Writers Conference in Bozeman, MT

Wow, there's going to be a local writers conference –– right here in Bozeman.

Don't have to climb aboard a plane for this one, and I'm STOKED about that.

Unfortunately, there won't be any agents or editors at this conference, but there will be some published writers.  I'm looking forward to hearing some success stories, that's for sure!

Here's the panel:

Leslie Budewitz
Lise McClendon
L.J. Martin
B.J. Daniels
Lynn Kinnaman
Kat Martin  (a NYTimes bestselling author with 65 novels to her credit – Impressive!)

Spinning My Wheels

Trying to edit my WIP and getting distracted by texts, phone calls, and helping out my hubby with things around the house.  When I get back to my project, I just can't think. I don't feel creative and I'm getting nowhere today.

Maybe I can surf the Internet and find a GIF to describe how I feel today... brb.

Now I'm gonna go get some chocolate for inspiration (instant gratification).

Animating Your Blog Posts: Joe's Take on GIFs

Do you find yourself blog-surfing and wondering how fellow bloggers are adding animated images to posts their posts? Fortunately, a degree in web-design is not required, and it turns out to be fairly simple if you use GIFs. And no, I'm not talking about peanut butter.

A GIF is the modern-day equivalent of those flip books we made from the corners of our notebooks to avoid falling asleep in class. It is a computer file that is essentially treated as an image. The only difference is that the image is actually a composite of images that are displayed in sequence for various periods of time, and typically repeated over and over again.

For those who want to get technical, GIF stands for Graphic Interchange Format, and it is a bitmap image format.  (Please refer to the wiki for more information about GIFs.) 

GIFs are all over the Internet. You can also make them yourself using photo editing software. So, once you find a GIF you want to use on your blog, how do you do it? There're basically two ways to display GIFs on your blog:

1.  Upload that just as an image to your blog (you must have the file on your computer).

2.  Embed the GIF in your blog from another website (you must have a direct link to the GIF through the Internet).

Suppose you have a blog on Blogger.com and want to add a GIF to a post. Below are instructions for the two methods described above.

Displaying GIF by inserting it as an image to your blog:

1.  Open up blog post for editing.

2.  Click the "insert image" icon from the toolbar. 

3.  Select "upload" from the column on the left of the pop-up window.

4.  Click "open" and wait for the GIF to upload. 

5.  Select the GIF in the selection section.

6.  Click the "add selected" button and... voila! 

GIF Displayed as an Inserted Image



Display GIF by embedding it in your blog from another webpage: 

1. Open a blog post for editing.
2. Find and Copy the URL that links directly to the GIF (example: http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view5/4316781/damn-o.gif)
1. Locate the desired GIF on the webpage.
2. Right click on the GIF to see the menu option for your browser.
3. Locate and copy the GIF image URL.
1. The goal is to locate the URL that ends with the filename and a ".gif" filename extenstion.
2. You may be able to view this by clicking properties or by opening the image in a new tab, or maybe even a menu option to copy image URL.
3. Click the "Insert image" icon from the toolbar.
4. Select "From a URL" from the column on the left of the pop-up window.
5. Past the GIF image URL and wait for the GIF to load.
6. Click the "Add selected" button and voilà!

GIF Displayed as an Embedded Image

I'm Here, I'm Here! Aloha Maui!

Attending my first writers conference today and don't know what to expect.  I've attended many software conferences in the past, but I mainly participated in the exhibit hall as a vendor.

Two speakers I'm looking forward to hearing from is Kaui Hart Hemmings, author of The Descendants, and author Rebecca Walker (I'm only familiar with her name by the fact that her mother wrote The Color Purple).

Let's get this party started!

After the welcoming performance, we all grabbed a bite to eat out in the lobby.  I decided to put my big-girl pants on by walking up to a group of strangers (fellow writers) to start a conversation.  As our group talked, another woman approached our table and joined in on the convo.  She and I struck up our own conversation and I immediately liked her. She's the kind of person you want to hang out with at a convention when you don't know a soul!  She must've made a great first impression on others too, because everyone wanted in on the conversation. Hmm.

Then other writers from other tables began to swarm in to talk to the "new girl," interrupting our conversation. One woman asked to shake her hand. Okay, what's up with this?  When someone asked what current project was, reality began to sink in.  I remembered the photo from the conference brochure:

Oh geez, I didn't recognize her face.  #ImDumb

I had the privilege of hanging out with Kaui Hart Hemmings.  Made my trip!!!

#Awesome

 

P.S.  Buy her books, cuz she's a dang-good writer.

Writers Conference –– Aloha!

Heading to Maui today to attend the Aloha Writers Conference.  Looking forward to attending my first conference, but first things first... I gotta get on the plane.  

oy

I'll catch up with you later... I hope. 

"Darke Magic," & Dark Hopes for Attracting Agents

Time to change gears –– and try a new genre...

My attempt to join the popular masses in the YA (young adult) genre is chugging along (as my former critique partner "crossing over to the dark side").

This time, I've decided to change my style of writing as well and use a structured outline.

Yet I constantly find myself slipping back into old habits, where I go off on a conversational scene inside my head and regurgitate it onto the computer screen, willy-nilly, out of sequence.

Must-stick-to-outline

And speaking of outlines, I don't even have one yet. Hah.

It's funny, it seems I've spent so much time on this project already and I'm only at 5,000 words!

Only 70,000 words more to go...  egads.

"Waiting For Someday"... and Still Waiting

My latest project is about a 38-year-old woman who has been diagnosed with a terminal disease.  A real feel-good novel, ya know?

The premise was based upon my own childhood friendship. We lived in the same apartment building from age 10 to 16. Then my BFF did something CRAY-CRAY:  she got married at age 16.

Lots of real-life situations in this project  –– especially regarding estrangement (my friend and I went separate ways (only to reconnect 20 years later). 

Querying this project has not been as successful as I'd hoped.  I believe the subject matter is a "Debbie-downer" for a lot of people.  There's a silver lining at the end of this story, but getting a full request from an agent hasn't been easy.  Only two full requests and one partial request thus far (which have all crashed and burned).

During this process, I met a someone online through the QueryTracker.net forum who also writes women's fiction. Okay, and this is weird: we share the SAME birthday.  *cue Twilight Zone music* She has a query that rocks and has had multiple full requests for her project.  Just based on her query alone, I would buy the book if I saw it in a store, so she has a lot going for her.
Recently, we decided to read and critique each other's projects. 


*************
STOP.

We interrupt this program to announce that critiquing her novel is no longer necessary.  She has been offered representation by a New York agent. 

We now return to a jaded view of publishing, already in progress...
*************


Yay for my critiquing partner (seriously, way to go Susan Gloss)!   *WhiteGardenia sniffs, feeling uber sorry for herself*

I will continue to query this project, but in the mean time, on to the next idea.

"LOW Profiles," HIGH Word Count

Another project in my head: "Low Profiles," a suspense/thriller. Low Profiles was an attempt at writing a story completely from imagination and not based on personal experiences. I had no idea about serial murderers, organized crime, nor the FBI, but research on these subjects helped me to shape my idea into a story.

It wasn't until after I finished my first draft that I discovered that my word count was almost 150,000! WAY too long for a never-before-published novelist.

I was able to trim it down to 135,000 words and decided to start my journey into publication. Time to learn the ropes.

Now, to find an agent...

I put together a "query letter." I had no idea what that was until I started reading the Internet for pointers on getting published. After composing the letter (which would ultimately be changed 8 times during the evolution of submitting to agents), I found a wonderful website that specializes on tracking submissions to agents all over the U.S. (and beyond), QueryTracker.net. I researched 20 agents who represented the suspense/thriller genre and snail-mailed my query to them.

After a week, a few rejection letters reached my mailbox. I realized this wasn't going to be a slam dunk.

Two days later, I received an email, requesting my full manuscript.

WHAAAAAAT?

Oh my God, an agent wants to read MY manuscript? I was stoked. The agent interested in Low Profiles wanted an exclusive read for 30 days. Okay. I sent it off to the agent.

Geez, what if I get another request within the exclusive 30-day period?

Pfft. Didn't happen. I waited a month, then another 2 weeks before contacting the agent with my full manuscript. I didn't want to sound anxious--or even worse, pushy--but I was curious to know what he thought since the 30-day period had expired and then some. The agent replied to my email: he couldn't open the Word doc file I'd sent to him... He asked for a .pdf version.

After waiting another 30 days with no response, doubt crept in. If he liked it, wouldn't he have contacted me by now? Was it too long? Was it boring? Was it crap?

I sent an email to the agent. No response. I sent another email a few days after that. No response. Then I sent an email to the agent's assistant. No response. Huh? What the heck? I asked around on a few forums if anyone knew what was going on with that agency. No one knew. I had all but given up hope.

If I can't get an agent to return my emails, how will our relationship be once I sign a contract with that agent?

Now that my feet were wet, I moved on to a new project. Low Profiles will have to sit for a while.

"Until It's Gone" is well...Gone (for now)

Although I have been writing for many years, it was only a few months ago that I got the "courage" to pursue publication.  Thoughts such as "Do I have a good plot?" and "Is my novel really good enough to be published?" crossed my mind, but I was up to the challenge. 

My writing style seems to be that of imagining scenes and conversations in my head, copying down the ideas on paper (on some occasions, spiral notebooks while I drown myself in coffee at a local cafe) or on my laptop, then piecing everything together.  There was no real structure, no outline.  I guess you could say I was writing off the cuff and I was quite disorganized!

It was time to put the puzzle together and fill in the missing pieces to the story. 

One such project-in-my-head, "Until It's Gone," began as a cathartic endeavor. But as the story progressed, I wondered if could indeed complete a novel, start to finish.  The story was a reflection of one woman's fear of losing her husband to a younger woman.  A lot of personal experience helped me along in the set up, with a worst-case scenario turn of events that evolved from my imagination (simply because my husband had not left me for a younger woman!). 

After I finished the first draft, it felt good.  I stood tall, as if atop Mount Everest, beating my chest:  "Me-Write-Novel."  Okay, so I'm no Stephen King or Nicholas Sparks by any means, but I achieved my goal. And writing a complete novel is quite a feat (try it if you dare, and you'll see what I mean).

I had no real idea of manuscript formatting, and I remember numerous trips to Barnes and Noble in the publishing section, taking down notes from many "how to" books.  Double space, New Times Roman, 12-pt type, 1-inch margins, etc.

Okay, I could do this.

I had originally typed each chapter of my novel as a separate document in MS Word and I had to print everything out and piece the manuscript together in a fatty 3-ring binder just for a beta reader (who preferred reading on paper rather than electronic means.  The print-out was a beast.  After two beta readers' comments/suggestions/criticisms, I moved on to a new, upbeat project.  Until It's Gone was put into a deep sleep... 

Contest Time!

Contest time!



Check this out...:


http://we-do-write.blogspot.de/2012/05/three-two-one-pitch-contest.html


...and wish me luck!

Writing Contest 2012

Awesome writing contest coming up on June 7th.  Check it out:


http://we-do-write.blogspot.de/2012/05/three-two-one-pitch-contest.html

Are Blogs a Form of Narcissism?

I've often wondered if blogs are an expression of self-love, a means of speaking your mind and then relishing your own words.

Perhaps if we offer some words of wisdom, some tidbit of useful information for others, that may combat the narcissistic label?

Hmm...

Let me start by offering some words of wisdom so I may relieve my burden of sounding narcissistic.

A quote:

"

"Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money." ~ Jules Renard


Okay, now I feel better.  I am cleansed, guilt free, ready to blog.