Blog Tour of DOOM part deux

Today I’m over at Angela Brown’s blog talkin’ about rejection and what to do with it.

Hopefully, you’ll take my all-caps message to heart. ^_^

We have liftoff!

Well, we have a date for liftoff. My novel, The Pyramid Waltz is being published on:

September 18, 2012!

Woooooooo hooooooo! It might seem a long way off, but it’s really just around the corner. I’ve got so much to do, most of it mental preparation. I’ve got to get ready to talk to scads of people I don’t know. On the internet, it’s easy. In person, it can be a lot harder. I can be pretty funny, but I usually make jokes around what other people are saying, making them laugh. If people won’t talk to me, well, there’s not much I can do. I think I must be meeting lots of introverts lately. When no one can think of anything to say, damn it’s awkward.

Does anyone have any tips about getting people to come out of their shells? I’ve got a lot of talking to do. ^_^

Right now, let’s celebrate. I don’t drink champagne, so this will have to do:
(Find this recipe here.)

What are you up to this week, friends? Got any big deadlines looming on the horizon?

I work from home, neener neener

That’s something I never say, but since I do work at home, I encounter a lot of jealousy from folks who don’t.

Now, I think I work hard. I only have to look at the amount I write to see how productive I am, but people aren’t with me day in and day out. They can’t see how much I do. And even if they do, all they hear sometimes is “work at home,” which makes them project onto me what they’d be doing if they were at home all day.

Mostly, this seems to be watching television and jerking off. I can’t speak about spending day after day jerking off, but I did take a month off from doing anything right after I graduated college, and t.v. watching got really old, really quickly. I credit that month with the discovery that I could be a full time writer if I had the luxury to do so. I have quite a lot of self-discipline.

Do any of the rest of you that work from home have to deal with jealousy? Do you ever feel the need to justify your life like I do sometimes? Like if you aren’t earning a wage, you aren’t earning your oxygen? Wait, are any of you working from home AND not earning a wage, or is that just me? (I get occasionally freelance writing jobs, but nothing steady.)

If you work from home and get paid regularly, do you still have to deal with “work from home” jealousy? Is it less if you also have children?

To clarify, I do get people asking me what I DO all day since I’m not working out of the home, and they are asking from a curious place. Sometimes, I get angry questions like, “And what would YOU know about hard work? You stay home all day!” I used to sink into depression because I equated how much I earned with how much I was worth, like as a person. It took a lot of growing up to move past that.

Even now, I’m just to the angry, “I’ll TELL you how hard I work” stage. Soon, though, I hope to move into the stage where I don’t care what the angry people think of me and have the courage to say, “Think of your favorite thing, that you never get to do because you work out of the house. I do that. All. Day. Long.” Hmm, the non-caring stage is right next door to the sarcastic, antagonistic stage…. I think I’ll like it here.

The small press march continues

I submitted to another small press today. Blurgh. I’ve almost gotten to the point where I can say that in the same tone of voice as, “I went to the bank today,” or “I’m off to buy some throw pillows.” There’s hope, resignation and a sense of the everyday about the whole thing. I can’t say I get the exact same mishmash of feelings about throw pillows, though.

I’m doing pretty good on my current project. Spending most of yesterday at IHOP eating waffles and writing helped a lot. I’m definitely going out somewhere again this week to see if I can keep my roll going.

As for pen displays, I haven’t started trying to make a wall display yet. You all had some excellent suggestions, and I think the one that I might try first are those foam shapes that you buy at hobby stores. From what I’ve seen they, have all sorts of shapes and I could paint them and then mash pens down into them. I’d have to figure out how to hang them on the wall….

What’s taking up all your recent time?

Awesomeness

First, to get it out of the way, I’m up to 58K on nano. I hope to be over 60 before the night is through. It’s weird, people. Sometimes, I think I’m writing so much I can see through time…

As for further awesomeness, my most excellent friend Marilou sent me this:

Squeeee!

She conceived of this mini purse and its fellows to be key chains that hold ipods and their ilk while you work out. As I work out at home, I use mine as a money purse. If you want your own, you’ll have to visit her Etsy page: Clothdragon’s Horde.

She has some fun designs that I think everyone should check out. Each is a little different, but of course, I’m partial to mine.

Rawr!

That gives you a better idea of size. You know who I bet would love these? Jen at Epbot. I’m soooo sending her a link. ~__^ Whoops! I see that Marilou has already created a mini purse in Jen’s honor! Well, now she knows about you, Marilou. I hope you sent that purse!

Bleh!

Now, a question for all of you who have queried or are querying: if an agent requests and exclusive, and you grant it, and then that agent is overdue on the time limit you set and asks for a continuance, how much time should you give?

Doings, Happenings and Goings On

I’m back! I was in sunny, breezy San Francisco and am now back in the ol’ Texas oven. Here’s a cliff view from Ocean Beach.

I’ll have some more pics for you later in the week, once I’m organized.

While I was out there, though, I got an email from an agent requesting a partial. Only problem is, he wanted an exclusive partial. I had to write him and tell him that other agents are currently looking at my book, and he said he’d take a look if all the others came back with a no.

I’ve never gotten an exclusive partial request before and thought I never would again, however…

Once safely aground at home, I discovered I had a phone message…from an agent…requesting an exclusive partial.

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I was enormously excited that an agent actually called me, another thing that has never happened to me before. I was very nervous about having to call him back. (I don’t do well on the phone at the best of times. Without visual cues, I tend to start talking over the other person.) But in his message, he said he would email me, so that’s how I replied. Whew. He also said he would look at the material if all the others came back no. That’s heartening and disappointing all at once. I mean, I’m glad they’re interested, but I have to wade through a few no’s to get to their interest. Ah well. I’ll think of them as a safety net. ^_^

How was your weekend? Did you miss me? Awww, I thought so. Do any of you actually live in sunny Cal? Any writing news I missed?

Query trials and tribulations

I’m querying again. And we all know what that means. I’m either chewing drywall in anger or consoling myself with brownies. Does eating brownies while walking on the treadmill do any good? That cancels out calories, right? I’m pretty sure that’s how that works.

I was going out of my mind the other night. I read one agent blog that said, “Never put your word count and genre at the top of the letter. That’s dull business info that should come at the end. Lead with a hook!” And then I read another agent blog that said, “Putting the genre and word count at the end of your query is highly unusual. Let the agent know right off if this query is right for her.”

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Querying isn’t confusing! Nah, it’s easy peasy lemon squeezy. Mind you, this info wasn’t front and center on their agency submissions pages or agency bios. It was floating around in their blogs. I did find it, tho. And if I query either of these, I’ll make sure to follow instructions. It makes me wonder if those agents who never specify what they want in a query will take any damn thing, if they’re just more laid back and relaxed. “Baby, I’m so chill, I didn’t even MAKE a webpage. Send me any old damn thing.” You could mail them a query that says, “Dear Sweetie, here’s my query. Get in on the ground floor of this cornucopia of awesome, and we’ll make some serious cash. Righteously, Barbara Ann,” and they’d send for pages in the following seconds.

Or maybe not.

How thorough is your agent research? A quick scan of Publisher’s Marketplace or Query Tracker? Or do you click on every Google reference AND shell out some serious dough for the Agent’s Market book? Or are you at the stage of your career where you’re done looking or don’t yet give a shit?

This is my war face!

Instead of having writers send queries, agents should round us up and hunt us for sport. Whoever can survive the night gets published. Whoever can steal a gun and wing an agent gets a six-figure advance. I like those odds a lot better.

Two more rejections today! Wheeee! I need that motivational blog-post I linked to yesterday. Luckily, I ordered the 2011 Writer’s Market, so maybe I’ll get some ideas and some more agents from that. I think I’m gonna move beyond only querying agents who take email queries next week. I wish they’d all go paperless. Save the trees, man.

On a totally unrelated note, I found an awesome coloring book while I was shopping for my 3-yr old niece the other day: Barbie and the Three Musketeers (warning: that site plays music). I haven’t seen the animated movie it’s based on, but the coloring book is totally something I would have invented as a child.

I loved Barbie, but I had about ten of the female dolls and one Ken. And since I had a huge imagination, Barbie and friends were always knights or sorceresses or space pirates who were on a mission to save…Ken. Because there’s only one of him, and he can’t very well save all of them, can he? He was usually kidnapped by my brother’s G.I. Joes when I could get my hands on them.

In this coloring book, the same sort thing happens. Four women take the place of the musketeers from the classic story. They work in the palace in France and uncover a plot to kill the handsome Prince. And they save him. With swords. While wearing pretty dresses. It’s my childhood dream come true! Pretty dresses AND swords! What could be better? Now the girls really can have everything.

Favorite childhood toys of yours? Did you play with them as “intended” or did you think outside the toy box? Any other Barbie fans out there?

Errand day

I changed the oil in my car, shopped for many things I’d been meaning to get for a while, and arranged for a lawn guy to mow for us because my husband’s allergic to cut grass, and I’m not allowed in direct sunlight for long….because I’m a vampire.

It was clearly an errand day. I feel so productive, and I haven’t even written anything. Dangerous territory, I know, because now I feel I don’t have to write. I’ve already been productive! I don’t know how you farmers, homesteaders, parents, and people with non-writing jobs cope. To have a productive day and then write? To be doubly productive?!?! I would die of smug.

I’ll probably still write some today (I’ve got a cool new idea), but it’ll be hard not to be so self-satisfied that I’ll say, “You know, I DESERVE five hours of non-stop tv.”

In other news, I got another partial request for my manuscript…for five pages. I hope she enjoys them. I know it’s really just to see what my writing style is like, but I hope she’s so sucked in by those five pages that she must have the rest before she goes insane!

Today I have two questions for you. One, how much do you have to accomplish in your day before you’re satisfied, i.e. filled to the brim with productivity? And two, what’s the strangest agent request you’ve ever had?

Some fruit is borne

So far in the submission game, I’ve had one request for a partial and one for a full. So, now you know where I’ve been. I always feel the need to reread when I get a request, so that’s what I’ve been doing: rereading, polishing and hating my work. ^_^

My husband and I had a frustrating experience trying to purchase a bed this week. The salesman wrote up the order for the wrong bed, so when the delivery men showed up, they had exactly the wrong thing. My husband was pretty steamed. He canceled our entire order, so now we have no bed in our bedroom and are camping in the guestroom.

Well, the entire ordeal reminded me of the submission process. Heaps of frustration and nothing went as planned. Both situations could wind up having a happy ending, though. We’re going to continue shopping until we find a bed we really like. I’m going to continue submitting until I find an agent who really likes my work. ^_^ I’ve gone from nervous to sanguine. Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll be back around to anxious or even psychotic as the days pass, especially if I don’t get any other bites.

Getting back to writing actually helped more than anything. I knocked out a short story yesterday, and I have an idea for a new novel. Writing’s my ultimate cure for the blues.

What’s your cure for the submission blues? Or any kind of blues, for that matter? And yes, ice cream is a valid answer. As are brownies. And cookies. Maybe pie…