June 2006

You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2006.

What’s on my Romance Novel-Shaped Plate

June 30, 2006 in On Writing | View Comments

Finish The Daggum Book
Deadline: Friday, July 7 (Yeah when I said yesterday that I'd be done Friday, I meant NEXT Friday, not today.)
My current Work In Progress will be done by Friday (next) at midnight. Done, I tell you!
Help: I need suggestions for a title. It's about a psychic chick who has to save the world. That's really all you need to know. Heehee.

Write the Blurb
Deadline: Friday, July 14
The great and powerful blurb is the basis for query letters and pitches (yikes!) and therefore needs to be done in enough time to commit it to memory for conference. I realize it's only 100 words, but I am the girl who took a lower grade in an English lit class in college because she couldn't recite 50 lines of "The Lady of Shalott" from memory. Dear god, I even chose that poem because the lines are freakin' SHORT.
Help: I may post the blurb and ask for edits. Because I love and trust each one of you so much.

Update my Website
Deadline: Friday, July 21
Eek! This scares me. Perhaps I'll just update the text and save a massive overhaul for later. Yes, yes that is what I shall do.
Help: I'll direct you over there when it's finished to look for typos and other weirdness.

Print up Business Cards
Deadline: Friday, July 21
Yep, I am going to hand out ALL my business cards at conference this year. (What I'm not telling you is that I'm only printing up, like, 20. Baha.)
Help: I will also be showing you the non-stalkerish portions of said card. Remember all that branding stuff? I'll need to implement it on the business cards.

Iron Conference Clothes
Deadline: Monday, July 24
Do you see how excited I am about National Conference? I iron for no one. But for this, I'll iron. For real iron, with creases and everything, not just spray it with wrinkle releaser and hope for the best. And I'll hang ironed things neatly in a garment bag. I am that committed, people.

Conference!
July 26-29
Weee! I'm pitching my book! Twice! In individual meetings! Get me a barf bucket!

Edit Manuscript
Deadline: Friday, August 4
Why am I not editing my manuscript before conference? Because I'm hoping I'll learn some editing hints and skills while at conference. And then I will implement them. Also because I'm not going to be able to look at said manuscript objectively until a few weeks after I've finished it. In this case, it will be a month after I've finished it.
Help: If anyone wants to do a proofread for me, the more eyes the better. Just don't be too mean or I'll cry.

Write Query Letter
Deadline: Friday, August 4
Shouldn't be too hard, since I will have already done my wonderful happy blurb.
Help: Proofreaders are again welcome.

Send Out Fulls, Partials, Queries
Deadline: Friday, August 11
Two weeks after conference, I'm planning to have all requested materials in the appropriate hot little hands, plus a bunch of queries out. I will not sit on this book!

Write a Short Story (While Waiting for an Editor to Call and Tell Me She Wants to Give Me a Three Book Deal PRONTO, Of Course)
Deadline: Monday, August 21
Hm. I'm giving myself 10 days to write a 5,000 word short story. Think I can do it? It's for a contest at the Wild Rose Press.
Help: Where are you, oh wondrous proofreaders?

Dig Out Old Manuscript and Edit (While Waiting for an Editor to Call and Tell Me She Wants to Give Me a Three Book Deal PRONTO, Of Course)
Deadline: October 1
That first novel was aimed at Harlequin American Romance, who is now having a contest. I will win. After massive edits, of course.

Whew, I'm tired already.

Best sentence from yesterday:

Less talk, more psychic crap.



In non-writing news, I've lost a few pounds this week, due to eating, like, nothing but salad. Robbie says I'm "not as lumpy." Ain't he sweet?

Also, I stood on my head yesterday in yoga. Joanna has dubbed me the Aunt Who Stands On Her Head. Awesome.

Technorati tags: ,

Splat

June 29, 2006 in On Writing, Pictures | View Comments

Want to see a picture of the bug that splatted on my windshield this morning? Of course you do...


You'll have to take my word for it that it was much more impressive in person. I promise. It's orange and did not come off even after I zapped it with windshield wiper fluid and scrubbed. (Does it make you afraid that I rummaged for my camera phone in my purse in the seat next to me while barreling down I-40, just so I could show you the bugsplat on my windshield?)

Best sentence from yesterday:

She decided it probably wasn’t appropriate to tell a man you just slept with and really, in the grand scheme of things, did not know very well, that you’d just had a dream about your ex-boyfriend kissing you and then killing your step-father.



Yep, you're seeing that right. 52% done. And guess how much is going to be done on Friday... ALL OF IT! I kid you not. So watch out, everybody. Fingers will be flying this week. (Hopefully they'll mostly be my fingers flying across the keyboard, but I reserve the right to let a few choice fingers fly in gestures meant to say, "no I do not have time to cook supper, leave me alone.")

Last Year In The Life Of Sonja: I'll Sue!

Technorati tags: ,

Highschool Daze

June 25, 2006 in Memes | View Comments

1) Where did you graduate from and what year?
Riverside High School, 1999.

2) Who was your significant other?
Chris, Zack, Chris (a different one)

3) Was your prom a night to remember?
I went to two. Second one was more memorable than the first one. Probably because the first one was three years earlier. And the second one I knew more than one person attending. And we all rode in a van. And it was silly.

4) What was your favorite song you danced to the night of prom?
I have no clue. Probably the swing dance, because I think that was the only dance we did.

5) Do you own all 4 yearbooks?
Yep, but I think they're all still at my parents' house.

7)What was your favorite movie in highschool?
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, because we dorks used to watch it over and over and over.

8) What was your number 1 choice of college in highschool?
I only applied to UNC Chapel Hill and NC State, and I ended up at UNC Chapel Hill in a sort of last-minute decision to head for the liberal arts side.

9) What radio stations did you jam out to in highschool?
I was so super cool that I jammed out to the top 40 station. I know, I totally rock.

10) Were you involved in any organizations or clubs?
Um. Chorus. And I think maybe Honors Society, though I only ever remember picking up trash on the side of the road for that. Oh, and FCA. We made a float one year... I think I have a picture. I'll have to break out the scanner sometime.

11)What was your favorite class in highschool?
Maybe botany. I got to play in the dirt. Physics was fun, except it always made me feel a little dense.

12) Who was your big crush in highschool?
I don't think I had any crushes that didn't turn into boyfriends. I always thought I was being coy, but I'm pretty sure I practically drooled over every crush I ever had, probably inflating male egos to massive proportions.

13) Would you say you've changed a lot since highschool?
Yeah... Yeah. (That picture is me my freshman year.)

14) What do you miss the most about it?
Dude, I try not to miss highschool because that's just sad. But probably lunches in the park with friends. I had some good friends in highschool. And it's harder to make friends in your adult life because you're not forced to spend hours and hours every day with people in your age group with similar life circumstances, so yeah. I miss my friends. And lunch.

15) Your worst memory of highschool?
My boyfriend's dad died.

16) Did you have a car?
Yep, shared a 1990 Ford Escort station wagon with my sister. (Not positive on the year.) It still runs and I think my brother drives it now.

17) What were your school colors?
Purple and gold

18) Who was your favorite teacher?
The Q, definitely. Quackenbush. He was the physics & astronomy teacher, and the only teacher whose classes I attended even if I wasn't necessarily in said classes. Mr. Whicker the chorus teacher was awesome too.

19) Did you own a cell phone in highschool?
No, they still had those brick-shaped ones that you had to plug into your car and turn the engine on to run back then.

20) Did you leave campus for lunch?
Yep, I think they only let juniors and seniors go, or something like that, so we went out in the later years.

21) If so, where was your favorite place to go eat?
The park a few miles away. We'd sit on the jungle gym and eat our bag lunches and be stupid.

22) Were you always late to class?
Never. I am appalled at the suggestion.

23) Did you ever have to stay for Saturday school?
Nope. But I had to pick up trash with the Honors Society. Isn't that a load of crap? You get good grades and get in an exclusive club for it, and then they make you pick up trash on the side of the road like a prisoner or something.

24) Did you ever ditch?
Only my senior year a couple times.

25) When it comes time for the reunion will you be there?
Uh. Probably not. Unless I lose 30 pounds and sell a book and buy a Porsche and am just so darn hot I couldn't possibly stay away.

Last Year In The Life Of Sonja: Joys of Home Ownership

Technorati tags:

Don’t Go Changin’, Virginia, You’ve Got Soul

June 23, 2006 in Music | View Comments

My current kick:

Billy Joel. Every time one of his songs comes on the radio, I chair-dance and sing along. Can't help it. (If you're sitting in your car at a stop light in front of a bouncing silver Pontiac, you'll know why.) And know what my next kick is going to be after I'm through chair-dancing and singing along? I'm going to somehow aquire a piano-ish thing and somehow learn to play it and somehow I'm going to learn how to play and sing Billy Joel's songs and I will be the Piano Man. And then I will be cool. And take over the world. Narf.

(Side note: If Billy Joel wasn't so darn urrrrgly, he'd make a really good romance novel hero. I mean, solely based on his song lyrics. I don't actually know the guy. Maybe he'll introduce himself when I become the Piano Man.)

Best sentence:

At first, all she saw was the orange glow of a cheap hotel light bulb, but Mayer’s worried face soon came into focus.



Last Year In The Life Of Sonja: The Cosmic Ball of Crap

Technorati tags: ,

Ten Years/Best Sentence/Smart Bald Guys

June 22, 2006 in On Writing | View Comments

JennyG's post from days and days ago made me want to write about where I hope to be in ten years, but I got to thinking about it, and I don't want all you ding-dongs to know my inner-most hopes and dreams, lovable though you may be. So we'll just say that the next ten years are looking rosy and happy in Sonja land. Go read Jenny's post if you want True and Honest Details. You won't get them here. Heehee.

Best sentence from yesterday:

Exhausted, and with no more words to be said between them, he closed his eyes and drifted into sleep, her naked legs entwined with his on the cool, coverless sheets.

[Classmates from highschool will appreciate my nod to 'naked limbs entwined' of Booker fame. I'm sure he'd be so proud... Actually, he'd probably roll his eyes and say something like, "Not all writing is art, dear," and then toddle off to enlighten some other poor misguided soul... or maybe tell the story about kicking off the rooster's head. But that's ok. I expect nothing less.]

Last Year In The Life Of Sonja: Blogger vs. Xanga

Technorati tags:

« Older entries