I Am Ready -- AGAIN

For my faithful followers, there is no Piedmont Grille today. Sorry. And no, this isn't part of the A-Z challenge, although it looks like it. Sort of.

No my friends, today I will begin querying again. TA DA!

Yesterday I finished my dreaded synopsis. I worked on another version of my query and I feel ready to jump back into the fray of agent land. I have scoured through the sites and picked my favorites and all I have to do now is bundle all that is required for submission and I am on my way.

For those of you have never entered this strange and wonderful land, it is fraught with danger (did I make sure I discovered all the typo's) and disaster (did I have enough in my query to compel them to request a partial or full) and disillusionment (this is the most perfect book they will ever read and call me without hesitation).

Three years, three books, and so much in between, I am beside myself with joy, anxiety, and a perpetual knot in my stomach. I know you may think I'm conceited when I say this, but truly, this is one of the best books I have ever written. Of course I've only written three, but I have grown as a writer, and from my last post, I can honestly say, I kept my POV together.

I know you all wish me luck, but wish it again anyway. I need all I can get.

Have a great weekend everybody. I'll be drowning myself in Pepto-Bismal waiting by the inbox.

On Re-Visioning

I know, I'm taking a lot of liberties with the English language here. However, what we do with a manuscript when we write the end of our first draft is revise. We make the prose sparkle, take out all the repetition, all the niggly words (just, then, and, right, actually, etc.), and try and make the manuscript sing.

What I'm talking about today is re-VISION. When you see your manuscript in a whole new light.

When I wrote THE LADY'S MASQUERADE two years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. However, I knew that as I wrote it, I would need to revise it, and to keep myself from falling off the deep end, I revised the previous day's work, the following day before I wrote new stuff. It kept the story fresh in my mind, and allowed me to see where I was going with it. (And for those of you who don't do this practice, I highly recommend it.)

I finished it and with all the hope and stupidity of a total newbie writer, I queried. I did garner some partial requests, but no fulls, and I decided to put it under the bed for safe keeping. I love that book, not only because it was the first I ever finished, but the story itself is so darn cute.

Now that I'm finished with the second book in the series, (And I have TOTALLY grown as a writer), I decided to take a look at THE LADY'S MASQUERADE again. I got into my notes from beta readers (who read it after I queried, yeah, see, told you I was a newbie) and read the book again. Well, sort of. I skimmed parts and basically just re-read the notes I had been given.

Oh. My. God. I can only *face palm* so many times in a day. Don't get me wrong, I have some really great stuff in there, but you can't see it for all the newbie-ness. The characters are way over-drawn, and those that aren't are so thin, they're just cardboard. I skipped good description on the important things in favor of bad on the unimportant. I have no control over my POV AT ALL, and even though the plot actually does stay together, there is so much tying up at the end, you might think I was a rodeo girl. I went way overboard in my zeal to craft the perfect ending.

So what does this mean? This my friends, means, that I have a new VISION for this book. As soon as I get my synopsis written for MisMATCHED, and query my little heart out, I'm diving into THE LADY'S MASQUERADE with renewed vigor. I'm ripping it apart, to shreds, to miniscule little pieces, and then will rewrite it within an inch of its life.

With everything I have learned over the last three years, I have every hope, it will become the book I once had the VISION of it becoming.

Tell me -- What does REVISION mean to you?


PS If you haven't had a chance to run by my awards post from Monday, please take a stroll down.

Awards

Well, here they are, the awards I've been hoarding, because I'm just too lazy, busy, link-phobic, to have posted when I received them. There's a lot of linkage so I hope you'll find some new friends to follow.

First up is the Beautiful Blogger award I received from Sherrie Peterson.




The rules for this award are list 7 pet peeves I have --

1) Hearing people chew food.
2) Chained dogs in yards with a fence.
3) Never ending dirty dishes.
4) Blogger being stupid.
5) Revisions.
6) My mother's kitchen reno project.
7) The school system where Monster Baby is enrolled.

This award go to --

E.Elle at The Writer's Funhouse
Christine at The Writer's Hole
Donna at Donna Hole
Lyndsey at Dangerous With a Pen
Jessica at My Thoughts Exactly
Laura Pauling at Laura Pauling
Liza at Middle Passages
Elle at Elle Strauss


The next award is the Stylish Blogger Award I received from Anne R. Allen.




With this award I'm supposed to list 7 things about me. I don't know what you want to know so I'll go with the easiest.

1) Favorite color -- green.
2) Favorite animal -- dog.
3) Favorite food -- Chinese.
4) Favorite book -- Illusions by Richard Bach.
5) Favorite holiday -- Earth Day (my birthday).
6) Favorite age -- 33. (I was so hot back then.)
7) Favorite album -- Heart Like a Wheel by Linda Ronsdat.

This award goes to --

Betty at Bossy Betty
Linda at Visiting Reality
Laurel at Laurel's Leaves
Christine at Christine's Journey
Tracy at Forever Endeavor
Stacy at Stacy's Rantings
Hannah at Musings from a Palindrome


And lastly, I received the Friends for the Journey award from the lovely Donna Hole. I'm supposed to tell you this award started at Michelle Gregory's blog. (Take a peek over there if you don't know her already. It's a lot of fun.)





This award goes to --

Bru at Pitch Slapped Bru is one of those people who I instantly connected with upon meeting her. She was also the person who gave me my very first interview and I was extremely flattered with all the work she put it into it.

Sarah at Falen Formulates Fiction Sarah has been one of my friends since almost the very beginning of my blogging experience. She's always been helpful with even my stupidest questions and is one of the coolest bloggers I know.

Christi at Torch in the Tempest
Christi is a talented quirky writer who has been my friend on another level and even though we've never met, I think we'd be fast friends in real life.

Bish at Random Thoughts If you don't know Bish, you should. Bish has a wide range of interests, writes the most incredible thought provoking posts, and is an environmentalist. And might love Henry David almost as much as I do.

Bridget at JB Chicoine Literary Works in Progress Bridget has the most amazing talent as a painter and writer and I am just blown away by the amount of creativity she has in her little body.

Terry at A Writer of Wrongs Terry is the other half of my angst driven self. We share our anxieties about publishing at such a ripe "old" age. But I've read his work and by God, you can't be that good without all that life experience.

Ann Best at The Long Journey Home Ann's debut novel In the Mirror, a memoir, will be released April 25. The advance reviews she has garnered, make this a must-read for everyone. Her kindness to everyone she meets on the blogs is so refreshing. I hope we'll remain friends for a long time.


Congratulations to everyone, thank you to the bestowers, and although the linkage has given me carpal tunnel, I hope you all go to the links and make some new friends.

Friday's at the Piedmont Grille

On Today's Menu -- Sick Soup and crackers, and a pot of vanilla tea.

I'm sorry I have nothing for you today. Nothing of mine anyway. I'm tired, and I think I caught a cold from all this crazy *%^$# weather we've been having down here. One day it's 85, the next it's 35. I wish it would just regulate to warm and be done with it.

If you have the time, go to this link here and read it. If this link doesn't work, go to Janet's blog from yesterday and link there. I don't have to tell you who Janet is, now do I? We're all in different areas of our work, but it doesn't hurt to be informed.

Have a great weekend everyone. I'm going back to bed.

Drum Roll Please

As of 11:32am on Monday morning, I finished my manuscript. TA DA! I totally blew off all the stuff I was supposed to do and sat down and finished it. I cried like a baby, yes I did, when I wrote those two little words. The End.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to each and every one of you who have given me support over the last few months. I could not have asked for a better cheering squad than you guys. This blogging community is so full of awesomely talented people and I wouldn't be where I am today without all of you.

I can now help my mother with a clear conscious. lol. I'm taking the rest of the week to do all the things I didn't do on Monday, and will hopefully start on edits next week. I've been revising as I've gone along so there isn't much to do in that sense, however, I've got those nasty line edits. I think those are the most time consuming.

I will also be making my way back around the blogs to visit. I've been so busy trying to get this ms. done, I've neglected you all and I'm sorry. But you all know how it goes. The writing comes first.

THANK YOU again, so much for your kindness and support. It really means the world to me.

Now, I'm off to unscrew the cabinet doors for Mommy Dearest. I'll see you all on Friday at the Grille.

Love you!

To Borrow From Hannah

I know I said I was going to pass along all the awards I've been given over the last so-many-months, and I had every intention of it, but guess what. My molly has been flogged. (I don't pretend to know what that actually means, but it sounds right. Thanks Hannah.)

I apologize to all of you who came here for the awards I promised. My life does not belong to me since my mother has decided to re-do her kitchen. I spent the entire weekend at her house going over checklists, perusing floor samples, counter top samples, taking a ride to the big-box-hardware-stores for light fixtures, draw pulls, and whatever else she wanted to look at.

My father built all of our houses and always put in whatever he wanted. My father can't do it this time, however he did build several cabinets so they will be incorporated into the new kitchen. It is an entire gut, floor to ceiling, electric and plumbing. And moving appliances from one side of the room to the other.

My mother is clueless and so I am helping her decide what she wants. I am giving her the benefit of my experience in the house make over department. My mother cannot even paint her own fingernails. Oy.

The two lovely ladies who offered to read my Ellis and Violet book gave me thumbs up on the project so I will not be tearing any walls down there. But because my mother needs me, I haven't been able to work on it as much as I'd like to. An hour here or there which disrupts my flow and ability to think it all through.

I also have several other things going on this week so I don't even think I will be posting on Wednesday. Oy.

My apologies again. I think this disruption in my writing schedule has something to do with the crazy moon. I have to blame it on something, right? I can't blame it on my mother can I? Can I?

Friday's at the Piedmont Grille

On Today's Menu -- Peanut butter and banana sanwiches (non-fried), and a big ol' glass of chocolate milk. May as well throw in a couple of chocolate chip cookies too. Brain food. (protein fiber carbs vitamin D and chocolate)

I am much better today, thank you all for your kind words from Wednesday. I think because I was almost at the end of my book, the stress to make it perfect was getting to me. I did this with the last two as well. I second guess myself, I hate what I've written, I deal with way too many questions, I read too many industry blogs to find my problems. Then I can't think straight. It's a vicious cycle.

And then we also have the time change which has really affected my sleep patterns. It's 4:38 in the wee hours of the a.m. as I write this and I am exhausted. I also internalize my stress which affects me in the form of weird, really weird dreams.

The one that got me up this morning was missing a writing workshop of Les Edgertons. He was giving it at the inn where I used to work. He came into the kitchen, we chatted for a few, and then he went back to the workshop.

What was it that woke me up? I forgot to tell him I was Piedmont Writer. And you know why I dreamed this -- because I didn't read the blog post he wrote the other day and I really wanted to, but I didn't have enough time. Yeah. I know. I really need to get a grip. (Hey Butch!)

Two very lovely ladies have offered to read my book. I heard from one of them yesterday. Pretty good so far, is what she said. So I'm happy about that. I did have the chance to re-read it myself yesterday. Start to finish. I need to add a few things to the ms. But as it stands, I still think it's pretty good. It's just a lot of stuff going on. We'll see what the ladies think.

I know many of you recommended for me to step back for awhile and let it stew. I can't. I need to get it finished, revised and queried before the end of April. I know that's a lot of pressure, but the weather has started turning, the yard needs dealing with, the house needs paint, the pool needs doing. I cannot remain attached to a book with all that. I also want to get this one out, so I can work on the first one again. It needs a little fixing, but I can work on it at my leisure. It's already there, it's not like I have to write it. You know.

Out of 37 queries for REMEMBERING YOU, only 1 partial and 1 full request. So, that one is definitely going under the bed. I think I'm not a contemporary writer. And that's okay. They all say to find your niche, well, I can honestly say, I love writing Regency romance and I think that's where I'll stay, thank you very much.

Congratulations to Carolina Valdez Miller on her scooping the elusive agent. Much continued success to her in her career.

And come back on Monday. I've received another award and I've finally decided to do an awards post. I think the last one I did was last July. So yeah, there might be a few to pass along. And there will definitely be some heavy duty linkage, so come on back.

And you know what, I think that's all I have today. Not much else is going on. I'm going to try and finish the book today. There's not a lot left to write, and I figure I may as well.

Have a great weekend.