Can Writers Still Enjoy Reading?

Jody asked: "Since you are a writer and are accustomed to dissecting your own work, does it affect your enjoyment of reading? Are you able to be a mere reader, or do you find yourself dissecting characters, plots, dialogue, etc etc when you read? Can you just take off your "writer" hat and enjoy?"


The short answer to this question is: Yes, we can still enjoy reading. In fact, many writers are voracious readers. If we want to stay in the game we need to read what is being published in the genre in which we are writing, but we have to take into consideration that these 'current' books were actually bought two years ago.


But I've also found that I'm less tolerant of slow pacing, characters I can't get into, dialogue that causes me to roll my eyes while reading, unrealistic setups or stupid plots. Yep, all those books get published. I used to plow through a book until the story got good, but now I don't have the time, or inclination, to waste on books that don't excite me. And this goes for debut authors as well as multi-published authors. Even big name, NYT best-selling authors write clinker books, BUT they already have a fan base and I doubt if their crappy books will effect their overall sales--unless they keep producing crappy books.

When I discover an author that I enjoy reading, I'm swept away by the story. I put on blinders, and a 'do not disturb' placket is hung around my neck. Do not try to converse with me. Do not ask me questions if you honestly expect answers. Do not expect dinner to get cooked--the phone number for Savastano's pizzeria is on the fridge. LEAVE ME ALONE!

Yep, those are the best books, and I keep them to reread over and over again. I know the hero and heroine are going to get together, or Harry Dresden will survive to be in another book--I reread for the journey, the roller coaster ride.

Does it take more to engage me now that I'm a writer. No, just a damn good story--and it doesn't have to be published. I've fallen in love with unpublished writers when I've judged their entries in a contest. If the story makes me forget I'm reading a story, then the writer has done his/her job and I'm a happy reader.

What do my writing friends think? Please chime in with your opinion!

Oh, I finally finished (it was hard!) my faerie picture book (PB)! YAY! Now, I can finish writing my middle grade novel, while the PB ages like fine Cab. :-)

Write on!

Offing Characters

I commented on my facebook account that I found a way for my elf to get around a dragon without becoming dragon chow. One of my writer buds, Ash I think, wondered why I didn't simply kill the dragon. LOL She knows me too well. As much as I love offing my characters in new and unusual ways, it isn't always to the benefit of the character or story.

Killing the dragon would have been too easy--especially since said dragon was 'sleeping'. Those familiar with dragonlore know they never really 'sleep'. Besides I don't like my characters to find the easy way out. It becomes too deus et machina (I think this is the correct spelling), basically, God willed or intervened. The character doesn't grow or learn if God takes care of every little problem. The character must figure it out on his own and make a decision, whether right or wrong. Sometimes the character needs to make a few wrong decisions before he can make the right choice. Thus the character arc is born.

From 500 word picture books to 100,000 word novels (I've written both), a character must grow within the confines of the story to become more than what he was at the beginning. The path is never straight. Wrong turns are a part of building the character, making the character interesting and unique. Even series characters, Harry Dresden books by Jim Butcher leap to mind, grow and arc, during each book and over the course of the series.

Besides I can't kill this dragon. I like him. Don't get me wrong, I KNOW I'll need to kill my babies, but I don't think it would serve a purpose at this time. I need to come up with a draconic name because I see him being in a few more books in the future.

All I need to do is find the time to write this part of the story. Life intervened over the weekend, and I wrote all of 46 words. *sigh* And this week won't be much better, but I'll try my best to write the scene. And then I have to chop my 2,000 word picture book down to 1,000 words.

But for now--Write on!

Queryland. . . again

I've been angsting over my children's story, so I decided to start pimping my picture book/easy reader, Peter's Messy Room. I'd tweaked, edited, reworked it so I would have the appropriate number of pictures with pages, cut my word count, etc. It was time to let go.

Two days ago I started researching literary agents specializing in children's books. My primary site is Agent Query. And from there I investigate the agency website, decide which agent to target within the larger agencies and verify their status with Preditors and Editors. Even with all my careful preparation one of my queries was sent to an agent no longer at the agency. This agent's name is still plastered all over the agency's website. I did my research, so why can't agencies keep their website updated?

Yesterday, I submitted to 19 agencies electronically. I personalized each salutation, verified each agent, and most of them wanted to have picture book text pasted into the email. Awesome, not a problem. I had to remove two agents from the pile because they only represent middle-grade and above stories, NOT picture books. Okay, I'll save them for my Missing Gnome story. Speaking of that, I need to get my butt in gear and finish the silly thing. I'm 1/4 of the way through, so I need to keep on writing.

So far, I have had (updated) five rejections on PMR. I'd rather have quick rejections than wait for the 'no response from us means no' mindset. THAT drives me crazy! How hard is it to click reply and say "no thanks"??? But this topic is definitely a whole other blog. And many fine agents have addressed this issue on their blogs within the last month. One of the queries I sent happened to be to an agent that I sent this query to in Jan---uh, OOPS! I didn't think I sent PMR to anyone. Guess I should have checked my list a little better, huh? This was one of those agents who don't respond unless interested, which fits my point--how do I even KNOW she got the first email? :-) I think I'll chock that one up as a no request.

Today, I'll be snail mail querying. I have seven agents who still require writers to kill trees. Personalizing these letters, addressing envelopes, and making certain I have stamped SASE's takes a little more time, but I should have it finished in an hour or so. And once they are out the door, I can forget about PMR. I have a list of things I need to do: finish my @#%@#$%@# faerie story, write on my middle grade story, and fill out a character profiling chart on my urban fantasy heroine that I'd like to make into a series of seven books.

What are my odds of gaining the interest of an agent?

Slim to none. I don't have unrealistic hopes. I've been in this writing biz long enough to know the odds are not in my favor. I really, really like this story, BUT I honestly don't think it is 'different enough' for the current market. When I attended a SCBWI conference last month, Abigail Samoun of Tricycle Press had some depressing statistics. Last year Tricycle had over 7000 slush pile submissions, of that number they published 3, only 0.0004% of those submissions were published.

Yeah, those aren't very good odds. But writers do what they have to do--they write.

Write on!

Earth Day 2009

Short and sweet today!

Turn off your computers and write with pen on paper. . . that millions of trees have been destroyed to make.

Okay, let's try again. Read a book. That was made from millions of destroyed trees. Download an e-book. . . oops, using electricity again.

Go for a walk. Enjoy the sunshine--oops, unless y'all are getting much needed rain for your gardens. Hey, that's one, enjoy working in the garden, but fertilize with organic products--read that as cow, horse, or sheep poop. :-)

If you don't have to drive anywhere--don't. If you do, then plan your most efficient route and take right hand turns. One, they are easier. Two, they are faster than sitting and waiting for a break in traffic. Think about how long you have to sit with your car idling while you wait.

Uh, I printed out tons of agent info yesterday so I can query them today--does that count? Plus I want to finish a Dresden book. Plus I need to work on my sun worshiping. I think I can have a full day without using electricity or driving.

What about you? What are you going to do today that might be earth friendly?

Simply try your best to be as earth friendly as possible today.

Contest Results

are in for the Fab Five!


Uh, no, I didn't final with Demon Within, but I had some great feedback. Actually, I'm surprised I didn't delete the email. I've been spammed a lot recently and didn't recognize the sender with attachments, too. And all that was in the subject line was 'Fab Five', not 'Fab Five contest'. For all I knew it could have been some new weight-loss supplement, Canadian pharmaceutical, or new penile implant.


Basically, I placed eleventh out of twenty-four, but the finalist's scores ranged from a 57, out of 60, to 55. I scored an average of 53.5. Not too shabby for a new story that no one has seen or critted. My scores were 55, 52, and 44. Guess who scored the 44?--an RWA Pro (Pro is a designation within RWA of a writer who finished a manuscript and is actively shopping it around). In general, unpublished writers tend to be stingier with their scoring. But the lowest score is dropped so it doesn't really matter. And I wouldn't have finaled anyway even if she'd scored me higher.


But this blog isn't about not finaling, or horrible contest judges, or crappy score sheets, or judges who score low but don't comment. Those topics are fodder for another blog on another day.


This blog is about how this contest and judges did it all RIGHT.


Yep, I HEART this contest. Why?


1) the score sheets were straight forward and fairly generic, which was why I entered this contest in the first place. This story isn't a romance. So I didn't get dinged for not having the hero or heroine meet in the first few pages. The questions were very open-ended which allow the judges to evaluate the entry based on merit and not some preset criteria.


2) Simple scoring system--ten points per question, six questions: opening, characterization, plot, dialogue, setting, and style. There are some guideline questions under each header for the judges to follow, but only one score per question.


3) Three judges, one dropped score. Built in discrepancy judging. The contest can keep to it's preset timeline. Oh, I'm sure there is still the rogue judge or two, but I bet they kept it to a minimum. And when you have to use a discrepancy judge it's usually AFTER the deadline, increasing your timeline.


4) Mixture of judges. Most contests shoot for one published author per entry, but it doesn't always happen. I'm pleased that the judges marked their published/non published status. I had published in romance, published in other, and PRO.


5) All the judges commented. For those of us who enter contest, you know this is a freakin' rarity! Most contests require the judge to comment if they score below a certain number, but many judges don't comment if they score above that preset number.

6) This one is personal to me. All three judges found the same problems with the manuscript. Now, remember, this story hasn't been looked at by anyone. I had totally rewritten it after I got a two page rejection from Deb Dixon and I wanted some feedback before I continued in this new direction with the story.

I. AM. STOKED.

This doesn't happen very often, but when it does it validates you as a writer. Yes, I still have some issues, but three separate people saw the SAME problems. Repetition and a flashback scene that slowed the pacing. I know how to take care of the flashback. It is needed, but I'll find a better spot for it. And repetition is a common mistake for writers. I'll just take my sharp Kyocera ceramic knife and do a little slicing and dicing!

Kudos to the Fab Five contest! Good Luck to all the finalists!

Write On!

Spring has Sprung in Oklahoma

It will be later in the day before I get the pictures posted, so don't hold your breath. My day is out of whack as I have to drive hubby to work (doesn't want to get his corvette wet) and take the kiddo to get fitted for contacts (which will probably take two hours). I debated about lugging my computer, but decided against it. The battery doesn't keep it's charge and I'd have to search for a plug.

Hubster put this pond in eight years ago. The small window to the left of the Japanese maple is my writing window.

In other words, I'm going old school. Yep, pencil and paper. Okay, not a pencil. but a purple pen. How else am I going to write purple prose??

Actually, I have to figure out how my faerie is going to get past the dragon. I'll be beating my head against the wall again with that problem. I think I might just bring a book and make my life easier!


I took some pics of my blooming flowers, but can't figure out how to download off my phone. I may have to simply give in, take pics on my camera, download onto hubby's computer (he has the tether) and mail them to my computer. What a pain in the hinny! But I will get some pictures of my irises!

Pictures downloaded: Batik iris on the left.

On the right is a columbine. I don't know the variety and am actually surprised to see it blooming, since I didn't think it survived.

And this mini rose bush has the first buds of the season: Lemon Pearl.
I have about forty rose bushes, so I'll be shooting pictures when they come into bloom
Pictures later! They're up!
Write on!

The Name of Things

It's been awhile since I've written about . . . .wait for it . . . writing.

Of course that was the whole reason for this blog in the first place. But writing exclusively about writing stuff can come over a bit stuffy and boring, so I tend to digress. . . a lot. And notice how much I like ellipses? The little dot, dot, dot thingies. They're fun, aren't they? Well, word through the publishing grapevine is that they look down on the little ellipses as lazy writing. I try to leave them out of my novels, and actually succeed sometimes, but they needed a place to play so here they are.

But today's topic isn't about ellipses--those darn things just sneak in. If I'm not careful I'll have this blog full of em-dashes--the double long hyphen thingies--uh, oh . . .

Back to the topic at hand: I have a tough time with names in my stories. I over think them, because names tell so much about a person. Readers form their first opinions when they see a character's name. If you see a name like Donna, odds are you know of a Donna(s) and have formed an opinion of what she looks like/sounds like/her personality. A reader's life experience can influence how they enjoy a story. And writers can throw in red herrings simply by giving a secondary character an unexpected name, or villain could be acting villainous because he has a simple and boring name.

I have a habit of going overboard in the opposite direction. I make my names too unusual, therefore they stand out in the stories I write. Unless you write fantasy, then you have to come up with something 'different', though the trend seems to be using apostrophes in place of vowels. Anne McCaffrey did this with her Pern stories, the dragonrider's name becomes abbreviated when he impresses a hatching dragon. There's a reason for her names, but I have no idea how she manages to keep everything straight throughout her numerous series. Sometimes characters in one series make cameo appearances in another series. ACK! I can imagine the spreadsheets and wipe boards!

*sigh* I digress. . . again. Sorry about that.

If a writer is writing a historical novel, the writer must have a name that fits the time frame of the story. There is a little wiggle room, but you don't want to yank your reader out of the story by introducing a 'Tiffany' to a Regency. Even if the name was around at that time period, I don't know and I certainly didn't check my sources so if I'm wrong--oops, it will jerk the reader from the story. Trust me, I've read some contest entries like that. Now, if it was a time travel that would be a different story.

I'm writing a middle grade novel right now and have the child's name of Rhiannon who I call Rhee (and I don't even want to get into the -rhea thing!), and the mom is Bryn. Yeah, two weird names. I did better with the males in the book, Jason and Mike. :-) But I think I'll need to change the girl's names or one of them, but I'll finish writing the story and worry about that later. If I manage to get an agent/editor who is interested, I'll do whatever they feel is best for the story. Remember, names are important to the characters, but don't drive yourself crazy about choosing the right name. In the end all that matters is that this is YOUR story.

Or am I the only one who has this problem?

Write on!

Lagniappe

Cajun for a 'little of dis and dat'. Of course I couldn't verify the spelling since my dictionary is too old. *note to self: buy new addition of dictionary*

This was a pretty good week for me. I won two books off two different blogs! The first one was Highland Warrior by Monica McCarthy off the Magical Musings blog. And the second book was Tempt the Devil by Anna Campbell on Romance Bandits. I think this makes my fifth or sixth book that I've won since January, plus I won a beautiful necklace on Jennifer Lyon's blog earlier this year. Free books=good.

I hope everyone had a marvelous Easter weekend. It was looonnng and busy, starting bright and early on Good Friday. Took kiddo to eye doctor appt. She went in August, but her eyesight is getting worse--cursed that she is by two sets of poor genetics. But the high point is she will get fitted with contacts this week. Did you know they let 8yo's wear contacts? Doc said he preferred kids to be at least 12, but he went ahead and measured her anyway. Then down to the Philbrook Art Museum to see three of Grandma's Americana paintings in their juried art show. The last day is Tuesday. We picked up the hubster and ate lunch at Los Cabos and off to Kohl's to buy the kiddo an Easter dress. Yeah, yeah, we waited, but at least we already picked up her First Communion dress, only three weeks away. Drove home in time to pack the kiddo's bag for an overnight stay at Grandma's while hubster and I enjoyed my Christmas present--THE NICKELBACK CONCERT!!! First concert I've been to in ages--and it was GREAT!! Saving Able kicked it off at seven, with Seether performing at 8ish, and Nickelback went on at 9. They did a wonderful two hour performance--and no one sat. Got home around midnight was too wired to sleep, I think it was about two-thirty when I closed my eyes. . .

only to open them at 6 AM on Holy Saturday. Who on earth schedules soccer games at 8:30 on Easter weekend?! Had to leave the house at 7:30 to pick the kiddo up to get her to the game field by 8:00. The other team only had 3 players, AND someone forgot to schedule us a ref. *sigh* Almost a forfeit or reschedule. . . "NOOOO!" she wails. Coach scrounged up an off-duty ref AND we let the the other team to use one of the girls little brother's as players, plus coach made each of our girls touch the ball before they were allowed to score. Yep, they had to kick it back to our own goal so the defender could touch the ball. :-) Then home for a quick change of clothes to go to a cousin's birthday party at Chuckie Cheese. THAT was two hours of my life I will never get back. Home again to make Easter dessert, finish the laundry I started on Friday, and cook dinner.

Kiddo and Hubster worked on the yard, but hubster wouldn't let me post the pic of kiddo showing her 'plumber's butt' while picking up doggie poo (and there was a LOT of poo!), said it would warp her for life if it got on the net. :-)

Here are the bunny butt cupcakes we made for Easter.

Got it out of a cookbook called Hello, Cupcake! I can't wait until Halloween and I can make the werewolves!

It's hard to tell, but the grass is piped with two colors. And Saturday night we did kick back for dinner with some beef and barley soup. I read (of course) while hubster and kiddo played Mario Galaxy on the Wii.

Easter Sunday arrived. . . a dank and gloomy morning. Kiddo woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to search for her Easter basket, and hubster made banana pancakes--Yum! Oh, and I had my first cup of joe in forty days! Yay! I gave up coffee for Lent, not because I wanted to, but because the kiddo asked me. We attended mass bright and early, 8:30. Hm, notice a pattern here? We tried to beat the only-church-twice-a-year crowd and did a decent job of it. Maybe it was the torrential rain that kept some of them away. I really don't want to complain about church, but I will and probably will get struck down in the process--watch out for lightning!. We have a priest that it is perfectly clear that English is NOT his first language, and he almost always does the early mass. Uh, something gets lost in translation when you can't understand what he's saying--It's sad especially when you know what the topic is about! Home again to watch Scooby Doo and the Samauri Sword (I read) until it was time to go to Grandma's house. Three hours later, we are home doing a quick house cleaning. . . what? Y'all don't do that on Easter? All I can say is Rocky, the guinea pig, appreciated his clean home, plus the parsley and a carrot. More Mario Galaxy, reading, and eating candy. Hubster wanted pizza for dinner. Well, it was too late for me to make dough, so we called a couple of pizza places. No one answered. Uh, duh, Easter. Yeah, we were still on our sugar high and weren't thinking clearly. So he went to the store and bought the ingredients--we ate late as we watched the Amazing Race!

Today, everything is back to 'normal'. Hubster is going to work. Kiddo is going to school. And I get to start of the mountain of laundry. I WILL make time to write today. I've been blowing it off and need to give myself a deadline.

Write on!

Horsin' Around

I woke up in the middle of the night trying to decide what to write about today. I drew a blank. Actually, this is a pretty normal occurrence for me. I think so much stuff is crammed in my noggin that I blow a fuse. Or it could be because I didn't want to figure out how I'm going to get my little gnome, Rory Leafhopper, out of the mouth of Mr. Bickles the witch's cat! But that's my middle grade novel and doesn't belong here.

Anyhoo, I thought about Facebook and my 'friends', and then I thought about one of my friends who refuses to cross over to the dark side. And she took it one more step and became my first follower on this blog! Wow, how cool is that?!

Jody and I go way back. Time, distance, and becoming horseless has taken the toll on our relationship. I thought I'd be better at emailing people, but I've failed in that respect. Jody wrote me a long note after I sent her the Facebook invite, and I started writing an answer. . . wait, that's a lie. I thought about writing her an answer, but got bogged down in other miscellaneous crap. Your note is still in my inbox, taunting me everytime I open my email. I WILL get to it, Jody! Though it will have to wait until after this Easter weekend.

So, instead of an email--this blog is for you, Jody!

We met when we stabled our horses at a local barn, KJM Stables--best place to kill some time! Jody is the perfect Hunter rider. She has long arms, long legs and a shortish torso. This translates into a beautiful picture on the back of our equine friends. She's a beautiful rider with a wickedly funny sense of humor. She also is a very talented artist, and draws the best cartoon horses EVER! Check out her store here.

She made a shirt for the 1993 Oklahoma Hunter Jumper Association that I wore yesterday over my workout clothes. Yes, I realize that it is currently 2009 and the shirt is 16 years old. But I LOVE it! Washed about a bazillion times, it still has the horsy sweat marks where I was used as a rubbing post!

It has the picture of a schooling ring on the back. And I really can't describe the pictures, but it depicts the chaos of schooling your horse before a horse show. If you can survive the schooling ring, then jumping eight fences with no one in your way is a piece of cake!

So if you love horses or know someone who loves horses hop on over to Jody's website, Misfit Designs. I know you'll find something!

I miss owning/riding a horse and would love to have another one. You know, I never did clean my tack as I kept hoping that I'll use it again soon. It's been five years now, I think it's time I clean my tack and properly store it.

Bummer.

I've Succumbed to the Time Suck

of Facebook. I'm still trying to figure out how to upload my contacts list so I can 'friend' people. No, I don't plan to indiscriminately send emails to God and everyone on my list, but I do want to set up some sort of list that has meaning to me.

I decided to join Facebook for two reason: networking and family.

Networking: I want to have another form of contact with writer friends. And when I was requested to friend two of my old chapters mates (a RWA chapter I didn't rejoin this year), I thought this might be a good way to keep in touch since I'm no longer on their yahoo loop. Plus meeting new writer friends or old high school classmates does have its draws. But I hate to say it, just because there's a reason I haven't kept in touch with my old HS classmates, it doesn't mean I'm not curious as to what happened to some of them.

Family: I was talking to my SIL on the phone last Friday, when her daughter came home and checked her Facebook account. It turns out another niece had been in D.C. for a conference and was in a train wreck--not injured. I found out about this quicker than the tried and true method of . . . Grandma. My mother (87) is the glue that keeps this family together. Nine of us kids are spread across the US with one in Japan, and of course, we are wrapped up in our own lives so we don't communicate as often as we should. I have their email accounts, but the last time I emailed the group was when Mom had a heart attack a couple of years ago. I do realize that I'll probably only have contact with the younger members of the family, but I think we should all keep in touch one way or another.

Today, I'll try to figure out how to 'friend' people, but I really need to get moving on finishing my picture book and editing my middle grade novel. There's no timeline on the PB, but the Delacorte Yearling contest deadline is looming at the end of June, and the kiddo is out of school at the end of May and there goes my window of opportunity!

Write on!

I have a Cussin' Kid

Yeah, this isn't something I'm proud of to say the least. It started off with a word every now and then, but last week it escalated.

Her cuss words of choice are 'Oh my God', which taking God's name in vain is a cardinal sin, and 'damn', which she uses to describe an object. When I explained that using damn as an adjective is inappropriate, she asked what an adjective was.

*sigh* When do they teach proper grammar nowadays?

So, hubster and I are nipping this in the bud. When she uses a cuss word, she loses TV for the rest of the day. If it is late in the day when she cusses, she loses TV privileges for the next day. This includes Nintendo DS, Wii, and the computer, anything electronic. She lost TV for Saturday AND Sunday. And no, we aren't punishing ourselves, we make the child go to her room if we want to watch something.

I also told her not to hang around any kids who cuss, because then it will be harder to break the habit. I know hubster and I do use cuss words. Hubster is worse than I am, and we will have to catch ourselves before we say the bad words. So this is good practice for us, too.

Anyway, one good thing HAS come out of her punishment--she's started reading again. Over the last two days, she finished Judy Moody and started a Junie B she got for Christmas. So I'm pretty happy with that outcome.

Write on!

Addendum: Child fessed up that a friend at school is the bad influence. Hate to say it, but I suspected this child was the problem.

Edits Finished, Doubts Setting In

I think today's blog title explains it all.
When do you know you've edited enough to improve your manuscript?
Right now, I think I'm simply moving the words around and making more of a mess than I had when I started. The one saving grace is that this is a three page manuscript and not my 400 page TNR fantasy. Come to think of it, I know I could easily cut 20K from the fantasy, but a 500 word story is tough!
After I deconstructed a few picture book/easy reader stories (typed into computer, printed and sliced and diced), I thought I was ready to tackle the editor's comments. Most of them are easy fixes: resolution comes to quickly, the fly character is acting too human, etc. See? Easy to fix.
But then comes the biggie: Story structure/pacing
Talk about having me bumfuzzled. In a 90-100K romance novel you have some wiggle room. Usually you have some sexual tension to build to the first kiss, which could be anywhere from the first few pages to the middle of the book.
Children's books have to follow strict guideline. There aren't 100 pages to muck about in building the tension, you have roughly 30 pages, or 500 words from intro of characters to build conflict to the climax and then resolution.
I think I managed it. But how do I really know? Yes, I could start mass querying, but I'd rather go into that will my guns loaded and blazing away. I HAVE to be ahead of the other 99% of the people in the slush pile.
Rejections don't scare me, trust me, I have enough from my romances to paper a wall. You learn to ignore most of them and move on.
Rejections without a reason scare me. I can't fix what I don't know is wrong. And yes, some of it will simply be subjective opinion--that's the nature of the biz. But again, I'd rather have as perfect of a manuscript as possible because I have seven other related stories I'd like to sell as a series.
I have to admit that I'm far more passionate about my Peter stories than I ever was with my romances. I'm hoping that passion shines through.
Write on!

Best Money Spent!

When I signed up for the SCBWI conference I also sent in my picture book manuscript. The opportunity to be critiqued by one of the editors or agent was too good of a deal to miss. For $30 I received a page of comments, plus the editor edited my manuscript. True, my manuscript was only three pages, but what I got in return was gold.

All I have to say is if you have an opportunity to have someone in the biz look at your stuff--DO IT! Pay the price, it's worth it!

I've always complained that it's hard to know if you are heading in the right direction with your writing. So, in the romance world, many of us enter contests. The problem with contests is the judges have to follow the score sheet and if someone doesn't like your work you may or may not get appropriate feedback. Then your thoughts are still tainted with the idea that this isn't an industry pro, but simply another writer--and the odds were against you that the writer was even published. All you get for your $30 (average contest fee) are opinions from two or three judges. AND if you are so lucky to final and have your manuscript placed in front of an industry pro, you get ranked. Many times you don't even get any comments.

Back to square one.

What I got for my $30 was a crit by Abigail Samoun of Tricycle Press. This used to be an indy publisher, but was recently purchased by Crown of Random House. Instead of two seasons, they will be expanding into three seasons, which means they will be buying more authors. YAY!

My story could work except I needed to follow the structure for a picture book. This structure is very rigid, since there are only 32 pages to tell the story. It must have an intro, body of the story with ascending conflict, and resolution. Sound familiar? It is the same for almost any book except for the shorter format. She also gave me insights into where I failed in the writing of the piece--the out of character moments for my fly.

But the one gem for my $30 is that I now know what I have to do to make this story salable.

Will I sell it?

The odds are just as bad as it is for other books. Out of 7,500 queries she received last year, she bought three. Do the math. Not great odds.

BUT I have one thing in my arsenal that I didn't have before. I have direction. I have a plan.

And I must confess it is easier to self-edit a three page picture book than a 100,000 page novel.
So, this week, I'm deconstructing three picture books. Typing them out and marking the pages and where they chop the sentences for the format. Observing sentence structure, vocabulary, and subtext.

Then I will do it to my own story. Edit, tweak, edit, tweak, and then start the query process.

So was Ms. Samoun's input valuable? You bet it was! And I'd take another opportunity to do it again in a heartbeat!

Write on!