An Interesting Holiday

Happy Monday to everyone.  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving; I certainly did.  My husband and I spent Thursday and Friday with my family, Saturday with his, and Sunday with our church family.  We had a great four days and can't really complain...except for the mouse which decided to show itself after our Bible study group left our house last night and for the possible break in we had to our garage.  And before you worry, I assure you all turned out well.  The mouse will be caught quickly (they always are), and the person who attempted to get in through our garage door was unsuccessful. 

As for writing, I didn't get a chance to work on my query.  It needs revised, terribly so I'm afraid.  Quite frankly, it has me stumped.  A few more days of thinking it over should solve the problem.  Also, my beta finished reading my manuscript and sent me his comments.  I did a quick review of them, and they are very helpful.  I can't wait to sit down and make any necessary revisions.

Hope everyone is doing well. :)

Thanksgiving Week

Thanksgiving is just a few days away; I think I need a moment to catch my breath. 

At least my writing goal has been met.  I wanted to be finished with my novel by this time, and it is currently being reviewed by my beta.  I'm crossing my fingers in hopes of not having to correct too many things.  Over the weekend I wrote my query letter, also.  For my non-writing friends, the query letter is what is to sent to agents to get an agent's interest.  They are difficult to write because they need to be short and concise while summarizing the story well enough that the agent wants to know/read more.  My query is being reviewed now, too, and I'm sure I'll have a few more drafts before it is sent out to anybody.

That being said, I've got some down time since I'm waiting for feedback.  And I'm trying to enjoy it.  During the past week, I've done some reorganizing around my house because I can't stand clutter.  I finished reading one book before starting another one on Saturday.  I finished that one yesterday (Sunday).  I have many more books I'd like to read, but I'm not sure which one I want to start on next.  Plus I keep getting ideas for the next book I'm going to write, which has me excited about starting that project.  I need this break, though.  This is a busy time of the year, and I would like to enjoy it.  Especially the Christmas season; it's my favorite time of the year.

Hopefully I'll have a perfected query letter by January so I can start sending it out.  Now if I could just accomplish my goal of being published next year, I'd be all set.  We'll see how that goes! :)

November Blog Chain

This is my first time participating in the Absolute Write Blog Chain.  There is a different prompt for each month, and November's is writing a back cover blurb for a book that has been written or is planned to be written. 

My blurb is from my current WIP, Shattered Innocence (working title).  The genre is Christian Fiction.  After the blurb you will find a list of this month's participants.  Feel free to click on their links to check out their blurbs.  Enjoy!

***

With so much to keep hidden, making friends is difficult for ten year old Emily.  If not for Nicky, the boy next door, Emily would have nobody to trust or turn to when her parents are fighting.  As Emily grows up, she depends on her best friend, and his Christian home becomes her safe haven.  It is there she learns God is not just a word thrown out in anger. 

As the line between friendship and something more begins to blur, Nicky prepares to leave for college, and Emily must accept that his dreams may not include her.  With Nicky away at school, Emily tries to hold her life together.  Desperate to escape for just a little while, she makes a decision that will turn her world upside down.  Scared and ashamed, she keeps the truth from Nicky until she's left with no choice but to call him.  He rushes home to be with her, but she'll have to place her trust in someone else before she can begin picking up the pieces of her shattered life.

***

There it is.  Please leave a comment to let me know what you think.  And just as an FYI, I'm thinking about changing the title to Shards of Glass.  I like the imagery and symbolism of that much better.


Here are the other participants links:
orion_mk3
Ralph Pines
MysteryRiter
AuburnAssassin
Jarrah Dale
SinisterCola
dolores haze
pyrosama
alynza
writingismypassion (you are here)
Cath
Inkstrokes
egoodlett
LadyDae
SuzanneSeese
more to come as they become available

Can I Say Finished?

Wow! I am feeling good today.  For the first time since I wrote my first draft, I feel like my novel is finished.  Getting the story into shape has been a crazy long saga. Here's a summary of the process with time gaps left out:

* Wrote a three part novel
* Felt there was more story to be told so a sequel was written
* Decided to combine both stories leaving me with 250K+ words to work with (way too many!)
* Began the editing process
* Removed Part I of the original to get word count under control (hated this, never felt right)
* Tons more edititing
* Story didn't work without Part I so put it back in
* Word count slowly came down but still wasn't where it needed to be
* Took a break to reflect on the story (what was it really about, what was the goal, etc)
* Decided the sequel was my imagination running away with me so took it out (material is saved, may use at a later time)
* Word count looked much better but...
* Decided to expand on the Christian element (add more when word count is high? eek!)
* Continued editing and removing unnecessary information
* Decided Part III was not needed (felt good about removing it)
* Finished editing.  (word count just over 97K! whew!)

So as I said, I'm feeling good right now.  I want to do one more read through before handing it over to some betas, and hopefully there won't be many wrinkles to iron out.  And if there are, then so be it.  I'll make the necessary corrections and get started on the query process.  Before that happens, I'm just going to enjoy where I'm at.  :)