The week in pictures

There's been entirely too much talk about writing up round this here blog lately. I mean, I do have a family, too. So I thought I'd catch up on a few pictures. Last week was the twin's last dance class for the session - here they are with their instructor in the top picture (note the hottie with the camera in the mirror behind them). I have some video, too, but that will take some time to distill. Also last week, Hailie had her last football game for the season. Buc's won 48-0, thanks to the inspiration and pep-infusion of their wonderful cheerleading squad; because it's all about school spirit, no?

This past weekend was a busy one. Friday was the twin's Halloween/costume/birthday party. Twenty kids in disguises running wild throughout the house and yard, using groin shots and guerilla tactics to take down the teenagers. Add cake, ice cream, and several big bowls of candy, and it's sheer chaos. An interesting side note: Chantze got to meet Hailie's boyfriend Don for the first time. As little brothers are well-known to do, Chantze has been tormenting Hailie about her boyfriend for months: calling Don a hobo, saying he was in prison, offering Hailie quarters in order to call him. So when the two young men finally met face-to-face, I held Chantze by the arms and offered Don one free punch, which he declined. Don's a nice boy.

(I've gotta stop using the video camera for stills)

One final update: kind of a convergence between my writing and family life. My wonderful sister and mother had a congratulations get-together for me on Sunday. It was a very pleasant evening of catching up over tacos and coffee: two of my top three favortie ingestible substances (the third being Guinness). They even had a cake, gifts, and a big cardboard facsimile of the book cover for Fiersom's Brood (my working book-cover, not the actual published book cover which remains shrouded in the mists of the future). Thanks for everything, guys. It was very special, it meant a lot to me, and I'll surely remember it for the duration of my writing career.

A party

We celebrated with about twenty of our closest friends.

Click here for the whole album.

(thank-you, Amanda, for the pictures)

Whuzzup?

I know what you're thinking. "Oh sure, now that he's an AGENTED author, he's too good to pal around with all his old blog friends."

That's not it.

There's just nothing going on.

Nothing blog-worthy anyway. I've been 'planning' my revisions (cuz he asked me to 'think' them over), and it's a little more time-consuming than I thought it would be. Sure, I had it had it all worked out the first day - on paper even - but I want to go that extra mile. I want to impress him with my writerly diligence, my soldierly discipline, my generalized good-doobie-ing. So I've been making a detailed list of every scene in the book, labeling them with whatever purpose they supposedly serve - how they contribute to the greater whole. Since I'm such a big outlining nerd, each and every scene had a point before I ever wrote it, so I was having trouble finding any that were overtly 'unnecessary'. But what I am finding are lots of instances where I've accomplished the same thing multiple times over. So-and-so is a very aggressive character. But I don't need twelve scenes showing him beating on folks. Two's plenty.

Very enlightening technique. Y'all oughtter try it.

So I'm hoping that when I talk to my agent this week, I'll have 'my thoughts on revisions' detailed in writing (to a very nerdly degree of thorough-ness). And since his major concern was that I'd left too many mysteries unsolved, I'm also hoping to have a good draft of each of the four "revelatory plot development" scenes that need to be added.

So that's what I've been doing.

In other news, we had a big celebration last weekend. Maybe I'll have some pictures to post later this week. Secondly, I'd like to remind all the locals that the twin's big birthday/Halloween party is this Friday at 5 pm (happy eighth, girlie-girls). Thirdly, I'd like to very crypticly mention that it's been confirmed: the Veenie Babies officially have one less mouth to feed. If you know what I'm talking about, please don't blurt it out in the comments.

I wouldn't want law enforcement officials discovering the extent of my criminal negligence.

Guess what?

I had an agent offer to represent me today.

I'm reluctant to use his name, considering the gory rebuke I had at Writersnet, but I will say that he's widely considered to be one of the top agents in New York, with hundreds upon hundreds of commercial fiction sales.

We spoke on the phone for about twenty-five minutes - almost exclusively about Fiersom's Brood - and he confirmed my fears that I was withholding too much of my backstory. Silly me. I thought it was okay to explain everything in the sequel. Anyway, he's friendly, knowledgeable, direct, and quite enthusiastic. And he appears to move quickly. I already have a contract in my email.

So yeah. I'm pretty excited. He was exactly the fifth agent I queried, on my second day of querying - barely a week ago.

I'm gonna go process this.

Cindy

I just want everyone to know how awesome my wife is. No, I'm not trying to 'make up' for being in trouble, or anything like that. I've just been struck lately by what a great woman I have, and there is simply a shortage of ways in which to express that. Thus the blog post.

I've been working second shift now for well over a year (so I can work on my writing during the day), and in that time, she has functionally become a single parent. She works all day, then comes home, makes dinner, cleans, makes the kids do homework and chores, makes sure they get baths, takes them to their swimming and dance lessons, plods through vast amounts of laundry, manages the budget and finances, and does most of the shopping. Then she does it all again the following day. No rest. No breaks. No complaining.

And in the midst of it all, she encourages me.

She believes that what I do during the day is an investment in our future. She believes that I'll get my books published, and eventually earn enough for us to stay home together. She believes that I'm a great writer, a great father, and a great husband, and she tells me almost every day. And on top of all of everything else - she's hot as hell.

At this point, I only have one chance at rescuing her. My only hope of easing her burden, eliminating the constant, overwhelming effort that fills her days . . .

. . . is to get published.

(I love you, Cindy. I want to make your dreams come true.)

family and writing and whatnot - in that order.

Hailie here had her first high-school homecoming last Friday. Ain't she purty? I'm proud as all heck of this kid, because she has crafted for herself an outstanding high-school experience. Her grades are good, she's in choir, creative writing and cheerleading, her friends all seem to have their heads screwed on straight (with one exception), and the love of her life is about as gentle and non-threatening as a high-school boy could be. That last one goes a long way to easing my nuerosis and despair.



Click here to see her myspace. She has pictures of cheerleading, pictures of the famous Mr. Don, and more of her homecoming. I also like the way she describes herself.

Fiersom's Brood update: I think my wordcount is killing me -- 115,000 . Now I'm not one of those people who're scared to cut; I believe in it with all my heart. But I'm not finding anything to take out of this book. Seriously. There's no wasteful writing, no unneccesary scenes or chapters, and no more 'needless words and phrases' (Strunk & White). I've edited it over and over, and believe it or not, it keeps getting longer. That's thanks to my beta readers. They kept wanting more clarification and explanation for the freaky plot twists. Bottom line: it's just a long story. I could deflate some scenes, do more telling and less showing, but I don't think it would net me any more than 5000 words. Still too long. Anybody else have this problem? What did you do? How long are your MS's and WIP's?

So. It might be a black mark, but there are lots of exceptions to the word count rule. Hopefully some intuitive agent will take a chance. Because guess what? I've started querying. That's right.

BOMBS AWAY!