Smug as a Bug in a Rug (Back on the Chain Gang)

The Blog Chain has circled back to me again, so I’m postponing my usual “In Deep Smit” posting (unless y’all will buy the deeply-smitten-with-the-chain-gang thing two weeks in a row. )  This chain’s topic was selected by Kate Karyus Quinn.  If you didn’t already find your way here from Leah Clifford’s blog, be sure to [...]

Perfecting a Pitch Blurb

Kristin Nelson rocks. Seriously. I attended her workshop on Query Pitch Blurbs at the Chicago-North RWA Spring Fling. Using her suggestions, I crafted a query letter and sent out an equery on Monday night. Tuesday afternoon, I got a request for a partial. She has been blogging on the same topic. Well worth reading. You [...]

My Pitch for The Edge of Memory

Warning! The following post is slightly spoilerific. So you’ll have to click “continue” to read it. In case you read about my first agent meeting and wondered what my 60-second pitch was…

All Flung Out: Chicago NRWA Spring Fling

Well, I’m back to my regularly scheduled doctorhood today. I got in late last night and I’m working a 24+ hour shift today. So I didn’t have a chance to finish blogging about the conference. Wow. What a crazy, wonderful experience that was! Saturday, I drove in early for more workshops. I had a great [...]

Still Flinging…

Well, last night got interesting. First, I attended a great lecture on the nuts and bolts of publishing from agent Christina Hogrebe and author Maureen Lang. After the lecture was the “Chocolate Reception”.  There, I recognized agent Kristin Nelson from her blog picture and hovered nearby like a star-struck teenager for about ten minutes, but [...]

My First Conference: Chicago RWA Spring Fling

Well, here I sit on break from my very first writing conference. A surreal experience to say the least. After working up a vigorous lather of panic and caffeine this morning, I arrived at the Spring Fling conference muttering my 60-second pitch to myself and trying not to puke. Much ado about nothing, like most [...]

The Edge of Memory Cards for Writing Conference

In my continued quest to figure out how to get published, I’ve been researching writing conferences. The Chicago Spring Fling conference I’m attending at the end of this month is sneaking up on me faster than I’d expected. In addition to cooking up a verbal pitch, I’ve read that I also need to prepare business [...]

God Bless Caribou!

I love Caribou Cafe. Between the writing and the editing, I have probably done about 1/3 of the work on my novel there. I should list them in my acknowledgments. The editing is going gangbusters now. I’ve made some changes to chapter 7 that make me happy. I wasn’t really digging the whole journey thing; [...]