Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

I know I've been a little erratic with posting new blogs, but that's because I've been super busy doing what I have to do to get published. Writing. Finishing the book. Sending the partial to the editor in England.

I'm nervous about it. Won't lie. Can't stand the idea of another "close, but no cigar" call or letter. But that's the nature of the beast. I can't worry about it right now. It's in her hands and now I wait.

You all must know by now that I'm not the most patient person in the world. Whenever I say that to my critique partner Pam Montovani she says, "You think?" Seriously I hate waiting. But this industry means you have to wait a lot.

So what's an impatient and nervous writer supposed to do? Well, I cleaned house. Heck, I've got company coming over for Thanksgiving. I need to clean the house because when I'm in writerly mode, nothing gets down but dinner and triage counter wipe downs. Oh, and laundry but I digress.

I'm sort of between books. I have to revise the full again, but there's no point in stressing about it unless the editor wants to see it. So in the meantime, I've been brainstorming a new story. She's a sculptor and he's a King of an imaginary country. There's all kinds of fun stuff happening and I'm enjoying the discovery phase of this story. Stay tuned for the details on my blog and....

On my website!!! I have a website!! I am so excited. It's not fancy. But it's just right for me where I am in my career. It's only the main page with links to this blog, my Facebook page and Twitter. There's also a contact link, too. I really love the colors, the design, the overall professional look of it. And the best part is I can always build on it as my career grows.

You can see my new website here. One day instead of my unpublished book blurbs, I'll have real books on there. I know it. One way or another, I will be published. I have a plan. I am being patient. I am getting my launch pad ready for take off.

So now you know my news. I'm nervously waiting to hear back from the editor about my partial, I have a new story brewing (which means I will attain my goal of writing two new category length books by the end of the year!), and I have a new website.

That's a lot to be grateful for and I am very thankful.

Distractions that Take Precedence

I've been rather overwhelmed lately with a lot of external life events as well as writing demands. As some of you might already know, my beloved cat, the Dowager Feline Clancy, was diagnosed with renal failure 2 weeks ago. I've been quite heartbroken about her and have cried more tears than I've ever cried my entire life. We've been told that at 18 DFC is a very long-lived cat who has given us at least 6 bonus years. And they have been filled with great joy and fun. But having to make the decision about how to proceed with her and how long to wait until she is ready to say goodbye to us has been very difficult. As you can imagine, I'm very tired and drained because I want to honor her in the way she deserves. So most of my free time has been taken up in hunting down cat food she'll even nibble on, holding her when she'll let me, and talking to the vet about her future.

But work and writing still had to happen. First on my agenda, plowing through my revisions for the fourth MS and redoing my pitch for the Heart of Dixie Library Event, SHARE THE LOVE, where an agent was kind enough to hear it and request my first 50 pages. This was fabulous news, but as you all know, this also meant fine tuning my document to the nth degree. I spent the majority of last week getting the document ready, and I feel it is good to go. 

As I worked on the material, DFC would come visit me in my office or on my lap in Darling Husband's favorite reclining chair. He graciously gave his chair to us knowing how much more comfortable DFC is when we are sitting there. So now the partial is done, my last one I think with the Dowager Feline Clancy. I shall miss having her by my side and on my lap watching my fingers fly over the keyboard. But I will always treasure these small moments we still have left together.

As you know, the Dowager Feline Clancy has some pearls of wisdom for writers. I shared them with you over the course of this blog. And now she is teaching me another lesson, and I hope through this blog, a lesson to you as well. For in choosing to allow her to have small moments of happiness rather than forcing her to accept invasive treatments and swallow crushed pills, I have realized that there has to come a time in all things where we let go. This is true of loved ones, our beloved pets, and our work. Whether we say goodbye to our children as they head off to college, or goodbye to our family members as they leave this life journey to enter into another, or to our sweet pets as they approach the time where they wish to play in heaven with their friends--we must also learn to say goodbye to our works. 

We must be willing to write The End. This MS is finished, this partial is finished to the best of our ability and we must let it go out into the world. We must trust that in letting go of it, something beautiful can happen.