Well, yesterday really, but the win continues!
So yesterday I got a call from my wonderful agent, Matt Bialer, and his wonderful assistant, Lindsay Ribar, *waves to Lindsay, and mad props* with wonderful news! There had been an offer on my book!
And not just any offer... a REALLY GOOD offer. Orbit, the UK based SciFi and Fantasy house, had come through with a 3 book deal and a larger number than anyone (or at least I) expected.
A 3 BOOK DEAL, GUYS! With enough money behind it where I could quit my day job!
I made it, I did it, I'm now a real writer by anyone's estimation. Life long dream achieved!
It wasn't quite as HOLY SHIT exciting as the day I got my agent, because that was a call out of the blue I was much more obsessed about it. This was also unexpected, but I don't think anything could beat the sheer joy of agent day (I also don't think it's physically possible for me to be that excited ever again).
But best of all, I get to keep writing my favorite books ever. I am the president of planet win!
What makes me doubly happy about all of this was I did it the normal way. I didn't have any ins in publishing, I don't live in New York, I've never been to a conference or pitched my book. I just wrote something, then despaired over it, then wrote it again. Then queried, waited, got rejections, queried again, waited, got rejections, (etc. etc.) until one day I got a response, then I rewrote it AGAIN (with very helpful input), and then waited some more, and then, everything happened.
There was no magic bullet, no secret society. Just me, my novel, and the faith that I could do it if I just tried. I'm sure I'm not done getting rejected, and I'm definitely sure I'm not done angsting about it, but yesterday I made it, and, as the unicorn said, no sorrow will live in me so long as that joy.
Thank you Lindsay, thank you Matt, thank you Travis and Matt and Krystina and Mom and Dad and Cindy and everyone for everything big and small. I'm so happy I could pop!
But I can't pop now, I have to go get started on Eli 2! :D
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
killing time
Still no bites on my novel from editors. Of course, there are millions of reasons for this - they're busy, only a few have actually said no, the economy isn't the greatest for taking new business ventures, etc. But the pessimist in me wonders... maybe I'm just writing books that can't sell?
I think this year's long line of false starts have taught me that I can only actually write one kind of book - light, adventure fantasy/comedy, which I keep hearing doesn't sell.
Of course, all of this is horribly negative. My new book (which I need to update the side bar for) is going to be AWESOME. It's hilarious in my favorite kind of way, very tongue in cheek, fantasy meta humor. It's actually fun to write, and I'm having a great time...
But I also dread that it won't sell. Ever. Still, you do what you have to do, and for me, that seems to be sticking to my roots.
I just hope someone reads it someday!
I think this year's long line of false starts have taught me that I can only actually write one kind of book - light, adventure fantasy/comedy, which I keep hearing doesn't sell.
Of course, all of this is horribly negative. My new book (which I need to update the side bar for) is going to be AWESOME. It's hilarious in my favorite kind of way, very tongue in cheek, fantasy meta humor. It's actually fun to write, and I'm having a great time...
But I also dread that it won't sell. Ever. Still, you do what you have to do, and for me, that seems to be sticking to my roots.
I just hope someone reads it someday!
Monday, November 3, 2008
stabstabstab
Deep down inside (ok, maybe not so deep), I have a pretentious streak a mile wide. I was an English Major! I can't help it!
I've spent the past year trying to write a serious novel. Eli (novel 1) is light fantasy with comedy elements. There's a serious plot, but it's overshadowed by my funny guy, Eli. But I've always wanted to write Serious Fantasy(tm)... trouble is, I don't seem to be very good at it. If you took all the unfinished novels I've started this year, you'd have almost 200k, not to mention the piles and piles of world building notebooks lying all over my home office. But finally, I think I'm beginning to get what my subconscious (and the evidence) has been telling me all along. I may have great ideas for serious fantasy, but I'm really lousy at writing them. I just can't get into the story.
So I'm going to just stop trying for a bit. Head back to my roots.
I think I'm going to write something funny. Even if it flops, well, at least I'll be writing. At this point, I'll take what I can get.
I've spent the past year trying to write a serious novel. Eli (novel 1) is light fantasy with comedy elements. There's a serious plot, but it's overshadowed by my funny guy, Eli. But I've always wanted to write Serious Fantasy(tm)... trouble is, I don't seem to be very good at it. If you took all the unfinished novels I've started this year, you'd have almost 200k, not to mention the piles and piles of world building notebooks lying all over my home office. But finally, I think I'm beginning to get what my subconscious (and the evidence) has been telling me all along. I may have great ideas for serious fantasy, but I'm really lousy at writing them. I just can't get into the story.
So I'm going to just stop trying for a bit. Head back to my roots.
I think I'm going to write something funny. Even if it flops, well, at least I'll be writing. At this point, I'll take what I can get.
Monday, October 27, 2008
plots, ponderings, and NaNoWriMo
Due to many factors (my novel not selling, work being crazy, Warcraft being fun) which wouldn't matter if I was truly as HARDKOR about writing as I like to think I am, not much creative scribling has been going on. However, I have been very slowly and steadily building up notes and characters for a story I've been on-off working on for years. And as the timing works out, I am coming up on the end of my planning just in time for NaNoWriMo.
My relationship with the program is cold at best. I've always thought it was fairly silly. If you want to write a novel, there's nothing and no one to stop you except yourself. Writing is the most self sufficient art. It requires nothing except something to write on, regularly applied time, and the ability to push yourself forward once the 10% inspiration has bitten the dust and you're in the long, dry valley of the 90% perspiration. There is nothing more heart breaking or depressing than being 20,000 words into a novel and realizing that it's broken. It's dead and stupid and you can't fix it. Sometimes I make it over this hurdle, and those are the novels I finish. Sometimes I don't, and those are the novels that fall by the wayside while I move on to greener, less retarded pastures.
Everyone's path to storytelling is different, but for me, it is the ability to jump this hurdle, not word count or getting to the end, that makes me a novelist. An ability, I might add, that has been failing me of late.
NaNoWriMo takes the mack truck approach. Make your numbers, get it done. And it's true, if you sit down and make yourself write 1800 words a day (which I think is a ludicrous number. On my best days, when I'm going full steam, I get 2000 words in 2 and a half hours. Most days I'm happy if I get 1k in the same amount of time. I know I'm not the fastest writer, but if I made it my goal to get 1800 words a day, I'd have to spend 5 hours writing on average. My creative brain doesn't function that long.)
But NaNoWriMo, while an interesting tool, and I must admit a good get-up-and-go for getting people who've always wanted to write a novel to actually sit down and experience the day to day slog (because believe me, it's not roses and princes every day. Most days it's staring at the miles of empty white screen and trying not to panic), but in terms of helping people tell a story, it's a wobbly crutch at best, more likely to burn out potential novelists than create them.
If you're going to write a book, it isn't about the numbers, or how fast you go. It's about having a story strong enough to plow through the chasm of despair that you know is waiting for you somewhere in the middle. It's having characters who are strong enough to stand up and pull you out when you get stuck. If you can grasp those things, then the numbers will come by themselves so long as you take the time to write every day.
This is what I have learned through two novels. I hope it helps someone.
Now, back to the book.
My relationship with the program is cold at best. I've always thought it was fairly silly. If you want to write a novel, there's nothing and no one to stop you except yourself. Writing is the most self sufficient art. It requires nothing except something to write on, regularly applied time, and the ability to push yourself forward once the 10% inspiration has bitten the dust and you're in the long, dry valley of the 90% perspiration. There is nothing more heart breaking or depressing than being 20,000 words into a novel and realizing that it's broken. It's dead and stupid and you can't fix it. Sometimes I make it over this hurdle, and those are the novels I finish. Sometimes I don't, and those are the novels that fall by the wayside while I move on to greener, less retarded pastures.
Everyone's path to storytelling is different, but for me, it is the ability to jump this hurdle, not word count or getting to the end, that makes me a novelist. An ability, I might add, that has been failing me of late.
NaNoWriMo takes the mack truck approach. Make your numbers, get it done. And it's true, if you sit down and make yourself write 1800 words a day (which I think is a ludicrous number. On my best days, when I'm going full steam, I get 2000 words in 2 and a half hours. Most days I'm happy if I get 1k in the same amount of time. I know I'm not the fastest writer, but if I made it my goal to get 1800 words a day, I'd have to spend 5 hours writing on average. My creative brain doesn't function that long.)
But NaNoWriMo, while an interesting tool, and I must admit a good get-up-and-go for getting people who've always wanted to write a novel to actually sit down and experience the day to day slog (because believe me, it's not roses and princes every day. Most days it's staring at the miles of empty white screen and trying not to panic), but in terms of helping people tell a story, it's a wobbly crutch at best, more likely to burn out potential novelists than create them.
If you're going to write a book, it isn't about the numbers, or how fast you go. It's about having a story strong enough to plow through the chasm of despair that you know is waiting for you somewhere in the middle. It's having characters who are strong enough to stand up and pull you out when you get stuck. If you can grasp those things, then the numbers will come by themselves so long as you take the time to write every day.
This is what I have learned through two novels. I hope it helps someone.
Now, back to the book.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
long time, no ramble
Hello all, I'm back and going to be trying to update this blog more frequently. For anyone who was wondering, yes, I've got my agent. Matt Bialer at SJGA. His wonderful assistant Lindsay scooped me out of the slush pile, which just goes to show it's all true: you don't need to know anyone to get an agent, you just need a book that can get their attention.
My book (which duh, I've never actually named on this blog), The Spirit Thief, is an adventure fantasy about a wizard thief who can sweet talk anything, the wizard cop on his trail, and the kingdom teetering on the edge of destruction because he can't keep his hands to himself. Right now it's sitting in an ever growing number of editor inboxes, and I'm trying to write a new book (trying is the operative word in that sentence).
I was moping over my foibles with book 3 when my husband quoted me something interesting off his blog-reader, "Story is the study of relationships over time." This goes along with the realization Sarah Monette gave me years ago, that story is different from plot.
I've always been an exceedingly plot driven writer. Plot and world always come first, then characters. How interesting, then, that the novel that actually won my agent started with the characters, or, more specifically, one character, Eli.
Eli is the main character of the Spirit Thief. There are many other characters in the book, some of whom I love so dearly, but it was always Eli's show (I only actually made up the title during the second draft, before that it was just "the Eli Novel.")
I don't have an Eli for my next novel, and it shows. In the Spirit Thief, I barely scratched the surface of real story telling, where the characters stop being plot devices and stand up to speak for themselves. If I'm going to make this happen again, I have to start with characters, because the characters are the story, not the world, not the plot. Plot without story is a hollow shell, and story is characters reacting with themselves and each other.
This is my discovery. Like so many other truths of writing, millions of writers have discovered it before me, but that means nothing. True understanding could only be gained by discovering it for myself.
Maybe now I can really start writing.
My book (which duh, I've never actually named on this blog), The Spirit Thief, is an adventure fantasy about a wizard thief who can sweet talk anything, the wizard cop on his trail, and the kingdom teetering on the edge of destruction because he can't keep his hands to himself. Right now it's sitting in an ever growing number of editor inboxes, and I'm trying to write a new book (trying is the operative word in that sentence).
I was moping over my foibles with book 3 when my husband quoted me something interesting off his blog-reader, "Story is the study of relationships over time." This goes along with the realization Sarah Monette gave me years ago, that story is different from plot.
I've always been an exceedingly plot driven writer. Plot and world always come first, then characters. How interesting, then, that the novel that actually won my agent started with the characters, or, more specifically, one character, Eli.
Eli is the main character of the Spirit Thief. There are many other characters in the book, some of whom I love so dearly, but it was always Eli's show (I only actually made up the title during the second draft, before that it was just "the Eli Novel.")
I don't have an Eli for my next novel, and it shows. In the Spirit Thief, I barely scratched the surface of real story telling, where the characters stop being plot devices and stand up to speak for themselves. If I'm going to make this happen again, I have to start with characters, because the characters are the story, not the world, not the plot. Plot without story is a hollow shell, and story is characters reacting with themselves and each other.
This is my discovery. Like so many other truths of writing, millions of writers have discovered it before me, but that means nothing. True understanding could only be gained by discovering it for myself.
Maybe now I can really start writing.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Can't say too much yet, BUT...
Today I got the call. THE CALL.
I am now agented, and I could NOT be happier!
Hard work, it pays off!
:D
-Rachel
I am now agented, and I could NOT be happier!
Hard work, it pays off!
:D
-Rachel
Friday, June 20, 2008
Only I could turn good news into writer's block :P
So I've got a very good thing going for Novel 2, yay!! However, the prospect of maybe MAYBE actually getting an agent and selling the book is deep sixing my work on my current project. Because who knows? Maybe I'll have to drop it and work on edits/the sequel for book 2?!?!
Hahahaha.... right.
But the nagging thought it making it very hard to focus on the 2 novels I'm writing right now (yes, 2, because I suck and can't focus on one for whatever reason). Writing two novels has had unexpected benefits, however. Even on my worst writing days (like today) I can still find at least 200 words I want to say for one of them, and 200 words are better than no words at all.
Gotta get my pigs in a pile and keep going. I'm bogging down!
Hahahaha.... right.
But the nagging thought it making it very hard to focus on the 2 novels I'm writing right now (yes, 2, because I suck and can't focus on one for whatever reason). Writing two novels has had unexpected benefits, however. Even on my worst writing days (like today) I can still find at least 200 words I want to say for one of them, and 200 words are better than no words at all.
Gotta get my pigs in a pile and keep going. I'm bogging down!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Things that drag me away
Novel 2 Update: No word on fulls, siiigh.
Gentle reader, please forgive this self-absorbed, rambling entry.
I've always had jobs that didn't require much from me, stuff where I could chill at work, not think too much, and then come home early or on time and get to writing. That's worked pretty well for the first 4 years out of college, but now I've gotten this new job, a kickass job in an area I really like, but hey, what's all this work I have to do? Now, for the first time, I have to work late to get things done. Real life has been steadily encroaching on writing time for years now (and it's so sad, by the time I get old enough to handle my free time in a disciplined fashion, all my copious free time vanishes!), but with this new job, it's become an all out trench war to protect my few precious hours in the morning when I actually get things done.
It doesn't help that I've been jumping between projects again. Or that I'm actually interested in the work I do, which makes me think about it when I'm NOT at work, hence not supposed to be thinking about it. Even worse, I have to type all day at work, and that's giving me wrist cramps, which hurt the most in the morning when I actually WANT to type! Curse you, traitorous wrists!
I'm really hoping this is just the entry blitz, and that once I get through the massive backlog and learn the enormous mountain of shit I don't know, things will settle down and time will clear up again.
But, in the mean time, argh.
Gentle reader, please forgive this self-absorbed, rambling entry.
I've always had jobs that didn't require much from me, stuff where I could chill at work, not think too much, and then come home early or on time and get to writing. That's worked pretty well for the first 4 years out of college, but now I've gotten this new job, a kickass job in an area I really like, but hey, what's all this work I have to do? Now, for the first time, I have to work late to get things done. Real life has been steadily encroaching on writing time for years now (and it's so sad, by the time I get old enough to handle my free time in a disciplined fashion, all my copious free time vanishes!), but with this new job, it's become an all out trench war to protect my few precious hours in the morning when I actually get things done.
It doesn't help that I've been jumping between projects again. Or that I'm actually interested in the work I do, which makes me think about it when I'm NOT at work, hence not supposed to be thinking about it. Even worse, I have to type all day at work, and that's giving me wrist cramps, which hurt the most in the morning when I actually WANT to type! Curse you, traitorous wrists!
I'm really hoping this is just the entry blitz, and that once I get through the massive backlog and learn the enormous mountain of shit I don't know, things will settle down and time will clear up again.
But, in the mean time, argh.
Friday, May 16, 2008
DONE HAHAHAHA
Done with the rewrite for Novel 2! I'm still not 100% happy, but I'm happy enough to print this sucker and give to my readers for one last go over. Then I'll fix any problems they point out, give it one last (VERY QUICK) look, and send it out.
It's a lot better now. Honestly, even if it never sells, I'm so proud of this book. So proud of all the work I've done. Moments like this make it all worth it!
It's a lot better now. Honestly, even if it never sells, I'm so proud of this book. So proud of all the work I've done. Moments like this make it all worth it!
Monday, May 12, 2008
typity-typity-typity-TYPITY-TYPITY-typity-typity
Despite the lack of updates, the rewrite is going. Very slowly, very badly, but going. The edits have forced me to face some of the major shortfalls of the book, and MAN, was I hoping no one would notice those.
Note to future rewriters: Don't dodge the hard stuff because you think you can cover it with a glossy sheen. If people do like your book, they will make you fix it. You can't shove it in your closet and hope Mom doesn't notice.
Ugh, back to the grind.
Note to future rewriters: Don't dodge the hard stuff because you think you can cover it with a glossy sheen. If people do like your book, they will make you fix it. You can't shove it in your closet and hope Mom doesn't notice.
Ugh, back to the grind.
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