8 questions

a lovely friend of mine, jen, tagged me in a bit of a random bloggy questionnaire. it's super cute, and a bit of fun, so i thought i'd post my responses. :) [side note - there's a link to her blog right over there, in the right column.]

 1. You must post the rules.

2. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post.

3. Create eight new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged. 

4. Tag eight people with a link to your post.

5. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

jen's questions for me:

1. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?

this is difficult, but i think i'd have to choose the book that a) is the first one that i remember reading multiple times as a child, b) was my introduction to science fiction/fantasy sort of stories (and therefore my eventual nerdiness, which i embrace wholeheartedly), and c) i still love, even now as an adult. that book? it's A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine L'Engle.

2. Would you rather always be under dressed or overdressed?

honestly, i love pretty clothes and shoes. however, there's nothing better than a comfy pair of jeans and a v-neck t-shirt with some chucks, so i'd have to say i'd rather be under dressed.

3. What shoe do you put on first?

i am a weirdo, and i don't even pay attention. honestly, once i've decided which shoes i'm going to wear, i just pick whichever one is nearest and go with it. [side note - when i'm trying shoes on, i always try the right one]

4. Pepsi or Coke?

i don't drink sodas anymore, so can i have a latte instead, please? haha. but really: coke. as a kid, i was basically force fed pepsi and i think it's gross now.

5. Do you sleep with your bedroom door open or closed?

most of the time, it's cracked - not wide open, not totally closed.

6.  What is one talent you wish you had?

i wish i was more crafty than i am. i can do some things, and i can follow instructions if they are available, but i'm not good at the logistics of actually planning a project myself.

7. Is your personality like that of your astrological sign?

well, i'm sort of half and half, really. i do love travel, adventure, and meeting new people, and i also love to learn (sagittarians are typically knowledge-seekers). i rely a lot on intuition, which is apparently an assumption about many of us born in late november and early-to-mid december, too. however, it's also a stereotype that sagittarians are prone to glossing over problems and not dealing with them, but that couldn't be further from the truth. it's also an assumption that sagittarians are commitment-phobes, and... well... that is not remotely accurate. so, short answer? kind of. haha.

8. If you could only save one keepsake, what would it be?

i've often thought about what i would do if my house was on fire. what would i grab, provided my kids and husband were safe? and the answer is pretty easy. although it would pain me to watch all my books go up in flames, i'd grab my iMac, because it includes all my photos, and i can't even stomach the idea of not having a documentation of her growing up. (it also holds all of my writing projects.) however, if we're talking actual keepsake: there's a small, precious moments piece of wall decor that was always on the wall in my bedroom as a child and now hangs in my daughter's room. it holds more meaning for me than i can adequately express.

 i'm not going to prompt anyone in particular, because hardly anyone actually follows this blog, but i will list 8 questions in case anyone wants to answer them:

1. which random item do you wish you'd invented?
2. if you could travel anywhere for 2 weeks, where would you go and why? 
3. if you could jump into the universe of a single book or book series which would you choose? 
4. which song do you listen to when you're happiest? 
5. fill in the blank: my favorite word is __________.
6. which is your favorite x-men character and why?
7. which would you rather: an afternoon alone or an afternoon spent in a group?
8. if you could interview any celebrity, which would you choose?

tada. if you post your responses, let me know. :) you can do it in the comments here, if you're so inclined, or not at all.

update: querying process

so, i wrote a book.

and when i finished it, i was all, "yesssssss, i wrote a book, oh-em-gee, amazing!" right? i was (am) so proud, and it's 74000 words of YA fantasy, which is (to be honest) a genre that i never thought i would write. i love my protagonists, i love where the story is going, and i love that the story arc itself challenges and excites me.

i sent it to some people for feedback, and then made a quick pass of edits to get it cleaned up a bit. then, a few weeks ago, i send the quick-edited draft to a friend who is an editor by trade for a comprehensive check of grammar and the writing in general.

all of this editing?

it's to prep the manuscript as best as i can for the querying process.

in the event that anyone reading this doesn't know what that is: querying is the process of sending a summary of your work to various agents in an attempt to find representation for yourself, as an author. this representation could be for a single work, but really, most agents want to represent an author's entire body of works - including current and future projects.

so, here's the tricky bit:

your query letter summary should be... oh, 200 words. maybe 300, if you're pushing it. because the whole thing should be no more than 500 words.

this is difficult at best. i'm sure you can imagine why, but let me just list a few reasons:

• as an author, you probably want to include more than is necessary
• you never really know what will catch peoples' interest
• every. single. word. better be perfect. 

and and and!

it's not abnormal to get rejection after rejection before you find that one agent that will represent your work and believes in you and your skill. as an example, a dear friend of mine is going to be published next may, and if you ask me, her manuscript is gorgeously and crisply written, is really quite original, and includes a really strong storyline, and she was rejected 60 times before she received an offer for representation.

so, you know... super fun.

but there's a huge reason that i'm willing to put myself through this, and it's huge:

most major publishing houses will only considered agented manuscripts.

there's a million reasons for this, but i'm almost positive that most of them have to do with the inherent quality of an agented manuscript versus those that are not.

so, where am i in this process?

my query summary is drafted. i'm taking a few days away from it to come back and review it, and then i'll be putting the rest of the letter together for emailing. i have a list of about fifteen agents that i'll be querying initially, and i'll be looking up at least fifteen more. the plan, right now, is to send out 10 at a time, once a week.

basically:

this will be (and is, even preemptively) me:

via

because i'll be a hot mess, its likely that i will want an exorbitant amount of this: 

 

via 

meanwhile, all the agents will be like this: 

 

via

i'm only sort of kidding.

side note: ryan gosling, you are a sexy beast. 

anyway, back on topic:

querying. yes, the very thought makes me nauseous, but this is a step toward my dream of having a proper writing career, and so it simply is what it is. the fact that my entire career is based on this very brief letter only increases my desire that this letter be spot-on-freaking-perfect.

is there something you want to do in your life that makes you as anxious as this makes me?

music and me: my favorite band

one really important thing people should know about me?

i'm a music fanatic - unabashed, almost to the point of pain sometimes.

from a very young age, i learned that music was incredibly important to me - it could deepen or adjust my mood, and what's more, i found that i could sing, and that made it all fun. at this point in my life, music plays heavily into anything i write, so in a very real way, it helps me develop tone and characters and the whole nine.

 

via

i listen to every type of music from pop to metal to classical and Broadway tunes, but my favorite - my home base, if you will - is rock. i can't really explain why. i do love me some pop music (as a matter of fact, robyn, the singer of the song that inspired this blog url, is one of my all time favorite performers ever), but at the end of the day, my favorite band plays rock music and i wouldn't have it any other way.

that band?

via

foo fighters.

aside from the fact that dave grohl is a rock god, i love every album they've ever released, and i've been listening to them since i was fifteen. it's impossible for me to choose my top 5 favorites from their catalog - i actually just tried and failed rather spectacularly, for the record. however, i will say that if i ever get up the nerve to get any of the three tattoos i would like to have, the first one will be a snippet of a foo lyric.

bamf

so, yeah. foo. love them.

but i still haven't seen them live. le suck. i'm hoping to remedy that in 2013.

i've decided that maybe album reviews or at least "here's what i'm loving right now" sort of posts will be a regular thing here, which is pretty exciting, all things considered.

in that vein? sometime this week, you can expect a review of the new mumford & sons album, babel, because they have cemented themselves a place on my list of favorite bands with its release. hope everybody's having a killer week.

what's your favorite band?


hearts,
b

a new start

over the last ten years or so, i've probably had twenty different blogs. it all started with livejournal (i'm old, apparently) and continued to build from there. it's been a long, twisty road, and i was never able to keep up any real sort of commitment to any of the blogs i've had, whether they were a real, official blog  or something as simple as tumblr.

perhaps i'm a bit slow, but i've just realized that the reason for this - the reason i could never stay motivated to post regularly - is because i always, always, always shoved myself into a corner, content-wise. all of the blogs have had themes instead of just being a place where i can deposit my mind's meandering thoughts whenever i see fit.

novel idea, i know.

so that's the goal here.

(side note: if you read any of the other 8 bajillion blogs i've been a part of, please note that they are all closed. another side note: an additional goal for this blog is to use it before, during, and after i (hopefully) attain a publishing deal, so i'm doing the initial thing for now, as i intend to use a pen name if i ever get a book deal.)

a few more impacting things you should know, in no particular order:

i've acquired a recent affinity for typing in all lowercase letters. perhaps this has something to with my daughter (who is 4) preferring them to capitals. or maybe my pinkies are tired of hitting the shift button, and we all know caps locking all the time is just plain rude.

i'm an aspiring YA author. my current project is fantasy, the first book in a trilogy, and i'll be querying for agent representation soon. (i do not, however, type my books in all lowercase letters. in case you were wondering. (although that really worked for david levithan and john green in WG,WG.)

i am a wife, a mother, a big sister, a friend, and a foodie. also, i'm somewhat obsessed with coffee in varying forms, but i'm convinced that once one declares oneself a writer, that comes with the territory.

i read obsessively. my to-be-read pile is currently over 120 books, and still growing.

i currently live in nashville, tennessee, but will soon be relocating back to my hometown of austin, texas, and i'm pretty excited about it.

i feel compelled to say that i'm not entirely sold on this blog background, and i may have a friend create one for me.

topics on this blog will likely range from books to writing to pop culture to genuinely nerdy, flaily posts about whatever may happen to come up. i'm contemplating a few different sort of theme post things, and will start posting soon. there will definitely be updates as i go through the querying process, and if you'd like me to talk about anything specific, feel free to ask.

also, this is one of the (very few) television shows that can keep my interest:

via

also-also, this blog url was taken from the song "in my eyes" by robyn.

if you're still here, i'd like you to know that there is fresh lemonade and a pile of homemade cookies just down the hall.

thanks for stopping by. won't you stay a while?

hearts,
b