What's up Wednesday

Just realized it's Wednesday. I wonder what people would think if you went around pronouncing Wednesday the way it's spelled. So instead of saying wins-day you said wed-nes-day, like three syllables. Hello non-sequiturs!

Anyway, Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
Looking forward to stuffing my face with the type of food I never see during the course of the year:

Mashed Tates: Yes
Gravy: Yes
Cranberry sauce: Never been a big fan, but I'm beginning to like it.
All kinds of veggies up in here.
And sweet potato pie, of course.
That and pound cake.
God, I'll have to fast afterward.

What I'm reading
Almost done with Daughter of Smoke & Bone. Really love it. I really like Laini Taylor's world-building. It's also cool that the story takes place in Prague, Czech Republic. I love that city and she writes about it with great visual flair.

Here's my to-be-read pile.

 What I'm writing
About to send back final revisions for Hoodoo to my agent and then we take the next step!

What inspires me right now
Writers, articles about writing, reading about debut authors and anything else to do with writing. Also meeting new writers/people and visiting their blogs.

What else I've been up to 
Twitter. Can I say that? I like reading tweets from the writers and book-lovers I've been following. 

Working on the book I hope to concentrate on once Hoodoo goes out into the world. 

I also need to see Catching Fire. Hopefully, the crowds might die down a bit over the break.

What about you? I ask you, what is up, dear people?

Want to participate in What's up Wednesday? Check out the creators:  Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk.

How to Write your First Book

Good article from Buzzfeed.

I think I missed a What's up Wednesday.

Uh-oh.

I don't even know if this counts as a blog post because it's so short. I just saw the article on Twitter and thought I'd put it here.

That's all for now.

Agent Podcast

One nice thing about having an agent (sorry, I can't help pausing every time I say that) is that I get to let others know how fabulous she is.

Here's why. Check out Adriann Ranta's podcast on the Business of Writing over at The Fiction School.

What's up Wednesday

How can it be another Wednesday already? Didn't I just write one of these?

Let's do this.

What I'm reading

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor. This is my type of fantasy: the weirder the better. I just love her prose. She's got a twisted visual style and I love that. I also bought Divergent. I read the first 50 pages or so but just wasn't feeling it.

 

What I'm writing
Aside from this blog post, still toying around with other manuscripts. I'm trying to figure out which one to pursue. MG? YA? NA? Something wholly new?

What inspires me right now
Hmm.
Great authors like Laini Taylor--ones who can create a world and characters so vivid they pop off the page and get in your head. A true gift, to be able to do that. I heard her speak on plotting once at a SCBWI event and she was great.

What else I've been up to 
Trying to find a way to get in more fiction hours. I do it in the morning, before work. I always want to keep going but, alas, I  have to put on the Don Draper Advertising Suit and write ads for burgers and laundry detergent. 

What have you been up to?

Want to participate in What's up Wednesday? Go here.

What's up Wednesday

I've seen a lot of blogs doing this weekly meme, and I thought it was not only a fun idea, but a great catalyst for weekly blogging.  So thank you Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk!

It's pretty simple, really. Every Wednesday, I'll write a post that answers these questions:

What I'm reading
What I'm writing
What inspires me right now
What else I've been up to

Sounds easy enough. Let's hope I can do it every week. I'm a notorious neglect-the-blog writer.

So, without further doo-doo, here's my first What's up Wednesday post:

What I'm reading
Okay, well, nothing at the moment. Great start, Ron! I just finished Anna Dressed in Blood and Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake.  I bought the Goldfinch by Donna Tartt but haven't started it yet. I also picked up a non-fiction book called Henry Darger, Throwaway Boy, by Jim Elledge.

What I'm writing
I'm working on a middle-grade fantasy right now. I have about 20,000 words. I just finished revisions on Hoodoo, my middle grade supernatural horror novel for my agent. What? Agent? Hells yeah!

What inspires me right now?
That's a tough one. Let me think.
(Insert Jeopardy theme or Pachelbel's Canon here. Or possibly Air on A G String from Bach.)

Okay, I think what inspires me right now is...waking up and knowing that I have achieved one of my writing goals, which is being offered representation by an agent. I know there's still a long way to go to selling a book, but I feel like I can see a little reward in this journey that so many of us have taken. It gives me the creative fuel to wake up and jump into my current work in progress.

What else I've been up to
Hmpf. I've been on Twitter a lot lately. Trying to get a little bit more of a presence there, finally.

Playing with my new iPhone.

Visiting and commenting on like-minded people's blogs.

Trying to find the time to watch mindless shows like the Vampire Diaries and the Originals. (I know they're bad, but I can't help it.)

I'm out.

Want to participate in What's up Wednesday? Go here.