I don’t know if I can say sold really because the publisher doesn’t pay advances, but earlier this week, Steve and I signed a contract with Astraea Press (www.astraeapress.com) for the publication of Sword & Illusion! The editor said her reader couldn’t put it down and even said it was better than The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings!

I am sure that’s a little over the top, but at least she liked it!

I’m so excited about this!

I’ll keep you updated as more information becomes available.

…when it’s not National Novel Writing Month, which I won, by the way!

I actually got to over 50,000 words on Tuesday (thank you, Rowdy Girls), and felt miserable yesterday with what I think is a sinus thing as I had a headache for three days.

Anyway, I had a brief doctor’s appointment this morning and headed off to the mall to do some Christmas shopping. Oh, I did get about two pages written in the waiting room of the doctor’s office where I found a convenient outlet, so yay!!

I got some gifts at the mall and came home by way of our local Target to get wrapping paper and some other gifty/Christmas-y stuff.

Tangent – What’s with the Justin Beiber wrapping paper and ornaments???? Seriously???

I get Toy Story, Thomas the Tank Engine, even Sponge Bob. Those are kid things and cute, for the most part.

But Beiber??? And there was blue Beiber paper that said Happy Holidays??

I just don’t get it. I don’t get the pink, orange, blue and teal ornaments, either nor the glittery fish ornaments in those colors, but whatever….

Anyway, I went to the checkout and chatted merrily with a wonderfully friendly woman, and it was looking to be a fabulous day.

Until I ran my RedCard through.

We got an email a while back saying we were late a payment on the RedCard. I didn’t see how that could be as I pay every bill when it comes in, but when I paid bills two weeks ago, I sent in the full amount and thought no more about it until today.

I came home, called Target and found out that they haven’t gotten ANY of our payments!!!

Six months ago, we had this issue with payments for the RedCard were going to my husband’s old Target Visa card. That was settled easily, and I changed the bill payment record with our online banking to the RedCard number.

Turns out I typed an 8 where there should have been a 9.

That’s an invalid number and our bank should have been redepositing the payments because Target should have been bouncing the checks, but that hasn’t happened at all.

Now it’s only three months worth of payments but it is enough to damage our credit rating.

After I talked with a nice Target woman on the phone and went through the online banking screens and discovered that the money was not put back in our account, another woman came on the phone and said she had to talk to Steve. His name is on the card, he’s the primary account holder and he needed to just tell her that he’s aware of all this.

I guess we have to find out where the money went – who’s been cashing these checks and get our money back and our account dealt with.

That’s why I didn’t come home and dive right back into The Pigsty Princess!

I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year. I’ve done it before, but this year I’m very excited because I took the time to plot out a book beforehand, mostly. I had about 3/4 of it plotted before I started writing on November 2.

(November first is a Holy Day of obligation for the Catholic Church and I don’t write on Holy Days or Sundays – those are days of rest.)

When I’ve done this in other years, I ended up “winning” (having 50,000+ words at the end of the month), but I didn’t end up with a book or even something that could be edited into a book. This year, I really think I can finish this and it will be a “real” book.

Because of my work with Crescent Moon Press, I had to miss a few days of my own writing, but today I’m only about 11,000 words from winning.

About a week or so ago, I read an article in the London Guardian (I think) that someone posted on Facebook. It was about Nora Roberts. I have to assume that if you are here, you know who she is, but for those few who always wander in looking for Doctor Who stuff, I’ll just say she is the Queen of the Romance Novel.

She’s super prolific and her fans are as fanatical as they come. I’ve been to several conferences in New Jersey that she attended back in the 90s, but I rarely stood in line to get her to sign a book because I always figured there were other authors just as worthy without the lines. I have this “Pie in the Sky,” “Pay it Forward” attitude that if I buy your book today, maybe you’ll buy mine when it comes out.

Anyway, I know lots of people love Nora, but I was always prepared to believe she was a prima donna or something. There are lots of reasons for this, which don’t matter now.

The point is that I read that she writes every day, all day, and something clicked in my head. I need to focus more on getting lots of words written every day.

This week, Thanksgiving week, my husband took the week off. He’s doing NaNo, too, and Monday we spent the whole day together. Our son had the week off, too, and he’d spent Sunday night with his grandparents. Steve and I went out to breakfast, then to lunch and sat together on our sofa and wrote all day. (We wrote in the coffee shop, too.)

I wrote over 6,000 words that day!

I think in terms of pages and that’s over 24 pages. A definite record for me.

The next day, Steve went to work because he had to teach a class, but even doing some laundry and cleaning the kitchen and going to the chiropractor, I wrote about 5,000 words – (approx. 20 pages). I proved that I could do this!

So I’m so excited about my new found productivity.

My critique group, The Rowdy Girls, has met a few times to just write. They were here last night and we worked for about four hours, just writing. Okay some talking, laughing and drinking wine, but I did end the day with 5,566 words written.

Heartla met today and we wrote for an hour.

After the meeting I had to run to Walgreens to get a Rx filled for my son. I had to wait, and fortunately there is an outlet near the chairs so I pulled out my computer, plugged her in and wrote.

When the prescription was done, the clerk apologized and asked if I’d just gotten all set up. I said no.

“I’m a writer so I try to get new stuff written whenever I can,” I said.

“I understand,” she said. “I’m a reader.”

I immediately pulled out my card and handed it to her and told her about our Readers’ Luncheon. You never know where you might find a new reader.

I hope she stops by here and says hello if she does. She made me smile today and gave me more motivation to get new words written!

Have a great day everyone, and please say hello if you stop by!

Hi, all! I hope you’re having a great weekend, even though it’s still kind of early on Saturday morning.

Last night, after we put our son to bed, I settled my computer on my lap in bed and checked my email. I got a note from Lin, an editor from Crescent Moon Press, an epublisher for whom I’m doing editing (but no acquisitions, so don’t send me manuscripts!). I’m currently in the middle, technically, of editing two books for them. I say technically because I only have one of them on my computer right now, and I’m waiting for the author to send me the other one.

Lin just wrong to see how things were going and asked if I’d be interested in editing a Middle Grade book. I’m quite excited about this because Steve has a Middle Grade book he’s written that’s he’s been talking about self-publishing. I’m interested in seeing how his book stands up to one that CMP has purchased.

So, now I’m focusing on getting my current assignment finished to I can move on to the next one!

For my own writing, I have a good start on Sword & Infidel but I’ve set it aside until I see if Sword & Illusion sells. I don’t want to waste my writing time on a project that may never see the light of day.

So, now I’m debating on what to work on. I want to do NaNoWriMo this year, so I’m holding off on writing Pigsty Princess until then. I got an idea for a shapeshifting jewel thief detective last weekend so I’ve been working on that one, AND the Lost Ring of Queen Foo that Noah and I’ve been talking about. I just don’t have one book that I’m focusing on now.

My critique group, The Rowdy Girls, meets on Tuesday and I need to submit something to them this weekend.

So, I guess I should get writing! Later, y’all!

Can you spot the imposter in the picture? Couldn't pass up a chance to include a guinea pig in my post!

My daughter recently got an internship with a big NYC literary agency. It is exactly the internship and the kind of job she wants and she is thrilled. Busy, stressed, but thrilled.

It’s all “virtual” in that she still lives in her apartment near the LSU campus and is taking classes, but she works two or three days for the agency, reading manuscripts they send her and stuff like that. All online.

Last week, she had a conference call for something they call “Intern Academy.” It’s apparently a chance for the interns to ask questions about the publishing industry and books and such.

She was totally freaked out by this because, as she said, “I don’t know what I’m doing.” I told her she’s an intern and by definition she doesn’t know what she’s doing. Plus, I said, “I don’t think anyone in any kind of creative, ‘thinking’ job thinks they know what they’re doing.”

I know several multi-published authors who finish a book and are convinced that’s the last one they will ever write. I worked as a Kelly girl for years and I often DIDN’T know what I was doing because it was my first day on the job or sometimes my only day in that office and the training was little to none. But there were other times when I worked some place for months and still often felt like I was just making it up as I went along.

I was in the Army for two years and always felt like I wasn’t REALLY in because I was in the Intelligence and Security Command and after basic training, it wasn’t really very military, and I was terrified someone would realize that I wasn’t really a soldier. To this day, I’m a little chagrined to stand up on Veterans’ Day with all the guys who served in war. I was in during “peace time,” if you can call the Cold War that, and don’t feel worthy to stand with people who literally risked their lives for the country, but that’s a different story.

The point is that EVERYONE, I think, who is doing “skilled” work, sometimes feels like an imposter.

Maybe if you are a dog walker or mow lawns or flip burgers for a living you might not feel that way about your job, but you might feel it about something else.

None of us, I maintain, ever REALLY feels like a grown-up, and therefore, we never really feel like we know what we’re doing.

I know I don’t.

What do you think?

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I think God is really trying to get my attention, possibly because I haven’t been paying attention before!

Well, I feel like this is happening a lot lately and I’ve started looking around to see what He’s trying to get me to change. Because, ultimately, He wouldn’t be trying to hard to get me to listen if I were doing all the right things in the first place.

I keep hearing a song on the radio by Steven Curtis Chapman called Do Everything. I’d post the video here but experience has taught me that it wouldn’t work anyway, but go to YouTube and look for it if you don’t know the song.

The basic message is to “Do Everything You Do for the Glory of God.”

Years ago, I tried to figure out how that’s even possible. At the time I was the wife of a graduate student and the mom of a little girl about four or five years old. We were living in a trailer and seriously had no money. I was thinking about being a writer and people would suggest that I go to a book store and buy the kinds of books I wanted to write and study them. They just didn’t get that I literally didn’t have the money to buy books!

Doing my daily chores and life stuff for the glory of God just didn’t compute. How did defrosting a freezer or folding clothes glorify God? Didn’t I need to be praying endless Rosaries or going out and finding the homeless and bringing them back to my house to feed and clothe?

We actually did take care of a homeless guy for awhile but frankly, he wanted to drink and break windows more than he wanted new clothes or food.

Now it’s years later, and I’m older and I hope, more mature in my walk with Jesus. Last summer, when I went to RWA Nationals, I got a very strong feeling that God was reaffirming to me that He wants me to write. The speakers all seemed to be telling me that and even the missal at the church I went to Mass on Sunday morning had a picture on the cover labeled, “Jesus the Storyteller.” I felt like God was sitting next to me, saying, “Look, I gave you the talent and the desire to write. What are you going to do about it?”

A year has gone by and I’ve finished my book, sent it to an agent, and am still looking. I’m also working on the second book in the series along with a middle grade fantasy novel based on stories my son tells.

But if I’m getting this message that I need to do everything for the glory of God, what am I missing?

Well, of course I know. I’m not working hard enough on my writing. I waste a lot of time on computer games, Facebook, whatever.

And there’s more.

This was the year I said I was going to meet my weight loss goals, and that’s not looking so promising now. I hate tracking my food and I love ice cream.

But, I’m starting to get a new perspective. Today’s second reading this morning was Romans 12:1-2 and as I followed along in the missal I felt that 2×4 to my head (or my heart, maybe) again. Verse 2 especially:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Okay, so I’m now seeing things a little differently. When I want to do something, I’ve started asking myself, “Does this bring glory to God?”

If I’m folding clothes or cleaning the bathroom or emptying the dishwasher, I’ve started to realize that those things bless my family and I’ve been called to be a mom so if I do mom things then I bring glory to God.

If I sit down and write my word quota, then since I’m called to write, I bring glory to God.

If I spend an hour playing Word with Friends or Frontierville, I’m not bringing glory to God if my other tasks are being neglected. Games and pasttimes are not evil but they’re not my calling.

Sundays are a day of rest and I can play games then. I can also sew for my family and that’s renewing to my spirit, too, so I can bring glory to God by blessing my family with clothing or lovely things to look at or quilts to keep them warm. I can make gifts to bless others, too.

If I’m eating healthy food to nourish my temple of the Holy Spirit, I bring glory to God.

If I stuff my face with cake and cookies, to the exclusion of good food, I don’t.

I don’t know where this all will lead me but it’s a journey I’m looking forward to.

Life is getting exciting here but a little baffling at the same time.

Last March, and I may have blogged about this, I went to the Jambalaya Jubilee conference in Houma, LA. It’s a small conference held in a public library, and this was the second time I went.

This year I pitched Sword & Illusion to agent Cherry Weiner. She told me it was too long and I should cut about 29,000 words. (Yikes!) When that was done, I was to email her.

Well, Monday I did just that. I had spent hours cutting words from my book. I cut out several characters and, for a lot of writerly reasons, ignored that Attack of the Queen had ever been written. Ms. Weiner told me to “think series,” which was something I already was, and again, for those writerly reasons, I’ve chosen to make Sword & Illusion the first book of the series.

It will mean that the story that was told in Attack will move to later in the series and possibly will change appearance. I have promised my best friend (and inspiration for Adazzra) that eventually she will get her husband and children back. At this point, I’m not sure how that will all happen, however.

When I was first writing the book – We’ve been calling it S&I at home, but that’s going to be confusing because all of the books will be Sword & something beginning with I – I had seen it as the second book, so deciding to make it the first one meant that a lot of things changed, and everything was possible.

I was assuming Attack would be the second book, now titled Sword & Inferno, but events in Illusion make it necessary to deal with some things before I can get to Adazzra’s world and save it from the Vlaad.

My husband and I went through a list of I words to come up with some other titles. He doesn’t think Sword & Immunocytochemistries is a good title. However, right now I think book two will be Sword & Infidel due to how Illusion ended.

Now I’m faced with writing a book I have no plot for yet. I think this must be what successful writers face. I have never written a book that I didn’t have a story in mind for before I ever sat down.

However, it occurred to me this morning that people like Rachel Caine, Jim Butcher and Alyssa Day, who have long series of books with the same characters or related ones, probably don’t know all their plots before they begin. Heck, my friend Jo also pitched to Cherry at the conference and had synopses for three books requested and she had only written one and a half. She didn’t even know the plot of book three.

But she does now.

So, if I’m going to be a successful fantasy author, I need to be ready to figure out a plot from the ground up.

I’m excited but scared, too.

I’ve been working on Sword & Illusion for a long time. I remember being at RWA Nationals in Atlanta in 2006 while my husband read the first draft. He said “Three or four hundred more pages and you’ll have it.

I thought he was joking.

Well, here it is, five years later, and the book has been “finished” for over a year. Finished means I added, cut, added some more, cut the story in HALF and tied up those ends and declared it DONE!

It ended up being about 134,000 words.

Which, as it turns out, is too long for any agent to even look at.

I sent query after query after query to agent after agent after agent, and the ones that got responses were generally form letters. No one bothered to tell me that it was too long.

I figured, you know, epic fantasy novels tend to be long. Look at Tolkien, Jordan, even Rowling. I’m not comparing myself to them except that they wrote long books and so do I.

It would have been nice if someone had just mentioned in their rejection, “Hey, I’m rejecting you not based on the story, which I won’t even read, but because it’s too stinkin’ long.”

I would have gotten that.

In March, I pitched my story to an agent face to face and I KNEW it was the length that kept her from asking even for a chapter. She said I had to cut it down to 105,000 words at most.

Okay, so here I am, over a year later, 56 pages from the end of the book and I realize I still need to cut FIFTY SIX pages (by word count). For a moment, I wondered if I could end the book right there and call it good.

I’m re-reading every sentence and trying to figure out how to cut a word here or there and I still need to cut 14,000. I’m now back to the beginning thinking about cutting whole scenes, but even then it’s 1,000 words here, 1,200 there.

I know this story is good. I KNOW it.

On the other hand, I’m editing a book for the small epublisher I work for that should never have been accepted in this form. The characters’ motivations don’t make sense, they jump to conclusions on the faintest evidence and assume everyone agrees, the heroine gets injured over and over (even getting a concussion and nearly dying) but she’s never seen a doctor. I have talked to the acquisitions editor I’m working with and I understand what happened here, but I don’t think it is fair that this book is under contract, and no one will even give my book a chance!

I dream of seeing my books on a store shelf one day, and every day that I still have to cut words is another day I won’t see that dream fulfilled.

It kinda ticks me off, but there’s nothing I can do but plod forward, praying I’m not cutting the heart out of this book.

Do you know about Rebecca Black? She is this young girl whose mother paid $4,000 to a vanity video/music producer so Rebecca could record and make a video for this song called “Friday.”

You can’t see the video anymore on YouTube, but it went viral because a lot of people think it’s the worst song ever and it got millions of hits with people going to see if they agreed. The song was even featured on Glee which blew me away.

My family was talking about this and I said, “Oh, yeah, cuz she’s getting rich off this. Crying all the way to the bank.” The single was released and according to Wikipedia sold 40,000 copies.

Then my husband asked a very interesting question. He asked how I would feel if Fabric of Faith (my inspirational romance which was published in 2004 and is still available although I haven’t seen any royalties for four or five years) sold a million copies because people thought it was the worst book ever written?

Well, at first I wanted to say, “Sure, cool, fine.” However, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if it’s not better the way things are now.

I mean, I want a publishing career, not just one bestseller. I want fans who wait breathlessly for my next book. I don’t know if that will ever happen, but if my book was a bestseller because people thought it was so terrible, wouldn’t that ruin my chances to actually sell something else?

I don’t know, but I wouldn’t want to risk it.

I don’t think I would.

But the checks would still cash, right?

I have been thrilled to see how the people at my husband’s work respect him and come to him for advice and trust him with responsibility. I was there when he was in graduate school and for years he had no self-esteem and thought he’d never get anywhere in his chosen career. It’s been a long journey to get here but it’s paid off for him.

He says the only reason that people come to him for advice and think he knows what he’s doing is because he’s “old” now (late 40s) and has gray hair (or late least more than he used to).

An interesting thing happened to me at the last HeartLA meeting. As most of my friend know, I have no problem speaking in front of people. In fact, I love doing it, so when our vice president/program director said they needed someone to speak at the June meeting, I said I would and I asked what they wanted me to speak on.

Suddenly, everyone in the group started talking about self-editing and grammar and asking me questions about the book I edited for Crescent Moon Press and asking if I would talk about that.

I said I would, but the thing that surprised me was that all these women were asking my advice and help. One of them even asked if I would look at her book and help her with the editing. Actually, she had asked my daughter of Paperbacks and Frosting fame if she’d “review” her book and I pointed out that she’s reading published books, as it’s a review site not a critique place.

She said she really needed someone to “critique” her book although that wasn’t the word she used. I told her I’d read it.

She acted as though I’d offered her a publishing contract. “You’d really do that for me?”

I told her of course I would and we agreed that she’d send me the first few chapters as that would make her less uneasy about someone else reading it.

I came home thinking how odd it was that all these people look to me for advice and help when my last book came out SEVEN years ago.

Then I realized what it was.

I am older than most of them and I have gray hair!

Maybe they see me as the wise old woman of the group.

Or maybe I’m just the most talkative one (and I am one of the Rowdy Girls – some uncharitable people say I’m the instigator of the Rowdy Girls) and so I offer a lot of opinions and that give the illusion that I know a lot.

Maybe I shouldn’t color my hair after all.