Surprises, Successes and Disappointments

Our surprise addition to our menagerie. Her favorite place to sit is on me while I type.

What an amazing month or two. Busy yes, who isn't, but we managed to travel home and spend much needed time with family. We had my entire extended family (except one niece who's currently overseas) in one room at one time. Watching my kids connect and reconnect with cousins and second cousins was magical. 

Once all the dust resettled, I did manage to sign up for Julie Hedlund's 12 days of Christmas program--12 days of inspirational exercises for writers. 

Day two's exercise included writing our surprises for the last year. On day three, we wrote about our successes, with the added prompt to blog about them--a thought I loved. So, here are my surprises and successes for 2015:

Surprises:

• Had three separate agents express interest in pitches and queries
• Had an agent ask me to write an article for a blog she's involved with
• Realized how much I like the agents I meet and want to be friends with them all
• Understood an entire conversation in basic Spanish
• Received an honorable mention for my Halloweensie story
• Realized I really like writing for older children as well
• Adopted a kitten my husband found in the gutter

Successes:

• Narrowed down three strong picture book manuscripts
• Wrestled my historical-fiction middle grade novel into a revisable edition
• Wrote a picture book draft every month
• Revised picture book drafts every month
• Jotted down an idea for a new middle grade fantasy novel

Then came day four: Write your disappointments for 2015 (max at five), then make a big inner critic judgement about them, followed by a sound judgement. Whew, here are my five:

Disappointments: 

• Twitter pitch got favorited, but MS rejected: I can write a pitch but not a story: If I can write an interesting pitch, I can write an interesting story.
• Manuscript requested based on query, but MS ultimately rejected: This story is never going to work: If I can write a query, I can find a way to rewrite my MS.
• Haven't found the right fix for the middle section of my middle grade novel: I just can't write: I have a good beginning and an interesting ending, which means I will find a middle.
• Wasted too much time on social media: I have no discipline: I made valuable connections, which helped me learn more about the craft of writing.
• Had too many days where I wondered why I was still writing when so many better writers are out there: I just don't have what it takes: Who cares, I am writing the stories only I can write.

There you have it. Perhaps if any of you are stuck in a similar place, these exercise might help. Give it a shot and good luck. And a very Happy New Year to all.

P.S. An excellent video to start off your new year: 

Susanna Hill's Holiday Writing Contest

http://olddesignshop.com/2015/12/victorian-girl-baking-plum-pudding/

Susanna Hill is holding her annual holiday writing contest. The rules: 

Write a children's story (children here defined as approximately age 12 and under) beginning with any version of "Rocking around the Christmas tree at the Christmas party hop."  You may use that actual opening, or you may change it to any similar version "[Verb of your choice]ing [any preposition you choose] the [any item you choose] [any preposition you choose] the [venue of your choice]."

And it has to be 350 words or less. Sadly, I won't be able to pull one together this year, but the rest of you have until the 11th to post one up on her site. See here for the details:

http://susannahill.blogspot.com/2015/12/ho-ho-ho-5th-annual-holiday-contest-is.html  

Lots of fabulous entries already!

Have a great week.

Agent Panel Insights

I attended a writer's conference in Boston over the weekend. Chuck Sambuchino was the keynote speaker. He did a great job of plowing through writing advice from author platform to how to write a solid query (the video above is how to do an in-person pitch), but the highlight of the event for me was the "Writer's Got Talent" session. 

About seven of the literary agents who attended made up a panel to critique first pages of anonymously submitted novel manuscripts. Chuck read the page until three agents held up their hands, then he stopped and let the agents explain why they would stop reading at that point. 

They were blessedly candid. One agent even confessed that certain words turn her off. She said she knew it seemed shallow to stop reading a manuscript at the word "shapely," for example, but when you're pouring through 200 plus pages a day, you are looking for a reason to say no.

I found their instantaneous critiques fascinating and enlightening. I also learned loads from the pages they commented on as to what worked and what didn't. Over-descriptive language was a sure sign of an author trying too hard. Verb tense shifts were another problem, and info dumping was a common error as well. And they didn't always agree with each other, which goes to show that the industry is subjective. 

I walked away from that session feeling less distant from the querying process. I also found I was often agreeing with the agents' assessments, which gave me confidence that I'm arriving at an understanding of what works well and what does not. And as you know, any confidence boost a writer can get is a welcome one. 

I also enjoyed the in-person pitches I had with agents. Both sessions went well and I walked away with two requests for manuscripts and loads of information on how to make my queries even better.

The conference was worth all the logistics that went into getting me there. 

Have a great week.

Cromidon: The Invasion

Original art for the Cromidon Invasion.

I’ve been prepping for a conference I’m attending soon. I wanted to have 10 mostly sub-ready stories with their corresponding queries. I almost made it. I took out two—just not ready—and I am happy to say that I have six picture book queries, one chapter book and one middle grade novel query ready for the query critique session. Now I'm looking forward to making them better.

My little son has been busy too, writing his own 10-chapter story called CROMIDON Invasion. It’s sort of a Jack and Annie meet Aliens spin. 

With his permission, I will share chapters one and two (original spelling and grammar mostly intact):

Chapter 1: The Invasion

Hi. My name is Billons and I want to tell you a story … that hapend to me, ok. So I signd up for the Explore Other Planets, and it turnd out seviral million people had already signd up! Now I’ll explane what the ship looked like: Jigantick! 

More that 10000,125602597 rooms. Now I got a room mate whos name was Jill. Now Jill was vey, very kind. That’s what I liked about her. Were takeing off came a vouse from the speacer. their were beeping sounds lik this: beep! beep! beep! doomp!

once we herd the doomp their was hissing nousis and the ground was shaking “What’s happaning” said Jill “Were takeing off didn’t you here? I said “Oh” said Jill. Suddenly their was a wooshhh and we saw a puf of smoke out the window and then we soomed into space.

Chapter 2: Things on the Planet

the running stoped, the beeping stoped all we saw was the deep dark depths of space “wow” said me and Jill at the same time. It was quiet. then their was booming entering hiper drive came a vouce “Oh great” I said We amedetly looked out the window We saw colors of blu, red, and shades of green and tercous and aqua 

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! We scremed. It felt like a jigantick earth quake! We fell over I hit my head on the wall Jill hit her nose on the dresser then every thing stoped I was very dizi Jill looked lik she would vomet then the voice said calling Jill Munc then a man came and toke Jill by the hand and went away I looked on the tv we were on a planet! I saw Jill on the screen then I saw a little green alien runing toward her it atact her then she ran back into the ship and a few minuts later she was back in the room.

To be continued ...

And there readers, I will leave you in suspense of what might possibly happen to Jill and Billons in the CROMIDON Invasion. 

Have a great weekend. I’m hoping I will. 

Halloweensie Vote

http://www.clipartpanda.com/clipart_images/free-halloween-clipart-3108925

Alas, I did not place in the finals, but several great stories did. Click here to vote for your favorite: http://susannahill.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-2015-halloweensie-contest-finalists.html

Have a great week.

P.S. Just got the results from the vote. I did get an honorable mention: http://susannahill.blogspot.com/2015/11/2015-halloweensie-contest-winners.html

Halloweensie Entry: Dark's Knight

http://twisted-ky0.deviantart.com/art/Halloween-wp-12185010

Susanna Leonard Hill's Halloweensie contest starts today. The rules: Write a 100 word or less Halloween children's story using the words costume, dark and haunt. My entry for this year is:

Dark's Knight

by Johnell DeWitt

Dark didn’t usually need a costume. He scared most kids without one. But this year, Dark wanted to trick or treat, and people always stopped handing out candy when he showed up. 

He could try something funny. But the clown nose with nothing behind it looked even scarier. 

Something sparkly? But all the glitter in the world couldn’t make Dark shine. 

He needed something solid. 

He slipped into an old house and oozed into the lighted spaces. The house looked spooky, but he couldn’t trick or treat as a haunted house. 

Then he saw it, guarding the corner…A knight!

PiBoIdMo Registration Opens!

Hi all. Quick note to tell you that Picture Book Idea a Month--PiBoIdMo--is open for registration. 

Whoop! 

My third year running and I've loved it every year. Fantastic information, great people to meet and connect with and a chance to come up with 30 new ideas for picture books. 

Register on Tara Lazar's site here: http://taralazar.com/category/piboidmo-2015/

And stay tuned for tomorrow. My Halloweensie entry will be going up. 

Dancing a happy dance.