kandthegang

1. Call the school nurse.
2. Walk the dog, sort of.
3. Talk to my mom (my dad fell and broke two toes).
4. Send last reminders for the Virginia Festival of the Book, featuring panels with kathyerskine, saralholmes, thunderchikin, writerjenn, amy_brewhite, deborah18, barbkann, barrieinca, paulahy, franslayton, Sue Corbett, Irene Latham, Laura Rennert, Bonnie Doerr, Emily Ecton, and Ruth Spiro (and I am sure I am forgetting someone so I am SORRY!). If you are not coming, why are you not coming? "I live too far away" and kids' soccer games are not excuses.
5. Write this entry.

 So, here is my question when you get scared/nervous does your body do something funky?  Like for me my palms start to tingle in a circle, which is a trait I totally stole and morphed for Zara in NEED and CAPTIVATE. 

So, how about you? Do you vomit or shake or do you hear the same song in your head when you get stage fright or real fright? 

Yes, I may use a suggestion in a story.
Yes, I may just be trying to make myself feel better because I have total stage fright because I have to talk to SCHOLARS soon. Yes, you read that word right - SCHOLARS - not happy readers, not students, not my mom and my relatives at a NH book signing - SCHOLARS> 

AIEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

Wow. I've been gone a loooooong time. Where have I been? What have I been doing?

Clickity, clickity. My fingers typing fast and furious on a keyboard.



(This is not my keyboard, but it is rather awesome.)

My bum glued to a chair.



(This is not my chair (nor my bum), but it is rather awesome.)

My mind awhirl in a dreamland.



(This is not my brain, but it is rather awesome.)

I have been working! Writing and revising my novel--what I like to call gussying.

Gussying sometimes leaves little time for blogging. But I'm back! Yay! Hopefully soon with more author interviews! Would you like that? Would 'cha? Would 'cha?

Word count has only so much meaning, but for whatever it is worth, I was surprised to find that I have about 12,000 words on my WIP. I would have guessed 8K, and 12K just sounds so much better, as if I've actually been working.

Maybe 7 of those 12,000 words are any good, but hey! for now, I'm counting it.

We're going to keep this short and sweet (Frank and birthday vgifts will be back next week). You've probably seen the updates to our main menu. Don't be alarmed. You'll find everything you need, just in slightly shifted format. Just so you know, we based these changes on input from both experienced and new users who were not familiar with LiveJournal. Our goal was to reduce barriers to usability and make LiveJournal more accessible and easy to navigate. Please note that this is a work in progress. We welcome your detailed suggestions in feedback. We thank you, in advance, for helping us improve your LiveJournal experience.

We've updated the global navigation menu:

Here's a quick breakdown of what you'll find where:

• Scrapbook can now be found under Profile (thanks for your feedback, btw), along with Settings, Stats, and Edit Profile.
• You'll find all the tools you need to post and update entries under Journal, which includes posting and editing entries, managing comments and tags, and customizing your journal's style.
• Friends contains all of your friend settings, from filtering your Friends page to adding, removing, and finding new and existing friends on LiveJournal.
• Under Communities, you'll find links to manage your communities, accept community invites, and create new communities.
• Explore includes search features, RSS feeds, Question of the Day, and FRNK radio.
• Under Shop, you'll find links to upgrade or give a paid account, buy virtual gifts, purchase LiveJournal merchandise (like T-shirts), and view your payment history.

LiveJournal Mobile update:

We've enhanced LiveJournal's mobile site to improve usability and load times. We've made more of LiveJournal's features accessible via mobile, including posting comments, uploading photos, reading and commenting on friends' posts, finding and messaging friends, and more. We look forward to reviewing your feedback and recommendations for future improvements.

Other important changes:

• You can lock comments to prevent further commenting on a post, while leaving existing comments visible.
• We replaced the "Tell a friend" link with a new "Share This" widget that lets you share LiveJournal posts on other social media sites, including Facebook, Digg, Twitter, etc.
• We changed some of the icons on entries (you can hover over the icons to view descriptions).
• You'll see a Tag count on your Tag management page.
• You'll now see the 10 most recent vgifts on your profile page. To remove vgifts, left-click on the vgift and choose whether you want to remove the vgift from your profile or delete it entirely.
• We've added options to help you control receipt of vgifts, which you'll find in My Stuff under Edit Profile. You can now enable vgifts from friends or everyone and disable anonymous vgifts.

We've got your fix:

• UPDATE: Rolling several updates into one listing here -- 1) Scrapbook should be back and working again. 2) The problem with the Update Journal page in IE6 and IE7 should be fixed now. 3) The problem with the userpic add-on package pricing has been fixed and refunds issued to anyone who was overcharged while the erroneous prices were in place.
• Non-conforming images will now be automatically resized for custom mood themes.
• Line breaks no longer count as two characters against your entry's character limit.
• We fixed a bug on the Manage Tags page so you can clear all tags and add new tags.
• We corrected the UI for the update.bml page so it displays properly in IE8.

Thanks again for joining us. Frank and company will be back next week!

 Dear Mr. Alarm,

You and I are no longer friends. When you didn’t go off today you disappointed me just one two many times. All I ask of you is to do one little thing for me, just one little thing every day, and could you do it? 

No.

So, I’m going to have to end this. I need an alarm that I can depend on, one that will be there for me through thick and thin, one that will always blast bell noises or the staticy radio in the morning. It’s not a lot to ask, Mr. Alarm, and I think we both know you could have given that to me on a consistent basis, but you haven’t. 

And today you impacted another relationship of mine. Number One Daughter is now ready to kill me because she is going to get a tardy for school. And believe me, her evil death glare is pretty potent. I may  be dead by the end of the day anyway.

So, that’s it, Mr. Alarm. You and me. Done. 

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Let’s face it—breaking into educational work-for-hire isn’t always easy. It’s a matter of perseverance and of being in the right place at the right time. It took me 1 ½ years from the time I first sent my resume and writing samples to educational publishers to get my first assignment. A publisher called me and said she enjoyed the voice of my writing and wanted to know if I’d be interested in writing a book on a similar topic.

Since that time, I’ve gotten consistent work from this publisher. I consider myself very lucky in this regard, as getting repeat assignments can often be as difficult as getting the initial assignment! And so today, on this Nonfiction Monday, I wanted to share a bit of my own journey with you and find out how you go about getting repeat work from a publisher.

After I complete a book assignment, I immediately e-mail both my editor and the assigning editor. I politely thank them for the project and then I ask for more work. I do this by saying I’d enjoy being considered for any current or future projects that may come available. Of course I’ve reviewed their current books online and have checked out any upcoming series or new imprints before I write. And so if there is a topic or a series I’m drawn to, I make mention of this in my letter. When the hiring editor responds, to tell me either that there are no new assignments at the time, but that she’ll keep me “on the list” for the next season of books or that she does have a new assignment for me, she also tells me that my interest in whatever topic I’ve mentioned, has gone into my file. This means, when an editor is looking for a writer on a certain topic, my name will pop up and I’ll at least have a chance to be considered.

If I don’t hear back from any editors within two months, I send a follow-up. Because I typically get multi-book assignments (after you write for a specific publisher, you’ll often get more than one book assigned at a time), I don’t mind a break in between books, and I use the time to query additional publishers and research the market.

I partially attribute repeat assignments to the fact that I strive to be an “easy” author. I meet my deadlines. I follow the assignment directions. I accept revision requests with a smile and realize that work-for-hire isn’t just my product—the work is specific and the publisher needs the writer to be flexible in format and language. Basically, when an editor says, “what about this instead,” the writer needs to be willing to give an enthusiastic “yes” or at least take the suggestion under serious consideration. Being a stickler for your own ideas in work-for-hire doesn’t work. If you want repeat assignments, you’ve got to be willing to give up some of the control—sometimes, a lot of the control.

That’s how I handle the process of requesting work—how do you do it?

My final art is on the way either today or tomorrow! Squeeeeeeeee!!!!

Guy does the most adorable critters. I can't wait to see them in color!

ETA: I've got it. I was asked not to share yet, but you know I will as soon as I'm possibly allowed!!!!

 I think the award season is over so I’ve decided that it’s now time for the first ever CARRIE JONES AWARDs. Yes, I have nothing to blog about.


1. Winner of the person who should hang out with Carrie Jones 24-7 or at least give her his cell phone number?

The winner is:


Because honestly he can ride a horse and paint and talk about poetry. 

2. Person who should walk Carrie Jones’ dogs preferably naked. No, I did not say that. Did I? Oh, yes I did.


Because honestly? You know he’d be cute. 

3. Winner of the Person who should blurb Carrie Jones’ next novel award.


Because, come on, it would be beyond awesome. 

4. Winner of the award of HOT MAN WITH BAD TASTE IN CLOTHES award.


Nothing needs to be said here, does it? It was a tie. ;) 

5. Winner of the man who should father Carrie’s children or at least have her on his show award



Please? *insert begging noises here*

6. Winner of the Best Friend who calls at times Carrie Jones can never answer but Carrie really loves her. Maine’s cell reception sucks AWARD.


I love you, Kelly! 

First off - super monster congratulations to eluper and laurabowers and cynthialord on their new book sales! I love them all. They are amazing.  And speaking of love - congrats to Jo Knowles who is ALMOST done with her next book of awesome called PEARL. 

Because my brain no longer seems to be capable of putting sentences and I haven’t really blogged for a bit, I’ve made a short video about Tala (my dog) and how Scotty (the new dog) loves her. I hope you like it and that you have an amazing weekend.
xo
C

1. Next week is the Virginia Festival of the Book. If you're anywhere nearby and you're not coming, you're missing out. I can't wait to meet the authors I've been corresponding with via email and see my good friends who are coming. Here's the linky-link to my previous announcement:

http://annemariepace.livejournal.com/211615.html

2. I hear there is cover art for my book. I wanna see. I must wait. Patience is a virtue I do not have when it comes to seeing my cover art.

3. I am not doing a good job of coming up with any more writing-related things.

4. Thought of one--on the spur of the moment, although not as spurrishly as kristydempsey, I entered the SCBWI WIP grant. I did the same thing last year and got a decent result. No matter what the result, though, it's good to put things that bring hope in the mail.

5. I have to go take a shower now.

And if you don't like the fact that this 5 for Friday is not particularly interesting, well, just assume that I am saving all my interesting and profound stuff for my WIP.