Friday Five continued

1. Yesterday, while out walking, my new character told me her story…well, the beginning anyway. I am in a quandary now though because I don’t want to start messing with a new book if my agent is going to get back to me next week and ask for more...

Missing Miss Snark

Missing Miss Snark!  and her little dog too… It’s been one year since the scintillating Miss Snark hung up her stilettos and got back to the real work at hand…gin and reading thrillers. Thank you Miss Snark for all you taught me (and everyone else)....

Tagged continued…

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. 2. Each player answers the questions about themselves. 3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve...

SPANKING SHAKESPEARE by Jake Wizner

Really, really funny. And touching and all the good stuff. Quirky too. And while I think I now know more about seventeen year old boys’ personal habits than maybe I need to know, it was definitely a great read!

My work here is done (today)

Kim Antieau posted the best writing video I’ve seen, so today, I’m taking the day off and sending you to her site. Don’t miss it! And check out the rest of her site and her books too. She’s a star!

Tagged

I’ve been tagged by Kerry Madden who writes that wonderful series set in the Smoky Mountains (Gentle’s Holler, Louisanna’s Song, Jessie’s Mountain). Visit her here at Kerry Madden. Read my very exciting answers here!

AUSTENLAND by Shannon Hale

The author had me at the dedication. Seriously. And I didn’t look back. I never would’ve found this if someone hadn’t recommended it to me, so I am so grateful. I just wish I could remember who told me to read it! I have narrowed it down to...

A LITTLE FRIENDLY ADVICE by Siobhan Vivian

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, and Lauren Abramo, over at my agency, Dystel and Goderich, just did a terrific post on the topic (scroll down when you get there). I think that it’s impossible not to pick books by their covers, at least...

The magic hat

I have reached my hand into the hat and I am gently pulling it back out. Instead of a rabbit, I have possibly found a new idea for a book . Slowly, slowly, oh-so-slowly, it is revealing itself to me. I have a character, she told me her name as I drifted off to sleep...

JUST LISTEN by Sarah Dessen

I really liked this book, but I think I would’ve liked it even more if I’d read it in a few months or even a year from now. I just finished Dessen’s THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER and the themes are so similar, even though the situations are different,...

What next?

My agent has been busy selling someone else’s book (Go, Michael!), so he hasn’t gotten to my revision yet. It’s only been a bit over a week, so not long at all, and I’m not feeling impatient or anything, just sort of at a loss over what to do...

ANOTHER KIND OF COWBOY by Susan Juby

Okay, can I just say that we have landed in a hotbed of fabulous YA writers? As I’ve bragged before, the fabulous Iain Lawrence lives in my small town. Now I find out that Susan Juby is just a hop, skip, and a jump away, and my friend, Susan (the librarian), met...

Mistik Lake by Martha Brooks

My friend, Susan recommended this book to me. I’m glad she did because I had to put it on hold to get it and I might not have come across it for a while otherwise. You often hear agents or editors say things like, “Vampire books are out, unless you can do...

The time in between…and titles

What do you all do during that time between sending your newly revised manuscript back to your agent and the time he/she reads it and gets back to you? I’ve been knitting, cooking, actually writing for pay (copywriting), walking, listening to baseball games on...

Animal Humour – What’s that in them thar trees?

I often write an animal themed essay for Thursdays. Today, it’s more of a picture thing. I just looked out the window and saw this in one of the fir trees: And for just a momentary mental lapse, I thought I saw this: Our lovely cat, Mr. Fatboy. It would’ve...

Author creativity vs. reader’s annoyance cont.

In the mystery, the main character is a caterer. I actually read #s 12,13, & 14 before I realized that there were a whole bunch of them. Now I’m reading the earlier ones. I believe, and I could be wrong, that in the later ones, the recipes are at the ends of...

Author creativity vs. reader’s annoyance

Out of the last four books I’ve read, make that three, because I only got to page 31 in the fourth, only one was a straight forward novel. The first one was an adult mystery with recipes tucked in throughout the chapters. The second one was a YA with...