Day 54

Last night at dinner (The Farm at The Grove has great sweet potato fries) I was suddenly inspired to tackle a particular synopsis. Then I went to see Scott Pilgrim. I'm working on the synopsis now. Will I finish it today? Let us see... I'm clever. Don't act like I'm not.

And here's a chunk of something I wrote. I just closed my eyes and scrolled to a random page. And then kept scrolling til I found something that didn't really give too much away. And now I'm just boring myself. Enjoy!

              "Is that a nightgown?" Amy asked.
              "Yup." I ditched the ribbon on my bed along with the hanger, then held the baby-doll style nightie up to my body. It came about an inch or two below my crotch.
              "See! This is exactly what I was talking about. They're gonna parade us around in lingerie and then makes us screw the OBA boys and tape it."
               "Shut up. They would never makes us do that," Amy laughed. She held her own scrap of lace up in front of her chest. "It is kinda kinky."
                "Yeah, kinky. Amy, I swear if pictures of me in this thing end up on the internet, I'm going to kill you."

I'm not sure I'll be doing that again.

Day 51

Still waiting. Daydreaming about cover art. Praying the JETS have a good season for my father's sake. Reading, a lot. Writing some. Waiting some more...

It's not for a book obviously, but this cover art has stuck in my head since I was a little kid.

Day 45: Confession #1

I know I've promised to be positive and I know that keeping your mouth shut is the very best thing to do in certain situations, but if I don't put this out there it will eat at me all weekend. And maybe next week.

I have few synopses to write for different agencies I would like to submit to, but it's taking forever to get them done. At first I was lying to myself, blaming my ADHD, weddings, my boyfriend's rugged good looks, my recent discovery of black diamond on my procrastination, but last night I realized the real issue. I'm holding out for a particular agent's reply. I may be shooting myself in the foot for saying this, but its the truth. I found them and got the warm-fuzzies from their website, their blog, their agents tweets, even the nice way they explain their review process.

In general, I suck at cover letters. Applying for colleges was one of the most miserable experiences of my entire life, but I did it. I'm pretty sure I've lost plenty of jobs to my cover letters, but I always kill in the interview. Not to say that my query letters are terrible, but I just hate writing them.

I don't have too long to wait to hear back from this particular agency, so I've decided to just wait on writing those synopses. I know myself and anything I force ends up sucking, hard. So I'll wait and if I get a rejection from that agency I'll be able to mourn properly and move on. If they request a partial...

I feel a lot better sharing this information with you and just like that the positivity has returned. 

Also, I'll confess that I wish my boyfriend still played football. His knees and back are glad that part of his life is over, but he looked really good in his jersey. Something like this -->

Day 43

Just sent out another query. Sometime tomorrow I'll stop worrying about it. Until then...

Day 42

A particular agency states on their website that email queries are, from time to time, lost/bounced back if they are sent from a - we'll call it a "sketchy"- email address. They recommend that you resend your query if you haven't heard back from them in a certain amount of time, as it may have been lost/kicked back by their spam blocking system.

My fear on this Monday morning: I build up the proper level of anxiety waiting for this period of time to run out (exactly 3 weeks from today), resend and the very same day I receive a rejection for the initial query. Additional horror would come if they rejected the resend as I suspect they would.

In other news, wedding #2 was amazing even though Bridesmaid #4 fainted in the third quarter of the ceremony. She was quickly whisked to safety and the vows were completed. We all made it to the reception and the THREE after parties in one piece. My toast was well received even though my voice carries the silken tones of a very seductive man and then I was actually handed the bouquet by the bride in front of all the guests to eliminate any possible dance floor injuries (I didn't want the bouquet, but a disabled woman was taken out last year during the bouquet toss at another friends wedding).

No one laughed in my face, I repeat, IN MY FACE, when I told them I was writing romance novels for the foreseeable future. The bride and Bridesmaid #2 actually gave me all sorts of fun bits on being in Alpha Delta Pi and offered to help me with my research for Book #2. Sleeping in SPANX isn't as bad as it sounds and I will never fly United Airlines again. If you haven't discovered the joys of SPANX, please visit their website.

The bride and groom danced their first dance to...

Day 37

3 Quick Bits

Bits 1: I received another form rejection this morning. This one was extremely polite and a little bit inspirational, reminding me, the writer, that the literary world is very subjective and even though my work may not have been for them, there are still other agents out there who may be very excited to represent my work. And I believe it.

Bit 2: Some good news... M and I have officially decided to work on a screenplay together. She's a pretty awesome person to be around in general and she's an amazing writer. The idea of jumping into this project with her is keeping my spirits extra high as I pack for wedding #2. Overnight flight with a layover. YAY!

Bit 3: Here are a few pieces by the artist El Mac. His murals are all over the world, several spread around Southern California and a couple of which I pass daily in LA. He's inspired a scene in my book (elmac.net). I would also give a solid lock of good hair to get cover art from this man.

Tally to Date --- >4 Out in the Universe
                         7 No!

Day 32

My week went from bad to weird to good to ALRIGHT!. Bad because I was really tired and tired makes me cranky. More bad because Jersey Shore isn't that funny the second time around. Weird because the cranky lingered when there was no reason for it. Good because Mrs. Lucky's insurance co. gave me no hassle and offered to handle all of the repairs and a rental.

ALRIGHT! came twice. The first time was when I heard Prop 8 had been overturned. I could write many a blog post about that subject, so I'll just say I'm more than happy California has finally seen the light... in terms of gay marriage. If they could just fix this whole bankruptcy thing. I'm looking at you, Arnold.

ALRIGHT! part two came around when I met a writer/actress friend last night. We'll call her M. She is blunt like myself and has no issue telling me when something I write/do/say/wear/order for dinner sucks. She read my book and she loved it. I was actually floored by her critique and her praise which meant even more coming from her because she doesn't read a lot of romance or paranormal. I know my work will not be for everyone and I didn't write it with that crazy idea in mind, but it was nice to hear that someone who isn't exactly my target audience still enjoyed the characters and the story.

We were on to movies then, her first love and my second. I've had an idea for a screenplay for over a year, but something has just been a little off when it comes to sitting down to write it. I told the idea to M and she is completely on board with helping me flesh it out. The conversation rolled over to our feelings on Disney Princesses, Zoe Saldana and Meryl Streep and then ex-boyfriends and then it was late and time to go home.

I am still waiting to hear back on the 4 remaining queries and I have plenty more to send out. I'll be in writer (hopefully not twitter) mode all weekend, with a short break to go salsa dancing with my best friend who I've been blowing off since April-ish, when I crawled into a deep writing hidey-hole. I'm interested to see what and who the weekend brings...

I think this picture is funny.

UPDATE: I just realized the NFL preseason starts this Sunday. I'm going to go ahead and say that qualifies for ALRIGHT! part 3.   :)