Sunday 2 February 2014

End of My First Week With The Girls

It is 10.30pm on a Sunday night, and I'm just settling down 40 teenage girls down after a day at Wet'n'Wild. Yes, that is as fun as it sounds: hyper active, sunburnt, over-tired and already having boy issues. I'm so glad I'm not 16 again!

This is my last shift for my first week as a boarding house supervisor. It has been a very full on week, but I think I'm finally getting my 70 girls names down (Year 10 and 11), though I still have no idea about the other 100 girls in the other year levels.

So how has my writing gone in all this time?

Not as badly as you might expect.

I put together the proposal with chapter summaries for 'A Little Bit Of Leaven' and have started sending it out to US agents. The first one I emailed has already gotten back to me, which is kind but as you might suspect not a good sign. Though he did send it to one of his reviewers to read through, and didn't say anything negative about the manuscript. The only problem is that he's not taking on new authors at the moment, so 'it was a matter of timing'. Not much I can do to overcome that. But that was just the first on the list, so just going to keep plugging along.

I also started editing 'The Five Day Writer's Bootcamp', and have gotten through the preface and introduction. Needs a bit more polishing, but reading it through again is not totally disheartening. Whether I will be able to get it ready in two weeks is another matter entirely. But still, everyone needs a goal.

Still going with Anna Karenina. It is a wonderful book, but sometimes the pacing makes you wonder if it will ever finish. However, if you ever want to know how to do great characterisation and similes, this is the book to go to.

Tomorrow is the first of two days off, so until Wednesday's check in I'm setting myself the following goals:
1. Go to the gym twice or for a swim.
2. Finish the print on demand cover for 'Online Dating'
3. Finish the formatting of the text for 'Online Dating' and order proof.
4. Submit queries/proposals to three more agents.
5. Finish Day 1 and 2 of Bootcamp.

That should keep me busy!

How is everyone else going?



2 comments:

  1. Wow. That sounds crazy. I hope you still find enough time for your writing in addition to your day job (which sounds like more of a 24/7 on call type gig). Good luck with ROW80!

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    1. Thanks! The day job will probably end up being 'research' for a boarding school series later in the year, though the series is going to be humorous and only vaguely based on any kind of reality. But it makes the day job seem better, thinking of how I could turn it into fiction. Turning things into fiction makes everything better.

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