Reduced Price

I have put You Want to be Me up for the reduced price of .99 for the holidays. I am hoping that maybe people will want to pick up cheap copies of something to read on their new devices. You can buy it here http://www.amazon.com/You-Want-Be-Me-ebook/dp/B0054SI3QQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1307677734&sr=1-2

Happy Reading!

Christmas

I am more than excited to be out for Christmas break!!!! The holiday has now come and gone, but I still have vacation and that is all I need. I have decided to spend my time writing and blocking out the rest of the world. But as I search the blank page for the my next inspiration I have thoughts that clutter my mind and sometimes just need to express.

I have to say that I am quite dissapointed in my family and friends this holiday season. I like tradition. I think it makes us who we are and we have to remember that and what has made this world work. I can remember the day that I would receive on average two or three Christmas cards a year. I would love to see the expressions of people that might not live near on with their shiny holiday gear on. This year I sent out my normal 30-35 cards to family and friends. I received one FOUR! I was wished a Merry Christmas on Facebook by numerous people or the overall status update of Merry Christmas. But really? Has technology really overrun us so much that we no longer take the time to even facebook people individually? This is coming from someone that loves technology. I read on my Kindle, I listen to Pandora, my kids have ipods. Gaming systems along with flat screens have been in my house since they came out. However, I like the tradition of taking the time to remember those that you don't see everyday. Has the Christmas tradition changed and this will soon be a thing of the past? I for one hope not!

Back to Work

Summer has been over for a few weeks for me now and it is back to work and routine. It is so hard to find time to write between actually being at work, kids being in school, being a mom, being a wife, grading papers, and sleep. Ugh, I saw a preview for that new Sarah Jessica Parker movie I don't know how she does it and I was like, yeah I get her. My head has about a zillion stories floating around and I dream up even more at night, but I can't seem to ever get disciplined enough to sit and put them down on paper. Perhaps that is why it took me years to actually get my first manuscript completed.

I have still been shopping it around, but haven't heard anything but sorry this project doesn't seem right for us at this time. I take it in stride.... I do want to say though, hey why not keep it until it is the right time... they probably wouldn't like that much though. I will continue to shop it up and see what might some day come out of it. When and if it does, it will be a nice surprise I'm sure.

When do any of you other writers seem to find the time? Is it something you have to schedule? Do you just let it happen? Do you run away to a retreat and hope the ideas flow once you are there? Any ideas at this point would be helpful.

Preview!

Check out the new preview of my book You Want to be Me on Create Space by following the link below. I have included the prologue of the actual book for preview. I would love a review so please click on over and while you are there check out some of the other previews that are up. I am sure the other authors would appreciate the feedback.

https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1085841

Finished Proofing

I finished proofing and am producing the final product of You Want to Be Me. I'm glad I did it this way. I caught many mistakes that I didn't see before. I have sent out a few more submissions of the manuscript and have received a few rejections. But, that is ok I expected it and with each one it gets a little easier. I think I might be completely shocked if someone does ask for a full read. Until then, I have restated prices of the kindle version of 2.99 because I am noticing that many of the Young Adult title prices have been lowered for the summer. Now, I wait and hope someone buys it, or someone reads this blog, or someone notices that I exist.

Proof Copy

I received the copy of my proof in the mail yesterday. To be honest, I struggled with even opening the package. It felt unreal that something that I wrote was actually in a book format (granted only I made that possible, but never the less it was actually in my hand and no longer in my head). I sat down with my pen and began reading through, very slowly, each and every word. I found so many errors. Wow! I was embarassed. On the computer, I never even saw them. They didn't show up in spelling and grammar check. (I guess that is why people use editors right?) Although, I have an English degree, so perhaps I should I have caught them all? No, that is what I have taught my students for so long. Have someone else read your paper and they will find errors or make suggestions that you did not find. It is being too close to your text. I knew what they were going to say, so I skimmed it and didn't read it. That is my lesson for the day. Proof read and then have others proof read. When it is next to nearly perfect I will once again try and send it out to agents. In the mean time, I will shop it myself.

Tired of Vampires and Werewolves

Let me start this out by saying that I love vampires and werewolves. I currently watch Trueblood, Teen Wolf, and The Vampire Diaries. I love the series Being Human on Syfy. I have read all the Twilight books and have watched all the movies. But, talk about overkill! What if you are a teenager that hates this stuff? What is out there for you to read? I love the sappy romance novel as an adult that I find with reading chic lit. What exists for girls of that age anymore? Every book I thumb through seems to deal with these supernatural creatures or has some sort of issue that is meant to be a lesson you can carry with you for the rest of your life. When I read, I want there to be an escape. I want to enjoy my characters and maybe feel like I am one of them. I think an author has a job to do to make sure that their characters can relate to these people, but at the same time, if I wanted to read about my own life I would. I like romance, I always have. As I sat down to write You Want to Be Me, I knew where I was going with it. I tried to recapture the emotions that were so overwhelming at that time in my life. Lets be honest, sex was a big part of it. How much can you include and what is too graphic? These are the questions I am searching to answer. What do teenagers want to read and how much is too much? Let me know what you think, maybe some input would help me to establish future characters.

Getting Published

I think that as any writer that tries to get published it is a heart breaking, pain staking, just overall crappy experience. I have read websites and blogs alike and have yet to find one person who seems to have an overall easy experience with it. You must get an agent. You must send each submission in their specific format and head it to a particular person. It seems that maybe the only way to get published is to do self publishing and then that is frowned upon. You must ask yourself, do I really just want to publish or do I want to profit from this? Of course I want to profit from it, just because it is my passion does not mean that I'm crazy. So while I send out my submissions laborously I am also throwing in the towel (so to speak) and I am self publishing on the Kindle and with Createspace. I guess I just have to do it so that maybe I can reap some type of reward for my hard work. So, to all of you that think this might be giving up, I am looking at is as a chance to reach more.