Not too much to report these days. I got a "not for my list" rejection the other day that I'm not overly heartbroken about. I put up my bonnet and it got left behind. No worries. We all know what happens to that the owner of the hat in the end.
I've spent my morning tidying up my query list at querytracker.com and as soon as I got notes and edits back from readers I'll be tumbling back into the query trenches. My goal is to be ready before Pitch Wars.
There's another giveaway cooking but I don't have all of the details yet. But, once I do I think you'll be pretty pleased with what For the Love of Books and I have in store for you.
The Book Splash Cruise now has a pretty and...uh...splashy website. I definitely recommend checking it out. There are only 38 cabins left for the the 2017 sailing on Princess. The current list of authors, models, and photographers is listed (subject to change) as well as the itinerary. Don't dawdle.
I have a few other things on simmer that I can't put out there yet but I'm always thinking about what comes next. Giveaways, projects, or whatever. Stay tuned!
It's been over a month since my last post which was my birthday giveaway. Once again I want to thank all of the people who entered and everyone who was highlighted in the giveaways. Once again they are - Derek Keeling, Steffy Rogers, Phoebe Fox, Carlos R. Savournin, Sherri Crowder, AngelWingsEmbroidery, Allthingsessential, Weina Dai Randel, Victoria Wyngate, Susan Haught, Ryan Kelly, and Normandie Fischer. Give them some likes, shares, reviews, and of course sales! And also a huge shout out to my international partner-in-crime for all her help. Shenanigans go global with Rosie! Speaking of Susan Haught - I recently had the pleasure of diving into her A Promise of Fireflies. I think I was up until about 5am reading it and I didn't want to put it down. I had to keep going forward to see what was going to happen next. The book became slightly personal when it was revealed one of the characters had served in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne - the Screamin' Eagles. My late father was in Vietnam with the Screamin' Eagles. I don't know much about his time there as he never spoke of it. He might have revealed more as we got older but I was eighteen when he passed. The opportunity simply never came. However, the book did spur me into doing a little Googling and I found this. That's my dad on the far right.
Speaking of my late father - he died of cancer on December 26, 1997. The doctors had told us to call the family on Christmas Eve but he rallied to make it through Christmas. I'm bringing this up for an important reason. While my father was a rather heavy smoker his lungs were actually clear when he was diagnosed. Not that his smoking wasn't part of it - it does damage your immune system after all. But, his cancer started out as skin cancer. It's hard to tell in this black and white picture but my father was what is known as "Black Irish". Meaning his complexion had more of an olive base than the "traditional" rosy one (like my siblings and myself). We're warned that those who are "pale" (or porcelain as I prefer) are at a heightened risk for skin cancer. While that is true it doesn't mean those with a darker complexion aren't at risk. I know I've blogged about this before and I'll blog about it again. My father had the lymph nodes removed from under one arm on October 18, 1996. I remember the date because it was my sister's 12th birthday. By Easter 1997 he was back in the hospital and he was gone in December.
People often don't take skin cancer seriously since it seems "trivial" when compared to other cancers. And, it can be easily taken care of. But, as my father's story shows it can be as deadly as any other cancers.
I had my annual visit to the dermatologist last week and I am pleased to share that no problem spots were found. That makes it six years since my last "abnormal" mole. And that's something I hope to never go through again. Make sure you get checked as well and use protection if you're going to be outside.
I don't have much else as far as news goes. Things have been quiet. I have some queries out but I'm not pounding the pavement the way I had been in the past. I'm waiting to get some notes back from readers. After that it's back to the Fortress of Solitude to do some editing. Then, I'll be diving back into the shark-infested waters.
The next episode of PubTalkTV is on May 2 and I definitely recommend anyone battling through the query trenches to check it out. There's always good information to be had.
Well, The Book Splash Cruise has come and gone. I had a fabulous time aboard the Emerald Princess and being part of Princess's continued 50th Anniversary Celebration. Being a lifelong Love Boat fan it was exciting for me to finally be aboard princess. For the 50th Anniversary the cruise line debuted a new drink (I had three), tested passengers Love Boat knowledge with a trivia game (I won a bottle of champange), and gave us a disco-themed Love Boat dance party.
We were even able to have our picture taken in the "iconic" life ring:
Okay, now that I have all the Love Boat stuff out of the way it's time for the Book Splash side of things. As an admin of the Facebook group I had an insider's view to how hard Felicia Lynn and Harper Sloan worked to pull this off. We were treated like royalty with barrels of swag and special events. Author signings, "cocktail" parties, and more giveaways than I could ever imagine. They've already starting planning the 2017 event and they're already close to being sold out. So, if anyone is on the fence about going I defintely suggest giving Felicia a call.
A lot of the people in the group knew each other already before going but I went in alone and blind. I only knew Felicia from our multitude of telephone and Facebook conversations. I was welcomed by the group and came out not only with new contacts but also new friends. I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Wildfire Lake by Victoria Wyngate (which I have already read and definitely recommend). Victoria and Aimee LeMercie were my dining companions and we had many stimulating dinner conversations. We also learned a lot from each other about this crazy business of ours. And, I know that I have a friend for life in Rosie. We're just two peas in a cracked pod.
I also had some great conversations with Carlos Savournin and Dave Demaske (usually at the bar or in Skywalker's Night Club). I met so many great people that there isn't enough blog space to list them all. Check out the Book Splash gang for yourself.
Sadly, into every life a little rain must fall. And it's of the literal sense this time around. The cruise was departing Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, February 6 and I had planned to fly down from New Jersey early on the 5th. I had a 9:41am flight that didn't leave Newark until after 11am due to snow. I had planned on going to the Flamingo Gardens but my flight landed too late. This is actually the third time I've tried to go. Someday. However, we did have a great dinner at Cheesecake Factory before going on a ghost tour.
The next morning Fort Lauderdale was dreary and our first sea day was rocky and dreary (thank goodness for my QueasyBeads. On Monday the waves were so high in Grand Cayman we had to go to a different part of the island to be able to tender over. Ocho Rios was more of the same and it rained on our last sea day. While the weather didn't want to cooperate it was still better than what New Jersey was dealing with at the same time. I'll take an overcast day in the Caribbean over a snowy day in NJ.
Now, it's back to normal. I had arrived at the airport in Fort Lauderdale just in time to take part in #pitmatch. This newest pitch contest netted me two agent requests. One has already turned into a rejection but that's just another part of the game. Onward and upward.
Annnnd...my birthday is in less than two weeks and some of you may remember what that means. GIVEAWAY! I have a few awesome items ready for you guys on March 3 so don't forget to come back for that!
Gah! Has
it really been more than two months since I’ve written a post? That ought to be my New Year’s Resolution – to
be better about getting stuff out there.
There hasn’t been too much to report lately though. I’ve skipped a lot of the contests and pitch
events due to my missing files. After I
got the files back I thought everything was going to be okay but it wasn’t. My computer savvy coworker put Windows 10 on
my laptop and it was rejected like a bad heart.
When he took it off several programs disappeared – including my word processing
program. What’s the point of having my
files back if I didn’t have a wat to open them?
But, with a little help from my friends (ahem...Felicia Lynn) I was able to get back on track and can get working again.
I also need to get back to twitter. My tweeting has really gone down since the
falling laptop incident and QueryKombat.
I need to get back out there and reestablish my connections and start
making new ones. The writing community
is tight knit and we all need to turn to each other from time to time.
With all of that drama in the rearview it's time to start looking onward. It's hard to believe that the Book Splash Cruise is on only a few weeks! I'm flying down to Fort Lauderdale on February 5 and we're sailing on February 6 on The Emerald Princess. As a big Love Boat fan sailing Princess is exciting to me.
As an admin in the Book Splash group I was tasked with organizing the Ghost Tour, providing information to the first time travelers/cruisers, and handling the giveaways. The giveaways became a pretty large part of my duties and we had MANY as our sailing date grew closer and closer.
I wanted to take a moment to thank and highlight everyone who participated in these giveaways. And, to give you guys the chance the check them out. I want to share them and I hope they get lots of attention and sales thanks to working with me.
Before I get started on Vegas I wanted to share an update on my last blog. My computer problems are not as behind me as I thought. Turns out that I got my laptop back with NO WORD PROCESSING PROGRAM! AHH!! I have no idea how it got deleted but Microsoft Works is GONE. Sad. But, Felicia Lynn may be coming to my rescue on that one. Phew.
But now . . . on to Vegas! I don't know about you, but I love vacations! Especially when you're going from somewhere cool to a warmer locale. And, that's just what I did last week when I went from New Jersey to Las Vegas.
I hadn't seen my friend Deb in several years since we live on opposite sides of the country and we decided Vegas was the perfect place to meet for a few days of fun. We both started playing MyVegas a few months prior to the trip which earned us buy one/get one on the monorail. We're both going to keep playing so we can put the points toward a discounted room rate for next year.
This was the fifth time I'd seen Million Dollar Quartet. I'd seen it twice on Broadway, once Off-Broadway, and once on tour. Out of those five times I got to see Victoria Matlock four times and I'm always happy to see her. She's tremendously talented and artistic. She was recently part of a successful Kickstarter campaign for the movie Meet Love Hope and I can't wait to see the fruits of those labors.
Not only did I get to see Victoria but I also got to see Derek Keeling as Johnny Cash. He did the tour but had left the role before it came close to me. So, I'd heard good things about his portrayal but had never been able to see it myself. I was so happy to finally say I saw him take on that great role. And, I hope it's not the last time either.
But, back to Vegas. Deb and I stayed at the Excalibur and I don't think we spent much time there except to eat, sleep, and change. We definitely spent more time out of the hotel than we did it in. Maybe next time we'll actually check out some of the shows there.
We stopped by the Flamingo to see the flamigos, MGM Grand to experience CSI and solve the crime (which we did). MGM is the start of the monorail and the closest stop to our hotel. So, we ended up spending a lot of time there. We were even talking about staying there next time so we can be closer to the monorail. And, I don't have to go as far if I leave my ticket in the room (which I did one night *sigh*)
All in all we had a lot of fun even if we came back from our trip very tired. It was worth it to see a friend after a long time and have a lot of great, new experiences.
I've been absent for a long time - I know that. I went from blogging nearly every week to not blogging at all. I needed to step back from things for a bit for several reasons.
First off because I needed a little wound-licking time. I usually bounce back pretty quickly and stare down rejections with a Sally Brown "Oh yeah? That's what you think!". But, bouncing back after QueryKombat turned out to be harder than I thought. I guess it's because it was the first time I'd gotten past the contest slush pile and into the first round. Did I think I was going to win the whole thing? No, but I also didn't think I'd be out in the first round. I had 32 other people to keep me company though. At least I wasn't lonely.
Around the same time I had a little accident. My laptop fell off the bed. It survived but I lost my entire WIP and the edits on my manuscript that I had been making at the time. HEART ATTACK-AKC-ACK-ACK.
I brought it to my computer savvy coworker and he wasn't to find them. Panic was starting to set in. But, he knew someone who might be able to do it. It would take a long time but the hopes were high. I kept on trying to move that rubber tree plant while waiting for the news. Could they? Couldn't they? Finally, last week I got word that they could! And . . . today I got my precious files back!
My files have been returned to me and I can continue making those edits and working on that first draft. This delay gave me time to catch up on my reading and I was glad for that. We writers cannot writer unless we read as well. I feel like I spent my time wisely.
But, the wind actually returned to my sails last month. Getting the files back is just the cherry on top of that. Last month I attended the first annual WFWA Retreat and I found so much to be grateful for there. I admit that I had been a little nervous about going and I was afraid I was going to be outclassed by all these published authors. But, that wasn't the case at all. I was welcomed and people seemed to like my work. Before last night I had been climbing the rocky terrain on my own. Pulling myself up inch by inch with only bloody nubs where my nails had once been. Now, someone's standing at the top of the mountain with their hand held out to me. I'm no longer alone. I have a tribe.
We had a fun workshop with Kimberly Brock and had lots of small discussion sessions on topics that we face as published and querying authors, We had a lovely dinner on the last evening of the retreat where Darynda Jones was our keynote speaker. I was lucky enough to sit next to Darynda for both Kim's workshop and for the dinner. She's funny, very smart, and I am so grateful to have met her. I'm grateful to have met ALL of the writers who attended the retreat. We came together in such wonderful and amazing ways. At this point I'm almost ashamed of the fear and trepidation I had prior to attending. I'm so glad I went and I can't wait to see how the organization grows and how we grow with it.
I'll be jumping back into edits very soon as well as preparing for the The Book Splash Cruise in February. I've been very active in the group helping Felicia Lynn and Harper Sloan get a lot of the first time cruisers in the group prepared for what to expect. I've had a lot of fun working with them and I cannot wait for what the facebook page has in store for the group and for the cruise itself (of course).
