Friday Five for May 30, 2014

1. I finished my revisions for WIP #1. It went through some major changes, but it's beautiful. Now I need to find the editor that thinks so too. I queried three publishers earlier this week. I already received one rejection. Yup, two days after I queried, I was rejected. Remarkably, I wasn't totally devastated. I'd love to get picked up by a publisher, but if the manuscript doesn't find a home somewhere, I will self-publish it. A few years ago, I wouldn't have been comfortable with that possibility, but I am now.

2. No word on any of the short stories or the novella I submitted. Waiting never gets any easier.

3. My son had his last day of school and now summer vacation begins. Unfortunately for the poor guy, it starts with him feeling sick. Yet he really wanted to go to his last day of school. I'm happy he loves it so much.

4. Did you see Annalisa Crawford's awesome new cover? Check it out.

5. There are two fabulous giveaways happening over on Untethered Realms. Mary Pax is having a Roadtrip Audiobook giveaway, and Cherie Reich is giving away a huge prize pack of several books including a signed print version of her new YA fantasy novel, REBORN.

Have a wonderful weekend!

IWSG for May 2014

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is the brilliant idea of Alex J. Cavanaugh. The purpose of the group is to share doubts and insecurities and to encourage one another. Please visit the other participants and share your support. A kind word goes a long way.

I'll be querying very soon. As if that isn't terrifying in itself, I've now developed a new worry.

I have a list of publishers I want to query. But what if they aren't the right publishers for me? I've done all my research. These are the ones that I consider the best for this particular manuscript. Yet I could be wrong.

I won't know until it's done. That's the risk we have to take as writers. I've already had one bad experience with a publisher. Maybe old fears are surfacing from that.

I'm curious about those of you who have queried and found a happy home with a press. How did you know they were the right publisher for you? Or how about those bad experiences? Please share those too. 

Friday Five for January 31, 2014

1. I finished the 3rd draft of my WIP. Yay! Right on schedule with my goals for this year. It's been sent to my CPs and betas. Now I wait. Is anyone done reading yet?! Waiting is the hardest part. Best I get started on the revisions for my superhero WIP.

2. I sent my short story for the Untethered Realms anthology to be revised. Ahead of schedule. Though I didn't write it this month. I can't count it as one of the short stories for my goals this year. Novels come first this year, though. And querying. Yikes!

3. Oh! That reminds me: thank you to all of you who left tips on my Wednesday post about querying. Those were really helpful. I have a specific publisher in mind that I want to try first. If I have no luck there, I'll make a list and start sending queries out in small groups.

4. I have a parent-teacher conference this morning. Why do I feel so nervous? I know my son is smart, sweet, and well mannered. The other day my husband was playing Flow on his iPhone and the boy wanted to give it a try. He picked it up right away. A genius! Then later in the day he threw a fit to take down the bathroom because the ice cubes I gave him to play with in the tub were melting. Yup. I have to keep reminding myself he's just 3.

5. I'm doing all right for my goals this year. I get an A+ for revising, but only a D for managing to balance writing and networking. Yet I get a B+ for relaxing before bed and going to sleep at a reasonable hour. I've only had to have one nap this month. This is a huge improvement over last year when I wanted to nap five days of the week because I was so tired.

It's Friday! Woot! Have a wonderful weekend.

Wicked Wednesday - querying paranormal romance

Since I'll be querying my paranormal romance (PNR) novel soon, I've been doing a lot of reading about how to write the most effective letter. PNR stories are so varied and quite popular these days. You need to stand out to get noticed, and it all starts with this one email.

The same rules for any query letter apply here too:

- Be professional.

- Be concise.

- Mind your manners.

You want to hook the editor or agent. Most people reading queries for PNR don't want the email to start off with the boring "I'm seeking representation for my blah blah blah." Jump right into it. Ensnare them immediately with the story hook.

If you're able to capture the hook in one sentence, go for it. It's difficult because you want it to encompass the protagonist, the tone, and the conflict. Example: When reluctant psychic, Remy Jones, saves the life of an old woman, she doesn’t expect to be granted a wish in return. (Keri Arthur's HEART'S WISH)

The brief blurb for the book should be between four and six sentences. Make every word count. You must cover the who, what, where, when, and why. And it can't be an every day voice. This is PNR. You must take them out of the ordinary. Also remember that the romance is key. It's what everything hinges upon. Grab their hearts and twist with a great furry werewolf hand.

Include tropes. If you think you don't have any, read your manuscript again. They're there. The tropes like vampires-hate-werewolves-but-protagonist-falls-in-love-with-one or best-friends-turned-lovers are important for the agent or editor to know where you're coming from. PNR publishers tend to like Alpha males, but they won't totally discount you if you have another powerful trope. There's also a call for unique supernatural creatures.

I wish I could offer you more tips than these. I wish someone could tell me what the secret is to writing an amazing query letter. As much as we want to break it down and make a science of it, it's more about heart than anything else.

Do you have any tips for writing query letters?

Friday Five for January 24, 2014

1. I started on the third draft of my WIP. One step closer to a beautiful polish and then, oh no, querying! Yikes! Is it okay to start panicking about that now even though I'm not close to starting to do it yet? I have all these different scenarios playing out in my head. I think I've covered every possibility. Of course, something I totally didn't expect will happen. Hence the panic.

2. When I started the work on my third draft, I made a new list of plot points for the chapters. (Since I changed the chapters around in the second draft.) I marked out parts for action, romance, characterization, and key plot points. I even used colored pencils. I really liked using color. Did it help me? Well, everything looks to be in order just the way it is. Until my CPs and beta readers have their say, that is! I'm on the right track, though.

3. Lots of school delays this week. We don't have a ton of snow, but it's frigid. My day to assist in my son's preschool class is on Monday. By the look of the forecast, we're due for another delay. Class will be later, so I'll be sitting down to have lunch with nine three-year-olds. It has the possibility of great entertainment. Let's hope it's all comedy!

4. This week I ordered flowers for my mom (who's retiring in a week) and my Nana (whose birthday is at the beginning of February). It made me get excited about growing more in our garden this year. Then thinking about the warmer weather, I decided I needed a wide brimmed sun hat. Maybe a straw hat or something in that fashion. My thoughts came to a screeching halt. When did I become a woman who wears a straw hat?!

5. No plans for the weekend which is nice. What about you?

Revising, planning and deciding

This week I'll be doing some more revisions on my latest WIP. Hopefully I'll get the majority of it done before November. I might send out my first query for it on the weekend. The cover letter and synopsis have been worked over about ten times now. Are they perfect? No. I don't think I'll ever get a cover letter and synopsis perfect, but they're good. Much better than what I started with.

I did some planning for my NaNo novel. I usually don't plan ahead and I'm finding it difficult to do so. I gathered a list of names and monsters from the net. This will keep me from searching for something online when I should be writing. I have all the main characters named, described and generally settled into the plot. That really means I know who the good guys and bad guys are. I know the general overall plot. I know how it will start and how it will end. The middle, well, I have no idea. I tried to plan out each event, but after the first five, my muse smacked me with a stop sign. I'm not allowed to know until I get there. That's how it usually goes with my writing. I know it might drive some people bonkers, but I like the surprise. I like just writing and seeing where it takes me. Do my stories make sense that way? Yes, they do. Somehow I'm able to keep everything together. Sometimes I'm jealous of the plotters, because it seems it would be much easier in the long run. Yet I'm happy to be a pantser. (I really wish there was a different word for that!)

I still haven't decided on a Halloween costume yet. I went out this weekend, but there wasn't anything that caught my eye that I could afford. I thought about just going in a silly outfit as a character from someecards with a little poster board around my neck with the sarcastic saying. Ah, those ecards make me laugh!

 

 My other idea was making a big poster with a hole cut out for my head and design it as a MySpace page for a zombie. When I don't get enough sleep, I look like the dead!

Finally, please come by on Halloween when I'll have a special treat for you.