Come on. Everybody's doing it. You know you want to.

Join Rach's Campaign. #writecampaign (to find us on twitter)

What is the Campaign, you ask?
"Basically, the Campaign is a way to link those of us in the writing community together with the aim of helping to build our online platforms. The Campaigners are all bloggers in a similar position, who genuinely want to pay it forward, make connections and friends within the writing community, and help build each others' online platforms while at the same time building theirs."  -Rach Harrie

So you can meet more writers like yourself, whether you write adult, YA or MG fiction.  Why not make more writing friends, gain new followers, visit new blogs, gain new knowledge, make more connections, and who knows what else?  Why wait?  Go HERE now to learn more and join like we did.  You have until the 31st.  Of August.

There will be three Campaign challenges with PRIZES.   (Not that I need to bribe you since you've already decided to join!) 

Oh, and you get to post this on your blog:


For those of you already campaigning, we'll be around to visit you once the first week of school nerves/stress/jitters passes us by.  Thanks for waiting.  We can't wait to meet you! 

And for all of our old followers/best blogging buds, I miss you.  I will visit you sooner than soon.  I appreciate your patience with me over this summer.  When I ditched the blogging world almost entirely for my WIP.  Which I love.  Please don't leave me!  (This is Christy begging you.)

What's Up?

Whether the term is What's up?



Or, yanno, the other one:

I want to know. What's up with you?? Because, well, I walked into school on Monday thinking I had 3 teachers in my department and walked out with only me. (no, it was not my fault!) I'm still short one. And yes, the other two are me. I'm now two separate and distinct teachers. In one body. And a mom. And a wife. And a writer. And, well, a person. Umm...this could be interesting. Thank goodness I'm creative!!

So PLEASE - tell me about all the things you've accomplished lately! I BEG YOU!!! 

And I'm back and giving this blog posting thing a try...

I'm feeling a little rusty getting started on this post.  No worries, though, I'm sure I'll be rambling like my old self by the end of it! ~christy

I'm as back as I can be with the start of a new school year looming.  The first day of school is close enough to choke me with the stress of a pressing deadline, yet far enough away that I'm teased by the hours I think I have left to prepare in.

It had better be enough time. 

I'll make it enough time....

While a week away camping with my family was a spledid hiatus from normalcy, once in a while tendrils of reality crept into my mind.  A moment or two of panic ensued until I pushed off the pesky reminder that my workless summer was coming to an end.

And now here I sit amidst piles of laundry and dirty dishes, no dish soap in sight.  I send frantic emails to my principal and colleagues, hoping one of them will clue me in on my responsibilities for the year.  You see, I teach part-time and my schedule depends entirely on them.  Finally, after days of emailing (while camping...yes.  one of the productive ways I handled the panicked minutes---shooting emails left and right), I got not one, but two replies.  Tomorrow I'll meet with my principal to discuss my hours, pick up my keys and unpack the room I packed up this past June.

Yes, this past May, like the May before that one, I was told I'd be moving to a different building in the district.  So, this past June, like the June before that one, I packed up every teaching item I owned into box after box after box after box (after box, etc.).  Until August, when I learned that I would actually be moving BACK INTO THE ROOM I'D JUST PACKED UP.  Yes.  So tomorrow I will be unpacking and reorganizing and buying name tags and cleaning and buying teaching books and planning.  And not only tomorrow, but Thursday and Friday too.  I'm crossing my fingers the weekend will be free for me to relax and enjoy the remaining weekend of the summer before inservice, and the school year, kick into full gear on Monday. 

I definitely need family time this weekend because my oldest starts KINDERGARTEN next Thursday.  And that means that he starts five full days of school that will continue from next Thursday until he graduates from college.  After which he will (maybe?) work five full days every week of his life.  So, you see, it's the last weekend of his childhood.  (I am NOT sobbing right now.)  AND my baby (well, my baby until our third son is born in December) is starting pre-school.  YES!  I will have two children in school and I am in shock over this rapid progression of life.

With that said, I am going to either read (finish Paranormalcy by Kiersten White) or write (edit and add in scenes for Fixing Shelby) right now.  Oh, that reminds me.  Shelby didn't win Miss Snark's August Secret Agent Contest, but the agent gave me good feedback along with a positive nudge (imo).  Here's what she wrote (it appears I've not yet fully recovered from Overwriting Syndrome):

Secret Agent said...

Nice work characterizing the mom through dialogue. Just that one word, "honey," does so much. The set up here is compelling, too, but this entry could use some pruning. One example that would appease my sense of economy and still maintain the tone of things here: "I glared at the purse for a moment before setting it at my feet. I'd rather be home cleaning the toilet bowl with my toothbrush or ripping out my fingernails than primping in the car on the way to my 'best' friend's house. 'You didn't have to drive me, Mom.'"


So, I'm writing with my garden shears in my lap, hoping for inspiration to economize while keeping the tone.  The only problem is I haven't yet acquired the ability to recognize my own wordiness.  Are there special writing glasses out there for that?

Ah, well. 

Titles (and other things that keep me up at night)

We're back! (with one caveat - christy is on vacation and erica is back to work. so consider this a trial week back)

(please note - what appears below is erica's opinion only. and mostly meant tongue-in-cheek since it's my last day of summer vacation and even though I love my job, the start is always a little crazy-inducing)

Book titles. They're hard for me. When I first name my WIPs, it's a placeholder. Take Coyote Hotel for example. I started with my original idea, started a few pages, and saved them in Word as "Ghost Coyote or Coyote Hotel" because those were my two ideas (and Ghost Bed and Breakfast sounded cheesy). I fully intend to change it before querying. I did the same general thing with A New Day, but you know what? The title fits. Is it a little plain? Sure, I can take that criticism. The thing is, I've been told lots of times that titles change. Agents change them. Editors definitely change them. Authors *might* have some say in it, but in the end, it's the publishing house that gets the say. So I was never too worried about it.

BUT - christy and I both noticed at WOC that agents (in critiques and the "ninjas") often left comments that included "this title needs to be changed", "any chance you can improve the title?" and "I'd request this based on title alone." Not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, eh?? Not always true! Pay attention to your titles, friends, because apparently eveyone else is!

Word counts. I won't say a lot about this topic since it's been blogged about by people with a lot more experience than I have. But I will say that the "nothing over 100k" rule pretty much held true, but I was surprised to see a few (non-fantasy) with 80-90k word counts that got agent reviews without a reference to word counts. So, hey, write on, friends! When it works, it works.

Rules that exist only to drive erica crazy. Don't include your genre, word count, or title in your pitch? No problem, full request coming your way. Have a pitch that agents scream yes for? Send in 3 chapters. Have one scratching their heads a little? Full, please. Have a pitch that the agent says is confusing, but since it's a book set in WI, she's willing to take a look at it? A partial would be great! (okay, that last one was my example. I'm very grateful for the request and admit I struggled with my Twitter pitch and knew it was a little confusing. I just figure people were a little mad at me when I got through based on my setting! (I swear, the book isn't a bad as my 140-character pitch!))

Stupid things only erica would do. Okay, seriously, this one's a record even for me. A long time ago, I opened a personal hotmail account to keep track of my writing/blogging/querying stuff. At the time, to get gmail, you needed to be able to receive a text message to accept your account and I didn't (and still don't) have a cell phone. So hotmail it was. Fast forward to the conference we went to in April and I got a few partial requests and decided to try a gmail account again, and it worked (I even tested it by sending something to myself). Nothing. Silence. Crickets. Not one email back. Fast forward (again) to last week. APPARENTLY GMAIL DOESN'T INFORM YOU WHEN YOU GET SOMETHING IN YOUR SPAM FOLDER. ALL my other accounts do. I never once thought I'd have to go searching for the spam folder (until the Miss Snark thing when she recommended it after the autobot didn't respond). When I finally figured out how to check, it had three things I was waiting for (from WriteOnCon, Miss Snark's First Victim, and author Jenny O'Connell since I won a book from her) and several others that really were spam. And anything more than 30 days old is history. So - best case senario, they were still no-responders or form letter rejections. Worst scenario, they were all full requests and now think I'm ignoring them. BECAUSE WHO DOESN'T GET AN EMAIL IN 4 MONTHS, ERICA, YOU DUMMY??!!

These are the things that keep me up at night, people.

Anything interesting happen while we were gone?

We Miss You Guys

So, we're still busy with WriteOnCon and kids and all that stuff, but here's a quick post so you don't forget us! If you're over there and haven't found us yet, search for Erica Olson and christy_h.

There are tons of great things to find at WOC again this year. I was a little worried that it would be the same stuff as last year, and maybe there are a few, but there's lots of new things. Truly something for everyone.

Since we're all bloggers around here, I thought I'd share a few notes I took on yesterday's live chat with Sara Megibow on Platform. Apparently, it's important. ;)  (and she stressed that these are her viewpoints and not necessarily shared by any/all other agents. Also, she works primarily with debut authors and things likes sales numbers would be more important for established authors)

- Every writer should have a website. It doesn't have to be expensive, but try to include a professional author photo, a bio page, a news page (I'll be at this conference, I got an agent, etc.), and a link to anywhere else you exist in the webosphere. *note to self: get a webpage  Have it BEFORE you start querying.

- Blogs are good, too. She advocates the "be yourself" approach to a blog - post regularly (at least a few times a week) and it doesn't have to be about writing. Having a lot of followers is good, but content is more important.

- For her, if she likes your query and the first few pages, she will google your name and see what she finds. If you don't have a web presence, she will not request a full.

- Group blogs are fine, but have your own webpage. *note to self: get a webpage

- If you can manage it, have a web presence including: webpage, blog, FB, and Twitter. If you aren't going to keep them current, stick to only one or two.

Also, we both made it into the Secret Agent conntest over at Miss Snark's First Victim Christy is #40 and Erica is #31. Come check us out. Because, well, we don't want to be the only ones with no comments and then look dumb.

Erica's also in the agent contest over at Blackbird in my Window. Why yes, A New Day does have two different first pages. Thanks for noticing. (sigh)

Lastly, Erica has 2.5 days of summer vacation left. Crap.