Change Is in the Air

Do you see something different?

It's those restless genes of mine... This is the cyber version of moving furniture around!

The funny thing is that I hate it when other people change their blogs... at least at first. I know y'all through your blogs. It's your internet face. It's who you are. So when you go changing, it makes it seem like you aren't the same anymore. Like a friend who comes back from vacation with a nose job and drastically different color hair.

And yet here I am, doing it. A complete face-lift.

I'm not really shaking off the old. It's more like I'm trying to find a face that's more me.

Stick with me as I tweak here and there and find my comfortable place. I may look different, but it's still me!

Is Anybody Waiting to Tell Their Story?? It's Awfully Quiet In There

Fall is in the air. The weather is cooling down, almost to freezing at night. Short sleeves and capris are being exchanged for sweaters and jeans. The leaves are changing colors and falling all over my yard and driveway so that walking through them is like wading through deep waters. It feels like change is on its way.

I like the seasons so much because I am restless by nature. If we aren't moving every year, I'm moving furniture around. I like clothes for about five months and then I'm ready to switch out to something different, even if it's the same different I wore the past three years. I like routine, but I like change, sometimes, too.

My life is following the seasons this year, and as the leaves are falling and life around me is shifting in the slightest, subtle ways, my writing is too. In September I shifted writing to querying, giving myself until the month of November to query like mad, and then begin the process of writing again. A new season, a new book. It sounded so easy.

But like any change, I can look forward to it, welcome it with open arms, and then, once it arrives balk like crazy at it! Because change is hard, and often uncomfortable. And I miss what I'm leaving behind, even if it did drive me nuts and I am getting tired of it.

So, this last week of October, I am staring change in the face. Another book. I've waited for inspiration this month to hit, but it's more like a slow moving tortoise. Bit by bit I am getting characters, a feel of setting and smidges of interactions. But no real plot. And no real conflict. And I'm waiting for these guys to start talking to me, but they're pretty darn quiet and it's driving me mad! Is it possible I'm going to have to start them off on the road before they'll pick up the journey as their own?

And then, the New Writer's Handbook lands with a plop on my front porch, my glowing query printed in black and white, a small footnote spelling out that the novel referred to is "under consideration" at the time of publication. Ouch! It's not anywhere near consideration. It's under my bed chatting with the dust bunnies ashamed to show its face. But as I read the query again, all that love I felt for it came back. It was a great plot, I think. It had some great characters, I remind myself. Why did I give it up? Because three agents read it and commented that it just started a bit too slowly for them. Because in trying to spiffen it up, I lost my voice. I tried to make it what others thought it should be, and not what I wanted it to be. And after only 16 queries, I gave up. I put it away as my "starter novel." The one I cut my teeth on.

But the publication of the query reminded me that I wasn't the only one who thought the idea sounded good. Three of sixteen agents thought it sounded good too.

So now I am wondering: Do I try to kickstart a story that has no plot and no driving need to be told yet? Or do I dig out the book I buried as dead and try to revive it, imbue it with the life I've learned by writing my last book? Do I take the first book and revise, or take the idea and start all over with it and write a new book based on the same plot with the same characters? Do I wait a little longer for another story to gnaw at me?

Because the last time I was in this place I threw myself into pirates. Oh yes. A YA pirate novel based on the life of Blackbeard, with elements of fantasy in it. And just as I got rolling, SOME KIND OF NORMAL came busting through the gates demanding to be told.

I'm waiting for the demanding, but it's awfully quiet in here!

It's Friday; It's a Good Thing

Last night I was going through pages I had sent my review group of the end of my book and came upon a comment that gave me a good laugh, and also gave me pause to remember why I wrote it, and how far research and development of diabetes has come, and how thankful I am. And it's Friday, after all. Time to list the good things in my life, and believe it or not, as far as diabetes is concerned, there is a lot of good.



The section of writing was this:


It takes less than ten minutes to drive to the church, where I park illegally in a handicapped space and march directly to the kitchen. The hospitality committee is exactly where they always are this time each week, their gossiping echoing down the halls off the sanctuary, which might as well be called the sanctimonious. I forget which SAT week that one was.

They stop the gabbing as soon as I fill the doorway.

“The devil has arrived,” I say, staring them each down. Yolanda. Gloria. Brenda. Vickie. Dina. Jen. Dot. Erin. Alicia. And two dozen angel food cakes.

The amusing part that my critique partner caught? I used the names of several of my group members in this! And yes, I did that on purpose. Hey, if Nicholas Sparks can name his main characters after his kids, why can't I throw in a few extras named after the people who have helped me along the way?

While I stopped to chuckle at the comment my partner left ("I like it that Jen and I are on the hospitality committee, but angel food cake is not my specialty…"), it made me reflect on why I wrote this in the first place. Because the truth is, I am not a fan of angel food cake myself. But it is one of my early memories of living with a type 1 diabetic.

You see, my sister was diagnosed before me - by twenty years in fact. I could write a post someday called "Everything I learned about diabetes I learned from my sister," but the fact is that everything has changed so much since that time. And when it came time for birthdays, my mother made angel food cakes, with barely-pink tinted cool whip lite frosting that looked like clouds. Angel food cakes were, at the time, the promoted cake of diabetics. Low in sugar, low in fat. And low in taste, I thought.

I don't actually remember the last time my mom made an angel food cake for a birthday. My sister left for college three years before me, and somewhere in the time between when she left and I was diagnosed, diabetic care changed by drastic measures. Today, I can have whatever cake I want. Ice Cream. Chocolate. White layer with raspberry filling. Okay, in moderation for sure, smaller pieces than I might if I weren't diabetic, but still: the options are there. And they are there for a variety of reasons, which bring me to this Friday post:

These are the good things about being a diabetic today:


1. Short-acting insulin. When my sister was a kid, she took one shot a day, and the insulin lasted that long, peaking at certain times and falling at others before finally petering out. She had to eat when it peaked, and not eat when it didn't, and eat a certain amount and not any more or less than that, because otherwise her blood sugar would rise or fall dangerously high or low. It's a tightrope to walk, especially in the school system when you have no control over when your lunch is.

Today, I eat when I want. The insulin hits within ten minutes of taking it and leaves within a few hours - about the same amount of time it takes food to hit my bloodstream and be processed. If I want a little, I take a little. If I want more, I shoot up a little more. And if I'm sick or just not hungry, I don't have to eat. It sounds simple, something everyone takes for granted. But for a diabetic, it's an awesome thing!

2. Blood testing meters. When I was diagnosed the first thing they did was give me a meter and show me how to prick my finger and test how much sugar was in my blood. If diabetes is about your body not being able to process glucose on it's own, and taking shots of insulin to cover that glucose, it only makes sense that a diabetic would need to know exactly how much glucose is there to know how much insulin they need. But it wasn't always like that. Back in the day, not that long ago, it was all a guessing game. I don't ever remember my sister having a meter. Which probably explains why she's seen the back side of a coma more times than I can count, and I haven't.

And can I add here that I love that most meters now can calculate that number within five seconds? It used to be much longer, which is a pain when everyone is tapping their fingers at the dinner table or honking the car horn ready to back out of the driveway. It's inconvenient enough to have to do it ten times a day. At least now it doesn't take that long!

3. Carbohydrate Counting. I feel like this is a superpower. I am carbo-count-woman! With a single glance I can calculate how many carbohydrates are on that plate! Half-cup rice: 15 carbs. 15 Doritos: 15 carbs. Slice of bread: 15 carbs. Small tortilla: 36 carbs. Bacon: NONE! Slice of cake: a gazillion. Okay, my powers are a little limited, but still, I'm pretty good at math now, adding and dividing in my head. 45 carbs on my plate. 1 unit insulin for every 15 carbs. I need 3 units.

When my sister was a kid (do you see this pattern?), it was all guessing, just like the blood sugar. She took a certain amount of insulin, and then guessed about how much food she's need to cover it. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes not. Sometimes she had to eat more than she wanted, because by golly the endocrinologist told her she had to take 8 units (her ratio is different than mine) and then cover it with food. Now, I do the opposite. I figure out the food, and cover it with insulin.

4. Pumps. Insulin pumps, to be exact. The size of a cell phone, it clips on my pants or skirts and delivers a constant stream of insulin. No more shots!! Well, there is a needle to put the tubing in my abdomen, but that's only once every three or four days. No more not being able to have spontaneous meals/snacks/ice cream etc when I'm out because I don't have insulin or syringes with me. It's like a mini-pancreas! Except I still have to do the math right... it's not that smart! Yet.

Every time I am tempted to feel sorry for myself, I remember my sister and how it was to live with diabetes only a few decades ago. Research, technology, progress... it's all a very, very good thing.

I've Been Published!

No, not my current novel. That would be a three exclamation point title!

This is, interestingly enough, something I never set out to publish. It's my first query, which I submitted to Jessica Faust in her pitch critique and which I received, if I may be so humble, rave reviews about.

Jessica's critiques caught the eye of Philip Martin, editor of The New Writer's Handbook, and he asked if he could include her advice about writing query pitches, and my submission as an example of how to write a pitch. How cool is that?!

The New Writer's Handbook is a terrific resource for writers, one of those books that can sit on the desk and be reached for over and over until the binding is worn loose and the cover worn thin. Here is the official write-up:

The New Writer’s Handbook, Vol. 2 is an all-new collection of articles (now in bookstores) to refresh and upgrade any writer's skills, with tons of advice on craft and career development. It delivers an eclectic mix of expert how-tos, stimulating pieces on creativity and professional issues, and broad encouragement for aspiring and experienced writers alike.

The 60-plus articles are chosen from best pieces of advice published mostly in the previous year in books, magazines, and online. Contributors include Tess Gerritsen, Lois Lowry, Ira Glass, and many other bestselling and award-winning authors, plus leading journalists, writing teachers, editors, agents, and literary bloggers.

In an inexpensive paperback edition, it serves up an annual professional-development seminar. For more info, visit www.scarlettapress.com.

The editor, Philip Martin (Milwaukee) directs Great Lakes Literary (www.greatlakeslit.com), and LitWave marketing for writers (www.LitWave.org). He is an award-winning independent writer, editor, and publishing consultant. For more, visit his blog at http://writershandbook.wordpress.com.


The query I wrote for this was for my first novel, the one which this blog is named after, which has since been shelved for the time being. This entry in the handbook may not be a novel, or a short story, or something I can even proudly point to in my new query letter as a publishing credit, but still, it's my writing. And it's darn good at that.

Guide To Publishing: Part 3: Finding an Agent for Your Novel

There are probably dozens of ways of finding agents to query. When I first started thinking of writing as a career, many, many years ago, the only way I knew was Writer's Marker, an annually published book that was probably out of date before it hit the shelves. I put my writing aside for a decade (or two) for my career and raising kids. In the meantime, the world moved on!

The advent of the Internet and blogging has drastically changed the availability of information and the timeliness of it. Hundreds of agents are at your fingertips, if you know how to find them.

The following is a list of websites that offer access to names of agents, including what they represent and, in some cases, personal remarks by others who have queried them. Some require registration but all are free, at least to some extent.

QueryTracker
Absolute Write
Agent Query
WritersNet
Publishers Marketplace
Association of Authors' Representatives (AAR)
Writer's Free Reference
326 Fiction Literary Agents
Preditors and Editors

I'm sure every writer has their own way of choosing who to query, but I'll give you my quick rundown, which is thorough but time-consuming.

I keep an Excel spreadsheet with a list of the agents and their agencies. It's important to have both because I want to make sure I'm not querying two agents at the same agency at the same time, generally considered a no-no. I may write down several agents from a single agency, and then query them one at a time. I have columns for the date I query, what materials I send (chapters or pages, synopsis, marketing, in general whatever that particular agent requests). I also have a column for the date of reply and what the response is, and a place to jot notes that might be pertinent, including if I choose, in my research not to query that agent. That way I know I already did the research and decided not to query them for some reason and I don't repeat all the research a week later forgetting about it.

For example, I've come across several agents that look like a perfect fit... except they say they don't rep children in peril. My main character's daughter is fighting off death. After coming across the same name several times and thinking, "Why isn't she on my list? She's perfect!" I find that nugget that says in small letters what I keep forgetting. Now my list tells me that I know about her and have ruled her out for this reason.

I started with Query Tracker because it is a great organizational tool. I punched in what kind of fiction I was writing and it generated a very long list of possible agents for me to add to my own personal list. I go through the list name by name. One of the great things about Query Tracker is that it also has links on each agent page for their AgentQuery Page and their Publishers Marketplace page, as well as the Preditors and Editors and their agency home page if they have one. It's one stop shopping! I can do a ton of research right off this page, as well as see comments other writer's have written about them.

If they look like a good match, I'll go ahead and mark them as a possible on my Query Tracker list and on the Excel spreadsheet. Now I have two lists going. The reason is because Query Tracker offers valuable options and information I come back to time after time, but it's incomplete. I often get names from other places as well - agents that go on my Excel spreadsheet but are not included on Query Tracker.

When I have a good size list, enough to really begin the process, I go down my list one by one, Googling the agent names to find interviews, comments, authors they represent, blogs... anything that will give me a better idea of what they are looking for and how I might fit into their client list.

It's not uncommon for me to have six windows open on my computer (thank you Mac!). By the time I send the query out, I'm confident the agent I'm sending it to is reputable and a reasonable fit.

It's not really important, I suppose, how I go about the process. You will find your own rhythm, your own way of creating your list of dream agents. If you find better resources, let me know and I'll add them here.

It's a daunting process, but you don't have to do it alone! Many of these websites offer the chance for writers to interact with each other, exchange information and recommendations and lessons learned, as well as encouragement. Sometimes agents even get involved with them, stopping by to explain a problem that seems to crop up or update what they are looking for.

My advice is not to pick one website and stick solely with that one. Research widely, query widely, hope hugely!

Good luck!

How To Get Your Novel Published: An addendum to Part II: The Query Letter

Yesterday I focused on what agents want out of query letters, but there are plenty of other places to get valuable help as well.

The very first resource I found was AgentQuery. It's an outstanding overview of queries, along with do's and don'ts and suggestions about how to make a query intriguing. It also has links to other websites, including query letters that have garnered an agent.

Which leads me to this addendum. It's not just what agents say that interests me. It's what they do. What kind of letters are they truly, actually responding to?

Here are some authors who have posted the query letter that landed them the agent and a published book:

Nicholas Sparks
Various Romance Authors
Lynn Flewelling
Sara Rees Brennan
Simon Haynes (From here there is a list of links to other author queries in what is known as "The Query Project")
Heather Brewer

(If you are an author and have landed an agent and would like to post your query here, or have me place a link to it, I'd love to do that!)

The thing to be careful of here is that there are many reasons someone may have gotten requests from an agent. It could have been that the plot overshadowed bad querying. It could be that the agent had some connection with the material (which is, actually, ideal if you can find that, the way I tried to find agents with some connection to diabetes).

Times change, too. With the acceptance of email, agents are getting hit much harder with queries. People who wouldn't invest in the money for stamps for 100 agents two years ago might well send out 100 emails today, and an agent who used to get 20 queries a day may be now getting 100. The more competitive the field, the more you need to WOW them, the less sloppy you can afford to be.

Here is another interesting post about querying and breaking into the publishing world by a new author, David J. Williams, whose tongue-in-cheek approach to this topic made me laugh - in that sad, I-want-to-cry-because-it's-so-true kind of way.

And just for fun, because it's Friday:

Here's a great satire on writing the query letter

And here's what agents do on Friday night.

Phew. I think I'm done with queries. Next up, finding agents.