Resolutions

It's the eve of 2010 and I find myself looking back on the past year with little in the way of regrets.

I started 2009 with a crazy idea: to write a book. I've since written three. Well two full novels and two half-completed novels.

2010 brings me the resolution to persevere. To keep writing. To keep seeking an agent and publisher. To drive forward at full speed.

In that spirit, I made a few changes. I renamed Force. It's now called It's a Kind of Magic. The reason for the change is to allow continuity in the titles of the series. I hope to include the word "magic" in each title, and hopefully use a song title or lyric for the title. Other titles i'm tossing about include Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic and Black Magic Woman.

Also, I signed up to Authonomy.com today. It's a site owned by HarperCollins. It allows aspiring authors to post there work to the site for peer review, and the top rated books get selected by HarperCollins for review.

Here's the link to my book: http://authonomy.com/ViewBook.aspx?bookid=15163

Please go there, sign up (it's free and there's no spam!) and then click on "Back this Book."

Okay, I'm done with the shameless self promotion. :)

Social Media and the Publishing World

A new trend among authors right now is to generate buzz before their book is published, that way, you can show agents and publishers that people will want to buy your book. Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace are all great ways to exploit oneself to the web world.

I'm not a fan of MySpace, which is more media centric anyway. As for Twitter, I have an account (@shawnapiranha) but to be honest, I still don't really understand the whole concept behind it.

So I took to Facebook. The other day I created a fanpage for myself (I didn't want one just for Force because i wanted to be able to update it with the sequels when the time comes). It was very weird trying to create a fan site based on me. I don't really know what people would want to know!

But, after a few hours (yes, hours!) I came up with a barebones site. I posted the first three chapters of Force as well as a few discussion topics, some of which were started by the characters from the story as well (hmm... how did they get on facebook, I wonder?)

Anyway, after five days, I have 79 fans! The more exciting thing is that at least 20 of them are people I don't know! They aren't even in my extended network! It's pretty exciting to have complete strangers writing positive reviews about a book they've only read the beginning of.

So I guess the big experiment will be seeing how this pans out in the long run. Fingers crossed!

No, I'm not a slacker, I've just been preoccupied.

I guess it looks bad when someone starts a blog about writing, and then doesn't write in it for over a month.

What can I say, I've been busy!

I just closed on a condo, and the past three weeks I've spent organizing moving and inspections and the like. Needless to say, writing has kind of fallen off the table.

At first I was a bit disappointed in myself for not writing recently, but then I remembered a promise I made to myself upon finishing the sequel to Force: Take a break!

So, after taking a break from writing to enjoy summer, and pursue agent representation, I've decided to pick it back up again. I'm not yet writing the third and final story related to Force, but instead, I've started a new, completely different tangent.

I've tentatively titled it After... Life. It follows a girl who wakes up one morning not with amnesia, but instead with entirely different memories of what her life has been. Alternating chapters are from her husband's point of view as he struggles to deal with the new person his wife has become.

I'm really liking the way the plot is forming in my head, but unfortunately, I may have bit off more than i can chew with this one. It's hard to write two identical chapters from two separate points of view, especially when i don't happen to write them together on the same day.

Anyway, that's my update. Still pursuing agents for Force, but not aggressively at the moment.

Oh! And I had someone finally read my still-untitled sequel, and she loved it! And she's not related to me, so that makes me believe her opinion more :)

I think the compliment may have been the push I needed to start up again.

Heat Wave!

Summer has hit Victoria with a fierce passion. It is so stinkin' hot out right now, and has been for the past week. Sounds great, right?

Well, yes, it has been lovely. But it also means I've been less than productive on writing to agencies because I'm out enjoying the weather. I finished my second novel a week or so ago, and was all set to hunker down on getting an agent, but instead I goofed off and went to the beach, and for hikes and such.

It was wonderful.

Today, however, I'm back at the letter writing. I'm feeling particularly determined now. I have to admit, I've been pretty selective at which agencies I contact, but until I exhaust those picks, I'm holding out for quality.

Besides that, I've already started book three, which I know I said I wasn't going to do, but the ideas are flowing! I can't help it! And people like Sharlene and my boss keep pushing me for more more more that it encourages me to write!

Le sigh.

Blindness

I've been contemplating putting up a playlist on here. Music is highly influential to me when i write, and I find i am discovering all sorts of new music as my moods shifts with the story. I may post the full playlist at some point but for now i just want to post this song, Blindness, by Metric. It reminds me of when Alex is discovers she is blind. The song is quite haunting.


Send us a blindfold, send us a blade
Tell the survivors help is on the way

I was a blindfold, never complained
All the survivors singing in the rain
I was the one with the world at my feet

Got us a battle, leave it up to me

Find us a trap door, find us a plane
Tell the survivors help is on the way

I was a blindfold never complained
All the survivors singing in the rain
I was the one with the world at my feet
Got us a battle, leave it up to me

What it is and where it stops nobody knows
You gave me a life I never chose

I wanna leave but the world won't let me go
I wanna leave but the world won't let me go

What it is and where it stops nobody knows
You gave me a battle I never chose

I was the one with the world at my feet
Got us a battle, leave it up to me

Knots in my tummy

Hey all,

It's been a while since i posted on here, and for good reason: I had hit a writer's block *gasp*. This past weekend though was sunny and beautiful, and yesterday I took my lappy down to starbucks got to work.

First i researched a few more agents, and sent out some more queries. Then, after getting bored of that, I finally got cracking.

I'm still not done the sequel, but i wrote about 5000 words, and finally have the end in sight. My problem was that I knew how to end it, but not how to tie it into the third (and final) novel in the series. I hadn't developed the storyline enough in that one that allowed me to make the connections i needed.

So, anyway, after writing a bunch out yesterday, I'm back to tummy knots and anxiousness as I write again. This is good, in the sense that completion is near, and the knots are from my creative spirit wrangling about new ideas in my head, but it's also a bit annoying when i'm trying to do my real job. What's even harder is trying to remember everything that randomly pops into my head until i get home to my laptop.

So that's my update. I'm going to write more tonight after baseball I hope, and also work on the development of a new character for book 3: his name is October, and he will be a key player in the final showdown.... *insert ominous music here*

Updates!

So it's been a while since I've written here, and to be honest it's because i have writers' block! GASP!

I'm nearing the end of the second story, and I can't figure out how to wrap it up!! EEP! So I have gone back and re-read the whole thing, and still am stuck.

Then I went back and fixed up Force again. I sent out some more query letters (five) and heard back from three. Two said no, but one wanted a partial manuscript!! Sweet!! I went through all the letters I've sent so far, and including the five i just sent, I've only sent out 12 letters (I miscalculated in an earlier post). So 2 responses out of 12 is pretty good in terms of odds. Now all I need is a positive response from the agent and we're on our way!

Also, I want to thank all those people out there who are reading my book and helping me with edits and suggestions. It's been a huge help and also helps me keep writing - you're good for my creative juices! Thanks!

That's all for now... hoping i can bust this writer's block soon....