Epic Update!

Well maybe not that epic, but still.... I attended an SCBWI Mentoring Workshop today and had my second ever editor critique with another editor from Random House-and she is interested and wants me to send her the entire manuscript! So I am two for two and all with Random House which is AWESOME! I am so excited and ecstatic over the positive responses I keep getting in regards to my work (it makes all the times I sweat and stress and act like a crazy person to my critique group SO worth it!)

So now all I need to do is finish! I am trying to weigh a few options and ideas in my head but then I need to get to work! Thank the universe I have almost two weeks off from work after this week. I'm going to have to focus!focus!focus!

Can't wait!

Exploring some other creativities and book update!

Wow I have been MIA for awhile! But though I have not been the most diligent updater during the month of March, I have been progressing. I recently felt the urge to make jewelry again, something that's been an on/off hobby of mine for years and I recently have been on a creative spree and coming up with some really fun beautiful stuff to wear and admire. I'll have to post some pics soon! And with just about one month left (a little more but I'm being optimistic and rounding down) of my masters program I'm as excited as ever to have more free time to start bellydancing again. So I've been pulling out of my old costumes and accessories and work out gear out of storage to admire and organize. And its so much fun although my living room looks like a bellydance bazaar threw up in it. A couple of my key pieces are missing-I'm not sure where they went, but I loved them very much and I hope they turn up, otherwise I'll have to try and replace them-a little hard to do since all of the pieces are unique and can't always be found twice.

But aside from those aspects of creation, I've also been working on recreating my story. I decided to go back to an older draft idea that allows me to more slowly reveal the mystery-which I'm a fan of. And so it feels like back to the drawing board again. But luckily my creative juices seem to be flowing out like crazy-I just have to make sure I keep them focused in the writing direction.

Post-Birthdayness

I reached my goal on my birthday of getting to page 100 of the 3rd official rewrite/redraft/revision-call it what you will. It was fun to spend the whole day writing like it was my job ( I shall take this as a sign of what is to come this year-me spending my weekdays writing because it is my job). I get to do the actual birthday partying this this weekend. And best of all-Eva got me a whole box of my favorite vegan donuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


And...I'm thinking about throwing throwing these 100 pages in the trash. My new prologue turned chapter one is maybe not the way to begin the book and not because it isn't good or somewhat great-it has my absolute favorite Lilliana line ever right now and it brilliantly inverts the ending and my favorite line also completely foreshadows the end. As far as literary concepts, foreshadowing is one of those things that rock my world and get me giddy and excited (hey-to each their own!). So I'm kind of reluctant to let it go-but I need to start the novel a certain way and I'm not sure how to use this as the lead in to what I want.

Perhaps there is a way to salvage this - I don't know. The prologue (pure prologue not a sneaky chapter one convert) I have now sort of combines elements from the original prologue along with its style, as well as a summary of I guess what you could call it's second prototype. The most recent one is prototype three. So I'm going to have to think this one through. Anyway this weekend I will begin the 4th major revision-apparently the third time was not the charm although it was fun while it lasted.

Update oh and it's my BIRTHDAY!

It is SNOWING! Hard core snowing like everything is shut down and we are all home from school! I can't believe it, I thought it was getting warmer...oh well! But in any event this means that I am officially snowed in on my birthday! Which...is kind of not the day I would preferred to be snowed in on-but, hey I get to relax and spend my entire day writing which in the end, is all I want to do:-)

It's kind of funny because I'm working on the revisios of the first few chapters when Lilliana is anticipating her birthday and I suddenly realized that I was anticipating mine at the same time. And now today is my birthday (by the way I was born in a blizzard, March 2nd seems to be a popular day for storms) and I'll be working on Lilliana's birthday chapter-hehe!

I'm very happy to report I'm back on page 80! Yay! Let's see how many pages I can write today...

Hope everyone is staying warm, readers are snuggled up with a good book and blanket and all writers are hard at work on their writings, with snowy inspirations from their muse!