Thursday, August 31, 2006

Wow, My Husband is Never Here . . .

And even when he's here, he's not "here." Do you have any idea how many books I am going to get written in the next three years? Probably five. Of course, that depends on how much editing I am doing for the big, huge publishing company that is publishing all my books. Oh, yeah.

(Shakes Head) Whew! Sorry; I had a quick trip to fantasy land. But I'm back now.:) You know, back to the land where my house is a mess and my daughter has stripped off all her clothes and is running around buck naked. Yea! (rolls eyes.) What is it with three-year-olds and clothing?

No news to report. Well, except that Elizabeth rejected my first ten pages with a little note suggesting I research more because she thinks a something I put in there is incorrect when, in fact, it is completely correct and I have the research to back it up. (rolls eyes.) But that's okay. She was pretty far from the top of my list even before the research comment.:)

Well, I am going to go work on Soleil now.

Ciao!

Saturday, August 26, 2006

More News

Hello all! You know, all four of you.:)

It's been quite productive week for Lady Diane. A three steps forward, one step back kind of week. I received a rejection from Kristin (which I was expecting, because I sent her a partial too quickly and it still had several typos in it, etc.) disappointing, but not nearly so much as last time. Maybe I'm getting used to it . . . or something.:) But I had three other agents request it so I am still in double digits. The fun one is my request from Marlene, because she has read the first five pages. So what it is is a long partial request off of a short partial, but a request off a partial is still a request off a partial. The other two agents are Jessica R. from a really exclusive NY agency, and Elaine, who runs a small but very distinguished agency and literary law practice.

And I'm really tired so . . .

Ciao!

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

I'm Back . . . really this time.

Okay. Our roof is on, my final polish of Lady Diane is done (full went out today, yea!), and Kenny starts school tomorrow. I think it is safe to say you will all be getting slightly more regular updates from here on out.

The Chain and the Sword: Still out to Nephele and Joe. Nephele mentioned on her blog that she is almost caught up with her reading so a response from her should come soon. I know Joe has not read it yet (or at least not finished it) because I queried him and he mentioned he was still reading but that I could send him chapters of L.D. too. (More yea!) I sent nudges to Mary Beth and Shawna and have not heard back from either. At this point I am not planning on ever hearing back from either. So it is all Nephele and Joe for Chain right now.

The Cymbals and the Crown: The first draft and first edit have been done. It still needs at least two rounds of polishing but right now I am concentrating on other things. Besides, if Chain gets published I'll probably (ha! Almost definitely) have to make changes so there's really no point in putting polishing at the top of my priority list right now. But my dad called me two nights ago just to tell me how much he enjoyed it; so it is getting rave reviews already. (wink.) I did send it to Stephenie and when she gets a chance (probably when she is flying to tour locations) she'll read through it. I'm totally patient on that one. :)

Lady Diane: This book has been done for a while, but I finally got it's fine polish finished after Stephany requested the full on Friday. Currently Lady Diane is out to: Joe, Mary Sue, Kristin, Elizabeth, Jenny, Jessica, the full to Stephany, and as of today, Kathy. I'm very pleased with the reactions to this book and am looking forward to hearing back from a few more agents.

Soleil: (Sigh) My new book. I am about ten pages into it and still making some decisions about the plot. Soleil is another historical romance that is about the next generation after Lady Diane. It involves a lot of theatre and more Basque and French culture and I am really excited about it. I'll put up updates on that one as I go.

Some more news that has nothing to do with me is that Stephenie's book, New Moon, came out about a week ago and, as I predicted, it debuted on the NYT Bestseller's list for Children and Teen books. I'm not sure when it will come out on the public list (authors always get to know ahead of time) but I am so excited for her! Go buy her book!:)

Kenny starts school tomorrow. Our vacation is officially over. And I'm okay with that. I'm ready to get back to a regular schedule and not have to stop in the middle of the day and think, "What day is this again?" Schedules are good. Really!

Okay, that's my news. You may now consider yourself updated!

Ciao!

Monday, August 14, 2006

A Good Week!

I think it's going to be a good week. I don't have any reason for that, I just feel like it is going to be a good week. And I am so confident in that that I am proclaiming it for everyone to hear! Read . . . whatever.
So, in addition to the five people from last week,two more people have requested my stuff. One of them is Mary Sue and the other is Mr. Joe, who some of you may remember is reading (still, according to his e-mail grrrrrrr.) the full of Chain. Yea! You should check out his link; they have a new website. Still waiting to see if Nephele is going to bite at the second book but . . . hmmm, we'll see.
I also have a client due in five days with her second, so I expect her to go any day. I got my doula bag completely restocked today so now she can go into labor.:)
I have several outstanding queries and should hear back from a couple of partials soon, so I will keep you all up to date. Have a geat week, just like me!:)

Ciao!

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Feeling Better

As some of you may know, books are never finished. Even Stephenie has told me that she still has a thing or two she wishes she could go back and change in Twilight. But they do reach a point of finality. L.D. is at that point. Yessss! I'll continue reading over it throughout the entire publishing process just like I did with Chain, but it is finished as of last night. I'm quite happy with it.:) I am also rather happy that within the next three months or so it will be sent to a publisher. Whether I send it or it gets sent by an agent has yet to be seen, but by Christmas at the latest it will be headed to at least one publisher.
So the blogs I frequent all have this unifying theme this week . . . probably because I frequent the blogs of a bunch of female agents who are all friends.:) It about firing your agent and the appropriate way to walk away. I, of course, and thinking "Fire you agent? Fire your agent? You're kidding, right?" My disbelief comes on two levels. One is that an agent is very important in the publishing business. Necessary? Perhaps not. But generally invaluable if you can get one. Which leads to the second level of disbelief. By the time I query an agency, I have done a ton of research and looked them up on several very reputable sites. I have checked sales records, current clients, looked for personal feedback, etc. I do not send a query out to anyone that I am not positive I could completely trust with the management of my manuscript. If you've done that the chanced of your ever having to fire an agent go down to pretty much zero. You can't just take the first thing that comes to you without doing some research.
However, the whole topic started with Kristin who was frustrated because she had received a certified letter firing her and she thought everything was peachy keen. Apparently not. So then a whole conversation started about how to end a business relationship without looking like a jerk and even as I'm reading the comments all I could think was, "Why the heckle would you fire Kristin? This is Kristin we're talking about! Miss absolutely-at-the-top-of-my-list-no- exceptions, Kristin!" But I guess someone thought she just wasn't doing a good enough job. (shrug)

I'll tell you what I am happy anout though . . . convention season is over!!! Yea!!! The agents are all home now. I was driving me nuts trying to decide when to send queries and how big a delay I should expect before panicking, etc. But they are home now and I should hear from several this week.:) I'll keep you posted!

Ciao!

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Real Update

Okay all, here's the lowdown on my project.

Lady Diane is a very accurate, very meticulously researched historical romance set in France and Basque in the 1600's. I wrote up a query for it when I couldn't sleep one night and sent it out on a whim to Jenny who wrote back and asked for a piece of it. Since then I have had five requests vs. 2 rejections. (Till this afternoon I was 5-1.) It's an incredible amount of attention, especially considering this one doesn't come with a recommendation from a NYT bestseller. Basically it means that I have a very marketable idea. Whether or not my writing holds up has yet to be seen. But, for what it's worth, here is my list of people who currently have my stuff.

Jenny

Jessica

Emily

Elizabeth

And, of course (drumroll please) Kristin

I will be sending it to Nephele, especially since she is currently reviewing the full manuscript of Chain, and Ethan.
You should check out Nephele's link because they just got an awesome new website. It's pretty.:)

So that's where I am with that. I'm sending Diane out to a small number of agents this go-round and if I don't get any bites I'll go straight to publishers and hope for the best. But this book is already getting about 4 times more attention that Chain ever did . . . so here's hoping.:)