A funny thing happened on my way ...

Seeing that I am leaving for vacation this Thursday, it makes sense that I get tons of work dumped on me. Although, I have to admit I like it. I am working on two technical writing projects and a smattering of little editing projects that my group needs done.

/work talk

My writing group is going very well this time. My first one was such a disaster, I swore the concept off for the last couple of years. Just to give you a feeling for how mismatched we were in that group, I'll tell you what we all wrote. B wrote sort of literary fiction (I liked him the best) about a man who has a midlife crisis and buys an old hot rod that had mafia evidence in the truck (unbeknownst to him). E wrote chick-lit about talking boobs. The other woman, whose name I forgot, wrote historical fiction. I never got to read her stuff because she got in a disagreement with one of the other two people in my group. Then there was me ... I write speculative fiction. B really liked it, but E just couldn't get past the whole "I don't read Sci-fi" attitude. Not to be whiny here, but I don't read chick lit, but I read her stuff.

So that was the first group. I then went on to work with a friend who also wrote in my genre, but we never really connected. Then this fall I met a guy at my Kajukenbo school that was working on his first novel. I talked to him for awhile and it turned out that he also wrote science fiction. I got the my husband to admit in public that he was writing a book, and we all started this new writers group together.

What a different experience this has been. First, I get to read excellent fiction! Second, I get really thoughtful input from people who are interested and knowledgeable in my genre. Third, I get to hear about how they are handling various struggles with their writing. If fact, this whole experience of late has gotten me back on getting Gibbons ready for sale. So traipse on over to my Web site and check out my synopsis for Gibbons (and Continuum if you've never read it.)

In writing news ...

I submitted my writing to my first literary contest (not counting the ones I entered in high school). The contest is run by the Pacific Northwest Writers Association, which I am a member of, and I entered in the novel category (subcategory-science fiction and fantasy).

I chose to send them Continuum, which was a hard choice for me. I really wanted to send them G project( aka Gibbons), too, but I couldn't get it together in time--it is all about my synopsis avoidance problem.

So cross your fingers, and wish me luck!

Nearly a year ago today

It was almost a year ago today that I got the call that knocked me on my butt. I was headed to band practice, when the phone rang. I was running late so the boy answered the phone. I can still remember the look on his face as he came up the stairs.

"You want to take this," he said.

At first I was worried that it was some bit of really bad news, but he was beaming. I took the phone and briefly looked at the caller id. It was a New York number. I don't live in NY and I don't know anyone there, so my heart leapt; it was an agent, at least that was what I hoped. And it was. The agent called at 6 pm my time, so 9 pm his time. He apologized for the lateness of his call and that terse tone to the boy. I honestly don't remember much of the conversation, besides that he wanted to see the whole book and he was very sure he wanted to represent me.

The next several days were a haze. I didn't want to tell anyone, but I was also bursting at the seams with excitement. He read my novel in about a month and offered me representation. I went through the revision process with him, and we were ready to sell.

I have to admit it is strange being in the same place I was 11 months ago or maybe a year ago, depending on what happened to my full ms after he left the agency.

Thinking about it all ...

I had a long conversation with my boy a couple of nights ago about his writing. He was feeling down about is novel and worried that it had all been a waste of time. Needless to say, I felt for him. I don't think I know a writer that hasn't felt that way at least hundred times per book.

For me that project is Continuum. I love my book, and I think it's a better story than G project, but wait until I sent G project out. My guess is that it will be with an agent much faster than Continuum. My heart goes out to that project because I love the story and the characters so much that I was compelled to write that story, which didn't even bother to contain itself to one book.

But back to the boy .... He asked me how I pushed through these times. All I could say was that I wrote because I felt like I had to get the story out. I love writing. I keep going by typing.