Monday, October 28, 2013

Week 4 #WIPMADNESS Check-In


This week was true madness! Not so much by way of working on the WIP, though. The madness came when I arrived home Tuesday afternoon with a terrible headache and discovered 12 men on my roof! Without any notice from my landlord, the roof was being torn off and the skylights were being replaced. So much for the week I declared as officially peaceful and productive. Never mind the roofing debris that's been scattered from one end to the other of my lovely little home. Hopefully they'll finish up early this week. Deep breath. Sigh.

However, three very good things happened this week:
#1 One last bit of divorce business, after months of hassle, has been officially resolved. 
#2 The giant new skylight in my living room is not frosted like the old one, so I can gaze at the starts at night from my bean bag chair. Yay!
AND THE BIG NEWS. . .
#3 JULIUS CAESAR BROWN AND THE GREEN GAS MYSTERY is now available in paperback!!! See it here

And the #wipmadness will continue in November thanks to our host, Shari Green.

Now, for today's theme, my dear writing companions, all of you have aided me in the road to a happier writing life and I thank you. The road this past year has been full of sinkholes and road blocks, but you have stuck with me and encouraged me to keep going. So tell me, what I can do for you this week, Wipsters? What kind of aid do you need from your writing companions right now?

30 comments:

  1. Hurray for stargazing and resolution! ((hugs))

    What I need, no one can give me. At least no human. I need a bit of divine intervention to get me out of my rut of self-doubt and creative blockage. I suppose a winning lottery ticket wouldn't hurt...then I could quit my day job!

    Thank you for hosting, Angelina, and for continuing to inspire and support us as we embrace the madness.

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    1. I wish I could magick you that ticket! No human except your inner writer and no mechanism but time, breathing, exercise and maybe fresh air will help that self-doubt and creative blockage. Well, and maybe chocolate and great tea/coffee. :) But we will cheer you on through it!

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    2. Thanks, Lora! I'm just a little out of steam this week. It will come around.

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    3. I can give you a virtual (((((hug))))) and the assurance that you can do it, the rut will fill with creative energy, and you will bash that block with a sledgehammer. ^_^

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  2. Glad to hear one more roadblock is out of the way for you on the divorce front, dear. Thank you for your chat and encouragement last week. That is why I love my Wipster community. I'm submitting to a contest this week. And I need to think big picture about my MG novel. It needs finishing. I need a goal and a deadline for it... Perhaps my goal this week should be setting my goals and deadlines for this book! I will check back in and confirm.

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    1. Okay. I'll be waiting. I also need to set a goal as to when I will finish this final revision of my YA and send it to my publisher. Shall we push each other?

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  3. No word from the landlord?? At least there's so much good news on other fronts!

    I have the third book of a trilogy I need to get the first draft done of before the baby comes along... but my brain is still insisting on taking a break from that world. Was going to write an epic, and then near the end of chapter 1 I realized I just wasn't feeling it! Brainstorming another story for now, and once that's done I gotta get cracking on this sequel. :)

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    1. A new baby coming? How exciting!!! Get cracking on that first draft while you can. ^_^

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  4. Congrats on those things! Especially the paperback edition of JC. Though that roof situation sounds scary. But the new skylight sounds lovely.

    Well, you could help me stop bouncing about, especially with this Achilles tendonitis hampering my ankle and knee ... but yes, I'm both giddy and exhausted following SIWC. I managed to memorize my pitch, and that made it easier to meet the agents' eyes of the people I was speaking to. And I went there with a focus on pitching. The result? 1 request from an editor, 4 from agents. All partials... for now, at least. (That's my hope, anyway.) Plus I had a wonderful chat with an author. I sent what I could today. ^__________^

    So now I'm just working on the plot for my NaNo. And I feel great. Next month is going to be crazy because of that, so I am *so* grateful to Shari for taking on November. Things are going incredibly well, and I feel great!

    Except for the ankle. Ow.

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    1. Your excitement is oozing out all over! Congrats on the requests and best wishes. And I hope that ankle heals up soon!

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  5. Like Laura, I'm just back from the Surrey Conference, so am still a little brain dead. My goal for this week is to sort through the material that applies to my current work, and then get busy putting it to work. I have two agent/editor requests... one for a partial and the other for a full ms... so I need to finish the revisions that I have in mind. I'm thinking I may take an unofficial stab at NaNoWriMo next month, using the time to focus on these revisions.

    Congratulations on The Green Gas Mystery's paperback release! And on the new skylight. And the divorce progress. All good things. :) And thanks so much for hosting #wipmadness this past month.

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    1. Congrats on the requests! And have fun with Nano, if you so choose. ^_^

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  6. Yay to getting past what I hope is the last of your divorce stuff. I hope the light at the end of the tunnel is pulling you closer. Super news about the JC coming out in paperback. Now, Ace can get out and do some cool book signings. Fun for sure!! Your new skylights sound dreamy. :)

    I can sympathize with Mary Ann and being in her rut. Sigh. I've been struggling with allowing my inner critic to take the driver's seat when drafting. The past two days have been better, but I'm yet to allow my creative side to completely take over the wheel. I hope if I keep at it, I'll succeed.

    Part of my issue is I'm struggling with my genres. I know they say to never give up, but I'm really contemplating the whole Picture Book writing thing. It's tough. Really tough to get one to work. I will argue until I'm blue in the face with anyone who thinks they're easier to write than novels. My biggest problem is I just want to tell too much story, taking away what makes picture book text work. For now, I'm setting them aside and working on something bigger, a project I've been wanting to work on but too afraid to do so. It's a painful project, but I think it's time to let it surface and see what comes of it.

    The only thing I need are nudges.

    On the other hand, I had a super lit-filled weekend at the Texas Book Festival in Austin. I met, shook hands with, and had my book signed by R. L. Stine, whom has recently been announced as the best-selling children's author of all time in the Guinness Book of World Records. Yeah. I don't even think cloud 9 describes it!! Maybe my weekend inspiration is what drove me to plunge forward into this new project.

    Hope everyone has a productive week!

    Write on, Wipsters. :))

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    1. Write on brave writer, warrior! I'm a big advocate of writing the tough stuff. You go, girl!

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  7. I don't know how I fell off the #wipmadness bandwagon, but I've been here all along, quietly revising in my own little world. I think that's pretty much all I need right now, but I'm thrilled to see your paperback is out and to hear about your new skylight, Angelina! Exciting!!!

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    1. Missed you, Kip, but am happy to know you are carrying on. ^_^

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  8. So can relate with the home front though mine is my association that has been known to just 'decide' to cut trees lining our property and dumping them on our yard. Or letting the branches hit my roof. I've yelled at them in both English and Spanish. And the whole drainage pipe thing had to do with the association not taking care of one thing too. Such a pain.

    Yay, on your book coming out in paperback!!!!

    This week finishing a short story for an on-line YARWA class I signed up for. It's told from the POV of my male protagonist in my current YA thriller. Now getting stuff ready for Nanowrimo which is writing book two in the Goddesses series. Need to brush up on my Audrey Hepburn and also put up a post on FB and my blog for people to share their Paris experiences as Jordan will be going there and finding a new love interest!

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  9. Your view of the sky sounds enchanting, Angi! I hope that turns into a metaphor for you, as in the sky's the limit and no more cloudy days from his royal stinkness ex-husband. And GO JULIUS GO!

    I only request good examples of industriousness from my fellow wipsters. It helps beyond belief to know we're all sitting at the keyboard pushing words out of our fingers. Nano looms large and I'm gunna try. Though am scared as I also need a "real" job in the worst way, perhaps holiday retail (shiver of horror). In the meantime, write baby write.

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    1. Go, girl, go! And I hope a tolerable way to earn $ comes your way soon.

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  10. I'm so glad for the good things that came your way. :)

    I'm another one recovering from SiWC (it was fantastic!). I'm diving into revisions (NaNoReMo?) and, although I'm eager to get at it, I'm sure there will be times when I'm totally lost and seriously doubting my ability to make this novel into anything decent...so what I'm going to need from time to time is simply a whisper in my ear saying "keep going".

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  11. PS - thanks so much for hosting this month, Angelina! Loved the cow photos that went so well with the great quotes. :)

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  12. Congrats on the paperback release! Exciting times :D

    After not writing for like four months I'm dying to do NaNo... yet somehow tricky little November has snuck up on me and I'm nowhere near ready for it. I'm torn between getting done what I can when I can or throwing everything else aside and going into mad plotting & then drafting mode so I can crank out the words I need to.

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    1. Tough decisions! Great to have you stop by, Brooke. Happy writing, whichever you decide to do.

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  13. Wanted to stop by and tell you thanks for hosting in October!!!

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  14. It must be irritating to be awaken by unexpected noise, especially coming from your roof, right? Anyway, what is a little sacrifice for a renovation that you'll be benefited in all ways. Why did your landlord replace your skylights?

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