Oh Wow, Talk About Embarrassing

Looking for my Query BlogFest Entry? Go here.

(Quick Public Service Announcement:  I seem to have an abundance of friends looking to submit their manuscripts to free lance editors for fine tuning. So, I wanted to pass along information for Jessica Bell. Jessica is a writer, but she also has a strong editorial background. Just relaying for anyone interested in going this route, since I know Jess is good people and will stand behind her services.)

Sometimes I get introspective and spend time imagining what the future will be like.

Granted, after a while, my mind tends to wander and I envision a world in which I'm such a renowned best-selling author, I loan J.K. Rowling some money when she lands on hard times. World hunger is ended. The Baltimore Orioles win 10 straight World Series titles. And I've dated every male cast member on the Vampire Diaries (especially Taylor Kinney)

Screw the rest of the stuff. If only the last one came true I could die a happy woman. *sigh*

Anyway, eventually, I come back to reality and get a little more realistic in my wonderings. And every now and again when I think about my writing and the efforts I'm going through to get published, I wonder if I might one day regret some things.

Right now, I LOVE my stories (both the completed one and the new bun in my writerly oven). But will I still feel the same in 15-20 years? Because the one thing about being published, regardless of paper copy or ebook, etc. Once your words are out there, released to the public, you can't ever take them back.

I know, I'll never regret my stories...but will I one day be slightly embarrassed by the juvenile versions of my writing?

I ask, because there was a time when I actually thought this was cool.

This picture is late 80's, back when we thought we were the 8th grade "ish". (Don't recall when putt-putt golf was the "in" thing to do, but whatever.) We were rocking the cheese. This was apparently before I discovered make-up and please don't ask me about the hair. I'm well aware that I look like a poor man's Molly Ringwald.

Anyway, as you can tell by the I'm-so-cool-look-at-me-leaning pose, I apparently felt pretty good about myself when this picture was taken. Now, I look back and cringe at this child and wonder why no one stopped her when she tried leaving the house like that. (My friend Kim doesn't count as a judge, she's wearing boxer shorts over her leggings for crying out loud)

I just hope and pray, that twenty years after my first manuscript is published I don't look back and cringe the way I did when I first stumbled across this picture!!

Vampires with Surfboards

It’s no secret that I tend to love me some vampires. From the first time I watched Lost Boys I was hooked. Whether they’re the good guys or the bad guys, teenaged or decrepit, full-vamp or half-human… I love them all. That doesn’t mean I love every story/movie I’ve come across, however, and now I’m more concerned than ever for the future of my beloved creatures of the night.


This weekend they taped the Teen Choice Awards and the YA crowd has spoken. They still love their vampires too! (Before you ask, no I didn’t vote. I’m no longer eligible…you know, since I stopped being a teenager last year *wink, wink*)

The Twilight crew won 12 – yes that’s right, 12 – awards!! They were far and away the favorite in every category they were nominated in.

As if that wasn’t enough vamp lovin’ -- The “Vampire Diaries” (which I love, love, love by the way. Damon Salvatore is my idea of the perfect lovable villain. A bad guy with the occasional soft spot, but still a bad guy) …. Anyway, the CW network’s show collected 7 awards of its own.

So between two crews of vampires, they brought home 19 Surfboards -- it's a Teen Choice thing. That’s crazy!

On the one hand, this makes me happy, because it means that editors and agents will have to realize that this vampire craze isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. At least not in YA land it isn’t. That means more choices for those of us who will openly admit that Anne Rice’s Lestat was our first love – and we all know that once you go fang you can never go back.

But I have a MAJOR concern that the markets (literary, television, etc) will continue to be flooded by people who write about vampires not because they love them, but because they see potential fame and dollar signs behind it.

All of this leaves me wondering what other wonderful things are being way overdone in literature and television that I just never realized because they didn’t resonate with me? Except for police dramas. What is that about??? There are far too many of those shows on television these days. Though, Criminal Minds is da bomb – so maybe I should shut up.

Vampire Diaries

I decided the whole posting-at-night thing wasn't really working for me. Hey, I gave it two whole nights, at least.

On Topic: It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of LOST, but one of my other current television loves is Vampire Diaries (comes on Thursday nights @ 8 on the CW, for those who are interested).

I've been fascinated with vampires since the first time I saw "The Lost Boys", back in the day. I love all kinds of vampires. From the ones who are little more than slobbering grave monsters, to the more aristocratic Anne Rice types.

And yes -- I have a weakness for teenage vampire stories.  (It doesn't hurt that the men who play said teenage vampires are H-O-T!)

The way I see it, my teenage years were the most emotionally challenging of my life (at least up to this point. Check back with me after I have a couple kids). So naturally, I can feel for characters who are perpetually stuck in that phase of their existence. It's the be careful what you wish for answer to "if only I could be young again and still know what I know now" idea.

Anyway, my whole point in choosing this topic today was. Vampire Diaries is a television series that is based off an old book series. LJ Smith wrote her first story with these characters back in the early 90's. I've read a few of those books and they were okay. (It was a much earlier version of YA, and it was a little  blander than what I like in my teen stories) But Kevin Williamson (Dawson's Creek & Scream, Scream 2, etc) is the writer for the television show. He's a phenomenal writer, and has a way of continually building the tension & drama. I get addicted to his shows time and time again. 

The thing is, Kevin took a good deal of liberties with the story line and characters from the book series (though, IMO, he made definite improvements). Sometimes though, I wonder how LJ Smith ultimately feels about that. Obviously she consented to the television deal, and I'm sure she isn't complaining that her series is back on the NYT best seller list after more than a decade, but ... how does she feel about those liberties?

How do you think you would feel if this situation were to arise with your story/series? Be it a television show or movie adaptation, do you think it would be unsettling for you to have someone else writing your characters instead of you?

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.