Old People Writing for Teens, IV

Wrote a couple chapter outlines. Now my muse can leave me alone about it until I get to chapter 9.

Still not sure how many chapters I'm going to have. Right now, I have a ballpark of 30, so we'll see if I actually make it that far or not. If not, that's fine, too.

almost done with prequel edits. Yippeeee!

You guys! I'm SO in love with my wife! She just bought me a new lap-top so I don't have to jack with my "Franken-computer" any more.

I'm gonna' cook her the Bestest-In-The-World meals this week (I'm thinkin' something daring. Maybe a variation on chicken cordon bleu!)!

JK- I've sent out about 13 queries. I have 2 fulls out, waiting to hear back from R&R and 2 partials. I know I need to send more out I'm just being soo picky this round.

Kansas- I too love the villains. Violent Delights has everybody loving the villainous crazy bad boy.........well he *is* the love interest. Are you going back on the query train by the way or just contemplating it? How is Tex doing?

I don't watch Downton Abbey. My mom actually called me up the other night to say she was watching with my dad and I said "Oh I could not get into it. I tried the first 3 episodes" ((I really did!!!)) and she goes "But it's so British-y...you love that stuff." So British-y...

Dang, SMILEY! You're so britishy! (Gah! Gotta' love parents, right? I'm still in the baby-steps of working my mom through VCR's. I know, right?)

"Tex" is doing okay, I suppose, for a newbie novel by an unknown. The sad thing is, I'm not really in it for the Benjamins or props or all that stuff. I wrote the dang thing to reach teens with my anti-bullying message. But I can't reach 'em! Thus far, I've heard from several happy, yet bored housewives (like me, although less bearish and pissy). Can't hit who I wrote it for.

Onward. I've not yet tried the querying/agenting route. But I think I have a killah' adult thrillah' book (potential series) and don't wanna' see it languish away. So...Here I go!

Reaching teens with an online audience is more difficult than you think. Although teens are online, hear about books online, and are set up to read on their phones and other devices....they mostly get their books from the school libraries or other sources. Maybe those bored housewives will pass along Tex to teens.

My book signing was so much fun! I didn't run out of books, but I came close! I make more money per sale when I buy the books at my author discount and sell them myself, and it is so much fun to personally hand a book to a reader. When I did the reading, several people said they had to run home and read the book right then! That was pretty awesome.

I have pictures on my blog of the event.

JK! That's so cool your book signing went well! Were you nervous at all? Gah. I would've been sweating and scared more than a cat in a dog-pound.

Not as nervous as I thought I would be. I am pretty shy, but it was a subject I love, and there was admiration and stuff going on. I think people like to meet authors.

Smiley! If you got that many requests from 13 queries, you are doing OK, lady. Be selective. You have some premium merchandise.

JKRowley - That's really cool about your book signing. Sounds like you're having some nice success

Smiley - I agree with JK about your selectivity. You have a pretty amazing response rate, so I think you can afford to be discerning.

I didn't have a great writing day. I mean, I made my quota of words, but I just don't feel too good about the quality. This is a first draft so I know the important thing is getting the story on the page. However, it's not always so easy to remain positive and motivated when I feel like what I'm writing is a load of tripe. Ah, well. Hopefully tomorrow will bring writing that I feel some pride in!

Got my edits done and returned to the editor - YAYAY!!!

Netz said:

I thought he was very unpleasant in the first two series, but his storyline in the last series drew my sympathy.

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I absolutely agree with this. Hated him the first season. Started to tolerate him the second...and now sort of like him after the third. I do still hate Mrs. O'Brien though.

The Dowager is my favourite character still, though. But I really do love all of them. My other favourite died...so I won't talk about them here to avoid spoilers for anyone.

Congrats on the signing Jill. I'm glad it went so well for you. Those sample pages really are engaging. I'm not surprised that people wanted to rush home and read it.

I decided to go with something simple, and just call it a Crime Drama.

Hello.

JK, great pics! You looked really happy and at ease in the pics. Congrats!

I am so shy that if I ever get to the book signing stage, I will probably be totally useless...

Jill, I finally figured out how to get an ebook copy of Divided Moon. It was actually pretty simple. Simple enough that I feel kind of dumb now I didn't realize I could get a kindle app for my iPad.

Bought and downloaded. Hopefully I'll get to it this weekend

JKRowley said:

When I did the reading, several people said they had to run home and read the book right then!

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That's awesome!!!

parumpdragon said:

Got my edits done and returned to the editor - YAYAY!!!

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Yay!!!

morning guys!

Does anyone know how to or where I can go for advice on formatting Twitter in prose?

Yay, Kewii! There really is an app for everything.

Well, hell, another day in Kansas, another foot of snow! Gah!

Question. To tweet or not to tweet, um, that is the question.

YES. I'm on Twitter. You could stalk my #StupidCupid progress.

Hi all!

I mostly use Twitter to stalk agents and editors--it's an extremely useful tool to keep abreast of the publishing world. I never post anything myself, though.

I'm about to attempt rewriting the longest chapter in my WIP to be from a different character's POV to see if that works. Sigh. Somehow it's so much easier to push my way forward on a first draft than it is on an edit.

JK, so glad your signing went well!

I haven't watched Downton Abbey either. I know a bunch of people who say that I MUST, but they said that about a lot of other shows too. TV shows are too much of a time commitment sometimes.

To be fair, Downton Abbey is less of a time commitment than most shows-each season only runs about 8/9 episodes. It's a simple show with nothing fancy about it, but it has a ton of charm. I really enjoy it. But I also really like history/historical fiction/etc.