This made my day (Not writing related.)

Hearing about the bounty from the New Orleans Saints made me sick. Knowing that players on my team were targeted made me angry, and now hearing the punishment laid out by the league, I'm finally relieved.

I feel that the Saints got what they deserved. I hope this is a lesson to any other team out there that might do the same thing.

Below is a link to the story for those of you that don't about it.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d827c0dd9/article/nfl-suspends-williams-indefinitely-saints-payton-one-year-?module=HP11_breaking_news

What can I do for you?

So I've been writing in this blog for almost two years now and am trying to figure out if it is keeping your interest. Do you like the subjects that I write about?
Do you have any subjects that you think I should write about?
What are some of your favorite posts?
What are some of your least favorite posts?

Let me know in the comments as I am really interested if this is worth keeping up at this point.

What makes this so difficult?

I have started to query, and so far I have gotten a request, a few rejections and some plain out no responses yet. Now I've been through this road before and I don't mind the difficulty, but I do get a little frustrated by the new policy that "no response means no." I know agents are busy and they have a ton of queries to sift through each day, but I honestly think that even a quick, no thanks would be better than just nothing.

I know some agents do have a simple form rejection which doesn't bother me because at least I get a response.

So my question is to my fellow writers, what makes this part of the process so difficult? Is it the waiting, the lack of responses, or even the idea that your beloved story might not be worth the time of an agent?

If this sounds like I'm complaining I don't mean it to sound that way. I really enjoy the whole process, I'm just curious about this new policy. I've been doing this for a while now, so the rejection has sort of become part of the game and I don't let it hang on me.

One thing I have noticed, and do like is the amount of different ways to get your work in front of agents now. Before it was just the query letter and the occasional contest, but now there are so many blogs, and websites that you can get your project in front of different people that it makes it for an exciting time to be a writer. If you cant write a query letter worth a damn, then you have Miss Snarks blog where you can post the first 250 words and agents can come by and take a look. You have other agents, like Janet Reid who has a special blog where she provides insight into queries for those brave enough to enter the shark's den.

NFL Offseason

Tomorrow is the official start of the NFL off season with free agency. 

Lots of big names could potentially get new homes. Now my team, the Carolina Panthers, aren't expected to make a splash, however, I wanted to mention a few players that are on the top of the list of big names:

Peyton Manning: The Manning saga, a lot like the Bret Favre one from a few years ago, but in a different way. He's a Hall of Fame QB, who is very coveted, despite the uncertainty of his injury. Now I would think he would be a great pick up by many teams, but some of the ones I think he will sign with are the Broncos, (poor Tebow), or the Dolphins. This is just what I read from NFL.com, however, the point remains both teams are playoff caliber and the missing piece is the QB, so Manning would be a good fit for either team.

Mario Williams: He's a guy I would like the Panther's to pick up, but they probably won't because he's going to demand and receive a big paycheck. I think the Texans are still in the running for him, but other teams are in the mix, like the Cowboys, who like to spend big in free agency.

Vincent Jackson: A tall, explosive, WR from San Diego, lots of teams could use the play making ability but I think only teams that are in a good cap situation like the Buccaneers, or the Bears would get a chance at him. Both need help at WR too.

So those are some of the big name free agents. I think later in the week, I will post my thoughts on the Panther's free agents and whether or not we should keep them or let them test the market.

Voice of a novel

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the voice of my novel. My character is a teenager, but she's uncertain in her life and goals. She lives in fear, and looks at things in ways differently because of her power.

Now, I don't want to write it with all the gusto of a teenager with the um's, but's, whatever's, so how do I convey a teenager voice realistically? I just write it my way, with my own perspective on when I was a teenager. I saw things as overwhelming at times, and felt like I could conquer the world without a second glance other times.

What I did with my novel, and I think I need to work on it is spunk it up more. She's a spitfire when threatened and because of her power she is scared of losing control, so she remains reserved and observant instead of just gungho.

Now maybe it's just me, but that is the way I see the character and feel I convey that well in my writing, but if I don't, how do you edit for voice? How do you bring that out and make sure your readers understand it? Any tips, or suggestions, because my internet searches aren't pulling up much in the way of suggestions on how to do that.

Give me some feedback

Hello, right now I'm over at Miss Snark's first victim contest and have entered, post 15.

http://misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com/2012/03/march-secret-agent-15.html

Please stop by and read and comment on my first page. Let me know what you think, as well as the other's 49 entrants. I look forward to hearing what everyone says when I get home from work tonight.

Another two contests to share with you guys

Here is a few other contests that I'm entering and think that you should to if you have time:

A pitch contest that opens today:
http://monibw.blogspot.com/2012/02/contest-announcement-and-spreading.html

The Mystery Agent contest at Miss Snarks:
http://misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com/2012/02/march-secret-agent-early-info.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MissSnarksFirstVictim+%28Miss+Snark%27s+First+Victim%29

Enjoy your Monday.

Want to spread the word

A fellow blogger of mine just signed her publishing contract. I just wanted to congratulate her on her success and share the news with my followers because it's always good to share good news in this tough business.

So go check her out at:http://lbdiamond.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/flake-out-friday-my-novels-gonna-be-published-yo/

And celebrate her great news that I hope to share someday.

Self Imposed Deadlines

Since I haven't got a publishing deal yet, I have to set my own deadlines to meet so I can get focused on finishing project. For example, my current deadline is to finish the first chapter of my new project by this Friday so I have something to spin off into a new book. I hope it works out, because sometimes starting a new project is difficult and it's always the first chapter that is the hardest. Once I get that completed it becomes much easier.

So that is my current deadline. What sort of deadlines do you set for yourself and how strict are you on keeping them? I like to keep them just to keep me motivated, but I miss them at times. I don't let it bother me since they are self imposed, but still I like to get in the habit of meeting them.

The excitement of a new idea

This past week, I've been mulling over a new story idea. Something different than my normal stuff. It's going to be set a little bit more based in reality with a little bit of a futuristic slant to it. I have written only the opening scene so far, and I am still playing with the name of the main characters. This is probably the most exciting and fun moment in writing. The fresh idea.

It makes you believe anything is possible, lots of tangents flow from your mind and everything seems to click in your mind. The only bummer is that sometimes, when you do this from the seat of your pants like I do, it's hard to focus on the best details, so you go through a lot of fluff.

I could outline, but then that takes some of the excitement out of writing the story, because everything is planned out and organized. I don't know, what do you think about new ideas? Do you love them and cherish them, or do you interrogate them to find whether or not it lives up to the possibilities of being a full fledged novel?

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Sorry for missing Wednesday, it was a busy day for me and I just didn't get around to posting this then.

I received this game for Christmas this past year and as being a fan of previous Zelda games, I figured it would be worth the price of admission.

Let's start off with the story: this is supposed to be the very first tale in the Zelda universe, yet it doesn't feel that different from any of the other numerous versions. You still know Zelda, she gets lost, you go find her. However, this one has some nice twists and turns along the way, it still follows this format. It's not a bad thing at all, because it works and is reliable. Nothing wrong with that.

The graphics: These are probably the best graphics I have seen on the Wii. Very colorful, vibrant, and didn't have any issues with them.

The controls: I felt that the WiiMotion Plus was a bit much and that is my only downfall with the game. At times I didn't move the sword exactly right and then I would get hit and fall off a ledge. Or my shield wouldn't come out fast enough and I would nailed. Added some unnecessary frustration to the experience. I'm not sure I would like to play another motion control game just because of the sometimes finicky nature of motion controls.

Overall: I felt that the game about an 8 out of 10 for me. I liked most of the experience, but sometimes the controls added frustration where there didn't need to be any.

Agent Research

Since I'm in the process of querying, I thought I would share some of the things that I am using to target my agents.

Querytracker.net - Wonderful source of information, including links to a lot of resources and a way to track who you have and have not queried. Also has a great forum. I especially like the quick query button where it makes it easy to send out email queries and it even keeps the query on file so you know what query you used on them.

Agentquery.com - Another resource for agent information. Has details about their previous deals, as well as what they are looking for now.

Facebook - If the agent has a profile, you can usually use their status updates to figure out what sort of project they are looking for right now. Not always, but some agencies also have their own Facebook pages.

Twitter - Love twitter just because of its informality. You get some good personal info on agents if you follow them and as an added bonus get to make connections as well.

Google - Just searching for an agent's name can usually pull up recent interviews for them allowing you to get an idea of current trends and a sense of them as people.

The agent's website - The BEST source for information on recent submission guidelines and details about their policy on whether or not they reply to all queries or if no reply means "no."

These are the main tools that I'm using. What do you do when researching agents? Am I missing any resources that I should be using?

Character Interview - Rebecca

I haven't done an interview in a while so I thought I would do a big one, my main character Rebecca Stevens is joining us today.

So how are you doing today Rebecca?


All right, been sleeping better and really enjoying my abilities again. 


I thought you were scared of your abilities? What changed?


I've learned to control them a lot better. Being able to use them in front of other people without being scared helps a lot. My family has been supportive and it's nice for them to accept me.


What have you been up to since... you know everything?


Trying to chill. Trying to be a normal girl again. You know, anything that isn't so stressful.


Have you seen or heard anything regarding The Collector or The Followers?


Some rumors, but nothing that I'm worried about right now. 


Are you worried about them coming after you again?


No. 


Why not? Didn't they say they wanted you to join them?


I think they're busy with other things. If they do show up I would have to make it clear to them that I'm not interested in joining them. 


Doesn't it scare you that they are looking for you?


I try not to think about it. I have my family and friends that I can trust nearby, so if they show up, I think we can handle ourselves. I need to get going as I have some plans to get to, take care.


*Rebecca leaves the area in a hurry.*


There you have it. Rebecca Stevens is just trying to get a hang on things now that her life is a whole lot different than it was before.

What to do next?

I have finished my fourth novel recently and have had a little trouble figuring out what to do next. I plan to start in March, and have a few ideas. One is a sequel to my most recent novel, just because I love the world I built and the characters. The other is a middle grade novel  which would be a new experience and I could learn a lot from writing in a younger voice.

My question is mainly would it be bad to switch genre like that before my first book is ever published or picked up? How hard is it to write for two different age groups, I know Shannon Messenger has done it and so has many others, but do you think it is something that I should attempt?

What sort of planning should I do for my new projects, just like I normally do, from the seat of my pants? Go for some planning this time to make the process a bit shorter in the first round? What do you guys do when you are thinking of doing another project, just dive in head first, plan it out?

Too much or too little?

I got a comment on my recent pages saying that I have too little description for a YA book. Now I have some, but have gotten comments in the past that too much description slows down the pace and tension too much.

So my question is what is too much description? What is too little description?

Now there are two passages below from my current piece and wanted to know what you guys thought. Is it too much description or too little?

"The buzz of immense energy flowed into Rebecca Stevens’ fingertips. The fine hair along the nape of her neck prickled as she faced the target—a wooden crate she found lying in the forest, maybe some kid’s fort idea. She surveyed the deserted field, not a soul in sight, exactly how she needed it. Since the kid with the power to control water revealed himself on national television, her world had fallen apart."


"Rebecca leaned forward on the plush couch that was positioned directly across from her father. The thought to reveal her ability to him did cross her mind, but she sighed instead. He wouldn’t understand. The oak table sat between them, and the reflection of the few remaining red embers in the fireplace glowed with occasional pops of life. She dropped her backpack on the floor and fidgeted with the string of her sweatshirt. His brown-eyed glare bored into her until she finally met his stare. Her mother was always there for her, but her father was the one she respected."
 

What do you guys think? Too much, too little, or just right?

 

WiP Wednesday

I have been going through my manuscript a little bit at a time lately, just to do some final polishes and look for repeated words. It has been going well, so far have been averaging two chapters a week. I have done this before and like to do this while I'm querying before I start on a new project.

What are some of your querying rituals? Do you send them out and then wait patiently? Do you send them out and freak out checking your email every hour? Do you send them out and forget about them until you see the responses in your email?

I've been known to do each and everyone of those methods at one time or another. I have learned over the years to just wait patiently as worrying isn't going to help you at all.

So my question is what project to work on next? A sequel to my current book, or something completely new?

Passive Voice

Thanks to my critique buddies, I have discovered a lot more about writing than I ever thought I would. The connection between writers, even of different genres is amazing.

This weekend, I learned a lot about passive voice. Mainly that I use it a bit too much, which brings me to my other point, how to fix it.

You want to write with action, you want the reader to be there with your characters, and you can't do that if things are happening to them. The characters need to drive the story forward. This idea goes along with show don't tell because usually when you are telling the story, you are generally being passive in your writing. You want to avoid "to be" verbs, such as "was," "were," and "to be." These are just a few of the ones you want to watch out for, but there are many others. There are numerous resources out in the world, but one of the most invaluable one you can find is fellow writers to read through your work and point these out.

Feeling ignored

I want to apologize to all my writing followers, but this post won't be about writing except that it is one of the best things in my life besides my family.

Now if you're still with me, I work a normal day job, the hours suck and I have been there for six years. I get paid commission and the money is all right. It gets me through my bills, usually. But lately, I have started to feel disrespected. As I said I've been there for six years and I applied for a promotion that came up recently, people around me applied too. They got interviews for it, I've done training for the position, I have seniority, yet I didn't get an interview at all. Does that seem fair? Not to me. I found out last night that the interview process was completed and I was told by another person when I applied that I was for sure going to get an interview.

Usually I would just let this slide off my back and just go with the flow and keep my mouth shut, but damn I've done that long enough. I'm tired of being looked past, just sort of being like, "maybe next time." I'm not a verbal person, a little shy for that, but really wanted to just go off and scream, but two bad things from that, could get fired for that, and then that leads to more stress for home life, so I'll just take it and move on I guess.  At least it's a job in this economy.

For those of you still reading, what would you do in this case? Should I just let it go? Should I???? In the end, this is probably all I'll do to complain, but damn if it doesn't just piss me off to no end to get ignored like this. Anyway, sorry for the rant, but over the past six years, this is the first time in a long long time that something from work carried with me over to the next day. I will be back to my normal posting next week.

Thank you for my time.

Sting of Rejection

As you know, I have started to query again. Only sent out five so far, but each one still has hope attached to it.

Now I've gotten rejections back on two so far, and despite knowing the odds, the rejections still make you doubt your talent and skill. It's not enough for me to give up on such a small sample, but still those thoughts creep back into your head.

What do you do to fight that feeling of inadequacy? Me? I edit, polish, write, something to keep me busy. I don't dwell on the negative for long. You can't. Us writers have a tendency to linger on things like criticism too long at times, and it is counterproductive. So I try to do the opposite and become more productive. It doesn't always work, but at least I try. I do have one rule though, that I give querying my current novel a month before I start on another project. That is usually about 40 queries in that time, maybe more if I'm feeling daring, but I use the time to evaluate my writing and work on coming up with a new idea.

How many of you out there are also joining in on the query adventure for this new year? How are you doing? Any requests? Any feedback from agents? I want to celebrate the querying and dedication to seek that next step in your writing.

NFL Pro Bowl 2012

Now I'm one of the biggest fans of the NFL around, yet I still can't be bothered to watch the Pro Bowl.I like the idea behind the game, the best are celebrated, but I think having it before the Super Bowl has the opposite effect of what the league wanted. They wanted more people to watch it, which I'm not sure it does, because all of the news is on the Super Bowl during this time. Even during the pregame show for the Pro Bowl, they were talking  about the teams arriving for the Super Bowl.

The great thing about the game is the fact that it showcases the game in high scoring fashion, such as yesterday's 59 - 41 game. This is a good thing for the game, because fans like to watch high scores, so it doesn't disappoint in that respect. I do like the fact that they are using various methods to get fans involved, like this year they introduced Twitter to the game. Which drums up some interest, but as a whole having it before the Super Bowl sort of makes it overshadowed when it could be shining.

I don't think they will change it anytime soon, because with it after the Super Bowl it was even worse in terms of people watching and caring, but I think they need to do something to make it more exciting. The interaction with the fans is going in the right direction, and more of that will definitely help it in the long run. I also think the fact that the Super Bowl players don't go to the game is a good thing for the players, but a bad thing for the game as usually some big stars are pulled because of the Super Bowl.

Overall the Pro Bowl is like All Star games for most other sports, no one really watches them, but they are a good recognition for the players.

What do you think about the All Star games in sports? Do you watch them? What makes them interesting to you? What would make you watch them?

Love what you do, otherwise is it really worth it?

As you know, I have just finished my fourth novel and started the querying process. Now this is usually a scary time of a writer's life. Lots of doubts, lots of questions, such as, am I good enough? Will they like it? What will I do if they don't like it? etc.

Right now I'm going through those questions right now, but I have something of an answer to those questions. WHO CARES.

Now don't get me wrong, I want to get an agent, I want to get it published and get to hold my book in my hands, but I write for myself first.

I write stories that interest me, and that I enjoy writing and reading. I have to, otherwise, how in the world could I spend 5-6 months with the project without getting bored or want to rip it to shreds. I live my characters, I think that gets across in the book, which in the end is all that you can truly ask. I thrive on the conflict, always looking for ways to make it harder on my characters. I like watching them suffer. (I'm a bit sadistic that way.)

For all of you fellow writers that are suffering from the blues, and doubts, think back to why you started writing in the first place. If you aren't doing it for the love of it then why? Big money? Fame? If you do it because you love then those things might come, but more importantly, you won't care when it's all said and done. You will be satisfied with results regardless. So go out there and just enjoy the craft, don't worry about the end result.

WiP Wednesday

I haven't done one of these in a while, so I decided that I might as well.

My current work in progress is now in the stages of final touches and starting to get my query list ready. I have started to do the research part of querying and so far have just used querytracker.net to generate the list and then started narrowing it down. I think its at something like 360 agents currently, but that will get pared down a bit as I research and make more specific targets.

How is everyone else doing? What is the status of your projects?

The NFL Playoffs

This past weekend was Championship Football for the NFL season. Now my team has been out of it for weeks now, yet I'm still impelled to watch the games and you want to know why? Because it is great entertainment.

I'm bummed that the Super Bowl is a rematch and one that was memorable in it's own right, but this time around I'm not so sure.

Back to the games on Sunday. The thing that made these such exciting games were primarily the fact that they were back and forth, up and down, highs and lows. All things good books need to have... Like how I fit in the writing reference there?

I think if our books have this sort of unpredictable outcome, then we have a winner on our hands. We want our readers to be enthralled from start to finish and that is what sports in general bring to life. I also think that is why playoff sports is the most interesting time, just because the rewards and stress is amped up to a whole new level.

Everyone loves rooting for the underdog, like the Ravens Sunday. It just connects us because we all have been there, we've been scratching and clawing our way to someplace where we are recognized for our efforts. Unfortunately, in life that doesn't always work out and that's okay, because we will continue to try.

So this upcoming Super Bowl will be a decent match. I'm not particularly fond of rematches, so I'm not as excited as I would have been. How about you? Are you a football fan like myself, or do you not really care much at all? If so what team are you going for? If not, what are you doing instead?

Book review: "The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

If you are a fan of the Percy Jackson books, not the movie as it's not very good, then you should definitely give his most recent series a shot. It's the same universe, yet this time it is dealing with the Roman gods. This is the second book in the series and I especially like the way that the author develops the plot and how it slowly unfolds revealing more and greater layers.

The only problem with this book in my mind is that if you aren't familiar with the other series you might be a little lost in some of the references that are made back to older books. Don't get me wrong, the characters stand on their own and the plot is strong, I just feel that some of those references are better if you have the background.

Overall, I feel that this book is great for anyone who likes epic plots with lots of twists and turns in addition to a sprinkle of humor thrown in. He makes the everyday world seem like a cover for some of the most imaginative and well thought out mythical relations. For example Amazon.com being a cover for real Amazons. Good stuff.

Getting sick

So I've gotten a cold, it sucks as I don't get sick very often and when I do, it hits me hard. So I will be fighting this cold and hope to have a review of the most recent book in the Percy Jackson Universe up by Friday. Until then have a good day of censored internet.

Back to the Future The Game Review

This past week, I played the Telltale game, Back to the Future. Now I'm a fan of the movies and the game is a great compliment to the series. It follows up the series in a way that I say that it pretty much is a fourth movie.

The story is broken into five parts, and at first it seems like unnecessary, yet it works well to tie everything together. I like the same comedy in the movies is present in the game. The characters are as lovable as before and even the bad guy has some redeeming qualities.

The overall plot is full of references to the past movies, which helps tie it into the universe.

The only complaint that I have is the controls can be a bit wonky at times. Sometimes you try to select an item to interact with and it just doesn't want to do it. This would be alleviated with the use of a mouse, but since I was tied to a controller it wasn't that great of an experience.

Overall, for my second Telltale game, I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. I never finished the other Telltale game I played, which was Sam and Max. So if you are a fan of the Back to the Future series, then you do well to give this game a shot. It's available on most platforms currently.

Funny Friday

Starting the new year, I wanted to share some of the funny photo's that I have seen this week. Below are a few of them:

Have a great weekend.

Writing goals for 2012

A new year, Yay!

I just finished a novel, starting the query process and so far have just been researching agents. I plan to start querying soon. My goal is simple, find an agent and get a publishing deal. It's been this one for a while, but this year if I don't find an agent, I am contemplating self publishing for the first time.

Now I don't know what will happen in the new year and honestly all I know is at the end of the year either I will be published or have an agent. If neither of these work out, I'm not sure what will happen then. I may just write for myself and forget about getting published.

So what are your goals for the new year?

Kindle Fire Review

I've been meaning to post this review for a while now. I've had the Fire for almost 2 months now and have had ample time to play around with its features and I have to say that I love it.

First the reason that I decided on getting the tablet in the first place. I wanted something to play around with. I didn't have a real reason to pick it up besides the fact that it is a new gadget at a great price. ($199) So after playing around with it, I am glad I picked it up, but for a reason that I didn't think I would use it for.

The home screen is easy to use and intuitive. I like the carousel feature as it makes it easy to get to recently used items, and with the newest update you can remove things from it so navigating through it is much easier. The favorite bookshelf beneath the carousel is a nice feature and is easy to organize and click through.

The book reading function of this is what you would expect from a Kindle product. It is LCD and no Eink, but it is still usable and I especially like the way that it syncs to multiple readers if you have them. I do find it a bit hard to read in direct sunlight, but living in Oregon, there isn't a ton of that here anyway.

The video section is primarily Amazon's store, so I don't have much use for it with Hulu+ and Netflix, but during the 30-day trial of Prime, I did find myself enjoying the service and it worked well. But honestly, those of you have have Netflix and Hulu+ wouldn't find anything worth keeping Prime, unless you are a big shopper of Amazon, which I'm not a big enough one to justify the cost.

Now the most important thing for a tablet is the apps for it. The great thing that I love about the Kindle Fire is the variety of apps and how they give you a free one daily. I like to grab those and just getting them for free is a big bonus for me because I can't always buy them and usually just rely on free apps anyway. The store itself is easy to access, as I don't have a lot of use of the Ipad under my belt, I can't say which has better stores, but I didn't find myself lacking any of the apps that I would need to use on the device. I found Netflix, Hulu+, and many others, all easy to navigate to and purchase.

The device itself is pretty well built. It's sturdy, and fits well in my hand. My kids, especially my three year old can work it with ease.The device fits inside my jacket pocket without bulging and I can take it places that I don't know that I would take an iPad to because of the small form factor. The smallness of the device also is what makes it so portable, and the primary reason I got the device was for my kids to play with something on long car rides. Now it is only Wifi, so some of the feature's can't be used in the car unless you have a mobile hotspot on your phone or get lucky and find free wifi while driving, but if you store it with enough things, I don't think you would have any issues.

Now in this two months of use, I have to be honest and mention that I haven't tried to load things onto it that didn't come from the market and that might change this review a bit. The storage of the device is only 8GB's which is enough for storing the apps and such on it. Now if I load it with movies that size would be cumbersome, however, it does have the Amazon Cloud Server and things you buy from Amazon don't use any of the Cloud storage, which pretty much gives you unlimited storage.

So in all, for what I need this device is perfect. I don't need something to do work on, but have used it to jot notes down for story ideas when they occur to me. This device is pretty much as advertised, a media consumption device. If you have any specific questions, you can post a comment or email me and I will try it out and answer them to the best of my knowledge.

Synopsis Help?

As I mentioned Wednesday, I have started work on my synopsis. Now I have been writing these for a lot, so it's not my first one, however, they always have one thing in common and that is I never feel like they are any good. 

When I do the first draft....

I just spew out all the details of the main plot, some minor bits of the secondary plot then usually end up with a five to ten page thing. Then I have to pare it down to one to two pages. I keep the longer versions, but I like my synopsis to be succinct. 

I'm have particular trouble with my current one in that there is a three sided conflict and it is proving difficult trying to interweave them like it is done in the book. Any tips?

What are some of your favorite things about synopsis? Do you have a certain process you go through? Do you write it before your write the book or after? Any websites you can refer to me to for help? 

I'm back!

This sounds familiar, but I'm back from my blogging hiatus. Honestly, I had a good time, but did miss blogging just a bit. I'm still going to stick with my three day a week schedule as that will work best for me.

So a bit of a summary of the time while I was gone.

I received feedback from 4 different readers on my book, most thought it worked well, but needed some work. So I put the work in like any good writer. Now I think I have a pretty polished manuscript and hope to start querying soon, my aim is next week or so.

On the non-writer front, I had a good Thanksgiving and busy Christmas. My new work position schedule of 1pm-10pm sort of sucks, but at least it's only Monday through Friday.

I picked up a Kindle Fire for myself in November, and will have a full review by Monday.

My oldest daughter turned 11 in December and my youngest son turns 3 tomorrow, so now I'm planning a birthday party among other things.

So this week I've began working on the synopsis for my book. I know. I know, such horror, but it needs to get done. I need it to find an agent. Now it is hard, but I'll slam through a draft by tomorrow and hopefully get some feedback on it over the weekend.

How were all of your, my faithful followers, Holidays? Seeya Friday.