Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! :)

A New Book for your 2012 Reading List

It's so exciting when a fellow writer and blogger gets a book deal, and I'm a big fan of Corrine Jackson's blog. So when she invited her followers to help reveal her new book cover and summary, I jumped at the chance. *drumroll please*


Quinn’s done the unthinkable: she kissed a guy who is not Carey, her boyfriend. And she got caught. Being branded a cheater would be bad enough, but Quinn is deemed a traitor, and shunned by all of her friends. Because Carey’s not just any guy—he’s serving in Afghanistan and revered by everyone in their small, military town.

Quinn could clear her name, but that would mean revealing secrets that she’s vowed to keep—secrets that aren’t hers to share. And when Carey goes MIA, Quinn must decide how far she’ll go to protect her boyfriend…and her promise.

Sounds awesome, right? Now, the book is due out August 28th, so my baby's age will be... Ack! Don't want to think about it! Still dealing with the idea that he's passed his first birthday!

^_^ Anyways, congrats Corrine and happy reading everyone, in 2011 and the upcoming new year!

My WIP is Not a Backup Plan

I decided to postpone/combine my weekly blog post with Friday Favorites this week. One, because it's relevant, and two, because between the baby's birthday and subsequent ear infection, my hands have been a bit full.

Now, I've been reading a lot of blogs lately talking about the waiting game. Maybe they've been this prevalent in the blogosphere all along and I'm just now noticing. Anyway, I'm there now, and reading a huge amount of advice about how to deal.

1. Take comfort in numbers without publicly accusing agents of taking unprecedented joy in torturing you.
2. Cry if you need to.
3. Rediscover love of writing through working on a new book. (To be fair, all three posts say that, but this one pushed it for me.)

I keep reading, "write a new book," but here's the problem. I'm treating my current WIP like a backup. It's close enough to the end that I can see the finished product, but I'm getting frustrated with the fact that it's not what I envision yet. I just want to finish it and send it out there, even though I know that's months (at best) from happening, not weeks. Most especially, I don't want to be caught "back at square one," where I've got no offer, no material under consideration, and no queries out. As if that would somehow prove that writing my last novel was a completely pointless endeavor.

So I'm taking "start a new book" more literally.

Current WIP was a NaNo novel in its first form. I rewrote it almost completely, but I knew I wanted the ending to be very similar. So today I'm yanking out the NaNo ending, slapping it on, and telling myself, "There, you see? You finished that draft. Now you are authorly-obligated to ignore its existence for two weeks before you come back to fix it. Now you may work on something new."

I have a new novel that I thought I might do for NaNo 2011, and I'm now very glad I didn't. It's got less than 1000 words and I've haven't a clue where the plot is going, and I love it. I need to fall back in love with writing again. Merry Christmas, me. I give you the gift of forgetting queries exist.

Guest Post from Krista V. at Mother. Write. (Repeat.)

I'm excited to present our first guest post by Krista V. of Mother. Write. (Repeat.), who's been kind enough to share her own Letter to Baby:

Dear I-gots,

You probably don’t know this, but I started writing when I wasn’t much older than you are now. I loved creating characters and storylines, but most of all, I loved putting words on paper, writing and rewriting and rewriting every sentence until it absolutely shined. I finished my first full-length novel when I was twelve and my second when I was eighteen. (I started many, many others, but that’s beside the point.) Writing was my hobby, but more than that, it was my passion.

Then I went to college, and all my writing time dried up. Of course, even if I’d had the time, I doubt I would have had the brainpower. Proofs and prose don’t really mix. I never intended to stop writing; it just sort of happened. And when I finally graduated and started my first full-time job, I didn’t even think to pick it up again.

Not long after I started teaching, a miracle occurred: Your dad and I found out that I was pregnant. With you. We’d hoped and prayed for a baby for more than two long years, so we were thrilled to discover that you were on the way. You were born about a week after the school year ended. I promptly quit my full-time job so I could be your full-time mom.

Those first few months were rough, but then things settled down. You adjusted to this thing called life and turned into a sleeping champion. All of a sudden, I had more time than I knew what to do with—and I also had an idea for a new book.

I never intended to stop writing, and I never meant to start again. But I needed something to fill my afternoons and early mornings. Writing filled the bill. After my five-year hiatus, I was pretty rusty, but it didn’t take long for the words to trickle back into my brain and out through my fingertips. Now, four years and four manuscripts later, I can’t imagine life without them—or without you.

So thank you, my sweet boy, for giving me back my words. Thank you for sleeping when you probably should have been screaming. And thank you for giving me something to write about. I only hope that I can help you develop your talents someday as thoroughly as you’ve helped me develop mine.

With much love and affection,
Mom

Happy Holidays. Literally.

The holiday season (and by this I mean, all days between Thanksgiving and January 2nd) is an exciting time for JT. Between all our extended family, he's going to celebrate (and receive gifts on) Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year's, and his birthday (which probably will be a major holiday in his mind for at least the next decade.) So for JT, "happy holidays" is less a matter of being politically correct, and more a shortened form of "Happy Birthday-Christmas-New-Year-Hanukkah!"

This got me to thinking about how we wish each other greetings this season. Most people know I'm Christian. (If you didn't, there's your new fact for the day.) I celebrate Christmas because I remember my Savior was born as a baby person, and after this year, I'm even more amazed at how big a sacrifice that was. It brings me happiness and I wish that happiness on other people. I like to be holiday-specific when I can, but sometimes I goof up.

All that to say, I want to get to know people better this season. If you celebrate Christmas, I'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas. If you celebrate Hanukkah, I'd like to wish you Happy Hanukkah during the actual holiday, and not two weeks after it ended. (Though Hanukkah falls almost right over Christmas and Kwanzaa this year, so that's probably not as big a concern as it was last year.) If you literally celebrate "happy holidays," I want to wish you that too.

And if I goof and thought you celebrated a holiday that you didn't, please just correct me and don't be mad at me for too long. I'd much rather get to know you better than wish you a generic greeting.