Writing

Conference Essentials

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I blog, and guest blog, and talk, and well, I guess I just never shut up, about being prepared to attend a conference. Some of the absolute best connections I’ve made have been at conferences, along with new friends, and I just can’t bring myself to stop talking about all the things that make it worth it to spend the time.

Here, in a nutshell, is my list of must-packs…whether the con is in your backyard or across the country. Print the list and refer to it while you pack.

  • Notepad and pens/pencils/other writing implement. And have extra, because the minute you have notes to take or inspiration hits, your pen will malfunction. I take my netbook, but I generally don’t use it for taking notes at a conference; I use it to work in between panels if I have a good idea.

 

  • Allergy meds and prescription meds. You are not suddenly sixteen again with the immune system of solid iron. Be a grown up about this. ALSO, take some form of headache medication (Advil, Tylenol, or similar), stomach settling medication (Pepto-Bismol or Tums), and it doesn’t hurt to take some cold medicine (Sudafed or Benedryl, or similar). The minute you think you don’t need it is when you’ll end up sitting next to Typhoid Mary. You don’t need a lot; a couple of travel packs of each are enough, normally, to get you through to where you might have a chance to get for yourself if you need more. Doesn’t hurt to take a couple of Band-Aids.

 

  • Refillable water bottle, because water at a conference or hotel is obscenely expensive, and you can’t live on coffee and Diet Coke, no matter hard I try. If needs be, you can pack your toothbrush and toothpaste inside, in a Ziploc baggie, to save space.

 

  • Mints, Listerine breath strips, or other breath-freshening item is a must. If you get a chance to pitch your stuff, you will get nervous, and you will get dry mouth, which will give you bad breath. Cough drops will work too, as well as hard candy, but I don’t really like the idea of smelling like menthol, because it gives the impression that I’m sick. My go-to is Altoids (which I chew up immediately) or Listerine breath strips.Chomping on gum, or the clacking of a hard candy on your teeth can give a non-professional appearance.

 

  • Paper copy of first chapter, synopsis, and a current draft of your query letter. These are my cheat sheets if I get an unexpected chance to pitch my work. And you might find someone willing to look it over and give you notes. (Sometimes I take two copies…one to use for pitches and one to get notes on).

 

  • Enough clothing/underwear/socks to have a new outfit every day. Yes, you are a writer, and you are a professional (whether you’re getting paid pro rates or not). There are stories about weird writer quirks, but there’s a scene in Bull Durham about the rookie having fungus on his shower shoes, and how if he makes it to the big leagues, it makes him “colorful”. In the minors, he’s just a slob. Please don’t be that slob, even if you do rate the big leagues.

 

  • Take at least one extra shirt, one extra pair of pants, and a sweatshirt. This is in case of spills that require more than a sink rinse and overnight dry. And conference rooms will ALWAYS be colder than you expected.

 

  • Two pairs of comfortable shoes. I’m really not kidding about this one. I went to a conference and thought I was wearing a comfortable pair, but had not anticipated the amount of walking. I was glad I had another option.

 

  • Double check to make sure you have all the hygiene items you need. And I’m not just talking about the ladies. You are not the Wild Man from Borneo. If you need hair gel and hairspray, make sure you have it. And yes, everyone will appreciate it if you wear deodorant. You wouldn’t think I would have to say this, but sadly, I do. And please remember that you should brush your teeth.

 

  • Is there a dressed-up event at the con? If so, don’t forget appropriate attire/shoes/jewelry for this. Most don’t involve something like this, but some do.

 

  • Business cards, bookmarks, promo items, etc. Whether published or not, a business card is not a bad thing. The agents and editors probably don’t want it, but the group you were networking with at the bar the last night might want to contact you on Facebook later. If you’re published, bring the kinds of things you can put in someone’s hands at a con. I carry bookmarks, small giveaways, and some kind of candy giveaway. DON’T do this if you’re not published; it smacks of trying too hard, and you’re spinning your wheels promoting something that someone can’t buy yet.

 

  • Cash. I don’t mean a lot, but I do mean enough that you can hail a taxi, buy a book, or tip the valet at the hotel.

 

  • Driver’s License or State ID card. Many conferences that you pre-register for make you prove that you are you before they let you have the badge you paid for. This is a good thing. Also bring a credit card, for the just-in-case type of emergency. I don’t like to carry a whole purse, but I’ll carry a small wallet, or just slip these things in a pocket for easy access. For me, that is. 😉

 

  • Phone and/or other electronics chargers. And if you have a lot of these, take your own surge protector.

 

These are the absolute minimum. It’s sad that I have to say this, but I do. Hey, I’m not a fashion plate by any means, but I want an editor or agent actually paying attention to my pitch or my pages rather than wrinkling their nose at bad breath, body odor, or seeing me with stains all over myself. I’m a clutz.

Writers Have Lives Too

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I don’t care how close to me that you are. I don’t care if you are my mother, my grandmother, my siblings, my cousins, my bestest of the bestest friend, or my third cousin’s brother’s half-sister’s stepdaughter’s college roommate.

My day job is NOT as a writer. I still work a full time job, a couple of part time jobs, plus the writing.

It is wildly inappropriate to show up at my day job and expect me to drop everything to give you advice on how to get your book published.

I have a website. My email is on the website. In fact, just to be clear, I’ll list it here again…

addiejking AT gmail.com (insert @ character in appropriate place…trying not to encourage spam. We all get enough of that).

My email gets checked multiple times during the day; on breaks, at lunch, after work, and before and after I go to bed at night. I’m always available to give advice if someone contacts me in that way, but it might take a few days, depending on my schedule, the Husband’s schedule, and The Boy’s schedule. They come first,always.

My co-workers should not have to deal with this. They have plenty of other things that need to get done every day, and they are not paid to handle this kind of request. Luckily, they did not have a huge line of people at the time that this person came in.

If you are close enough to me to 1) know where I work, 2) know what I do, and 3) think I’d drop everything during the day to talk to you, then you ALSO know that I’m not a writer from 8-4 pm; I’m working the day job.

Look, guys, I love to talk writing. I really really do. I’m happy to give advice; heck I spend tons of time doing so at conferences, in emails, at writer’s workshops, etc. I LIKE helping writers…lots of them have helped me.

I mentioned on a panel at Origins that it was okay to ask a writer if they had time to read stuff from an aspiring writer. I stand by that advice. I also declined when someone in the audience asked me to do so, because my schedule does not currently permit it, but I encouraged them to keep asking. Six months from now? Who knows. And someone else might have a schedule that fits earlier than I do. I know lots and lots of writers who have taken someone under their wing. Someone did that with me. I will likely do so myself. It just isn’t going to happen at the moment.

Let me be clear…the person who asked at Origins was NOT the person who showed up at my day job.

It’s okay to ask. It’s NOT okay to show up at their day job and want to talk about publishing. Period. (Please everyone, keep in mind, that most everyone out there has rules about discussing outside work on company time. If you get a writer disciplined from their day job, or even fired, they will not be happy to give you advice.)

 

Convention Season is Here!

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So…still have lots of plans hanging out in the air, but boy have I been busy!

I’m in the midst of edits on THE WONDERLAND WOES…due for release from Musa Publishing this year. This is book three of my series, that started with THE GRIMM LEGACY.

I’m also deep in the soggy middle (as every writer thinks of the middle of a manuscript) of a yet-to-be sold anywhere novel. More later…as I get the thing finished! I’ve been working on it off and on for a long time, but it keeps getting shunted aside as contracted deadlines always take precedence.

I’m working the full time job and the part time job.

And when not working…we are planning our garden for this year. The Boy and I have planted 144 plants in trays from seed, in order to try to grow a few vegetables and herbs and to save on the marigolds I buy every year (they help control the mosquitoes in the back yard, and when you have a goldfish pond, anything to cut down on the mosquitoes in the summer is a good thing!) The Boy is getting geared up for spring soccer, and we have been doing various home improvement project around the house. Husband is starting to itch to get his Model T out for the spring, but until the weather gets more consistent, it’s staying where its at.

But the biggest thing to explode is my schedule…and that’s not a bad thing! It’s time for conferences!

My first one of the year is Millenicon, which starts tomorrow.

My schedule is as follows;

Friday      9 pm   Fantasy vs. Dark Fantasy vs. Horror

Saturday 1 pm  Storytelling in Three Acts

Saturday  4 pm Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading

Sunday      12 noon Once Upon a Time in Millenicon

More appearances to come…as things get firmed up!

 

 

Updatery

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I’ve been very silent on this blog, because life reached up and grabbed me by the throat, and is still not quite letting go.

This year has been one for serious ups and downs.

I got married on May 11, 2013 to the most caring, loving, funny man I could ever find. I’m so thrilled to be married to him. This is us on our wedding day.

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Yes, we had a wonderful wedding, with vintage cars and all kinds of family. I’ve got gobs and gobs of awesome photos…but I tend not to post too many pictures of other people unless they know about it…and are okay with it. The Boy was the best man, my Sister was the matron of honor, and my Nephew was the ring bearer. It was a perfect day, and I’m thrilled for it!

On the other hand, some of you may have known that I was pregnant this year as well. I had a very difficult pregnancy, diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum (the same thing that Kate MIddleton had, by the way…which is so not glamorous…basically consists of vomiting twenty times a day, at least for me, and losing almost twenty percent of my body weight). It did not, however, have a good outcome. My daughter, Allison Jane, was stillborn in July. By the time I was home from the hospital, I had lost 40 pounds. That, in itself, is a long and complicated story, and one of these days, I will post it, but not today.

I’ve pretty much recovered from the whole thing…including gaining back weight, you know, from eating actual food again without getting sick. We are doing well, and life has continued. We are actually even stronger as a family, as a couple, and as people…and for those of you who know me well, and know my husband, and the two of us together…know we were pretty darn strong anyway, but it is nice to know that in adversity, we turned to each other instead of away from each other.

I very much appreciate all the kind wishes and thoughts and prayers we’ve received in the meantime.

As for the writing…

I’m working on THE WONDERLAND WOES…book three of THE GRIMM LEGACY series.

I’m working on my conference schedule for next year…more to come as that firms up.

I’m also working off and on on two other novel projects…that are still really in the early early stages of messiness…one of which is about 1/3 of the way done…the other much less so, but still in the very distracting LOOK AT ME stage of cool ideas. You know…the kind that distract from what you really SHOULD be working on…

Anyway, I’m working on catching up on a whole lot of things that fell by the wayside while I was sick. I’m still behind on a lot, but I’m digging out. It helps that I’ve had some awesome friends and family who have helped out huge.

We have lots of plans and lots of things in the mix. We’ve got holidays and house projects, deadlines and other things to keep us busy for a good long time. We’ve talked with our pastor, with a counselor, and with each other until late in the night. We’re okay.

On Being and Attorney and an Author…

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Because it’s come up a time or two, I thought I’d take the time to lay all this out for anyone who might want the clarification.

1)      You work for the government. Does that mean that you don’t take on any private legal work?

NO. I do take on some private legal work. I am selective about what I take on, because I do have a full time day job, and a part time evening job (the writing) and a family. If I were to take on a matter that involved a lot of court appearances during times I was supposed to be at my desk, or took on something that conflicted with my day job, that might cause an issue. There’s also the time issue. My supervisor knows I take on some private stuff. She is not privy to ANYTHING that would violate the attorney/client privilege. At this point, however, I have advised her (and she’s okay with the idea) that I can/will take on the following types of work…

  • Simple Estates (non-trust)
  • Living Wills
  • Health Care Powers of Attorney
  • Business advice from a legal perspective
  • Paperwork/Document/Contract review
  • Foreclosure Defense
  • Debt Recovery

I generally do not take on anything involving domestic relations work privately, since it could impact/conflict with my day job responsibilities. There are some exceptions, but not many. I am willing to consider other matters, but would likely refer you to a colleague if it involved something I did not feel comfortable doing. And if you ask me for a referral when I’m working the day job, I will only give you the name and number of our current county bar association president, because I cannot give recommendations when I’m representing a public agency.

2)      I’m in another state, but you’re an author and an attorney. Can you review my publishing contract?

My knee jerk response here is no.

I’m not a literary agent. I’m an attorney, licensed solely in the State of Ohio. I’m not licensed in any other state. There are only a few publishers who are a) based in Ohio, or b) contractually state that their contracts are subject to Ohio law. Not just one, but TWO of those are my own publishers. Talk about conflict.

If you ask me as an author whether I have a problem with a specific clause in a contract, I’d probably give you my take on it. But, it’s not legal advice, you’re not my client, and I’m definitely not representing you against a publisher who I might have a fiduciary (that means financial) relationship with. No-sir-ee Bob. Not gonna happen.

Guess what? Author me knows more about publishing contracts than lawyer me. Most literary agents probably know them better than general practice lawyers.

3)      You’ve spoken about legal things on panels at conferences. Does that mean you’re giving legal advice?

Nope. Not even close. And in fact, if you’ve been to those panels, you’ve also heard me (and other panelists in the same boat of attorney and author) give the disclaimer that I/we don’t represent anyone sitting in to listen to the panel, that there is no attorney/client relationship, and/or that you should read/vet/clarify/research any of the issues we discuss on your own. We generally talk about boring stuff, like contracts and clauses and rights and reversion and stuff. It’s not legal advice. It’s about general information. Anyone getting into this crazy business of writing NEEDS to learn how to read a contract for themselves, period, at minimum so that they know the right questions to ask before signing on the dotted line. And those panels talk about generalities, not the application of a specific contract to a specific project, so they’re not designed to be one-size-fits-all approach to the specific needs of individual writers…only to hit the highlights of what to be wary of.

4)      What if I pay you?

Dude, if you hire me for legal services, I will charge you. Only a small handful of people that are my parents, grandmother, future in-laws, or siblings get free or family rate legal services from me. There may be a time or two that I agree to do some pro bono (that means free) legal work for something outside the family, but that generally involves my church, or some charity, or specific negotiation and a darn good reason. 

I have done some legal work on a barter system. That does not mean I’m going to do a ton of it. Generally it’s for people with a specific problem, who also have a skill I either don’t have, or don’t have the time to figure out. This isn’t something that I do a lot of.

5)      So, why don’t you list the names of lawyers you’d recommend on your website?

Um, no. First of all, there’s not an attorney in my county that I would feel bad about recommending. They all do a good job. But I’m not running an advertising service. I’m running a writing blog and website. Second, the day job is for a public entity. I’m not allowed to make recommendations as a government lawyer. It’s different if a) you’re my sister/real life friend/brother/future sibling-in-law/future parents-in-law/neighbor/Mom/Grandma/aunt/uncle/cousin and b) want a recommendation for a specific matter. Then I can safely say that you should call Mr. X or Ms. Y, because they’re awesome at ABC, and I don’t know that area of the law, or I can’t handle that kind of case.

This website is also NOT the place to contact me about private legal work. Best place is probably addiejking AT gmail DOT com (spelled out to avoid spammers), but understand that my time is limited, I’m under editing deadlines at the moment, I have other clients, and I have an upcoming wedding. I’m very likely to tell you at the moment that I’m as busy as I can stand right now, and that you should seek other counsel or give me a couple of months to dig out before asking again.

 

MARCon

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This weekend will be my second MARCon. I had a ball last year, and am totally looking forward to seeing what kind of craziness goes on this year.

The first panels start at 4 pm on Friday, and run through Sunday afternoon. For the cost, you can’t get a better deal for an entire weekend of coolness and geekery. The only drawback is that it’s also Easter weekend, which means, of course, that there are also family gatherings and traditions to consider, but this conference is in Columbus, Ohio, which is practically in my own backyard, so I can pull off both. YAY!!

My conference schedule is as follows…

Friday

4 pm                      Union C                                                Twilight’s Relationships: Tender or Toxic?

7 pm                      Union B                                                Once Upon a Time: Evil Isn’t Born, It’s Made

11:30 pm              Union C                                                (moderating) Violence in Urban Fantasy

 

Saturday

10 am                    Taft A-B                                                Reading from “The Grimm Legacy”

2:30 pm                Regency Ballroom                         Autograph Session

5:30 pm                Union B                                                The Grimmest Kind of Love

7 pm                      Union C                                                (moderating) Superheroes: Prose only, Please

 

I will not be at the conference on Sunday due to Easter and family gatherings.

This is also a conference where I’m not staying at the hotel. I’m driving back and forth to the conference, because 1) it’s cheaper. One tank of gas to get back and forth for two days is cheaper than getting a hotel room, 2) I miss my guys when I’m gone (i.e., BF and The Boy) and 3) it’s also easier to make sure we’ve got everything ready for Easter when I do it this way.

Yeah, I’m a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to getting the biggest bang for my buck. I’ve blogged before about going to conferences without needing to file bankruptcy, and here I go again. The conference has already said it is serving breakfast in the consuite for con goers. The hotel is offering food and beverage discounts to con goers who show their badges. It pays to pay attention at conferences…you just never know what kinds of things might be available to you. I’m not saying not to have fun…I’m saying that you just never know what you might be able to get yourself into…if you don’t go with some kind of plan.

If you’re in Columbus this weekend, stop on by, get your geek on, and say hello!

 

WHEW!

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Life is what happens when you’re looking the wrong way…or something like that.

Well, last week was INSANE.

I was obsessing over the last details of THE ANDERSEN ANCESTRY last week (yup, hit my deadline. Yay me!), when everything else seemed to be exploding at the same time.

Last Wednesday, the day before the book was due, I thought I was doing pretty darn good. I’d gotten up that morning and everyone in my household was getting things together and out the door early. That doesn’t always happen. The one snag was getting after The Boy for putting his shoes up on the couch as I was reaching for my own shoes…

Only to find, when I got to the office, that I was wearing two different shoes. Both black, both platform heels of the same height…but one was a Mary Jane style shoe and one was a penny loafer style shoe. What still amazes me is that I’d grabbed a right shoe and a left shoe and put them on, walked to the car, drove to the office, and then got halfway to the office door before I realized I’d done it. Oops.

Thursday morning, BF said he wasn’t feeling well. I’d mentioned that I had a hearing that morning, and was running around like mad (and of course, checking my shoes) to make sure I had time to go to the office first. As we all ran out the door, we found that I had a flat tire. And I’m not talking about a low tire…I’m talking flat-as-a-pancake. Turned out I’d somehow picked up a roofing nail in my tire, without realizing it. BF had me hop in his car, and he dropped me at the office after he dropped The Boy at school. He asked for my key, and I gave it to him.

What I didn’t think about was that my door handle was not working correctly, so the key wouldn’t work. I hadn’t given him the keyfob thingy, so he couldn’t get in the car. Instead, he couldn’t even get inside the car to drive it to the tire place with the spare on because he couldn’t get inside the car. Before I knew it, he’d dropped the key at my office…but I had no idea where my car was. He headed on to work, and ended up busy, so I couldn’t get an answer about where to find my car…I was even calling the tire place asking if they knew where my car was. (It was still at home, since he couldn’t move the car itself he took the tire off, took it to the store, had them patch it, came back, and put it back on the car.)

Friday, I realized about halfway through the day that I’d left my wallet at home. Of course that was the day that I’d planned to do the after work grocery run.

And then, just Tuesday morning, we got skunked.

I’m not kidding.

A skunk sprayed the side of the house right behind the kitchen windows, near the sunroom (which BF corrects me, and he’s right…it’s now really the Man Cave). We don’t know why. We don’t know what for. We do know, however, that it must have been REALLY upset. I have a theory that one of the neighborhood cats might have ticked it off right beside our house, but I don’t know that for sure (I just know that I’m constantly chasing cats out my backyard).

Two days later, I’ve got bowls of white vinegar all over the house. I’ve got a couple of small plates of coffee grounds sitting out as well to soak up odors. We have a trap set beside the house to catch the skunk, and I’m planning to scrub the house from top to bottom when it’s caught and gone. We’ve changed the furnace filters, and we’ve Febreeze-d the house within an inch of its life. Elizabeth the fuzzy minion has been CLINGY beyond belief, because, of course, she’s stuck here all day smelling it while we get out and go to work.

I’m so paranoid about smelling like skunk that I’m Lysol-ing and Febreeze-ing myself on a regular basis. I think its just stuck in my nose and I can’t get it out.

So…if you were to walk by my desk at work and smell lavender, it’s the air freshener and odor neutralizer I’m keeping on my desk, and I’m using enough of it to neutralize just about the worst smells you could imagine.

On the other hand…it is getting somewhat better.

So who’s got a good de-skunking idea? Remember…I don’t want to use tomato juice because it stains, and because the skunk didn’t actually spray the inside of the house. It’s just the odor to get rid of inside the house.

Any suggestions?

Quick Updatery

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Life is a whirlwind at the moment. Between keeping up with work stuff, keeping up with The Boy’s soccer games, and the recent round of upper respiratory crud (doctor informed me Friday that I wasn’t quite at bronchitis yet, but definitely heading in that direction), and working diligently toward hitting my deadline on THE ANDERSEN ANCESTRY, life’s been a bit goofy/crazy/all over the place.

BF and I have both had the sinus/upper respiratory crud, which meant that we had a fairly quiet Valentine’s Day, but a good day, nonetheless. We celebrated by exchanging small gifts (a necklace with a frog on it from him; a box of Marie’s Candies from me) and then dinner at the local restaurant where we had our first date. And then, home, to take more cold medicine and crash. Yeah, we are an exciting couple!

I do have a few appearances coming up. Here’s the first one…

March 5, 2013 I will be one of the local authors at the Hollenbeck Bayley Creative Arts and Conference Center in Springfield, Ohio from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Click here to see details. It’s open to the public, but they do want to know how many to expect, so RSVP on the site.

I am hoping to make several appearances at different conferences, etc. this year, and probably going to be at even more than normal, but still firming up details on all of them, so I don’t want to post until we’ve got some finality. More to come.

More to be announced as details firm up…

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

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And now for The Next Big Thing!

This blog hop includes ten questions to help you learn more about an author’s current work in progress, so here’s a little info about my current project:
1: What is the working title of your book?

THE ANDERSEN ANCESTRY…the sequel to my novel, THE GRIMM LEGACY, which came out in ebook last year from Musa Publishing.

2: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Janie Grimm has survived being targeted for her ancestors (the Grimm Brothers) actions, only to have the faerie courts request her help in locating and protecting a relative of Hans Christian Andersen from the Seawitch, while trying to start a summer internship and keep a part time job.

3: Where did the idea come from for the book?

The better question is where the idea for both books came from…I’d watched a movie about the Grimm Brothers (the one with Heath Ledger) and thought about how I’d tell a different kind of story. As I’ve done more and more research on fairy tales and folklore, more and more ideas come to mind!

4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

This isn’t easy at all! Janie and her friends are in their early twenties…and anyone who would be good for them now wouldn’t necessarily be young enough down the road! I do think that the voice of Bert the frog could easily be Alan Tudyk (Wash from Firefly…I’m a big fan), but Woody Harrelson could also be interesting. Janie could be Jennifer Lawrence, from the Hunger Games. Mia…well, that could be Amanda Seyfried, from Mamma Mia. Aiden, on the other hand, is the difficult pick. I don’t know that I have anyone in mind for him.

5: What genre does your book fall under?

Definitely fantasy; it could also be labeled as contemporary fantasy.

6: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I’m still writing it! Have been working on it for the last year, but the pieces are quickly falling into place on it, and I should be done with all of it, and the editing (at least the stuff I do before I turn it in to the editor) in mid to late February.

7: Who or What inspired you to write this book?

I like the idea of what if. What if you were suddenly faced with something totally unbelievable at a time when you’re already stressed out over what’s going on in your life? The most stressful time I could think of was starting law school (I graduated from the same law school where THE GRIMM LEGACY was set). I remembered my parents reading me fairy tales when I was a kid, and actually going back and seeking them out to read them myself when I was old enough to read on my own. Smash the two ideas together, and I got started on the ideas in the first book. The one I’m working on now is the sequel.

8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Yikes. I’ve described these books as The Paper Chase meets fairy tales, but that’s more about the first book than the second. The second book, the one I’m working on now, talks about the characters in their first summer internship. I’d like to think it’s a good mash up of the tone in Janet Evanovich’s books with the fun humorous fantasy in Christopher Moore’s books.

9: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Oh, that’s easy! Englebert Maximus Jorganson Horace the Sixth. Also known as Bert, a former prince who was turned into a frog by a witch, and serves as Janie’s friend, advisor, and comic relief in both books. Bert’s soooooo much fun to write. Who ever thought that a frog prince would like NASCAR and imported beer, and have a snappy comeback for just about everything?

10. Where can we find you? How do we follow when your book is coming out?

My website is, of course, right here…and I’m on Facebook and Twitter, and I have an Amazon author page and a Goodreads author page.

You can find links to all those sites here.

There are a handful of authors I would love to introduce you to (or you may already know them!)

They will be next week’s blog hoppers starting on the 31st.

In no particular order, may I present:

Terry W. Ervin, II is a writer from my own neck of the woods, as he and I both live in Champaign County, Ohio. We met last year at an art event in Urbana, where local authors were promoting their work, and had a great time talking books and conferences and all kinds of stuff. Terry’s got some interesting projects available from Gryphonwood Press, and has published numerous articles and short stories. There’s a whole list of his stuff on his website, which is at www.ervin-author.com, and he runs a blog connected to that website.

I hadn’t realized that Chris Garrison had already posted in this blog hop…and I’m excited to see that his projects have recently gotten picked up by Hydra Publications and Seventh Star Press…so I’m linking back to his post talking about the same kind of stuff here…follow his website at www.ericgarrison.wordpress.com Christ and I got to serve on some panels together last year at Context in Columbus, Ohio, and we had a great time! I’m looking forward both to getting his stuff and to hopefully seeing him at conferences in the next year!

There’s also my friend, Dana Brantley-Sieders. We met at Killer Nashville last year, and got a chance to swap projects and hang out for a bit, and she’s represented by the fabulous Natalia Aponte at the Aponte Literary Agency. Dana’s a ton of fun to hang out with, and her writing’s a ton of fun, too! She’s got a romance novella coming out in 2013 from Lyrical Press, and she’s got some other fun stuff on the way…You can find her website at www.dbsieders.wordpress.com

I’ve said before that going to conferences and meeting and networking with other writers pays off…so here’s a shout out to Anne Marie Lutz at www.annemariesblog.wordpress.com I met her at Context last year, and she’s the one who tagged me in this blog hop. Her stuff sounds pretty awesome as well, so stop by and check her out!

 

 

Lotsa stuff…Not much to talk about

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There’s a lot going on over here at Chez King…

Wedding crafts are all over the place, but slowly getting completed and put back into storage.

Wordcount is slowly but surely growing on THE ANDERSEN ANCESTRY. Silent giggling is going on as I’m adding new wrinkles to the outline I already had. It’s part of the process for me…I need to have some kind of plan, but sooner or later, somewhere, somehow, I’m going to go off outline. Generally that’s a good thing. Some of the best scenes I’ve written have been off-outline, brain sparks of inspiration that just flowed. And scenes with Bert the frog tend to come out that way. However, this time, it isn’t. And that’s all I’m going to say about that. 😉

The Boy has started indoor soccer tonight, so I got writing time while BF took him to the game, and I had a cousin stop by with her daughter, who was selling Girl Scout cookies. I’ve somehow managed to resist the people selling them at work, but I couldn’t say no to her. I think I showed restraint by stopping at two boxes. Hey, I do have a wedding dress to fit into, after all!

The Fuzzy Menace is being clingy and needy these days, and has been trying new and interesting ways of attempting to fit onto my lap while I write. I swear she’s going to end up on top of the keyboard sooner or later, but it’s incredibly cute and all kinds of distracting. I am learning, however, that no matter how much lap I might have, a netbook and a fourteen pound cat is too much for my lap to hold all at once, although Elizabeth the fuzzy menace keeps trying to find a way to make it work. Right now, she’s lying across my right leg, while I have the netbook balanced on my left, and she’s leaning up against the back of my right hand, purring as loud as a diesel engine.

I’m still working on putting together a schedule of appearances, etc., for 2013, and will post them soon. There will be some online stuff coming up as well.

Needless to say, life is a lot insane lately, and not a lot of news to report, so suffice it to say that the new book is coming along, and I’ll post as I get more information that I can share.