Saturday, November 21, 2009

Sore Winner! Version 2

Mia and I played Wii sports and I realized something...
  • Mia: Mom you are sooooo losing.
  • Mia: I am so winning you.
  • Mia: I love strikes! Just love, love strikes.
  • Mia: In your face! All over the place!
  • Mia: Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!
  • Mia: I love love winning, especially winning you Mom.
  • Mia: You missed!!
  • Mia: Stri ee i ee ike!! In the Face mommy. In Your Face!
  • Mia: (victory dance with a lot of shaking her booty) Yes! Thank you!
  • Mia: I rock at Bowling!
Sound familiar - I didn't ever know that my competitive gaming was hereditary. Yikes!!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Rejection Collection

This isn't a pity party and I don't ask for words of encouragement, I just wanted to share with you some of the responses I have gotten from agents and publishers since I started submitting in September.

I've done as Shannon Hale told us at our workshop and saved every rejection I get. I've only really received 8 real No Thank Yous, and I thought I might share my misery.


Foundry: I found your material interesting, unfortunately I've decided that this project is not right for me. I'm sorry I can't respond with good news, but I'm sure you will find the right representation.


- And she addressed me by my name and signed it. This was one of the better ones.


Nelson Literary Agency: Dear Author: Thank you so much for sending the Nelson Literary Agency your query. We'd like to apologize for the impersonal nature of this standard rejection letter. Rest assured that we do read every query letter carefully and unfortunately, this project is not right for us.


- It sounds like something I heard on the Simpson's - Dear Baby, Welcome to Dumpsville, population YOU!

Paradigm: Thanks for letting me take a look at the opening to THE VIVATERA. I'm afraid this isn't right for me, so I have to pass on requesting more material; but I want to wish you luck in finding a good home for your novel. Thank you for the opportunity to review.

- He did wish me luck, how nice...

Fox Literary: Unfortunately, this doesn't sound right for me.

- Okay....?

Writers House: ... at 144,000, your word count is pretty high. You should try and get it as close to 100,000 words as possible. A high word count could seriously impact you finding an agent willing to take on when a lot of work will need to be done.

- I thought that was thoughtful to give me some advice on the word count - so I decided to take it off the query.



PMA: Thanks you for your recent query letter and your interest in PMA. We are always eager to hear from writers who are serious about the business of writing; unfortunately, we do not feel that PMA is the right company to represent you.

- Notice my book is not mentioned anywhere and mentioned themselves. They didn't even read it, jerkface. I guess I'm just not SERIOUS about the business of writing.

Larson Pomada: Thanks, but not my thing.


- No letter or nothing... got to love that.
- But the one I received on Saturday was I think the most honest. The hard part about it was they had the entire manuscript. I always knew they would say no because Shadow Mountain is a division of Deseret Book and my book has Tattoos in it and I can't take that out. It is a vital part of the story. So the blow wasn't so bad, I kinda knew already.


Shadow Mountain: We are always pleased to see new ideas, and we have now completed our review of this material. It is obvious you have invested a considerable amount of time and energy into this project. Our publishing schedule is quite competitive, however, and as we look carefully at all the issues involved in publication, we are forced to be extremely selective in our publishing decisions. I am sorry to inform you we are not in a position to pursue this project with you.

I think this was the most honest response out of t
hem all, I could be wrong though - maybe it's just not their thing. Some of the rejections came with hardly any material sent to them, Shadow Mountain had everything, and I felt like they really read it. I just need to get my book through the door and I know whoever finds it will love it. I'm not good at querying I guess and should work on that.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Blood or Grass

Mia drew a beautiful flower for me. She wanted to color it...

Mia: Mommy? Which color do you like better - the color of Blood or the color of Grass?

Mom: I like the color of Grass.

Mia: Well... I can't find the green color...

Mom: Okay, I'd like the color of Blood.

Mia: Oh good. I knew you'd pick that.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Halloweening!

Our Halloween was uneventful, but we have great pictures...

Here we are at the Witches in Gardner Village






Mia liked the Witches




Julia wasn't sure...




The kids liked climbing on everything, that was what they liked most. I liked the Sugar Cookies the most - Thanks Grandma!

Our Costumes...

Julia at ARUP's Halloween Parade


Sisterly Love


Here's Gretal


My SASSY Witch - so true...


This is our Trunk or Treat

Ben is a robot, pretty clever.


Jan is a SLAM DUNK!


Julia couldn't wait to open her candy. She got to one car and sat down to eat!


Here is Gretal, looking for the CANDY HOUSE!


I'm Katniss Everdeen - from the book the Hunger Games, don't worry your not the only one that doesn't know who I am, but if you do, I think I did a good job. You can see the Mockingjay pin on my shirt and my hair is in a braid and everything! And LOVE MY BOOTS!! My new favorite thing in the whole world!! People though I was something from Star Trek or Robin Hood.
Come on -- READ A BOOK!