Nugget #1: READ

Because I am a wildly successful published author, I decided the universe would spin out of control unless I doled out my writing advice on a not-so-consistent-serial basis. All that to say, I'm announcing my newest blog feature (okay, really my blog doesn't have any features, so this is really the first and only feature). Without further ado, I give you...

NUGGETS!

nug·get [nuhg-it]

noun 

1. a lump of something.

2. unsolicited in nature, in reference to advice.

3. at times misguided but well-meaning, in reference to advice from Julie.

4. a bite-size piece of chicken, fish, etc., usually batter-fried.

Origin:

2012; unofficial writing advice, in the form of a blog entry. At times suspicious.  

Nugget #1:

READ. Read, read, read, read.

When I first started dabbling with writing (years and years ago when my first manuscript was just a molecule of a thought) I googled (yes, googled) writing advice and you want to know what I found out? If you are not a reader, you cannot be an effective writer. The best writers (and this even applies to stupid term paper writing) are veracious readers. This is true because when you are reading, not only are you digesting the plot and the characters, but you are also (without even realizing it) studying the mechanics of writing- pacing, character development, style, etc. It's all there, all the secrets are right there at your local library. 

And don't just go out and read about how to write and what the market looks like (that stuff is great and good, but secondarily important). Read authors who write the way you want to write, because ultimately those guys are doing something right. Read authors whose stories you get lost in. When I finished my first manuscript it was really hard for me to get into the rhythm of reading for pleasure again, because I got it. I had been on the inside and I finally got how a story worked. And for just a little while (a very little while) this took away the magic of reading for me, but then I read something new that took my breath away and I was so kindly reminded that I do not have all the answers and thankfully I never will.

So there's my nugget, my very first nugget: READ. 

-J

NO: In Which My Heart Is Torn Apart & Stitched Back Together With Brightly Colored Yarn

Writing is awesome. It is. Even the not awesome parts are awesome.
What's not awesome is the word NO. No is a favorite word of both toddlers and agents, although the two are not one in the same. The truth is in the world of literary representation (and really all of the publishing world), NO is a necessary evil. The problem with NO is that it's often just that, a two letter word without explanation. The other problem with NO, is when people say it to me (womp, womp). <----- That was a funny. Did you catch my funny?
About two weeks ago, I received my first rejection on my full manuscript. <---- BAM It was from an agent, I kinda sorta really loved. <---- POW Said agent had also read my first 50 pages, prior to requesting my full manuscript. <----- KABAMPOW

*Sidenote: Sometimes an agent requests just your query letter up front, sometimes they ask that you also send along a sample of your book. This sample can range anywhere from 5-50 pages. When an agent requests your manuscript simply based off your letter, sending your manuscript kind of feels like a crap shoot (a really AWESOME crap shoot). But when an agent requests your manuscript after having read a sample of your manuscript, they have already in some way connected with your work.

Anyways, when I got that rejection I did three things (in this exact order):
1. I said (out loud and to myself): "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!"
2. I cried. Yeah, I'm a baby but at least I can admit it.
3. I got really really quiet. I didn't want to talk about. I didn't want to think about it. I thought that maybe if I didn't think about it or talk about it, my rejection (ouch, still hurts) would cease to exist. But unfortunately that wasn't the case.
Despite all that SUCKAGE, there was some good... sort of. Let's call the agent.... AGENTAWESOME, because despite it all I still think they're amazing.
- AGENTAWESOME sent me a personalized rejection letter just eight days after requesting my manuscript, which makes AGENTAWESOME that much more awesome. Example: I was in a forum the other day and someone said that X agent had had their partial manuscript (not their full) for FOUR MONTHS without a peep. If an agent had my manuscript for that long I would become impossible to live with.
- AGENTAWESOME complimented me saying she loved ________, ________, and __________ but ultimately had to pass because of ___________. To receive specific feedback like that from an agent (and one with a good reputation) is invaluable. INVALUABLE people.
ahhhhh Alas, I move onward.
So that's what's been festering inside of me and there! Now I have it off my chest and I'll keep on trucking along. While it would have been amazing for that first agent to be the one, it's okay (or so I keep telling myself :)) because now I've got this battle scar.
As always guys cross your fingers, cross your toes, cross your arms, cross your.... you get the point. LOVE YOU ALL EVERYDAY. Leave a comment! Comments are the jet fuel to my dreams (cheesy for the win)!
-j

ps- Every time I think "poor little ole me and my shit dream" I read this amazing post by Beth Revis and my insides turn to mush and my eyes tear up (just a tad) and my day gets a little bit better.

yall. 50KNOVEMBER. YALL.

Did you know this has been the craziest month ever?

so NaNoWriMo. I did it. I wrote a 50,000 word novel in twenty-four days. I think I might have internal bleeding going on in my brain, but that's okay. I hit my word count buuuuuuut my story isn't finished. My estimate is that it will take me about 7,000-10,000 words to finish, not to mention the random pages that say INSERT _______ SCENE. But when all that is said and done I will have finished my second novel, which means I will have written two novels in five months (as long as I finish before 2012 :0)). 

Nano wasn't easy. Actually it was tough as fucking nails.

This is how I survived:

1. You see what you don't know is this: I'm lucky. I have great friends. I Have a small little handful of great friends who read as I write. They read the messy unedited gunk I write and they say YAY or NAY. They keep me on track, because sometimes I am way, WAY, off track.

2. I am in love with this manuscript. I mean it's not going to cure cancer or anything (which, by the way would be awesome), but I fell in love with my characters. I had to know more about them and the only way I could do that was to write about them. Here's the funny thing, I've had like four or five premises on the back burner. For most of them I've written the first ten to twenty pages for each idea, just something to play with. BUT THEN this little "what if?" scenario hit me and HAD to write it. It was festering. This scenario grew characters, who grew feelings and lives, and then it just blew up. Which made the whole nano thing a hell of a lot simpler. Really it all went way too quickly to even think about getting stuck in the mud.

3. My husband is awesome and doesn't whine when I'm up until 4 in the morning writing.

4. As things come to me I jot them down. I've got post-its all over my car. That being said I cannot sit down and do a couple hundred words. I don't roll like that. I write in what I call "bursts." At the very least I have to finish a chapter. But  just to give you an idea of word count I usually range anywhere from 2k-8k(big number span I know) in one sitting. This probably sounds a little crazy, but if I do little writing sprints of a couple hundred words my writing comes out disjointed and splotchy. So when I write I have to commit myself to it for a couple hours and just bust some wordage out. Why this is awesome: If I write a couple thousand words a sitting, then I only have to do X amount of writing sessions.

If you haven't noticed yet, I like stats. I do.

Final NaNoWriMo count was 50,133.

I finished in 24 days which means my daily average was 2,088. HOWEVER there were at least nine full days I didn't do any writing.
Those were the boring stats here are the fun ones.

SAY MY NAME (yes, that was a Destiny's Child reference)
Alice: 366
Harvey: 342
Bernie: 132
Martin: 51
Natalie: 113
Deborah: 53
Denis: 44
Mindi: 10
Misti: 4
Eric: 63
Luke: 35
Tyson: 18
Glen: 15
JUICY WORDS
Love: 122
Hate: 35
Shit: 20
Fuck: 15
Bitch: 11
Ass: 43
Damn: 7
She: 654
He: 728
EFFING GRAMMAR:
": 2,087
.: 3,996
,: 1,559
!: 55
?: 327
And in case you were wondering my current-unofficial-probably-won't-make-the-cut-working-title is LOVE AND OTHER FALLACIES.
So blah blah NaNoWriMo is over... until next year.
Okay so I'm still querying agents for HOMESICK FOR GOODBYE.
Sometime around the end of October I got tired of getting rejection letters. I hadn't hit ten rejections, but I was close. Someday I'm going to write a blog about my rejection letters and it's going to blow your socks off, but not today.
Today I'm going to tell you about how I rewrote my query letter and it started WORKING. (Someday I'll post a little diddy about query letters too, I promise).
So without further ado HERE ARE MY QUERY STATS.
Total queries sent: 27 (eeeeeek)
I haven't currently heard from 15 agents, which means I still have 12 queries floating around the internet world.
Out of those 15 responses, this is what I've got.
Rejections: 12
Submission Requests: 3
First let me say this, submissions are cool. Okay they're awesome. But still my chances are slim. But that having been said....
OMG YALL. OMG. OMG. OMG. OMG.
Okay. 
Because good news is always better than bad news let's break down my 3 requests.

My first request came on my birthday (11/8). How cool is that? BADASSCOOL.
The agent had only read my query letter and based on that, she requested my full manuscript.

The second request came on 11/22. This agent had also only read my query letter. She then made a partial request for my first fifty pages!

The third (and sweetest) request came Monday morning of this week (11/28). This agent has already read the first fifty pages of my novel, because her query procedures require that you send your first fifty pages right off the bat. Anyways I received an email saying she had "quite liked" what she had read thus far and would like to see the rest of the manuscript. So there ya go!

I'm not getting too excited because really it is more likely that my 3 submission requests will lead to 3 rejections rather than 3 offers, but at the same time I'm trying to enjoy this. Because this is surreal. I never in my life thought I would ever make it this far so everything after this is just a bonus really.

Sooooo my rejection/submission ratio is 4 to 1. BUUUUUT because my glass feels half full, let's just say I received 9 rejections with my old query letter. That means I've received 3 rejections with my new query letter, giving me a solid 3 to 3 ratio. (But don't forget those 12 queries still floating around in query land!)
Aaaaaaand I'm done talking about numbers until 2018.
If you think good thoughts, think good thoughts for me. If you pray, pray for me. If you do rain (read as "Julie wants an agent") dances, do a rain dance for me.

Alright so because you're all so sweet and adorable and cuddly here's a cupcake. (I'M 26 NOW :o) My awesome NOVEMBER was literally TWENTY-SIX years in the making. )

Leave me a comment, tell me you have a crush on me. I'll write you creepy love letters.

Love all you boogers and ghouls!

 -j

NaNoWriMo: Where Only the Strong Survive

Hey yall! October has been a crazy month! The month started off with Austin Teen Book Festival which was AWESOME. I got a gazillion books signed for me and my library. I just got back from a trip back home to Connecticut with brief stops off in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. New York was in the travel plans too, but so much to do and lots of family to see! So we decided to put off that leg off our trip until next time! So I've had a nice little writing hiatus and I am ready to get my ass in gear.
November, November, November. November is National Novel Writing Month or otherwise known as NaNoWriMo. Now, once again, because I have all of like four writer friends let me break this down for yall. NaNo is pretty easy in theory.
1. Sign up.
2. Write 50,000 words in one month.
3. Binge eat or something. Whatever coping mechanism suits your fancy will do.
4. Sleep for the entire month of December.
The idea is to WRITE, it doesn't have to be like Crime and Punishment or anything good at all, it just has to be something.... besides the same word over and over. :o) And hey if it's good, then AWESOME. So if you haven't guessed by now I am braving the writing elements and I have officially signed up for NaNoWriMo. Signing up was pretty exciting, until that OH SHIT moment hit me like a ton of bricks. Not only is November National Novel Writing Month, but it's also my birthday (WOO!), Ian's birthday, our nieces birthday, and Thanksgiving. This equates to a BUSY MONTH. Oh and by the way I work two jobs. I've got four stories that I've kind of got brewing in my head and I have a couple hodge podge of pages that could maybe sort of be the start of something. I have a good idea of which idea I'm going with for NaNoWriMo so keep me in your brain or heart or whatever because November's going to freaking suck in the best way ever.
And lastly, YES, I'm still querying. Kind of. I've sent out 9 query letters and have received 8 rejections/no response means no. There's one last letter floating around in query world and I'm not trying to be down on myself or my work but I'm not really expecting a positive response. Since my most recent post concerning queries, I sorta kinda had a breakdown. I'm not trying to be dramatic, I promise, but when someone rejects something so personally tied to you it feels like they're rejecting you as a person. Everyone keeps telling me not to take it personally, but I say NO TAKE IT PERSONALLY. Because, what it comes down to is that one of the major ingredients to good writing is making it personal and letting a huge horrible chunk of you shine through in your work. So yeah it's personal and it hurts but maybe it will be worth it. Who knows? We'll see.
Moral of the story: November is going to awesome suck and take it personal because it is personal.

J
PS- did you know Halloween is my favorite holiday and I have NO costume? I am so slacking, what are your Halloween plans? And because I love pictures check out these bad boys from East Coast trip!

My only ATBF picture, but that's okay because it's with Ashly!

The Dreary Query; in which I stand in front of the world naked

Note: apologies for the formatting on this blog, HTML had a mind of its own on this one.
Uhhhh ok. So I started querying. So here's the deal 99.9% of my friends are not writers and 80% of them do not share my reading tastes. So here it is for you simple minded people. A query letter is a letter sent to a literary agent in which you request their representation. Should the agent  offer you representation they, in turn, attempt to sell your novel.

Okay so that doesn't sound so bad, right? Hey mister my books super good, will you be my agent?

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. It's horrible. Here's the true story: You write this thing and it's pages
and pages and pages of words that have been festering in your belly. You have horrible moments where the computer screen looks like a freaking brick wall and if you have beautiful aha! moments where the world feels right and perfect. All of these painfully beautifully moments comprise the writing process, or at least they do for me. Anyway you go through this intensive labor of writing and you finish and you want the world to read your book.

So, what do you have to do? You have to find an agent... and that's only the beginning. This agent wants you to explain your characters, plots, and the sheer essence of your book in just a paragraph. Then they want to hear a little bit about you, but only a little, and really only what's relevant to you as a writer... what qualifies you to write this book, that's what they want to know. Then they want you to tell them a little bit about why you chose them? That doesn't sound bad right? Wrong, sit down and google someone. Anyone. Then write that person an email telling them why they're qualified to do what they do and what attracts you to them.
It's really fucking hard you guys. Querying is not for the faint hearted or the weak minded. AHHHHH. so that's where I am right now. Oh and by the way... some agents have ridiculous wait times, like months. And even after that some of them never respond, because for some agent no response = no. But there are those few who respond in days.
Here's another kicker, some of those agents who respond just send you a form letter that starts out "Dear Author: blah, blah, blah." Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for the finality of that form rejection letter, but man it sucks to be a nameless face. By the way when I sent out my first letter, I threw up. Not like blowing chunks throw up, think more over excited senior citizen cat throw up.

Yeah.

Querying is like when you're a little kid and an older sibling/cousin/random stranger grabs your hand and hits you in the face with your own hand while saying "Stop hitting yourself" OVER AND OVER again. That basically sums it up.

So anyways, because you're all joysucking vampires, you're really just hear to know my stats thus far. I started querying last week and this is what I've got:

Queries Sent: 6

Rejections: 3

Queries still in outerspace: 3

Now because I'm a master statician, I'm going to break down my rejections for you (while keeping the agents anonymous).

Note: After I had sent out three letters, I had an epiphany and COMPLETELY rewrote/reorganized my first chapter, and I got really positive feed back from some select test readers so I decided to go balls out and send it my last three agents.

Rejection #1: I received a form response from a BIG BIG BIG agency whose clients are pretty commercial and not so literary and/or edgy. Now because they represent such commercial friendly clients, they are easily accessible and receive major query traffic. Plus they promise a response within two weeks, which I have to admit was the deciding factor when I sent in my query. So I wasn't disappointed or discouraged by they rejection because they weren't my top pick or close to my top pick but you always want someone to want your book, so that's a little rough. But I did send them my old chapter versus the new rewritten version!

Rejection #2: This rejection was a little harder to swallow, because I basically idolize this agents clients. However, this agent comes out of a small boutique agency so if their client list is full, it's full. Regardless, I took my chances. And by the way I received my rejection from this agent on a Saturday morning (which is unusual) AND this agent's policy is no response = no. So albeit a rejection I was encouraged by a personalized reply, especially since I was expecting no reply if she wasn't interested. This agent kept it short and sweet.... but I almost cried because it was positive.... a positive negative if you will! The email simply read: "Hi Julie, It's good but I'm just not looking right now. Good Luck!" You guys I cried, and I'm not a crier AT ALL. I've got some thick skin, but after a week of one rejection and an otherwise empty inbox, those thirteen words rocked me to my core. Not only did I get a personalized response from a no response = no agent, but to me this agent's opinion is as big as Mount Everest.

I haven't sent off to my dream agent I'm holding off for a bit, sort of testing the waters.
Rejection #3: I literally just found out about this rejection like five minutes ago. It was to my first agent (so old first chapter) and their policy is no response = no. But here's the caveat, they keep a blog saying how many queries are in their queu, and they have looked over all of their queries so if you haven't heard yet you're not going to.... which I'm okay with this rejection.

But here's some awesome news! I won a contest! the prize was a query letter critique and a first chapter critique from published author Lisa Desrochers! So I've kind of slowed the query train down a bit until I hear back from her.

So there you go you guys, that's where I'm at.

And by the way my working title is....

Homesick for Goodbye!

And my most amazing critique partner Ashly made me this LOVELY tote using an image created by Kristin, my Yoda reader. oh! and Kristin had a spiral copy of my manuscript made, which basically made me pee my pants. Literally. It was awkward.
That's all for now, leave a comment. I need your affirmations to continue on. I'm serious... ya know how in Peter Pan, Tink dies if people don't believe in her. Well I will die unless you write a comment. Comment = Julie Life Juice. FACT.
-j

in·spi·ra·tion

So this thing that manifested out of my brain, this book I wrote.
For me this book started a long time ago, before I even knew it was a book.
I'm not going to do a whole lot of talking about the book just yet, mainly because it's not really a book. It's still just this Word doc saved on my computer. Anyways I did want to share some of the things that inspired me to get all of this out of my head and on to paper.

So PostSecret is amazing. Every postcard has its own story just begging to be unraveled. The site is updated every Sunday with new secrets. If you've never heard of it check it. PostSecret is  undoubtedly one of the most amazing communities I've ever come across.

This song, THIS SONG you guys. Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero. I listened to this song on repeat for hours at a time.

And lastly, Devil Town by Bright Eyes (I think it's originally by someone else, but this is the version I prefer.) When I heard this song, I said to myself I HAVE TO WRITE THIS BOOK. For me this song, completely created my setting. In fact I practically built my setting around this song. Pretty damn cool.

 

 So that's all I've got for now. If you haven't read my last post you should, because all this business will make a hell of alot more sense.

-j

Let's Cut the Crap: In Which I Make a Confession.

You know I'm not blogging.
I know I'm not blogging.
So the question is what am I doing? *hushed whispers roll through the crowd*
You guys. YALL.
I'm writing.
ALOT.
And basically I had to grow a pair in order to come out and say that just now.
That's the short version of this post and here, my friends, is the long version:

Most of you know that I graduated in December with a Bachelors in Political Science, which was awesome and I loved it. My program was awesome, my profs were awesome. It was awesome. Awesome was awesome.
But it was so so so intense, I spent three years learning about countries, diplomat etiquette, obscure political parties, court cases that address consensual adults who engage in sodomy, and dumdum bullets (among other things :)).
All of those things are really freaking cool, so cool that they could make your head explode.
And mine almost did.
Until I started reading YA (young adult) books again. I began to devour YA in all shapes and sizes.  I had dabbled in YA and middlegrade before, but this was a whole new chapter in my obsession.
Originally, in the infancy of my Bachelors, I had planned to major in English. I even took a couple of creative writing classes (where I met my husband, win!) under the guise that I was interested in editing or even technical writing. I told my friends and professors I wanted to be well-rounded should I decide to go into publishing, so I took creative writing.
I said that to people because letting people think you're not fully vested in something you love is alot less scary than showing people how much you actually care. I thought if I convinced myself that I didn't care about the product I was producing it wouldn't hurt when people teared it to shreds. blah blah blah.
So creative writing classes, guess what?  It was freaking awesome.
You know what else? It's really fucking scary to admit to people that you want to be a writer.
I mean, shit, that's a loaded statement. People ask things like: what do you write? can I read it? Those unassuming and innocent questions, over time, morph into things like: You're not published yet? Aren't writers published? How do writers get paid? Is that a real profession? I love to talk about my writing, I do, I promise. But making that initial admission to people that you write. That's some scary shit.
OK I've gotten a little off track.
Anyways I took an AMAZING government class that made me feel like an empowered, aware citizen so I changed my major and stood on my political soap box until I graduated. (I still pull my soap box out of the closet for special occasions.)
So here I am, a college graduate, twiddling my thumbs.
This is what I know:
1. I don't want to go to law school. I don't hate myself enough to do that.

2. Getting a poli sci masters sounds interesting, but I don't want to be a prof, I don't want to research, and I absolutely do not want to work for a politician, let alone be one.

3. I love YA books (All books really, I read some adult books. Promise). Still. It hasn't changed, not a bit, not even wavered ever so slightly. YA books are something I've always come back to. When I was dirt poor after high school and couldn't even afford community college I picked up every Holly Black or Ellen Hopkins book I could get my hands on at used book stores or libraries.

4. I love libraries. They combine my love of books and a little bit of my love for government (THESE BOOKS ARE MADE AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC VIA THE GOVERNMENT, how cool is that you guys??? And, also FREEDOM OF SPEECH ANYBODY?) Deciding to get my MLS is the easiest decision I've ever made and I will do it someday. But not today. Because right now I am on a damn roll. Words are vomiting out of my brain and I want to make sure I can write them down.

As a dear friend recently told me, grad school will be there in January (when I had originally planned to start) and it will be there next year and the year after and so on, but this writing mojo I've got going. This thing may not always be there. So I'm going to pursue this for now.

Anyways, all that to say: I wrote a book you guys.
I said: I WROTE A BOOK YOU GUYS.

Not only did I write a book, but I wrote it in three weeks. And you wanna know what? I really like it. And some other people do too and that's cool.
So maybe I'll never get an agent and I'll never sell my book. Maybe it's really not all that good, but that's okay. I wrote a book and some people like it and I never in a million years thought I would ever be able to say that.
I never thought I would be able to admit how much I love to write. And that's really freaking cool, you wanna know why? (Life lesson moment you guys.) BECAUSE I'M GROWING AS A PERSON. I don't care if I do this and fail, because the point is that I'm doing this.
So don't be afraid. It's silly and you're wasting your time.
Do what you're scared to admit you love, because WHO GIVES A SHIT IF YOU SUCK?? YOU'RE DOING WHAT YOU LOVE. And that, my dear friends is really freaking cool.
If I don't need an agent or an editor to write than you don't need a gallery show to paint or whatever it is you do.
Life isn't about "what do I want to be when I grow up?" Life is about "what do I want to be today?" and today I want to be a writer. (disclaimer: long term goals are awesome too.)
That is my life lesson for this year. Heed my life lessons, they are few and far between.

-J

ps- for the record I still love to talk politics and make your ass grass with my mad knowledge of random shit like international pirating (ahoy!) laws.
oh! And if you're still interested in book reviews, I'll be posting here once in a blue moon. And leave me a comment because I'm a narcissist in desperate need of reassurance.