I have a tendency of looking at my toes. Metaphorically. When I perform tasks, I get lost in the minutia of each step, concentrating on making things line up perfectly, editing down to the pixel-level, agonizing over every jot and nuance. In some ways, the overall task doesn’t interest me as much as each individual component. I get more of a thrill watching two jigsaw pieces match up than I do at gazing across the completed puzzle. This tendency can result in one of two outcomes. One, I can often…
Tag Writing
The One. The Only. The Publishing dynamo. Nadene Carter.
I was only three weeks into the querying process when I found my match. Her name was Nadene Carter and she had three qualities that put an end to my search. 1) She is a dynamo. A whirlwind of focused energy. Tackling several things at a time, she manages her schedule in a way that gives each project her full attention without ever becoming overwhelmed or frustrated. I saw this in her treatment of my submission, going through the reading with haste, but managing to catch every nuance. At the…
What Twitter has taught me about…
…writing: Proofread closely before you submit. You can’t take it back. …reading: There just isn’t enough time for all the wonderful talent out there. …friends: Some give freely of themselves. Most are selling something. …brevity: …myself: I may be unique, but I’m not all that different. …blogging: Every now and then, someone reads this stuff. So make it work their while. …finances: You can make $3,000 a day by being obnoxious. …authors: The appreciation of our good fortune bands us together like family, not competitors. …readers: They’re out there and…
PO’d at the PDF PDQ
I wasn’t really PO’d at the PDF–it looked great. I was just pissed off at myself. Sick to my stomach. Literally. A cold layer of sweat oozed through my pores as the room spun. My publisher had just emailed me a PDF of my “final” book. I glanced at it again and nearly threw up on my keyboard. “Honey?! Can you come help me?” I yelled to my wife. I said it with the same tone and inflection I would’ve used if a rattler had chewed its way into my…
G. L. A. N. C. E. D.
Glanced. I swear that’s how you spell it. Past tense of “glance.” Just add a “d.” Right? I’ve been looking at the word so long I’m starting to doubt myself. Glanced. It’s becoming meaningless. Glanced. I didn’t even know what else to try. It’s such a simple word. My brain wrestled with the perfection of how I had typed it and the presence of that squiggly red line underneath. Heaven knows, Microsoft Word is a more proficient speller than I am. I trust those squiggly lines implicitly. Glanced. Was there…