)

I pretty much feel anxious all the time these days, waiting, and waiting. I'm still waiting to hear back on a partial from that very first agent I queried back in April. The wait may kill me, but from what I've heard, the agent is worth that kind of damage so I continue to wait.

I think that's all the news that's fit to print. Oh man, now my tea is cold :(

stats, romance in washington, and tossing the cookies

Good morning blogoblogs,

As promised, I'm going to post my updated QQ09 stats, though yes, they are a day later than I'd hoped.

I've been a little swamped helping everyone prep for the RWA (Romance Writers of America) conference in Washington (which starts today, though most of my HQN people won't depart until tomorrow as we spend today putting the final touches on various presentations, etc) so yeah, my days have been busy as of late. "When are they not busy?" you ask? When everyone has finally left for Washinton, that's when! I plan to hit that slush pile hard.

In addition to being busy, I'm also very tired today. Last night, around 4am, I awoke to the sound of sweet little Oliver kitten retching in the living room (it wasn't very loud--I must just have an ear for kitty barf). I wonder what made him so sick?


Oh I see....

After cleaning up the multiple messes (he's a bit of a traveling cookie tosser) and steering him toward a large bowl of water, I headed back to bed only to find I was in that zone where I'd been awake just long enough that I was too awake to sleep and just hungry enough that my stomach began to growl. I'm not big on the idea of eating during the night. I'm convinced it will give me weird dreams or an upset stomach so I convinced myself to toss and turn through the growling stomach and around 5am, I finally fell back asleep only to find myself cursing at 6:45am when my alarm went off. On the upside, Oliver seemed to be back to his chipper snuggly self when I went to feed the kitties.

So yeah, Kate = tired, but still mildly glowing from her first FULL request!! Here are the stats:

Query Rejections: 20
Partial Requests: 6
Partial Rejections: 3
What's that? A new category, you say?
Full Requests: 1

Hooray! Let us all rejoice and dance and sing to celebrate this next milestone in my publishing journey! I know I will be celebrating with my family this weekend at the cottage.

One more thing before I sign off. Harlequin Teen has launched a new website to correspond with the imprint launch later this month. It's very shiny. Check it out.

fill er up!

Today I...received my very first FULL request! And it wasn't even from one of the partials I'm waiting on! More to come on this soon, but for now, can I just say YIIPPPEEEEEEEEEEEE! ? I can? Ok, then YIIPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! :)

Updated stats to come when I'm not exhausted from a crazy day at work followed by the extremely intense "I got a full request!" dance I did around the apartment tonight... Sorry folks, no pics of that :)

pom-pom hockey

Hello blogoverse,

Sorry for, yet again, taking too long a break between posts. I'm still in this waiting/holding pattern where I'm so anxious I want to chew my own hand off. Ok, maybe not (that would definitely involve an ick factor, plus I tend to need both my hands). Anyway, yeah, I'm somehow remaining somewhat patient as I wait and wait and have a heart attack every time there's new mail in my inbox. It's hard to remember the last time I ever wanted anything more than this.

Boyfriend has been in Germany for business over the past few days, which has been an odd experience--not because I'm on my own (boyfriend travels enough for work that I'm used to that), but because I kept thinking about how far away he was. When he's in Chicago for business, he doesn't feel that far away, but this felt different. I suppose it's probably due to the time zone thing. Either way, I'm not really a fan. I don't like to feel so out of touch. Happily, he comes home today! Yay!

Huntley and Oliver, les petites chats, will be turning two in a few weeks and their personalities seem to grow more and more endearing everyday (which seems impossible, but somehow, it happens). Here's Oliver taking a break from the mad, mad world:


And here's Huntley, enjoying the sink:


Those crazy kitties! Lately, Huntley has taken to a game I like to call pom-pom hockey. To understand how the game works, you have to know that Huntley is obsessed with the drawers in my dresser. I think the obsession began when she realized that whenever she loses a pom-pom (her toy of choice), it's because she's flicked it under the dresser and her mummy has to remove the drawers to get it back out. Now, whenever I open a drawer in my dresser (usually for the purpose of, you know, getting clothes out and NOT retrieving pom-poms), she comes running from wherever she is in the apartment and looks up at me expectantly, OR attempts to climb into the drawer I've opened (I'm not sure where this habit ties into the whole pom-pom thing. I think she just realized at some point that drawers, like boxes, are fun to sit in). Because of her fondness for the drawers being pulled out, I suspect she's taken to shooting the pom-poms under the dresser on purpose and now her favourite thing to do when I pull the drawers out is to climb into the empty space where the drawer was and knock the pom-poms back out herself. This is how pom-pom hockey was born.

The other day, Huntley was lying on her stomach pawing under the dresser, a sign that another pom-pom had gone missing. I pulled the drawer out and she instantly jumped into the empty space, flicking the pom-pom back at me. I flicked it back at her and she threw her paw out to block the shot and flick it back out at me. This continued on for about 10-15 minutes until Oliver woke up from his nap, came over to see what the commotion was all about, stole the pom-pom and ran into the living room with it, but Oliver's sneaky interception didn't put a damper on Huntley's playful spirit. The drawer thing has evolved into her wanting to play pom-pom hockey all the time, so when I pull the drawer out, she climbs in and sits, ready to play. I will get a picture of this eventually to share, but for now, you'll just have to imagine the cuteness.

If I could only get Oliver to join in the game somehow...they could take turns taking shots on goal while the other defends in true Canadian style :)


UPDATED to include pom-pom hockey action shots! (ok so not exactly "action", but you get the idea...)

series monogamist

Whenever someone would ask me if I preferred movies or scripted television, I would always answer TV. Many would balk at this answer, certain that TV was the "mac and cheese" of the two art forms, but I loved the endless possibilities for plot and character development as well as the promise of near-weekly installments.
Film, though certainly admirable in its own way, involves a lot of waiting for very little viewing time and even if it's a film that has a sequel, that's just another long wait, often followed by disappointment. Plus, liking TV better doesn't mean I don't like movies, it just means if I had to live in a world with one or the other, I'd go with TV. Scripted TV that is--if it could only be reality TV, I'd probably have to go with movies. You can only take so much Speidi before your brain implodes.

As I've gotten older, it's become harder and harder to keep up with certain shows I enjoy, but the advent of TV on DVD has opened a wonderful new world where I can not only catch up on things, but watch episode after episode for hours on end, which let's face it, is OMG THE BEST WAY TO WATCH TV!



You see, when I like a show, it's not enough to tune in casually. I have to see every. single. episode. I think this compulsion started with my X-Files obsession back in the day, which lead to my All Things Whedon obsession, Veronica Mars obsession (I still cry over that show being cancelled. VM will live on in my heart FOREVER!) and, with the advent of TV on DVD, all of this has now culminated in me being able to obsessively watch back-to-back episodes of shows for which I didn't get in on the ground floor (Mad Men, Dexter, Big Love, The Tudors--I know. What's wrong with me, right?)

Anyway, lately boyfriend and I have been compulsively watching The West Wing, which we both missed the first time around. It's really fun to watch something uninhibited by week-long, or even season-long, waits (though it is occasionally inhibited by a need for sleep/work), but it's also dangerous. Watching a show that has fully run its course means there are easily-accessed spoilers online about exactly how it's all going to end. I'm sad enough just knowing that Sam Seaborn isn't going to stick around (I heart you Rob Lowe!), I don't need to stumble across an old review about how everyone is killed off in the last season (if you haven't watched The West Wing, I made that last part up... I think.)



Committing to a completed series on DVD means also committing to not cheating on it by looking anything up online and sometimes, when you have a boyfriend who is out of town on business on a regular basis, effectively putting the marathon on hold, you start to wonder if it would be so bad to just sneak a peek at what's coming up in the next episode or so....

Or maybe I can just start another series for when he's not around. I'm hearing True Blood is quite check-out worthy. The only problem is, what happens after I've devoured every episode of that? Do I wait for more on a weekly basis like the rest of the world? How can you expect me to wait when I've become so accustomed to just skipping to the next episode? How did anyone ever manage this? You've ruined me TV on DVD. I hope you're happy.

fast and furious (without cars or lameness)

Quick QQ09 update because things have been moving. Since my last update I've received two more partial requests and a few more rejections so I wanted to update the stats! A more entertaining and informative post to come soon (possibly even later today, though I'm trying to avoid the computer screen today because my contact lenses are suffering from a severe case of wonk).

Query Rejections: 16
Partial Requests: 6
Partial Rejections: 3

So yes, assuming my math skills are correct, I currently have 3 partials out there awaiting judgement, and the agents who have them couldn't be more fantastic! I'm excited, but absolutely desperate for that coveted full request...