2007 Journal

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2007 Journal
I'll keep you posted here on all my writing adventures...

December 26, 2007: I hope all of you had a wonderful and fulfilling Christmas and holiday season. Since the end of the year is so close, it seems appropriate to reflect on the year, especially as it relates to my writing.

In a lot of ways, it was a difficult year. Issues at work, my health and with my family kept me very distracted from making progress on my writing. And looking back over the beginning of this 2007 journal, I see that I had reflected that 2006 wasn't a particularly productive year either. It seems I'm at a crossroads in my writing career -- I need to either die away or re-commit to my goals.

Well, I'm not going to die away. I'm going to re-commit to doing the hard work that it'll take to make my dreams come true. Writing has taken a backseat long enough. I need to move forward, and I will.

So, just for kicks, let's go back, as has been my habit for the last few years, and re-state my goals for the year and comment on how I did:

1. Write a new Young Adult novel with plenty of action, adventure, romance and a little bit of paranormal. When it's done, send it to the YA agent who offered to take a look at my new material.

Status: Didn't do this, but I did start a new adult contemporary manuscript instead, which I'm about 150 pages into. My first goal for 2008 will be to finish this, then re-consider the YA manuscript -- which I actually have a plot idea for.

2. Submit Preacher Man to the one last RWA-recognized Inspirational publisher I am aware of who doesn't require an agent.

Status: Well, I did submit Preacher Man to an RWA-recognized publisher that had an Inspirational line, and I heard from the editor that it was recommended to be purchased -- about a month before that publisher went bankrupt!! So, timing is everything and I never did make a sale. HOWEVER, RWA has re-defined their guidelines for publishers to be eligible, and as a result, there are several more publishers that I'd now like to try. In fact, a few weeks ago, I made three submissions -- two for Preacher Man and one for Casey V. Wouldn't it be nice to start out the new year with a sale or two?

3. Revise Keeper By Surprise. Take out the elements that make it unattractive to the category market, and submit it to Harlequin.

Status: I haven't gotten to this yet, but I still plan to -- especially if my current WIP is attractive to Harlequin. I'd love to have more than one manuscript to offer them.

4. Have fun! Get the joy back! Choose happiness!

Status: Um, not so much. Will definitely be a carry-over goal for 2008.

November 17, 2007: If you're like me, you're getting ready for Thanksgiving, and then of course, the thought of all the Christmas preparations aren't far from your mind. This time of year is so busy!

I did have time for a wonderful interview with a reporter from TC Style Magazine. She's doing an article on local authors and I hope she'll include me in the feature. If so, it'll be in the January issue, so stay tuned.

October 21, 2007: Last week I was invited to be the guest speaker for a delightful group of women educators called Delta Kappa Gamma, Intl. After a delicious fried chicken and pasta dinner, I talked about my writing, read several passages and answered questions. Afterward, I sold books. I want to thank these ladies for providing such a wonderful evening for me! For a photo album page of all the fun, take a look here:

August 12, 2007: Well, summer isn't over yet, but the end is near (school starts for my kids a week from Wednesday) so I thought, since I haven't been a very frequent poster this summer, I'd do a summer recap here, hitting the highlights of Summer 2007:

It was the summer of my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. They've lived their very own Happily Ever After for 50 years now and they're an inspiration to all of us. My brother and sister-in-law and I threw them a party to celebrate with their friends, and 120 people came! My mom surprised my dad by singing him "their song" with five family members (including moi) singing backup. We have a beautiful video and photo album to commemorate the event. Very cool.
My son Jeff's baseball season -- 42 wins, 22 losses -- overall, a fun and successful season. Woo hoo! Go Renegades!
My husband and I took a lovely cruise out of New York City to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada for our own anniversary -- our 18th. Although it was cold and rainy, and the ship was rocky, we met some great new friends, enjoyed Saint John immensely, and loved the relaxing pace of the cruise. Hubby planned the whole thing himself, which was an added bonus!
Seeing friends and family we hadn't seen in awhile -- it seemed to be a summer of catching up with others, which was fantastic. On the family side, we saw my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law and her new sweetie, my niece and nephew and their parents in Pennsylvania, along with a really fun dinner with an aunt, uncle and cousin. We got to see my aunt and uncle and second cousin in Florida, who we hadn't seen in years! And on the friends side, I saw Jim visiting from Florida, and Krista visiting from North Carolina, as well as Sarah from Indiana. (If I forgot anyone, it's due to my ever-more-feeble memory, not the lack of fun or memories we created together...)
Another big summer event was our trip to Florida. My brother's family, my parents, and my family went together to Vero Beach. We stayed in the Disney resort and had a great time. The beach house was beautiful. The view from the back deck was the ocean, and the view from the front deck was the pool. We spent most of our time during the day traveling between those two locations, and most of our time during the evening checking out new seafood restaurants. Very relaxing.
Just when I thought Jeff's baseball season was over (see post below) he fooled me by trying out, and being selected for, his junior high team. So guess what -- it's back to the baseball field for me, with my folding chair and cooler in tow, for another 20 games or so! Congrats, Jeff.
And football. What would summer be without football practices for both my sons? My older one, Norm, has been in football training, conditioning and practice all summer. Jeff just started last week.
And another highlight (for me, at least) of Summer '07 was Harry Potter. The fifth movie, Order of the Phoenix came out 7/13 while we were vacationing in Florida, so all eight of us (my family and my brother's family) went together on opening day to a beautiful huge multiplex in Vero Beach. No lines, even. I enjoyed it immensely, and have seen it twice since with my HP fan friends, and believe I'll see it a last time tonight with my niece. And the book ... the release of the final book in the series on 7/21. I did it up right with my friend Shawn by going to the final midnight release party at Barnes and Noble. I didn't relize that in order to take part in a midnight release party, you had to start so EARLY! Shawn got there at 3:45 to save our place in line and I arrived at 4:30. ALL EVENING we hung around, enjoying the HP festivities, talking to other fans, until at 12:01 AM we were 14th and 15th to receive our books! I went home and started reading it that night, finishing it up Monday night, and then just finished reading it a second time last night. It's fabulous. It's sad and happy and glorious. But it's over now. All we have to look forward to are two more movies, and then re-reading the book series over and over. But no more new ones. It's sad, but it's cool that I was a part of the whole HP phenomenon as it was unfolding. Something like that doesn't happen very often in pop culture, and I was really a part of it. Thanks JKR for all the fun and excitement! You done good.

So, summer's about over. Bring on the fall!

July 18, 2007: Two and a half months since I updated this journal. What a coincidence that I was lamenting, two and a half months ago, that my son's baseball schedule left little time for anything else. Coincidence that I'm updating my website for the first time since early May, and baseball season just ended a few days ago! I feel like I have so much free time now!! Free time I hope to fill with productive activities, like writing and exercising! :) It turned out to be a great season, but as always, I am glad it's ended.

Nothing to report in my writer's life right now. I did not attend the RWA national conference in Dallas this year because a family vacation to Florida conflicted with it. But I believe next year is San Francisco so I'll start saving my pennies for that one.

Hope you're enjoying your summer.

May 3, 2007: Ahhh, baseball season -- ya gotta love it. My son plays on a travel baseball team, and from the month of April through July, he plays about 60 games all over central Illinois. My life consists of working, racing home, packing a cooler, grabbing the lawn chairs and then parking my rear end in just about every dusty baseball field within a 60-mile radius. Writing? Doesn't happen.

BUT, I did something that was an absolute injection of energy to my sagging creativity. Last Sunday night I checked into a local hotel, just me. My family knew where I was, and had my cell phone number, but they were determined to leave me alone so I could devote some uninterrupted time to writing. And boy, was it FABULOUS!!

I ordered dinner through room service, and got to work. I spent three hours Sunday night outlining the 7 chapters I'd already written, and then plotted out the remaining 8 chapters that would take me to the end of the book. I went to bed about 11:30 and slept till 7:15, when I woke up and my manuscript called to me. :) I made some coffee in the room and went right to work, and wrote Chapter 8, finishing up about 10:30. I took my shower and started Chapter 9. I checked out at noon, met my husband for lunch, and then went to the library, where I continued working till 4 PM, when I finished Chapter 9! When the day was done, I'd written two complete chapters (about 30 pages) not to mention the plotting I'd done the night before. It was GREAT! I told my husband it was so productive and relaxing that I should do it every quarter or so.

How is your spring going?

March 24, 2007: Not too much to report in my writing world at this point (hence, the lack of journal entries...). I can tell you I'm slowly but surely working on my WIP (work in progress), Inner Diva. I finished Chapter 6 and I believe I've written two pages towards Chapter 7. I had wanted to finish the first draft by the end of June, but unless I get some sort of super-human spurt of energy (and free time) which doesn't look likely, I'm not going to hit that goal.

A few weeks ago I got to take a much-needed getaway/escape to the sunny beach for a week, and during my flight home I spent the entire day sitting either on planes or an airport. I made good use of the time by writing about twelve pages of my manuscript. Not bad!

I'm gearing up to judge the Heart and Scroll chapter's Madcap Contest for Excellence in Romantic Comedy. And I'll hear very soon if either of my two Golden Heart entries make the final round. Other than that, not too much going on...

Enjoy the official beginning of spring!

February 18, 2007: Happy belated Valentine's Day! I hope you and your sweetie found a way to celebrate, just the two of you. My husband and I each planned fun surprises for each other, but both had to cancel due to the horrible blizzards that ripped across the midwest that day and the next. Oh well, it was the thought that counts, and besides, now we can both look forward to the rescheduled celebrations.

Since my last entry, I've received rejections back on both the submissions of Casey V I made last month. One editor actually read it (after requesting a full manuscript) and rejected it based on the book itself. He said the narrative voice didn't appeal to him. Silly me, I thought the Casey V voice was one of the stronger points of the book, and several contest judges agreed with me. The other publisher rejected it because they'd discontinued their Young Adult line and weren't acquiring.

I judged all seven of the Golden Heart contest entries I'd committed to. And I've been writing away on Inner Diva. I'm working on Chapter 5 now, with the goal to finish Chapter 6 by the end of this month. Since I'm targeting Silhouette Special Edition with this manuscript, I'm also reading all the Special Editions I have on my TBR pile. I've read three or four of them, and as I'm reading I'm scouring various aspects of the books to determine what the editors are looking for. I have more in my collection, so I'll keep reading them while I'm writing and maybe something will rub off.

Meanwhile, I read the debut novel of a romantic suspense writer, Allison Brennan, called The Prey, which is the new giveaway book in my TBR contest. While I was reading it, I was taking an online course that Allison taught on romantic suspense. The book was really good, and it was difficult to believe this was her first book. Great job, Allison.

Oh, and I also submitted Preacher Man to a small press this month which is RWA-recognized. If they offer to publish Preacher Man, I'd achieve a goal of becoming RWA-recognized, and I'd be able to join the Published Author's Network. However, I've heard some negative feedback on this publisher, so I'd have to proceed cautiously if I got an offer. Why is nothing EVER easy in this business? LOL.

January 29, 2007: It's been a very productive month! I've been writing and revising and submitting, but you know -- I'm so fickle. I've already strayed from the goals that I set for myself for 2007. (See entry dated 1/2/2007). At that time, just a short four weeks ago, I wanted to focus on writing another Young Adult manuscript. But my muse took me in another direction when I started writing in the new year. The manuscript that I started before Thanksgiving, planning it to be an inspirational romance targeted at Steeple Hill, beckoned me back and pointed me in another direction.

As I started writing about a shy, well-intentioned woman who has a dream to be in the spotlight, and a hot, Mexican bad boy who intends to prove to his family that he's matured and can be trusted, I realized that maybe inspirational wasn't my best market for this manuscript. So I decided to write it as a contemporary category romance targeted toward Silhouette's Special Edition line and see where that takes me. I'm calling it Inner Diva, and I'm really enjoying writing it. I just finished Chapter 3 this morning, and although it's only just begun, the Special Edition books are a little shorter than I'm used to writing, so with having finished 12,000 words already, I'm 1/5 of the way done. I'm going to try to finish this thing by summer, and then write that Young Adult manuscript I put in my goals.

In other news, I've revised Casey V Book 1 and submitted it to two Young Adult publishers who accept unagented material. I tried a new strategy this time too -- I did a little name-dropping. In both cases, I happen to be acquainted with best-selling authors at those publishers, so I got permission from them to mention their name in my query letter. Maybe I'll stand out as someone with connections. LOL.

I've also started judging the Golden Heart manuscripts that I committed to. I have seven 50-page manuscripts to read and judge by March 1, so I better get busy.

January 6, 2007: At my monthly RWA chapter meeting on Wednesday, one of our members, USA Today Bestselling Author Jade Lee gave a workshop on Imagery Sets. Her idea was to come up with an image -- either an animal, a plant, or just some object -- that reminds you of your hero, and one for your heroine, and then as you develop your characters and how they act, and how they move, and how they feel, you bring in that imagery. It was fascinating, and completely foreign to how I have ever developed characters before. But one thing it did do was get me enthused to get back to my manuscript that I started last Oct/Nov, and put aside for the holidays. For your information, my heroine, Monica, is a pomegranite, and my hero, Carlos is a greasy mechanic's rag! :)

So, I'm happy to report that I'm writing and plotting on that manuscript, and I even have a title. Thursday night I read through the first 20 pages that I'd started prior to the holidays and made revisions. Friday night I wrote 5 new pages. And today, I spent all afternoon plotting. I got out a big notebook and wrote a page about each of the main characters' motivations, another page on their conflicts, a page about the Black Moment in the story (where it appears to the couple that everything is falling apart) and then a page about their resolution. Then I wrote down all the various storylines that will be happening concurrently, and then key scenes out of each. Finally, I wrote a Chapter Outline, with bulleted points describing scenes in each chapter. I outlined through Chapter 10, and I think I'll need 14 chapters, but I'm stuck on the Black Moment and resolution of the book. I need some help in that aspect so hopefully I'll be able to get it before I get there.

But meanwhile, I can start writing on those chapters that I have plotted out. Whew. Brainstorming plot is absolutely agonizing for me. I'm always stuck and can't write till I know what's going to happen, but I hate having to come up with the next plot points which ultimately move me forward. And while I'm writing, since I'm now familiar with the overall storyline, I can always add in creativity about what's happening within the individual scenes. I just hope I can get that ending figured out soon.

Oh, and the title: Inner Diva.

January 2, 2007: Happy new year! It's hard to believe 2006 slipped away already. In some ways, it's a good year to forget. My husband had some major health issues this year, and it was very difficult to watch him through the pain and medical mismanagement that he was forced to deal with.

Despite that, the year was very kind to me in other non-writing parts of my life: my two boys are healthy and made the transition to high school and junior high very well. I started a new job which I'm enjoying immensely, and even enjoyed an unexpected (but very welcome) promotion for it!

But this journal is about my writing life, and I have to say, in that aspect, 2006 kind of kicked my butt. As I look back on my first journal entry of 2006, ahhh, my innocence. My naivete ... I sounded so hopeful, so optimistic. Here's a quote: "It's going to be a GREAT year! I just know something big is going to happen for me this year. It's MY year. :) Come along for the ride."

Although I did win one contest in 2006 with Preacher Man, (the Golden Acorn), it was such a promising year that just sort of fell apart. For example, I double-finaled in the prestigious Get Your Stiletto in the Door contest -- got RAVE comments in the first round and I was so optimistic going into the final round. And then ... the final round just sort of disintegrated. The contest coordinator went Missing In Action and none of the final round judges' scores were kept or publicized. Ultimately, they had to just return the entrants' fees and call the whole contest a wash.

An agent who I queried about Preacher Man seemed so interested -- we spoke several times on the phone and she told me she thought the manuscript was charming and well-written. After months and months of her keeping me on the hook, she ultimately declined to represent me. In addition, the editor at Steeple Hill who had given me some great feedback for revisions, by the time I'd made the revisions and sent them to her, had been let go from the company and the new editor wasn't nearly as admiring of me.

This business is TOUGH. And I have to admit I feel a little battered and torn. I saw a quote from a friend whose writing career is sky-rocketing, "Choose Happiness." I decided to take her advice. You can beat yourself up, even if everything is going well, because there's always that one thing that could be better. Perfection is absolutely never achieved. But if you take that approach of beating yourself up when things could be better, you let it all slip by -- the enjoyment of what you have achieved, and the happiness and feelings of accomplishment that they brought you.

So, what does that mean for me, as I face 2007? Well, first of all I think it means that I have to get back to writing for the pure joy of it -- not for the ulterior motive of trying to attract the New York publishers and get a foot in the door with them. Not to say I would turn down a contract if it came my way! (I'm not that far gone...) But that's not WHY I'm writing this year. Putting that much pressure on myself only stifled my ability to write and gain pleasure from it. Despite all the promise that the year held initially, I look back at 2006 and see that it wasn't a particularly productive year. I started several manuscripts, but didn't finish a single one. I need to free myself of all the pressure and just... write.

So, let's take a look at 2006's goals and take stock:

1. Pursue and obtain an agent specializing in Young Adult (beginning in January). Status: I did submit my YA manuscript, Casey V, to two agents. Neither of them thought that it was good enough to make an impact on the YA publishers they deal with. However, one of the agents offered to take a look at other YA manuscripts that I complete.

2. Write Book 2 of Casey V series. Plot Book 3. Status: After the feedback from the two agents (above) I decided that if I couldn't sell Book 1 in the series, I'd never sell Books 2 or 3. So I did plot Book 2, and wrote about four chapters, then put it on the backburner.

3. Submit Preacher Man to inspirational market (initially, without an agent.) Status: I submitted Preacher Man to four publishers that don't require agents and received three rejections. The one that is outstanding placed it first in the Golden Acorn contest (but I know better than to get my hopes up about it).

4. Enter more contests for YA and Inspirational, to get in front of editors/agents. Status: I entered both manuscripts in the Golden Heart.

5. Attend two writers conferences this year. Status: I attended the Chicago Spring Fling, and the RWA National Conference in Atlanta, GA.

Sooo ... with my new philosophy, do I even need writing goals this year? The answer is yes, definitely. With no goals I would tend to not do anything! And I'm not ready to take a whole year off. So here are my 2007 goals:

1. Write a new Young Adult novel with plenty of action, adventure, romance and a little bit of paranormal. When it's done, send it to the YA agent who offered to take a look at my new material.

2. Submit Preacher Man to the one last RWA-recognized Inspirational publisher I am aware of who doesn't require an agent.

3. Revise Keeper By Surprise. Take out the elements that make it unattractive to the category market, and submit it to Harlequin.

4. Have fun! Get the joy back! Choose happiness!

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