Okay, ten bonus points if you 'get' that title and where it came from!*
So, despite having lagged on posts here (you don't even want to know how far behind I am on LJ) and Dr.'s appointments (my divorce from gluten is still up in the air, I'm praying to my Irish/Italian ancestors to save me) being sick and working on writing stuff offline, I've managed to throw myself back into the querying game.
I sent out five today, two of them with sample pages *eats chocolate and prays for interest* I think it was harder this time than ever before because I dicked around and let myself get out of the flow. I mean there's a certain balance to the sending of queries, receiving of either requests or rejections, then the sending of more queries. Just like the great circle of life, the unbroken chain... wow, got a little high drama there... But you get my meaning. It was very strange jumping back into the pool again. I did an exaggerated 'run and flap my arms after hitting send' dance and I'm still googily over it.
But I'm also excited. Terrified and joyous. I've got other projects to work on in the meantime. EVERNOW has informed me that I was wrong, and her story cannot be wrapped up in a neat and tidy standalone novel and Beauty is quite adamant that THORNBRIAR could use another visit for more polishing. So I'll be far too busy to check my email... *pinches finger to avoid opening new browser tab, just to peek*
I'll leave you with the one memento I got from this year's 'winter which wasn't' in VA. I warn you, there are a few exclamations of curse words. Near death adventure and all that :)
*The title of the post is a reference to Jurassic Park the movie, where Alan is trying to rescue Tim from the car that's been thrown into a tree. Epic love for that scene.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Bad Artemis, No Doughnut...
That's right, no doughnut for me. I've been very naughty and haven't posted since God was a child. Okay, maybe it hasn't been quite that long, but still long enough to deserve a good swat on the bum. Not that I've been sitting around on my tuchus, doing nothing. Well, except for the week I was sick. But that was, like, two weeks ago, so it doesn't count for a lot. I HAVE been busy else wise. Just not with writing stuff. Which makes me sort of sad. And then what writing I DID work on, was this road-hog #shinynewidea, which as forbidden me from getting any 'work' type of editing/query stuff done. Mostly, anyway.
And then there's the fact that I've been forced into a starvation diet. Okay, okay, it's not *entirely* a starvation diet. Technically. See, apparently it is *possible* that all the joint issues I have over the years are not, in actuality, related to arthritis. At least not caused directly by it. No, apparently - at least based on preliminary testing - I may, in fact, have Celiac SPrue disease. Whatever that means. Uh, that was sarcastic. Being me, I've researched it and can tell you what it means. It means (if secondary testing, which I'll undergo later this month proves the diagnosis to be true) NO GLUTEN FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!! Which is where the second pun of my post title comes in. I really don't get a doughnut. Ever again. Unless I find a gluten free one. Or the diagnosis turns out to be wrong. Do you know how much gluten is in EVERYTHING? For an Irish/Italian girl that's like saying you can never wave your hands while talking again! No bread? I'm like a bread-free version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding! You don't eat bread? I'll fix you some biscuits. Biscuits aren't bread!
Okay, so, I CAN eat bread. But it has to be gluten free bread. Which is astonishingly hard to find unless you live beside a Whole Foods. I wasn't too surprised to find that because Americans (most of them) think flour that is any color but pristine white is 'gross' and 'contaminated' and 'looks wrong' virtually all flours contain 'enriched wheat' which in our country equates to 'genetically engineered wheat'. And that, at least in some studies, seems to be what causes a lot of the autoimmune reactions to gluten in people with Celiacs. There have been reports (though not studied in depth) that people with celiacs who vacation in Europe and consume 'old world' species of wheat, which have not be genetically altered and are pure strains, do not have any reaction to the gluten in those strains. But there is no scientific proof of that yet. At least, as far as I know. And I'm still learning. Maybe for nothing if the second round of testing shows that I don't, in truth, have Celiacs. But at the very least, I'll come out of it more educated.
ANYWAY, I promise that I will do my best to update my blog on a more regular schedule. I'll be sending out queries again soon (this time on Gone Missing Girl, formerly known as Amarok and the Gone Missing Girl) so I'll have that adventure to relay to you. Plus, until the end of the month, I have the saga of the gluten-free Irish/Italian twit to dramatize, which I feel I ought to make as fun and ridiculous as possible. Thank you to everyone who hasn't unfollowed, or unliked, or defriended or whatever it is on Blogger, me because of my lack of posting. And I hope all of you are well. You might have said on your own blogs, but I wouldn't know, because that's another set of stairs I've fallen down. But it's also something else that I intend to rectify.
And then there's the fact that I've been forced into a starvation diet. Okay, okay, it's not *entirely* a starvation diet. Technically. See, apparently it is *possible* that all the joint issues I have over the years are not, in actuality, related to arthritis. At least not caused directly by it. No, apparently - at least based on preliminary testing - I may, in fact, have Celiac SPrue disease. Whatever that means. Uh, that was sarcastic. Being me, I've researched it and can tell you what it means. It means (if secondary testing, which I'll undergo later this month proves the diagnosis to be true) NO GLUTEN FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!! Which is where the second pun of my post title comes in. I really don't get a doughnut. Ever again. Unless I find a gluten free one. Or the diagnosis turns out to be wrong. Do you know how much gluten is in EVERYTHING? For an Irish/Italian girl that's like saying you can never wave your hands while talking again! No bread? I'm like a bread-free version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding! You don't eat bread? I'll fix you some biscuits. Biscuits aren't bread!
Okay, so, I CAN eat bread. But it has to be gluten free bread. Which is astonishingly hard to find unless you live beside a Whole Foods. I wasn't too surprised to find that because Americans (most of them) think flour that is any color but pristine white is 'gross' and 'contaminated' and 'looks wrong' virtually all flours contain 'enriched wheat' which in our country equates to 'genetically engineered wheat'. And that, at least in some studies, seems to be what causes a lot of the autoimmune reactions to gluten in people with Celiacs. There have been reports (though not studied in depth) that people with celiacs who vacation in Europe and consume 'old world' species of wheat, which have not be genetically altered and are pure strains, do not have any reaction to the gluten in those strains. But there is no scientific proof of that yet. At least, as far as I know. And I'm still learning. Maybe for nothing if the second round of testing shows that I don't, in truth, have Celiacs. But at the very least, I'll come out of it more educated.
ANYWAY, I promise that I will do my best to update my blog on a more regular schedule. I'll be sending out queries again soon (this time on Gone Missing Girl, formerly known as Amarok and the Gone Missing Girl) so I'll have that adventure to relay to you. Plus, until the end of the month, I have the saga of the gluten-free Irish/Italian twit to dramatize, which I feel I ought to make as fun and ridiculous as possible. Thank you to everyone who hasn't unfollowed, or unliked, or defriended or whatever it is on Blogger, me because of my lack of posting. And I hope all of you are well. You might have said on your own blogs, but I wouldn't know, because that's another set of stairs I've fallen down. But it's also something else that I intend to rectify.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Brenda Drake Pitch Contest!
Yay, it's here! The first contest I've entered in 2012! For anyone who didn't know the contest was going on, you can check out the fun here. Feel free to join in!
Here is my entry:
Title: The Gone Missing Girl
Genre: YA Contemporary
Word Count: 101,000
Pitch: Nineteen year old albino Ansel isn’t one to go looking for excitement, until the day he saves a runaway heiress and gets tangled up in a real life fairy tale that’ll change his world forever.
I didn’t mean to find her. All I planned to do was retrieve a crappy book from the storage shed so I could cannibalize some of its pages for another book I was restoring. Instead, I found myself facing off with a deranged waif.
The busted hinge on the door should have clued me in, but that’s an oblivious bookworm for you. I was already plotting how I intended to rebind the book back in my apartment, not wondering why the door of the shed was broken.
Shoving my way inside, I cut to the right, heading straight for the box labeled ‘GerFairy’ which held double copies of the German fairy tale books in the bookstore. Even with the Coleman lantern, I didn’t notice her standing amidst the stacks of books at the center of the shed. Not until I happened to trip over a box and turned left to step around it.
Here is my entry:
Title: The Gone Missing Girl
Genre: YA Contemporary
Word Count: 101,000
Pitch: Nineteen year old albino Ansel isn’t one to go looking for excitement, until the day he saves a runaway heiress and gets tangled up in a real life fairy tale that’ll change his world forever.
I didn’t mean to find her. All I planned to do was retrieve a crappy book from the storage shed so I could cannibalize some of its pages for another book I was restoring. Instead, I found myself facing off with a deranged waif.
The busted hinge on the door should have clued me in, but that’s an oblivious bookworm for you. I was already plotting how I intended to rebind the book back in my apartment, not wondering why the door of the shed was broken.
Shoving my way inside, I cut to the right, heading straight for the box labeled ‘GerFairy’ which held double copies of the German fairy tale books in the bookstore. Even with the Coleman lantern, I didn’t notice her standing amidst the stacks of books at the center of the shed. Not until I happened to trip over a box and turned left to step around it.
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