My thoughts about rejection.

It's going to be a time of rejections for me. I have submitted and even pitched my novel to various publishers.

In the last few days I had one friend see a bad review of her book that paralyzed her and kept her from working on her current book. Another submitted an experimental query and was rejected in ten minutes, and she laughed about it.

Are either of these people better than the other? No. One is newly published, one will have her book out next year.

Am I speaking a little hypocritical? Yes. Because I've been in both of thier places. I've had that rejection that I brushed off with a smile and I've had that devastating critique that could have paralyzed me. Actually it did for about an hour. Then through talking about it with a friend I realized that I had done my best on my MS and that it shouldn't matter to me what thay thought.

I kept the business card of the critiquer and on a quiet morning I burned that card into a pile of ashes, put the ashes in a baggie and tacked ot to my wall. Why? Because after that period of time where I bemoaned what they said and after what I learned from the experience I needed a reminder of the lesson.

Yea rejection is going to hurt, it's how you let it either spur you into action or let it keep you from working that matters.

I definately won't be perfect, I'll still have my moments of doubt. I'm a writer it's my nature. However whenever I get those future rejections I hope I will remember the lessons learned and move on.

Book Academy and the query part 2.

I knew months ago that the Book Academy conference at UVU was coming up in September. I also thought that because I'd have a newborn and medical bills I'd just go next year. I felt really bad because I loved last years conference, but hey what do you do?

I saw a contest on Facebook where you could win one of two tickets to the conference and I entered. I thought, I can't win if I don't enter.

Well I won! I was so excited I screamed and woke the baby. LOL

After the heart palpitations slowed I had the distinct impression that I was going to make a connection or two there and that is why I won. I have been praying that I would work my butt off if I was just pointed in the right direction. I didn't tell anyone though because I didn't want to jinx it.

I found a babysitter for Noble and Thursday my hubby drove me to Orem and Elias and I went to the Book Academy Conference. I registered and then found my friends Cheri Chesley and Melissa Cunningham and sat by them. Well about 10 minutes later Lisa Mangum from Deseret Book and BRANDON MULL of "Fablehaven" fame sat at our table. I was so excited.

After a great opening message I bought one of a few "Chocolate Never Faileth" books by Annette Lyon and went to my first class which was a workshop on query writing. The night before I had recieved a message from a friend that the class was going to be a workshop and to bring your query letter. Well as you know from the last post I have been working and pulling my hair out over my query. So I printed it off and put it in my bag for the next day.

After a short lesson on how to write a query, by Lisa Mangum from Deseret Book and Kirk shaw from Covenant. They asked for victims and I raised my hand. Lisa read MY query out loud to the class and after reading the pitch (three paragraphs) she stopped and said that she wanted to see the book. (I hope shes not kidding because I'm sending her a submission on Monday.) They suggested a few small cosmetic changes which I have done, but otherwise they liked the query. When I talked to Kirk Shaw after the class just to clarify the genre he also asked me to submit it to Covenant.

My heart pounded the rest of the day and I couldn't wait to share the good news with my friends. I had the feeling that I was going to make some connections and I was right. I am so blessed.

While I am bennifiting from being at the right place at the right time doing the right thing, I must thank those who helped me with this query, and MS.

Paulette Inman, best friend forever and plotter/what if extroidinare, for being my sounding board for the re-write of the query and the MS.
Tristi Pinkston, editor extroidinare, for the grammar edit on the blurb.
Amie Borst, new friend and awesome critter, for the outside "don't know a thing about the book" query critique.
And lastly my anonymous editor and good friend (you know who you are) for the undying, completely unselfish, editing work you did on my MS. Not only does it shine, it ROCKS!
P. S. Angie Lofthouse, my bloggy and Facebook friend, thanks for watching Eli for a few minutes too! What a lifesaver.

I had a blast and I came home reafirming that I work in an awesome career with awesome people.

How about this?

I have been working on pulling my hair out, I mean my query. (did I say that out loud?) While the old one was subtle and vague but had voice I needed to give more information. So here is the new version hopefuly with a little voice remaining.


Corporate assassin, Antony Danic, has never killed an innocent man—until now.

During a dinner with friends, Antony realizes that his last assigned hit was a mere preacher. When his assignments start to resemble personal agenda, instead of corporate espionage, he realizes what he thought was reality, is a lie. Just weeks before, while on vacation, Antony received a death threat from a fellow employee. It appeared that the corporation was unhappy with his performance on his previous hit. Even though he hoped it was just posturing from corporate, he began to re-think his safety, and his employer’s integrity.

When Antony botches a hit, by causing the destruction of an international space cruiser filled with a mysterious cargo, his carefully woven security net begins to unravel. And as he scrambles to find a safe way out of his employers "till death do us part" contract, he faces the decision of his life: continue with business as usual and kill another innocent man—or do what's right, even if it puts his family in jeopardy.

Some links for you

I dont normally provide a post with a list of links but I have found two places you need to visit.

First, if you are in the market for an EXCELLENT editor I have just the one for you.
Tristi Pinkston is a frelance editor and is an expert at it. I have had the opportunity to have her look at a few small pieces of work for me and I have been completely pleased with her work. For her info and prices go here.

Second, Nancy Campbell Allen has posted about how she does her "Project Notebooks". I love her ideas and plan on usung her formula from now on. Imagine, everyting you need for one book in one notebook. (And I just bought a TON of spiral notebooks at the back to school sales) Here is that link.

Third, I am at 49 followers!!!!!! I need ONE MORE FOLLOWER to make it to fifty! If you havn't followed me yet and want a FREE SIGNED BOOK (Key Lime Pie by Josi Kilpack) become my 50th follower. :)

moving on . . . moving up?

With the last rejection I recieved, I have exhausted all of the little indie publishers in my area. I'm really sad about this, I was seriously hoping to make it in this little niche market. Something homey and safe. Someplace that would understand my specific cultural needs and expressions.

What is bothering me the most is what is left for me to choose.

The national market.

To be honest it scares me literally out of my boots. Am I good enough? Is my book good enough? While my last rejection said my MS was promising they passed on it. What does that say about me and my writing? The next move for me is to send the Ms out to the few places that still accept unsolicited works and then try to find an agent. There are thousands of them out there, but less then 200 that represent my genre. What if i submit this MS to all of them and no one likes it? Where do I go from there? Do I start another story? Do I even bother?

I have discovered I have a yeller streak a mile wide across my back and it disturbs me. Scared enough that I have literally sat on my polished MS for weeks and not done a thing. The query process is daunting to me and quite confusing. I want to just run and hide. So much for being brave and adventerous.

Yet, I want to see this book series in print its a darn good story if I have any say. I have had a professional Editor look at it and they like it, my readers like it and I have worked darn hard on it. I guess what I am saying is if its worth anything at all I'll just have to get over this streak and do what needs to be done. Inspite of being yeller.

Try your hand . . . pen names

Okay I admit that my reason for this topic is probably going to offend someone.

I don't like my name and havn't since I was a teen. Sorry mom and dad, I just don't like it. Enough to consider a legal name change at one point in time. One of the appeals as a writer has allways been the fact that I could write something and use a pen name. That I could literally be "some one else".

I have played with many pen names through out the years and either kept them for a while and or discarded them when it was time.

I even created a pen name that I ended up liking so much that I eventually used it as a character name. Oh well so much for that one.

So. . . . . I bet you are wondering if I disliked my name so much why my blog, twitter etc. uses my given legal name and why I don't change it.

Well to be honest I'm a chicken and didn't want to offend those two people that gave me my name. Second, I was writing for the LDS market at the time and they don't like the idea of pen names so I established my presence on the internet using my legal name. Besides, I guess it's not such a bad name afterall. :)

My question to you is do you use a pen name or have you considered it? If so, why?

My current distraction

His name is Elias Teancum Porter Jefferies. He was born on Wednesday August 4, at 5:27 pm. Baby is perfect. I am recovering.