Queries and Books

Originally I was going to put my book on Kindle, and I still may, depending on how I feel if the twelve queries I've sent out all come back as rejections (so far only two have). I realize I may have to send out a lot more to get my book published, but between a slow internet connection and a sick child it was all I could manage. I have good feelings about a couple of them, but we'll see.

So, thanks to some tax money, I have some pretty cool books coming in the mail:

(Vampires. I'm excited.)

(I've already read this, but the price was really good. The book is too.)

(I don't know much about this one, but the premise sounded

interesting and the price was good.)

(The reason I wanted this one was the title. It reminds me

of a short-ish story I tried to write once. I know nothing

about the contents.)

And these ones are in transit for me at the library: 

(Yay for Melina Marchetta! Love her.)

(Sort of yay for Carol Goodman. I just can't stop

reading her even though I haven't loved the last

few books of hers.)

So the books are sort of old news, but it took my library forever to get The Piper's Son. And I put off reading The Demon Lover for some reason. Anyway, I'm excited to have books to actually add to my shelves instead of having to return them to the library.

I don't have a paying job, so today I'm just going to take care of my sick baby. Maybe I'll write some tonight. Oh, and I'll be obsessively checking my inbox for replies from agents, of course.

Right now it's breakfast/coffee time. Yay!

Naptime

I recently found this little story among some old things of mine my dad had kept (he keeps a lot of stuff). So I decided to share it. I wrote it in January of 1991, according to my dad's notes, when I had just turned seven. It's slightly morbid, especially for a seven-year-old, but it may have helped set the tone for my future writing (and I only just realized it).

I edited it slightly for readability (mostly I removed some commas).

Naptime

Once there was a girl. She was tired. So she decided to take a nap. First she read, then she fell asleep in her chair. Her mom came and kissed her goodnight. She slepted for a long time. She had a dream. Her dream was about her having a birthday. But one person got killed. Because someone snuck into the yard and shot her. Suddenly she woke up! And started to cry. The reason she had that dream because she had a friend that died. Because she got dead she fell into somewhere sharp. She bled all over. They took her to the Hospital. Then the girl wished to die with her friend.

The End

So I may have had issues as a child? Suppressed some trauma? I don't know. But there you go. I think it's funny, in a retrospective kind of way.

February

Living in Las Vegas, I expect heat. Anything lower than 80 is cool. Lower than 70, I might need a sweater and I definitely won't be seeking out the shade. Lower than 60 and I'm freezing my ass off. I understand that in some parts of the country, February is a cold time of year. Some places even get snow! Here, however, the high temperature for the day is going to be, according to my dashboard widget, 73 degrees. Right now it's 65. I love warm weather, but in February I just expect it to be cold and these kinds of temperatures confuse me. We'll be back to normal on Tuesday, when the high will be a brisk 56. Brrr.

Unchanged Soundtrack

I like to call them soundtracks instead of playlists. This may be a little premature since I have no definite idea when I'll actually get the copyright and publish Unchanged (other than "hopefully March"), but at least I can share some music.


"Bodies And Minds" - Great Lake Swimmers
"Alone" - This Mortal Coil
"Pretty When You Cry" - VAST
"Lost" - The Cure
"Winter Kills" - Yaz
"Teenage Lust" - The Jesus & Mary Chain
"Shadow Of A Doubt" - Black Tape For A Blue Girl
"Us In Leaves" - The Veils
"Full Moon" - The Black Ghosts
"Running Up That Hill" - Patrick Wolf
"All Eternal Things" - Trembling Blue Stars
"Inside A Boy" - My Brightest Diamond
"Dark Moves Of Love" - M83
"Rise From The Shadows" - Alberta Cross
"My Heart Of Wood" - The Sadies
"Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven" - Love And Rockets
"I Would Do Anything For You" - Foster The People
"She Calls" - Slowdive
"The Distance Between" - Vanishing Kids

So there it is. Let me know what you think? Let me know how desperately you're looking forward to reading Unchanged? I appreciate all comments. :)

Hey, guess what!

Unchanged is now listed here on Goodreads.

I can't decide about the cover. It looks pretty mediocre no matter what I do. Oh well. I'm tired of messing with it. But you can see the new one on the book's page.

It feels crazy, putting myself out here like this.

Cover + Synopsis

Lilly is an ordinary teenager living in a small town. When she meets a mysterious man called Ahaziel, strange things start to happen in her life. She soon realizes she has met Ahaziel before. They have a history she must remember if she is to defeat the enemy who has been stalking her through lifetimes.

~

I may write a better blurb at some point, but that's what I came up with off the top of my head. To the point.

It looks like I need to darken the cover and maybe choose a bolder font. I apologize if it's crap, but I don't have a good photo-editing program and the ones I was able to download were really just glorified versions of Paint. So I went with simple and (hopefully) effective.

I'm waiting on my copyright to come back before I publish to Kindle. I don't know when that will be but I'm religiously checking copyright.gov for news. It's "pending" and the waiting is killing me! I've been distracting myself by working on what I hope will be my next novel. It's in that stage where everything is a mess and nothing is working like I want. It's all there (some of it in my head) and I just need to figure out how to make it all come together.

Anyway, I hope Unchanged sounds interesting to you. It took me a long time and maybe one day soon readers will love it as much as I do.

Begin Again

I (re)started this blog in an effort to promote my soon-to-be self-published book, Unchanged. I'm going to write and post a blurb (hopefully within the next couple of days). Maybe I'll even get a photo up at some point. I have one in mind, but it hasn't been taken yet. All in good time.