From the Mixed-Up Files of an Unproductive Novelist

Another week, another Tuesday.

I fear I must report that absolutely nothing happened on the writing front over the past week. No rejections, no acceptances, and no, er, editing... I don't know if I just got discouraged or if the surge of heat has made me more than usually lethargic, or what.

Actually, come to think of it, I did start writing a short story. Start being the keyword. I also finished reading two more Diana Wynne Jones books, Cart and Cwidder and Drowned Ammet, the first two books in her Dalemark quartet; they were quite fantastic.

Oh and I cleaned my room (don't look in the closet).

And I ate a lot of watermelon.

So I guess the week wasn't a total loss.

As of last night, this message board for children's authors and illustrators is quite fantastic. A prime opportunity for lots of procrastination--I mean valuable information gleaning. :-)

And, hmm. I think that's about it. Guess I'd better get my butt in gear and GET SOMETHING DONE so I have something exciting to blog about next week.

Another Tuesday Come and Gone (well it's not gone yet, but it will be soon)

So it appears that I will be blogging on Tuesdays. At least, for as long as I remember/care/have something to write about.

Today I don't really have anything to write about. I've decided to improvise with random bits of information.

On the querying front, I've only one more rejection since last week, which brings my rejection total up to nine and leaves my queries-still-waiting-anxiously-somewhere-in-cyberspace at seven. Fascinating, I know.

On the editing front, I haven't gotten very far at all. Still trying to map out changes for Part III and being thwarted at every turn.

It's partly cloudy today. Sun is out intermittently with vastly dark dramatic clouds mostly to the north. Will it rain? Doubtful, but one can always hope.

I am still in love with the color green, in case anyone was wondering.

Haven't really been reading anything. Tragic, I know.

Yesterday I sorta tried to clean my room, which resulted in a two and a half hour bookshelf rearranging/dusting ordeal. At least my bookshelves look nice now. :-) On a side note, I have a few empty spots, which means, of course, that I need MORE BOOKS!! Excellent.

I'm starving, and should probably eat something.

I'm going to go eat something.

Update-age

Happy Tuesday, oh peoples of the blogosphere!

I've been querying agents for two weeks now, and currently have eight rejections and eight queries still out in cyberspace. Been keeping track of all these queries in the lovely, the amazing, the fantastic Scrivener (oh Scrivener, how I love thee); rejection is not quite as painful when you get to turn the corresponding index card a pretty color every time you receive one. Small pleasures. Or something.

Slowly poking away at restructuring Part III of The Fire in the Glass. Painful. Need to get back to that, as a matter of fact. Been putting it off.

Blogs I've been reading:

• Literary agents Nathan Brandsford and Jennifer Jackson have lots of fascinating (and sobering) insights into the publishing business.

• Author Shannon Hale is like the coolest person ever. Basically, I want to be her.

And that's about it. Been watching Firefly on Hulu and liking it pretty well. It's got absolutely nothing on Doctor Who, though (really, what does??).

Okay. Gonna work on some edits now.

Cloudy with a Chance of Novels

So here's a little update from Joanna-land:

I am currently querying agents for The Whale and the Tree and so far have collected me seven rejection letters. Some of them, I might add, have been very nice letters (if one ignores the obvious). Waiting to hear back from a few more queries before I send out a new batch. Soon, I'm going to run out of agents to query, and have no idea what I'm going to do then. Still, I just need one agent, right? Just one. Just one just one just one. There's gotta be one out there for me. Right? Right?? I'm not discouraged. Okay not that discouraged. I am irrepressible! I have hope! I believe in my novel, dang it! It must be let loose into the world! The world is ready! Or something. Whatever. I'll keep you posted. :-)

Also hardcore wrestling with preliminary edits for The Fire in the Glass. Way rough, man. Way rough. I've started in the middle, 'cause that's the part that sucks the most: plot holes and characterization issues galore, let me tell you!! Dang. If I actually figure out what to do in the middle, the rest ought to be a proverbial piece of cake! (I like saying proverbial. It's fun. Try it in a sentence). At any rate, I'll keep you posted on that, too.

Still on my Diana Wynne Jones kick. She rocks so much it's not even funny. And she's written like a billion books. All of them are awesome, or at least the nine that I've read so far are! Just finished the sixth book in her hilarious and captivating Chrestomanci series which I absolutely adored, and picked up a couple more of her books at the library this morning. I suspect I should spread them out a little bit, but whatever. *hearts Chrestomanci and his multifarious expensive dressing gowns*

Oh, and speaking of books... the title to the next book in Megan Whalen Turner's flawless Attolia series (begun in The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia, respectively) was announced this week as A Conspiracy of Kings. I'm way excited. Way, way excited. You don't even know. Regrettably, it doesn't come out until March, but going on how fast the year has zipped by thus far, it's not really that far away. *hearts Eugenidies and his awesome*

And that, dear readers (do I have any readers? I don't really think so. But whatever), is, as they say, that.