This is the recording studio. There are two identical studios in this room and they can be used at the same time.
See how thick the door is? It keeps out all outside noise, but I have to be really careful about inside noise, like turning the pages, shifting in my chair or accidentally kicking the table. If anything like that happens, we have to go back and re-record whatever I was reading at the time.
SCBWI Utah/Southern Idaho Presents:
Novel Revision Retreat with Emma Dryden October 1, 2, and 3, 2011 Stonefly Lodge in Ashton, Idaho A weekend to revise, learn, and share with other dedicated writers. $325 includes food, lodging, and workshops for the weekend. Limited to 16 participants. Participants must have a completed manuscript and must commit to reading three other full manuscripts prior to the retreat. Contact Neysa Jensen to register: neysajensen(at) msn (dot) com Registration deadline: Sept. 1, 2011 Stonefly Lodge in Ashton, Idaho http://stoneflylodgeidaho.com/index.html For my part, I can tell you Emma is awesomeness in human form. She was one of the mentors in the Nevada Mentorship Program last year and the folks who had her, loved her. (Not as much as I loved Susan, of course, but right up there within an inch or so.) Check her out on her Blog, or her website. To give you a little background (lifted from Emma's website): The summer before I graduated, I landed an internship as a “jack of all trades” assistant at Viking Children’s Books and once I earned my B.A in English Language and Literature from Smith, I returned to New York City to be an Editorial Assistant at Random House Children’s Books. I was then hired as Associate Editor for the legendary Margaret K. McElderry, whose eponymous imprint was part of Macmillan Children’s Books, and was later named Senior Editor of the imprint. After Margaret K. McElderry retired, I was made Vice President, Editorial Director, and in 2005 I became Vice President, Publisher of Atheneum Books for Young Readers and Margaret K. McElderry Books, imprints of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, a position I held until 2009.
Over the course of my twenty-five year career I’ve edited nearly five-hundred books for children and young readers, ranging in format from board books and picture books to poetry, novelty books, non-fiction, middle grade fiction, and young adult/teen fiction and fantasy.See? Told you! Awesome.Feel free to ask questions about the program here. I'll be happy to dig up answers for you and post them back.
This is me, in case you forgot what I looked like. It's been an embarrassingly long time since I've posted. I've been spending every hour working, revising, submitting and parenting. You guys know what that's like, I know. But I miss you all, so I'm attempting to get back to regular blogging...starting with a few updates. 1. The Iron Bodkin was selected to be a part of the Talking Book Project by the Idaho Commission for Libraries. That means it will be turned into an audio file and made available to the 40,000 hearing, sight or physically impaired people in our state who have trouble reading print books. I'm honored, humbled and a little giggly. 2. There are only twenty-eight days until the SCBWI-LA conference! If you'll be there, drop me a comment and I'll be sure to look for you. I'll be arriving on Friday and leaving Monday afternoon. Plenty of time to meet and greet. 3. I still plan to do a post about those nifty plot diagrams I used during my mentorship. Stay tuned! Lastly, a photo of The Boy, who is at least a foot taller than he was last time I posted. Happy July!
1. Very soon, I will have a post full of awesomeness to share! We ex-mentees (I really hate that "ex" part) are putting together our best take-away advice from the Nevada Mentorship Program! Check back in May for lots of fantastic FREE writing tips. 2. Yesterday, I played soccer for the only second time this year. 3. I scored three goals. Oh yes. I rock. 4. Today, my knee is swollen and clicking again which means...no more soccer and possible scoping/surgery. 5. Damn. 6. The architecture gig is super busy which leaves me little time for... 7. ...final revisions on my mentor piece. I'm about 75% finished, except that I keep making plot changes which... 8. ...result in further revision. I'm currently working on a version of my ms titled, "Kind of a Mess". 9. It's still not spring here in Boise. I hate that. 10. I'm trying to make plans for the LA SCBWI conference. If you're going, leave me a comment. I'm having trouble getting things come together and I need lots of motivation to make it all work. 11. Did I mention I had a birthday a couple weeks ago? I'm over thirty now. (I was over thirty before, but I like the way that sounds.)
What's going on at your house?
Some of our wonderful presenters from the Boise SCBWI Conference this past weekend: Neysa Jensen (ARA), Judy Cox (Author), Sydney Salter (Author), Jen Rofe (Agent), Gloria Skurzynski (Author) and Carol Lynch Williams (Author)
Yesterday, we hiked with the Triplet Family to Wees Bar, a place on the Snake River where early humans carved pictographs onto boulders. We hiked twelve miles, round trip, in six hours with four ten-year olds. The math hurts my head.
This is Sascha and me after our last Vball game. We ended up tying for last place in the league which is better than last year, when we held last place all by our lonesomes.
Three of the four triplets. I see the teenager attitude is starting already.
In five days, my mentorship will be over. So? How was it? First, my objective thoughts. If you're considering applying, I highly recommend it... IF...- ...you're getting requests for fulls or partials, or good feedback on query rejections. The mentorship program isn't for new writers. If you're just starting out, looking for a good course on writing basics, there are plenty of those around. This isn't one of them.
- ...you're willing to revise what you thought was a finished piece. If you hope to submit something and have the mentors tell you it's exceptional and hook you up with a publisher...that ain't gonna happen. If you're willing to have a mentor tell you what you're doing well and help you with what you're doing crappily, this is the place for you. If you're willing to revise your entire manuscript three times, changing major plot points each time... If you're willing to accept hard criticism... If you're willing to try changes you're not sure you agree with... If you can accept that maybe, just maybe, you're not as far along the writing path as you thought... the Nevada SCBWI Mentorship Program could be for you.
Now, for my subjective thoughts from the inside... What to expect if you get accepted? Be realistic. - Not every mentor and mentee will click, so your mentorship may not be a blissful Disney-esque meeting of the minds. If you find yourself having issues with your mentor, put on your big girl panties and TELL THEM! They're not mind readers. I can promise you that every mentor in that program is there because they want to help writers meet their goals. Help them help you. The worst thing you can do is just throw in the towel because it's not the panacea you thought it was going to be. I got pretty lucky. Susan and I spoke the same language and even though I wasn't thrilled with some of her suggestions, I tried them or tried to find ways to incorporate them that felt right to me.
- Taking a manuscript through the mentor program is not a guarantee that it will get published. (Read that again. I'll wait...) Keep reminding yourself of this. I needed to have this tattooed across my hands. Once I started seeing how much better my book was, I started thinking about 'when' it was going to get picked up...not 'if'. A great manuscript in superb shape still might never get published. Think about what the mentorship is doing for your CRAFT more than what it's doing for your book.
- This is work! Hard work. With a deadline. Not to mention, you're paying for it! I busted my ass pretty consistantly for six months. The more work I did, the more refined my mentor's comments became. We went from focusing on major plot points to weaving in subtle connections between characters to absolutely tying up Every. Last. Thread. I'm still working on that last part. If you're not willing to tear your manuscript apart to make it the best it can be...you're not going to get as much for your money. Which brings me to the last point...
- The money. $850 for the program, plus airfare to Vi
 In the mornings, The Boy likes to sit on the heater and have me ask him questions from the Brainquest deck. This morning went something like this...
Me: In the Bible, what part of Adam does God use to create Eve?
The Boy: I don't know. Protons? Me (staring): I love you. That makes so much more sense than the actual answer, which is "a rib". The Boy: What? Atoms don't have ribs.
So, today I got my final editing letter from my mentor. It's ten pages long, the longest so far. You'd think after three whole revisions, my novel would have most of the kinks worked out. Apparently, it doesn't. Kinda makes you wonder how bad it was to begin with. Kinda makes you wonder if the book will ever be good enough. Kinda makes you wonder if maybe writing isn't what I should be doing. It makes me wonder those things.
A couple years ago, a friend of mine saw a notice about a writing competition with a small press. The notice was on a website she trusted, a very big-name author was on the judges panel, the small press had an extensive website and had published five books already. Not having anything against small presses and being impressed with the judge's panel, (let's call the person Pat) Pat decided to enter. Three months later, Pat received an email saying she'd won the grand prize -- a publishing contract. Pat immediately went to work, scouring the internet for any negative information on this company. There was none. Pat signed the contract for publication, "met" (virtually of course) the runner's up in the contest as well as the managing editor, editor and existing authors with the company. She was ecstatic at the idea of finally having her book in print and soon went to work editing.
Pat corresponded frequently with the managing editor and her direct editor. She was asked to set up marketing tours and to participate in things like the Hub Challenge -- writing 30 articles in 30 days (which seemed excessive, given that she had a full time job and editing on top of it. But Pat wanted to be a 'good author' and made every effort to do what was asked.) After about a year of editing, the publisher dropped all communication. Pat talked to the runner's up in the contest and found that they hadn't heard from the publisher either. So they started digging around, deeply, in the publisher's website, in the state attorney general's records of the business...even in the big-name author who judged the contest. What did they find?
They found the big name author had never been involved in the contest. They found the "publisher" didn't have an actual premisis--just a PO Box--and the business hadn't been formed until the month the contest winners were announced. They even found chat transcripts in the company chat room alerting them to the fact that the managing editor and the editor never existed. They were just two of several personas played by two self-published authors, pretending to be a publishing company.
Did they intend to publish Pat and the other winner's books? Pat believes so, but one of the woman developed health issues that prevented them from following through. (They intended to 'self-publish' the winner's books, charging $20 a copy and pocketing 75% of that., while the writer's got 12%.) Was any of it illegal? Absolutely, but hard to prove to a standard of law. Did the "company" ever respond to Pat's allegations? No, nor did they sign a release from her contract. It cost Pat about $800 to get out of it.
At that point, after a year of marketing, Pat had tons of people asking when her book was coming out. She felt pretty stupid, having been taken in by a scam like this. She decided the easiest thing to do would be to self-publish, so she could tell people "You can get my book here" instead of explaining the whole sordid tale over and over.
It's been about six months since this all happened. Her book is out and while self-publishing hasn't turned out to be the simple answer she was looking for, she's relieved to have it all over and would like other writers to know things like this can happen -- even to smart, careful, diligent people. So keep yourselves safe. There are some real creeps out there.
Our T-shirts for taking 2nd place in the tourney!! Go BEERS!! My step-daughter was visiting this week from DC. Shown here with her grandmother and The Boy. A few weeks ago, this was the state of my mentorship piece. Slightly organized chaos. Last week, I devoted 6-8 hours every day to writing, hoping to get the major revisions done. And I did. Now, it looks like this. I finished the huge plot changes and I've gone back through Susan's revision notes, making sure I've adressed each one. I've tagged each note with a % indicating to what degree I think I've addressed the issue. Now, I go through and tie up loose ends to get everything near 100%. Just 33 days until we meet in Virginia City for the Mentorship Wrap up Conference. Thinking about it makes me relieved and sad, in equal measure.
(Get it? I'm swamped. Hahaha! I crack myself up!) As my mentorship spirals down it's last weeks, I find myself with less time than ever and blogging has been at the bottom of my to-do list, right behind sleep. So, here's a quick catch up... 1. Our volleyball team, BEERS, took second place in the tourney which means WE GET SHIRTS!! Those followers from last year will remember the heartbreaking sadness of our no-shirt tournament season. 2. My last submittal to my mentor (a new prologue and revised first chapter) garnered lots of hearts, visible and invisible, and I'm now tearing through the rest of the revision. So far, I love how it's coming together. It remains to be seen if I can finish the remaining twenty-nine chapters before March 31. 3. My article about Diocletian's Palace titled, "How Poop Saved a Palace", will appear in Stories for Children magazine, in the Summer 2011 issue. 4. I just returned from a super wonderful weekend in New Bern, NC, where I hung out with three of my friends from high school, whom I hadn't seen in over twenty years. I found there was a lot of stuff going on in Graham, NC in the late 80's that I didn't know about! 5. It will probably be a very long time before I post again. Hugs and kisses!
Mostly, it looks like paper. And a lot of work. I'm a little past the half-way mark with my mentorship and so far, here's the paper that's been generated. First there's the initial copy of the manuscript, marked up with comments and accompanied by a four page revision letter. These are the chapter outlines I created for the first round manuscript. I also created diagrams of the various plot lines -- trying to see where the action is lagging in each line. With the revisions done, I needed to create revised chapter outlines to reflect the changes.
hibobguything -- by The Boy's friend 1. I *finally* go to the physical therapist today to check out my knee. The swelling is gone, which is good. But it keeps clicking when I turn. Not good...unless I intend to keep walking in the same direction for the rest of my life. And since...
2. ...changes in direction are good, I'm toying with the idea that my next book (after I finish my mentorship piece) will be YA. Maybe. Possibly. There's a wee chance.
3. Speaking of my mentorship, the latest notes and edits from Susan should be here today!! How am I feeling about that? Giddy, nervous, hiccupy. But she assures me they are smothered in invisible red hearts. :) #mymentorROCKS! Happy Week All!
The Today Show opted to interview Snooki instead of Caldecott and Newbery winners, Erin Stead and Clare Vanderpool.
Is anyone else feeling zero progress lately? My architecture projects all seem to be on hold for one reason or another. My mentor is reviewing changes to Soul Splinter, so no progress there. I'm holding strong on my No-Query Pact, so no querying (is that progress or not?) Worst of all, I did *something* to my knee at soccer on Sunday and, after xrays Monday, am not allowed to do anything until I see the Physical Therapist next week. Plus the weather is so yucky I don't even want to go outside.
This time of year, I always wish I was a bear.
1. Indoor soccer game this Sunday--woohoo! But other than that, no plans. I'm thinking about getting back to work on this painting. I haven't touched it since March. 2. I'm checking airfare for my April mentorship meeting in Virginia City. It's bittersweet. I'm so looking forward to seeing everyone again, but sad knowing it'll be our last get together. My mentor totally rocks and my manuscript is so much better, but I think the best thing about this program is all the wonderful people I've met. 3. One week into my "No Query Pact" and I'm holding strong.
4. I'm reading Chasing Vermeer. It's very clever. The Boy seems interested in it, too. I think he might snatch it once he finishes rereading the Percy Jackson books.
5. I'm ridiculously excited about the new 2009 Residental Building Code. They made some great changes. Happy Weekend!
Spokeo.com
If you haven't already heard of this website, check it out. Search for your own name and see what info they're laying out for all to see. I found myself listed with my age, my address, the value of my house (wrong), a photo of my house, members of my family. And that's just what they show for FREE!! For a small fee, you can 'join' their site and get people's income information, their credit scores, hobbies, etc.
Worried yet? Go to http://www.spokeo.com/ , search for yourself. When your page comes up, copy the html for your profile page. Then click the 'privacy' link at the bottom of the spokeo page and follow the instructions to remove yourself. Also, think about parents or grandparents who might not have access to the internet. Remove them as well. And pass this on!
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It's me! Remember me? I'm embarrassed at how long it's been since I gave this blog any attention. But my life has been crazy in the past twelve months. Big life changes happened and I found myself dealing with a lot of things. I also moved twice, bought a house, bought a car. Bought lots of new things for said house and car, most recently a black kitty from the pound named Nightmare. 
