Romanticizing Reality

Well, it happened. The first huge step in realizing my dream has come true. I am now represented by Beth Campbell of BookEnds, LLC. *screams, dances in imaginary confetti to the tune of "We Are the Champions"* And before I get to how it happened, here's an interesting side-note: BookEnds was the first agency that ever caught my eye years ago, when I first decided I wanted to make a career out of writing. Back when I decided to look into the business of getting an agent, back when I had no idea how it all worked, I came across the BookEnds blog. No joke, between this and the Nelson Literary Agency blog, I learned every single thing there is to know about the publishing and agenting world. Everything . I owe my passion for it to this blog. Unfortunately, they stopped doing posts because of time constraints, but they keep the blog public for anyone to reference. Because of this immediate love for them, and in researching their agents and agency, they were my dream agenc...

My old bio, in the summer of 2013, before I got picked up by an agent: I'm a stay-at-home mom with three beautiful, blond boys (see my other blog,  Fond of Blond , which is actually pretty out-dated), and in my need to make something of myself and become more than just my children's mother, I decided, six years ago, to turn my love of writing and words into a daytime hobby. Eventually, that hobby became a need to create. It became a passion, a part of me. It became  much  more than a hobby. I love any well-written TV show, movie, or book, whether it makes me laugh, cry, moved, or pissed off. I love anything that inspires true human emotion, and some of my favorites in the way of television are  Dexter, Breaking Bad, the Walking Dead, Homeland , and  the Newsroom , just to name a few (and I can't not mention the more campy, fun-loving obsessions, like  True Blood  and  Once Upon a Time ). In movies, I have far too many to name, but I love any...

This is what it all comes down to, and what it's taken me five years to realize: "When you want to write well you have to be fearless. Otherwise, you just give your characters your own hang-ups instead of letting them be themselves." My friend, Katherine Lampe, is a genius, folks. On top of being an excellent indie author (check out her ebooks here ), she has been a great friend to me (one who I would like to meet face-to-face someday), and even an invaluable mentor (though it wasn't intended). Being fearless. For me, that has included writing outside the norm, forgoing some writing rules, and last but not least, writing what I want to write and not what others think I should write. Worrying about what friends or family will think of a certain scene or story direction (especially, in my case, morally), and feeling the stress of having to please the masses: it was once my greatest hindrance as a writer. I can honestly say that as I've learned to overcome th...

Some people during this #PitMad contest have been requesting that, if at all possible, a longer pitch and excerpt of their work can be put up on their websites, for any who are interested. So here's mine, for HEMLOCK VEILS. I'm posting the blurb from my query letter, as well as the first 250 words: When Elizabeth Ashton escapes her damaging city life and finds herself in the remote town of Hemlock Veils, Oregon, she is smitten by its quaint mystery; but the surrounding forest holds an enchantment she didn’t think existed, and worse, a most terrifying monster. The town claims it vicious and evil, but Elizabeth suspects something is amiss. Even with its enormous, hairy frame, gruesome claws, and knifelike teeth, the monster’s eyes speak to her: wolf-like and ringed with gold, yet holding an awareness that can only be human. That’s when Elizabeth knows she is the only one who can see the struggling soul trapped inside, the soul to which she is moved. Secretly, Elizabeth b...

I don't have my own office, or even my own uninterrupted writing space. I use my little desk when it's not occupied with a husband doing homework, and the bed if I'm feeling too ill to sit in a chair. I attempt to go to coffee shops and write, to change my creative surroundings whenever I can, but because of where I live, it's not often enough. Always, a child beckons at the door, or pulls me away from a battle between wizard and Curse Breaker to tell me he is hungry. Always, I'm left torn between the two lives I adore. I don't have designated alone hours to write in that nonexistent writing space. Instead I have a house full of little shoes, piles of dirty (and sometimes clean) laundry, hot wheels, children's art supplies, and demanding tasks. I don't have a nanny. I am the nanny. The only full time job I have is Mother. And Wife. Everything else is just wishful thinking, for the time being anyway. Today I did the usual. Got the kids ready for sc...

Generally, I'm against using my blog as a bitching session journal, but I'm breaking the rule today. Kind of. We all experience things in our lives, during certain periods, where we raise our fists in the air (figuratively, but sometimes literally) and curse. We wonder why certain things are happening to us, or why certain things aren't . We wonder, especially if we know certain things will happen, when they will come to pass. My life is all about that recently. I need to emphasize first that I have too many blessings to count. I am extremely happy with my life. Of all things I have been blessed with, my family (husband and children) is the greatest, and I feel overcome with joy when I think about it. I am so incredibly lucky/blessed, and if my family was all I had, as long as I had them, I would be content. Yet, my blessings go so far beyond that. Great town, great house, great job, great friends, great gospel and ward, working vehicles, great teachers for my kids, gr...

In following and internet-stalking fellow writers and authors, I came to a realization today: I've got NOTHING in the form of a formidable website or platform (fellow Grammar Nazis, fire away at that last sentence). All I had going for me was a measly Twitter account (which I would love to grow one day). No author Facebook page (since I don't feel I've earned the privilege to have one yet, being unpublished and all), and only an outdated, less than par blog. So here I am, contributing to one of the necessary evils of the industry: keeping a writing blog. Or really, just revamping an old one. I hadn't blogged here since 2010, I think, and with how much I've written, learned, grown, been trampled in the dirt , and realized in the past three years, the old stuff--the posts before this one--is only here for record-keeping purposes: so I can look back one day and say, Aw, look at the little, naive writer . (And then say that again about this post in three more years...