My Goings On in May: I went to the SCBWI Marvelous Midwest writing conference! I learned a lot and found some great inspiration. One of these days I’ll manage to post a recap. I attended an online class on verse novels taught by Cordelia Jensen. I started a new editing project, a book called Momoire by Alyssa DeRose. School finished up, so the kids are all now home for the summer. That means track […]
My Goings On in April: We went to lots of track meets (my middle daughter is in track). I volunteered at Bernie’s Book Bank with my mom and packed books for kids. I planned a trip to LA in August. We’ll be going on a family vacation and then I’ll be sticking around a few extra days for an SCBWI conference. A perfect blend of business and pleasure! Things I watched: I rented A […]
My Goings On in March: My kids were on spring break. We didn’t go anywhere or anything (which I’m regretting now that I’m starting to look at our summer schedule–I should have taken advantage of the time they all had off). We went to a VR place, which was really interesting. I mostly let my kids do it, but I did spend 5 minutes or so as a clerk in a virtual reality convenience […]
My Goings On in February: I SIGNED WITH A LITERARY AGENT!!! Which I’m sure you already know because I have no chill and I’ve been shouting it from every rooftop. Does the rest of the month even matter? I mean, I guess I’ll go ahead and tell you a few other things that happened, but… I celebrated my 45th birthday on the 11th. My mom and I went to see Dear Evan Hansen the […]
My Goings On in January: I’ve been plotting my new MG novel, and I started to do a bit of writing as well. (It’s verse, so I don’t have to necessarily write it in order). My middle daughter finished gymnastics and started indoor track. (So, a new sport to watch.) My hubby and I went to see comedian John Felts at our church for a date night. 🙂 We had record cold temps around […]
My Goings On in November: I’ve been working on finishing up my first draft of the YA novel I wrote last NaNoWriMo. (This past year I focused mostly on editing the MG book I’m now querying and doing more writing workshops and study.) As of writing this post, I’m almost there. My goal was to finish in November, and I was so close last night, but I wasn’t feeling all that well, and I realized I was basically […]
My Goings On in October: October was the month of bookish events for me! I attended (click on the links to read my recaps): The Epic Reads fall tour The Dear Evan Hansen book tour Anderson’s Bookshop’s 15th Annual YA Literature Conference SCBWI’s Prairie Writer’s & Illustrator’s Day 2018 Things I watched: I’m almost done with The Walking Dead Season 8. I’ve heard that Season 9 gets less ridiculous—we shall see. I watched a bit more of the […]
My Goings On in September: September was filled with swim meets for my younger daughter and general back-to-schoolness for all three kids. I’m finding that high school swim meets are a whole lot more fun to watch than swim club meets (mostly because they’re a lot shorter, there are WAY fewer kids at them, and we feel more connected to the team, so we’re rooting for them more). It also doesn’t hurt that my […]
My Goings On in August: I submitted to #PitchWars! I know it’s a complete long-shot that I’ll get chosen as a mentee (they got 3,452 entries), but really that’s the way all of publishing is, so I figured it doesn’t hurt to try. Cross your fingers for me!! Things I watched: I binged all of the latest season of The 100. It was great motivation for working out! I also watched a bit more of […]
My Goings On in July: I sent out my first queries! And got my first rejection. I guess that makes me a real writer, right? I haven’t heard from the other agents I queried yet, but I’m gearing up to send out a few more. I know that this process is going to be long and difficult with lots of rejection along the way, so I’m trying to prepare myself mentally. I keep editing my […]