You Spin Me Right Round, Baby, Right Round

I swear I’m starting to sound like a broken record repeating myself -- though now that I think about it, broken records don’t repeat. In fact, broken records don’t play at all. I wonder why the saying isn’t “sounding like a skipping record” instead?!?

ANYWAY…

I do realize I’ve been terribly neglectful of my blogging friends, as well as the blog itself. Nothing is wrong with me . . . other than I’m desperately trying to discover a loophole for this whole there are only 24 hours in a day deal we have going on.

The new job is going well. I think this place might be a really good fit for me and my personality. It’s nice & quiet in the office for the majority of the day, but it’s a laid-back quiet which works well for me. In case you haven’t noticed, I have a tendency to be a little hyper-aware of . . .  well, just about everything. There are so many less distractions to my concentration (I’m convinced I’m borderline ADHD anyway) that I’m looking forward to the time when things get – as I’ve been warned – noticeably slower. Might turn out to be a good place to get some writing done.

I’m leaving on Friday to head to San Francisco.

They say this is where I'm staying. The room looks nice and spacious, but I’m worried about the traffic noise and gusting winds. *shrugs*

Don’t know how much time (if any) I’ll have to get on the computer. So if you don’t hear from me at ALL after Friday don’t panic. If you don’t hear from me by the 7th at the latest, please call Alcatraz to make sure I wasn’t accidently left behind on the boat tour.

Other than that I have nothing to announce …. except that LOST is officially over and I’m officially in mourning. Please send copious amounts of chocolate!

Damn You, Fellow Writer, Damn You!

Forgive me for my post title outburst. I swear, it is not directed at any of my lovely writerly friends. Unless someone here happens to secretly be a writer of LOST, because then -- Yes, I am most definitely directing my emotional unrest at you!

It's been a while since I talked about my obsession with LOST on my blog, since I know most of you aren't watchers. However, if you know anyone who's a fan by now you've probably heard how last night -- with 3 shows left until the final episode ever -- the writers killed off three long-standing characters. Not just killed them, but in a most heart-wrenching, I-have-to-watch-my-true-love-die fashion. Seriously, it was like watching the scene in Titanic where Jack makes Rose promise she'll never give up. *tear*

So yeah, anyway, last night's episode did not leave me with the warm & fuzzies -- and I'm still not over it.

Contest Alert:  If you're not already following The Alliterate Allomorph head on over to Jessica's blog (after you finish reading mine, of course). She is well on her way to 200 followers. When she gets there she's planning to give away some pretty cool stuff, involving critiques & ish like that.

Speaking of which -- I am a blogging slacker compared to some of my buddies. To be honest, I often don't even notice that I've picked up a new follower until they comment. And I've noticed that some of the blogs I follow don't show up in my blogger feed. So anyway, if you've followed me and I haven't reciprocated, or if I've not been by to drop you a comment every now & again, don't be afraid to bring it to my attention -- because, I assure you, it is not intentional!

Question Alert: Do any of you all belong to the Absolute Write forums? I mentioned a while back, that I'm kind of slow when it comes to "joining" things. So I just registered for the forum last night. I'm feeling shy though -- don't laugh. Just curious to know if anyone else I know is on there and if you go by the same names as here or say the BransForums. If not Absolute Write, are there other forums & MBs you enjoy visiting? I'm trying to diversify. :o)

Last, but not least -- Big THANKS to Slushpile Slut (which I happen to think is the coolest blog name, EVER!) for mentioning that the hated red,dotted underline on blogger isn't a dead end. If you right click on said red, dotted underline you get a list of possible alternatives for the word you muffed up. It is a wondrous bit of news for us not-so-perfect spellers!!

LOST -- The Query

No secret, I'm a huge fan of LOST. It doesn't matter how frustrated I've been at the overall lack of Sawyer this season (I require regular doses of pectoral muscles in my television shows), I still tune in each & every week waiting for answers I know aren't really coming. It drives me insane ... and I love it!

Now, I know the television & movie industry works far different than print publishing -- but I imagine writers for series & screenplays still have to pitch their ideas to agents & producers same as we do. And since I'm still having a bit of difficulty nailing the specifics that need to be in my query pitch my mind got to wandering. 

What the heck would a query letter for LOST have looked like?

For the sake of having an actual end to the query, I only did Season 1. And I can't see how this sucker wouldn't wind up in the slush pile rejects.

*************

Dear Agent,

Oceanic Flight 815 is hundreds of miles off course when it crashes somewhere over the South Pacific. The survivors, left stranded on a tropic island, have one goal. Survive until the rescue boats arrives to save them all, all 46 ... 45 ... 44 ... 

Though beautiful to the eye, the island refuses to be kind to its new inhabitants. Kate, a criminal on the run, is forced to care for the federal agent who was taking her back to the States to be tried for the murder of her abusive step-dad. Kate also finds herself falling deeper into the affections of two men. Jack, the intensely loyal spine surgeon trying to cope with the death of his alcoholic father. And Sawyer, a con-man who works hard to hide the fact he's still the little boy who cowered under the bed while his father killed his mom and then took his own life. 

Kate, Jake and Sawyer are only part of the survivor stories, for they all have pasts to share ... if the island will let them. 

Several days after the crash, there is still no sign of rescue. If only the tropical island wasn't inhabited by polar bears, a monster that appears to be made entirely of black smoke, the mysterious continual appearance of the numbers 4-8-15-16-23-42, and a cornucopia of other strange and unexplainable occurrences, the experience might not be so unpleasant. But one by one their numbers begin to dwindle and the survivors will have to learn to live together ... or die alone.

LOST is a paranormal/ epic-fantasy/ mystery/ thriller/ romance set in a tropical dystopia and complete at 1,000,000 words. 

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Writers of LOST

It's Okay to Press "Pause"

Yesterday I had a "Oh, come on" moment in regards to my manuscript.

As noted, I've been having a tough time getting the right feel for what to put in the pitch for my query letter. It finally dawned on me, my problem might be a little too much mystery involving one of my characters in the beginning of the book. Because of that mystery, I've been having a near impossible time trying to figure out how to slip him into the query -- and he needs to be there, since he plays a major role in the dilemma the heroine faces when it comes to being with her love interest.

Anyway, here's the part that came as a shock to me when the lightbulb finally went on. The mystery about him in the beginning of the book isn't really necessary. (Part of my problem, being a fan of LOST has turned me into an inadvertent secret keeper in my writing, at times) Sure, it plays as a nice little "Oh my gosh" in the middle of the book as it stands now, but the dilemma would actually be more powerful if the reader new this information earlier on.

*Slaps forehead against desk*

In all honesty, it isn't that hard of a fix to make. It won't involve any sort of major re-write, just a minor reshuffle of info in a couple chapters. Probably about a week, maybe two, in the "fix-it" stage, and it will make it much easier to write him into the pitch, without having to divulge the big twist at the end. I'm just still kind of shocked that after all the read-throughs and numerous revisions, I never realized this before. Probably, because the story reads fine as it is now (otherwise, my betas would have mentioned it to me), but this minor shift would make the telling of the story that much better.

Anyway, the whole point of this post is ... I'm learning another valuable lesson on the road to becoming a published author. Patience - it's one thing to say it, another thing to practice it. I'm learning that sometimes, even when you think you're done, you aren't really done. It's frustrating to realize a need to stop and do one more thing, but in the long run I owe it to myself and the manuscript to give us both the best chance to succeed, right?

Has this kind of thing happened to anyone else, where you've had to stop querying for a short while to fix a situation you didn't realize existed? If so, and it was a MAJOR re-write, did you do it? Or did you put the whole thing on a back burner and complete something new first, before going back to it?

What Day Is It?

It's "What The Heck is Gonna Happen on LOST" night! Please TV gods, make them answer at least one of my questions. Hey, I've had a rough week (yes, I know it's only Tuesday): -- I'm officially going through Olympics withdrawal. (I now have an incredible desire to go ice skating and shopping with Johnny Wier, and I fear that neither is going to happen.) -- One of my best girls, Kristin, is on her way down to Sarasota for a week of spring training and I'm so freaking jealous it's not even funny (warm weather and good-looking men in tight white pants, what's not to like?). -- And I bit off all my nails during the USA vs. Canada hockey game, so now I'm having adjust to not being able to pry things open with them. Had I realized prior to the game how much I depend on said nails, I would have thought twice before chewing them. I was also up until almost 2am last night, re-writing my first chapter, but I'm not complaining, believe it or not. For months, I've been iffy on that chapter. It just didn't feel right. Seriously, I've revised and revised and revised that first chapter, and was still never a hundred percent sold on it -- which is not a good thing, since that's often the first one agents and editors want to see. Late last night (oh so very late) I finally gave myself permission to just say to heck-with-it and completely re-write it to see what I could come up with. And now I love it! Why didn't I do that months ago?! Oh, also this weekend I started reading "Pride & Prejudice". I'm slightly ashamed to admit I've never read it before (nor watched the movie), even though it's one of those books that's always talked about. Soon enough I'll be able to decide for myself if Mr. Darcy is worth all the hubbub. I'm only on chapter ten so far, so he hasn't done much to sway me one way or the other. I'm not averse to slightly arrogant men, it would seem.

The only thing that makes Tuesday better than Monday ... is LOST!

During the winter, when there is no baseball, the only way I can track the days of the week is by what television show is coming on that night. Since LOST comes on tonight, Tuesdays have now become a bright spot in my week. Two weeks ago it would have been a toss-up between Tuesday and Thursday, but "Vampire Diaries" & "Supernatural" have both gone on some unexplained, and truly upsetting, hiatus until late March. (Good thing I love you so much, Damon Salvatore & Dean Winchester, otherwise it would be out of sight, out of mind.) Okay, so on the writing front... Queries: I sent out 2 letters last week, and I've got 3 more agents on my agenda for this week (one email already sent yesterday). I'm sure there are some people who know me - or are reading this - thinking "Um, why don't you just send them out all at once and get it over with?" If only it were that easy! For some authors, the agent querying process might seem akin to sending in a resume for a job listing (something else I'm also getting a lot of experience with, right now) ... and while that makes perfect sense, I just can't seem look at it that way. For me, it almost feels like asking someone out on a date. It's scary as hell! Here you are, mustering up the confidence to ask someone to give you a chance to show them how wonderful you truly are, while desperately trying to ignore the screaming insecurities inside your head. Not an easy task. Made even less easy by the fact you have NO clue what is going on inside the other person's head. (This is why I much prefer it when guys ask ME out) I only put up a brave front, when really deep down I'm a terrible chicken ... so, I consider it quite a good deal of progress to have done the deed 3 times in the past week. Thankyouverymuch. Writing: As of my writing session earlier today, I'm not quite 3/4 of the way through the rough draft of my current work in progress (WIP). Woohoo! Go me, right? Except, apparently, I'm developing a pattern wherein this is the time in every project when the next story vying for attention becomes determined to distract me. Thank goodness I finally learned, last time around, that I have to ignore the urge to "take a little break" from my current work to dabble with the new idea. My computer's memory is a virtual graveyard of old stories that were never returned to from that little break. What I really need is to find some writing friends in the real world, so that my non-writing friends don't have to try so hard to pretend to understand. They try. They really, really try and I love them for it, but its time to let them off the hook so they can go back to being my sounding board for all things baseball, hot guys and LOST.

Query Letters & Characters w/ Coffee

Okay, so, after much ado earlier in the week, I finally sent out my first agent query letter today (that basically means I wrote a letter to plead for an agent to read my manuscript ... but the pleading was professional, mind you). It's a serious step in trying to get published, but I'm trying not to be so serious about the whole thing, if that makes sense. From everything I've gathered it can often times be a long and trying road to find sucess in a writing career, so I'm attempting not to sweat the small stuff along the way. That being said, I did have a "did that really just happen?" moment on the way to the post office this morning. For anyone who knows me, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that I stopped by the drive-thru at Starbucks on my way to mail my first agent letter -- seriously, I need to join a 12 Step Program for my latte addiction. Anyway, when I pull up to the little order-speaker-box the guy on the other end happens to have the same name as one of the characters in my story (it's not a very common name). I thought it was cool, but at that point I was more focused on getting my coffee. Then, I pull up to the window and when the guy with my character's name leans out to take my debit card ... he looks like my character too. Not just a little, but a lot! He was a few years younger, but it was unbelievably weird. I'm sure he thought I was a freak, the way I stared at him while he gave me my coffee. The whole thing, of course, was a highly unusual coincidence ... but I'm going to pretend it was a sign from the Writing Gods, telling me I have their blessing to proceed. Now, if I could pull up to Starbucks and have the guy at the window be able to explain to me what the heck is going on, on LOST that would be even better!