Breaking Bad (Habits)

Bad habits happen. I still hold my pen weird when I write, despite the efforts by teachers and my parents to set me straight. My hand doesn't like it the "right" way, so now after years of abuse I have a lovely impression on my right ring finger that's even misshapen my nail. And my handwriting is still just as hard to read as when I was in second grade. o_O

There are also bad habits in another form of writing: TYPING. Remember learning to type back in school? Well ... I retained that information incorrectly. I'm fast, but I know I'm not hitting the right keys with the right fingers. And my biggest problem with typing?? CAPS LOCK. For YEARS (and by years I mean from jr. high up until just LAST YEAR, people) I used the caps lock for ALL of my capital letter needs. That's right. Even for just the first letter at the beginning of a sentence or a name, I would hit caps lock, hit the letter, and hit caps lock again. Extremely inefficient and the source of much laughter when I typed in front of anyone. It took me a good six months or so to break the habit, but after much determination, I DID IT. I broke that sucker. Me and the shift key are tight now. We're like THIS *crosses fingers*.

Another habit I had to work really hard to break is the amount of space after a period. I thought two were standard, but not these days it seems. Only one space after the end of a sentence. ONLY ONE! Too bad half my book was written before I knew about THAT rule (and all of my older writings which I discovered recently when I pulled one back out to work on it). What a nightmare getting rid of all those extra spaces was, and training myself to hit space once instead of twice. But I broke that sucka bee too.

These broken habits may not seem like big deals to some of you, but I shall celebrate these victories. They were hard work! Have you broken any writing habits?
   

Just when I needed new music, I found....

MERRIMENT! I've been an Eisley fan for years, but recently discovered the two younger siblings (the ones that were too young to be in Eisley when they started) started a band together called Merriment and they've released an EP. If you're looking for sweet, soothing melodies, check them out.

And just because... here's an acoustic version of an Eisley song in a very echoey room! I've always loved their harmonies. Sigh.

Any other Eisley or Merriment fans out there? 

When Critique Partners Finally Meet!

This post is a little late coming, but things in the querying world have been keeping me busy and insane, so that's my excuse. In June, I got to meet all of my critique partners/my best blogging buddies!

First, Amy from The Green Bathtub and her littlest came to Houston (for a rather sad reason, initially) and she stayed a night with me and hubs. The next day we went shopping where we felt underdressed at Tiffany's and chowed down on some froyo!

Then the next week, KM from One Page at a Time and Kristi Chestnutt came into town, and together we drove all over half of Texas (Houston, obviously, San Marcos, Canyon Lake, Boerne, San Antonio) and we went to the Writers' League of Texas Agent Conference in Austin where we pitched to agents for the first time!

KM, Kristi, me

We got a chance to meet up with Kim Franklin too, and we all went shopping at the largest outlet mall in Texas! It was a fabulous time to hang with the girls in person, and I can't wait until we're all together again! Maybe a book launch party for one of us?! A girl can dream! :)

When to Say When

Revisions are pretty neat if you think about it. With a little planning and determination, you have the ability to give your story a face lift. Freshen it up. Delete an unnecessary character, make another more interesting, beef up the MC's motivation. Add some funny! The possibilities are endless! And that's the problem. When do you stop?

I've heard more than one published author say that once their book hits the shelves, they have a hard time even thinking about reading it again. They know they'd find more things they want to change, even though they've already read it through countless times, making it the absolute best they could. There's always something you're going to want to change about your own work. We are our own worst critic, after all. But at some point, you've got to stop obsessively reading over it. Trust yourself that you've made the right decisions by your characters, that you've caught all the pesky typos and out of place commas that you can (let someone else find the rest--sometimes it takes another set of eyes) and send that puppy out into the world! (can you tell I just did another round of revisions this past week?)

Have you done any revising lately? When did/will you say when?

The Difference a Year Makes

A year ago we were in a terrible drought here. Last September one of the Texas wildfires got within two miles of my parents' house and they prepared to evacuate several times. The fires were widespread across several parts of the State and did extensive damage, mostly to residential areas too. Those areas are still recovering and rebuilding, but there's a lot of green that has sprung from the ashes now.

This year, we've had quite a bit of rain, especially this week. It's been raining for days, hours and inches at a time. Even now as I write this at nearly ten o'clock hour, it's pouring, and it was pouring when I woke up from a clang of thunder at 5:30. Our backyard is a lake today, and I know there are flash flood warnings all over Houston. Flooding is it's own kind of beast. I've been flooded before, when I was 11. But that's a traumatic story for another time.

Also a year ago, I was in the heart of drafting the book I'm currently in the heart of querying. Looking back and seeing how far you've come is a whole lot easier than trying to guess where you'll be a year from now (though I'd better have a whole other book written and polished a year from now, or I'm going to have to seriously step up my game!).

This past year I've met some wonderful people in the book community (bloggers, authors, even met my critique partners in person finally!), went to TLA, went to my first agent conference with said critique partners, pitched to an agent IN PERSON! I don't like to toot my own horn, but I've done some things I'm proud of this year, out of the comfort zone. What else could you ask for in a year's time? Always move forward.

This time next year, I'd love to have an agent. That's the goal (well, and it would be great to have a book deal, but you know, one wish at a time)! Anything is possible!

What has the past year brought you? Do you have ideas of where you'd like to be a year from now?

Dawson and Jane

Oh Netflix, how I love thee. Last week I finished the entire series of Dawson's Creek. Really, it should have been called Joey's Creek because it seemed to be mostly about her. I'm pretty sure there were a couple episodes that didn't even have Dawson IN it. This was my first Dawson experience... even though the show had them graduate in 2001, which is exactly when I graduated, I was "younger" than those kids so I didn't "get" it back when the show was on.

Also thanks to Netflix, I've been watching a new show called Jane by Design. SO CUTE and ADORABLE and PRECIOUS and I CAN'T STOP WATCHING IT. It's about a girl still in high school that tries to get an internship for a fashion designer, but she's mistaken for someone else and lands a real job as the creative director's assistant. So now she's basically leading a double life so obviously, hilarity ensues. The acting's good, the storyline is fun, the characters are lovable.

And if you need another reason to watch it... watch it for Billy! He's SO SWEET it KILLS me.

So what has Netflix done for you lately? Have you watched either of these shows?

New Italy Prints in my Store!

Due to encouragement from a friend that saw these images of mine framed at my parents' house, I added a couple new prints in my Etsy store today. They put me in the summer mood!

Happy July!!