It's been a while...

It came to my attention recently that I've been so caught up in my writing, reading, reviewing, promoting, etc, that I haven't written a REAL, personal blog in way too long!

So here it is. Please, try to calm your excitement. ;>

Well, I guess one of the reasons I haven't been posting as much is that I've had so much going on! Wow. Besides 'real life,' where I've had family stuff like, oh, I don't know, weddings, birthdays, transitions, etc, I've had lots going on in the cyber & writerly world. I'm back to querying, although trying not to obsess this time. I'm still promoting The Superiors (I added a few new things at the bottom of the blog tour schedule for convenience sake, although the tour is over). I'm still editing book 5 (I know, I'll get to book 2 soon, I swear!)

And most importantly, I'm writing again. For a while there, I thought I'd gone permanently dry of ideas. Nothing came. Nothing. When ideas did come, they just didn't stick. I couldn't write, so I stopped and promoted for three or four months. Didn't do that much good, but hey, it got my mind off the crushing fear that I'd never write again. And then one day...inspiration. I've written a YA book set in the real world, and most of another. Then, in fit of procrastination, I went back to read some of the dystopian series I started and never finished. Turns out, it's not as hopeless as I thought. I decided to stop worrying about if it was too scandalous to ever be published, and just went ahead and started working on finishing book 3. The first day back on it, I wrote 40 pages. That's pretty much a miracle for me these days. I used to have 50 page days once a week or so, but that was when I was consumed. It gets so it takes over your mind pretty hard-core when you're writing for 8 hours straight. Stopping to eat? Forget it. Just keep my chocolate on my right and I'm fine. It's better to be obsessed with the story than with things outside my control, like agent responses and amazon sales. So that's it. That's what I've been up to, along with reading, listening to, and reviewing books. Now, back to the book I swore I'd finish this week...

This book's for you!

So, yesterday I posted a list of reasons why someone might not like my books. Then I thought, that was a little discouraging. I wouldnt want to tell people not to read my books, after all. So I thought I'd make a more positive list today. Here it is. Ten reasons someone might actually want to read my books.

You might want to read my books if:

1. You like getting to know the characters more than a ton of action sequences
2. You don’t mind people who swear, smoke, drink, and otherwise misbehave
3. You like amusing dialogue that makes you squirm a little sometimes
4. You can overlook a lot of character flaws and still like someone
5. You don’t mind a mixed-bag ending or one that’s more hopeful than happy
6. You throw a book against the wall but you’re still likely to pick it up and finish it
7. You can deal with a lot of pop culture references, even if you don’t know them
8. You like smirky guys
9. You can love a character who has absolutely nothing exceptional about her
10. You don’t mind if no one smolders.

query insanity

Someone once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Sorry, I’m not sure who said that. But it brings to mind a certain habit of trying-to-get-published writers. This particular habit, which in itself is the definition of insanity, is called querying. I personally find the process grueling, disheartening, and overall a little degrading, as I’m pretty much begging for an agent to give me a read-through. I query, and query, and change my letter, and change my letter, and query some more. And all the time…nothing. But if I don’t expect a different result, then I’d probably go more insane than it’s already making me. I have to keep hoping, which is roughly the same thing as expecting a different result. So to sum things up, hope is the definition of insanity. Maybe I need a new definition of insanity.