The Beauty of an Agent and OMG how am I getting these books home?

Ha. It's been a bit longer since I last wrote than I realised. Sorry about that.

November was a pretty full on month!

Two hospital visits, 2 essays, a weekend in Wales and a friend from Australia visiting (Yay!) and another round of edits on my manuscript as well as starting edits on another and all of a sudden November was gone. Done and dusted.

And now it's December. And Christmas is most definitely here, in England. It is Christmas EVERYWHERE.

But that's not what I was wanting to discuss today.

I realised since my agent Jill Corcoran and I both (electronically) signed on the dotted line over 6 months ago, I haven't actually talked about how that's going. What it's like going from no representation, to representation.

Well let me tell ya, it's great. I most definitely recommend going the agent route, over submitting straight to a publisher.

Firstly, I love Jill because she's always on my side. She says I'm a talented writer and she love love love's my book which is OH so helpful in those moments that you doubt yourself. She's in the publishing industry. She is swamped with query letters and manuscripts and she reads a lot of childrens and YA books. She has middle grade age and teenage children. She knows the market, what's selling and what is popular with the kids. And she loves me as a writer.

That encouragement from someone other than your parents who love you anyway is worth every penny. Not that there are pennies involved as yet.

Secondly, she has a gazillion contacts! When trying to submit to publishers without an agent, so many doors are closed to you because they just don't accept unsolicited manuscripts. Well let me tell ya, those doors are WIDE open to me now.

Jill is an extremely hands on agent as well, and as much as editing and editing my book and editing it some more can make me want to tear my hair out - I know every suggestion she makes has been thought about, and I agree with the majority of them. Each round of edits we go through is making what I already thought was a good, solid book, into an even BETTER book.

She looks at the big things and the little things.

For instance, we were recently exchanging emails about boys and giggling.

JILL: "Boys don't giggle, they laugh. You should use the word laugh"

ME: "True, boys don't usually giggle. But these are 13 year old boys looking up porn on the computers at school. In this instance, they are probably giggling." (That's totally not a spoiler)

By doing all of this we are making sure editors are seeing the best possible book. Which they will have changes for, but still -we're making it the best WE think it can be. An editor will have more ideas on how to make it better AGAIN!

And something else I love about her is that she is super fast at replying to emails. Getting back to me about questions, regardless of how little and stupid they are. Though I try to limit myself on those ones.

So yeah, it's great having Jill on my team. I don't have to worry about submitting, perfecting my query letter any more. I just have to worry about the writing. And the rewriting. And the rewriting some more.

And reading!

I've been a crazy lady and bought lots of books while traveling. And now that the end is nigh (okay so it's still 2 months away, but I know it's going

to go fast) I am starting to worry about just how heavy paper in the form of books can be. Becaus

e I have some pretty stringent weight limits for my luggage.

Eep. But what have I been buying while away?

I love love love Paper Towns and Wimpy Kid. I haven't read 13 Reasons Why or the Graveyard Book as yet though. Why? Because I've been getting into some TV shows and the like that I totally wasn't aware of in Australia.

I mean, I knew about Degrassi: The Next Generation, but I wasn't into it. I am now. I'm kinda hooked. They really don't shy away from the tough subjects on that show. For instance, in the very first episode, a 12 year old character decides to meet a boy she met on the internet, and she meets him at a hotel, but it's not a boy, it's a 30-something pedophile. Tough subjects.

And onto something lighter, I'm a big Jane Austen fan. Well, I'm a big Jane Austen MOVIE fan. I tried to read Pride & Prejudice as part of my high school coursework and never actually finished it. And I haven't tried her other ones yet. But I love the movies they've been making of her books.

Lost in Austen is a GREAT take on the whole thing. Where a modern girl swaps places with Elizabeth Bennett in Pride & Prejudice (her family think Liz is staying at Amanda's house in Hammersmith, and Amanda is staying with the Bennetts) and just by her mere presence, everything "goes tits up". People marry the wrong people, run away with the wrong people, are better/worse than they seem in the book... I was giggling like a school girl watching this mini-series. So. Much. Fun.

But back to books: What did I buy today? Cos I was walking past Borders in Leeds and it was having a big CLOSING DOWN SALE. Argh! What am I supposed to do, NOT buy books in a closing down sale?

Today I bought:

Wow, blogger doesn't seem to want me to put up any more pictures.

I also bought Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, Hooked by Les Edgerton and The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler. The last two are writing craft books, and I have to say, I love reading these and have a bunch at home, but none with me whilst out in THE WORLD. I always take away at least ONE thing from reading a book on writing, and it helps me become a better writer. It's like homework. But homework I enjoy.

Speaking of which, I have 900 more words to write on my essay before I get to start the one about Harry Potter. Yay! 900 ESSAY words are so much harder than 900 fictitious words. Sigh.

Okay, I think that's a long enough post for now. What show/movie/book are you hooked on at the moment? Have you heard/read any writing advice that just stuck with you forever more? I wanna hear all about it!

Ciao for now,

Sairz

Harry Potter and the ADHD girl

Ah, I finished an essay today. BOOM. Feels good. Yes! Just have to hand it in tomorrow. Before I finished that one, I had to start aNOTHER one for my Education class which I'm doing about ADHD/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. I'm really quite interested in this topic, as I've seen some kids with it in its different forms while on placement in primary schools at home in Australia (alas, no placement involved while over here in England) and I gotta tell ya, I've been making some interesting observations the more I study ADHD.

My observation? I totally have it. There's 2 types of ADHD, there's the "OMG I'm sitting here but I want to be over there so I'm just going to go over there regardless that you told me to sit here and sit STILL here cos quite frankly, that's a bit of a joke, see my fingers tapping the table like that? I'm totally not doing that. My fingers are oh look at that, there's a bird out the window I'm going to climb out the window to look at the bird and okay ow that branch was actually really scratchy when I hit it and fell down and probably I shouldn't have done that and the teacher wants me back inside but I've done it now. Oops" type of ADHD, which is called Hyperactive-impulsive, where the person who has it, is quite hyperactive, and impulsive (among other things).

And then there's the 'inattentive' type of ADHD, which is basically where you have trouble with instructions and your mind wanders and your working memory is effected, so you can't remember what you did yesterday but boy it was SO funny that time 15 years ago when you were running down the hill to get a bucket of water and had so much momentum that you kept running straight into the lake and fell smack on your face in the water. (Actual story. This is who I am.)

I get in trouble with my family a lot for forgetting stuff, and my sister tells me I have made up half of my childhood memories because she doesn't remember them, even though half the time they are about her.

Also with ADHD, your grades are generally effected because of the whole having trouble paying attention thing, but I've mostly done okay in the grades area my whole life. I never failed a class (though there was this one maths test in high school which if I remember correctly I failed the first one and did a make up test and never found out the score so I will NEVER KNOW if I failed that test too...oooooh....) but I came close once last year. I thought I would try Sociology because I thought I would be interested in Sociology. Turns out I'm not. At least not the way THEY were teaching it.

Anyhoo, if I AM little miss ADHD girl, it explains a lot about me. Like why my mother was compelled to buy me a fridge magnet that said "Yes I'm in my own world, but it's okay, they like me there" because it made her think of me. Nice.

Okay, and now onto Harry Potter! I have just finished my essay on demons and the Devil in Medieval literature for my English Literature class: Narratives of Witchcraft and Magic (can I hear a WOOT!), and have found out the essay topics for the second essay, which I will start about a week after I finish the one about ADHD (I'm a little burnt out, essay wise right now.)

One of the topic questions? Way cool.

"Compare and contrast J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series with at least one other 20^th- or 21^st-century fictional treatment of witchcraft and magic."

So I'm thinking my ACADEMIC ESSAY is going to be about Harry Potter and oh, Willow from Buffy, she's pretty different to Harry Potter. Or Charmed. Or Bewitched. This is going to be way more fun than my usual essays. Mind you, it's still an ESSAY.

I'm not sure about book type witches. Any other suggestions that I should be going 'oh, DUH' about?

Twice in a week? Really?

Well this year's Nanowrimo could be going better for me.

I am at 7500 words. Whilst, erm, other people are at around the 20k mark.

But I have my reasons! And fairly good ones, I swear!

Firstly I sent my computer away to have the dust and gunk cleaned out, which would take a half hour, and 5 days later after they locked in the shop over the weekend and then LOST IT on Monday, I got the computer back. And it wasn't fixed.

So yeah, I lost 5 days.

Also, I've been to the emergency room twice in the past week. If I was at home in Australia, the first time would have been to a doctor's office, but considering that costs me money here (I think) I went to the emergency room when I thought I maybe might just have deep vein thrombosis by the week long muscle cramps and turning-to-rockness of my left leg.

And then at 3am 2 nights ago I was taken by ambulance to the A&E because I had been vomiting for SEVEN HOURS for no reason. To me, nausea is the worst kind of sickness. I absolutely hate hate hate it. Turns out I have gastro, a fever and a touch of dehydration and every muscle in my body has been sore so needless to say I've been sleeping a lot and ignoring the world and oh yeah, forgot to eat for 2 days until I realised that might just be aNOTHER cause of nausea should I let it go on too long.

So yeah. NaNo's not going so well this year, there have been a few more trials than last year. It doesn't mean the book won't EVER be finished. It just probably might not be finished by the end of November.

Stopping vomiting (check) remembering to eat and finishing essays with, you know, actual immediate deadlines is of more imminent importance to me right now. Or is that weird?

Sairz

Revision happy dances and Vikings

I fiiiiiinished, I fiiiiinished, tra la la la la!

Yes, it feels GOOD to finish revisions. I actually finished it 2 weeks ago but I'd been going over and over the book and was so close to it that I couldn't differentiate between one draft and another, and should this be in the new version or is it better without it? Am I making the book worse or better? I'm making the book worse...I hate this book!

That my wonderful agent suggested I put it aside for 2 weeks. Stop looking at the ruddy thing and think about something else.

So I did, and it turns out that I wasn't making it worse. I was making it pretty darn good, actually. I'm happy. So I pressed send and now it is in my agent's hands, awaiting her seal of approval. Or she'll suggest I do some more revisions. :) I'm not ACTUALLY smiling at that idea, but I'm sure it'll happen. Hopefully only some tweaks.

But anyhoo. I feel good right now!

Yesterday I met some other past and present students from my exchange University here in England who are doing National Novel Writers Month as well. Which starts November 1st. Eep! The count down is on!

I have my plot. I think it's a pretty good plot. And I know what happens for about the first 3rd of the novel. And I know what happens at the end. But about a week and a half in to NaNoWriMo I'm going to hit a snag. In that I don't actually know what comes next. Hopefully by then I'll have an inkling.

Just over a week in to NaNo I'm going on a weekend trip to Wales which is exciting. (and in 4 days I'm off to Paris! But that's beside the point) And 2 and a bit weeks in, I have an(other) assignment due. So I'm not SURE how I'm gonna go keeping on track but we'll find out. Last year I discovered I was pretty good at waking up, turning on the computer and cranking out at least a thousand words before I'd even gotten out of bed. I was in the zone! So hopefully I can do that again.

So anyway, I'm tra la la la la'ing at the moment cos I'm between manuscripts.

If only I can stop procrastinating on my Vikings essay.

I don't understand this frame of mind. All students have it, I KNOW I'm not alone. I think the Vikings are interesting. That's why I chose THAT essay topic. But there's something about the word ESSAY that makes it much less appealing. I'm lacking the will to read about a topic I find interesting. Because the writing side of it is going to be BO-RING. So if I don't read about it, the less I know about it so I can't possibly start writing.

I'll start freaking out soon as the deadline looms and I WILL get it done. This is how I roll. But as well as tra la la la'ing I'm also plugging my ears with my fingers, squinching my eyes closed and nyah nyah nyah I can't hear you, you don't exist nyah nyah'ing at the word Vikings.

Let's see how well that works out for me. :)

Tra la nyah nyah!

Sairz