Weekend wrap up

What a weekend!

First, I made a goal I was sure I'd keep on Friday--4000 new words before midnight. Author Paula Yoo joined me and dubbed it "Friday 4k."

Well, I gave up around 1300 words. Epic fail. The chance to go out came up and I took it. And for once, I didn't feel bad about it! Usually, I'd beat myself up over not making my word count goal. But instead, I ended up going out with BFF and doing exactly what was needed for a ridic week.

I worked a little on Saturday and focused on the end incentive--a night out in my neighborhood with awesome friends. It was sooo nice to be in my neighborhood and not have to get on the train after a night out. There are lots of interesting places yet to be explored...

Today, I pulled the plug on the Internet and got serious. For real. I wasn't messing around, LOL. I got 4049 words down today, so I feel good about it. Better than yesterday's measly total!

Tomorrow, I'm going out with the Melissa Walker and Sarah MacLean. Fun!

Also, I've been getting blurb requests lately and I'm flattered, thank you! Please feel free to send me an e-mail and I can give you an address where to send your book. My rule, though, just FYI--I won't blurb a book unless I love it. I think that's what you're supposed to do...right?

AND! I found out through a neighborhood message board that...get ready...there is a stable near my park! Kensington Stables. OMG! I about died. I'm going to email them to see if I can come observe a few lessons, talk to the riders, maybe groom a lesson horse--anything! I'm insanely excited and would love to go and spend even a little time in the horsey environment. The killer? They offer trail rides in the park.

The park I adore.

That's where it's complicated. I had a spinal fusion for super severe scoliosis. So, if I rode a horse and fell, I could break or snap my rods and have to go through a spinal fusion *again* or become paralyzed. High stakes, right? But there are moments, every so often, where I want to risk it, get on a horse and RIDE! This is one of those moments.

People have argued to me that I could ride a "bomb proof" horse and would have nothing to worry about. But IMO, there's no such thing. Accidents happen and no horse is bomb proof. I don't believe it and I've met/ridden dozens of horses and have yet to find a BP horse.

*sighs* Tough decision.

And I also got a super quick rejection today. Sent the query and got a nice note back within hours. It's a mag I've been trying to crack for years and they had just assigned the topic I pitched to someone else. Getting close I think...it's just about timing! But that's a better rejection than "Um, hello. Have you read our mag before? Why are you pitching us something off topic?!" I haven't gotten one of those--I'm just saying that if you have to get a rejection, I got a nice one today.

And now to tackle e-mails from my reader girlies. :) Hope everyone had a fab weekend!

Moving into the adult magazine market

While I've been drafting BEHIND THE BIT, I've been thinking about my freelancing and I'm feeling the seven year itch. ;)

Since I was fourteen, I've been writing for teen magazines. That's fantastic and I absolutely love it, but I think I'm going through a new phase. I've been reading lots of GLAMOUR, REDBOOK, ALLURE and FAMILY CIRCLE. These were magazines that I used to look at and say, "Can't write for them yet. I just don't have the clips and I'm not in their target age range yet. (I think Redbook is for the 25+ age group, but I might be wrong. Pretty sure, though.)

But the more I read of adult mags, the more I realize they're JUST like SEVENTEEN, TEEN VOGUE and COSMOGIRL (RIP, CG!! Thanks to Melissa Walker for bringing that to my attention. Melissa knows EVERYTHING about the mag biz!)

No, the magazines obviously don't publish articles in the same tone, but the subjects and topics are often the same--men or boys, beauty, health, lifestyle, etc. Just with more of an adult tone.

I almost feel as if I'm starting over in the magazine field. Maybe I am! Teen magazine clips might mean NOTHING to adult mag editors, but I'm going to try.

Now, I've got to:

* read a zillion back issues
* figure out the mastheads
* find a topic
* write a query
* rewrite the query
* obsess over the query
* repeat!

I'm still going to keep freelancing for teen mags, but it feels like the right time to give adult mags a try.

Fingers crossed. :)

Anyone else go through something similar when shifting from the teen market to the adult publications?

Tyrney Steinhoff & Hot Shot--my feature article in Listen Magazine

Something for my horse crazy friends to check out! My article, "Tyrney Steinhoff & Hot Shot," is the cover story for the September issue of Listen Magazine. Yay! :)

Tyrney was a great girl to interview and it was a fun piece to write.

You can view the link below to read the entire article.

http://www.listenmagazine.org/article.php?id=80

Diary of a Debut Author Video: How to Become a Freelance Writer

I decided to go for it yesterday while I had a little free time (meaning, I was thinking of a mean girl trick and taking a writing break) and made the freelancing video I've been plotting for a while. I hope I answered your questions and thanks so much for the emails and messages! As I say in the vid, if I don't answer your question or if you have other writing questions you'd like me to tackle, get in touch. :)

Hope you enjoy it!

Working on a new Diary of a Debut Author Video

I'm working on a new video that I'll post within a couple of weeks. I've been getting a few e-mails and MySpace messages from people wanting to know how to break into magazines, read mastheads, write a query, etc. So, the video that I'm working on will tell you how to do all of that. If anyone else has freelance questions they want answered, let me know and hopefully I'll know the answer!

I've realized, too, that I love making videos! They're a break from writing and it's fun, creative and a new medium to reach people. In November, for NaNoWriMo, I'll be doing a weekly video to share my progress each week and give myself a video pep talk. 'Cause you know, it would be embarrassing not to hit 50k after vlogging about doing so. I'd toyed with the idea of doing a daily video in November, but I think that's too much.

It's a busy time for freelancers to get winter queries in, so I've been doing a little of that and getting ready to dive back into writing a new Canterwoood Crest book. There's something...warming, I guess you could say, about writing a sequel. I already adored my characters, but now I love them even more! Sasha, my MC, is spunkier, funnier and smarter than she was in Take the Reins and it's an interesting process to grow along with her and the rest of my CC gang. I can't wait for you guys to meet them! :) These characters have been with me since November 2006 and it will be a blast to share them with others when 1/09 rolls around.

I thought the summer and fall would trickle by and time would just stall before Jan. But nope! What happened to May? It's almost gone. June's going to be a month of intense writing, as is July. Not to mention on July 27...six months away from publication. Six. Months. OMG. Yeah. That'll be the start of the PR plan and all of the crazy/exciting/busy stuff that goes along with it.

Okay, back to writing.

(I'm also testing out the Blogspot feature of having this post when I tell it to in advance, so apologies if it doesn't work. It might post twice for today (5-27).

Get Ready for Clue #1 :)

Have you guys heard about Boys Blogging Books? If not, go check them out. They’re a cool group of young guys who review books. Yay for guys who read!

My brother Jason, who’s sixteen, just joined BBB. He’s going to be reviewing a book a month. Thanks for having him, guys! He’s excited to join and is already thinking of his review. I’ll let you guys know when he posts his first review so you can give him some comment-love. :)

I’m enjoying the 80 degree temps this week and am getting stuff done before I go on Super-Secret Project Trip. My to-do list is loooong. I’m bouncing out of my chair to share my first clue with you guys and that’ll be posted on Monday.

You’ll get the next clue a week later. After that, all clues (to be explained in Monday’s video!) will come from the road whenever I have wireless access.

And then. The BIG one. A video (or group of videos) will be posted when I get home that will hopefully be fun, exciting and informative. I feel like I’ve been drinking 10 coffees a day since I heard about this project. Date of this video is TBA. Yes, yes, I know I’m being a tease. I’ve been told. :)

One of the things I’m working on this week is a new author photo. I’m going to schedule a visit to a local horse farm and will have my photo taken with a gorgeous, sweet palomino gelding. I like my other pictures, but it just makes sense to have a photo of me with a horse. :)

I was also looking at the calendar and the very first hint of PR work for Take the Reins starts in May. My promo plan is H-U-G-E and going to be oh-so-time-consuming. Eeek! But worth it. I want to go all out so I don’t look back and say, “Damn, I wish I’d…”

The first wave of pre-publication promo includes querying all of the magazines on my list that have a lead-time of 8 months. That means I’ve got to get out about 75 queries between May and June. Yeah. Thankfully, I’ve been writing them here and there when I have a free moment and I’ve got about half left to write. I’m not writing on spec anymore, but have to make an exception for a couple of magazines. I’m going after bigger mags this time and finally feel more confident about targeting magazines I wouldn’t query last year. Even now, with the book deal, my confidence meter is a little low when it comes to pitching to glossy teen mags. But I’m going to give it a shot!

I’ve fired up my Power Tracker and am prepping to send those babies. The really crazy part comes with keeping track of follow ups and deadlines. Thankfully, there’s software to track that. I used to track in a notebook, but finally plunked down the dollars for software and now I couldn’t live without it.

J.A. Konrath swears freelancing is the Number One way to get attention for your book and I have to agree. This is my…what…seventh year as a freelancer and it MADE my platform when I started looking for an agent. I swear by freelancing.

That is all.

Workin' on edits

I'm excited! I'm days away (maybe 3 days) from finishing up a huge set of edits. Y-A-Y! That's the best feeling, isn't it? To be this close to giving up the manuscript and passing it along to an agent, editor or critique partner to read. I've been working super-extra-crazy hours to make this draft as best I can and even though I go all out on all my drafts--this one got an extra oopmf from somewhere.

Also...I can't say much at this point, but work on the cover for Take the Reins has commenced!! :) As I get details that I can share from Editor K, I'll pass them along. It's so, so exciting to dream up a cover and think about the jumble of pages and words becoming an actual book. That people will read. And hopefully like. :)

As you noticed, there's no guest this Friday. On April 4, however, the fun and fabulous Debbie Reed Fischer is stopping by. Don't miss that.

Finally, I'm working on plotting a 3-video set just for aspiring freelancers. If you've e-mailed me before about how to get into freelancing, these videos are for you. They'll take you from choosing a market, to formatting and writing a query to fulfilling the assignment. Watch for those in April or early May. If you've got freelancing questions you want answered, e-mail me within the next couple of weeks and I'll be sure to try and tackle your questions.

Back to work! TGIF!

Big news! The Writer published my breakthrough column

Today's worthy of a double post because... I just got my March copy of The Writer and it has my Breakthrough column on page fourteen!!! Yay!! :) I've been trying to break into The Writer for five years and I'm beyond thrilled to see an article of mine in that mag.

I hope you guys check it out. :)

Freelancing to Fiction

I was on The Writer's Website yesterday and found this nice little link: http://www.writermag.com/wrt/default.aspx?c=ni&id=56

I absolutely cannot wait for the March issue of The Writer! It'll have my piece for the Breakthrough column where I wrote how writing articles led me to my book deal. In my case, it's completely true that freelancing for magazines taught me a lot about writing fiction from putting deadlines on myself, to editing to working with editors.

Have you freelanced? Did you find it helpful before you started writing a book? If you haven't, would you consider freelancing or are you sticking to fiction?