Back to work

Outlining for Book #2 has begun! It took a couple weeks to really pin down what kind of book I wanted to write, who I wanted to write for, and most importantly, what kind of a story I wanted to tell. There was a lot of frantic Post-It scribbling, swearing, and moaning (the last two, possibly symptoms of being 7.5 months pregnant in this 85 degree heat), but I think I've found my new cast of friends and a humorous lighthearted plot that should make for enjoyable reading.

It's fun comparing the process with what I did the first time around. I started CHEAT in July of 2011 -- I think I even have the actual date circled somewhere -- and it was such an exercise in trial and error. I'm sure my 2nd attempt will be no different, but I'm hoping to encounter different trials. (It'd be nice if I learned a thing or two from my first go-around.)

Currently, my main struggle is in completely stepping away from CHEAT and solely focusing on Book #2. Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. It's really difficult evicting characters you've created (and love!), but brain real estate is limited and I can't handle too many people running around upstairs.

Hello ... ?

Time to dust off the cobwebs around here. I've been working on ideas/outlines for my next book these days -- by which I mean, I'm procrastinating and tooling around the interwebz more than I should. Remembered that I started this blog over a year ago and decided to come back to it. It was really sweet reading my old posts; makes me wish I was a diary-keeper. I wrote in a journal for most of my high school days but re-reading those entries is an exercise in humiliation. (So-and-so is hot! I hope he likes me too!) Sadly, that discipline wore off soon after college began and years later, here we are.

Well. Well. Well. What else is there? Since the last post, I finished revising CHEAT and am now represented by Steve Kasdin at Curtis Brown. Receiving his offer over the phone was everything I'd ever imagined: balloons, confetti, fist-pumps, high-kicks, decibel-shattering squeals, the works. (Minus the balloons and confetti. We did celebrate with nachos the next night though.)

I'm working on Book #2 now, but that's slow going. It's hard to focus on new characters, a new story, when I'm still in limbo with my first book. Oh. Right. And you know, I'm about 7 months pregnant, so that means every time I sit down to write, I have to get back up in the next 3 minutes to pee. Or eat. Or sleep. Or eat some more.

But hey. I'm not complaining. Life = good.

Wahoo!

Got a full this morning! Hooray! My favorite way to start a day.

Like the partial from 2 weeks ago, I have asked to finish revising before submitting. Hope she doesn't have a problem with that.

This does mean that I need to get a move on with my revisions though. Ugh. 2nd round of revisions ... the pain ... the agony ... thud/dies.

Woot woot

Kind of woot woot.

Had a long phone conversation with the agent today and we talked about what direction to take my book. Loved her suggestions; was super awesome to bounce ideas back and forth. I am now gearing up for my 2nd R&R (does NOT seem like I'll be given a 3rd chance, from the sounds of it) and I'm excited. I wasn't happy with my book as is, and really ... no one should have offered rep, so this is the best possible outcome.

FYI -- agents typically don't send out subs between Oct. to Dec. because pub houses won't look at them. They're too busy trying to wrap up the year. With that said, I have up until January to get all this work done. (I mean, I can until whenever I say so, but the earliest is Jan.)

Mood: happy!

What to do?

So I heard back re: my R&R today. The agent did not offer rep. but that was expected. Shortly after sending my revised draft to her, I decided I hated my book. Remember this from a couple weeks back? Anyways, she had many helpful comments (pages worth!) and said that CHEAT is 80-90% there. She'd like to discuss plot and character development and invited me to email or call her back.

This is all great news! In fact, this was exactly what I wanted to hear from her. Here's the thing now, I don't know how to talk to her. Do I want to heed her suggestions and basically keep CHEAT as is or do I want to continue with my overhaul "CHEAT redux" revisions?

This probably doesn't even make sense outside of my head. Apologies, folks.

So what?

Folks, we saw it coming. Another big fat R, citing voice. This agent said the voice was more tween than teen. (What does that mean exactly? Should I throw some cuss words in there??!)

This brings me down to one prospective agent (she's the one who requested the R&R months ago).  Yanno what? I'm strangely OK with this. I'm happy and excited to be working on a re-draft of CHEAT. The opening chapter is already so much better -- snappier, quicker, less "drag-y." I've re-imagined some of my MCs and swapped out some lackluster characters taking up space for more defined ones. It's going to be good. Certainly, better, at minimum.

Work work work!

Updates

So first of all, I don't know why this blog was flagged but I've taken the steps to get it off the danger list.

Second bit of fun news, totally amped and working on revising my ms before I submit this new partial request I got last night. Emailed the agent, letting her know what I'd like to do, and she was kind and said it was no problem. Not surprising, but lovely to hear all the same. Surely, agents all want only the best work possible, right?