Smushing three into one

So I've visited a lot of blogs over the holidays and there are the common themes of years in review, what I'm thankful for, and goals/ resolutions. I think each one has its merit. So I'll try to touch base a little on all three.

2009 a year in review for Me
1. The year started with butt loads of video editting. My eyes were permanently glued to the screen sorting through video clips of weddings, Nutcrackers, and more ice skating than my poor eyes could bear.

2. Then around spring time it was the optometry soap opera. Let me summarize...
District manager: By the way. The new full time guy will be here in a week.
Me: speechless
District manager: Didn't the old manager tell you?
Me: umm....no
District Manager: Oh, yeah so I'm sorry, you kind of don't have a job anymore. Unless you want to be a full time doc.
Me: Definitely can't do full time. So. Ok. Guess I have more time to write now.

So I reinvent myself, start revising/ rewriting Product of an Illusion, and I'm perfectly content with life.
Three weeks later:

District manager: We need you! Full time guy flew the coop!
Me: What?!? I've kind of reinvented my life. I can't just drop that.

3. In June I won two agent reviews via Brenda Novak's Auction for Diabetic Research and this really kicked my writing up to full throttle.

4. In August I start officially blogging. Best decision EVER!

5. In September I'm maid of honor in cousin's wedding. Absolute fun craziness. See pic for example.

6. In October I'm writing away. Bliss.

7. In November, still writing and then finally submit to agents.

8. In December I recieve my agent reviews. Take a writing hiatus, contemplate, and decided to start working full time.

Whew...that was some year. Wish I had accomplished more, but there's always 2010.


What I'm thankful for:
1. My health, my family, Sarcastically Delicious, his jokes, my friends (these are listed in no particular order)
2. The joy that my blog and blogging has brought me (Thank you guys!!)

Goals/ Resolutions:
This is where the real conundrum is folks. I'm a very goal oriented person. If I don't make goals I feel like I'm just floating out there in a pointless ether. But the problem is that the goals are clashing with each other! It's worse than Monsters vs Aliens (funny movie by the way, just watched it the other night). When I figure out who the winner is I will definitely post it on my blog. They say if you write your goals down you are more likely to achieve them. So posting them on my blog should really improve my odds of accomplishing them, right?

And lastly, I'd like to thank Natalie Bahm and Shannon O'Donnell for thinking of me when it was their turn to bestow awards. I guess this should have went under the what I'm thankful for column. Alas, I try.
Happy New Year! Best wishes to everyone for a fantabulous 2010!

A teenager with true Christmas spirit

Today at work I had a patient who was a fifteen year old hispanic male. As we were waiting in between dilation drops I asked him if he was excited about Christmas. He said, "Oh, yes. I bought presents for all my sisters and my family. But I told my Mom and everyone not to buy anything for me. We don't have a lot and I want to make sure everyone gets something for Christmas this year."
His response tore my heart out and I wanted to start bawling right there. Not only is this boy so generous, he broke his glasses two weeks ago and has been walking around blind. And here I was being ba hum bug about the holiday season and he was being so self less and mindful of his family's happiness on Christmas day.
Sniff.

The Holidays

A lot of people are taking a blog hiatus due to the upcoming holidays. I am still undecided on my blog status. As you all know, I'm a bit ba hum bug right now and I am trying quite hard to come out of the funk.

For starters, I made a fire the other day and hung up stockings, in hopes that  Santa would squeeze his fat ass down my chimney and bring me a muse.

Next, Sarcastically Delicious (this was more his doing than mine) and I put up a tree. Sasha Kitty is waging war against the tree. So far the score is Kitty 1  Tree 0. And what a terrible loss it was folks. Tree was laying panting on its side, ornaments scattered across the floor, and branches strewn hither and tither. To the right is a pre battle shot.

And lastly, I went to Barnes & Noble and bought all of my ice skating students and my skating coach copies of City of Bones, City of Ashes, and if they were extra special City of Glass. I even splurged on some peppermint hot chocolate, sadly it tasted off.

And finally, I want to complain about how kids get off of school until January 5th! That's the 5th! And us adults have to work!

Ok, that's it from me for now. I fear this post is veering farther and farther away from writing and books. Happy Holidays!

Does your significant other read your blog?

I hope everyone had a fantabulous weekend! Mine was quite busy. I got to spend a good bit of time with Sarcastically Delicious (aka boyfriend), but alas we spent most of it working. We did however have a very nice dinner at the Melting Pot on Friday during which we had some great conversation.

Let me tell you a bit about Sarcastically Delicious....
1. He doesn't like fiction.
2. He doesn't like anything with "fantasy" in it. It's beyond him why I participate in a fantasy football league. He says it's NOT REAL!  But it is SD. It is.
3. To this day he says, "I just DON't understand why you like Twilight. It's just gay." And if he can squeeze in a comment about "sparkling nipples" and "taking ones shirt off one too many times" he will never miss an opportunity.
3. He's not on Facebook
4. He is very FUNNY. He makes jokes about everything.
5. And of course he's sarcastic and hot. Hence his namesake- Sarcastically Delicious (which I believe he came up with himself)
6. He gives me my space. He doesn't care that I like to ice skate at the butt crack of dawn, spend most of my time in la la land, and do a wide assortment of careers.

So as you've probably figured out he doesn't read my blog. And I don't think he ever will. Does that bother me? Not really. He does however comment on my e-popularity.

So does your significant other read your blog? And how do you feel about that?

What I learned from my other agent review....

Alex Glass emailed me a partial critique of Product of an Illusion about 10 days ago and I've been digesting ever since. Getting partial critiques from two different agents (Nathan Bransford was the other-see my thoughts here) was an eye opening experience to say the least. And for those of you who are new visitors, I won these critiques via Brenda Novak's online auction for diabetic research.

Getting two different critiques reminded me of how subjective writing, reading, agenting, publishing, etc... are. After reading Nathan's critique I figured that I pretty much knew what Alex was going to say. They're both agents. They must share the same thought patterns, views, etc... Not quite.

I'm not going to share every detail, but just the things that I found thought provoking and that made me uber happy.

1. Alex said he "read with interest." 
Is that just a formality? Or was he really interested? I suppose he didn't have to say it unless he meant it. It's not like he would have said I read your manuscript with complete utter mind numbing boredom

2. He said I was a "talented writer" and that the  "core universal themes of the novel (coming of age, overcoming adversity, sacrifice, and redemption), and situates it pretty solidly within the YA fantasy category, with some great supernatural and adventure elements. It’s a strong premise and there is a large commercial market for this category of book."

I re-read this part several times. And then I re-read it again. And then I just kind of stared at the computer screen for awhile in a state of pleasant shock.

There were some other positive comments that he made, but the above two really MADE my day.
Now for the things that I learned and I hope are helpful for you guys too.....

1. I've always struggled with the concept of a prologue. To prologue or not to prologue- that is the question. Here's what Alex's take was on it:
"A prologue should set up a story and give some background details, but most importantly it should serve as gateway into the world of the novel. The reader needs to have a taste of the world and the character before we are given a lot of plot elements."
The part that really hit home for me was the not introducing a lot of plot elements. I think I was trying to throw too many plot snippets into my prologue and it just ended up being confusing and muddled. Thinking of a prologue as a gateway or a tasting really puts it into perspective, for me at least, as far as what I need to do for the opening.

2. Synopsis
I've read a lot of agent blogs and consulted many sources and let's face it- I think the concept of a synopsis is subjective. Alex said that he prefered a two paragraph synopsis and he said that some agents may disagree on that. But he feels you should have a clear, concise synopsis that you could use as part of your query letter.

3. Voice
Just as Nathan, Alex found some issues with my narrative voice. And he suggested (just like Nathan) that an omniscient narrator may perhaps be more appropriate.

4. Telling versus Showing- Alex's thoughts:
"The “telling” type of writing shuts the reader off from being able to sympathize with the characters or figure out what is going on and what the subtext of the novel is, which is the crux of a reader’s connection to a story."

5. Chapter Length
My chapters average 5-6 typed pages when using 1 inch margins, double spaced, and 11 point Times New Roman. Alex encouraged me to "focus on writing longer chapters with evocative scenes and fleshing out sympathetic characters that can stand on their own without the intervention of a sometimes-awkward narrative presence and plot-advancing devices."

So there you have it folks. I now have so much professional suggestions/critcisms on my novel that I almost don't know what to do with it all. I've been on kind of a writing embargo the past few weeks. And now I'm afraid if I start writing I'll just...I don't know....not do it right. Don't get me wrong, I feel soooo lucky to have these professional critiques and my inner writing engine is getting revved up for what I'm confident will be the best version of Product of an Illusion yet. But, still...it's uh...daunting.

I might be the real life Ba Hum Bug

I usually love the holidays. But I'm not really looking forward to them this year and I can't really explain why. I haven't put up a tree or hung up lights. I only bought presents yesterday for my skating students (I gave them books!) but have yet to buy presents for my family, skating coach, or Sarcastically Delicious.
I think it may be because I'm working too much these days. When the day is over all I want to do is veg, and thinking about Christmas just reminds me of all the things I should be doing to make it a holly jolly good time. Bah!
I think me and Scrooge should hole up somewhere and just have a ba hum bugiriffic time.

Will post more writerly thoughts tomorrow. Stay tuned for the scoop on my other agent review.

Seriously disappointed.....

Dear Pittsburgh Steelers,

I have been a long time fan of your team and an especially huge admirer of Hines Ward. I love the fact that he smiles after every play and genuinely looks like he's having the time of his life.

Well, I'm not smiling team. Last Sunday before you guys played the Oakland Raiders I announced on Facebook that I would disown you guys for the season if you lost to them. I mean come on, they're the Oakland Raiders. And you let me down! And then last night you played the Cleveland Browns. The poopy Cleveland Browns. And they beat you! I hope you're hanging your heads down in shame.

Mike Tomlin said that you guys were going to unleash hell in December. Do you need me to chase you around with a pitch fork? Seriously, I'll do it.

Further more, what kind of line lets their quarterback get sacked a gazillion times a game? I bet I could protect Rothlesberger better than you guys can. It's no wonder the poor guy has had so many concussions.

I understand that Polamalu is hurt and has been spending a lot of his free time doing Head & Shoulders commercials. But you guys are a team! And just because one defensive player is off shampooing his hair for money (just kidding I know you have a strained MCL, I've had one of those before too and I feel for you- ouch!) that doesn't mean our entire defensive scheme should fall apart.

And lastly, you have disappointed my fantasy team, Straight Trippin. I'll draft your defense in the second round just because I think you're that cool. And I'll pick up Hines in the third. Just beacuse I love you guys that much. But, I'm seriously regretting that this season. Well, Hines not so much. He's put up some good numbers.

So if I don't watch any more of your games this season it's not because I don't love you guys. I just can't stand to see you self destruct. I don't know if you should even trying winning anymore games this season. Just end the misery with a pitiful record so we can at least draft some better safetys and peeps who'll actually protect Big Ben.

Happy Holidays Team!

Seriously Disappointed,
Anita