What's Up Wednesday 2/11/15

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme for readers and writers to give updates on what's happening in their lives. If you want to find out to find out more check out Jaime Morrow's blog and Erin Funk's blog to sign up.

What I'm Reading: A week flies by so fast doesn't it? Life happens you get busy and forget to pick up a book. I intend to finish Heir of Fire this week, but I left it at my internship and I won't be able to pick it up until later today.

What I'm Writing:  Plucking away at these revisions. Nothing special. I'm not at the place where I'm discovering something new about the story and characters. Bits and pieces yes, but there wasn't an ah-ha moment. The story needs to be torn apart, I'm not attached enough so that's good.
I need a critique partner or two. I've searching for one for a while. In the past I've tried, but it was a mixture of not clicking and bad timing. Hopefully I can find someone to work with and it will last.
Thankfully, I've had help, one of my closest friends reads for me. She helped me substantially with SoD edits and revisions.

What Works For Me: ????

What Else I've Been Up To: Sun vs Snow has kind of overshadowed my thoughts these past few weeks. It will be over soon. It's so stressful. I mean, it's one thing to query and pitch to agents privately. But this adds an extra layer of stress and pressure. No more contests after this. I'm going back in the slush where it's safe.
On the plus side of things, I've made some friends on twitter. It's great to have a support group. W all share a common goal, and I know one day we will.

What's up with you? How is your week going?

Happy Reading!

What's Up Wednesday 2/4/15

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme for readers and writers to give updates on what's happening in their lives. If you want to find out to find out more check out Jaime Morrow's blog and Erin Funk's blog to sign up.

What I'm Reading: I just bought Fairest by Marissa Meyer. IT WAS SO GOOD. I was concerned about reading a novel from the POV of the series' antagonist. I didn't want to like her, especially Marissa created a well rounded character, I understand her and her motives, but in the end, she is a villain, I want to see her defeated.  It's surprisingly short for a Lunar Chronicles book, I finished it on the bus.
I also have so many half started books that I need to dive into. I need a weekend devoted to reading.

What I'm Writing:  I made it into the Sun vs. Snow contest. I'm reppin' Team Sun and I'm so freaking excited. My awesome mentor Jen Blackwood and I have been emailing back and forth about my entry to make it perfect for the agent round next week.
This really gave me the boost of confidence I needed. Trying to break into this industry is so difficult, and at times the process gets to you. I just have to keep reminding myself that it's so subjective. All I can do is keep writing and growing. It only takes one yes.

What Works For Me: Blarg. Um actually writing?

What Else I've Been Up To: I've been keeping myself busy with work, the internship and writing.

What's up with you? How is your week going?

Happy Reading!

What's Up Wednesday 1/28/15

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme for readers and writers to give updates on what's happening in their lives. If you want to find out to find out more check out Jaime Morrow's blog and Erin Funk's blog to sign up.

After a long blogging hiatus, I'm back at full swing-ish

What I'm Reading: I just bought Fairest by Marissa Meyer. I love the Lunar Chronicles. When I heard that we would be getting prequel before the last book, Winter comes out, I immediately thought "I CAN'T WAIT THAT LONG!" But I'm excited to read more about the villain of the tale. Plus, we still get to meet Winter.

What I'm Writing:  Revising the novel I wrote over the summer. I want to finish these revisions within the next few weeks. I have to make an effort not to go at a glacier pace when working on a revisions.

What Works For Me: I still don't like this question, because I'm still figuring it out.

What Else I've Been Up To: I recently started an internship at a local theatre. I still have my day job, but this is giving me a great opportunity to network with more professionals in my field.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know I entered the Sun vs. Snow pitch contest. I'm having a good time bonding with the other participants on Twitter. We won't know who gets selected until next week, so cross your fingers.

What's up with you? How is your week going? Seriously, let me know. I feel like I've lost touch with this crew.

Happy Reading!

Hiding Under a Rock

Hi everyone, happy 2015. Just poking my head up from under a rock to give you an update.

If you didn't already know, I'm deep in the query trenches. It's brutal. So I've been hiding under a rock for God knows how long.

It's hard to go at it alone, sometimes you feel like you're the only one facing the rejection and pain, but you're not. There are hundreds of writers out there at the same point in the process as you.
I personally haven't even tried reaching out many querying writers, but I know they're out there. My fellow blogger Miss Cole has been chronicling her adventures in querying and Coping with Rejection. It's nice keeping track of other's progress and as I slowly rejoin the community, hopefully I'll find other writers under that rock as well.

That being said, I'm going to try to get back in the swing of things. I'll be getting back into What's Up Wednesday. I miss that community. Maybe I'll do independent posts and updates every couple weeks. In the meantime, I have a  books to read, a novel to revise, chocolate to consume.

Speaking of chocolate, the chocolate side of "Reading, Writing and Chocolate" hasn't been as prominent as the other two features. That will change.

Right now on the East Coast we're about to be hit by a huge blizzard. While I'm not in the heart of the storm, it's still freezing up here. On a cold winter day I love snuggling up in a blanket and drinking hot chocolate. I don't like reading and drinking hot chocolate in danger of ruining the book. I'm clumsy.

Happy Reading!

Looking at the Positives

I didn't finish NaNoWriMo this year and I fell behind on blogging. What's new?

Sometimes I'm too hard on myself when it comes to things like that. But I just have to move on a look at the positives. So here's a list of all the good things that happened to me in 2014.

1) I graduated college. Huge deal for me. Four years of blood, sweat and tears and I came out stronger for it. I made some incredible life long friends, majored in something I loved and managed to stay sane (mostly).
2) I finished a novel. It might not have been a part of November NaNoWriMo, but it was completed during Camp NaNoWriMo during the summer of unemployment. I barley looked at it since then, I might revise it.
3) I moved. I packed my bag and started a new path for myself in a new city and state. I've been away from home for about five months and I miss my family, but I made the right choice.
4) I got a job in my field. Thank God.
5) I bought new laptop. It was long overdue.

This year has had it's ups and downs, but 2014 was good for me and I hope 2015 is even better.

Happy Reading!

What's Up Wednesday 11/5/14

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme for readers and writers to give updates on what's happening in their lives. If you want to find out to find out more check out Jaime Morrow's blog and Erin Funk's blog to sign up.

Super short post because of NaNo.
 

What I'm Reading: I started Heir of Fire but I'm afraid to get into it or else I'll spend all day reading.

What I'm Writing:  Working on my NaNoWriMo novel. I keep falling behind, but today it the day to play catch up. Either way, I'm enjoying writing. I started my first NaNoWriMo blog post yesterday. Check it out here


What Works For Me: Night time writing. With the exception of last night, I've been doing most of my writing two or three hours before bed. It works for me, but I know I need to get more writing done earlier in the day. Last night I fell asleep around 10pm and got very little writing done. I can still write at night, just not too late anymore. I have to remember that I'm not in college anymore. I have a job and responsibilities.

What Else I've Been Up To: Nothing, work, writing, watching Supernatural.

What's up with you? How is your week going?

Happy Reading!

2014 NaNoWriMo Chronicles pt. 1

The NaNoWriMo has finally arrived, and boy am I tired. Let's recap:

NaNo Swag

Day 1: I start off strong. 1500 words by 1 am. Later in the afternoon I meet up with some writers in my region for a Write-In. We mostly talked, but so I didn't get much writing done, but that was expected. I felt comfortable enough with my word count at that point. By the end of the day I'm at 1800 words, which is a great start. I wanted to do a Google Hangout with some writing buddies, but my computer crapped out and I couldn't do it. Lucky for me I backed up at the Write-In.

Day 2: A little difficult. My entire day was booked and by the time I got home, I was too tired to get much writing done. At the end of the day I was at 2680 word, just a few hundred words shy of the word count goal of 3333 words.

Day 3: I managed to get a good chunk of my writing done in the evening before bed. It may have something to do with the shiny new toy I bought. Let's just say, I won't be having many troubles with technology for a while. (Who am I kidding? It's a new laptop, you all saw this coming). By the end of the night I managed to hit the 5000 word count goal.

Day 4: After a long day at work, I am ready to get some writing done. The goal tonight is to be at 6,667 words. I know I can make it. I've got a good support group online and in real life. I'm in a good place with my writing.

The story is coming along nicely. I've set myself on a clear path and I am excited to see where these characters take me. Writing contemporary is not as bad as I thought. Don't get me wrong, I'm still tempted to add in a ghost or some magical element. Oh well, despite being behind, I'm having a blast working on the story and being active in the NaNoWriMo community.

Happy Writing!