April 18, 2007. I went through my emails and was stunned to see the words, "I have reviewed your submission, Upon Eagle's Light, and was delighted with it. I would love to offer you a contract!"
Yes, yes, yes, and yes again! I jumped out of my chair, throwing my arms up, and exclaimed,"whoo hoo, yes, yes, yes!" Then jumped up and down, screaming a bit more. Problem was there wasn't anyone else in the house to scream with me except 11 year old C who merely blinked, then immediately started calculating how many DS games I could buy him. As if.
Then I called my husband, he didn't pick up, so I called my sister, Heather, but I was so excited and talking so fast, she could barely understand me. Not to mention, we had a bad connection. So I hung up, called back, the connection was better, but I was still talking a mile a minute, breathing rapidly like I'd just run 10 laps. Okay, maybe one lap since I'm that out of shape. She got chills and it was so fun telling her because she is one of the people who knows how long and hard I've been working for this.
Called hubbie next. This time he picked up. I thought I had my breathing under control and my pace back to normal, but as soon as I started talking, I was rumbling like a boulder running down hill again. I could hardly stand the excitement. This has been my dream since I don't know how long. I clearly remember swinging on my grandparents' huge swings, back and forth, back and forth, day dreaming about what it would be like to be an actual writer and have my stories read and loved by millions. (I dreamed big back then) I couldn't have been more than eight or nine.
Anyway it's been an exciting busy week. I signed the contract with The Wild Rose Press and have found them to be wonderful, gracious, and fun people. Not the scary big bad faceless judgemental editor types at all. I'm really looking forward to getting to know them all better. (No, I am not brown nosing, they really are.) So far, I've joined in on one of their author chats, picked out a good short excerpt from my book, figured out a blurb, which was too long so my editor condensed it. Thank goodness for good editors. Let's see. Wrote a short bio about me for the author page, which they put up today, joined their author blog, and a ton of their other forums, picked out a picture of me (that was the hardest, photogenic I am not, and the picture I picked looked ok on my screen, but on theirs, I look a little sarcastic- makes me laugh), um, what else. A few other things. It's been great! What a fabulous week. I am getting published. Me. Clover Autrey. Published Author. Doesn't that sound great?
my authors page
Book Report
THE SINGER'S CROWN by Elaine Issack
I admit it. I like fantasy books that follow the basic fantasy pattern, ie: young hero finds his true and mighty destiny and gets the fiesty girl on his way to saving the world. I do enjoy those. That being said, this book broke the patterns, and I immensely enjoyed it, partly due to the differences.
The hero isn't typical-- a castrate no less, nor does he have any designs on retaking his kingdom even when others drag him in to do it. And the rest of the characters follow suit, none of them are typical of the parts they play, a few are people who annoy you, yet you come to love and admire them as their own intervowen stories progress. Even the villian, surprisingly is somewhat likeable and truly loved by many of the other characters.
And to see his brother and sister mourn over the choices he makes and try to save him, even after he has done some horrible things in front of their eyes, is masterful true to life writing.
Definitely a book worth looking in to.
THAT neighbor is mee
So my neighbor stops by last night and says, "I'm returning something to your boys." He hands me a half eaten dill pickle, which my 13 year old threw over the fence into their pool. Of course he denies it, even though there are three witnesses (his brothers) that say he did it. I apologize. I make him apologize, even though he claims innocence, but then, he is ALWAYS innocent. I don't know how it happened but my house has become THAT house. You know, that house that always has a gang of boys hanging around it with weeds a mile high, that all the neighbors are just estimating the years til all the boys grow up and leave. All I really need is a rusty major appliance and the back seat from a truck to sit out on my front porch and I'm set.
But to at least make amends for my shabby yard, I went out this morning to mow the weeds. The grass doesn't need mowing yet, just the weeds since we didn't pretreat. But when the mower we bought just last year started smoking to high heaven, I had to use the old one. It works fine as long as you pull it backwards, until it just quits for an hour or so. So the yard is half-way done now, the tallest weeds gone. Oh, man, my reputation of being THAT neighbor is fixed. Oh well, maybe I should embrace it.
But to at least make amends for my shabby yard, I went out this morning to mow the weeds. The grass doesn't need mowing yet, just the weeds since we didn't pretreat. But when the mower we bought just last year started smoking to high heaven, I had to use the old one. It works fine as long as you pull it backwards, until it just quits for an hour or so. So the yard is half-way done now, the tallest weeds gone. Oh, man, my reputation of being THAT neighbor is fixed. Oh well, maybe I should embrace it.
Feburary Crashed
So I pretty much crashed through February. Midway through, I realized what was happening as I'd seen my mom do it several times. She puts on these great weddings, pretty much single-handedly and for 3 to 4 months, she just goes, goes, goes, riding a crest of adrenaline. Then when it is over, she pretty much sleeps through the following month.
February for me was like that. I had no energy, no motivation, no desire. I pretty much went through the motions of getting the kids to their activities and going to work, and sleeping whenever possible. Even answering emails was too much of a bother. Isn't that terrible? Until I put it together and realized I was just crashing from doing soooo much November through January. Literally. One month isn't too much to just lay low and recover after all.
I have been myspacing, though, mostly as an attempt to network, so that when I do finally get that break into the publishing world, I'll have a base to start with. I put a free short story up there to garner some interest as well. To read it go here
February for me was like that. I had no energy, no motivation, no desire. I pretty much went through the motions of getting the kids to their activities and going to work, and sleeping whenever possible. Even answering emails was too much of a bother. Isn't that terrible? Until I put it together and realized I was just crashing from doing soooo much November through January. Literally. One month isn't too much to just lay low and recover after all.
I have been myspacing, though, mostly as an attempt to network, so that when I do finally get that break into the publishing world, I'll have a base to start with. I put a free short story up there to garner some interest as well. To read it go here
Good Hook
"When Jake Matthews walked out the door for his early morning run, he had no idea he’d be dead in twenty-three minutes. Nor that it would begin the biggest adventure of his life."
I jotted this down this morning. I've been working on a book off and on for a couple of years. You know, it's that book, the one that won't go away, that you have completely plotted out and know it inside and out, yet it is just too big of an idea to throw yourself completely into at this time in your life, so it percolates, always there, but never quite right, even while I'm actually working on it between other projects. The beginning, those first few crucial lines have never been right. I've rewritten them a quintillion times, but today I thought I had something good. I didn't realize how right until my 15 year old daughter came in and saw my scratchy lines, lying on my desk and startled me by saying, "Is this a life after death thing? or does he have an adventure in only 23 minutes?" I had hooked her. She had to know. So much so that instead of running off to do her own thing, she sat down at my computer while I pulled up the first chapter (all that's written so far) and she read it right then and there.
Yeah, I'm smiling.
So what's been your favorite first lines that hooked you?
I jotted this down this morning. I've been working on a book off and on for a couple of years. You know, it's that book, the one that won't go away, that you have completely plotted out and know it inside and out, yet it is just too big of an idea to throw yourself completely into at this time in your life, so it percolates, always there, but never quite right, even while I'm actually working on it between other projects. The beginning, those first few crucial lines have never been right. I've rewritten them a quintillion times, but today I thought I had something good. I didn't realize how right until my 15 year old daughter came in and saw my scratchy lines, lying on my desk and startled me by saying, "Is this a life after death thing? or does he have an adventure in only 23 minutes?" I had hooked her. She had to know. So much so that instead of running off to do her own thing, she sat down at my computer while I pulled up the first chapter (all that's written so far) and she read it right then and there.
Yeah, I'm smiling.
So what's been your favorite first lines that hooked you?
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