Hold the Phone!

I got the call!!

Angela James from Carina Press called me this afternoon while I was at work. They want to publish my western romance, The Outlaw Bride!!

I so badly want to scream at the top of my lungs but I'm still at the office. AHHHHH !!!!

More info to follow once I can think coherently!

Queries, New Stuff, and NaNo

Well, NaNoWriMo is just days away and I’m itching to get typing on a new story since I haven’t actually written anything new in…in…wow…since last NaNo. Yikes. The past four years have been a switch up between Outlaw Bride, Brimstone, back to Outlaw Bride, back to Brimstone, Brimstone again and then…wait for it…yes, once again Brimstone. Then Outlaw Bride. Again.

Oiy.

No wonder I’m chomping at the bit to start something fresh, new and exciting. And I love the cast of characters that have suddenly appeared to populate my new series (which is still in need of a catchy name, but I have a few ideas). I’m considering going back and forth between the two series to keep things fun. I’ll get the rough draft of Book 1 in the new series down during NaNo, then I’ll Book 2 written for the Brimstone series (aka The Spinster Sisterhood Series). Then it’ll be back to Book 2 for the new series, Book 3 for the SSS series, then…well, you see where I’m going with this.

My thinking is, one series may sell before the other (like my positive thinking?) so I should have a couple in the series done of both just in case. I like to be prepared. And yes, I was the kid in school who always finished their projects the day they were assigned instead of the night before they were due. Procrastination makes me break out into hives.

So that is my plan. I’m hoping to get a rough idea of how much of that I can accomplish in 2009. Like I said, I like to plan ahead.

But meanwhile, before the madness of NaNo sets in, I am spiffing up my agent query letter to a nice shine and then sending some out. It’s high time to get this ball rolling and now that I have both Brimstone and Outlaw Bride cleaned up and ready to go, there is no point just letting them sit around collecting dust. I shall hope for the best and gird my loins for any rejections that come my way.

And in cyberland, I am in the final stages of getting my new website ready to go thanks to Anne’s diligent work and her prodding me to write up my book blurbs so she can fill in all the empty space. Once it’s ready for the official unveiling I will throw an on-line party, complete with prizes. What prizes you ask? Well, you’ll just have to tune in and find out. I’ll keep you posted.

And finally, for anyone else out there doing NaNo this year, feel free to add me to your friend list. You can find me by searching lochbriar.

And that is all she wrote. See you next week!

The Real New Year

I’m not sure if anyone else experiences this, but for me the best time to start new projects isn’t January 1st, but the start of September. Maybe it’s a throwback to my school days, the crispness in the air, the new clothes… but every September once Labour Day passes, I feel rejuvenated and raring to go.

Which would be fine, except for one thing – I wasn’t sure what to get raring on. I have finally completed both The Outlaw Bride and Brimstone. They are in final form and sent to the editors/agents that requested them (save for one partial that is going out this week). So what do I work on now? It feels like forever since I've had the chance to start something new. But do I jump right into Book 2 of the series? Or should I take a break and see what happens with Brimstone first? I know I need to start querying agents – maybe I should do that? Or perhaps I could flesh out the new idea I came up with yesterday, or one of the other new ideas I came up with over the summer…

So many choices and all that rejuvenated energy and I’m not sure where to direct it. My brain is jumping from one to the next to the other and not landing anywhere for long enough to dig in and get busy.

I needed to sit myself down and say, “Self, time to focus'. Part of me really wants to delve into doing something brand spankin’ new. I came up with an idea during our Chapter workshop on Sunday. The more I looked at the idea, the more I realized there was the potential for a 4 book series in there. And with that came the tinglely excitement one gets when the opportunity to create a whole new world presents itself.

Another part of me wants to jump in and tell Quinn and Grace’s story (Book 2 of the Brimstone series). I came up with a great opening page and it made me hungry to get going on that and see what my creative brain has in store for these two crazy kids.

But then there is the business side of things. I need to start querying agents. It isn’t going to help further my hope to be able to write full time within the next 5 years if I don’t actually get an agent and/or sell to an editor.

So here’s what I decided to spend the next week on:

1) Research agents
2) Flesh out new series premise while the idea is still fresh

Then, once October hits, I will start my detailed outline of Saving Grace (Book 2) and sending out queries to agents.

Now that I have that all figured out – for those of you interested I will be doing a blog on my trip to Paris (which was fabulous) and posting some pixs probably in the next week or two. I’m still playing catch up at home and at work, so I and haven’t had time to download and sort my 600+ pictures as yet. But soon…soon…

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane...

I'm just hours away from flying what I hope will be the friendly skies. Looks like I'll be able to beat it the hell out of Dodge before the butt end of Tropical Storm Hanna hits landfall in my area. I have a long stretch of flying before me. First I have to fly down to Boston (1.5 hrs), then back up to Rekyjavik, Iceland (5 hrs), then from Rekyjavik to Paris (3 hrs). My ears still haven't popped since returning from San Fran, but I have remedies from the pharmacist that I hope will help.

I'll be sure and post pixs and let you all know how the trip to gay Paris went.

Meanwhile, before heading out, I finished the final clean up on The Outlaw Bride and sent it off to the editor that requested it just moments ago. So that is done. All that remains now is to send off a partial of Brimstone for another request, but that will have to wait until I come back. I need to install my new printer for that one and I am running out of time before I leave.

Once that is done, I'll be querying agents and starting the outline for Book 2 of the Brimstone series: Saving Grace.

Hope everyone is doing well and I'll be sure and check in with everyone once I return!

Jetlagged!

Well I’m back from San Francisco. At least in body. My brain has yet to make it over the border. Jetlag has hit me big time today. I’m at work and barely able to function.

As for conference, I had a blast despite only averaging about 3 hours of sleep a night until Friday. Nothing like going to bed on San Fran time and waking up Halifax time. Who knew four hours could make such a huge difference. I spent a lot of the conference feeling like I’d been, as my friend says, ‘rode hard and put away wet’. Despite that, the conference was a huge success for me, more so than I had been expecting.

For starters, I was thrilled to get Brimstone out the door to Berkley before I left. I had a slight heart attack on Saturday morning though. I switched it over to Courier and double spaced it (I was working in single space TNR during revisions) and my 187 pages increased to 478. ACK!! So from 7 am to 2 pm I worked like a mad woman going through larger scenes and cutting them down, then I cut one scene out completely. I managed to cut 38 pages, then on the advice of some of my chapter-mates, I switched back to TNR 13 and came in at 373 pages. Whew!

At the conference, I had requests for two full manuscripts: The Outlaw Bride and Brimstone (as well as the blurbs for the next 3 books in the series), a partial for Brimstone by the agent I met with, and another partial for Brimstone by a different editor thanks to a mention from a friend about the series to that editor.

I also got to crash the Harlequin party with Julianne MacLean (who has a new book out, The Mistress Diaries, check it out!) and had an awesome time dancing and snapping pictures. I got to run into some blogging buddies: Michelle Willingham, Rene Miller & Amy Ruttan, plus Christine D’Abo who moved to Toronto, and my former critique partners Christine Wells and Jennifer Haymore.

I'll give a better run down of the conference once my brain starts function again and post some pictures through the week, but if anyone wants a quick preview of pixs zip over to my Facebook page and have a look.

For now, I’m going to go and tap a vein and hook up a java IV…

Canada Day Long Weekend

I had an extra long weekend with Canada Day falling on a Tuesday. Four glorious days off. Granted the weather didn’t cooperate until yesterday, but that was fine. Yesterday definitely made up for it with heat and sunshine and no fog in the harbour so we could sit on Citadel Hill, watch the sunset and then be electrified by the fireworks extravaganza. It was a great end to a fabulous weekend.

But now that the little mini-vacation is over, I need to buckle down and get back to work. I am hoping to finish writing the new scenes and typing in the majority of the revisions for Brimstone into my manuscript by Sunday. I’d like to start the final read through by next week. Then off it goes to the editor no later than July 16th (ish). Somewhere in there I have to pull together a dreaded synopsis but I’m hoping the one I already have roughed out will cut down on the time it takes to write the new one.

Another thing I did this weekend was browse Chapters. Granted, I do this almost every weekend but this time they had restocked their Writing/Publishing section with some great books (finally!) and I picked up Revisions & Self-Editing by James Scott Bell. Its part of the Write Great Fiction series. This book is great. I’m only ⅓ of the way through it but I really wish I’d had it before I started my revisions. If I wasn’t in such a time crunch to get Brimstone out to the editor I’d be tempted to go through it one more time with the tips learned in this book.

On the plus side, while the book is focused on Revisions and Self-Editing, the tips in it will help me make a much stronger first draft of Saving Grace, Book 2 in the Brimstone series, not to mention make cleaning up Outlaw Bride that much easier. And hopefully quicker. Oh dear God, please make it quicker…

So for my fellow compatriots – what did your Canada Day weekend involve? And for those of you below the border – any big plans for the July 4th holiday?

Fasten Your Seatbelts

It looks like July is going to be a high speed ride from start to finish. I need to finish Brimstone and get it out the door to Berkley before the conference. The last thing I need is to finally finish this thing and then have it get lost in the mayhem of post-conference requests. Then I need to allow myself time to re-read The Outlaw Bride and make edit notes to try and shave off about 25 pages and tighten the story. Then I have to write pitches for both as well as short blurbs on books 2-4 for the rest of the Brimstone series just in case they ask what I have planned there. That leaves me 36 days to get this all done.

Oiy vey.

To top things off, the last half of July I’m likely going to be in a bit of a funk (okay fine, probably more than a bit) because the BF and I will only see each other about one day out of 20 between the Writers Retreat, his being away on vacation with his son, and then my leaving for San Fran. Perhaps I should give him a picture of me so he doesn’t forget what I look like.

Oh well, if nothing else, while he’s away on vacation I can bury myself in my work and get what I need to done. Either that, or I can just sit around and drink heavily. I may choose the latter depending on how the writing actually goes.

Remember when summer used to be easy and fun, not a care in the world? I have vague memories of my thirteen year old self enjoying an unlimited sense of freedom. Sigh…how I long for those days…

Mission Accomplished

For the first time in I don't remember how long, I have reached my weekly goal. And I managed to do it in three days. Not too shabby. I feel vindicated. I gave myself a stern talking to this week and said, 'Self, this is getting ridiculous. You've been whining about these revisions for too long. It's time to shut yer yap, buckle down, and get this job done. Forget worrying about where your writing mojo has gone. Forget about the time that has passed since you got the request. Just slap on the blinders and get your focus back.'

So that's what I did. I put my goal this week as revising 30 pages. That brings me to page 375. Just 25 left to go. I'll finish those next week. Then its just the read through and final clean up to go (and the writing of the dreaded synopsis but I refuse to think about that until the last minute). And off to Berkley this thing goes. Then it will be agent querying for about two weeks, and then finally I get to move onto a new project.

Well, okay, an old project, but I've been away from Outlaw Bride long enough that it'll feel semi-new. And with news that westerns are being looked at again, I don't want to lose the opportunity that might be out there to find this story a home.

Things feel bright and more optimistic now that I actually accomplished a goal.

And in other good news - it looks like I'll be joining an over 35 women's soccer league. I played in high school and to this day it is my favorite sport to play. I can't wait to get back at it. Hopefully I haven't lost too many of my skills. Thankfully I've managed to stay in pretty good shape so I'm hoping things will come back without too much pain or difficulty. Either way, I'm just really excited about the prospect of getting back out on the field with the ball. They play on Sunday nights, which means I'll have 2 softball games Sunday morning, and then soccer at night.

That should make Monday rather interesting...

Books, Movies and Endless Snow

First up, out on book shelves today and garnering great reviews is Heart of My Heart, a SuperRomance written by my chapter-mate, Stella MacLean. This is Stella's first book to hit the shelves (though not her last!) and definitely worth checking out. Pick up your copy soon, I have a feeling they'll sell fast!

Now, back to the weather: This has been the longest winter in memory. Usually, we don't get too much snow here on the coast until after the Christmas holidays, but this year it started in November and I swear it has been nothing else since. Right up to and including the weekend when we got a little mini snow storm on Friday night. Granted the snow was gone by the next day, but still! It's April for crying out loud!! Sigh...what I wouldn't give for a tropical climate right now.

But thankfully, the sun has been out for two days in a row, the snow is off the ground (I actually whispered that part because I don't want to tempt fate), and I'm sure any day now, Spring will actually start. Any day...

As for revisions: I have finally managed to get Brimstone to under 400 pages. I am closing in, hacking away at the last 100 pages and making steady progress. Although this next chapter needs a complete overhaul where I pull things from chapters up ahead and drag them back. Which will likely mean a nice little bit of reconstruction of later chapters. Oiy. Like the snow, it seems the revisions never end. I am sooooo looking forward to working on something new.

Granted, my something new will actually be something old while I whittle Outlaw Bride down and tighten it up so I can start sending it out again as well. That will give me two completed manuscripts going out into the big bad world this year. Once that's done, it's onto Saving Grace where we get to see what madness Quinn has involved himself in and whether or not he's sobered up since his appearance in Brimstone.

Meanwhile, on other artistic fronts - I went to see the movie Run, Fat Boy, Run starring Sean Pegg. It was by far one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time. And not stupid funny, either. It was the characters. All of them, from the smallest secondary character to the lead roles were fantastic. I had a special fondness for the hero's best friend, Gordon, played by Dylan Moran. Hilarious. So if you're looking for a good, funny movie, check it out.

What Do You Mean I Didn't Win?

Well, it’s official. I did not final in the Historical category of the Golden Heart. I know…I know…it’s a travesty. An injustice. A horrid example of man’s inhumanity to man…oh, no wait…that’s something else. This was actually just a blip on the radar.

When I arrived home with no call waiting to breathlessly tell me I was awesome and had made the finals, I figured one wasn’t coming. I glared at the phone for a few seconds—okay, maybe more like 30—then I went and changed into my workout gear and went for a run. No sense watching a phone that didn’t seem inclined to ring.

While I’m running, I get to thinking, why am I not more disappointed? I remember being way more upset when Outlaw Bride didn’t final in 2005. Maybe because that was my first shot at the GH and I had high hopes. I mulled that over but realized no, that wasn’t it. Brimstone was a superior manuscript to Outlaw Bride. With two more years under my belt my writing had improved immensely. I should have had higher hopes for Brimstone. And in truth, I did. I expected to final (Ah, ego…). So then, why wasn’t I more crushed when the call didn’t come?

As my feet beat the pavement and the frigid temperatures bit into my skin I had an epiphany. While making the finals would have been great, my intent was to use it as a marketing tool, an extra foot in the door to snag the attention of an editor and/or agent. But I already have the attention of an editor. And if I got the attention of one editor, could I not also get the attention of another editor or agent based on the merits of the book without the “GH Finalist” tagged onto the query letter? ‘Sure, why not,’ I shrugged. (Which made me trip a little, but what can you do?).

I’m glad I entered the contest. It meant I took a shot and that’s always a good thing. I’m not a big believer of living your life like an armchair quarterback. But not making the finalists doesn’t impact my goals for the year. I still have every intention of beating down the doors of agents and editors in an effort to sell this series. I still plan on revising Outlaw Bride once Brimstone is out the door. And Book Two of the series, Saving Grace, will be at least first drafted by the end of the year. And if I can swing it, I will once again do NaNoWriMo in November with a romantic suspense that has been picking away at my story brain.

Not being a GH finalist has not changed any of that. And it hasn’t changed the belief that someday soon I will get a call of my own saying, ‘Hell yes, we’d love to publish your book.’

If nothing else, not making it to the finals drove that reminder home.

And another plus: Big congratulations to my buddy (and San Fran roomie!) Julianne MacLean who was nominated for a RITA in the Historical category. Way to go Julianne!!

Revived!

I feel revived after a fantastic weekend filled with great food, even better company, a movie, coffee with a friend and waffles. Big honking waffles smothered in whipped cream and strawberries. Mmm mmm. Although, after stepping on the scales this morning, I think I should lay off the waffles for a while and concentrate more on the fruits and veggies, lest I want to start waddling about and busting out of my clothes. Not good.

Also, yesterday I sat down and figured out what I needed to do in order to finish Brimstone's edits by the end of March. I broke it down into page count for Monday through Friday. If I can edit 10 pages per day and use the weekend to do read through and clean up, I can complete this thing by the end of the month.

So far today I managed to stay on track. Ten pages completed...forty left to go. Right now the manuscript is running at 410 pages, so I still need to cut it down by about 10-20 pages, but I think that's doable with the changes planned in the second half. Taking out the scene that involved two secondary characters for the set up of Book 2 will likely save me somewhere in the vicinity of 10-15 pages alone.

Now that I have it down on paper and figured out, the edits don't seem quite so daunting. Or endless. I'm itching to get this done and move onto something new. Well, not actually new, since I plan on re-tackling Outlaw Bride to clean that up, cut down the page count and send it out as well.

Which, by the way, noticed Harlequin have a book on the shelf right now called Outlaw Bride. Lovely. Oh well, since the publishers have a tendency to change titles anyway, I won't stress too much about it.

The Hump Day Round Up

First off, I've been having a lot of strange dreams lately and one reoccurring theme seems to be vampires. And these aren't just short, disjointed dreams either. They're epic in nature. The kind where you wake up and feel the dream had been going on for hours.

And last night I had a dream where I kept getting asked for ID. The strange thing was, the ID I had to show wasn't a laminated card with my picture, or thumb print or something as high tech as a retinal scan. No. I had to show them the red nail polish on my toes. And every time I did they would go, "Ooohhh, yes of course, Ms. Boyce, please come right in." Even I can't decipher the meaning out of that one. Other than I really do like my lovely red toes and perhaps I have some deeply buried need to share them with the world.

Brimstone is motoring along. I've edited 30 pages so far this week and feel like I'm back on track. I find I am also getting itchy to get back and clean up Outlaw Bride to prep that for sending out too. But first I need to finish Brimstone and get agent query letters done. Hopefully by mid-March I'll be ready to tackle TOB again.

Meanwhile, I am trying to think up an educational session for one of our chapter meetings and I am toying with the idea of using 'self help' books as a way of delving deeper into your characters. It's still in the embryonic stages of thought right now, but we'll see what develops. I'm not a big reader of self-help books but I'll dig around and see if I can find some that might be useful for what I have in mind.

And I have switched up my work-outs. The idea of an entire hour on the treadmill or strength-training just seemed too boring to contemplate so I'm breaking it up. I'll do a half hour run on the treadmill and then do 20 minutes of strength training. I cannot wait until the weather improves and the time changes so I can get outside for my walks again. Working inside is boring. I'd rather go hike up a hill than do three sets of squats.

The guitar lessons are going great. I'm learning to switch between G, C and D a little more quickly if perhaps not with the greatest of accuracy. I'm going out tonight to get a new acoustic guitar. The one I have is almost as old as me and it doesn't sound so great. For next week our instructor has asked us to bring in 5 songs each and she will chord them for us. I'm trying to narrow it down from the 8 I have picked. I think I'm leaning towards Indifference by Pearl Jam, a couple of Blue Rodeo tunes, The Apology by Tracy Chapman, and Stay by Sugarland.

And there you have it. The Hump Day Round Up.

By the way, when searching for pictures on Google...perhaps typing in 'hump day' was not the best idea. I'm just saying...