where i've been and why posts should be more regular

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So my last post summed up a good portion of what kept me so busy for the earlier part of this year (ya know, finishing my novel, revising my novel, polishing my novel, querying my novel, LANDING AN AGENT!!!!! Can you tell I'm still excited?), but there was a second thing that kept me even more busy--motherhood.

In December 2011, I became a mother to this little babe, Emmeline:

I make mom's writing time unpredictable!

Okay, at the time, she looked more like this:

I am only one day old and yet-to-cause time management problems

You get the idea... I won't do the new mom thing where I gush about all the amazing things she does because though she does do amazing things, I know all human babies do amazing things and you've undoubtedly heard it before. She hasn't yet done anything that no baby in the history of ever has never done before (that I know of), but if she does, it'll probably warrant a post at that time. Just a warning that I'm not completely above bragging about my child, but she'll basically have to build a working rocket ship on her own before I'll force the details upon you. Isn't that considerate of me? :)

So there you have it: my two big excuses (I have several smaller excuses as well, but I think the two big ones kind of do the work just fine on their own). Moving forward, I'm going to be making a serious effort to blog on a more regular schedule, starting with once a week and hopefully, eventually, increase that. Mondays seem to be the day I usually spend getting myself organized for the week, which should make it also the best day to blog since I'm getting all topical on myself. That sounded kinda ick after I said it, but whatevs, I'm leaving it as is!

Here's what I've gone and done to make sure this happens:

Because we all know adding a reminder to your phone ensures something gets done, amiright?

Notice I even turned off the option to snooze the reminder. THERE WILL BE NO SNOOZING ON BLOG DAY!

If you have any questions for me about my writing, my query journey, or myself, feel free to send 'em at me in the comments or via the question form on my tumblr (linked to the right via the image of a book featuring a conspicuously large question mark). I'm open to blog topic suggestions if you have any!

Otherwise, see you next Monday!

the news, she's big

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So as I said in a previous post, I have some news to share... this post will primarily focus on the recent BIG news, but there will be a follow-up post to explain everything else that's happened during this crazy year called 2012.

I attempted to find an image that accurately expresses my excitement over this news, but then got very distracted when a google image search for "happy" produced this little guy:

Hey Buddies!

Apparently his

name

is Happy, so not exactly the happy

face

I'd been searching for, but hey, for all I know, this

is

this guy's happy face. He appears to be eating something, so odds are good that = happy. Anyway, I dig him, so he shall be my expression of happiness for this post!

But enough of that, onto the big news (and sorry if this ends up being REALLY long):

Like most blogs of aspiring authors, posts about big news usually mean one thing--THE CALL.

And I'm happy to say, I got THE CALL!!!!!! (<- six exclamation marks! <-plus a bonus) Well, the first THE CALL in a potential series of exciting THE CALLs. But the other THE CALLs can't happen without this initial, very important, very exciting THE CALL!

My little YA novel and I are now represented by the stupendous and lovely Marlene Stringer of the

Stringer Literary Agency

. I'm officially an agented author! Wait, let me say that again--I'M AN AGENTED AUTHOR!

That is the most surreal and wonderful sentence an aspiring author can utter. And I'm not just saying it for pretendsies in my head. It's real and true and something I get to say to real people without them wondering why I'm not also wearing a tinfoil hat because I'm clearly delusional.

Like this. Cause it's fancy.

I've read many a blog post about authors getting THE CALL in the past. I think all aspiring authors do. They're addictive--proof that it's not always all about rejection (though there's a lot of that too). Posts about THE CALL are inspirational. At least, that's how I've always tried to see them. I think it's easy to read stories of others' successes and feel jealous, but I'm a firm believer that jealously only makes you feel worse and does NOTHING to the person you're jealous of and seriously, the only person you should ever compete with is yourself. Competing with other people, especially in an industry with SOOO many authors/books, is just a big fat waste of time. Feeling inspired on the other hand, that will get you somewhere. That's an emotion you can work with. It can drive you to work harder and block out thoughts of giving up. So I hope if you're reading this, you feel inspired. Because you should be. Mere weeks ago, I was just like you, chasing a dream and doubting myself and thinking my chance would never come. Until it did.

I started writing my first real novel back in 2005. I'd just graduated from university and I was determined to write something longer than 5000 words. That one didn't make it very far. As in, I didn't even finish it. Then working, life, adulthood (which I'm still mostly in denial about) took over and though I dabbled with a few more ideas, nothing ever really flowed.

In 2008, I landed my current job in publishing. It involves a lot of reading. And you know what reading makes me want to do? Write. Nothing makes me want to write more than reading something amazing. Reading does for your creative mind what exercise does for your body. All that reading got me thinking about writing again and a few ideas started to bounce around in my head. One stuck and by the end of the year, I had finished my first young adult novel. I started querying it in 2009 and received a slew of full and partial requests from agents, but they all ended the same way--close but no cigar. While querying that book, I started to work on another book because I knew the best way to move forward was to keep writing.

Work only got busier. Life only got busier. I got married, bought a house, had a baby. But by July of this year, I'd finally finished, revised and polished young adult novel #2 aka

Unnatural Disaster

. I queried in waves, starting with the agents who'd requested fulls, then partials of my first book, especially the ones who'd specifically asked me to keep them in mind for future projects. I reminded them of who I was and then kept my fingers crossed that this new book would hit the mark. The requests started rolling in (all fulls to boot, which is probably more an indicator of e-reader use than anything) and I started to feel like this time around would be different. I knew this book was so much stronger than my first one and I was pretty happy with it (despite suffering those moments all writers suffer where we're convinced everything we've written is complete crap). But then the rejections started rolling in too. Rejections on full requests stung the most, especially from some of my top choices. It was a lot of praise followed by "not quite what I'm looking for right now". I started to curse myself for querying in the summer, knowing that it's conference season and everybody's busy and their minds are elsewhere, on beaches, on vacation. I was so proud of book #2 and here I thought I'd completely screwed it over by querying at a bad time of year.

Well, it is true that July is a bad time of year to query. Avoid it if you can, but somehow, I was lucky enough to still make an impression. On August 8th, I was putting my eight-month-old daughter down for a nap when I noticed a missed call from Florida. It struck me as strange because a) nobody calls me and b) up here in Canada, I don't get a lot of calls from the US. Then I remembered that one of the agents who had my manuscript had palm trees on her website. Was it possible she was located in Florida? Why hadn't I retained that piece of information in all the research I'd done on my top picks?? I was freaking out a little bit. Another minute later, my email dinged and sure enough, it was her, emailing to say she'd like to discuss working together. I think I read the email 18 times and shook my hands uncontrollably to make sure they were still attached to my body before replying to say that now was a good time to call back. And then she did. And we talked about

Unnatural Disaster

and it was wonderful. I could tell she really got it. She was pointing out things she'd noticed (and loved) in my book that I'd always hoped were apparent, but had never been sure. She got it. She loved it. And after a good talk, she offered representation.

When I got off the phone, I did my version of a quiet happy dance (Baby E was still sleeping) and Oliver, one of my two cats, came into the room and barfed on the carpet. I think he was just excited too. Or he hates me. But I think the first thing is more likely. You can't blame a cat for having an inappropriate reaction to something :)

And then I called my husband and searched the house for celebratory chocolate. Turned out I'd eaten the last bit after my last rejection. Actually, it turned out I really needed to go grocery shopping. All I could find for lunch that day were some hotdogs so I ate one of those, which in a weird way was kind of fitting because hotdogs are my go-to funny food. They deserved a spot in my celebratory day.

The week that followed was full of the necessary follow-ups, more requests, and a lot of inbox-watching (even more than when I was merely querying), all ending in my decision to accept Marlene's offer. More celebration and wine drinking ensued.

And to think my little novel could grow up to be a real book one day!

A few more things before I wrap this up--

I believe when something good happens to you, you shouldn't take it for granted. And when the world sends something wonderful your way, you should find a way to say thank you. My way of saying thank you is by giving to charity. So as a symbol of how grateful I feel, I'm making donations to the following charities. If you're feeling particularly thankful about something, big or small, I suggest you do the same, to a charity you feel strongly about.

Oxfam Canada

And a bit of advice to aspiring authors--if you're getting requests from agents, keep going, even if it means writing another book and another after that. It means you're close to something. I can't think of anything in life that gets worse with practice so keep writing books. Each will be better than the last. The only way you will definitely never be published is if you give up.

And finally, for those who like stats, here are some of mine:

  • I started querying on June 25th and received THE CALL on August 8th
  • In total, I sent out 76 queries, in increasing waves
  • I received 32 rejections and 10 requests for the full ms
  • 34 agents either replied with congratulations or did not respond at all

a collection of stars

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Just a quick post to share my entry in HarperTeen and Figment.com's Defy the Dark contest. This is quite possibly the best contest ever! I'll take a chance to be published (alongside a slew of my fav YA authors!) over a cash prize any day (and this one actually has both!).

Actual contest aspects of this aside, this short story was just what I needed--something new and different from the book I  just finished, a challenge, a chance to experiement with a male POV and a different tense than I usually write in. I'm very pleased with the end result. It's also my first completed work of sci fi.

Here it is: A Collection of Stars


okay so, yeah, i know...

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I know. I know. I know I said I'd update soon and then an entire month went by, but it has been the craziest month for reals. Seriously. And because of said craziness, I will soon have an EVEN CRAZIER post coming soon. And by "crazier", I mean whoa, and possibly that I will require some sort of mascot moving forward who can be my advocate in the "seriously who can blog when their brain's exploding" game.

But since I feel like the worst blogger on the planet, let me give you a taste of my soon-to-be-fleshed-out excuses:

1. A very cute baby was involved
2. A very cranky baby was involved (who may or may not be the same baby mentioned above)
3. A book I'm extremely proud of was involved
4. Some very exciting communication was involved

So yeah, details on that SOON. And by soon, I actually mean SOON. As in before the spendiferous season of fall arrives. But almost definitely sooner. Like maybe next week.

So hang in there and I'll start thinking of mascots. Maybe even a mascot competition?!??

Yeah, that's totally happening.

This guy probably won't make the cut:

Dumpy the Snowman
Who needs a third snowball when you can hobble from your oppressors on two L-shaped legs? Hobble Dumpy the Snowman! Hobble toward freedom!

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

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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)

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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!

happy february

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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!

when productivity attacks (aka epic blog fail)

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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

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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

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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...

sometimes you just need a break

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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 :(