November was an incredibly productive month for me.  I revised a middle grade novel--now it's fully polished and ready to go.  Yay!  I also revised more than eleven picture book manuscripts.  Six are fully polished and ready to go. Double yay!  Plus, I have three that should be ready to sub fairly soon and a few others that are in pretty good shape ( Read more... )

I ended up having to revise a middle-grade novel, so I wasn't able to take the NaNoWriMo plunge like I have every year since 2006.  Sniff, sniff.  On the bright side, my family is relieved that I'm not shackled to my writing cave!

Even though I'm not writing a new novel, I'm making TONS of progress this month!  So far, I've...
* Revised one MG.   ( Read more... )

I was busy revising two other novels until fairly recently and dug into my 2010 NaNo novel as usual...and soon discovered that I had started it in the wrong place.  I had some info dump areas of backstory that would be better shown, and didn't establish what normal (or at least semi-normal) life was like before the MCs world undergoes huge changes ( Read more... )

I'm playing the revision tango with the beginning of my middle-grade novel, My Sister is NOT Human.  I love the voice, but thanks to the help of my awesome critique groups, realized that I started in the wrong place.  I'm making some great progress on it, but have a feeling it will take a lot of playing around to nail it.  That's okay--I'm learning ( Read more... )

It felt incredible to finish up my Mom Wars revision!  Thanks to my amazing critique groups and beta readers, I dug deeper than I ever thought possible.  So far, I've only sent it to one amazing agent who really liked the beginning and praised my voice when she heard it at a conference.  It felt wonderful to send new hope out after working on my ( Read more... )

It wasn't easy revising while my daughter was home sick with croup, but I stayed up late every night and believe Mom Wars is in amazing shape.  Wahoo!  But...I'm still not sure it's bullet proof enough to start submitting.  I printed up the full and handed it to my amazing mentor, Joyce Sweeney, yesterday, and can't wait to hear what she thinks!  I ( Read more... )

It's amazing how deep you can really dig into a manuscript and how parts that seemed to work from the beginning suddenly aren't strong enough.  It's a long, hard process...but it's also really fun, too.  I love learning new things about my characters, and often get up and happy dance around my office when I make a breakthrough.

I sent Mom Wars to ( Read more... )

Wow, it's been a really long time since I posted.  I'll fill you in on what I've been up to in a sec, and want to let you know that as soon as I'm able to put my Mom War revision aside for a bit, I'll type up my notes from the FL SCBWI Conference in Miami and share as much as I can with you.  It was an absolutely AMAZING weekend!

Since it might be ( Read more... )

I'm slowly working my way through my huge October to-do list, so I'll be ready to attack my new novel on November 1st.  I can't wait!  The idea hit one night while I was out having dinner with my girls.  I jotted down lots of ideas and can't wait to dig into some plotting and characterization exercises.  I don't even know what the main character's ( Read more... )

I can't believe it's October 1st already.  Where did the time go?  I've been busy revising my 2009 NaNoWriMo humorous MG, Mom Wars, and trying not to think about the fact that I turned in a requested revision to an amazing agent eight weeks ago.  Diving into another project definitely helped pass the time.  I love the way the revision came out...it ( Read more... )