Start of Summer

It's been a while since I've posted and a lot has happened in my writing world.  First of all, I've been taking classes with The Writer's Studio out of New York City--online, of course.  The class has been fabulous and really upped my craft.  For the class assignments, I've been turning in short stories or the beginning of a novel for more than twenty weeks.  I'm about ready to start the next class for summer in Fiction II.  I've made online friends with people from NYC, Denmark, Seattle and San Francisco.  It's been amazing and inspiring.

Secondly, I entered a contest back in mid-February with the Pacific Northwest Writer's Association (PNWA is one of the bigger Eastside writer's groups around) with my novel, Seeing Julia.  I sent out queries to agents on this novel in late December and got back a lot of rejections.  Then, I started taking The Writer's Studio class.  Within a few weeks, I revamped the novel and entered it into the contest and frankly, moved on.  Seeing Julia was giving me fits.  I hacked so much of the beginning out of it; I gave up and started working on my third novel, Not To Us.

So this is how it goes, of course.  I received a call on Monday morning (6/14/10).   One of those, I-don't-know-the-number-and-should-I-just-let-it-go-to-voice-mail?calls.  Fortunately, I answered.  It was the president of PNWA letting me know that I'm a finalist with my novel, Seeing Julia, in the Romance category.  Of course, me being me, I had to find out how many entries there were (1200+ nationwide) and how many approximately per category (at least 100, maybe more for Romance).  On Saturday, July 24th, 2010, of the eight finalists in the romance category, three will be announced as Winner and runners-up one and two.  So, nice odds.  Although I'm really just living the moment that I made it as a  finalist for my writing; seriously.

What's the big deal? This may lead to meeting up with an agent and/or an editor and lead to me getting to the next big step in the publishing world.  My husband told me that it was pretty great and my response was, "It's a big deal."  What it really means for me is that I'm not crazy and there may be a future in this writing gig for me and that's all that really matters.  So there you go, now you know.

I heard something yesterday that really resonates with me.  The difference between an unpublished writer and a published one?  Being published.  That's it.

And guess what?  It really is that simple.

KO

Updates from the writing life

Greetings to my followers! I'm sure that you have been wondering where I have gone to in these past months. It has been a journey of trial and error to adapt to this writing life. There are long days of doubt and short spurts of frenetic writing. I lack organization in time. The days seem too short to fit in all that I want to write, in all I have to say, but here I am writing, writing, writing.

I have also been reading fiendishly. Yes, the vocabulary is improving. Yes, I have a profound fondness for adverbs that I am trying to curb. The book, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger is my new favorite. AMAZING. Truly one of the best books I have read in the past few years. Ms. Niffenegger was just at Elliott Bay Book Company for a reading of her latest book, Her Fearful Symmetry. I got an autographed copy of it. I haven't started it, yet. I fear I am saving it like I would a box of chocolates. I missed seeing her in person by only a few days when I ventured out into the world to hear Allan Rinzler speak. He is a well-known editor out of New York City. His talk was inspiring about debut authors and still finding success in the ever-changing world of publishing. Think Amazaon Kindle and the Apple iPad and you will understand what I mean.

Well, enough about me, today. I must write, so maybe, someday, you can read it. Cheers!