Progress

I has it! Too much LOLCats. I've made some good progress over the last few weeks and hope to make more tomorrow. I've decided to do NaNo with a Silhouette Desire I plotted out for a class I was taking. But I'm going to keep going on Forsaken as well, which may get complicated. Category romance has a certain voice and the characters won't be in life threatening situations, the emotions will be stronger and the drama will be full force. Now, what a minute, emotions are strong in both stories. Hmmm. Well, they are different. One's about an accountant **grin** and her boss and the other's about Fallen angels and a daemon hunter. Desires are supposed to be between 50-55k according Harlequin's submission guidelines. So here's hoping. I'm using Forsaken as a treat as long as I have my word count caught up for the Desire. Okay, back to work.

Blogs I Visited Today

http://www.routinesforwriters.com/2008/10/21/nanowrimo-building-an-outline-karen-wiesner/ - linked from my Endurance Writing group - on outlining for NaNo

http://www.knightagency.blogspot.com/

http://varkat.livejournal.com/ - Article by Marjorie M. Liu on urban fantasy

http://arcaedia.livejournal.com/ - I swear I started this before I visited her blog.

http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/ - Interesting article about agents and selling

http://raleva31.livejournal.com/ Nothing new

http://theswivet.blogspot.com/ She makes me laugh and I had to follow her link to http://www.darkfantasy.org/fantasy/?p=1018

http://www.pbackwriter.blogspot.com/ - Reviserable - Another John and Marsha installment

http://www.alisonkent.com/blog/ - Still on Hiatus

http://70daysofsweat.com/wordpress/ Nothing new

http://www.amiestuart.com/blog/ - One of my first crit partners

http://www.naughty-and-spice.com/2008/10/21/an-open-letterto-everyone/ - Amie's post at NAS

http://skimdecafmochawithwhip.blogspot.com/ - Damn everyone has new posts. I'm glad to read them, but when it all happens on one day it's a bit much. I'm not blaming you, Kristi, it's just what blog I was on. Kristi's the best. You should read her blog. :)

Last but not least http://bibliothecariusalpha.blogspot.com/ - Merry, I found through NaNo last year when I lived in Sheffield, England. She lives in Derbyshire (darbysure) which I miss immensely.

Fortunately, I've already done 2700 words today, so I don't feel guilty for looking through blogs. Sometimes I go through a few more. Like, all of the ones listed on the side.

FAB Contest Entries Back

Okay, so three judges and drop the lowest score. 97, 96 and 75. From this I know competition was fierce because those are some pretty good scores. The 75 didn't like the story and thought it might work for erotica, which made me laugh. While the story is filled with sexual tension, there is very little sex. I did try to downplay the first scene which has the heroine making moves on someone that creeps her out. I tried to inject it with this guy is creepy and I'm only doing this to capture him. While it works for some, it didn't for this judge. She made comments on the judging score sheet and was very thorough as to why she marked me down. I know how hard it is to judge a contest and trying to be objective while you really aren't into the story.

Regardless, I did well with two judges and am thrilled to bits. I just hope agents like my writing as well as they did. Everyone's comments are important and I'll be looking at the first chapter with critical eyes particularly the 75 judge's eyes. I'm a bit of a comma less person, which got me docked. Commas are wonderful things, really. I just don't use them as often as I should. Fortunately, I've got a crit partner who is the comma police. Wow, I can't wait to find out what the other people scored. They are sending out a matrix at the end of November.

Need to Know More About An Agency

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=151221&postcount=2

http://www.agentquery.com/

I'll post about the agencies I've researched too. But these are a couple of good starting points. If you are a member of RWA, they have a listing of agents and what they are looking for as well.

Man, How Depressing

I need to change my music for Forsaken. I just want to cry while I listen to it and we're past that point in the book. Besides that I did excellent yesterday (today). Over 2000 new words, and we're moving forward. I've got two characters who are attracted and won't act on that attraction, so I have to keep pushing and pushing until they are at their wits end. Then I throw a curve ball and the sh*t hits the fan. All bets are off and things get very interesting for all parties involved. And that's only a small curve ball, because when the bowling ball gets thrown at their heads, then things will get nasty fast. I know my character will have to sacrifice something, I just don't know what yet. Ah, the cryptic notes of the writer.

Forsaken

New words: 2,205
Total words: 13,686
Kaitlin: tempted, but not fallen
Caleb: Training
Eli: Watching
What stage of grief we are in: Heading toward Anger
Random sampling of text: “Seriously, am I a hunter or a stripper? Because I can’t wear those . . . those clothes in that closet. I don’t remember who I’ve been for the past few years, but I know I don’t wear that type of stuff.” Her nose wrinkled in distaste.

First Form Rejection

Now I'm truly an author. :)

Awww.

The results were posted for FAB and I wasn't on them. I'm still waiting to get my scores back and the comments, which I love about contests. Not the waiting, the actual comments. I started back to working on Forsaken yesterday and this morning. It's sprinting day, so I'll be writing all morning until the rugrats come home early from school. I'll have to think of a way to distract them so I can get some more writing done. I'm putting the queries out of my mind for the time being since most sites say 2-4 weeks. I need to dig out the story I was thinking of doing for NaNo and make sure I'm still vested in it. Hmmm. What else? What else? I'm working on crits for my critique partners. Writing my book. Researching the industry. I think that about takes care of it.

Here's a list of agents I've researched so far along with their websites. I have not queried all these agents and don't plan to query some of them, but I'm not telling you which ones. :)

For information regarding agencies from clients and people who have submitted go to Absolute Write. There's a treasure trove of info on that site, but as with any site, take it with a grain of salt. To be honest, I've liked most of the agent websites I found. I narrowed my search by whether they were looking for paranormal (which of course is me) and what type of feel I got for the person. Yeah, yeah, I went with the warm fuzzy feelings.

The Knight Agency, Inc. - I've followed their blog for a while now. If you do a search for Thursday Q&A, Elaine Spencer used to answer five questions every Thursday. There's some really good information in there.

3 Seas Literary Agency - You have to dig a little since she doesn't have a blog, but if you google Michelle Grajkowski, you'll find some guest blogging she's done.

BookEnds, LLC - Not only do they rep Angie Fox (who I actually know from RWA), but they maintain a blog as well. Tons of useful information.

Bradford Literary Agency - Her website is very informative. She takes email queries, but I'm guessing she prefers snail mail ones from her site (she lets you send more snail mail than email).

FinePrint Literary Management - Colleen Lindsay has a blog and what can I say she has a cat who has a wubby. She has hilarious political satire links. Oh, and she references "Holy Grail" in her submission guidelines.

Donald Maass Literary Agency - I've read his books and read Jennifer Jackson's blog. I'd write more, but...

If I don't get back to writing on my novel, the kids will be home before I know it. So I'll continue this post another time.