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.
 

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)

A Bookish Sort of Update

 before all the christmas business starts up, i wanted to post a few updates about a few sorts of booky information.

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1) after a whole lot of personal upheaval/stress/development type stuff, i will be back to editing my novel after this weekend. the goal is to get through it and start querying in january 2013. (if you're reading this, and you read the rough draft of my manuscript, and you're interested in reading the more finessed variation of the book, let me know.) i'm really excited to get back to it and i hope that 2013 is the Year in Which Ang Acquires an Agent as well as the Year in Which Ang Obtains a Publishing Deal.

2) furthermore, but along those same lines, i'll be outlining books 2 and 3 in the series betwixt editing. i'm really excited to get back to my characters, guys. like, really, really.

3) also, i think i'll be back to writing My Beautiful Disaster (tentative title) instead of my murder mystery book once querying begins.

moving on to something a bit different:

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4) i hit my reading stretch goal for the year. as of today, i've read 105 books, which is crazy and awesome. i'll probably read a good bit less next year, as i'll be writing and editing and querying (oh my!) throughout 2013, but i'm still going to aim for 60 books, or 5ish a month.

that's all for now.

:)

2012: 12 things.

with my 30th birthday approaching rather quickly, i thought i'd make a list of things i did in 2012, if only for my memory. in no particular order:

1) i lost 25 pounds, making me the thinnest i've been in over a decade.
2) i became a Whovian, because life is simply better with The Doctor.
3) i wrote a book. it's 74K of YA fantasy, and i'll be querying it in the new year.
4) i lived in nashville for the majority of the year, and loved every second.
5) i saw mumford live, finally.
6) i made a handful of new friends, whom i am convinced will be around for the long haul.
7) I (am on track to) read 104 books. holy awesome, batman.
8) i stopped drinking soda, finally, and for real.
9) i ran a 5K.
10) i grew my inner-book nerd to an exponential degree.
11) i loved fiercely.
12) i learned that i'm stronger than i think i am.

on december 8th, i will officially begin my 30s, and while there's quite a bit in my life that is in flux right now, i refuse to let it get me down. i got this.

thanks for being mostly awesome, 2012, but onward and upward, i say. happy birthday to me, y'all.

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NaNoWrimo 2012 : Thoughts on Drafting

you know what makes me laugh?

the assumption that so many people live under in which they actually believe writers are all hippies who write flowery words all day and never do any work.

fact #1: most writers i know are completely neurotic about their craft.
fact #2: writing is intensely personal, thereby enhancing the aforementioned neuroticism.
fact #3: writing well is hard. if it were easy, everyone would have a book deal.

i think one of the best parts of nanowrimo is that it forces people to put up or shut up. you will either write that required 50K or you won't, and really, it's all on you. if you're someone like me, who reacts well to this sort of pressure, you will likely thrive during nanowrimo. if not...well, it's likely that you'll hate nano. and here's why:

drafting a manuscript is bloody difficult on a good day.

so, when there's a looming deadline and a rather intimidating word count requirement...

you have to shove through the doubt and the fear and the questions and JUST WRITE.

but that's the beauty of nano, for me: because to finish a draft, well ... you have to finish a draft. which means you have to write the words. which means they have to get out of your head and "onto paper."

and that brings us to:

fact #4: the first draft of anything will be shit. if you think otherwise, you're crazy.

that's what revisions and edits are for. duh.

NaNoWriMo 2012

my life for the next 30 days, folks. i'll post a few blogs, i'm sure, but mostly, i'll be writing a creepy little story that's been plaguing me for the last few days.

are you NaNo'ing? GOOD LUCK if so! 

MWAH! 

-ang

writing: nanowrimo 2012

i'll be participating in national novel writing month (NaNoWriMo) again this november. this will be the second one in a row for me. last year, i NaNo'd in 2 weeks, because i ignored my need for sleep and also ended up getting a sinus infection that knocked me out of commission regarding work attendance for 2 days, so i wrote 10k in a single day.

i am lucky that i have the ability to write quickly, but also pretty cleanly, so it wasn't a total mess when i was done, but i made one rather massive mistake last year:

i wrote out of order.

i'm a chronological writer. it's how i work. i always have an ending point in mind, and usually a few major plot points determined; i let the more minor details work themselves out (and am usually pleased to find that because i let the characters boss me around a bit, the story has more depth and detail that i would initially have thought).

so, all my 8000 docs with various scenes written on them from last year?

yep, they are still all disjointed and sitting in a folder on my hard drive. i simply don't have the patience to fix/connect/adjust everything that it needs, so until i really have the time, that story will sit there, unworked. (boo, hiss.)

[side note: i have scrivener now, so organization is much easier.]

i am planning on continuing a project that i've already started for nano this year, which is technically against the rules, but i only have about 6-8k written of it, and that's a far cry from complete, so it is what it is. it's my goal to hit the nano goal of 50K written in november by about 3-4 days before the end of the month so that perhaps i'll be closer to 60K written for the month when everything is said and done.

what is this project, you ask?

it's a pretty angsty, dark and twisty little thing. nothing supernatural, no fantasy elements like the project i'll be querying soon. it's my (rather emotional) take on a classic boy-meets-girl story, and i really love the characters.

the protagonist is a boy.

this makes me happy-happy-happy.

that said, the playlist that helps me write the story? is primarily girl singers.

here's the song that inspired the whole shebang, performed live by the girl who wrote it:

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i think i love you like a car crash, dear

i don't want your wreckage, but i find i cannot steer

my eyes away now

in fact, miss nalick's entire second album has been vastly impacting regarding the story, the characters, and their development.

i'll link my nano profile in the right column over there,  but for now:

which songs inspire you?

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?

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.

 

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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?

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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