the LO to my VE.

So I try to keep the blog books/writing related, but then I posted for my sisters birthday and now it's my anniversary! And I promise to mention writing if you keep reading!
On March 12th, 2011. I married my BFF. My partner. My loverbug, Ian.
By the time we got married we had already been living together for quite some time and had already purchased our first home. So this first year of marriage was AWESOME. No weird habits to grow accustom to or little annoyances to overcome. I mean, we still have weird habits and we can be totally annoying, but we're old pro's at this thing.

So without further ado, PICTURES: 

 

And this is where I talk about writing. Because, you see, Ian's not just married to me. He's married to my dream. And I to his. When you love someone you're married to every bit of them. Even when you're not really married because before we were ever married we were dedicated to every bit of each other and marriage didn't change a thing. Ian dreams my dreams just as big as I do, if not bigger. So when I was querying, Ian was querying. When I received rejection after rejection, so did Ian. And when things finally started happening. When the requests started piling up, when the offers started rolling in, Ian was happier for me than I was. Mainly because I was really overwhelmed and in utter shock. But also because he wants this for me, too.

So, Ian-buttface-boogerhead thank you for loving every bit of me. Including all the mean and nasty parts. And thank you for dreaming my dream just as much as I do. Olive Juice.

Is this real life?

Alright you guys, I've got really INCREDIBLE news and I have an awesome 58 page-long blog planned out to tell you all the gritty details, but for now here's the short version:
I have a literary agent!!!
Her name is Molly Jaffa and she's with Folio Lit  in NYC y'all. No joke.
In all I had seven offers, and Molly's was the first I received and we clicked-- like old friends. We had some fantastic conversation about my manuscript, writing, reading, and food.
So, since I'm doing a huge long post about this whole process sometime in the near future, I'll keep it short! But, before I go--
                                     
FIVE FACTS ABOUT MOLLY! (picture yanked from the Folio website)
1. She likes fried chicken... because, who doesn't?
2. She's originally from Texas. BONUS POINTS!
3. She owns red lipstick. ps- How adorable is she?
4. She's on Twitter and you MUST follow her!
5. She's my dream agent.


Y'all I am beyond excited for this next chapter in my life. Beyond, Beyond! Stay tuned because, there is so much more to come!
-J 

my seeeester

First let me say, my sister is going to kill me for posting this picture. JILL BETTER PICTURES TO COME LATER IN THIS POST, I swear. Okay, so this picture: my mom (back), my sister Jill, and that cute as shit little tyke with the mullet-- that's me. The three musketeers. (Well, there's my dad too, but that's another post for another day.)
So March 1st is my dear old sisters birthday and I figured what better way to wish her a happy birthday than to do so publicly on the old blog.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JILLYBEAN!!!
Growing up, Jill was like a second mommy to me. Whenever I was sick in the middle of the night, it was Jill I woke up. And it was Jill who put me back to bed. But me and my sister, we're as opposite as they come. I'm a little rough around the edges at time and she is quite honestly so very lovely. We were always different, but one thing we always had in common was our crazy family. At the end of the day, no one understands your home life like your sibling(s). It was always a meeting point for us. Sometimes Jill had a hard time accepting why I had to do absolutely everything wrong before I could do it right and I could never understand why the hell Jill would ever dedicate all the time in the world to helping everyone but herself (seriously, she was a missionary for a long period of time, and in a way she still is).

When Jill was doing things like this (loving people w her giant heart) <----

I was doing things like this (getting cheesy tattoos)  ---->








But despite our differences we could always talk about why mom did this and why dad didn't do that and how much we love The Wonder Years. My sister is sweet and kind and selfless and all the things I've never been good at being. And I wish her the most happiest birthday yet!

My sister quotes Bible verses, and I quote books. So, Jill this one's for you:

But the wild things cried, “Oh please don't go- We'll eat you up- we love you so!”
  -Maurice Sendak,  
Where the Wild Things Are 

Love you Jill!

- Julie 

You are here.

First off, saw this image online ages ago and I can't find the artist, so I'd love to give said artist credit. Hello? Artist?

Well it's been a bit since I've done a legit writing post. So this is me officially updating.
So November I cranked out my second novel. And here's the thing about writing a second novel, it's full of self-doubt. Things like, what if I can't do this again? Was that whole book thing a one-trick pony? And, what if my second attempt is even worse than my first attempt?
But here's the thing about writing, and basically every other fucking thing, THE MORE YOU DO IT, THE BETTER YOU GET. So yeah, this second go at writing and editing a full manuscript went pretty stinking good. I don't outline, there's no use fibbing about that. But this time, I had a sort of road map of how the experience itself ought to feel. An idea of what I should expect of myself. And not only that, but I had a more a solid understanding of what works and what doesn't. But really, what really changed is this: I swallowed my fears and wrote, even when I thought it would never work, I wrote it anyways. So yeah, back to November. I wrote my first draft in a little over three weeks.
 I took most of December off, because truthfully I was still licking my wounds. I had received two rejections on requested material and I had one last full request I was waiting to hear back on, and that rejection... that rejection came on Christmas Eve night. Literally you guys, I was pulling cupcakes out of the oven, my cell chirped, I fished it out of my apron pocket, and found a form rejection on my full manuscript in my inbox. (Sidenote: I understand the necessity of form rejections, but it doesn't make it any easier to handle.) So yeah I slammed the oven shut, and said eff it. And that was when I decided I to put away HOMESICK FOR GOODBYE. Maybe not forever, but for now. I had considered the possibility that this time would come, but now it had. And it sucked even more than I expected it to. In the end, I closed out my first manuscript at fifty-three rejections.
You wanna know what I did? I enjoyed my holidays and read some good books.  And I most definitely did not edit.
So, fast forward to January 1st. I cracked my laptop open and began to scour the internet for critique partners. Because there was one thing I knew. If I was going to make a second go at this whole writing thing, I would need some serious critique partners. Thanks to the incredible online writing community I was able to meet some really nice people I connected with. And one or two who I could not have done this with out. (SHOUTOUT: Valerie Cole!!!!) I spent the entire month of January editing the shit out of my second manuscript (which is currently titled THE SYMPTOMS OF OUR SHADOWS).
Come the first week of February, I started querying. I expected to just test out the waters, get a couple rejections, see if I could get any reactions. But then, I wasn't really getting a whole lot of rejections and I started getting a whole lot of reactions. So I'm still in the midst of it all, and I think I'm going to keep my stats privy for right now. But let me just say, things are going really well.
Really, really well.
Maybe I'll have good news for you all soon, and maybe I won't. But even if I don't this has been a ride I will never forget. That's all for me today you guys.
And don't forget to leave me some creepy comments.
But in the meantime, I AM HERE. And here is pretty freaking awesome.

-j

ALAwesome

So I usually try to blog like once or twice a month. Which isn't all that ambitious, I know. I figure the lower my goal, the higher chance I have of being impressive when I surpass my goal. My flawed logic. So I'm going to try to do a couple consecutive posts to make up for my sheer laziness.

ALA:

In case you live under a rock, ALA (American Library Association) midwinter was in Dallas this year. And me and Ashly did ALAMW HARD. It was ridiculous, lots of publishers and vendors. And LOTS of peoples, some nice, some not so nice. But overall the weekend was amazing and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I got a huge haul of ARC's (not all for me, promise!) and lots of awesome information. And did I mention I got to spend the whole weekend with Ashly?? Because I did and we had so much fun! Seriously, it would not have been the same had I gone by myself. (Pictures L to R: Me & Siobhan Vivian- highlight of my weekend!ALA ARC haul. Me & Ashley being famous, duh.)

Also sidenote: Ian got me a second edition Animal Farm for Christmas and I lost my shit. One of my favorite books of all time!

Yep. That's all I've got.

-j

ps- for my review of any and all books I read check me out on Goodreads!

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.