Beta Readers

I have been hearing and reading a lot about beta readers lately. You need them, use them, they are helpful. Great. How do find them?

Do you use beta readers? Are they people you know?

Here's my vision of a beta reader: I send my story in a neat little package to someone that I have never seen or talked to. They read it and write down things they like and things they don't like. They send it back to me in the same neat little package. I never have to see them or talk to them.

Now, of course this probably isn't how it really works, but I am slightly shy (no laughing from the people who know me) and would be incredibly embarrassed to see the person, don't ask why!

And, naturally, my mother and my sister think "it's so good. I can't believe anyone would not like this".

My husband's friends, who have just discovered that I write have asked me to send it to them and they would give me their honest opinion. WAY too humiliating for me. First of all, it's totally a chick book and second of all, what if they think it's horrible and laugh? And what it they do tell me the truth, that they hate it? Nope can't do it.

So who do use? Where do you find these people? I don't want a critique, I want a random person who likes my genre to read it and tell me yay or nay. That's it!

Rewrite and revisions

As most of you know by now, I was selected in Mary Kole at Kidlit.com's workshop for beginnings. If you haven't heard, go check it out http://kidlit.com/2010/03/16/workshop-submission-1/

It was truly an amazing experience. What better way to learn what you are doing wrong than straight from an agent you intend to query (And boy was mine filled with stuff I was doing wrong, I mean, I'm pretty sure it was the whole entire thing!)?

So here is some questions that arose for me: When you are given critique like this, how much do you take and change? Do you think, OK, I'm going to do every single change she suggested? Like for me, she instantly didn't like the idea of the preface, so do I take it out and start at chapter one? Of course you all don't have any idea what my chapter one is like, but on my blog I do have the very first paragraph of ch 1. So that would be the beginning of my story. any thoughts? Anyhow, my point is it is one persons opinion, how much do you let it affect you?

I did get a lot of positive feedback from others and most agreed on one place that they liked and felt I should start, which leads me to believe that would be a good place to begin, but then I still have the preface.

WHAT TO DO? WHAT TO DO? Send me some feedback while I'm mulling this revision around.

Blog Award

I would like to thanks Jemi over at http://jemifraser.blogspot.com for bestowing me with a blog award! She has been a wonderful follower on mine and was kind enough to mention me on hers! THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!


Now, since I'm feeling saucy, I think I'll play here tag game :)

(In no particular order)

I like SUNSHINE!!!! Which is out in plenty today!!! YAY!
I like writing
I like traveling (Especially Disneyland)
I like tattoos
I like reading Young Adult books (Hey, I can be young at heart)
I like dancing
I like happy endings
I like being an American


I love my family-(Sorry Jemi had to use the same one) My kids and husband, sister and her girls mean the absolute world to me!!!


I hate MORNINGS!!!
I hate bad drivers
I hate the rain (most of the time-then why do I live in Oregon you may be asking)
I hate rudness-can't we all just get along ;)
I hate lying and sneaking
I hate the anxities I have developed in the last year :(
I hate waiting....for just about anything!!


Now you play!!!

I would like to mention a few blogs also, go check em out:

Charlie Eve: http://kidsbookjunky.blogspot.com/
Lisa Gibson: http://lisadgibson.blogspot.com/
3 Lovely Ladies at: http://whimsyandromance.blogspot.com/
Jean Oram: http://itsallkidsplay.blogspot.com/
TK Richardson: http://eveningfades.blogspot.com/
Calista Taylor: http://awritercooks.blogspot.com/

Sorry had issues with the links-tried for 30 minutes-grrr!

Tweeting Twitters!

So I bravely confronted the new frontier of blogging! I like to think I'm fairly computer literate, I do work on a computer for a living for Pete's sake, but seriously when it comes to this, I am clueless!!! I am happy to say I think it's going ok so far...So I only have 12 followers, I am darn happy to every single one of them!

But, I find as I snoop around on all these blogs I have started following; agents, published authors, new writers and so on, that maybe, just maybe, I need to be on Twiiter.

WAIT WHAT?!?!? I have no idea how to Tweet and retweet (Ok, I just think it's funny to say it), and frankly, it scares the heck of me!

I would love to hear your point of view about Twitter and if you have any advice, please chirp it on over (hah...Oh, man sometimes I crack myself up) No really though, I could use some help with it. Give me some thoughts...

Being a mother...

Well, I've finally come to the conclusion that I will not be winning a Mother of the Year Award. It's a hard thing to come to terms with, but I'm sure I'll manange because I may be scatterbrained and impatient, but my kids are happy and healthy (Not to mention BEAUTIFUL).

So, there may be days I sit at the computer all day and never even take a shower, but they are always fed and cared for. So there may be times I lose my temper and scream things I really probably shouldn't, but they are, for the most part, not wild and crazy, disorderly heathens. And there may, possibly be one single day out of my kids whole life where I forgot to pick one of them up from the bus stop, but she has recovered though I have not.

Yes, I may not spend every second playing with them and I may let one of them play on the Wii far longer than he should. I don't do crafts and make smiley faces out of fruit for their snack, or take them to play group every week or even the park when it's finally sunny out. But does that make me a bad parent? No I suppose not, but I may never reach that Mother of the Year status.

Oh, well, they love me and I love them more than life its self! There's nothing more I could ask for!

What's your worst parenting moment or habit? Do tell...

Voice Journal

I found this great blog post at www.alanrinzler.com called: The writer's toolkit: a voice journal for character development. So I thought I'd spend a minute or two (well, ended up to be more like 30) to sit down and do this exercise.

Wow did my pen fly across the paper! What a great way to really get to know your character! I found out things about Sophie that I didn't know before and she really laid it all out for me. I would recommend this to every writer out there, whether you have just started or are on your fifth rewrite, take a moment to ask your MC some questions. This may never have anything to do with your story but it's your baby and you have to believe in them so much that they become a real person and have real stories.

Here's a little of what came out in mine:

I wanted to know just a little about Sophie, this is what she told me. My name is Sophia Layne, everyone calls me Sophie. I'm 17, but I'll be 18 in June. A gemini. I'm not a typical gemini though. I don't do the whole split personality thing.

I'm a Senior at Sandy High School, soon to be done with it(not soon enough). My bestie, Renee and I are moving to Cali after graduation to go to UCLA. We made a pact when we were 7 to move away from this rain-soaked town. So naturally, California seemed a good choice. My grammy lives there, right by the campus. She is absolutly my fav person(beside Renee and my other bff Brandon), even though I don't get to see her much. She was my main comfort after Matty died.

I still wonder if I will ever truly get over that. He was so young and promising and the best brother any one could ask for. I never knew depression before I lost him. In fact, I never know loss of any kind. My small bubble that I lived in had never experienced death, not even a fish (that's because my parents refused to let me have a pet).

There was more, but I don't want to bore you too much ;)

Deadlines

So the hubby comes in to find me reading a new book (one of many lately) and says, "WHen are you going to finish your book?" "I don't know," I shrug. "Maybe you should set yourself a deadline and really stick to it. How about 2 weeks?" "Pffft," I scoff at him. "Ok, are you half way done?" "Pfft," I scoff again. "Ok, 3 weeks then."

AS IF!!!! Does he seriously think I can have this masterpiece (cough) done in 3 weeks? But then I get to thinking, maybe that's not such a bad idea! Ok, maybe not the 3 weeks, but really setting a deadline for myself and following through! I have no work in the near future, if I spent half the time on it that I do playing on Facebook, I could really get something accomplished!

But what is a realistic timeline? How long does it take to whip out the next 200 pages? Do you set deadlines for yourself and then actually follow through? What are some tricks that keep you on task?

Getting to know all about you...

I see that I am becoming quite popular...11 followers!!!! YAHOO! I couldn't be more excited (ok, maybe I could be a little more excited if I had more) but the point is, I really don't know some of you and I would really like to!!!

Ok, I do know pretty much everything about my beloved sister, Crystal and my best friend for pretty much my whole life, Wendy, but for the other 9 of you, I would love to get to know you.

Comment me and let me know a little about yourself. Where are you from? Why do you write? What do you do when you aren't writing? What do you do for a real job? Do you have kids? What's your sign ;)? How did you hear about my teeny, tiny little blog? Anything you want to share, I would love to know you!!!

Can't wait to hear from you all ( All 9 of you :) )