Creepy Crawly Wednesdays...

...so I get to start a new book this week.

HOORAY! It's been awhile since I've had a shiny new prospect and since SuperAgent has also written off on this idea already, it's like it is extra-super special!

The unspecial bit?

I have to have a snake in this book. One of my kids in this book has a snake. A King snake.

Let me let you in on a little sekrit about your dear old me:

I detest snakes.

Abhor them.

Distrust them.

Do Not Like Them.

They are icky.

And yet, and YET - when the muse said snake (after I finished saying WTF!) I said 'okay, I can do this.'

So sometime in the next couple weeks I'm gonna track down a snake and touch it.

(GROSS!!!!!)

I've already been reading about them and it is confirmed:Me No Likey snakes.

I can tell you why.

>>

- I almost stepped on a rattler when I was a kid.

- I have been chased by a water moc.

- I've run them over on the road when they have tried to attack my car.

- One got in my house once. I like to have had a heart attack.

- They like to eat chicken eggs. Sometimes, when I was little and gathering chicken eggs, I would come across one. The results were not pretty.

Snakes are few and far between in Germany. A fact that I love about Germany.

Ugh. I just hate snakes.

Do you?

Happy Midsommar!

I got this link from a buddy of mine who is Swedish.

It was banned in Sweden...but she swears up and down 'midsommar' (which is today, and tomorrow) is much like this.

All I have to say is...I wanna go too.

ROFL!

ADDENDUM: Turns out the German IKEA ad people made this (and was subsequently banned as it was making fun of the traditions of midsummer up north...all I have to say is...seeing some of the German traditions...pot calling kettle black much?)

Bacon bits.

I bet you're wondering why I named my post that.

Well, it's better than:

"bits and pieces"
"hundreds and thousands"
"this and that"

and besides, I have a cat and I don't put bacon on him. (If you don't know this internet reference, I would ask you respectfully to visit this page. It will answer all your questions about cats and bacon. The bacon is, by the way, uncooked.)

So what have I been doing? Little things. Let me list them for you.

Because I'm a lister.

Not a plotter. A lister.

Not to be confused with a pantser.

Which I am.

Also not a Dr Pepper obsessed human being.

Because I am that too.

ANYWAY.

SO here's what I've been doing!

1. Waiting. On EVERYTHING. (argh!)

2. Teaching Loki the Time Warp song. She lubs it.

3. Eating Banana Bread.

4. Yum.

5. Working on marketing materials for POSSUM SUMMER. It has been confirmed: I make a mean bookplate.

6. Working on my NEW SEKRIT website: to be unveiled on 1 . 1 . 2011. The only way that would be a cooler date is if it was 1 . 1 . 1111.

But it's not.

So I deal.

7. OH OH OH! I was also working on two pitches for mah SUPERAGENT and ... I got them done.

8. And last but not least, I am learning Swedish.

Why?

a) Sweden is my dream living place.

I might have talked about this before.

b) It's very sing-songy, the language is. Most everyone I speak to think I'm from Holland (when I say everyone, I mean Germans) and so I thought I'll work on my sing-songy accent and live vicariously.

Yes, I have no life.

Oh, and I have the cats and baby Loki and husband-man and the house and stuff.

But all that's just extra. :0D

You? whatcha been doing?

do your genre hopping now!

Hey guys.

I'm extolling you today to do the unthinkable:

Do your genre hopping now.

Once you get that agent, and you get that deal, it's a good chance you'll be expected to have similar books in your repertoire (hopefully finished and ready to be given up to a new home). The idea that you've written lots of different types of things is irrelevant when you've got that first contract.

It's all about getting those tremendously important people, the ones that mean more than anything else, anything: fans.

I mean sure. JK Rowling and fantasy go hand in hand. But if she whipped out a contemporary novel now, her fans would buy it simply because it was JK's.

If she would have tried to whip it out right after the launch of her first book? Maybe, maybe not.

From what I've been seeing on the internet and boards (searching this very thing) it is VERY important to have your genre down before you get that pub. Make sure you want to continue writing in that vein for awhile before you get stuck there!

Have you found your niche, yet? I'd love to know what it is!

LOLPOSSUM Freiday

My first guest post ever...

... is over here.

Won't you please go and show me some love?

*shameless plea*

A tip - with love, me.

This is something I've been struggling with the last few days.

Control issues.

I think you guys probably have them too - trying to control all the things about your writing that you simply cannot control. Getting an Agent. Going on Sub. Finding a publisher.

If you are like I was, everyday a small new baby grey hair would ping into existence on your scalp...proof of the horrible things you were doing to your body. Stress kills, you know. And I'm pretty convinced that writers stress more than ANYONE ELSE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD.

I don't even like myself right now. Because I'm doing it. I'm trying to control things that can't be controlled.

And until I get myself back under control (i.e., only worrying about things I *CAN* control) I'm hurting myself and my chances for the future. So this is JKB, asking you:

do you have control issues?

If so, do you want to sit by me? We can share some chocolate.