Friday Fun

Yvie's back! To chuck you at the weekend like a fast-ball special (extra points for anyone who gets this super nerdy reference. Teebore and Twin can't play).





How are things with you, ape-friends? Good? I hope so.
Things have been cray-cray around her. First it warms up. Then it snows again. Then it warms up. Then it rains and snows again. Then it warms up. Then it rains.
I mean, for realz? All this is playing havoc on my doggy allergies. Good thing Mom bought me some benadryl.

Ah well, sooner or later spring will win out. We just have to be patient.
Onto the fun!!





Camel being tickled. That is all.

In Which I Query

I tried to find a picture related to the topic at hand but couldn't. So instead you get this

So, as the title says, and as I hinted at last Wednesday, I've jumped into the query waters.
So far I find them pleasant and warm. And exciting to finally be in them!

Though one thing I didn't expect was this obsession with my gmail, and some mild impatience. I know everyone tells you to expect this, I just though I wouldn't have to worry about it.

I mean, waiting for responses? I though that'd be easy. I've submitted short stories and had to wait on those. I've got a story on submission right now that's been with magazine for 4 months now, and I've still got another possible 2 months wait on it. Just to wait to see if they're interested. That's half a year for like 2500 words.
After that, I thought waiting for possible query responses would be easy.

Wrong. I think the reason why it's different is because some agents get back to you right away, so you get a taste for quick responses. Which means I check my gmail like 3 times more a day than I used to.

Also, checking my gmail is totally bittersweet now. I get both excited and nervous to do it. What if I have a response? What if I don't? I'm not even necessarily worrying what the responses will be. All of this wars inside me the moment I sign in to when my inbox opens up.

All in all, I'm having a great time.

When I got really serious again about my writing (about 2 years ago) one of the things I was looking most forward to was querying. Even though it's an emotional roller coaster, it looked so fun to me. And it's definitely one step further along in the journey. So yeah, now that I'm here, I'm determined to have a good time, no matter what.

Also, I love filling out little databases and stuff with submission stats (like duotrope digest for short stories) so now that I actually get to do that in query tracker, I'm all smiles.

So, how about you? Where are you at with your current writerly process? And most importantly, are you having fun?

In Which I'm Behind

I've been working really hard lately (as evidenced by last Wednesday's post) on all things writerly. Which is great, I love having the feeling that I'm accomplishing things.

One thing, though, that writing tends to get in the way of, is reading.
Normally I'm a pretty fast reader, but lately I've been chugging through books at a ridiculously slow rate, well for me anyway.

I've been reading Behemoth for over two weeks now, and even though I'm loving it, I'm still only on like chapter thirteen.

Normally it wouldn't be such a big deal, but I set that goal to read 55 books in 2011. So far, I've read 13, which is a little over 3 a month. That is not even close to cutting it.




I think what I need to do is get some more of the Ranger's Apprentice series (LOVE IT). Those are short and fast, so I could read some of those, update my list and feel like I'm moving in the right direction.

The only problem with that plan, though, is I already have a huge TBR pile with some great books I'm excited to read (an ARC of divergent, as example) so I don't think it would be fair to get some new books and move them to the top of the pile, just to inflate my numbers a bit and make me feel better.

Sigh. Ah well. Clearly I just need to get down to it.

How's your TBR pile coming?

Friday Fun

Hi Ape-friends! Yvie's back after a short break!

Mom forgot one big thing on her list of accomplishments on Wednesday. And that is - we celebrated Tula's 2nd birthday!

at the airport, on the way home

Yeah, frequently sometimes she stinks. She's whiny and barky and bugs me out in the yard when I just want to sniff sniffs. But also she plays with me while Mom and Anne workout in the morning, and sometimes we wrestle during the day, or play tug, which is my favorite.




So, all in all, she's pretty cool.


Happy birthday Tula!



Now, Onto the fun!

if you only watch one video today, make sure it's this one

would you join the dark side?

In Which I Accomplish Things

A list of things I accomplished on my short hiatus:

1. Finished reading Glimpse out loud
2. Wrote my synopsis
3. Edited my synopsis
4. Judged youth poems for an annual B&N Poetry Contest with Hannah and Teebore. All time favorite poem? "Video Games Rule! (except for educational and baby ones)"
5. Tweaked Glimpse
6. Decided to test the query waters with Glimpse first, before I make any more large changes
7. Began to psych myself up for querying
8. Finished Elana's Possession

I feel like I'm missing something obvious, but hell if I can remember it.
All right! Share with me some of your recent accomplishments - I want to hear all about them so I can cheer you on!

In Which I Read A Book

Guess what I finished up during my short hiatus?

That's right! Elana Johnson's Possession!

I don't want to get into details too much, because I know not everyone has access to an arc, but I will say it was fun and sassy and filled with cool tech that I want. Like a cube that makes food you wish to eat.

Who doesn't want that?

No one, that's who.

Also, there's been a lot of talk on the blogsphere about how great bad boy Jag is in the book, and yeah, I like him OK. But know who I really like? Jag's brother Pace. MMMM, much more to my taste.

Good times. Good times.

In Which I Am Unplugged

Hi All - I'm going to be unplugged this week.

Real life has been real busy, and I just want to finish up Glimpse as fast as possible. I'll still be around your blogs, though, so no worries.

Regularly scheduled posts will resume next Monday.

Have a great week!