Seven weeks ago I submitted a short story to a publisher. I checked and double checked (and triple checked) to make sure I followed their submission guidelines exactly. According to those guidelines, their response time is six weeks.

See the math there?

So it’s a week past and three things are running through my brain.

1. Did they even get the submission???  Many agents/editors/publishers provide an auto-response when a submission has been received. If I were smart, I’d have saved this email. If they indeed sent one. Which I don’t know because my brain is a sieve and if they did send one, I didn’t save it. So I don’t know. But I’m trying to ignore this avenue.

2. Did they already reject me??? My spam folder is filled with 20-40 emails every morning and though I glance through all the “sent from” and “subject” lines before deleting, I can’t help but wonder if I might have missed this one. What if I was tired on a Tuesday and didn’t pay enough attention? What if they emailed for more information and I missed that too?? (I hadn’t thought of that until just now. Gah!) As you can imagine, I’m also trying to ignore this path to nowhere.

3. Perhaps they have an abundance of submissions and we did just have three holidays in a row so they’re probably just behind. (No explanation points required.) Now, this one makes the most sense. It’s logical and practical and, best of all, in no way evokes panic. Because I am a rational person (yes, writers can be rational) I am going to grab this particular wave and ride it smoothly along until the publisher gets around to responding.

I am choosing to be zen about this. Getting published requires determination, perseverance, skill, and talent. And a little luck. But perhaps most of all it requires patience. I can be patient. Sure I can.

Just ignore the twitch.

Dear Me,

So the brain went on sabbatical back around Thanksgiving. Party planning, holiday shopping, cleaning in preparation for a family visit. All of it sucked the cells right out of our head. But this isn’t the first time distractions have won a battle or two. The goal is to make sure they don’t win the war.

Time to get back in the game. The Christmas decorations are back under the stairs. The laundry is “almost” caught up. (Okay, that’s a lie. We’re not even close. Deal with it.) And best of all, we wrote a mini-mystery for submission to Woman’s World magazine.

Seven hundred words isn’t much, but it’s something. That story plus this blog means we have momentum. A tiny ripple that can turn into a wave. Don’t let it die.

Starting this week, we will be writing every night. Or editing rather. No excuses except maybe sickness. And that’s still a maybe.

This year is going to be a good one. Progress will be made. Substantial progress. If we type it, then we have to make it happen. No one can stand in our way but us. Now get the hell out of the way.

Sincerely,

Me

I like writing shorts. I’ve submitted several 800 word stories to Woman’s World magazine and been fortunate enough to have one printed. (September 2010 – find the unedited version on the Short Stories page.) I’ve oft lamented that I’m not one of those mesmerizing writers with the gift for fluid, beautiful prose. My prose is more functional than fluid.

But functional comes in handy when you need to tell a story with less than 15K words. Some writers I know cringe at the thought, but not me. Why am I babbling about short stories? I’ll tell you.

A writer friend put a bug in my ear tonight. Why not put some short stories out there for the world? Not just on my blog, but self-published them.

I do not have a black & white opinion on self-publishing vs. traditional publishing. I embrace all the options and think every writer should get to choose for themselves which road to take. Not my place to judge either way. But let’s face it, the majority of successful self-published authors right now are those who made their name and established a base readership through traditional routes. Yes, there are the exceptions, but not many. Even one or two books traditionally published can give you a better chance.

Though I still intend to pursue traditional publishing for my novels, this short story self-publishing idea has merit. There’s just one problem.

Self-publishing scares the geewillukkers out of me.

The technical aspect makes me want to run and hide. I know my way around a computer and am pretty confident in my ability to learn just about anything. But I have to be SHOWN how to do things and unless I sit down with some formatting guru, I’m not sure how I’d figure this stuff out.

Doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try. Maybe. This idea literally came along moments ago so much more thought and investigation is needed. One pro for this endeavor is something I read an agent blog this summer. She said something like self-published work is the new query. Paraphrasing, of course. Couldn’t hurt to send a query with the bonus line “…and I’ve sold 3000 copies of my short stories on Smashwords.”

Anyone have any input on this? Tried self-pubbing short stories? Success? Not much? Would you do it? Am I the only writer feeling like she’s crossing this publishing pond one lily pad at a time and the dang pads keep moving or disappearing all together??

Not long ago I figured out my average monthly word count is 15K words. At that rate, a rough draft would take five to six months to write, which isn’t good when you think of the months of revision to follow. I lamented on an earlier blog I would have to pick up the pace if I intended to make a go of this writing thing, though at the time had no idea if I could do it.

With the Golden Heart entry date looming, the word count on my Work In Progress (WIP) on September 1 was not looking good. I could see the precipice, but the hill was steep, covered by a Slip-n-Slide and littered with thorny cacti. What was a writer to do?

Step it up, of course.

In September I wrote twenty-seven thousand words. Now, that is no NaNo number (that being 50K in a month) but for me, a number to celebrate. I will make the Golden Heart deadline, provided writing the synopsis and re-writing the first 50 pages doesn’t kill me.

But more importantly, I now KNOW I can do this. I can hit a deadline. I can turn out words. I can build a story and trust the characters (and myself) to get it on the page. Revising it is another story. Or rather, another blog.

Have you stepped up to a challenge (like NaNo?) Surprised yourself? Got any tricks for synopsis writing? Participating in NaNoWriMo again this year?

In 2006, I fell into this little group of Eloisa James fans via her bulletin board. They were called the Bon Bons and it was like an instant family. In the fall of that year, many of us Bon Bons partook in a little writing contest called Avon FanLit.

At the time, though I’d toyed with the idea for years, I did not see publication on my horizon. I played along, writing for fun, knowing nothing about motivation, story structure or a million other elements that go into writing a novel. Though a story idea came to me, I still told myself (and others) that I was just writing to see if I could do it. No lofty goals for me.

Less than a year later, I joined Romance Writers of America. Admittedly, because “everyone was doing it.” And I thought I was immune to peer pressure. (This is the same reason I joined Facebook all those years ago and look how that’s turned out.)

By 2008, I wanted to be published but was busy working on a college degree, being a mom, and wearing 473 other hats. I kept studying the craft, but little writing happened. Still, I attended my first RWA Nationals that summer. Again, because everyone was doing it. (What am I, thirteen?) Regardless of why I went, I think the bug took hold in that fine city of San Francisco.

In 2009, I wrapped up that college degree and set out to conquer my first MS. The learning curve was steep but I found my process, applied what I’d learned, figured out more crap I needed to learn, and met a self-imposed deadline with that MS, which I finished (rough draft) by June 2010.

Today that book is under the bed, but for all its flaws, I’ll always love it for being my first. In 2011, my horizon has shifted once again. Along this journey, I never intended for writing to take the place of the day job. The reality is, I’m a one income household with a new home and a preteen sporting shiny new braces. The steady paycheck and benefits are a must.

But knowing the reality doesn’t stop me from dreaming. If you’d told me in 2005 I’d buy a house in 2010, I’d have laughed in your face. If you’d told me in 2007 I’d plan a chapter conference in 2009 while coaching a softball team and wrapping up a degree, I’d have suggested you cut back on the hooch.

And if you’d told me in 2009 that I’d long for the day I could be a full-time writer spending my days with words instead of spreadsheets, I’d never have believed it. But I believe it now. Not that it’ll happen, but that I long for it. And that’s enough. For now.

I live with a pre-teen. Though I’m beginning to think there is no such thing as a PRE-teen. You just wake up one day with this pimply person in your house who is taller than you are and she’s stomping around ranting that she has nothing to wear or whining because she can’t find the socks that you know you’ll find within seconds of walking in the room.

So let’s say I live with a teen.

I would love to say my child is sharp, but I can’t. I hope she’ll outgrow her gooberness. She shows flashes of brilliance, so I’m encouraged, but for now let’s say she’s “challenged” when it comes to common sense.

But her favorite saying these days is, “I got this.” Needless to say, rarely does she “got this”, but she tries and I appreciate her emerging independence.

I am now applying this same saying to my writing. Not to say “I got this” as in “I know what I’m doing.” Let’s not get crazy. For me, writing is a collaboration between me and my characters and recently my characters stood up and said “We got this.”

It makes sense since this is their story. I’m a person who believes in signs, and when the Universe throws the same hint over and over, I’m smart enough to get on board and follow along. Several times in the last month I’ve seen the same message online. Either in blogs, Tweets, or writing articles.

Trust your characters.

So I did. And would you believe, they know what they’re doing? They do, indeed, got this. I’m as surprised as anyone, but I should have known it was true. The signs are always right. My interpretation has been off a time or two, but the signs are always right.

The Universe got this. And thankfully, so do my characters.

I’ll get the mea culpa out of the way first. Last year when I attended RWA Nationals in Orlando, Twitter was all the rave. I had an account but wasn’t a fan. However, everyone around me was tweeting non-stop, which I found incredibly annoying. Why couldn’t they just enjoy themselves and take a moment to update their Twitter stream or Facebook status when they got a break?

As one who did not get to attend this year, my opinion has changed quite a bit. Not completely, as I still think it’s rude when you’re having a conversation with someone, attempting to look them in the eye, and they’re looking down at their phone. But I so appreciate all the participants who Tweeted speeches, workshops, spotlights, and the awards in real time.

It was nearly as good as being there without the travel and expense. And without the laughter, camaraderie, and buzzing atmosphere, but bits of that came through as well. So THANK YOU to all who took the time to let us live vicariously through you. I will not be such a spoil sport next year when I (hopefully!) get to attend again. I might even do some Tweeting of my own.

Now to the smaller me. The Romance Biggest Winner project is officially underway. As of today I will eat better, get myself moving, and support my teammates as much as possible. I’ve bought a scale, fruit, and salad mix. Anyone who knows me knows these things would normally never be on any shopping list of mine.

I cannot say I’m on a diet. This is something I want to maintain going forward so calling it a diet will mean going back OFF the diet when it’s over and that would be disaster. What I have to do is learn to cut back on the amounts and up the exercise. I’m not going to cut out pasta all together, or try to get used to skim milk and wheat puffs. I know I’d never keep that up. But I don’t have to buy cookie dough (unless I actually have a reason to make cookies), channel surf for three hours like a brainless zombie (while my “middle spread” gets bigger), or go back for seconds when I know I’ve had enough.

The project runs for the next six months and if you’d like to follow along, check out the blog for frequent updates. Ashley March is the mastermind behind it and from the looks of things, she’s going to be working like crazy to keep this thing organized. For that alone, I can forgive her for the spreadsheet from hell.

I have countless habits. Some bad, some good. I don’t bite my nails, but I bite my lip. I vacuum regularly, but I never make my bed. The list goes on and on. However, there’s one habit I have that could go either way.

I rationalize.

This habit has been with me since birth, I’m sure, but it became, shall we say, pronounced when I became a mom. When you spend all your time telling a smaller human being how to be a human being, you feel this oppressive need to be a good example.

But then you’re left alone and realize there is no one around to tell you what to do. No one for whom you have to be that good example. In fact, you can be a bad example because only the cats are watching and they’re not likely to put off something like washing the pots and pans one more night just to lounge on the couch with a bag of Famous Amos cookies. Or the equivalent of that in the cat world.

Not that I’ve done that. Ahem.

Tonight, I rationalized big time. There’s a chain of frozen yogurt shops around my area, all carrying different flavors every day. On Facebook I can find out what flavors are where. The flavor I wanted, yellow cake batter, was only at the store that is about five miles (or more) from my house.

I really wanted that yogurt. But if I went home and ate a sensible dinner, I’d never go back out to get it. I could swing by on the way home, but that would require taking the more annoying, higher-traffic route and I didn’t want to do that. Then I remembered something. That shop is right by the library. The library where I need to return this audio book I checked out last week.

Rationalization achieved.

I had a reason to be over there. In fact, I would be killing two birds with one drive by returning the audio book AND getting the yogurt. So I did it. But then, while enjoying my yogurt on the drive home, I started to think. (Always dangerous.)

What if I were to use this power for good?

What I really want right now is to be published. To do that, I have to write a really good book. Or two. Or ten. The only way to do that is to write every night, as much as possible. Really put my nose to the proverbial grindstone. I think it’s time to start rationalizing the missed television shows, the laundry still sitting in the dryer (might have already done that), and the cats sitting impatiently behind me waiting to eat.

All those things can wait, because I’m writing.

I am about to embark on a new endeavor that could drastically change my life. Yes, I know I said this summer there would be no new projects to derail the writing goals. But this is an exception I believe will help me reach those goals.

I’m going to be a Loser. Or, with the official name change, a WINNER. [Pause for silly Charlie Sheen jokes. And we move on.]

Historical author Ashley March, the brains behind this spring’s March Madness blog event, has come up with yet another brilliant idea. Again writers will have the opportunity to interact with readers and promote their work, giving away smiles and prizes, but this time there’s something else. 

This time, we’ll all be shedding pounds as we gain new authors and books to read.

The Romance Biggest Winner project (I hesitate to call it a contest though there are prizes) will run from July 5, 2011 to January 5, 2012. Authors and readers will break into teams and together work toward their weight loss goals. Pushing, supporting, and encouraging each other while also holding each other accountable for our numbers.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve been overweight since middle school, maybe earlier. There was no such thing as “healthy eating” in my household, though we were very active as kids. I’m sure this had more to do with the lack of computers and video games. There was no choice but to go outside to chase away the boredom. Though I spent equal time hiding with a book.

On December 31^st of this year, I will turn 40 years old. By taking part in Romance Biggest Winner, I plan to reach that milestone feeling better than I have in years. I’m going for healthy and fit instead of focusing on some ridiculously small number on the scale. (Not that I don’t have a goal number, but that’s not the real point of this.)

I need to move and put down the chocolate! (Chocolate low-fat yogurt from Skinny Dip not included.)

I’m not positive, but there might still be time to join the fun. Check out Ashley’s blog about Romance Biggest Winner for the details. If you need more than the satisfaction of losing 20 or 30lbs, free books as well as a cash prize to the Biggest Winner are all up for grabs.

EDITED TO ADD: All reader slots have been filled, but I do believe there are still author slots left. There is also a new blog established by Ashley where you can find all the details. Check it out here.

I am a single mother and have been for nearly ten years. An unfortunate aspect of this reality is the dreaded summer separation. This will be my sixth year of sending my daughter more than 2000 miles away for two and a half months.

Other than the major savings in childcare, this situation comes with a pretty nice perk – total and complete freedom for ten full weeks.

[I’ll pause here while the moms who do not have this luxury take this in. You good? Okay.]

I can go where I want when I want. If someone says, “Want to catch a movie Friday night?” I can say yes without the hassle of finding a babysitter. (Not that this ever happens, but if it did, I’d be ready.)

There’s less laundry, less yelling, and more hot water.

At the same time, there is the negative. I lose my daughter for ten weeks. My daughter is my best friend. We do everything together. Which means when she’s gone, I have no one to hang out with. And now that everyone knows I have no friends, we’ll move this along.

There are stages to this ordeal and I’m currently in what I call my trying-not-to-think-about-it stage. We’re at T-10 days and counting so this stage should continue through the weekend. However, next week, I slide into the grumpy phase. This is when not thinking about it is no longer possible but thinking about it makes me mad. I growl. A lot.

Then a two day drive and my solo summer begins.

The best way I’ve found to get through is to have a plan. So far, in all five previous years, my plan has been derailed immediately and by the time Kiddo gets back, I’ve accomplished nothing. So my new plan is not to have a plan. Instead, I’ve set one goal.

Finish the current rough draft no later than August 15^th

I realize this might not seem like much, but that’s at least 70K words in under two and a half months. So maybe I should add one more goal – come out of this summer with a complete MS AND my sanity.