Hi you!

Here’s my 5-pronged update:

Writing

Current Book

OK I spent several hours this week polishing the first two chapters and I don’t think there’s much else I can do.

Additionally, I heard from my potential copy editor, and she’ll have feedback on the first chapter by the end of the week.

Barring anything huge, there’s a very good chance I’ll be submitting my query and sample pages to a couple select agents next week.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, EEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!

Realistically, I have to expect rejection letters. And, honestly, I do. I think this was a great starter book for me but I don’t want to get my hopes up. But I admit my heart will be POUNDING when I get that first response. I have no idea what to expect. It could be anything from “what the crap is this?” to “this is interesting but not what we’re looking for.”

The thing that sucks is you have 1 page to catch an agent’s interest, then maybe 10 more to completely sell them. That’s tough! You could have the greatest book in the world but, if the query isn’t engaging, it doesn’t matter.

One page to win them all.

… OK that was dumb.

New Book

I finished reading the first draft of the book Monday. I must say, I really enjoyed it!

For reals, I’m super-mega-duper excited about this book, and want to edit and polish it as quickly as possible to get it out there.

The most difficult chapter to edit was the first one – I needed to reorder everything in it – but I finished that today. Hopefully, I’ll be done with the second draft in the next week or so.

Then I’ll be reaching out to potential readers again! Woo hoo!!

The intended audience for this book is COMPLETELY different than the last one, so the pool I’m choosing from will be completely different as well.

If anyone is really interested, let me know. If I don’t pick you, though, don’t be upset. I’m looking for very specific readers.

Video

I’ve talked with the group and we are doing the video shoot right after Thanksgiving. That’s further away than I’d hoped, but people are leaving on vacation next week so it can’t be helped.

Singing

Oh man, Sunday at church was a disaster!

Because so few people in the congregation are active, we don’t have an organist for Sunday Mass. Consequently, I have a selection of CDs that I pop in. They contain organ music so, if you don’t watch the guy pushing buttons in the corner (me), it almost seems real.

That is, until the CD skips out of control.

When Mass started, I began playing the opening song (something I’ve done like twenty times so far and it’s always worked just fine).  This time, about halfway through the first verse, the CD began skipping.

Oh man, my heart stopped and everyone looked at me as the same two seconds of the song began repeating over and over. Instead of singing the same words again and again (which, honestly, would have been awesome), the congregation clumsily tried pushing forward.

Panicked, I reached over and tried to fast forward the song in an attempt to catch up. Instead, I accidentally skipped to the next track. Immediately, an entirely different song began playing and everyone stopped.

Yelping under my breath, I couldn’t think of anything to do but press ‘Stop’, leaving the church in agonizing silence.

Finally, after several seconds, a few people continued singing, trying to save me. Wanting to help out, I grabbed my music and, loudly, began singing…the wrong verse.

Train wreck!!

Enjoying the Area

The past week has been an exercise in sickness and back injuries. Therefore, I don’t think I left the house other than going to sing at church.

Random Insights or Stories

I’ve been feeling out of sorts the last week or so. I think the end of the year is really hitting me and, although I’m MUCH MUCH further along in some areas than I anticipated, I’m way behind in others.

On the good side, I’m very happy with my writing. I’ve completed almost two novels and have grown SOOOO much. I can look at my earlier attempts and immediately recognize a huge difference.

On the downside, my platform is basically nowhere.

See, in addition to decent writing, authors also need a reader-base. Writers can build one through social media, networking, participating on other blogs, etc… It’s basically building your fans. And that’s something that I’ve done a TERRIBLE job at.

I think I was OK with the lack of progress before because the writing was what mattered. But now, as the reality of being jobless hits, I see that building a platform is what leads to writing work: participating heavily on writing blogs can lead to assignments; building your audience and meeting people can lead to more book sales; being very active on social networks can lead to connections. Those are the immediate things that can lead to work.

And I’ve been sorely lacking in that area.

I admit I don’t know the best way to build a platform. I think a naïve part of me thought my blog would help. And, in a way, it has, but only with people who already knew me. Looking at the stats, I don’t think I’ve gathered many new readers. And, when push comes to shove, I’m going to need them.

So what does that mean? Well, I’m not exactly sure. I’ll be doing a lot of reading on platform building and will have to put together a game plan soon.

Short Stories

I’m currently working on a brand new short story that I’ll be sharing soon. It’s fairly long (about 10 pages) but hopefully y’all will enjoy it.