1. I meant to do a Friday Five yesterday, but I had too much going on. Which I will now explain in #2-6 below.
2. I sent my oldest son and my husband off to a Scout overnight camping trip yesterday. My son was so excited that he had finished packing by about, oh, Tuesday. He did ask why I couldn't go instead of my husband, and I had to explain the whole "it's for guys" thing. But, quite honestly, I would have loved to go instead of my husband. I'm a total camper person, and my hubby isn't. So I do think it's a little funny that my husband is going to be the one who has to go on overnighters with our boys. And our boys are just getting started in Scouting.
3. I heard some good and not so good news this week about my book on subs. The good news: it made it to acquisitions at a pub house. The bad news: it died in acquisitions at the pub house. The good news: less than stellar market conditions was the only reason for the pass (which means the story itself is solid). The bad news: less than stellar market conditions (this is bad for everyone, not just me). The good news: the editor wanted to see anything else I might have. The bad news: it'll be months before I have anything else to show.
But I am happy to just make it this far, honestly. I've been wondering and worrying that the book might need to be revised to make it stronger, but it sounds like I don't need to worry about the manuscript at all. So, though I'd love to have it sell, if it doesn't I can put it aside with a clear conscience. But I'm still hoping another house has a more optimistic outlook on market conditions and will be enthusiastic about my manuscript. Hope springs eternal, I suppose.
4. I've been thinking about a new story idea, and knowing that an editor wants to see anything else I've written (see #3 above) has kicked my imagination into overdrive. I sent a short synopsis to my agent late yesterday (after he left the office, I'm sure, since I'm two hours behind and it was late in the afternoon when I sent it) explaining the vague idea to him. And this weekend I'm going to try to crank out some serious word count and hopefully solidify some of the story.
5. Speaking of story ideas, I need to do some research on foster kids and foster parents, especially for older foster kids 10 and up. If you have any great resources or know someone who is a foster parent, please send (or have them send) me an email at elissadcruz at gmail dot com. I have some questions about how it all works.
6. I ran into an old high school friend at a writing conference a few weeks ago. She friended me on facebook, and suddenly I'm finding all my old high school buddies there as well, since she's already connected with most of them. I've been avoiding doing this, since I'm not sure I want to mix business with pleasure (so far, I've been using FB to connect with other writers), but it's also nice to think that I'll have some non-writing friends I can wow with my writing accomplishments. *snork*
Wow, you know that really is mostly good about the submission stuff. These days, it's hard to make it that far! Fingers crossed that something awesome will happen soon!!
ReplyDeleteAnd funny, I use FB for mostly non-writerly stuff! But it is YA writing research, as re-connecting with my first kiss surely sparked some memories!!
Thanks, Kelly. I thought the sub stuff was pretty good, too. I'm more happy than upset about it.
ReplyDeleteAnd since I write MG, reconnecting with high school buddies doesn't really help...except those who were elementary and JR high friends, too, I suppose.
And maybe they'll share stories about their kids now. It's all fodder for a book, right?!
Very thhoughtful blog
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