Merry Christmas! I hope you are all having a wonderful time with your families and friends. I'm nearly finished shopping and the wrapping is almost done as well. I wondered...what are you looking forward to unwrapping? For my kids, we've got some lacrosse equipment, a 4th Nintendo DS (When we drive down to FL to visit my side of the family, it will be the first time that we've had the same number of DSs as children who want a DS. I'm really looking forward to not having to teach my kids about sharing the whole 8 hr trip. Although the new one is a 3DS, so there will still be some room for squabbling!) There are also TONS of books- so their brains won't completely turn to mush! This Christmas, I am trying to spend more time just being with my kids. I laid down on the couch with Eli and Jojo for about 30 minutes and listened to them jabber on about Minecraft, and I felt noticeably more relaxed a nd happy. I'm not saying that my kids always relax me, but for that 30 minutes, it was true. They told me all about herobrine and wondered if I knew anything? (Nope. Herobrine is a character some claim to have seen in Minecraft--a sort of video game ghost story.) What are you doing to make this Christmas more than just presents and parties? Merry Christmas!
Glutton for Punishment?

AWC part two...

So Kristen was Kristen Miller-Vincent from D4EO.

I met several authors who were a little green- like didn't know what a query was and I told one lady in particular about "query tracker" and "preditors and editors" and how helpful it was to follow agents on twitter so you can get a better idea of their style of interacting with people, tastes, etc. It made me realize a little more how much the internet writer family has helped me, so thanks!

My pitch with Lara Perkins of Andrea Brown went well- she liked the premise (a pregnant 16 yo girl gets possessed by the spirit of a dead Egyptian queen and begins enacting the queen's plot to rule the world and use the body of her unborn child to bring back the queen's son) well enough, although she thought Egyptian was a bit tired and it needs something to pull the story together more. I asked her if she had any thoughts about what that missing element might be, and she said that the video game (a game everyone is playing that the Queen uses to gain control over the
masses) was it. So I'm trying to figure out if what I have written is okay and it just didn't come out in my pitch strongly enough or I'd I need to make he game more central. I think the latter is more likely. I didn't get a partial request, but I will send a query when I get it all fixed up.

Lara was very nice and I felt at ease around her. I think that all writers should go pitch or do crits or something with agents face to face, because its been so helpful to me. I was a little nervous but not unbearably so, and I think that you can only get that kind of confidence from living through the thing you fear repeatedly!

We went to a shooting range a few months ago, and the experience is oddly similar. The first 30 or so times I fired the gun, the noise and the kick were so alarming that I didn't even see where my bullet went. But after so many repetitions, those reflexes calmed down and I was able to just shoot and work on my grip and aim and all that.

Anyhow, the pitch went very well and I feel like I got some really good advice about how to make my story more marketable.

Have a pitch story or link to share? I'd love to read your experiences!

Now I have to go study and make an outline for a paper. It turns out I dislike academic outlines more than those for fiction:)
Glutton for Punishment?

Atlanta Writers Conference

Quick blog...I'm at the Atlanta Writers Conference and had the pleasure of doing a practice pitch with two agents today: Jill Marr of Sandra Djykstrajistamijak Literary Agency and Kristen ???. It was supposed to be Marr and Judith Engracia, but there was a change, possibly due to hurricane Sandy? End result- I've pitched to an agent that seemed really interested in my story but I don't know her full name or agency!

So that's my assigner for the mixer tonight- find out her name so I can send a query to her:) Jill Marr doesn't rep YA, so that's a no-go, but oh well!

They were both lovely and most of their comments were that I should have included more info in my blurb, like I did in my verbal pitch. (We were asked to send in a 250 word description of our project. Mine was
300, but they wanted more info, more details about the world, more about the characters and remarked that the motivation of the antagonist made it unlikely for her to be flat, and they approved!)

They seemed very positive about the world building details and wanted that in the description as well- by far their most enthusiastic moment.

Hopefully that will help you all get your fingers on the pulse of agents everywhere! Don't be afraid to go over word count in blurbs as long as the words all matter, talk about motivations, don't focus so much on the MC that other characters important to the main conflict are neglected, and showcase what's special about your story (ie worldbuilding).

Wish me luck tomorrow as I pitch to Lara Perkins of Andrea Brown. Assuming she made it here, of course!

Glutton for Punishment?

I'm Famous!

Check out this video in which Nascar honors the founder of the Autism Academy (my employer) for her work getting insurance companies to provide therapy benefits for children with autism. When she got this legislation ("Ryan's Law") passed in South Carolina, she started working with lawmakers across the country. Ryan's Law has been passed in 31 other states, which is amazing! The video was shot on location at the Autism Academy and you can see Yours Truly hard at work 40 seconds in.

If you are so moved, please vote for Lorri. She is one of four finalists and has already been awarded $25,000 to benefit the school. If we won the grand prize, $100,000 would go to provide scholarships.

Yesterday, I was working with a child who is typically the picture of happiness. But something happened while playing catch, and his eyes got all teary and he asked for a hug. He doesn't have the verbal skills yet to tell me exactly what upset him, but I'm working with him so that one day he'll be able to tell people how he feels and why, and be able to speak for himself instead of having to hope that we guess right about what the problem is. I feel incredibly blessed to work there and to be able to help these kids succeed.

If you want to support us, you can vote every day! If you feel REALLY strongly about supporting Autism Academy, you can vote once per email address as well. Last year, the total number of votes was 21,000, and voting is open for about 60 days. If 120 people vote every day, we can totally win this!

I won't be posting here about this again, but you can join the Autism Academy loves NASCAR FB page if you would like to get reminders to vote. I don't want to spam people, but I forget about things all the time and need a little prompt...

Glutton for Punishment?

How Much Frozen Pizza is Too Much?

I'm not dead. I could leave it at that, but I have a few minutes and I miss you guys and haven't felt good about dropping off the face of the planet.

My youngest is starting kindergarten this fall, and it's been a huge struggle for me about what I want to do. I will admit that my greatest hope was that I would get an agent and a book deal, and there would be no problem with me staying home and writing for 7 glorious hours a day while my kids are at school. Alas, we have bills to pay and college and weddings to prepare for and I have no book deal so far, so I will be going back to work and have started grad school.

I've mentioned some of this on facebook, but not told how everything has fallen into place. So here goes.

Being a teacher is a good job for a mom, so that's where I started. But when I looked at the teaching certification requirements, I realized that although I have a bachelor's degree, it's not in education, and I did not have enough job experience to fit their program for career changers. So I applied as an assistant teacher, and decided I needed to go back to school, and I should get my certification as a behavior analyst while I was at it, since that's what I really love to do.

I put all of my experience as a line therapist in there, hoping to get placed in an autism classroom, and set about finding a certified behavior analyst who could supervise me. I sent an email to a behavior analyst who was willing to do supervision and he invited me to come in and talk and bring a resume. After about three days, I woke up one morning from muddled dreams with the crystal clear realization that I was going to a job interview. Which I got, and am so very excited about.

While this is going on, I had applied at the University of West Florida as a non-degree seeking student and started taking the masters level behavior analysis classes I need, took the GRE and applied to the Exceptional Student Education masters program, which I was accepted to a couple of weeks ago. I am taking my first midterm in 13 years in a week and loving it.

Tomorrow I'm going in to the Autism Academy for orientation and will start full time when the kids go back to school.

It all feels really surreal, but right. Sometimes, when you want something, you have to struggle and fight for it to even be a possibility. And sometimes, when the time is right, the way is opened. That's how this has felt.

I had looked at going back to school a year or two ago to start working on this degree, but didn't. I wanted it, searched the same programs for schools, for supervisors, for a job, but nothing came of it. This time, it all fell together, and even though I don't feel any different, the outcome is totally different. It's funny.

I'll have a fairly heavy class load and be working 9-4 every weekday, plus trying to fulfill my other roles as mom, wife, and my calling at church. I predict we will eat a lot of frozen pizza. But hopefully I will be done with my classes by next September and ready to take the certification exam.

I may not check in here too often, but I would rather work really hard and get past this part than to take it slow. I hope that I'll be able to sneak in a book to read for fun every now and then and tell you about it, but I don't know.

I'll come back on Thursday and give you the summer reads I've enjoyed so far and tell you how my first day went. Thanks for the support!
Glutton for Punishment?

Contest a la The Voice?

If you haven't seen it, head over to Krista V.'s blog Mother. Write.(Repeat.) and check out the contest rolling out on May 3rd.

150 people will sign up to post their query and first 250 words on their own blogs. The four writers hosting the contest will choose their teams and coach them. The new versions will be posted on the hosting writer's blogs, and voting by 8 agents will ensue. Entries with lots of interest will get requests.

But...the entries must completed, polished and ready to query. Which is where my dilemma comes in. I've sent out my first 50 of Book of Breathings to a few readers and gotten a great response. I'm writing like mad right now, it's just flowing...is it possible to finish it in time to enter this contest, or should I make my revisions to Ways to Fall and submit that?

I think I'm going to give BoB my best shot. At the very least, it will be great motivation to get it done!
Glutton for Punishment?

Plodding along or Pugging Away?

This will be a short post to make up for the length of the last one- but I wanted to give ya'll and update on Book of Breathings. For MONTHS I have been plodding along, and now things are clicking. I mentioned that I filled in some broader conflicts, and what a difference it's making! Before I was struggling to put words in characters' mouths, straining to see them interact. That's all changed!

I still draw out the same conflict table I learned in high school English class-
Character vs. self
Character 1 vs. Character 2
Character 1 vs. Character 3 (etc.)
Character vs. Nature/setting
Character vs. Society

You can also look at all the different relationships a character has and make sure that each has different needs and expectations. Parents, teachers, employers, friends, romantic interests, friends with questionable advice...there are so many possibilities!

It;s important to focus on the antagonist just as much as the protagonist- What do they for themselves, what do they want from the people around them, what do they want from society and the world? What's standing in their way? (The answer is usually the protagonist, right? I sure hope so or you might want to choose a new MC!)

My take-home- if you don't have enough tension, look for missing levels of conflict. Make sure your characters aren't playing *too* nicely!

Happy writing!
Glutton for Punishment?