That festive stuff!

Wishing everyone a Merry and safe Christmas.

Today is my youngest's birthday and with a Chrissy Eve baby we do some juggling at Christmastime. We want her to feel special but we want to focus on Christmas too. She's been a bit sick today so it's been sad so far.

Anyone have a close to Christmas birthday? What do you do to make it stand out?

I think i'd hate the combined pressie thing. But i can see why it happens.

Not long til Santa visits here...

Road trip Wednesday - 6 words

Each week, YA Highway hosts Road Trip Wednesday, a blog carnival in which contributors discuss a topic on their blogs and invite readers to do the same. This week's RTW topic is:

Six-word memoirs

This is.... hard. Much harder than I would have thought. Um, i found myself wondering what matters most about my life and what i most want to say. And as I've probably mentioned before, I'm rubbish at decisions (among other things).

What's most important to me? My family. Unquestioned. Then my writing probably, I have all kinds of science degrees but them... not so much.

So it's this, for now:

Loving my family. Making a difference.

Lame? i don't know...

What's yours?

Waiting... chew fingernails or start something new?

Okay, so the first thing is that when I chew nails they bleed. My mother despaired of me as a child, from the yucky polish to taking toys away she tried everything to get me to stop biting my nails. They would bleed at the edges and it would drive her insane. Then one day, I was about 13, for no reason at all... i stopped cold. And all that nail biting gave me nice strong nails.

But this subbing, querying thing has put all that in danger.

I know i need to write something else. I KNOW. But isn't wallowing so much easier?
=)

My CP sold!!

After um, shall we say quite a few, years of trying one of my fab CPs sold today.

Yep, she got THE CALL!

To Special Edition. And I am so, so pleased for her. It's been a long road but she's nailed the line she was aiming for and it has paid off big time.

Congratulations Helen Lacey!

=)

It is possible. It can happen!!

Critterpalooza

There's a great contest over at The Bookshelf Muse raising money for a great cause.

There are some cool prizes up for grabs if you're a reader or a writer.

Enjoy!
=)

Loving my story

We've had an intense few weeks, my story and I. It's been emotional but having come through this latest lot of editing i hope we're closer than ever - to making it great.

I have to admit there were times when I could hardly bear to face it. Maybe we needed some time apart, maybe we needed to remember what brought us together in the first place. Through it all though the spark flickered.

And we're back in a good place.

What about you - is the story love always there?

=)

Endings

So, i'm getting there. not as fast as I'd like but nearly.

I'm wondering what makes a good ending. I think there needs to be some kind of symmetry with the beginning. i'm not sure if that's by setting or characters present or mood.

All, or maybe most, of the questions raised need to be tied up satisfactorily. this is the tricky bit. i've known some parts of the ending since I first had the idea. Does that mean it will be WAY too obvious for the reader? Or maybe I won't foreshadow enough and it will come out of the blue.

I hate decisions (It's the Libran in me).

How do you decide how to end a story?

=)

Requests

Thanks to the wonderful San Francisco Heart to Heart competition I now have an opportunity to submit my manuscript to an interested editor. Cue paralysing nerves.... must get the finishing touches done.

I've been reading Maria V. Snyder's Storm Glass and am very impressed. Something she's done well that i need to keep in mind is to create questions in my mind, ones i turn the page to find out. THAT's what I want to do for my reader.

But how to strike the right balance between keeping the reader wanting answers but not having them throw the book at the wall cos it doesn't make any sense?

getting better

Obviously I'd like to improve. To the point of publication... and beyond.
To that end I've enetered a great contest on Bookshelf Muse (one of my fave blogs) for a mentorship/crit opportunity. Check it out! Even if you're not interested in the contest, it's a great resource!

The other part of getting better is reading. I've been reading Scott Westerfeld's Uglies and have been blown away. I'd heard about this book but with a tbr pile that kinda looks like a small mountain it took a while to get to. Anyway, am almost finished and am so glad I did!

Obviously in between contests and reading I need to write. That's been the kicker lately. I love my story, know where i want it to go but I'm not sure I'm doing it justice. hopefully it will all work out in the edits.

=)

Contests

I've heard that polarizing contests judges can be a good thing. I needed to remind myself when I received (out of 195) both 195 and 119 on my young adult story. What was most odd was that the 119 didn't really have much to say except she thought my sentences were a bit short in my heroine's POV. I'll look at the flow for sure but my heroine is a bit wary and abrupt anyway...

In better news I managed to final in the San Francisco Heart to Heart with the same story. I am beyond excited with great final round judges who will read my work. Ok, maybe now i'm a tad terrified too... Shows that a dash of luck is certainly required!

Do you/did you enter contests?
=)

Here i am

in blogland!
=)