Monday, May 2, 2011

Am I Tan Yet?

Okay, so the blogcation wasn't really on a beach in the sun somewhere tropical. Maybe in my head. That counts, right?...right...?

HELLO! Glad to be back! Missed you guys!!! Hope you had a great month! Welcome my new followers! So pleased to have you!

I accomplished the great query write of 2011. The novel is looking pretty shiny thanks to my awesome crit gals, and no, I didn't write the synopsis. I'm holding out hope that I wont really need it. Don't rain on my parade. Denial is a real process. Be cool, guys. Be cool.

The query wasn't as hellish as I expected. Maybe to the gals it was. (3-5 emails from me a day with minor tweeks "IS THIS BETTER!?" while I do the peepee-dance of anticipation and hope to GOD they don't boot me out of the group for being a major pain in the ass.) But truthfully, it wasn't as hard as I expected. Picking out the necessities and leaving out the stuff that isn't NEED TO KNOW is probably the hardest part.

If you're there plugging away at a query or about to, I suggest getting badass crit partners who you can bounce different versions of queries off of (yes, need more than one) and ask yourself at every sentence "do they need to know that to get the story?". I'm no expert. This is the first query I have ever finished, but without the gals and the debate, the query would still be in pieces in my writing folder. Not ready to send off!

Got some balls together and asked the awesomely fantabulous Matthew MacNish to give me a hand too. So that may be up this week at some point on his blog!! SCARY! Will let you know if/when that goes up.

Either way, by Thursday I hope to begin the query process.

Lastly, this time off from blogging has made me realize something very important that is ultimately going to lead to changes around here. I miss writing. I had not realized how much time I devoted to blogging, and don't get me wrong, I love you guys and blogging, but the reason behind it all is for writing. Which I neglected...seriously neglected. SO the changes to come, I will be cutting from 3 days a week to 1-2 a week.

Still on the fence about whether or not Funny Fridays will be axed. But Mondays will not be.

I need to refocus on the dream. Ya know? THE dream. Which has taken a back seat for too long. Rededication. Yes, indeedy.

So all in all, this April I made some good progress, watched some great TV/Movies, went on a diet, lost 5lb, gave up diet cause I have no real willpower, started an exercise regiment that is pretty frikkin awesome, and had a really wonderful time getting even closer with the crit gals. So, I would say HUGE success!

Since I missed so much in April, feel free to tell me some great news you got, any news I might have missed, or anything about yourself in general. I am anxious to know what you all have been up to! 

Hazzah! And Happy Monday! 

40 comments:

  1. Yay. Glad you're back. And that you had an awesome break!

    Also, I so know the 3-5 emails with the 'Is this better' questions -- I've been doing that too ;) My CPs are awesome as well. I couldn't be getting query ready without them!

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  2. Welcome back Colene! So glad you took the time to find your love of writing and make progress on your query. And GOOD luck as you query.

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  3. Welcome back! Cutting back on blogging is totally understandable. I do 2 posts a week and THAT cuts into my writing time. Hopefully my experiment this week works. Again, good to see you again!

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  4. I wish you loads of luck with your query. I hope it produces requests for fulls and partials. Being published is our goal. Blogging is just one of the paths to that goal. But writing is the heart of it. Write over blogging. We have missed you, by the way, Roland

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  5. Woot, SO excited for you, I'm doing the peepee dance right there with you.

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  6. Welcome back! I feel like I didn't blog as much as I usually do this April. I’ve been trying to concentrate on my WIP, seeing as I'm getting to that "let's start winding this up" phase in the story. Lol.

    Good luck with your query, btw!! :)

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  7. Welcome back!!!

    Can I be the honest advice you don't want? I'll take that as a yes...

    1) Write the freaking synopsis... (oh, I know you don't want to hear it, but you REALLY don't want to write it on the fly when an agent asks for it)

    and

    2) I'd hedge toward 2 or 3 rather than 1 blog days... I really think blog presence makes a HUGE difference when we get to promoting time, but it can't be done well in the time between getting a deal and publishing... far easier to maintain the slow build. (maybe shoot of SHORT 2 days and long only one?)

    Erm... sorry about that...

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  8. Yeah, you did kind of drive us nuts with your query. ;-) You did a GREAT job. Really buckled down...unlike some of us (ahem, me). I've got Query Letter avoidance. Ugh.

    You do look a bit tanner, by the way...

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  9. Hey, Colene,

    Welcome back! I missed you! I've my query ready sent it out to about five agents and got back two rejections.... Such fun.

    I live through the A-Z. I am a true masochist, I decided to flash fiction with a twist or riddle. Was I nuts.... YES! But apparently the comments were awesome and everyone seemed to enjoy them. So it was worth it knowing I pleased my peeps.

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  10. Hey Colene! Nice to have you back! You're in query doldrums, huh? I love critiquing queries so shoot me an email if you need another pair of eyes.
    I know just what you mean about neglecting writing time for blogging time. i find myself missing writing too, but then I'll read a blog that has such good info I'm glad I didn't miss it.

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  11. Welcome back and congrats on your shiny new query! Hooray, I hope you get tons of requests!

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  12. Welcome Back!!!! You heard my big news, and can't wait to see you at Matt's--good call!

    no worries about cutting back. We all have to prioritize~ ((hugs))

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  13. Welcome back! And omg GOOD LUCK with the querying!! I'm so excited for you :)

    Also? *DIES LAUGHING at the peepee-dance of anticipation*

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  14. Yay! Colene is back! And I'm so happy for you! You did it! You set your goals and you stuck to 'em. Go get 'em, girl.

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  15. You're not tanned??? Oh, the horror.... ;-)

    I hear EXACTLY what you're saying about focusing on The Dream and blogging less. I need to think about doing that, especially after the massive amout of blogging that happened in April.

    PS. The pee-pee dance of anticipation sounds fascinating. Perhaps you could take a video and VLOG about it?!

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  16. Yay for the query and a productive month! And you so don't need a synopsis. ;) (Just trying not to rain here).

    I know what you mean about the time suck. I've been debating cutting a day, too.

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  17. Congrats on an awesome April! Yes, I too need to cut back on blogging. I'm sooo behind on other artistic endeavors and spring cleaning ;-D

    Yes, time to focus on your craft; we have to make time for ourselves! I applaud your efforts~

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  18. MISSED you!! :) Welcome back! Glad to hear that your blogcation was a great one and congrats on getting that query hammered out! I think you'll get lucky with it. I just got back from the Pike's Peak writing conference and I can tell you that it seems several agents are looking for contemp. fantasy with a dark edge. That is what you're writing, isn't it? (My bad and apologies if I've totally got it wrong...)

    It's that or steampunk!! And totally understand about focusing on writing. I probably need to do that myself... Glad to have you back!

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  19. Nice to see you're back! Keep us up to date on the querying thing!

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  20. Welcome back! It's always good to have a little vacation isn't it? And good to be appreciated!! I understand the cutting back thing. I've cut back myself and find it helpful on the writing front. Too much mental energy going toward the blogging thing and the writing is what is important, right. Anyway, thanks for dropping by today and good to see you! Cheers!

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  21. I'm so glad you're back! And great to hear you made such great progress. Queries! Wow...but sounds like you have a great support team! :)

    I definitely understand cutting back on the blogging. Writing should be #1. I find that when I get away from it for awhile (via distractions...or procrastination...) I do miss it.

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  22. I'm on a bit of a break and popping in every now and again. a friend is in the query process right now but she's fantastic at them, so I'm totally going to make her write mine.

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  23. Yeah for the query. Glad to hear it was fun. Let's us know how that whole synopsis thing works out for ya.

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  24. Yay, you're baaaaaack! So happy to see you here, blogging and brightening my day. Sounds like you had a great month off.

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  25. Hi there!!!! And yeah I get ya about the blogging thing (I cut down too recently)! And yay about getting your query in better shape (those buggers are tough)!

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  26. Welcome back! Congrats on getting the query done, and good luck with sending it out! Not much news here....just been editing, and sent out my first two queries since January yesterday.

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  27. Good luck querying, Colene. Happy Spring!
    erica

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  28. welcome back!!!! we're only posting twice a week this month!!!!! woo hoo!!! (i will try my hardest to convince erica to continue in june....) writing. yes, writing. and blog hopping. i suck at that. i got my query critiqued at writeoncon last week. :0) it got compared to pizza. yes. pizza. best of luck to you! how exciting to be sending it out! christy

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  29. best news I have is that I finished the rewrite! ^_^

    I think it's great that you want to refocus on your dream. Good luck!

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  30. Hey, welcome back :) Sounds like you had an awesome break. Ugh, I so know about the query rollercoaster! Wishing you the best of luck with it :)

    Here's to rededication!

    Hugs,

    Rach

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  31. Welcome back! I got a partial request back on 4/11, which was nice. Now I'm just waiting. =o)

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  32. We missed you Colene! But thrilled you got so much done. Like you I'm cutting back on my blogging schedule, though I'll still be posting four times a week. It will probably go down again come September - see my news tomorrow ;)

    I need to pick your brains at some point, as I'm developing quite a liking for YA fiction and I'm wondering about attempting to write a sci-fi YA novel. Big gulp.

    Ellie Garratt

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  33. Glad that you had a productive break. I know what you mean about blogging and I've been cutting down to 2x a week. It seems to be working.

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  34. Dude. I'm so excited to have your query! The new one you sent is so good I'm not sure how much help I can be. But we'll see.

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  35. Welcome back! :)

    I'm cutting back a lot on my blogging, too, now that the A-Z Challenge is over; 6 posts a week is just too much to maintain.

    Good luck with your query!

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  36. Welcome back! Sounds like you got a lot done. Good luck with your querying process. I understand your reasons for blogging less. I think it's something we all want to do but hate to think about because we have such awesome friends. But we are all here because we write and it's important to keep on writing. It's a hard balance. Happy writing!

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  37. Welcome Back!

    You sound like you had a great month off and are refreshed and energized! It's amazing how a little unplugged time can give you perspective. I think it is so easy for blogging to take over our writing time. Do what you need to do, and make yourself happy. That's what matters.

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  38. Got to keep those priorities right - good for you getting ready to query

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  39. welcome back! Glad you enjoyed the time off! Not much to report here- just recovering from the A-Z and yeah, getting back to the writing too! Feels good!

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  40. Eek! So glad to see you back! I've been unplugged as well and by this Friday, I plan to be back in full force. Congrats on accomplishing so much in April. . . I know May will be just as awesome!

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