2008 Journal



Don't miss Laurie's past journal entries. Here are the archives: 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002	2008 Journal I'll keep you posted here on all my writing adventures... August 12, 2008: Don't you LOVE the Olympics? I'm an absolute Olympic junkie, and I am so enjoying the 2008 Beijing Olympics! There have been so many Olympic moments already -- the men's swim relay where the American men beat the French by 8 one hundredths of a second -- after the French men boasted, "The Americans? We'll smash them. That's what we came here for." And the Men's Gymnastics team winning the bronze medal last night -- it was worth staying up till midnight, and yawning all day today for! That team's superstars -- the Hamm brothers, including Paul, an Olympic champion already, both dropped out due to injury, sending two alternates in their places. Although those guys were very talented gymnasts, none of them had ever gone to the Olympics, and I don't think many of them had ever competed at an international level. And they BEAT every men's gymnastics team out there, except for China and Japan! As they cheered and hugged and beat each other on their backs, I was cheering along with them, with tears in my eyes. Although I'm not an athlete, I so love and GET the Olympics. Maybe because there are so many great stories there! Signing off to go watch so more... August 4, 2008: This summer is just squealing by! School starts in just a few weeks, so that is officially the end of summer, regardless of what the calendar says. I'll have one more Book Bonanza multi-book giveaway before I go back to giving away one book at a time! The RWA National Conference is over and soon we'll start seeing a ton of blogs all over the web talking about what a fabulous time everyone had. Here's a link to the Golden Heart/RITA Award winners. I'm sure with Suzanne Brockmann emceeing the ceremony, it was a rockin' time! I've thrown my hat in the ring to run for RWA Board of Directors!! Stay tuned about what happens next, and if you're a card-carrying RWA member, I hope you'll consider voting for me! I'm happy to report that I've done some important pre-work on my next book. I've written a backstory for both my hero and heroine, then I put together a Goal Motivation and Conflict (GMC) chart for each of them. And I outlined the first chapter. I can't wait to start writing. July 4, 2008: Happy Independence Day to all Americans! As I sit here by my open window in central Illinois, it's an absolutely gorgeous day, and I hope it's the same for you, wherever you are. Enjoy your relaxation, picnic-ing, partying and fireworks! And God Bless America, always. I have a hodge-podge of things to share today, the first of which are pictures from my Author Talk in St. Joseph, Illinois a few weeks ago. I had a small but very interested and welcoming group of readers and writers. I talked about the journey to publication of my two new books -- what happens from the time it's contracted, on. Here are some pictures to enjoy from that event: The romance writing world is gearing up for the RWA National Conference at the end of this month, this year being held in San Francisco, CA. Although I'm not going, I can't help getting caught up in all the excitement of the conference: meeting new friends and catching up with old, visiting with industry professionals like agents and editors, and of course, the prestigious RITA and Golden Heart ceremony. The RITA is to romance writing what the Oscar is to movie actors. The Golden Heart is kind of the runner-up to the RITA for excellence in unpublished romance fiction. Well, I found this cute video on YouTube that will help explain just how exciting and important the RITA is. Being a new author of The Wild Rose Press, I was very excited to see that my new publisher was mentioned in a Publisher's Weekly article. Check it out here. June 13, 2008: Friday the 13th! That date is so hyped up to make you shiver in trepidation, that we just can't help it: thanks to Jason and the hockey mask, we all expect the worst on this day. Fortunately, NOTHING bad has happened to me today. (I hope I didn't just jinx myself. Ha ha) I guess the biggest news in my writing world is that I'm on sabbatical! I've been putting the pedal to the medal this year, between selling two manuscripts, doing all the pre-production work for both, making edits suggested by my editors, reading galleys, finishing a new manuscript, pitching it, and submitting it. I'm beat! But in a good way. So, as I often do this time of year when my son's baseball season is just crazy-wild, I'm taking some time off writing. And instead, doing a LOT of reading! (Which explains my Summer Big Book Giveaway Bonanza!) Meanwhile, I'm letting my muse relax and regenerate, and I'm mulling around the two ideas I have for new books, trying to decide which one I'll begin in August when my sabbatical is over. This Monday I'm traveling to St. Joseph, Illinois, where I'll do an author talk at the library there. I visited that library a few years ago and I was thrilled when they invited me back. Although my new books aren't out yet, I'm going to talk about the road to publication for both the books, show my new covers, and read excerpts from both books. Hope everyone's enjoying their summer! May 22, 2008: Here's something really cool! I attended a chat with Wild Rose Press authors and staff, and I met (online) Kimberlee Mendoza, the artist who did both my fabulous new covers. When I thanked her, and told her which books were mine, she said, "The Chronicles cover is my favorite cover I've ever done!!!" It's been a busy month! Since my last post, I went through all my suggested edits from my editor for Casey V. She is a very thorough editor and made a lot of good suggestions. A few of her suggestions resulted in writing new scenes or beefing up existing ones, and I agree that they made the book stronger and flow better! Next, I did one last galley proof of Preacher Man. PM is now officially proofed and ready for Production! That means I'll be given a release date soon -- actually two of them, one for electronic release and one for print release. I can't WAIT to find out when the book will be available for purchase. I HOPE HOPE HOPE it's in time for Christmas! Then I moved on to writing my synopsis for Inner Diva. After I pitched to Victoria Curran last month at Spring Fling and got the invitation to submit to Gail Chasan, I realized that although the manuscript is complete, I didn't have a synopsis. I worked on that, as well as a cover letter, and had my critique partner-extraordinaire do her magic with it, and sent it out this week. In addition, I sent the three chapters of Inner Diva out to Grand Central Publishing for my critique by an editor there -- my prize I won at the Spring Fling Silent Auction. WOW -- I've really had a flurry of writing activity, not just this month, but this whole year. Therefore, I'm going to take some time off. At least till the end of baseball season (early July). The month of June I'm going to do a lot of reading, refresh my muse and start dreaming about my next book that I'll start in July or August. April 27, 2008: I'm back from the Chicago Spring Fling conference and I had a great time. It's always so GOOD to be with other writers and to be exposed to professionals in the industry, and this conference is particularly good among regional RWA conferences that I've been to. It was in the beautiful Deerfield Hyatt and the keynote speakers were Debbie Macomber, Eloisa James and Christie Ridgway. There were a variety of editors from major romance publishing houses, and agents who represent romance and are actively seeking clients. Because this is my second time to this particular conference, I got reacquainted with friends that I had met last time, as well as past national conferences, and since everyone is always so friendly in the romance community, I met tons of new friends too. A few things I'm particularly happy to have accomplished during this conference: I pitched Inner Diva to Victoria Curran of Harlequin, and she said the story sounds "promising." She invited me to send it to Gail Chasan, the senior editor of the Special Edition line, and tell her that she recommended I do so! During a silent auction I won the high bid on a partial manuscript critique by Michelle Bidelspach, an editor at Grand Central (previously Warner Books) Publishing. It'll be great to get her feedback on Inner Diva, and the money all goes to Literacy Chicago. Met a few of my fellow Wild Rose Press authors. Enjoyed all the Keynote speakers' addresses, but especially the incredible and highly motivational Debbie Macomber. That woman is a wonder. Got invited to participate in a library author day in October. Met up again with my conference buddy, Leesa Whitson, whom I only ever see at conferences! Had a great time with my buddy Jenna Petersen/Jess Michaels since we rode in the car together roundtrip and hooked up during the conference for various meals, etc. My conference buddy Leesa Jenna Petersen/Jess Michaels Allie Pleiter and Jesse at the booksigning When I got home and checked my email, I saw that my first round edits on Casey V had come in. I have 30 days to ponder what the editor recommended, do some corrections, and add a new scene or two, and then she recommended that I have a critique partner read through it again. April 20, 2008: Just a quick update right now, because I'm on my way out of town for a baseball doubleheader. Yes, my son's 70-game baseball season has begun, so most of my free time will be taken up with that. BUT big news in my writing world: the cover of Casey V is done! And I love it. It's a great teen-cover for a teen-book and I'm really happy with it. Here it is. Since my last post, I've had a flurry of activity. I proofed the galleys of Preacher Man -- the pages as they'll look when they're in final book form. I read through the whole thing, looking for errors (I found 11) and I decided to change the excerpt on the first page. Then, I got the pre-production work to do for Casey V -- the author's bio, the dedication, the excerpt, and the very detailed questionnaire that the artist uses to design the cover. AND I did my final draft revisions on my new book, Inner Diva, in order to get it all polished and shined in time for my pitch appointment next weekend with Harlequin editor, Victoria Curran. So it's been a BUSY couple weeks. In addition, I had my Vrooman Mansion book event a few nights ago, which went GREAT. I'll post pictures to my Photo Album soon. Better run! Update: Here are the Vrooman Mansion event photos! April 1, 2008: Someone pinch me. This year keeps getting better and better. And no, it is NOT an April Fool's joke! Two really exciting things have happened recently: My book cover for Preacher Man is done, and it's beautiful! Click here for a look. I love the Chicago skyline and the lake. And the motorcycle plays such an important role in Regan and Josh's first date. I really like what cover artist Kimberly Mendoza did with the cover. And even more exciting, I got ANOTHER contract last night from The Wild Rose Press. They loved Casey V and want to publish it! For the first time in my career, I'll have two books in production at the same time, which means of course, eventually, I'll have two books to promote at the same time! To two different demographic groups. One's an inspirational (adult) romance, and the other is a Young Adult. But I can do it and I'll make sure I enjoy every minute of it. In other news -- today I got the final page proofs for Preacher Man. I need to read through it one more time and catch any last minute errors and typos. I have a 4/10 deadline so I better do it quick. I'm supposed to be doing a last read-through/final revisions on my Inner Diva manuscript because I'm pitching it to a Harlequin/Silhouette editor (Victoria Curran) on April 26 at the Chicago Spring Fling conference. But I haven't done much more than print it out. I better get busy on it. I'm excited about a neat booksigning event I have coming up. Take a look at this cool flyer about it, and if you're in the area, I hope you stop by. I said to my mother the other day, "I'm so glad I stuck with my writing through the last two years, which were really rough." It's so true. 2008 has been unbelievable. Take a look at what I'd just written in my first journal entry of this year: "... 2004 and 2005 were great, fantastic, happy years. Infectious in their productivity and excitement. 2006 and 2007, not so much. In fact, I'll go so far to say that my most recent year, SUCKED. Really. I need to change that (as if I have anything to say about it). I'm serious. I don't know how many more writing years I can go through like 2006 and 2007. I want more like 2004 and 2005." This is a TOUGH business. I'm going to relish my years like this one! March 9, 2008: A couple great things happened since the last time I journaled: I finished my first draft of Inner Diva! That means I need to give it its own Book page on this website! I'll do that soon. I've let it "simmer" for two weeks, so this week I'll start going back through and polishing, and fixing scenes that need help. My editor for Preacher Man finished her first edits of the manuscript and had the most absolutely wonderful things to say about it: "I have only suggested a few changes throughout the novel. Mostly everything was perfect! Regan was the ideal heroine you couldn't help but love for her humanness and vulnerability. Josh -- my goodness -- he is every woman's dream come true!! I read the entire novel in one sitting -- couldn't put it down!! 5 stars, etc." Needless to say I've been on cloud nine since I got her note. February 18, 2008: My good luck continues ... at my RWA Chapter meeting on the 6th I won the drawing for a Barnes and Noble gift certificate! I also brought pages I'd written in, a fight scene from my WIP (work in progress) and it got, uh, critiqued. Heavily. Well, I did warn them that I'd never written a fight scene before (at least not that I can remember) and it was rough. They must've agreed. They did offer some ideas that I think I can work with to improve the scene. And the rest -- forget it. It's the writer's prerogative to throw out any suggestions that don't work for her. And can I just take this opportunity to say, that when critiquing other writers' work, it's best to remember what your mom used to tell you, "Treat others as you'd like to be treated." Because eventually it'll be YOU who's up there putting yourself on the line... Anyway, I've also done some work for my new publisher, The Wild Rose Press. Last week, I worked on the back cover blurb for Preacher Man, the author's bio for the publisher's website, and a marketing plan. In fact, they've already created me a new author's webpage, so check it out: I really like it! And my outfit matches the page. Ha ha. I haven't done much (ie., ANY) writing in the last two weeks, so tonight I'm turning over a new leaf. My goal is to finish the first draft of Inner Diva by March 5 so I can revise and polish it in time for my pitch to the Harlequin editor at the Chicago Spring Fling conference the end of April. And I'm on schedule, despite the two week reprieve. I only have one chapter left and I'm DONE. What a glorious feeling. February 4, 2008: Best news possible! I'm thrilled to announce that I received a contract offer from The Wild Rose Press to publish Preacher Man in their White Rose (Inspirational Romance) line!! My editor has been extremely complimentary of the manuscript. In fact, here are some of the wonderful things she said about "my baby:" it's absolutely delightful she LOVED the manuscript it's the most well-written manuscript she's read in awhile. Every author's dream is to find the editor who loves her book, and will champion it as much as she does. I feel confident that I found just the right editor for Preacher Man! For those keeping track, I still have a full manuscript of Casey V being reviewed by Wild Rose. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for two contracts at once! Stay tuned... January 27, 2008: Two great things happened this week: 1) I worked like crazy on the revisions for Casey V that the Wild Rose Press Young Adult editor suggested. At first I was nervous about cutting anything out. I mean, I love the Casey V voice, and it has gotten several great compliments from test readers and contest judges! On the other hand, it wasn't selling, so maybe this was part of the reason why. So I started chopping. And then I got addicted to it! Any word that was redundant or fluffy or could be said in a shorter way without losing meaning, GONE! I cut so much that when I was done, I realized I'd cut 35 pages!!! My last step was to print it all out again and read through it like a reader with fresh eyes, looking for places where it was choppy or didn't flow. After cutting 35 pages, it only had two problem areas, which I then fixed. I sent it off to the editor yesterday. I'm thinking I made the manuscript stronger. I hope she agrees! 2) On Wednesday, the same publisher, Wild Rose Press, sent me an email, this time from the Inspirational line editor. She thought my partial submission of Preacher Man (50 pages) was "engaging and promising!" And she asked for a full manuscript, which I sent right away. So I have two manuscripts sitting on the desks of two different editors, both of whom had very positive things to say about the partials! It's a good position to be in! I'm keeping my fingers crossed. January 13, 2008: Wow, my 2008 is off and running and I have some exciting things to report. First of all, a wonderful local magazine called TC Style featured me in their January issue this week. It comes out in both print and online. Here's the online version. I really enjoyed the article and the picture was good too! It's generated a lot of talk and "I saw your article!" around work and other places, so that's nice. In other exciting news, I have an editor somewhat interested in Casey V. I had submitted a query to The Wild Rose Press in December for both Preacher Man and Casey V. Both editors wrote back very promptly asking for partial submissions. After I sent them, the Young Adult editor wrote back with some very positive comments about the manuscript. "I enjoyed THE CHRONICLES OF CASEY V. The first person viewpoint is fresh and interesting, and Casey has a unique voice. You definitely have the teen voice down and have developed a likeable main character. It's a fun read, with lots of humor, & the story has teen-appeal." So, she's very enthused about it! She also provided me with some very good ideas on how to streamline the manuscript and cut out some fluff that detracts from the flow of the story. So that's what I'm working on now. If I can cut from the manuscript, without cutting from the story, she'd like to see the complete manuscript. So that's my challenge! I'm thrilled that she spent so much time giving me pointers, and I hope it results in a much stronger book! January 6, 2008: I wrote eleven pages this morning!! That's a really good way to get started on a new year of writing. In fact, if I count all the pages I've written this week, it totals 21 -- which is actually the monthly goal I set on Wednesday at my RWA chapter meeting. So I'm off and running. I'm towards the end of Inner Diva, closing in on the "Black Moment" and climax scene, and then the Happily Ever After (that all romances have) so I'm really aching to get this one under wraps and move on. I wanted to elaborate on something I mentioned briefly in yesterday's entry -- I'm going to partner with another writer to critique each others' work, help motivate each other, and hopefully, celebrate in each others' successes this year. This writer, whose name also happens to be Laurie, has declared it "The Year of the Lauries!" She has published one erotic novella with Whiskey Creek Press under the name Leah Collins, and is now represented by a big-time agent for her action-adventure books, which she has two done, and is working on a third. She's an excellent writer, and I know she's got some great things ahead of her. And for some reason, she's a fan of my writing! She had some excellent insights into what to change about Inner Diva to make it better, and I really trust her critiques. :) So who knows, maybe we'll both have a sale to celebrate soon. January 5, 2008: I haven't written that new year enough times yet to be accustomed to the fact that it is, actually, 2008! Wild. Well, happy new year, everyone. It's hard to believe that in starting my 2008 online writing journal, I've been doing this for six years -- this, meaning chronicling my writing adventures online via this website. For kicks, I went back and read through some of my previous years' entries in archive, and I saw that 2004 and 2005 were great, fantastic, happy years. Infectious in their productivity and excitement. 2006 and 2007, not so much. In fact, I'll go so far to say that my most recent year, SUCKED. Really. I need to change that (as if I have anything to say about it). I'm serious. I don't know how many more writing years I can go through like 2006 and 2007. I want more like 2004 and 2005. So, the first thing is, I'm going to start writing regularly again, something that had sort of slipped away in '07. And I'm going to partner with another writer -- take the "there's safety in numbers" approach to continuing my publishing journey. And I'm going to get the joy back. Somehow. So, here's my new goals for 2008: 1. Finish writing Inner Diva by April 15, 2008. 2. Pitch Inner Diva to a Harlequin/Silhouette editor at the Chicago Spring Fling conference in April. *3. Revise Keeper By Surprise. Take out the elements that make it unattractive to the category market, and submit it to Harlequin.* 4. Start one new manuscript. 5. Make a sale. 6. Have fun! Get the joy back! Choose happiness!
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