Another Monday, another vlog post over at Wo-Town Writers. Figured I’d share it again here. Don’t try to follow the logic, because there really isn’t any.

My vlog post for this week for Wo-Town Writers. And since I need to post more on here anyway, figured I’d share the love. Enjoy!

No…really. I think I missed it entirely.

This happens to me almost every month. Halfway through, everyone around me starts talking about how the month is flying by. I scoff. I claim the month is NOT flying by. And, yet, at some point I blink and we’re in a new month.

And then I realize, once again, my epic failure of posting here on a regular basis.

*sigh*

Truth is, my life has been eaten by revisions. I’m trying to revise two things at once. Sound crazy? Yeah, it kind of is. Especially since I’m also trying to write a first draft of something else. And I’m trying to do this collaborative project with one of my friends. And I’m trying not to jump off a bridge.

And, of course, on top of all this, my reading list has gotten ridiculous.

I’m not even going to try to list everything I’ve read over the past few weeks. The “reserve” button on my library’s website has been calling to me since mid-January and, of course, all of these books I put on reserve came in at the SAME TIME.

And as I’m reading those, I hear about other shiny books. It’s a never-ending cycle, my friends.

At the rate I’m going, I’m not going to need to hunt for reading material until NEXT January. Which is fine, except that in the summer I need to re-read the Harry Potter series (in preparation for the last hoorah of the last movie coming out) and then I need to re-read the first two books in the Prophecy of the Sisters trilogy (in preparation for the third book coming out) and then I need to re-read the first two books of The Hollow trilogy (also in preparation of the final installment being released).

Yes, so revisions and reading. That’s what I’ve been doing.

In the little free time I’ve given myself from all of that, I’ve also joined a local writing critique group. I’m really excited, because I missed having this kind of interaction with fellow writers. We have a blog. You can find it here.

I’ve also been Irish Dancing my little butt off. St. Patrick’s Day approaches, which means the performance season for us. Pretty much as soon as St. Patrick’s stuff is over, our teacher has us getting ready for the Dublin Irish Festival in August. Yes, we start preparing for that in April. No, that’s not actually all that early, especially when our teacher has been known to mention in at the very first class of the “school year” (which is always a month after DIF).

My other exciting thing is that I’ve joined the staff of the Harry Potter Alliance as part of their Web Team. I’m super psyched, and it’s doubly exciting because the week I joined we launched the next “Horcrux” in our Deathly Hallows Campaign.

Hopefully, all things are going well with all of you! One person commented on my last post with an “award” — which I hope to respond to next time, when I’m not so tired. I swear I didn’t forget! Remember those revisions? Yup. My soul has been nommed.

You know what I find fascinating?

A year ago (or so), I started quering Nor the Battle. So, it was only a little over a year ago that I finished revising it. I remember when I sent it out into the world, I felt so sure about how it read. I thought it was brilliant. I was confident (for the most part, post-midnight-panic attacks).

Today a funny thing happened.

For some reason, I went back and read the beginning of my manuscript for that. You know what I discovered?

It. Made. Me. Cringe.

What was I thinking, sending that rambly prologue into agents’ inboxes for the last YEAR?!

I think it’s amazing how my writing perspectives have changed in just a year. The opening felt so pedestrian to me all of a sudden. I didn’t know how I could have written that and thought it was such a good opening. Maybe it’s because I’ve had a rather long break from it. Maybe my writing style has changed in the last year and I didn’t even notice. Whatever the case, something needed to be done.

So what did I do?

Right then and there, I revised it. Cut out the prologue entirely and fit what had once been in five (or more) pages down to two. Made it so the story starts with Chapter One, with just a bit of explanation as to what’s going on in the alternate story (instead of the rambly prologue).

And then, feeling better about myself, I did something I wouldn’t have done a year ago.

Right then and there, I sent out two queries. No questions. To some extent, I’d fixed that problem. Now time to test it.

Maybe it didn’t make the most sense to send out two queries right away, but I’ve been digging at this manuscript for a year and a half now. I’ve revised it multiple times. The only thing I was ever truly if-y on was that prologue. And now that problem has been (I hope) solved.

So…in the last year…not only did my writing style apparently change, but I’ve also gotten more gutsy about sending out queries.

About time.

Welcome to 2011! I have to say, I’m having a terrible time getting used to writing/typing 2011. I’m also having a terrible time NOT typing 12 for the month. Which is something of an issue, because I deal with dates nearly every second at my day job, so these last few days have been kind of tiring.

First of all, if you follow the Wo-Town Writers vlog, I said this week that if I feel like sharing what I am/was reading, then I would do that on here instead of in my videos. It was making them far too long and was starting to feel silly. So that’s what I’m going to do here. Right now.

The book I’m reading currently is The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore. This is actually only the second book of his that I’ve read, the first being Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal (so funny). I love how ridiculous Moore’s stories are and this one is no exception. I’m only about a third of the way into it right now, though. The strange thing for me about reading Moore’s novels is that it does take me a while. While I enjoy them thoroughly, they’re not quite as enthralling to me as other things, so I tend to get distracted. They’re funny stories, comedies, and the novels I can’t put down are usually more along a serious line. Still great, though! I bought my copy of Lust Lizard on a whim at Half-Price Books, so the nice thing is I don’t have to worry about returning it to the library in time.

Come to think of it, I bought my copy of Lamb at HPB too. Funny how those things work out.

The novel I just finished reading, however, is Just Listen by Sarah Dessen (bought, again, on a whim at HPB…what is it with me and HPB?!). Thank god this past weekend was a long one for me, otherwise I would have been even more tired than I already was over the last couple of days. There was something about this story that sucked me in and I just couldn’t put this novel down. I don’t know if I could put my finger on what it was. I just know I literally finished this book in one weekend…which is kind of a big deal for me anymore. While I spent the entire novel having a pretty good prediction as to what ordeal main character Annabel had suffered (and was, for the most part, correct), I was still riveted by her story. I loved the underlying plots regarding her and her sisters’ relationships with each other, and of course her relationship with Owen. If you haven’t read this book…highly recommend.

On a completely un-reading-related note, I’m slowly chipping away at my various projects. Call to Action is very slowly being revised. Its sequel is very slowly taking shape. I’m very slowly losing my mind. You know, the basics. I’m having a slightly more difficult time getting into Care’s head for the sequel. Upon reflection, I think this might have to do with how upset she is at this particular moment–it’s a certain level of upset that I’ve never really experienced personally. And her current situation is giving me a headache. New rules in the sequel, new culture of sorts. I’m having to figure out what has become her new every-day, which is exhausting. I might have to resort to index cards to plot this one out…and that’s serious, because I don’t outline usually.

In the meantime, my procrastination skills have gotten AMAZING.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season…or is having a wonderful season. Whichever way you want to spin it. My holiday season is hardly over. Sure, Christmas has come and gone. But that was only Christmas #1 for me. Christmas #2 falls on New Year’s Eve this year. Christmas #2 is when my mom’s side of the family gets together for their holiday celebrations. We exchange gifts. We eat rich food. It’s all very fancy (sometimes, when EVERYONE is present for the Dudley Family Christmas Party, we’ll take a large family picture. The last one was taken two years ago, because that was the last time my cousins were able to make it from Chicago).

And then I have Christmas #3. Sort of. That’s also on New Year’s Eve, but that one is ALWAYS on New Year’s Eve. That’s my Christmas party with my friends. Sort of. Because we also combine it with New Year’s Eve stuff, it’s only Christmas-related for all of an hour (which is when we get bored with unwrapping shiny things and return to our on-going game of Apples to Apples). That party is a Secret Santa one. I bought my person’s gift several weeks ago. Since then it’s pretty much been gathering dust in my room. Eventually I’ll wrap it.

I’ll let you know for sure, once all the gift-giving stuff is over, but this year is turning into something of a re-creation of a Christmas I had about ten years ago. That was when I had just fallen in love with Harry Potter. I have a picture from that Christmas…me with all my Harry Potter stuff. A t-shirt, a magnet, a trivia game…some other things too that I can’t currently remember. I need to find that picture again, because I might need to re-create it. So far I’ve gotten the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook, ultimate edition DVD of Sorcerer’s Stone, and a Deathly Hallows wall calendar. My nerdliness makes me very happy.

It’s also a Christmas of YA novels. So far I’ve gotten The Hollow and The Haunted by Jessica Verday, as well as Looking for Alaska by John Green. I’m stocking up on some favorite books, essentially, because when I finally move out I want to have my own little library in my room. I don’t have room for it now, because I refuse to buy another huge bookcase until I know what kind of living situation I’ll be going to.

I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday season. Have a safe and happy New Year, in case I don’t post again before that!

Apparently, my mind needed a bit of a writing vacation. I think that’s why I’ve been in a slump for the weeks since NaNo ended.

I mean, it’s kind of understandable.

In October, I was desperately trying to finish Call to Action before NaNo began. I succeeded. I finished the first draft mere hours before ringing in November. I celebrated by getting some Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt. And then I returned home to count down to midnight.

Midnight hit. I started writing again. Frantically. I was desperate to win NaNo a second year in a row. I succeeded.

And then I started editing Call to Action.

Frankly, I think my brain was screaming at me to JUST STOP IT, ALREADY!

This past week, I was a little concerned as to why I haven’t been able to sit down and start working on Book 2 of Care’s saga. The sequel to Call to Action. My first attempt at what might possibly be a trilogy. I was worried that I’d burned myself out. I was worried that I was too scared. I was worried that I would forget something significant that happened at the end of Call to Action, since I’m still trying to read through that mess.

In truth, I’m realizing now that I think I just needed a break. I needed a couple weeks of NOT writing in order to get writing again. I needed a short time to just focus on making Call to Action less of a disaster. I needed to get some pleasure reading done and step away from the writing marathon that my life has been over the last two months. I think the break worked. Over the last couple days, I’ve felt excited about starting a new story. I’ve felt ready to begin work on the continuation of Care’s story.

At work for the last few days, I’ve been listening to my Book 2 playlist on shuffle on my iPod. One song in particular has been inspirational for me to get in the right mindset. It’s a song that I didn’t have when I was working on Call to Action, but I wish I had. It’s from Scott Alan’s newest CD (it’s the hidden track), which wasn’t released until I was already done writing that first draft.

I wanted to share it with you, since it’s been on my mind. Hopefully, this inspiration will stick around for a while longer and I’ll actually get down to writing within the next couple days.

Enjoy!

Ever heard of the musical [title of show]? If not…shame on you. It’s wonderful. You need to get on that. If you’re a creative person at all, you would probably love it. It’s all about the creative process and the problems that come with it.

So for this week’s Wo-Town Writers vlog post…since it’s free week and we’re getting to do whatever we want…I decided to talk about how I relate to the [title of show] song “Die Vampire, Die.” It’s kind of my theme song, especially when I’m starting new projects or editing finished ones. Thus…now.