Writing Update

There isn't too much to report on the writing front, but I'm trying to write at least one post a month that's focused on my books, so here it is.

Pack Supremacy is with my beta readers right now. One just finished it, and I'm mulling over her notes; the other is reading it now and should have feedback for me soon. I was pleased by the critique I've received so far, and I'm really looking forward to getting the rest. I feel like I'm finally coming in for a landing with this book. Right now my expected publication date is June or July 2015. I'm hoping to have it up on Amazon for pre-order in the next couple weeks.

Meanwhile, I'm continuing to write while I wait for the comments on Pack Supremacy. I've been intensely plotting the untitled Bex Addison project I've mentioned before, as well as Capitoline Hill #3 and another book that I'm not ready to discuss yet. And I'm trying desperately not to work on anything else, which is a lot easier said than done.

Like I said, not too much to report right now. Hopefully I'll have some good news for you about Pack Supremacy for my next update.

Writing Update

Finally, after months of sitting on a round of comments from my beta readers, I managed to get another draft of Pack Supremacy completely edited. Hooray!

I feel a lot better about this version than I did about the previous few. This draft was a relatively major overhaul of the story. Most of the core bits stayed the same, but I dramatically increased a part of Quinn's narrative in an effort to cut down on the amount of time she spends sitting in an office moping and talking to herself. It also allowed me to cut out several scenes between her and another character that really served no purpose.

That said, I always send a draft to my betas with the same comment: "I have no idea if this is good or complete gibberish." It always seems to me like during the editing process I take everything I wrote, throw it up into the air, and hope it lands in a reasonable order. Scenes that used to be in chapter 4 now don't appear until chapter 23. That revelation that Quinn had at the end of the book is suddenly bumped up to about a third of the way through. Because I've read it so many times and I know what's supposed to be happening, I can never tell if anyone else is going to understand who's who and what's going on.

I like to think of writing like a patchwork quilt. You start out with some fabric that's pretty nice on its own, but then, in the second draft, you find other fabric that's also nice and you sew some together. Then you share it with people, and they offer suggestions as to another pattern that might work, and you add some of that. And again and again, until you have either a beautiful quilt or a clashing, misshapen array of fabric squares.

In case you're wondering, I don't quilt. So that entire paragraph might not make sense.

Anyway, this is intended as an update. What's next for me? While I wait for feedback on this draft, I'm going to do two things. The first, like I talked about a couple weeks ago, is to make a few charts and lists for The Capitoline Hill Chronicles, namely a timeline and a character list so I can stop guessing every time I need to address one of those two things.

And the second is a new project, though one I've talked about before. I'm finally going to begin seriously outlining the currently untitled story about Bex Addison. I've been tossing this plot around for a couple years now, and I'm really excited to get started working on it. I'll post more about it goes along.

Every project is a learning experience

I've been putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard for as long as I can remember. I have five completed novels (six, if you count Pack Supremacy), a double handful of short stories, a hundred or so flash fictions (including fanfiction), and folders and folders of half-started projects. I've learned something new with every single one. And I still have a lot to learn.

Sometimes I take my writing abilities for granted. I feel like I can sit down at any time and pound out a story that may not be polished and perfect, but will at least be coherent and engaging. And so I don't think about perfecting my craft the way I probably should. Though I have a pile of writing books, I'm lucky to make it through a couple chapters of them. I don't traverse blogs looking for tips and tricks. I go to one writing conference a year, and that's because it's local and I can sleep in my own bed.

I don't even write as often as I should. It's hard to find time everyday, but not as hard as I've made it out to be in my mind. I could sacrifice an hour in front of the TV or a half hour of reading during my lunch break. I could push myself outside my comfort zone to see what it feels like to write contemporary or epic fantasy or literary.

But even with all my bad habits, I'm learning as I go. I'm noticing it acutely as I edit Pack Supremacy. I finished the first draft of Pack Mentality back in late 2012/early 2013. Since they're in the same series, details I included in PM are obviously incredibly important in PS. And I catch myself thinking, "Oh, I wish I'd done THAT in book 1," or, "I really shouldn't have included that bit so early."

I find I've learned a lot about the process of writing too. I really winged it when when I was writing Pack Mentality. I'm not sure I expected to actually finish it, so I have basically no notes. Which means I'm spending a ton of time checking for timeline continuity and making sure my character descriptions don't change from one page to the next. At some point (probably after this draft is done), I'm going to have to sit down and make lists and charts and maybe even maps because it's just getting ridiculous at this point. But it would have been a lot easier if I'd done this from the beginning.

Hopefully these are things I'll take with me as I work on my future books. I don't always learn from my mistakes, but if I can execute a few of these changes, it will give me room to learn new lessons once I get there.

Pack Supremacy Update

Photo credit: The copyrights for the images are held by Katie Little | Dreamstime.com, James Hearn | Dreamstime.com, and Michael Shevlin. The copyright for the cover is held by Patricia L. Miller.

Since it's now a few months past when I'd hoped to publish Pack Supremacy (THE CAPITOLINE HILLS CHRONICLES book 2), I thought I'd give a little update on its progress. I really have no one to blame for the delay but myself (ah, the curse of self-publishing). I gave the first draft to my beta readers last February, and they got me back comments by the middle of March, which was amazing of them. And then I looked at those comments and... did nothing. By the time I finally got myself back on track with my edits, it was August, a mere two months from when I hoped I'd be published.

Still, I sent a second round of edits out at the end of August, and again my fantastic beta readers came through, reading it within a week and getting back to me with in-depth critiques. Unfortunately, some of those critiques suggested I still had quite a bit of work to do before this book would be publication-ready. Which is fine. I'd rather the book be really ready than to put it up early and know it's not. But it did mean that I missed my deadline.

I took time off for NaNoWriMo and then the holidays, but for most of October and since the new year started I've been hard at work on another round of edits. I'm hoping to have those to my betas by the end of the month. I'm hoping some of the changes I'm making in this round will fix a few of the big problems that were pointed out to me.

In the upcoming months, I'll keep you posted on its progress, including a new publication date once I know it. If you haven't read Pack Mentality (the first CAPITOLINE HILL book) yet, you can buy a copy on Amazon or Smashwords.

Where Have I Been

I occasionally fall into long periods of introspection. I get so overwhelmed by everything that happens in the world and in my life that my brain turns off and I find myself unable to get motivated enough to write a birthday card, let alone a book. Like an attack of ennui, but less... depressed (because, I promise, I'm actually happy while this is going on, just sort of lazy).

That's at least partially to blame for my extended absence and complete lack of productivity over the last few months. As I mentioned in a previous post, I moved in April, which led to a downhill spiral of too much to do and not enough desire to do it all. Which led to five weeks spent vegging on my new couch (the comfiest couch in the history of couches, by the way) watching Buffy for the first time. Which led to two weeks of, "Why can't I write as well as Joss Whedon?" Which explains the half-unpacked boxes that are still cluttering my apartment four months later.

Plus, I got some more responsibility at work, which led to a few weeks of late nights trying to finish some projects.

But it's a new month, and I'm kicking my ass back into gear. Pack Mentality is so close to completion I can taste it. I pushed the release back a month, so it's expected publication is now October 8th. I plan to spend August finishing the edits, sending it out for a final proofread, and nailing down my cover, so the month of September will be devoted to promotion. I'm really excited about sharing it with all of you (and the rest of the world).

I hope everyone's had a good summer so far! Sorry I haven't been keeping up with blogs and book releases; I'll do better about that!

Teaser Tuesday - 5/21/13

Photo credit: Jane Green's website

It's been a busy week or two for me. Most of that time has been spent with normal life craziness, but the rest has been furiously editing Pack Mentality. See, what happened is that I wrote most of book 2 for NaNoWriMo last year, and, in doing so, I changed about half the rules I'd come up with for my world. Good, necessary changes, but the kinds of things my characters should know about in book 1.

I've still been making some time for reading though. I finished the latest Kitty Norville book (by Carrie Vaughn), and I just started Promises to Keep by Jane Green. Actually, I haven't even started it yet. It's sitting on my desk waiting for my lunch break to read it.

Callie Perry lights up every room she enters, and adores her settled family life in tony Bedford, New York. Steffi is Callie's younger sister. At thirty, she's still a free spirit bouncing between jobs and boyfriends in Manhattan. Their long-divorced parents, Walter and Honor, share little besides their grown daughters. But when Callie receives a difficult diagnosis, the family will come together for one unforgettable and ultimately life-changing year.

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

Steffi elbows her hair out of her eyes before grabbing a frying pan, splashing olive oil liberally into it and scraping the finely chopped onion into the oil. Ignoring the sweat running into her eyes, she spins around, hurrying over to the counter opposite, where Jorge is slicing spring onions.

May Wrap Up

Hear that explosion sound? That's my goal for the month of May.

I had a very, very unproductive month, at least when it came to writing. I wish I could say I had more important things to do, but the truth is I got discouraged early on by some things in my personal life, then K.S. Lewis was visiting (you just knew I was going to find a way to blame you for this ;-) ), and work was particularly crazy for a week or so. And I just sort of... stopped.

And, guys, I came up with yet another new plot for Defenders. I had this big revelation at the beginning of the month, and about the only thing I did right in May was edit the first 13 chapters to line up with it. And last night I decided to (possibly) change it all.

I should explain. I've always felt that Defenders was a romance, even though it doesn't appear so at first. So when I revised it the first time, I brought the romantic aspects out earlier. Which led to... a love triangle. I hate love triangles. I mean, it's not a make-or-break thing when I'm reading a book, but it's usually something I groan about. Because I never agree with the main character's choice. NEVER. I like to root for the underdog, and it's always so obvious which guy the MC is going to choose that I find myself rooting for the other guy (who's always popular, cute and sweet, but she goes for the bad boy with the troubled past). And sometimes it's done well, and I don't mind as much. But sometimes it's done badly, and I find myself resenting the book because of it.

So, long story made not much shorter, I have a mental block against writing a love triangle, especially when it will be obvious fairly early which guy she's going to wind up with. So I thought, "Well, what if she's just with the one guy?" But the result was that the book lost a lot of its key tension (not the romantic tension, but the plot was tied in with Guy #2). So then I started tweaking the plot to make it fit. And now... there's a new plot.

I haven't decided whether I'm definitely going to go in this direction yet, but it doesn't seem like, "Because it will be a pain," is a good reason not to do it. Needless to say, this is part of the reason I didn't write so much this month.

So if there's anyone still reading this, let's do the monthly breakdown anyway. My May goals were:

• Write 23,000 words, keeping on track with 1000 words/weekday. Um. No. I wrote 8700. That's like 23,000, but... not.
• Have a polished MS for CH, along with a complete query letter and synopsis. Um. No. I have a partial query letter and feedback from three of my beta readers (and I'm waiting on feedback from two or three more). I have no synopsis. In fact, my Writer-brain cries when I even type the word "synopsis."
• Get 100 followers on Twitter (at which point I might have a giveaway) and 65 followers on my blog. YES! I have 108 followers on Twitter and 67 on my blog. And in light of that ('cause y'all are awesome), I'm going to have a giveaway next week. Stay tuned for more details.
• Submit at least one short story to a magazine or contest. Continue writing flash fiction every week. Um. No. I submitted... nothing. And I wrote maybe two flash fictions.
• Enter at least two bloghops. I actually entered three: the Dust It Off Bloghop, the First Loves Blogfest, and the Flash Fiction Blogfest. So, yay.

But it's okay. Everyone has a bad month sometimes. The important thing is to keep moving forward and not get discouraged. I can do that. So here are June's goals:

• Write 10,5000 words. I'm halving my writing goal this month because I really want to focus on editing CH and prepping it for querying, and I'm starting to realize I can't do that and write 1000 words/day. I have to choose.
• Have a polished MS for CH, along with a complete query letter and synopsis. For real this time. I've pushed back my goal to start submitting it to agents until later in the summer, but I really want to have something to show by the end of the month.
• Get 125 followers on Twitter and 75 followers on my blog.
• Enter at least two bloghops. Right now, I'm planning on doing the First Fight, First Kiss Blogfest and the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Bloghop.

And if you made it all the way to the end of this post, you're awesome. Here, have a cookie:

OK, seriously? How much do you want a chocolate chip cookie right now?

E is for Editing

I have to be honest. Capitoline Hill is the first book of my own that I've ever edited, despite being the fourth one I finished. In the past, I've always been the love-em-and-leave-em type, but I really want to make this relationship work. I'm willing to put in the extra effort because I think we can go far together.

But this editing thing? Man, it's just... a pain in the ass. I've never felt quite this level of frustration and elation mixed together. Every once in awhile, I'll hit a scene that's really just well done, and I'll think, "I knew I could write." Then I'll finish that scene, and it's back to, "I suck. Why would anybody read this crap? And how could this whole kerfuffle of stuff take place in two days?!"

Timeline seems to be the biggest problem for me, followed by continuity. The entire book spans about two weeks, which is just not enough time for everything that happens. But I seem incapable of just having periods of downtime that I could gloss over (two weeks is expanded by the way. The original draft took place in less than a week. I need it to be more like two months).

Some of the continuity problems came from doing a rewrite and copying and pasting parts of the first draft into it. I can deal with those. Just like I can deal with the awkward word choices and the adverb-mania. But I really need to start keeping a character chart or something to prevent issues like, "His voice was higher-pitched than I'd have expected"/"[He said in] a deep baritone." And at some point I should probably commit to exactly how long Quinn's been back home. In one chapter it's two weeks; in the next, it's over a month.

I sat with a reporter's notebook and filled four pages with comments while I was re-reading CH, which range from mundane word choice notes to angry insults (at myself). They're actually a bit amusing to read, though I imagine they'll be considerably less amusing to fix.

What's your editing process like?

So Much to Blog About, So Little Time

I'm going to put today's flash fiction in its own post because I have a lot to talk about (because I'm a lazy blogger who didn't want to take the time to write any posts this week). So, first, an update on Rosetta. Well, to start, it's not called Rosetta anymore. It's now the untitled first book of the Capitoline Hill Chronicles. Which means I'm going to have to go back and change all my blogpost labels to match. x_x

Why the name change? Well, "rosetta" is a word with a lot of meaning and some symbolism... none of which related in any way to the book I wrote. Capitoline Hill is one of the seven hills of Rome (and if someone who knows Italian could tell me how to correctly pronounce that), and the myth is that Romulus built a fortress on it that would serve as a sanctuary for the Romans if the city was ever attacked. This seems much more like something that werewolves would name their compound.

Also, I'm done with my second draft! I'm not sure exactly what happened last Friday, but once I finally committed to working on it, I edited ~260 pages from Friday to Wednesday. I didn't do any of the nitty-gritty edits so there's still a lot left to do, but I think the book's actually in the order I want now, and I hopefully fixed most--if not all--of my continuity issues. I'm getting to the point where I'm almost ready to possibly be proud of certain part of it. I actually made myself cry a little while I was working on it... and it wasn't because the chapter sucked!

Next bit of awesome news: I'm being featured on a blog today! I was one of the winners for this month's Knights of Microfiction (along with Stephanie at Word by Word), so Kathy at Imagine Today interviewed me and featured me on her blog. Go check out my thoughts on life (writing), liberty (television), and the pursuit of happiness (Vanilla Coke).

Also, yesterday kicked off the triannual YA Scavenger Hunt. There are 60 authors giving away cool prizes, so you should definitely head over and check it out. I did the YELLOW team puzzle yesterday, and I think I'm going to work on RED next. They're fun, and a great opportunity to check out some YA authors with whom you might not be familiar.

Also also, you should go check out Kindles for Kids if you haven't already. It's for a great cause, and you can submit a short story or enter a contest to win some awesome prizes.

Who's excited about the Blogging from A-Z Challenge? This is my first year entering, so I'm pretty psyched, even if I've only come up with, like, seven of my topics.

I... think that's it. For now. Stay tuned for my Flash Fiction Friday update later (you know, after I write it).

February Wrap Up

I figure the end of the month is a good time to take a look at how I'm doing towards my writing resolutions and see what I can do to improve, both as a writer and as a chronic procrastinator.

Just as a note: according to Blogger I had 400 page views for the month of February. From when this blog began in October 2011 through January 2012, I had 114. I also went from having only one follower (thank you, Kim!) to have over 30. So thank you to everyone who's been following my blog and tweets! I really appreciate each and every one of you.

Goals:

1. Write 1000 words per day, Monday through Friday. As of this morning, I had 970 words left to hit my monthly goal of 21,000 words (which is akin to that 1000 words/day goal). Barring some unforeseen circumstance, I expect to write that by tonight, thus accomplishing this goal. (Hey, it's nice to start on a high note.)
2. Begin Defenders. Yesterday I hit the 10,000 word mark for Defenders, so I'm well into it now. I also started/continued a story I'd originally intended to use for NaNoWriMo called Angels, but I'm only about two chapters into that and seem to be using it more for when I get writer's block, so we'll see what happens with that.
3. Finishing editing Rosetta. The wheels fall off the wagon here. Not only have I not finished my edits, but I've barely worked on them all month. I started out with about 70 pages edited, and now I'm up to about 90. Not good enough.
4. Submit short stories. This morning I submitted a short story to Penumbra eZine. I've also been submitting flash fiction stories to blog contests (and I must admit I'm getting kind of addicted to them). This is a fun way to hit my word count without agonizing over one novel the whole time, especially when that novel is as ornery as Defenders.

Three out of four isn't too bad, though I definitely wish I'd done better with Rosetta. If I ever want to start querying, I need to be, you know, complete. SO, with that in mind, here are my goals for March (I really like lists).

• Continue writing 1000 words/day. This seems to be a pretty good amount, enough that I don't feel like I'm not doing anything, but not so much that I can't handle that with my day job. This makes my March word count goal 22,000 words.
• Edit 50 pages of Rosetta per week. I honestly have no idea if this is feasible, but I need a stricter deadline for myself than, "Be done by the end of the month." I'm rewriting substantial parts of the book, but I'm still using quite a bit of the first draft, so hopefully this won't be completely unattainable.
• Get 50 followers on my blog and Twitter. I'm at about 30 for both, so I don't think this is out of reach.
• Continue to submit short stories and flash fiction.

I've discovered that I truly work better (read: I only work) when I have hard deadlines for myself with as little wiggle room as possible. If I can possibly find a way to put off doing the work, I will, even if I regret it later. I'm never going to be the kind of writer who only writes when they're inspired because I'll have nothing but a drawer of half-started manuscripts to show for it.

What about you guys? Does this kind of scheduling work for you, or do you work better with more flexibility?

I Love the Smell of a New Month in the Morning

So today begins a new month in what I'm affectionately calling "The Year of Get Off Your Butt and Do More Than Talk About Writing" (or TYOGOYBADMTTAW, for short). With this new month begins a new project, a new goal, and a new deadline. February's goals are as follows:

• Write 1000 words per day, Monday through Friday. This adds up to a monthly goal of 21,000 words.
• Begin Defenders. This is my paranormal YA project, the first book in a five-book series. It centers on a city called Rafcate, which was attacked and nearly destroyed 150 years ago. To make sure that never happens again, every citizen is drafted into military service at the age of sixteen. The main character is a 16-year-old girl named Laurie, who is looking forward to serving, until the body of a teenage girl shows up on her doorstep with a message about treason and revolution.
• Finishing editing Rosetta. I'm about 70 pages into my edits, and I'm rewriting significant portions of the first draft, but my hope is that I can finish the first round of edits by the end of the month, after which I'll finally be able to allow other people to read it and offer critiques.
• Submit short stories. I'm also looking to write and submit some short stories to magazines and contests. I'm on Duotrope, but if anyone knows of any other websites like it, please let me know.

My writing goals for the year are fairly ambitious, but I'm slowly starting to learn that big goals and hard deadlines will keep me writing and moving forward better than anything else. How do you keep yourself motivated to write and edit?

Random Thoughts on Editing

• Editing is a much different process than I expected it to be. I guess I thought I'd just be able to jump to the sections that contained notes, do a few quick spruces and suddenly have a beautiful, perfect book that every agent and editor would be waiting to receive. But it turns out...
• I have a lot more insecurities than even I realized. I can't just be happy with the fact that I wrote a book for a few days. Instead, I dove into editing right away and was suddenly plagued by doubts. Is my book really good enough to compete with every other urban fantasy book out there? Do the characters and the plot develop in an organic way? Is it bad that nothing ever seems to happen directly to my main character? In case you were wondering, I'm pretty sure the answer to the last question is yes, which means that...
• "Rewrite" is not a dirty word. While I'm not rewriting the entire book per se, I am writing significant portions of it, far more than I expected. My first draft is, at this point, acting like the patches that will eventually be sewn into a quilt. I'll write a new scene, then find some old scenes that fit, but I'll rearrange them from the order in which they were initially written. All in all, the job is way more time-consuming than I expected it to be, so...
• My goal of having my initial edits done by 1/31 is a pipe dream. I have to let it go now, and set the slightly more realistic goal of having the first round of edits done by 2/29, so I can start sending the drafts to the friends and family members who so wonderfully offered to read and critique it. I don't think this will cause a change in the rest of my timeline, but I'm trying to learn to be more flexible.

This doesn't change the fact that I plan on starting Defenders on 2/1, as well as some short story projects and contest submissions. I want to get back to writing 1000 words/day, whether that be Defenders, submissions for magazines, short stories, blog posts, television reviews, or whatever.

What's your favorite/least favorite thing about editing?

Light at the End

If any of you follow my word count meter (on the right), you might have been surprised to see it jump up dramatically, starting Monday. At some point over the weekend, I realized that I could see the end of Rosetta. Now, yes, in fairness, the end was still a long way off, but it was visible for the first time in the entire writing process. Not only that, but I'd finally gotten to several scenes that were already planned out (one was even already written).

There's nothing like knowing you're almost done to motivate you. In the past four days, I've written almost 7000 words, including today. I'm not even sure how many chapters that was, but at least five. I made it through the first of two critical scenes that will lead to the end of the book (and the entire plot of book 2), and yesterday I wrote the climax of the book.

I then reduced myself to tears in the middle of the office.

My goal is to have the first draft done no later than Sunday. There's one more pivotal scene, then a few lighter, though no less important, scenes. I can't imagine I have more than 5000 words left, but I thought I wouldn't have 10,000 more at the beginning of the month, and I've write over 13,000 so far, so clearly my judgment cannot be trusted.

After I finish, I want to dive right into edits, because I know there are notes all over the later chapters of things to fix in the beginning. There are major inconsistencies that I've been going back and forth on as I try to tailor the werewolf myths to suit my needs. I'd like to get most of those out of the way, along with my character inconsistencies, while it's still fresh in my head, before I let anyone else read it or take any time off.

Come February 1, I want to start working on another book, (very) tentatively titled Defenders, which I'm sure I'll post more about before then. I contemplated just diving into book 2 of Rosetta, but I'd like to have another independently marketable book by the end of the year. Plus, I've been stewing over Defenders for awhile now, and I'd like to see if I can't capitalize on my relatively new motivation to get some of it down on paper.

Then there's the fun process of querying agents. If anybody has some suggestions they'd like to offer up before I get started, I'd appreciate it. I'll probably look to start querying by June or July at the latest.

Rosetta Update

So... odds are good that I won't be finishing Rosetta this month. Last night I sat down and, in a fit of writer's block about chapter 22, wrote a scene from the final battle. It really was just a small scene, but it lasted 1000 words. At the 1000-word per day rate I'm going, I have just over 10,000 words to go until I hit my target for the month. That's ten of those small scenes. I think I have more to say than that.

I'm okay with this though. I've set a new goal (end of January), a new writing challenge (1000 words/day for the month of January), and I'll keep trudging along. I don't think it'll take me all of January to finish, because I do think I'm starting to circle in for a landing.

Sort of.

This story has taken some seriously weird twists in the last month. Peppered throughout my chapters now are notes for me to go back and fix. Some of them are specific notes, like, "The Author will think of something clever for me to say here." But some are incredibly vague, like, "Make Alec a more likable character," or, "There will be more unrest in the Pack." Which means my editing process is going to rock.

I'm actually really looking forward to starting my edits. I like the direction the story's gone, and I like the things I've come up with to explain the anomalies I created in the beginning. I know there are several chapters that will need to be completely rewritten, as well as many things that will need to be cut or added, but it actually sounds nice not to have to create anything new. I just get to play in the world I've already created.

I've never edited any of my novels before. This is usually where the wheels fall off the wagon. I made some half-hearted attempts with my first novel, but none of them could wipe the undercurrent of, "I wrote this when I was in elementary school," from it, so I ultimately stuck it in a metaphorical drawer.

I've also never written a query letter for a novel or a synopsis, but those are both included in my new year's writing resolutions (I'll put up the list later). I'd like to have Rosetta edited by the beginning of summer, maybe May or June, of 2012, and I want to begin sending letters to agents soon after that. Ideally, I'd love to have an agent by the end of next year, but I'm going to attempt to dream somewhere in reality's neighborhood. I can't control whether someone picks up my book, but I can control whether I have feelers out, so I'll do as much as I can and hope the rest falls into place.