the "v" word

First I have to start by saying…I’m on vacation next week!!! YAY!

It’s been far too long, so I’m uber excited!

Of course, I’m gonna be working on things at my new house (double YAY!), so it won’t be a true vacation…but it’s better than being at work! And I do plan on getting some writing done as well, hopefully more than I normally get done!

But on to the point of this post.

I’ve noticed in the twittersphere (follow me @jmanni32!) that agents and editors and writers (oh my!) have all expressed some carefully-worded opinions about the state of Vampire Works in fiction: mainly…they’re dead – and not in the good way.

This kinda worries me. First, because I write vampire YA, and Second, because I’m afraid that the queries I’ve recently sent out are gonna be rejected because of the subject matter regardless of how good the writing might be. (I’m not saying I’m good, just that the quality of the writing might not matter once agents see the dreaded “V” word)

So I pose a question to you, faithful followers…do you think vampire stories need to be automatically filed beneath the slush pile, forever avoided like The Plague? Or do you think that quality writing is quality writing, and the subject matter comes in second?

In other words…Am I wasting my time with my current queried ms?

like my new look?

So I decided after only a short time on Blogger to change the face of my blog...I hope you all like!

Also, as I said in a previous post, I've begun the querying process and boy are my nerves shot! I knew it would be nerve-wracking just from what I've read about others' query adventures, but I didn't know it would be this all-consuming. I have to force myself to focus on other things (thankful for bad reality tv!) to keep from sitting in my email with my finger on the refresh button!


So far, I've received a rejection, a partial request (yay!) and a request for a full (YAY!!) so all in all, it's been a rewarding experience so far. Who knows what will come of it all, but I'm so excited to finally be doing it! Keep your fingers crossed for me, blog fam!

20 is my magical number....hopefully

Okay, so I mentioned last week that I've finished my current WIP. Alas, I jumped the gun just a bit. I went back through it this past weekend and made some minor changes - a word added here, an exclamation point removed there...nothing major, just simple stuff that had been bugging me.

So, now that I feel it's "done", I suppose it's time to move on to the dreaded QUERY.  

Aaaahhh!!!

I wrote my query months ago, but I've since gone in and made some changes. I'm still waiting on the magnificent Elana Johnson to give me some of her wise nuggets of advice, but in the meantime, I've done my research and compiled what I feel is a very nice list of 20 agents. Now I say that 20 is my magical number, but I added "hopefully" because, like I'm sure all aspiring authors do, I'm hoping that somewhere in this list of uber-agents my agent awaits.

We will just have to wait and see... 

(Addendum: I have no idea why half of this post is in black...can't fix it, so I'm moving on!)

Bodacious Contest, people!

Guys, go check out an awesome contest at The Bodacious Pen...you could win some of the most highly-anticipated YA titles out there (Paranormalcy, anyone? yeah, it's there)...hurry, go now...but don't be too upset when I win!

it's alive....IT'S ALIVE!!...well, sorta

First let me start by saying Wow...look how long it has been since my last post! I try to do one post per week (sad I know, but LIFE gets in the way sometimes), but here lately I haven't been keeping my end of the deal. My apologies.

Second I'll say...I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day! I had a very hectic holiday weekend (my sister got married...yay!) but I thoroughly enjoyed the time off from work. I was also very busy finishing up my wip, EVER.

I'M SO EXCITED!!

My Beta Reader loved it, and I've completed all the changes that I feel are necessary. I'm doing a final read-through this weekend, just looking for any words that may need to be swapped out with something more appealing and checking for missed grammatical errors, then I'll be ready to start the Query Process!

I wrote my query a while back, but of course I've had some tweaking to do. I'm really pleased with it - as is my Beta Reader (she's the only one I have, so I call her my "Alpha Beta Omega" reader!) - and once I hear back from the incomparable Elana Johnson with what I'm sure will be an outstanding query critique, I'll work on her recommended revisions and then be good to go! (Seriously, folks...if you're ready to query but feeling a bit unsure of your query caliber, visit Elana's website/blog and buy her book From the Query to the Call...it's amazing! And you get a free query critique!)

So say a little prayer for me, oh folks of Writerdom...for I'm sure I'll need it!