We're heeere.

We're in the new house. But it's been a giant freakin' nightmare getting to this point. The house is beautiful. Except for the water in the basement (the ejecter pump wasn't working so the washer spewed water all over the floor), the lukewarm water in the master shower and the garage doors the won't lock, etc. Plus, I took the bigger room, that was a huge debate once I got here, and logically it is the right choice, but I feel guilty and now I'm stressing, thinking I should somehow switch back. Except my husband had the guy from direct tv out here already and wired the other room (the very first morning we were here, so I had about an hour to decide what I was doing, not like I could have been deciding for the months leading up to that point, of course), so he won't be happy if I switch now. My husband, not the direct tv guy.

AAAUUUGGHH! So, I think I just need to get used to this room and see how it goes. Plus, things are now really moving on The Silver Spoon getting published. So, I don't really have time to waste thinking and worrying about stupid stuff like feeling guilty over a room!

Okay, I feel a little calmer now. : )

Talk to you tomorrow!

Moving this week

Okay, we're moving, like right now. So, I'm not sure when I'll get back to write again. Maybe Friday. But I haven't forgotten and I'll update as soon as possible. I have my ARC now and my ISBNs, so we're set on that end! Some really cool stuff is going to be happening too. I'll fill you all in very soon, I hope!

Stacey

To Do List

Right now, I've got a lot going on. So, I'm going to use my blog entry today to help me keep track of all that I'm supposed to be doing (writing-related only) because if I don't write it down, I'm going to lose track of something. So I beg of you your patience with me : )

1. First issue of GalaxSHE, coming soon...I hope: I've got most of my letter from the editor written, and my first guest columnist, Stacy G., has written a great column. But I've got a few more sections to write. Also, just a note...if you haven't signed up and you want to, email me and I'll add you to the list. It's a lot easier that way than having you go through the whole yahoogroups process.

2. Marketing/Promotional items: I'd like to have some postcards, keychains, bookplates, flyers, etc. ready to take with me to my writer's conference in July. Plus, I want to start giving things away! But right now, I'm waiting on final art from the cover artist and an ISBN for the book. I think ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. If I put that on the materials, you should be able to take that number into any bookstore and order the book.

3. Blurbs/reviews: the book is coming out in September. I believe my editor said the ARCs would be ready about June 1. ARC stands for Advance Reading Copy, I believe. That's what you send to reviewers and other authors to have them read it and provide you with awesome (hopefully) clips to put on your book. I need to get working on who I should be contacting for blurbs. I have three authors in mind right now. But I'm not sure if any of them will agree to read the book. And part of me is also scared to send it to them. While I'm proud of what I've done, what if they can't find anything good to say about it? These are authors that I greatly admire, some of them are the reasons why I wanted to write this book in the first place. It would be totally crushing if they came back with anything negative. I'm also afraid to ask just because it's like asking for a favor from someone you don't know. True, it gives them a little boost and it's flattering to be asked, but still. So, I need to come up with letters to send to them asking them to do this for me. Eeek.

4. Schedule signings and events: the book is due out in September, but it takes a few months to get on the calendar at book stores. So, I really need to be contacting them right about now. But I don't have anything to show them, no marketing materials, no flyers, no ARC, so I can't really set up any meetings. But I'm not sure if they need all that stuff anyway. Last summer, I was in a writing group that met at Barnes and Noble in Deer Park and the CRM (community relations manager) was very cool there. So, I'm hoping if I call her, she'll not only want a signing : ), but also will help me with what I need to have to do this type of thing. I'm also worried that even if I get signings, people might not show up or even stop by the table, so I need to be thinking of something kind of gimmicky, like a giveaway in the store or something,to get people to at least stop by.

5.Creative Writing Class: Right now, only one person is signed up. I'd like to post some flyers at Bloomingdale's library to advertise but I have to create the flyers first and then have them approved by the Business Office before I can post them. I also have to come up with more specific exercises and lessons to follow my proposed class syllabus.

6. Work on next project. Sounds simple. But it's probably the hardest out of all of these and yet the most fun. : )

So, what needs to be done to accomplish all of this?
-determine exact release date in September of The Silver Spoon
-find out when ISBN and cover art will be ready.
-draft marketing material language.
-confirm with RuneStone availability of ARCs and confirm that selected authors are okay to contact.
-Call Marianne, my Barnes and Noble contact, to find out what is needed to schedule a signing and also to have the store carry the book. Call other CRMs to set things up. Send BN list of questions to RuneStone?
-draft letters to authors requesting a blurb.
-create flyers for Creative Writing Class. Get them approved.
-write exercises and lessons for class syllabus.
-contact UW-Madison Writer's Institute to find out about sending some materials ahead of time for inclusion in the book fair area.
-write and revise the newsletter.
-write, work on next project.

Plus, work and pack and move. Good grief, no wonder why I'm a giant stress-ball right now. Well, it helps to have it all written down. Now, I can refer back to it when I need to. I'm just afraid, being new to this process, I'll miss the deadline for something without even realizing that was the deadline. You know, something like, oh, you can't have a signing here, you need to schedule that six months in advance. : (

Okay, deep even breaths. It will be fine. I just have to prioritize now and keep working at the items one by one...The weird part is, this is fun! Not the stress stuff, obviously, but what I'm getting to do is fun : ) So, I have to do my best to remember that!

Have a great weekend, you guys. Thanks for your patience.
I'll talk to you on Monday.

A dilemma...

So, I really should be sleeping right now...or packing. But instead I'm staying up and not packing (a real sacrifice, I'm telling you) because I wanted to see what you guys think of something.

I'm being neurotic again. I'll wait a moment for you all to gasp in surprise. : ) And it's not over a big thing or anything.

I have my choice of two rooms at the new house for my writing room. I thought I had it all figured out months ago. One of them gets a great deal of sunlight from the west, yea! You'll remember my whole thing about needing to face west. Well, the room doesn't exactly face west, but it's close and if I angle my desk just right, I get all the glorious sunshine I want. But here's the catch. It faces the neighbor's house. Like, I look out my window and into his window. Ick. Not like it's an important window or anything, I think it's just the hallway, but still, I don't like that. Talk about no view. It's sort of a claustrophobic feeling. This room is also the smallest bedroom, which means probably not enough room for a chaise lounge or big, comfy chair either. Plus, it's the middle room of the three bedrooms, which means if we have kids and if we have two of them, their rooms will be on either side. Now, I know, I'm reaching a little to be worried about noise from as yet non existent children. But that's me. I borrow trouble way in advance : )

My other room choice faces the front of the house, has lots of windows and is a much bigger room. The problem with that room is that it doesn't have the whole western/sunlight thing happening as much. Also, it's bigger than the middle room, so am I a horrible future mother for taking a larger room for my office and leaving my second, as yet non-existent child to the smallest bedroom in the house?

Please don't read this as grumbling about rooms because I know I'm very, very lucky to have the dedicated space for my writing. But I just want to make a good choice (while we have large, strong moving men to put the furniture in place for us and not later when Greg and I are sweating and scraping up the walls to try to move things around) and logic is escaping me on this one.

Okay, after reading back what I wrote, I think I know what I should do. But I'm still curious to hear what you guys think. Let me know : ) And again, I know I'm lucky to even have the choice, but if you know me, you know that I worry over just about everything, including the privileges I've been fortunate enough to receive in life!

Talk to you tomorrow.

New look

I'm playing around with the various templates Blogger offers. I like this one because it eliminates the purple bars on the side, I think it makes for easier reading.

What do you guys think? Do you like this way better or the old way?

Let me know!

P.S. Can you tell I'm supposed to be packing right now?

Woohoo!

So, I think, thanks to Ed's genius!, we've got comments finally working correctly, so please comment away so we test that theory!!!

I know, I should have posted yesterday or heck, even Friday, but I have an excuse. Aside from being sick with a cold, yet again darn it, I'm overwhelmed by guilt of not filling boxes. Not quite enough to get me moving on them, but enough to make me feel guilty about doing anything else. : ) All those of you out there who know me are wincing at the thought of those poor movers who are going to arrive to an unprepared house...but seriously, I am trying to get things done so that won't happen.

In other news, relating to the woohoo title, my morning project is finally finished!!! At least the first draft, so yea!!! That means I can at least tell you a little about it. It's the second book in the Rennie Harlow series, my mystery series. I started it way back in January/February before I knew The Silver Spoon had been accepted. So, I had to finish this before I could move on to anything else.

So, here's my best shot at giving you a rough back cover blurb of the book. Keep in mind, this definitely has not been refined. It's also, for those of who read the first one, a much darker story than Bitter Pill.

Sleep Tight, A Rennie Harlow Mystery.
Rennie's life finally seems to be getting back on track. She's moved out of her garage apartment into a huge old house, one filled with junk from the former owner. She has a boyfriend, sort of...at least her mother thinks so. And her plan to avoid the very married Sheriff Bristol seems to be working. That is, until Rennie discovers the mummified body of an male infant in her attic. The baby was wrapped in plastic and hidden in a trunk for more than a decade. And no one seems to know how he got there.

Rennie is determined to find the child's identity and the person responsible for the death of the defenseless innocent. Her unofficial investigation leads her through a tangled maze of former cheerleaders (including the Sheriff's wife), teenage pregnancy, secret societies and forbidden love. Not to mention a kiss that may change everything...

Okay, so that's it. As I said before, feel free to comment so we can test the system : )

Talk to you tomorrow!

Time to move...again.

They say that smell is the most powerful sense for triggering memories. I think that's true. A certain cologne that my grandpa used to wear still trips this total sense of recognition in me, to the point where I'll catch myself looking around even though he's been gone for almost ten years now.

Most recently, it's the smell of boxes. I know, I know, boxes don't really smell. Except they do. That damp, cardboardy smell. And the way it makes me feel...have you ever heard the phrase "strikes terror in the heart of [small children, all people, women everywhere, etc. you get the idea.] That's how it feels to me.

I have all these boxes piled up on my screened in porch and every time I smell them, not see them, it totally makes my chest tighten and my stomach clench up. Talk about triggering memories. That cardboard smell accompanied every major stage of turmoil in my formative years. We moved...a lot. Not as much as some, I guess, like army brats, but more than others. And as my husband will tell you now, I am not good with change, particularly change that I cannot control. I used to blame that characteristic on having moved a lot in my childhood. Now, I think maybe I was just born that way, seeking stability. I'm more of an observer, probably a good thing for a writer, than one seeking actual adventure.

So that damp cardboard smell signals change to me, which in and of itself, I usually don't like. But that scent also brings back this odd sense of childish adventure and hope. For even as much as I didn't like moving, I always looked at it like, "Maybe this time..." Maybe this time, it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe this time, it'll be easier to make friends. Maybe this time, I'll be one of the popular kids in school. Maybe this time, there'll be a cute boy living next door. In truth, only one of those ever happened. The cute boy living next door, and he totally wasn't interested. But the possibility of all these things and imagining all the outcomes without knowing what was going to happen next was fun, in a scary sort of way.

Anyway, I'm curious to hear what scents have a powerful effect on you guys. Another one, most of you will be able to relate to this, cheap, stale beer. That is college to me. And whenever I smell it, I'm back in the basement of a particular fraternity house : )

I think the comments section might be working now, so comment away. If you don't see it right away, it just means I need to republish, but it will eventually show up : )

Talk to you tomorrow.

Wednesday blahs.

I just cannot seem to focus today. I don't know why, and it's driving me crazy. I think it has something to do with hitting a snag in my evening project yesterday. I was trying to make her (ha, all my main characters have been female so far, so that's not a revelation of any kind...watch me cheat my own quirky rules!) do something that was so out of character. See, for whatever reason, the way this works for me is that I see something in my head, especially toward the beginning of a project, and then I try to get it all down on paper. But sometimes, I don't get the full picture or sometimes, I plain old get it wrong.

Then I have to battle between the picture in my mind and what I know of my characters. In this particular case, she's shouting at me, "I wouldn't do that, it's stupid. Fix it." Only she's not telling me how to fix it, just yet. Some of them are better at that than others : ) In this particular case, she thinks I ought to be able to figure out for myself. And she's right. So, I have to go back and try to figure out what's wrong. I think I know in this case, but I've been surprised before. Then once I do that, everything usually opens up for a few more pages. Really, in some cases, writing is like my commute home. You can be flying along, no problems at all, and then BAM, you hit a snarl of traffic that has to work itself out and you're down to under 5 mph. Then you get past that and you're zooming along again, and around that corner, more snarly traffic. I try to remind myself that it's just part of the process. You can't fight it, you just have to live through it and keep working at it. Anne Lamott is a good one for that. She wrote a great book on writing called Bird By Bird. I always go back to it when I'm feeling a little low.

In other news...
One person has signed up for my Creative Writing class. Yea! Doesn't sound like much, but last week it was zero. And I only need four to make the class available.

Also, I contacted Blogger to find out what's the deal with the comments not showing up until I republish, so hopefully that will be resolved soon.

Ugh. All of our boxes have arrived and I'm seriously freaking out about getting everything packed in two weeks. And as most of you know, when I panic, I freeze up. Which means, nothing will get done if I don't un-panic! I keep reminding myself that I will like the new house once I get there. I just have to get there. I've even been thinking about getting a chaise lounge for my writing room. I think it would be cool to be able to lounge in there and read/edit manuscripts instead of in the bedroom on the bed where my husband is trying to sleep, watch tv, etc. He gets cranky if I have the lights on past midnight, with good reason. But the chaise lounge I found is like $300 and I'm saving my money for a new computer (end of this month, I hope!) and an IPod (no, I can't let it go. It's just so darn cool. But I am getting the more sensible, white 15 Gig instead of the cute blue 4 Gig.)

Talk to you tomorrow!

No more comfort food for the mind.

A couple things going on today...
First, check out the slightly revised look of this blog. My profile is now to the left, if you should want to read it. I still need to figure out how to attach a picture. I'm so not the techy person as you all know. Plus, with this upgrade, you should be able to post comments. Though my web expert, Ed, tells me that for some reason comments aren't showing up right away. So, don't panic if you don't see your comment right away...like you would panic over that : )

And second, (I know I'm a little late with this, but I'm trying!)I wanted to talk about the Friends Finale. It was an okay episode, but it was sad because it was the end of an era. Friends came on when I was in college, in the middle of creating my own circle of friends. And while I haven't watched the new episodes as frequently as I once had in the past, I'm sad that there will be no more new ones. But it will live in syndication forever, probably. So we have that at least. Friends is the show I watch when I'm home sick or trying to go to sleep. It's comfortable, not scary, usually not sad and there's almost always at least one line in there that will get me to laugh no matter how many times I've seen the episode ("Could I be wearing any more clothes?"). It's like french fries. Sometimes when you're feeling down, having a bad day, you need some hot, right out of the fryer, fries. Friends is the same thing, comfort viewing.

On the good news side of things, I think I'm making some progress on my evening project (I've been sneaking in some extra time in somewhere I shouldn't...I'll let you figure that out). And my morning project is, I hope, nearly finished! So, once that's done, one, I'll be able to tell you what it is, and two, I'll move my evening project to the morning to get some more time in on it. I hope to finish up my morning project this week...that being said, I could hit a snag and it could end up being later. But here's hoping!

Talk to you tomorrow.

Blogging on Fox last night!
Did you see they ran a story on the growing number of blogs out there? It was interesting to see how many people they interviewed who didn't know what a blog was (if you don't know what a blog is, you're reading one right now: ) )

So, I, in my ever growing and shameless plan to promote The Silver Spoon sent them an email this morning, telling them about the growing trend of new authors setting up blogs to help people get to know them and their work. It's free, provides a sample of the author's writing to those who would be skeptical about buying an unknown, and most importantly, gets around the whole SPAM issue. If you want to know more about someone's book, you can read their blog, rather than suffering a million emails from yours truly. I, of course, generously offered to be their contact for further information : ) So, we'll see how that works out.

Speaking of book news, I'm still struggling with my issue I mentioned in Tuesday's blog. The biggest thing for me is that the characters always need to make sense. What they're doing has to make sense for them and what they want out of life. Otherwise, it doesn't ring true. We've all seen/read where, for example, a villain is just evil for evil-sake. Not that some people/characters aren't just plain evil, but generally there has to be some sort of factor behind it all, at least why they've chosen who they're being evil to.

So, the problem is sometimes the characters come and talk to me and do what they're going to do, but they don't always tell me why, right up front (right now, FoxNews is probably reading this, thinking I'm nuts, but truly I'm not). Then, I'm left with trying to figure out why they did what they did, so I can understand it, so everyone who's reading along can understand it. Right now, I'm trying to figure that out in my evening project, why did they do this? Does it make sense or is it one of those things where I forced it and it was just close enough that they let it go, unchallenged?

I've gone through this process before and forgotten how frustrating, but well worth it in the end, it can be.

And finally, in closing, I'll leave you with a couple of quotes from our speaker yesterday. We had a big corporate shindig yesterday *shudder*, but one of the speakers was great. He was a futurist, meaning essentially that he looks at the trends of today and tries to envision what the future will be like. This field was actually mentioned in the sci-fi romance newsletter I subscribe to as a good resource for those of us writing sci-fi to help us keep it "real." Or as real as a fictional depiction of a potential future can get. Anyway, he was a good speaker, so here are a couple things he said that I enjoyed:

"A good storyteller tells a good story. A great storyteller helps you find yourself in the story." This may not be original to him, but I liked the quote.

And on the fact that there are more women than men in medical, law, and divinity school: "I've gone on record as saying, men are perilously close to becoming pets." This cracked me up, especially as this has been the plot for how many episodes of how many sci-fi shows?

That's it for today. Talk to you tomorrow!

"The luckiest girl in the whole wide world"
So, I was being a dork when I wrote that headline, but I do feel very fortunate. I have some awesome friends : ) You guys have always been there to support me and I appreciate that more than words can say. And especially this week, Heather posted the link to my Valpo interview on her site, Ed helped me update this site (twice!), Ed and Deb told a whole group of people about my book this last weekend and Stacy G. is writing my very first guest column for me. Not to mention all the people who signed up (or attempted to sign up) for GalaxSHE. Thanks you guys, it means a lot : )

In other news...
The closing on my new house has changed so while that sucks, that makes me feel a lot more comfortable with the idea of getting the first issue of GalaxSHE out there by the middle of May. Also, as far as GalaxSHE goes, I believe you do have to create a yahoo id and password in order to sign up. I'm not sure why. And in fact, Becky D. managed to sign up without creating a profile, so I'm in awe of her technical feat and hope she'll share that info with me : ) The profile doesn't really hurt anything, it's just more questions and blah, blah, stuff to read and fill out. Actually, if you want to sign up directly, just send me an email. I can add you directly. You'll still have to confirm your membership, but I don't think you'll have to create a profile.

Right now, I'm in a bit of a quandry. I'm still finishing up my current project. But in the evenings, I'm working on my new project, which is actually revising something I'd already written. Boy, this would be a lot easier to describe, if I didn't have that weird quirk about telling people about things in progress. However, what I'm finding is the temptation to rewrite rather than revise. Rewriting to me means that you keep the basic ideas but change pretty much everything else, while revising is more fixing just what's wrong. The tricky thing is that it's hard to tell whether this urge is a valid one or not. Sometimes things need to be rewritten, they can be better. Other times, it's simply the perfectionist in every writer saying, oh, dear Lord, I can do better than this, can't I? And if you're not careful, you can end up rewriting the same book, the same page or even sentence into eternity -- that is perhaps the writer's version of hell.

So, right now, I'm trying to figure out my next step on this. Some part of me wants to rewrite also because certain ideas got lost along the way side. As I said for me, when I'm really lucky, the characters show up and start talking to me. If I don't listen, they go away. Other times, if they catch me not listening, but I'm pretty close, they just get cranky and leave me with that feeling that I've not quite got it right, but close enough to keep going. That's sort of the way I feel right now, but I'm not sure how I'm going to fix that.

Well, I'll keep you updated in these bizarre abstract terms that I'm sure you must love to read! : )

Talk to you tomorrow!

Short blog today
I updated the website tonight. It won't show up yet, I don't think, until Ed does something to it. That, or I did it wrong. So, in the meantime, this blog may or may not be up and running. If it is, check this out: http://www.valpo.edu/admissions/atvalpo/04-04/english/

My interview is up on Valpo's site. I was a little disappointed that The Silver Spoon didn't get mentioned in there by name, but otherwise, I thought it was great!

Talk to you tomorrow (provided that I did not screw up the whole website thing!)