What's Up Wednesday: SNOW!!!

What I'm Reading
I finished The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell. It was sooo good! The first chapter threw me off a little- it read a lot like an epilogue- but once I got past that, the story swept me up and took me away. Such a great surprise. Then one night I read Just One Night by Gayle Forman, a great little wrap-up to Just One Day and Just One Year. Now I'm reading A Tale of Two Centuries by Rachel Harris.

What I'm Writing Revising
Last week wasn't the best for revisions, but I'm back in the swing of things this week with JAR OF HEARTS. (Which is almost exactly what I said last week, but this time, I SWEAR, I'M REVISING.) I'm hoping to get my revisions done before November so that I can do NaNoWriMo again. Also, I have a bigger self-imposed deadline hanging over my head that I talked about here.

What Inspires Me Right Now
Well, I can tell you what DOESN'T inspire me. THIS:

Stupid Alberta Weather

 

What Else I've Been Up To
Trying to get back into the swing of things with school starting and all of the kids after school activities. I also spent three hours yesterday rearranging my kids closets thanks to the unexpected snowfall. That was not fun, and it cut into my revising time. NOT. COOL.

What have you been up to? And don't tell me you've been enjoying hot and sunny weather or I may just send you some evil vibes.

DEADLINE

School started this week and there's something about this that makes me verrrry nervous. I'm not talking about the fact that my ten-year-old is starting in a school grades 6-12 (although this freaks the crap out of me, not gonna lie). And it's not the fact that my youngest started kindergarten. What scares me is now I have a DEADLINE.

I've been lucky these past almost eleven years to be a stay-at-home mom to my four kids. But next year, when my youngest starts grade one and therefore is in school ALL DAY, it'll be just me. I'm not nervous to be alone (NO SIREE). It's the fact that since the kids are in school- I should get a job.

But I don't want I job! she wails. I want to write. This is what I want my job to be. But so far, that ain't happening. And I can't selfishly stay home when the kids are all in school at this point in my writing *career*. Which means... DEADLINE. I've got a year to make it further than I am now. Otherwise, job.

This is super scary because while I've progressed in this whole writing thing, I'm still at the same spot I was, oh, a couple of years ago or so. Querying, full requests, an R&R, then nothing. Querying book two, full requests, nothing. I've just started querying book three. This book could be the one. Or I could be in this exact same spot next year. Nothing.

In some ways- this is all up to me. My writing has gotten better. I'm going to keep at it- querying EPONINE, revising JAR OF HEARTS, and then writing the SNI I've had floating around in my brain for forever. I will be working at it, and working at it hard so that hopefully, I can move forward. But that's all I can do. After that, it's out of my hands. And I just may very well be in this same spot next year.

I want to write. It's my dream job. And I feel like time is running out. I know that isn't true- many people juggle writing/kids or writing/dayjob and even writing/kids/dayjob all at once. I'll do that if it comes to it. I'm not quitting writing just because I have to work in an office again. But I still have this deadline I can't escape. It hangs over my head making me all twitchy and nervous. It makes me anxious to get writing and make it happen and at the same time fearful that I'll blow it.

Deadline. It's scary and it's not even real- I've given it to myself. Hopefully I can turn that fear into motivation, into creating my best work possible. Hopefully I can look back at this in a year and laugh at myself for freaking out about it. Either way, I know this deadline will teach me something. Either way, I'm going to make this next year count.

What's Up Wednesday: Back to School

What I'm Reading
It's been a couple weeks since I did WUW but I actually haven't read that much. I finished City of Heavenly Fire- the last Mortal Instruments book by Cassandra Clare. I liked it, but it was too long. I found myself getting bored in the middle, but the end wrapped up the series nicely. After that, I read Teen Idol and then How To Be Popular, both by Meg Cabot, both books I bought from my library for a whole $0.25 each. They were really fun reads. I forgot how much I love her as an author. (PS, I thought Teen Idol was better.) Now I'm reading The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell.

What I'm Writing
The last week of summer vacation was really busy and I did no revising whatsoever. Now that the kids have started school though, I'm getting back into my normal routines. Yesterday I did querying research and today, it's back to JAR OF HEARTS.

What Inspires Me Right Now
So this is the same thing I did for the last WUW I participated in, but I love this song and I think it's especially relevant for querying writers. I'm about to step back into the trenches for the third time and I know rejections are on their way. What am I going to do about them? I'm just gonna shake shake shake shake shake, shake it off, shake it off. (PS, I found out late last night that I did not make it into Pitchwars. What am I doing today? THIS.)

What Else I've Been Up To
I participated in WriteOnCon, had one last beach day with the kids, did some back to school shopping, am making my way through the seasons of Doctor Who (I'm on 4), saw If I Stay (loved it) and When the Game Stands Tall (also good). The kids started school yesterday except the youngest who starts kindergarten tomorrow. I can't believe it- all four kids in school! That means my mornings will be JUST ME. O.O

What have you been up to?

Ready. Set. WRITE! Last week!

It's the last week of Ready. Set. WRITE! and I think I'm supposed to recap how I did on my goals for the summer.

Since I missed the first week, I never did make a big goal or goals for the summer. Mainly, I participated in RSW so I wouldn't get sucked into the laziness that is summer. So I think I did pretty good. I finished multiple revisions on EPONINE, not to mention writing the synopsis and revising the query. It's now on the WriteOnCon forums, and I'll be starting to query for real in September. I've also started revisions on JAR OF HEARTS. I'm nowhere near done- I have LOTS to do with this MS- but I've started and I know once I get back into a schedule come September, I'll be able to make better progress.

So that's it! I'm really glad I participated in RSW this year because if I hadn't, I don't know if EPONINE would have been query ready by now. So it was a great kick in the pants for me this summer.

How did you all do?

What's Up Wednesday: Shake It Off!

WHAT I'M READING
I read Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson. I thought this book was really great... once I got into it. But it took me like 150 pages to get into it. If I wasn't a patient reader, I probably would've given it up around page twenty. Now I'm reading the final Mortal Instruments book which is good so far but I'm wondering if it's also unnecessarily long. This is becoming one of my pet peeves. My reading time is precious people!

WHAT I'M WRITING REVISING
Working on JAR OF HEARTS. I have lots of revisions to make and I'm pretty unconfident (is that a word?) about the whole thing. Here's hoping I'm making it work, at least a little bit.

WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW
The new Taylor Swift song. Love it, love her.

WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO
I finally submitted to PitchWars and made my bio which you can find here. I also went and saw Expendables 3 with the hubs and friends. NOT my movie choice but it wasn't bad. Antonio Banderas totally made the movie for me. He was hilarious. Also, sharing time lesson, hair appointment (I love getting my hair done!), kids dentist appointments, and lots of Doctor Who watching.

PS: I won't be around for What's Up Wednesday next week because WRITEONCON!!!

Ready. Set. WRITE! (Week 11)

HOW I DID ON LAST WEEK'S GOALS
I didn't revise as much as I wanted to on JAR OF HEARTS, but I did do some, so there's that.

MY GOAL FOR THIS WEEK
Revise revise revise! A little bit each day is the goal.

A FAVORITE LINE FROM MY STORY
I wish I could tune the beats out, snuff out every heart so I can finally have peace.

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE I FACED THIS WEEK
Time. Always time. I need a time-turner. Or to be a vampire and then I wouldn't need sleep. Also and again, PitchWars. I've got my bio done and you can check it out here.

SOMETHING I LOVE ABOUT MY WIP
There's this certain character. And he's mysterious and quiet and looks something like this:

My PitchWars Bio

It's my first year participating in PitchWars and I'm super excited to...

Wait, what? I have to write a bio? And it has to be clever and make me sound awesome and all accomplished and stuff?

I never signed up for this!

 



No, okay. I can do this. So here's a little bit about me.

I started writing in grade two. Title of my first masterpiece: Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Bloody Mary.

Yeah, I don't know why I wrote that either, Simon

 

I didn't really take writing seriously until after I had four kids. Because, yanno, suddenly it seemed like the right time.

My kids, every time I sit down at the computer

 

I've been at this for five years. Sometimes it sucks.

 

Most of the time it's awesome.

 

I'm Canadian, eh!

 

I collect t-shirts. Like this one:

 

Even though I'm thirty-cough-cough, I still like boy bands. Don't judge me.

 

I sing loud and badly but play the piano better. I used to take dance (jazz, tap, ballet, contemporary, hip hop, swing) and I often dredge up old dance moves in my kitchen, bathroom, while driving, cleaning, ANYWHERE ANYTIME.

I think I look like this.

Or this.

Or this.

But I probably look more like this.

 

I don't like to be touched. So please don't hug me. Unless it's virtual. Those I can handle.

 

I'm a bit of a genre whore. I've written YA time-travel, YA magical realism, and Adult romance/retelling. My PitchWars manuscript is YA Urban Fantasy. It's a loose retelling of Eponine, the character from Les Miserables (in case you didn't know).

 

So there's a little bit about me. Now we're besties and you can pick me as your mentee- I'll do anything you say. Just, no hugging.

I mean pick me. PICK ME.