Special Thanks

My last couple of weeks have left me feeling like this:

To say life has been a little frazzling is an understatement. But...I have the best friends in the world. My real life friends, my hockey friends, and my writer friends have been absolutely amazing, and I want to take this time today and say:

Hodge Podge

Thanks for all the suggestions and encouragement for my agent search.  I really appreciate it!

I think I have my query where it needs to be, and am working on a Synopsis (not as difficult as I thought it would be!)-- I hope to share more on this with you later this week or early next week.  And my agent to query list is growing.

We've been having thunderstorms roll through at night, and the ones two nights ago reminded me of my childhood, where the thunder echoed around the valley.  The lightning was bright and vivid, lighting up the sky with quick flashes.  Last night, as another storm rolled in, I started thinking this was the perfect thing I needed for a WIP I am outlining in my thoughts (before putting it on paper).

So, today I ask--what weather have you seen that you've said, "Oh, that would be perfect for here!"?

200

In honor of my 200th post, I would like to list the 200 things I've learned from my writing experiences.

Just kidding!  I do thank all of you for stopping by, reading, commenting, and encouraging me as I make my way through the process of writing, revising, and querying.  The writing community on line is a wonderful place to find encouragement at the time you need it most.  So, thank you to all of you for being there!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and Happy Easter!!!

Short, sweet, and to the point

I'm giving a big shout out to Tammy from TC McKee to say THANKS for the wonderful words on her post Friday.  If you've never read her blog, check it out-- she always seems to put a smile on my face.

Friday, while waiting to hear back from my CP's, I decided to start working on my query.  I forgot how difficult these things are to write.  Wanting to use just the right words in just the right way to get your story across without telling too much or making the person reading it go "What???"

It's getting it to be short, sweet, and to the point that was evading me.  By Saturday morning I had thirteen versions, and while each was an improvement over the previous version, something was still missing.  I decided to let it rest (send it to a trusted friend to look over and comment on) and come back to it later.  That was the best thing I could have done.  That second (and third) set of eyes helped me find what was missing, and clarify those murky spots.

Have you written your query yet?  Did you find any secrets you care to share that made writing it easier?  I know Elana Johnson has a great book on it here that was very helpful for me.  What resources have you found?