Conference and Vampires

Greetings,

Here is a photo of my writing support group. 

First day post-conference and my head is still spinning. This last weekend I attended my RWA local chapter Spring Intensive where we had agents and editors all weekend giving workshops and panels. To say the least, the conference lived up to it's title. It was INTENSE!!!!!
Saturday I thought I would die by lunch. First of all, I tend to be somewhat of a recluse and love my alone time. I work in a file room 5 days a week for eight hours per day. I come home and write. To be surrounded by so many other writers such as myself was wonderful, but very overwhelming. Add  the opportunity to speak with agents and editors from New York.
These ladies were from the big houses and agencies with very high expectations.  5 out of 6 pitches I walked away with a business card and request for partial. Most were interested in my vampire novel and the rest in the contemporary I wrote last winter. So needless to say, I have my work cut out for the next month, because I need to not only polish the heck out of the first 50 pages which they requested, but I also need to finish  The Vampire Novelist before I can send in the partial. I'm TERRIFIED! People in New York want to see my work, my baby.

Without farther ado, I shall say farewell as I retrieve into my writer's cave,  BUT with the promise of an update each week. Submission boot-camp here I come.

Cheers,

Melania

Writing stuff

Hello everyone.

Yes, yes, it’s been a while. My excuse: I've been writing! That's a good excuse, right?

But so much has happened since my last post. Sometimes it is necessary to drop everything and blog.

Writing Progress:

•  The Vampire Novelist is over 50% written. The old version was also, but this is the new and improved.
•  My Las Vegas contemporary romance novel has a name, FINALY. Even though it will change once publishers get a hold of it—anything is better than “That book I wrote back in January”. So without farther ado ta-da: The Right Way. (Thank you Lissa, for the suggestion.) Even though I kind of pushed this book to the wayside, I’m still tweaking it here and there, because I have a stinking suspicion this might be the one. . .
•  I’m outlining a new YA fantasy romance for future project.
•  I have two online critique partners, thanks to http://cpmatchmaker.blogspot.com/ This is the first time I’ve had critique partners or even critiqued someone else's work. It’s been a huge learning curve for me both receiving and giving. I can’t stress enough how IMPORTANT critique partners are. They are helping me so much in refining my writing. So here is my shout out to Z and T! You rock!

Upcoming events:

I will be attending the Rose City Romance Writer’s Spring Intensive next weekend and am super duper excited! There will be agents and editors to take pitches. I will be pitching The Right Way because the manuscript is complete. I will also pitch The Vampire Novelist as well, but only for practice, because it’s not finished yet and I highly doubt it will be in ten days.

Writing Resources:

Besides the Critique Partner Matching blog, I’ve also discovered Farland’s Author Advisory blog. Let me tell you *scoots forward and sits up straight* this blog is worth GOLD. Every couple of weeks they host an author via conference call where they talk about very specific craft points, such as character arcs, outlines, creating more writing productivity, and so much more.
Last night they had #1 Best-selling author Aprilynne Pike and she talked about the system of outlining she uses in her very successful YA novels. Her information was so incredibly practical and useful.
The best part about these teleconferences—it’s FREE. The next best part—you can download past calls to our computer for FREE. It’s like taking an online writing course for FREE. Who doesn’t like FREE????

Here’s the link: http://authorsadvisory.blogspot.com/

You’re welcome!

Till after the Spring Intensive, so long my friends!

Cheers,
Melania