Ready. Set. WRITE! The End and MONDAY READS

So I totally thought last week was the last week of Ready. Set. WRITE! but nope- we had one more to go. Which is good because I had a goal that HAD to get done.

 

HOW I DID ON LAST WEEK'S GOALS

Finish second round edits on SWAY: CHECK! Took me five really late nights, but I did it.

 

MY GOAL FOR THE FALL

If I don't make it into PitchWars, my plan is to get JAR OF HEARTS ready to query and then revise my NA retelling.

 

ONE WORD THAT SUMS UP WHAT I REVISED

Better. Because the manuscript it, much better than it used to be.

 

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE I FACED THIS WEEK

It was the last week before school, so I wanted to do as much with the kids as possible. Thus, the very late nights of revisions.

 

SOMETHING I LOVE ABOUT MY WIP

You know, despite working on this manuscript for years (I wrote the first draft back in 2011), doing multiple drafts and working with CPs, betas, and now my editor, I STILL LOVE THIS THING.

 

Thanks to Jaime, Erin, Elodie, Katy, and Alison for another great Ready. Set. WRITE! I couldn't take part in the manicures part this past week but I'm hoping once the kids start school next week I'll be able to get a pedicure done to reflect SWAY. (Pedicure because my fingernails are way too bitten to be manicured!)

 

MONDAY READS

I finally finished the HEROES OF OLYMPUS series with the final book THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS this week. I missed Percy's POV in this final book, but it was a great wrap-up to the series. Now I'm reading JANE AUSTEN RUINED MY LIFE by BETH PATILLO.

 

 



Friday Loves: When Words Collide

A couple of weekends ago I got the opportunity to attend a Calgary writers/book conference called WHEN WORDS COLLIDE. I heard about it through the NaNoWriMo emails I still receive and I'm so glad I did because I had a great time. It's a three day conference at a very reasonable price and it features a lot of Canadian authors and small publishers. Best of all this year they had a couple of big names too: Diana Gabaldon (OUTLANDER) and Brandon Mull (FABLEHAVEN).

My eleven-year-old daughter and Brandon Mull

 

I'd personally never read Brandon Mull before, but I'd heard of him because my eleven year old daughter loves his Fablehaven books. She decided to come to the entire conference with me and we went to every panel/class that Brandon Mull was part of. He was by far the highlight of the conference because he was just so entertaining. All of his books at the conference sold out, and one of the booksellers told me that people were saying that they came for Diana Gabaldon but were staying for Brandon Mull.

Me chillin' with Diana Gabaldon

 

Diana was great too. I didn't attend any of her classes but I listened to her keynote address which was pretty awesome. I also got my copy of Outlander signed. Brandon Mull signed all five of my daughter's Fablehaven books, and we ended up buying two more of his books- THE CANDY SHOP WAR 1&2 and he signed those as well.

I also did my first ever live pitch to an agent, which wasn't successful, but oh well. And I had two different manuscripts in the live-action slush, both of which got picked apart by experts- but in a good way! I learned a lot.

It was a pretty awesome weekend and I'll definitely be attending next year as well. Hopefully as a panelist as well as an attendee. If you live in the Alberta area, it's definitely something to check out.

Ready. Set. WRITE! (week 12) and Monday Reads

It's the last week of Ready. Set. WRITE! I missed the very first week (and last week too) so I never made a BIG goal for the summer, but here's what I've been up to the past couple of weeks.

HOW I DID ON LAST WEEK'S GOALS
I didn't check in last week, so going back to week 10, I finished all my goals. Yay.

MY GOALS FOR THIS WEEK
Finish second round of edits on SWAY.

ONE WORD THAT SUMS UP WHAT I REVISED
Different. I worked on both SWAY and JAR OF HEARTS (one an adult romance, one a YA creepy mystery) so I think that pretty much sums it up.

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE I FACED THIS WEEK
Family. Just kidding, they're not a challenge. But I had a reunion out in the boonies and therefore did no revising WHATSOEVER.

SOMETHING I LOVE ABOUT MY WIP(S)
So, this might seem a little random, but I love my WIP playlists. I just finished working on round-two edits for SWAY and I still have music on in the background. A certain song will play, and it immediately takes me to that WIP, or a different one, and I just smile thinking of them. I really love that.

And a big thank you to Jaime, Erin, Alison, Katy, and Elodie for organizing this. I need to have my butt kicked into gear over the summer and RSW is the best for that.

MONDAY READS
I read THINGS WE KNOW BY HEART by Jessi Kirby which I thought was a really sweet story and totally reminded me of the movie RETURN TO ME. Now I'm reading the last HEROES OF OLYMPUS book THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS.

PitchWars Mentee Bio

I'm excited to give PitchWars a shot this year. A super CP of mine got her agent from it last year so I know all about how it works, it really works.

So a little bit about me, in case, yanno, you want to pick me as your mentee. WHICH YOU DO.

First, my creds. Because I actually have creds. Yep, my first book, an adult romance, is coming out this winter from Samhain Publishing. It's a retelling of PERSUASION by Jane Austen set in LA and features lots of music, lots of regret, lots of bitter, and maybe a kiss or two.

So I know what it means to work hard, and I love seeing my manuscripts go from what I think is good, to even better.

My PitchWars manuscript is YA mystery with a hint of fantasy. It's got a confident yet sometimes naive MC, a reclusive boy who may or may not have done something to his ex-girlfriend, a jerk with a bad attitude, an adorkable rich boy, lots of theatre goings-on, and a person who is stealing hearts- literally.

It was inspired by this song.

Now some random facts:

I love Doctor Who.

Period dramas.

The beach and boy bands. (Or boy bands on the beach *wink wink*)

Dance and Taylor Swift. (This GIF just says it all.)

 I can quote every single Friends episode, ever.

I'm a mom of four awesome kids.

One day when those four awesome kids grow up, I will travel the world. Yes I will.

 

And that's all I'm going to say about that. Except...



Pick me!

 

 

 

 

Ready. Set. WRITE! (week 10) and Monday Reads

HOW I DID ON LAST WEEK'S GOALS
I barely made a goal this past week and therefore: I barely accomplished it. It was to do what I could on JAR OF HEARTS. I read through my first couple of chapters, but really didn't do much with them. I also spent a few hours going through all the mentor bios for PitchWars.

MY GOALS FOR THIS WEEK
-Narrow down my mentor picks from 10 to 5.
- write JAR OF HEARTS synopsis
- make sure at least first 5 chapters of JAR OF HEARTS is where it should be

A FAVE LINE FROM MY STORY
From JAR OF HEARTS:

"Could you not?" I ask him.

“Could I not what, exactly?” His voice is smooth, the kind of smooth I’d like to reach out and touch, and a complete opposite of his rough exterior. Beside me, Katie shrinks back.

I wave my hand at all of him. “Everything.”

He tosses his head. Shaggy brown hair falls into his eyes. It hits his collar at the back of his neck—too long for my taste. “Am I too much for you, Princess?”

I arch an eyebrow, a talent I learned from my mom who can arch with the best of them. “Too little.”

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE I FACED THIS WEEK
Travel. I did a total of fifteen hours of driving this past week, but not all in one day. Nope, it was spread out over four days. It was all because I won two tickets to Taylor Swift's concert in Edmonton, which meant I had to take my other kids to my parents place. I'm not complaining though- it was the best concert ever.

SOMETHING I LOVE ABOUT MY WIP
I joined Pinterest, kinda on a fluke (I was looking for bookmark display ideas and it wouldn't show me what I wanted to see unless I signed up). Anyway, I decided to make a board for my soon-to-be published novel SWAY. You can check it out here. I just wish I knew how to move some pins around. The control freak in me wants to put them in a specific order. Is this possible?

MONDAY READS
I finished THE HOUSE OF HADES by Rick Riordan, which was a great book. Tons of action, lots of character development, lots of fun. Then I read (in about 2 days) MEANT TO BE by Lauren Morrill. I wanted a fun, swoony read that takes place somewhere in Europe, and this was it. Loved it!

Friday Loves: CONCERTS!!!

The past couple of weeks I've had the privilege to go to two AMAZING concerts! I took all three of my girls to ONE DIRECTION first, and we had a blast- even my youngest who is only six. I was shocked by how excited they got when the lights went down and 1D came out. Shocked because I probably like One Direction better than all three of them, LOL. It was at an outdoor football stadium, and even though it rained on us, we all had a great night!

Then this past week me and the oldest daughter (she's 11) saw TAYLOR SWIFT. We've been to her past two concerts together before this one and we both heart her. This concert though- AMAZING. Probably the best concert I've ever been to. A definite must-see if you get the chance. I wish I could've taken all my girls... next time, hopefully!

One of the great things about this concert was they gave everyone in the audience a free bracelet that would light up to the beat of the music and change colors to match her lighting. It was pretty cool. All the little dots in the picture above are from the bracelets.

"Style"

Ready. Set. WRITE! (week 9) and MONDAY READS

HOW I DID ON LAST WEEK'S GOALS
-Finish edits on SWAY: NAILED IT!!!
I also tweaked my JAR OF HEARTS query, and wrote a different one. Not sure which one I'll use yet.

MY GOALS FOR THIS WEEK
I'm keeping my goals this week kinda loosey-goosey since I'll be doing some travelling. My goal if I find time- start going through beta notes on JAR OF HEARTS.

ONE WORD/PHRASE THAT SUMS UP WHAT I REVISED
DONE! BA-BAM!

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE I FACED THIS WEEK
I didn't really. I had a deadline, and I was determined to meet it. Which I did. It wasn't easy, it took a lot of time and hard work, but it's reassuring to know that when it comes down to crunch time, I can deliver. Go me!

SOMETHING I LOVE ABOUT MY WIP
Ahhh, all of it! I'm getting so excited for my winter release! But here's a little teaser, so-to-speak...

SWAY is a retelling of PERSUASION, and totally inspired by THIS MOVIE

 

MONDAY READS
I'm still reading THE HOUSE OF HADES by Rick Riordan. It's a good book, but with everything else going on in my life, reading has taken a bit of a backburner. *shrugs*