A few updates.

Hey there.

I thought I'd blog quickly, just to give some updates regarding life in general for us, as well as a few big changes that are afoot. I like the word 'afoot;' it makes me giggle. But anyway.

So, here's the list:

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1) I'm still querying, sort of. The thing is, certain events have transpired to really make me think, and at this juncture, I'm not entirely convinced that publishing is an industry I even want to be a part of, in the traditional sense. I won't get into the whys... just know that they are numerous. Therefore, once the queries I've sent out expire, I think I'm going to sit on the manuscript for a while. It's not that I don't love writing - far from it - but to be honest, I'm a bit disenfranchised with several aspects of publishing at present, and I'm doing some soul searching.

2) That said, I am working on a few shorter pieces in my spare time, and that work has made me remember how much I love short fiction. We'll see if that goes anywhere.

3) (And this is a big one...) Ken and I are giving serious consideration to home schooling Bella once she hits first grade. The list of reasons for this is also very lengthy, and because I need somewhere to blab about them and the situation in general, I have a blog dedicated solely to the topic of Classical Education and the process we're going through as we contemplate and move toward it. I want to throw out there that neither of us have a problem with public school, in general. At this point, this is what we want, but I'm not sure how we're going to make it happen financially. (There is a Classical private school in Austin, but they are CRAY-CRAY regarding tuition.) If you go over there to that blog, or you leave a comment about homeschooling here, please leave your hate at the door. Support is what we need, as well as trust that we'll make the best decision for our family.

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4) That said, I have a job opportunity that is very promising, and would drastically change our future if/when it is made official. I appreciate your good thoughts in that regard (and also, I'd appreciate it if you'd all send "HURRY UP ALREADY" thoughts to said job). ;)

Aside from that, Ken is really enjoying his new job (although we've recently learned that he's working with my ex... which is a bit weird for me), and has completed his first session in school. 2 classes down, many more to go, but progress is progress, and I'm very proud of him.



I hope this finds you well and content. Life is too short for anything else.

- a

People, Words, Music, and Lack

I turned 30 in December, and since then, I've come to a lot of realizations about life and where I want to be and what everything means. It's a bit like I disappeared into the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and instead of coming up with 42, I got the real answer. Not that 42 isn't a real answer. Or something. And if you don't get that joke, I'm very sad for you.

Anyway.

Thing is, for several years, I've done what was easy for me.

Roughly translated: My life has sorely been lacking in passion.

I don't mean in my marriage or my friendships or whatever. And obviously, I've been writing a ton for the last few years, both on this blog and in other places, but what I mean is that I go to work, I come home. I go to work, I come home. I go to work. I come home.

And I'm bored all the while.

Because the fact of the matter is that I don't care about accounting, and that's what I work in, mostly because it's easy for me to get a job in that arena, and therefore: I am bored. I do good work, I'm efficient, and it's simple, for me. But I'm bored.

I did an inventory - a balls out sort of inventory, where I really tried to iron out my priorities. At the end of the day, here's the short list of things I care about, save my immediate family and friends (who are, generally speaking, more like family than most of the people who are technically classified as family based on genetic connectivity):

- people (both in and out of my life)
- words (i.e. writing and reading)
- music (no explanation necessary)

Yeah. No math.  No numbers. No office work.

Go figure.

So, anyway, this has been a really long, rambling way to get around to this announcement:

I'm going back to school, hopefully this fall, to get my Master's in Counseling from Saint Ed's. It's a 2-3 year program, exceptionally affordable by comparison to most of the other programs in this area, and I want it so bad I can taste it. Ken is wholly supporting, and feels a bit like "I told you so!" because he predicted this would happen years ago, as most people know.

When I think about what this would allow me to include in my life, I am giddy with excitement. I could work with people, day in, day out. I could make a difference in their lives, just by listening and offering quiet thoughts in return, if they want them. I could probably work part time and make more than I make doing my stupid accounting job, and I'd be happier, to boot. And that happiness? It's worth the strain of preparing to take (and ace?) the GRE, as well as managing life with a husband (who will also be in school) and a precocious daughter and school, all at once. Also, a social life.

Anyway.

So, yes, hopefully, you're reading the blog of a graduate of Saint Edward's University, Class of 2015 or 2016. Seeing LPC/LMFT behind my name is going to be pretty damn awesome.

P.S. For those of you wondering, yes, I am still querying my manuscript, and yes, I will still be writing. I will always write. Period.
P.S.S. It's Licensed Professional Counselor/Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I'd want both certifications.
 

In Which There is FLAIL

I JUST SENT MY FIRST QUERY LETTER!

AUUUUUUUGH.

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but also some of ok, a lot of this:

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all in all, though... HOOOORAAAAAAY! 

 

A Few Words on Self-Publishing

this has been something that folks have broached with me a handful of times here recently, because i've been pretty vocal about the fact that i have (finally, praise little sweet baby jesus) finished the edits and revisions for my manuscript. a couple people seem to think that i'm willing to contact amazon digital publishing or one of the other ePub companies at this point, and while i don't want to appear dismissive...

i don't.

like, not even a smidge.

i have no interest in pursuing that, and while i have a whole litany of reasons why, i thought i'd address the major hitters here. before i do this, though, i must repeat: these are my opinions. if you don't agree, that's fine. move along, then.

first and foremost: i believe in the traditional route to publishing. for those of you who may not actually know what this entails - because really, why would you, unless you are involved in said industry? - here's a quick and dirty version:

• have completed/edited manuscript in your possession
• query (this is the process of contacting literary agents for representation)
• sign with agent; work on manuscript more
• agent acts as liaison for you with publishers
• secure publishing deal

there's a ton of in-between work that happens within and after these five points, but all things considered, this is the basic gist.

i believe in this route to publishing for a million reasons, but one of the top ones is the sheer quality of work that tends to come out of this method. yes, you'll have some clunkers. but if you compare/contrast the quality between a traditionally published work and a large portion of self-published novels, you will see a distinct difference in quality, both with regard to writing, but also to marketing, and editing.

CAVEAT: of course there are some self-published/ePublished works that are of impeccable quality (an excellent example of this is Hugh Howey's WOOL series, which was originally published via amazon). unfortunately, this is not the norm.

second, an author is far less likely to receive a truly lucrative deal via self-publishing than traditional. there are a long list of reasons why this is the case, but primarily, this is because all of the big publishers - think harper, simon & schuster, penguin, scholastic - will not read your work unless an agent is involved. why? plain and simply: quality. so, you see, this is a rather circular discussion, eh?

third, generally speaking, self-publishing and then trying to attain the representation of an agent is rather difficult, for reasons that have to do with royalties/intellectual property/contract law/etc etc. translation: red tape ahoy. no, thank you.

now, if you asked me if i would CONSIDER self-publishing at any point, i would tell you that the answer is yes. but that would not really be an option for me unless i felt that i had exhausted all other resources, and to be frank, at this point, i am confident in my ability to attain the representation of an agent, which is a good chunk of the battle.

anyway, i just wanted to talk briefly (or, not so briefly, as it were) about this, because i do have strong feelings on the topic, and this is, after all, my little corner of the internet. ;)

happy sunday, all.

It's DONE.

Approximately 6 weeks of writing.
5 constructive criticism partners.
3 rounds of quick edits.
1 round of slow edits.
1 round of review/slow edits/additions.

74000 words.

I'm going to take a day off and then come back and adjust some formatting things, but my Book Baby is ready for querying now.

AUUUUUUGH.

**runs around dancing**

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(creepy)

Stuff to Get Done

i'm not even going to lie - the purpose of this blog entry is solely accountability for me. there are a handful of things i need to get done, things that continue to be put off for one reason or another, and i have to stop doing that. i figure if i post about it here, someone (if there is anyone) who reads this in my real life will prod me, which will give me the extra oomph of motivation to get these things done.

so, here they are, in no particular order:

1) finish the edits of my novel. i'm currently on page 93 of about 360, and after this pass through, i still have to give it a final read through.  i have to do this in order to query, because i refuse to query something that is lacking in quality. the end. due date: 1/24 - update 1/21 - on page 240/370  update 1/22 - on page 282/375 - LESS THAN 100 pages left! DONE! 1/24/13  - 9:20ish PM
2) buy B a new bed and new bedding. she's simply too tall for the one we have, but with the move and then the holidays, as well as K not having an income quite yet, other things took priority. due date: 3/1
3) buy a new belt. this sounds so stupid, i know, but i no longer have one that is small enough to actually help when jeans are too loose. and it's been this way since like ... october. yeah. i suck at buying things for myself. due date: 3/1
4) purchase notebook for v-day project. details must be kept on the hush. ;) due date: ASAP  done 1/16/13
     4a) actually complete v-day project. due date: 1/31 - done - 1/17/13

so, if you know me, and you see me in real life over the next handful of months, kick me in the shins if i haven't started these things.

hope everyone had a great weekend! i know we did. :)

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:

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

 

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meanwhile, all the agents will be like this: 

 

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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?