April Fool's Day...perfect day to start my blog.

I read somewhere (amongst the many writing articles, blogs, and advice) that trying to get your first fiction novel published is like trying to win the lottery. Call me a fool but I've always been a huge believer in the Lotto and I still buy a ticket each week, so maybe I'm just a delusional daydreamer. (I know my level-headed father thinks so, but I get it honestly from my starry-eyed mom.) Perhaps being a believer in the impossible is why I'm more than eager to tackle the colossal and frightening world of trying to be a professional writer. Or maybe the Kindrily's story is just so good that it breaks my heart to imagine a world without it floating around on store bookshelves. It's definitely the latter, because in all honesty, the "trying to find an agent" process leaves me picking nervously at my lip (bad habit) while drinking a glass of Riesling and obsessively creating more than twenty drafts of a query letter. Oh and the synopsis, don't even get me started...I'm still amazed that I've edited my book down to 123,000 words when a month ago it was over 140,000. Now they expect me to summarize it--enticingly--on two short pages. Baby steps people, baby steps.

I'm attending a writer's conference this month in my old stomping grounds--Colorado Springs--where I get to meet uber agents like Ginger Clark and Nathan Bransford. I'm also hoping to learn a whole lot of useful information and get some advice on my writing. Because let's face it, every writer can ALWAYS be better, and my amazing characters deserve the highest level of respect and the best author possible. Why they chose me to tell their story, I'm still not sure, but I'm grateful that they did because it's already been an amazing adventure--and there's so much more right around the corner!

On a serious note, for those of you who hear me talk about the "voices in my head" please know that I'm mean in it a loving and mentally sane way. Yes, I am completely consumed by their world and story but I do still realize that it is a fantasy. Though as a good friend said after reading the book, "it just feels so real, even with all the magic." One of the biggest compliments I have ever received, and one of the many that keep me pushing through this dizzying whirlwind world of writing. (Try saying that one 5 times fast!)

To those friends and family members who have requested a full manuscript, please know that I am graciously smiling and extremely flattered. However, printing 400 plus pages to hand out to friends and family can get very costly, so please hang in there until one of the few current copies makes it to you through rotation or better yet, the published version makes it to a bookshelf near you. Unless you know a publisher or agent, which in that case, tell me where to send it!

In the meantime I'm going to grab a glass of wine (or flavored coffee), use my OCD skills to edit book one (for the umpteenth time) and happily--though sometimes tearfully--write some more scenes from book two. Oh and buy a lotto ticket, can't forget the lotto ticket, you never know when lightning might strike.