So I Finished It

I was just getting in to the swing of blogging and then I was side swipped by inspiration and suddenly my book was finished!

It was a crazy fest of writing and staying up late and skipping the gym and it all paid off. Like holy shit almost 148,000 words! Go me!

After finishing and reading it through I wrote a query letter and a summary.  Did some cyber stalking on a few agents. And I sent out my query materials to Prospect Agency. I'm crossing my fingers and giving that a weeks head start before I query 2 more agents.

So now that I've finished and I feel confident and bad ass I have a ton of free time. Over the last 2 days I keep convincing myself that I need to add just one more chapter.  I've done this about 4 times now and it needed to stop. I moved my manuscript off my computers desk top away into it's own folder of cuteness. Now I can't look at it till I have an agent!

Which means I'll be catching up on all my blogs. I still have all the fun bits of my trip to get too. I'll also be picking up one of my old book projects and starting that up... I just don't know which one yet. 

So strap yourself in for some epic blogs... in the near future. 

Cheers,

Taylor

Happy New Year!

Hi ya,

First off a very happy new year to you all!

So I made it home safe and sound. As always it feels weird being home. Even now almost a month later I still feel a bit out of place. But I’m working on readjusting. I’ve been having fun hanging out with my family. My older brother, Spencer, has been home since Christmas. So I’ve been doing a lot of hanging out and artsy things.

Am I still avoiding a “real job”? Yes I am. I’m babysitting 4 days a week for 2 families. So I have my own money to make my school loan payments and a credit card bill. I’ve got a good enough reason to be skipping a minimum wage job. I’m still hard at work on my manuscript.

I finished it last weekend. Then I was thinking more on what Sarah had told me at the SCBWI conference. It ended up falling short in the word count (only 120,000) for what most high fantasy books are. So I was thinking, I could have four shorter books and maybe some filler in there somewhere. Or 2 long books where shit moves along fast and keeps you wrapped up in the story. Obviously I opted for the two books. I have a bit more writing to do on this manuscript and I’ve been doing pretty good on it. I’m still giving myself a deadline of march to have the whole thing finished. That will put me at the one year mark from when I started this new version. Hopefully I’ll be done before.

Today though I’m taking a break from my manuscript. I’ve hit a rough patch with a character who’s a total jerk but I don’t want him to be an unlovable jerk. He needs to be loved because he has some very honorable things he does. I figured I needed a day to clear my head. So here I am about to cram up a bunch of blog posts.

Because let’s be honest it’s almost too late to be posting about last summer’s adventures but I promise they are really cool places. And I didn’t want to back log them, that’s too much effort (not really it’s like 2 clicks to change the post date). But I might not do a super thorough job for them all. I will do a super intense one for Yellowstone because that was such a wonderful trip. San Francisco might get a long one. You all will hear about my wallet story and Donner’s Pass will for sure get a crazy post! I’ll do my best not to bore you all too much.

Then we’ll see how far I get into my winter excursion!  That’s todays plan!

Cheers,

Sometimes the Universe has a Different Plan

I've learned a few things about divine timing over the years. Taking the plan of the universe into account is always a tough thing. So I've tried to stick with the philosophy of the plan is to have no plan.

A lot of crazy things have happened on my trip. Lots of divine intervention and all that good stuff. I tried to fight the 'take it slow' vibe. Bam I got sick in Fez and had to take it slow. Since being sick I have done my best to slow down.

I had had grand plans of jamming my trip full of shit. You know see all the sites eat all the food. But after being sick I literally couldn't. I was sick for a week in Fez then it took me a further week to get better and not be winded after 5 stairs. So I took it slow. And continued to take it slow.

A safe statement would be that I've seen more of my manuscript then some of the cities I've visited. But you know what that's just how the universe swung it. And damn have I done some amazing writing! Like no joke I'm looking over some of it today and I'm so proud of myself because it reads so well and I'm a bit like did I really write this?

Today is another of those curve balls the universe loves throwing me. I'm in Reykjavik, Iceland and there is a hardcore snow storm outside today. How hardcore? Wel it's -3'C (26.6'F) but it feels like -12'C (10.4'F) because of the 38 kmh (23.6 mpg) winds.

Yeah I'm not leaving the house. What's a girl to do? Well I was editing. Then I was like I should blog. But after this it's back to editing. The universe has been forcing me to edit and work on adding new chapters this whole trip now. I've whipped out this manuscript in fantastic places and just worked.

Even though I had planned on trying to site see and drink some famous coffee today that plan was shelved in favour of editing and staying warm. I really should be thanking the universe for making me work because otherwise I'd have a half edited manuscript with a shoddy ending. Instead due to all the time I've had to work on it I'd venture to say it's borderline perfect! It'll be editor ready by the new year's eve and I'll be contacting agents in January. Fingers crossed I'll be published by this time next year!

But I'm not planning on it. The universe might have something better planned....

Any how here are some pictures of where this bad ass manuscript has been worked on!

London Stansted Airport

Kasbah Mohayut,  Merzouga,  Morocco

My tent in the Sahara before bed time

the actual Sahara.  I'll be honest I only got through 3 or so pages before I was like fuck it's hot. I'll take pictures before going back.

Getafe,  Spain at Ana's flat

Barcelona,  Spain at Lenka's flat

Little Bucharest Hostel, Bucharest,  Romania

And today in snowy Iceland! 

Home again in 2 days! I'll see you the other side of the Atlantic! 

Cheers, 

Taylor

New Adventures

Good Morning ladies and Gents,

I’ve been super insanely busy since the SCBWI conference over a month ago. Real life and all that.

After the conference I had a lot to think about with my book. So I tackled that head on. I redirected a few of my ideas that I was going to tone down for it to be a young adult book. In retrospect I should have known I couldn’t hack YA with my series when I was considering toning down two story arcs. I did a whole lot of writing, almost 20,000 words worth! Woo! Last week I decided I decided to take a character out. Camber was supposed to be the snake in the group who wasn’t really for the good, you need that cliché person sometimes. It was like walking through peanut butter when I had to write scenes with her. I couldn’t make her a fake likable and enjoy writing for her because I just started to hate her and how manipulative she was getting. And when you don’t enjoy writing a character nothing is fun with them around, they’re like the friend you invite out but hope they don’t come and when they do they ruin all the fun. So Camber got cut. It was only 75 pages that needed reworking. It took me over a week. Eek I know ages, but I have a good reason.

My good reason? I’ve been in PA babysitting during the week. I lived with my pseudo sisters three weeks out of the last five. Last week we were at the beach and it was amazing! I really missed the beach this summer so I enjoyed getting up and putting my bathing suit right on and skimboarding and lotioning up and all things beachy! This week we just hung out and ate a lot of ice cream. Yesterday we stuck to the hobbit eating schedule for the main reason that we wanted ice cream early and I didn’t want their parents to accuse me of ruining their children by giving them ice cream for breakfast. So we had ice cream for elevenses. Totally justified right? Plus it was Owowcow ice cream. It’s just about the best ice cream ever, it’s local ingredients so it’s super hipster as well as tasty. Needless to say by the end of the day I was feeling a bit on the fat side having eaten every two hours essentially. Props to the hobbits for eating so much and staying in shape. It was also fun babysitting because the girls are 13 and 8 so they’re in that phase where sometimes they whine, so I got to whine back. I used to hate when my mum did that to me so it was gratifying to do it to someone else. I’m turning into my parents but that’s okay, they’re snarky so it works.

Aside from babysitting and writing I’ve been hitting up my local coffee shop. I’ve got to give then a shout out because Harvest Café just opened in High Bridge and when I’ve been home I hit it up almost every day. Their mocha’s are the most amazing things ever! And they’ve got amazing gluten free brownies and they have organic options so not only is it tasty it’s good for you! I’m a bit sad that I’m leaving for a bit because I’ve been dying to have a good coffee shop close to home so I could have a place to act like a real writer and write. Alas I must wait till I get back from my adventures.

And what adventures are these you ask? I’m heading out west. I’m going to hang out with a friend in Utah for 6 weeks. His husband just came over from China so I’m going to be “Americanising” him, whatever that actually means. I’ll be teaching him how to drive and pretty much just hanging out with him a ton. Plus weekend excursions! Such as Salt Lake Comic Con, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and hitting up National Parks out there. So it’s going to be a grand time of gallivanting about in the west. Then I’m jetting to Nebraska to visit Sheridan. We’re going to cause trouble in Nebraska and have fun…. Well as much fun as one can have in Nebraska I suppose.  

So expect blogging to be a bit more frequent then it has been. I’m bringing my lovely boyfriend Felix with me. Incase I’ve failed to mention Felix is my new macbook. It’s a bit weird to be traveling with a laptop. I feel sophisticated. I’m chilling at gate 33 in Newark and blogging. I’ve blogged traveling before, but from my Nook. So this is crazy and fun. And I’m doing my normal gig of carry on only. I’ve missed my trusty backpack, it was nice to break it out last night and pack. I’ve had the travel itch really bad these last few months and it’s already feeling good to be at the airport!

As you all know I’m crazy about airports and all things airporty. I got here at 7h40 and my flight boards at 9h55… yup I love airports. Security was insanely quick this morning. When I was getting my ID checked the guy at the desk said I was too perky. I’m fine with that, people need to be perkier at airports. I mean come on people you’re about to take off and go somewhere! Plus come on take off is the best part! And I favour of boring you all with more rattling on and perkiness I’m going to read. I’m staring Fighting Pax by Robind Jarvis.

Cheers,

The Dirty Little Secret of the NJ SCBWI

Remember when I was doing my Blogging Challenge? You’ll remember that it failed epically and that I talked about seeing Laini Taylor. In my Laini Taylor post I talked about how she pointed me toward the SCBWI for finding an agent.

  

Well I got my shit together and registered. It cost me almost but not quite $500. This was the fee for the two days and my agent one on one. Now here’s the nasty little secret about the NJ SCBWI Conference….. It’s worth every single penny!! I'm not joking. I would pay twice as much and still be happy about this conference. 

Seriously. I don’t know what I was expecting but I was fencing about it all. When I registered I got my fancy profresh nametag and it had a cute little heart sticker, so everyone would know I was a first timer. If I remember correctly there were 280 something of us attending.

Everyone was social and chatty. I made some good friends. And trust me when I say I’m a shy person and it was impossible to be shy. Everyone was friendly. I can’t say it enough, everyone is happy to see you.

For those of you who don’t know what the SCBWI conference is it’s two days of workshops about writing and/or illustrating. I got to pick my workshops and took some killer ones. I’ll give you a run down and some advice that I got from each.

First off Floyd Cooper was the opening keynote speaker. Now I’m not up with the illustrating world so I didn’t know who he was till I saw some of his paintings. Turns out I know a lot of his paintings. He also did a demo of how he paints. He starts by basing the art board with paint (or something I forget the technical name) then he takes an eraser and subtracts till he has a photo. Never heard of Floyd Cooper? I bet you’ve seen these….

Best practices for the author/agent Relationship w/ Marie Lamba and Tracey Baptiste

This one was a good start to the conference. Because I came into this weekend as a relative newbie (more on this later). I got some great advice from Tracy on querying agents, such as the fact that you should “cyber stalk” them to see if they really are a match for your manuscript and to keep a list of when you sent what to what agents.

The seven secrets of series success with Amy Cloud and Debbie Dadey

So this one was insanely cool because come on it’s Debbie Dadey! I grew up with her books. They were soooooo popular when I was a kid. It’s so inspirational to see that her first book is celebrating 25 years this year, it’s still in print and she’s still producing new books! Like holy hell! Plus it was cool to see that she has a “bible” of character info. Psst… I have one of those for mine. So I’m not that weird. Yay!!

Then it was lunchie Muncies! I was in line being all shy not planning on making conversation with anyone around me because hell I didn’t want to bother someone by being awkward. But the lady in front of me and her friend turn around and strike up a conversation with me. They were so nice and the one lady was talking about her book and it sounded so good but I being me forgot to ask if it was published because I’m so dumb sometimes.

After lunch I had a first page critique with Amy Cloud, Simon and Schuster and Meredith Mundy, Sterling Publishing. So a first page critique is where you anonymously hand in your first page and the editors give their first reactions and critiques to it. I thought it was so cool to get their feed back. I got some good stuff because I handed in my prologue that I’ve been fencing about.

What to expect When You’re expecting a novel: Between acquisition and publication with Yvonne Ventresca
This was by far one of the best workshops I went to. So I walked into the room and the nice lady from the lunch line was giving the talk. I felt so effing stupid! On the bright side I bought her book! so far it’s really good. It’s called Pandemic.

And since it just came out last month she really knew what happened between getting an agent, singing the contract and the steps between then and the book hitting the shelf. What I loved was the fact that it’s current information, not old info. I’ve had such a hard time finding information on what to expect. And I don’t want to over offer info that isn’t mine but Yvonne said that she would be putting info up on her blog so you should totally check it out. Plus she has some great posts. Once I get further into my own book expecting I’ll blog about it myself instead of high jacking Yvonne’s amazing presentation.

Best (and unfortunately sometimes worst) Beginnings for novels with Quinlan Lee
This was my last workshop on the first day  and I was sooooo tired (I woke at 5 am for the day). I was looking forward to this because the beginnings of novels are so important. In the first 3 minutes I was totally hooked. Quinlan was so energetic and it was so much fun. My favourite bit was the analogy Quinlan made. She said a bad beginning was like a bad date or a bad dog. They were perfect and she laid it out with humour and I loved it!

At the end of the first day they had a staff social where you could mingle and have a drink before dinner. I skipped the social because honestly I didn’t know what I would do other then stand about awkwardly. Plus I really didn’t want to bother the agents and editors and I hadn’t really talked with a lot of people. Plus I had an hours drive home and I was exhausted. Excuses I know but I don’t think I missed much.

The second day started off just as grand as the first day. Kathy Temeanl gave a Sate of theMarket talk. It was crazy interesting to know about what I call the “insider” information. For instance did you know that Penguin Books and Random House merged? Or that Harper Collins bought Harlequin? I didn’t either till last Sunday. It was a really interesting report because I found out that the publishing industry as a whole is growing. Apparently the last five or so years has been a massive struggle for the publishing industry. It gives me hope to know that the industry is picking up, it means I’ll have a better chance of getting published! Wooo!! Also Kathy has the whole lecture on her blog, so you should hop on over and check it out.

After the state of the market speech it was time for my agent one on one with Sarah LaPolla. Nervous is an understatement for what I felt. I had been stealing myself all week for her to be like “well it’s a good concept but your writing isn’t strong enough to support the plot.” I had dressed in my one pair of professional pants and made sure I looked like an author and went for it.

It was actually an eye opening fifteen minutes. Now I’ll be honest that my understanding of the YA genre was a bit sketchy before the weekend. And one of the things Sarah said was that the main characters were going to be too old to classify it as YA. She said it would make a decent adult fantasy book. But also the fact if I did decide to go that way then it would be really tough because of the competition and the fact that it’s a male dominated genre, but that she wanted to see a strong female break into the genre.

I left feeling a lot better then I had been prepared to feel. I had opted not to take a workshop the first block since I would be missing the beginning of it and didn’t want to walk in fifteen minutes into it. So I grabbed a coffee sat down and text everyone to gush over the fact that I was doing something right!

My next workshop was another first page critique with Julie Matysik, Sky Pony Press and Carter Hasegawa, Candlewick. They gave me some good pointers like the fact that I could cut out the first four paragraphs and get right to the good stuff. Taking their idea a step further I decided to start a bit further in and weave the world building in there. Super helpful shit went on there!

The Dialogue Dilemma with Kami Kinard

When I had signed up for this workshop I took it because it was the only one that appealed to me in that last block. It turned out to be a really good workshop. I learned the low down on Said. And the fact that most editors like to see said instead of another word or lots of adverbs. Plus obviously actions speak louder than words so you could just have a character roll their eyes in response instead of saying something. So this workshop turned out to be really good.

The Dialogue Dilemma was my last workshop for the conference. Boo. But there was still lunch and the closing keynot. I was actually nervous about going to lunch because one of the only tables left open when I signed up was for Sarah’s table. So I almost skipped lunch, but I was hungry and I decided I wouldn’t sit close to Sarah.

Well turns out there was only one person between Sarah and I. I started lunch off being quiet and paid attention to the conversation. Then at one point the people on my left started a conversation separate from the people on my right and I didn’t know which way to go so I just awkwardly sat there till one of the women pulled me into conversation. Like I said everyone at the conference was nice. Then we got on the topic of the YA genre and how everyone else at the table was had to go without appropriate teen books. And I was like well I can’t complain that way because I was essentially the target age when the YA genre boomed. When I said I was only 23 Sarah was impressed. She said she thought I was older because my writing was mature. I’m not going to lie I almost started crying at lunch.
I had gone into the whole weekend not thinking that my writing would even stack up to everyone else there. And to hear and editor say that I was good at what I did made the conference. One of the women at the conference who had been in talks with Sarah about being represented pointed out to me that Sarah doesn’t have to compliment people, that she meant what she said because she’s not hear to make friends or smooze up to the authors. It was such a reassurance to know that I’m not a horrible writer.

The closing keynote speaker was Rachael Vail. She was absolutely fantastic and inspiring. She was the perfect way to end such a good weekend.

But now I’ve got lots of work to do. If I’m going to make it in the adult fantasy genre I’m stepping my game up. No holding back. I’m going to write epic shit. So I’ve made myself an office in the sunroom and I’m starting to get up earlier to write for a few hours in the morning. I want to finish my manuscript by the end of summer and have an agent by my birthday. No more being a pansy! I’m going hardcore! So thank you NJ SCBWI and Sarah LaPolla for helping me make up my mind on what genre I’m writing!

Cheers,

Blog Challenge Accepted!

Well........... This is embarrassing.

Long time no see...........

Like a realllllly long time.

I’d like to say I’ve been doing a lot of really fun things and I’ve been overwhelmingly busy. But that would mostly be a lie. I’ve been doing normal every day person things. And in order to not totally give up on this blog I have given myself a 10 day blog challenge. I’m going to post every day for the next 10 days. And if I don’t you all can shame me with nastiness.

So this is day one! And I think I’ll just catch you up a bit.

I’ve been milling about mostly. Doing all kinds of fun unemployed things. I babysit two times a week so I have play money. Play money I have put to good use. I got a new compy because my other one fell down the stairs.

Sad right? Well I got my sexy new Mac…

His name if Felix…. Felix Felicis. Because he’s my little bit of inspirational luck I need. Since I spent money on a very nice new mac I shamed myself into doing work because well why buy a new computer if you don’t use it. It’s been fun exercising a privilege I had been denied for like 2 years… battery power! I shot my gateway battery when I lived in France. So it’s nice to be able to unplug and work outside…

Or in my room....

Or wherever I want really. I love it!

That brings me to the writing. I’ve taken it back up. And hardcore this time. I’d been on and off editing my last complete manuscript. It was 394 pages and I was so proud of it. But I sat down one night and I was thinking about how flat it really was and I thought back to some writing advice I’d read on Laini Taylor’s blog. She had said to throw out the draft and start over and when I’d first read it I was like “that’s insanity! All that hard work down the drain! Never would I do it!” But as I sat looking at my old manuscript I was thinking a lot on characters. I wanted to take out a main character, change the gender of another and cut out a huge scene that introduced an important character. As I started thinking on how great these changes would be I started thinking on how much work it would be to nit pick it all apart and change it scene by scene. So I said fuck it and opened a blank document and started from scratch.

It is the best decision I have made in ages. Because so far it’s really shaping up to be an epic rewrite! I’m 115 pages aka about 50,000 words in and it’s honestly something I’m starting to get proud of. I’ve toughened up a character and just made him a badass because I can. So I have three weekly activates really. I babysit two days. Go to the gym everyday. And write when I’m at home. Sometimes I write while I babysit too. I’m back to my writer mode and I must say I’ve missed it. So it’s nice to get back.

Lately I have had a few fun adventures. I went to Boston last month to see Pat Rothfus. Boston was amazing! I don’t know how I’ve over looked it for so long. And last night I was in South Hadley to see Laini Taylor. I’ll catch you all up on those adventures as well as my DC foray in like February.  So I’ve done a wee bit of travel. But not the travel I really yearn for. As I’m unemployed and loving it international travel and/or living will have to wait a bit longer.

I also got 2 new dogs last week! So I’ve been busy walking them and cuddling them and making sure they get along nicely with my other dogs. So far so good. And they are just the cutest things ever!

Just precious right? The chocolate coat is Posy. and Angus is the Isabella coat. 

And this weekend I’m taking a trip to south Jersey to hang out with my older brother and get a new tatt! I’m so pumped!

And that’s the quick version of everything. More to come for the next 9 days! I can do this!

Cheers,