I've started revisions on my Nano14 project. It's not too terrible of an undertaking, or so it seems. I suppose all of that will come out in the wash this weekend, when I try to make some serious time for it. I've made a list of 11 Things I Need to Do to Make This Better So Maybe I Can Snag An Agent.
I have a desire to go the traditional publishing route; to be honest, there is a lot about ePublishing that I find ... distasteful. My dream agent - yes, there is one - is currently accepting queries, so we'll see if I can summon up the courage to send her a request. After all, the worst she can say is no.
Aside from that, I've managed to find a pre-reader who is willing to give me constructive criticism, and hasn't read a lot of my stuff otherwise. It's a bit frightening to be honest, this idea of sending someone who's never read anything I've written before with no real idea of what she'll think, but let's be honest: this is what publishing a book is.
Plan is to send the draft to my Fabulous Four, to take their feedback and push through another round of revisions, with hopeful querying to begin this summer. While they're reading it, I'm going to actually pull out the project I completed before this one, hopefully with fresh eyes for some heavy revisions/refills/reworking. I loved it, and it was the first of a series that my best friends are antsy to read more of so I suppose I should get back to that one, too. ;)
I've made a few non-writer goals for the year, too. I won't get into some of them just now, but one of them is to push myself out of this homebody habit I've taken on. I think 2014 was just so damn exhausting that I didn't know how else to react but to become something of a recluse. There are definitely some nasty catalysts that pushed me into that route, but I have stayed here, for the last few months at least, willingly. And frankly, it's time to stop.
I'm not an extrovert, despite many peoples' thoughts on the matter, but I do love being around my friends. More often than not, my only requisite company is a damn fine book, though. I've been reading Amanda Palmer's book, The Art of Asking; or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help.
She's got some one-liners that have really gotten down into my core, and they're just beautiful. An example:
“There's really no honor in proving that you can carry the entire load on your own shoulders. And...it's lonely” (Amanda Palmer, 2014)
It's lovely, and real, and heartfelt, and I have to be honest, it's refreshing because (to be truthful), I know very little about her beyond the fact that she's half of The Dresden Dolls, has an interesting set of non-eyebrows, there was some (somewhat incomprehensible) drama over a successful Kickstarter campaign she had, and she just happens to be married to one of my heroes, Neil Gaiman. The Art of Asking is heady and impacting; it's making me realize how strange my relationship with accepting help is. As a person who was forced to pay rent at 18 and has been on her own since about a month after that, and as a person who has no deep relationship with any of her genetic family, I feel that I've developed into such a fiercely independent woman that it's taken my husband nearly 10 years to break down the walls I unintentionally kept up.
And as I read, I can feel the stitches closing up some wounds I never realized I really had.
So, hey, thanks, Madam Dresden-Gaiman of the Drawn On Eyebrows. You're pretty kick ass. If I ever see you around town (Austin, TX), I'll send a coffee your way.
Btw, I swear, Amanda and Neil MUST be the coolest people on the planet. Amanda's whole story is so cool, and she seems so genuine. And then, last October, by reading and then retweeting me, Neil directly assisted me in putting together my kiddo's Halloween costume this year. I was having a hell of a time finding a legitimate but affordable yellow rain coat for my best gal, and she was bound and determined to be Coraline. In the end, Neil retweeted me, and a lady in Boston ended up sending me her daughter's old jacket for free... and she included a note that said she hoped we loved it and got a lot of use out of it.
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| (she wore a striped shirt beneath the jacket for our actual trick or treating) |
Anyway, basically, what I'm saying is Neil and Amanda live what they preach. And I'm grateful for it.
Anyway.
I think I'll go read.
Good night.
- ang
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