MDR Made the Lottery List

On my last post, I mentioned giving MOON DAUGHTER RISING one last chance in The Writer's Voice contest in part hosted by one of my favorite literary bloggers Brenda Drake. After an agonizing day, both of waiting and excessive babysitting, I am pleased to announce that my name was on the list!  So the next post you see on here will be trailed by the coaches fighting over my entry, or so I hope.

Good night all!

A Haunting Character

MOON DAUGHTER RISING was my baby, my first novel, the one I placed on a pedestal, convinced that it had a place on bookstore shelves and in the arms of middle graders.  But after a disheartening string of rejections and several of the writing industry bloggers I read mentioning that it was okay to do so, I decided to shelf Annalee and move on to my next novel.

But Annalee is a haunting character.  I found myself thinking about her adventure as I cleaned dishes and brushed my teeth.  I laid awake at night reliving her story and feeling her emotions.  I knew that the beginning needed help if I was to ever get an agent to read the whole manuscript.

This morning I woke up knowing how to fix it.  So I did.

May 1st, Brenda Drake is hosting another writing contest called The Writer's Voice.  This time rather than being pulled out of the slush pile, it is by a random lottery draw and conducted on blogs.

My manuscript is finished, and the first chapter rewrite is waiting in my critique partner's inbox.

Perhaps MOON DAUGHTER RISING is not retired yet.

Here's a little taste of the rewrite. What do you think? Would you read more of the story based on this?

Chapter 1

The dark forest outside Annalee’s new home felt dead.  The eerie quietness made it feel as dead as the police claimed her father must be since he hadn’t returned from it.  Annalee laid awake fiddling with her long, black hair and wondering if she would ever see him again. How could a twelve year old get through high school, go on living really, without her dad?  Especially here, in the cabin her grandfather had built and her dad had grown up in?  It hurt too much.

An unearthly howl cut through the silence, followed by a thump, thump much closer. It made goose bumps ran up her arms. It shrilled once more, then thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. Too scared to leave the safety of her bed, Annalee huddled under the covers, hoping that the nightmare would stop.

Entered a contest to spark my creativity

Hey there,

The boxes are mostly unpacked and we are crammed into our new life in Laramie.  I finally finished setting up my office, that is a 5x5 corner of the smallest of the three bedrooms in our apartment. The rest of the room is part pantry, part tool storage for Nolan.  But my office is organized and the white walls are hung with colorful and encouraging items to help me remember what I can do when I set my mind to it!

 

Its with a heavy heart that I announce that I am shelving MOON DAUGHTER RISING for a while.  Annalee has been read by at least 80 agents with the same, generic comments. I prefer to think of it as she hasn't matured into all that she can be. So after a year of purpose and pursuit, she is resting a while.

When I made this decision, I moped a bit (okay, a lot) and decided I needed to spark some creativity and love back into my fingers. So yesterday, on a whim, I decided to enter a flash fiction contest with the deadline for today.  If I am chosen, the story will go into an anthology.  While that published work would look great on a resume, what it really did was recapture my heart for story telling.

I put a bit of the 1000 words below for your comments.  Its supposed to be a different outlook on God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah without the biblical characters involved. I hope you enjoy it.

Have a great Monday!

The glaring sun crusting the horizon met his bulbous eyes with pain.  Turus blinked and turned away, but soon the rays’ warmth on his skin whispered an apology.

Unexpected thunder echoed off the walls around him and shook the very foundations of the earth.  A pungent reek wafted past Turus’s nostrils, and his stomach kaleidoscoped inside him.  More booming bounced through the air, colliding with the screams of man and animal alike as Sodom’s inhabitants awoke in a nightmare.  Sizzling rocks pushed by columns of smoke hurtled to the ground.  Death rain ripped through the city walls and tore apart towers of homes.

Turus’s right ear rang as a hissing stone exploded beside him, crumbling the wall he stood on. He felt his limbs tumbling with the pieces of his previous platform, scraping and bruising every centimeter of his body.  He screamed, but the sound was lost in the chaos.  He felt a deep scorch worse than any sunburn he had experienced and watched the skin on his arms peel.

And then there was April

So now that I have managed to settle into a Wyoming existence, I can refocus on my writing.  That is to say that I am making some big decisions.  Every day or so of March I got a rejection on MOON DAUGHTER RISING, getting my total up in the neighborhood of 80 including the one that asked for pages.  After some hard questions with my critique partner, I have decided to shelve Annalee for a time and let the story stew. Maybe its just not ready yet, and I've heard sometimes an author's first one is just too immature to go anywhere.

In a closely related conversation with Libby, I set some small but manageable goals for my writing and hers. April will the month of small steps toward a bigger purpose.  And in addition to our commitment, I am adding a few more for myself.

1). 30 minutes per day of writing new material, especially on my work in progress SAMANA'S FLAIR and cheering Libby to do the same.

2) 30 minutes per day of editing DOM SANDERS back into a realistic word count and logical flow of story. Yesterday I finally decided to try out a suggested exercise of writing scenes on flash cards so I can play with the order.  I think the murder needs to come sooner in the story and that will add some drama and tension to the rest of his subplots.

3) Weekly blog posts.  Even if its just a quick post on what I haven't accomplished this week.

4) Write some short pieces for a few contests.

5) Finish my journalism e-course, which the move managed to knock incredibly off course mid March.

The Lord has blessed me in so many ways, I just hope that time will be another one this month.

Cheers to all my writerly friends!

My Crash Course in Published Journalism

Learning journalism from a professional is so much different than college classes, and I was honored to be the protege of Mridu Khullar Relph.  In her ecourse, she showed me the creative side of journalism.  I changed my journalism major because that type of writing felt dry to me.  But in a matter of weeks, I found myself enjoying not only the story idea generating, but the querying process. And because she forced me to face my fear of rejection and just put myself out there, I got my first paid assignment.

I am so thankful to the editor of xojane.com and her kindness as she lead me through the process for the first time.  I am also overwhelmed by the experience: writing, editing, rewriting, the paperwork involved in getting paid, seeing my work posted, and the readers' responses (all 300+ of them!).

Speaking of responses, here is mine to some of the comments on my article How to Totally NOT get the Sex you want.

-My husband isn't gay, nor is there some abusive streak in him. He simply doesn't need sex as often as I do. And my actions in the situations I wrote about did make him feel disrespected, which multiplied the problem. But once we spoke honestly, that disrespect stopped.

-I don't like the mustache either. It was a phase. I have convinced him to remove it. :)

- My religion had a much bigger play in the situation, but I DID know my audience so I didn't write as much of that into the article for xojane.com.

- I said my husband and I don't believe in divorce no matter what for US. I know he would never abuse me, and if he did I would be gone. NOT divorced, just gone, removing myself and my children from the situation.

-When I said that when we do make love its epic, I meant it. When a healthy man has had sex in a while and his wife is treating him with respect, its a turn on. That means that when he engages, eager for pleasure and me, it is a wonderful experience. I believe that is how GOD designed it. :)


Thanks again for everyone that encouraged and cheered me on, and those that were a part of this experience with me, good and bad.  It had given me confidence to continue to write and follow my dream.

Now if I can just sell a novel or two. :)

Happy Friday!

Another chance to write

I jumped at the chance to do an event write-up for my MOPS group blog! Check it out here.  I love using my gift for the written word to bless others. I will miss my support group, my mommy family, when we leave in a few weeks.

MOON DAUGHTER RISING has been rewritten, rewritten, rewritten, critiqued to to near death, and submission-readied by a professional.  Cross your fingers, eyes and toes that I finally submit to just the right agent and my word-baby finds a friend, and eventually, a home.

And if you know any other MG Fantasy-loving agents, send me their info please! :)

A month! What's in a month?

A lot can happen in a month. An entire life can change for the better or worst in a moment, and a month is full of moments. Therefore, a life's course can change mightily in a month.

Mine hasn't.

Well, that's not entirely accurate.  I guess I could say that my life hasn't changed drastically or in any of the ways I hoped it would, such as getting a literary agent or selling half of what I own before the big move in march.

But boy have I worked hard toward the changes I want to happen!  I have edited and rewritten MOON DAUGHTER RISING and submitted it to another contest, Sun vs. Snow.  We didn't get chosen, (CONGRATS to all who did though!) but each thing I enter Annalee in makes me feel like I am inching closer to grabbing someone's interest, be that an agent or editor or publisher.  I have rewritten the query in preparation of submitting to more agents in February, and feel more intimate with the manuscript then ever before.

I have also connected super strongly to my critique partner, and Libby has become a friend.  Editing her work and emailing her is peeking into her heart and discovering gold.  And editing is helping my writing become stronger too.

This month, I have finally dived into my third novel, and will start teasing my reader's with  excerpts (see below).  SAMANA'S FLAIR is going to be a YA project written in a way I have never considered before, and I send a special shout out to Writer's for Pete's Sake Group for encouraging me thus.

I have also finally gotten a glimpse of the creativity in journalism I craved in college.  It always felt like a dried bone sort of writing, but Mridu's blog became a treasure trove of information that has me sure I can get published in this field and enjoy it.

In the non writing department, my bathroom is getting fixed, I just painted my kitchen in a sunny yellow and packing boxes isn't on my radar. But I wouldn't mind taping up my kiddos!

Thanks for reading this post! Please check out my latest piece below and give me any feedback you might have!

“Thank you, King Ropay,” the man said with a smile and walked backward out the way he had come.  As soon as the door closed, the monarch sighed and swept off his chair toward a side door.

            However, the wide girth of his clerk intercepted his escape.  “Sire, you still have two patrons waiting for your ear and your master overseer is here to discuss—“

            “No!” the King Ropay shouted, and then mastered himself with a deep breath. “No,” he expressed, “thank you for reminding me of my duties. Please tell the visitors that I am in need of the father’s balanced wisdom and will meet with them first thing tomorrow.  See that they stay in the Keep tonight and are fed well.  I am headed to the alter house.”

            “Yes, Sire. And your foreman?”

            “Tell him to meet me in the dining hall in two hours.”

            The nimble leader danced around his road block and rushed down the hallway toward the alighted arch which led to the gardens.  His man Mavey, a tall and silent stone of a servant, awaited him there, a cup of brew steaming on a simple tray in his hand.  The king removed his cap and shirt, laid them over the manservant’s arm, and sipped at the hot drink offered him.

            “Privacy, Mavey,” he stated, and received a nod in return.

            Nearly nothing did the king’s heart more good than the refreshing walk through his garden.  It boasted the only lush landscape in the entire world: twined in vines, adorned in ornamental grasses, and bedded in floral design, fragrant all.