Stuff to make you Smile

My cats hunting a fly. Didn’t catch it on film, but Topher actually did catch and eat it.

 

And this video is going around on Facebook. Made of awesome! I love when grown men don’t mind being ridiculous. :-)

 

The Rejected Peach

I have a bunch of fresh peaches from my parent’s tree. My husband doesn’t like peaches, but my son does. So I thought I’d be able to share  with him. Apparently he only wants peaches from a can. I thought this was due to the skin, but last night I found out the truth.

 

Me: Why don’t you like the peaches?

B: They have butts!

 

Peach Butt

Nerdgasm

Major revisions are out of the way for Fey Moon. Where do I go from here?

 

This Week:

I’m going to go over the first scene again, using feedback from the latest Secret Agent contest. Then I’ll polish my query, update my outline and synopsis.

 

October:

Submit a batch of queries for FM before The Muse Online Writers Conference, where I’ll be pitching to a publisher.

With those edits out of the way, I can return to writing Trinity Coven. Don’t want to make a solid word count or chapter goal, as I will be attending the aforementioned conference.

 

November:

NaNoWriMo! Honestly, with TC still in progress, and not “winning” last year, I was leaning towards not participating this year. What changed my mind? Scrivener. When I first heard about this writing software, I got super excited. I love lists and having everything organized. I have dozens of documents filled with characters, world info, drafts. All for one manuscript. I would love a way to keep all that managed. Bad news? It’s only been for Mac. Better news? In Jan/Feb 2011 it’s coming out for Windows! How do I justify to my husband that I must have this software?

Anyone who participates in NaNoWriMo this year and achieves their 50,000 words (and has them validated) will get a 50% discount coupon which they will be able to use when Scrivener for Windows is released next year. (source)

I think I had a writer-nerdgasm while watching the preview video. So. NaNoWriMo 2010. I’m in. Are you?

Project Update

I’ve been making good progress on my revisions. I’m feeling really good about the changes so far. As of this morning, 100 pages to go. I came up with a new title that I really like: Fey Moon. I took it from the world’s calendar. Another reason I’m excited about the new title, is that it opens up title ideas for future books in the same series. Each taken from one of the Moons (months). I already have ideas for Spider Moon (tentative title was already Moon Spider), and Blood Moon (War of the Fey). With fourteen Moons, I have lots of inspiration. :-)

Now, back to revisions. I want to get this done so I can reward myself with some Red Vines and Civilization V.

EotF update

About four months ago, I gave up on EotF. I didn’t know how to improve it, or even if I wanted to. And my queries weren’t doing well at all. 50 queries, and only 2 requests (which both ended in form rejects)? Not so good. But now the Muse Online Writers Conference is approaching again. There are a lot more publishers available for pitch sessions. I’ve grown as a writer, and I have some readers willing to help point out where it needs work, so I’m giving the story another go. I haven’t tried pitching or submitting to a publisher yet, so maybe I’ll have more luck than agent hunting.

This next month will be entirely focused on giving EotF a make-over. I’ve got some ideas to make the culture deeper, focus the conflict, and add in some more unisus scenes. I plan to have a new title when I’m ready to pitch as well. Make everything fresh, new, exciting. That’s the plan. I’m so grateful to have a husband fully supportive of me, and willing to talk about a project he is surely sick of by now.

Goal: Have a revised, polished draft of EotF (with new title) by Oct 11.

Have you signed up for the Muse Conference?

The Muse Online Writers Conference is an amazing, fun, free, online conference. But it’s only free if you register now! Starting August 16th, there will be a five dollar late charge. Late registration is open until September 10th. The 2010 conference will be October 11-17.

Even if your time zone isn’t convenient for the chats, most of the workshops are through forums which are open that entire week. This will be my third year attending, and I am already super excited. I learn something new every year, and am able to find courses for whatever I am writing. There’s something for everyone: screenwriters, poets, novelists, any genre, any story length. I hope to see some of you there!

List of some of the workshops.

Register here.

Fairy Good Bargain

Yesterday we went to the mall to get B some new shoes for school. He’s already grown half a size since we bought him new ones early this year, and the soles are worn. Since PayLess had a buy one get one free sale, we got a pair for now and another a half size bigger for when he grows out of and/or wears through those.

 

One of the stores always has these gorgeous fairy figurines. Over the last year we’ve seen the price slowly getting marked down. The owner was there and saw us looking. He offered us an even bigger discount if we bought a big one that day. My husband, awesome haggler that he is, bargained further. End result, we got a combined total of $10 off the marked-down price. We got two for the price that one would have cost us a year ago. We are extremely happy with our purchase.