Author: Cindy

I'm irritated because my posts won't publish.

Saying No

Some of you might remember that a few weeks ago I received an offer from an epublisher to re-issue my romantic comedy short story, Deceiving Derek. After an interesting discussion and much thought, I decided not to accept the offer. I let the acquiring editor know late last week, and she was very gracious about keeping the door open for future submissions.

The publisher in question has a good reputation, but, in the simplest terms, the timing wasn’t right. For me. Yes, Deceiving Derek is “only” a short story, and, yes, it’s been published before, so this would have been a re-issue and why not just get the story out there again? Because. It’s not enough to just put the story out there again, how and when it goes out has to work for me. Unfortunately, because of other opportunities that may or may not pan out, the “work for me” and the “timing not right” issues outweighed the thrill of the contract offer. Because it’s always a thrill when an editor and house wants to publish your work, but, in this case, the thrill alone wasn’t enough.

How about you? Having you ever said no to a contract? Am I insane?

Can You Top Me?

A few weeks ago I told Avery Beck that her 92 words per minute intimidated me too much to try beating her on this Internet typing speed test. Well, guess what? I did the test this morning, and I’m 3 words faster per minute than Avery! Nah-nah-a-boo-boo! Apparently, I type 598 characters per minute. I typed 95 correct words and 14 wrong words. What I don’t know is if the program eliminates the wrong words from the total words per minute of your determined speed. Is it just a coincidence that I typed 95 correct words and have a typing speed of 95 words per minute?

What I do know: No way could I type 95 words per minute for very long. The keyboard sounded like a rabid woodpecker. And, oh, if the entire graphic isn’t showing below, I have no idea why. On my end, the “95 words” is cut in half…almost as if the program doesn’t believe me. Sob.

So, who’s up to the challenge? Can you top me?

95 words

To Mug or Not to Mug

I spent all of Sunday designing business cards for conference. I had to design three cards, because I write under two names. How does she arrive at that math, you ask? I needed:

  1. One card showing my pen name only, which I can tuck into copies of the book Penny is signing at the Literacy Autographing. I put the covers of Penny’s first two releases on this card. Okay, so the second release doesn’t come out until the end of the year, but the title, cover, yada, are there to hopefully garner reader interest (note the adverb).
  2. Another card showing my real name only. This card is to exchange with other writers, which, to be honest, I don’t do a heckuva lot, because it’s the Internet Age after all and I can Google with the best of them. But if someone asks for your card, you don’t want to be caught card-less, so I put the cover for Borrowing Alex on this card to guilt my writing friends new and old into buying a copy if they haven’t already.
  3. The last card shows both my pen name and my real name. This is the card I’ll use for my editor and agent appointments, if the e/a’s want them (I always ask, because, frankly, a lot of editors and agents toss out the cards as soon as they get back to their rooms—what, you thought they had ginormous Rolodexes and backs of steel?). However, as per #2, if the editor or agent WANTS to see your card, you’d better have one.

This is where the mugging comes in. Last year on the ’07 Golden Heart Finalists loop, there was discussion as to whether or not it’s adviseable to put your headshot on your business card. I thought, what a great idea—an easy way to help the ed/agent remember to put a name to a face (that is, if they keep the cards, which they in all likelihood won’t, but let’s continue to pretend they will/do/might). However, then I started asking around on other loops, and the general consensus seemed to be that it’s tacky. Like you’re advertising yourself as a real estate agent or something. Well. I left my mugshot off my card, but when I got to National and saw biz cards with mugshots, I didn’t find them tacky at all. I liked them. And I found them useful for putting faces to names when I developed my conference pictures.

So, this year I’m being tacky or clever (pick your poison). My photo didn’t go on the cards I’ll hand out to readers and other writers, but it dang sure went on the card for editors and agents. If that makes me tacky, I can live with it. God knows I’ve been called worse (like weird).

My Cat Gave Birth…

All over my conference clothes. Eek!

Actually, she didn’t. She can’t give birth, because she’s not pregnant. She can’t get pregnant, because she’s fixed. But here I am, doing last minute conference preparation and shopping, a task that quite frankly bores me out of my mind. I am so not a shopper. I know it goes against the Estrogen Pledge, but there you have it. However, I can’t show up at the RWA National Conference next week naked, so shop and prepare I must.

So I’m going through old conference clothes searching vainly for Stuff That Fits, and it makes perfect sense to pile all the Good To Go conference clothes on my bedroom floor beside my nightstand—a constant reminder that it’s not enough to prepare the stuff for conference, I must also pack it. Except, the cat normally sleeps under the side table near the nightstand, and she leaves quite a mess of hair on her blankets, too. Wonder if she decides to start sleeping on my Pile? Wonder if she coughs up a hairball on my Pile? Wonder if she decides it’s a litter box? What if, if she were pregnant, she decided it would be a marvy-lous spot to give birth?

This is why a writer should never be kept from her WIPs. I don’t know about you, but one day without writing whilst doing something braindead like organizing packing lists is enough to send my muse around the bend.

Agh, I still have business cards to create, pitches to perfect. Why did I leave everything until the last week? Why did I ever think I would thrive on the last minute panic?

Do you love prepping for conferences? Or, like me, does it drive you around the bend?

Nice Review for BORROWING ALEX

Received a new review for Borrowing Alex the other day. Joyfully Reviewed says:

I really enjoyed Borrowing Alex, it was smart and funny without being overdone. The characters do some pretty funny things in the name of love. I am definitely looking forward to reading the next book I find by Cindy Procter-King.

Pretty nifty, huh? Click here to read the full review. Note, the slimeball character referred to in the review is named Royce, not Roy. Royce, in my mind, is the high society equivalent of Roy, so in the end, it’s all the same. He’s a turd.

(I apologize in advance to all the real Roys and Royces out there. The naming of my characters has nothing to do with you, but, rather, has everything to do with how my brain “sees” certain combinations of letters and decides whether those combinations = hero or jerk material for fictional purposes only. My dad’s cousin is a Roy, and he’s very nice!)

New Industry Blog

Novelists, Inc. has started a new blog. As a member of NINC, I’m posting the new blog to my blogroll.

I haven’t yet decided if I’ll participate in the NINC blog. For one thing, I have this blog to maintain, and, for another, the 2007 Golden Heart finalists are in the planning stages of developing a group blog, and I’m not only a scheduler but have signed up for the management team. Yes, I’m crazy. Right now we’re batting around design ideas. If that’s not enough blogging around, a few months ago I was approached about doing a group author blog with 5 or 6 other authors. I’m not sure if this blog is still in the works, as the driving force behind its inception became very, very, very, very, very, very (did I mention very?) busy and blog development discussion understandably stopped. But if that multi-author blog does come to life, I’ll be writing a post there every week. So while I’ll read the NINC blog whenever I have a spare moment, for now I think I’ll hold off on joining the participating hordes of authors and industry professionals.

Drop by the NINC blog and tell me what you think.