Category: Stuff About Me

Twenty Years Ago Today…

ajbaby.jpg…Eldest Son was born. I think that’s supposed to make me feel old. But the truth is, when he graduated high school two years ago, that made me feel old! I could not believe my baby was graduating high school. After all, I started seeing My Liege on the May long weekend the year I graduated high school (hey, that would be 30 years ago this weekend!) (I nearly forgot!)

For my American readers, this weekend is Victoria Day in Canada (celebrated Monday—no school or work). It’s a holiday in honor of Queen Victoria’s birthday, I believe, and Queen Elizabeth’s birthday, although it falls in June, is apparently celebrated this weekend, too.

Oh, by the way, in case you haven’t figured it out, that’s Eldest Son in the photo, at six months old. Isn’t he a cutie?

But back to the subject of my post. Feeling old. Youngest Son graduates high school in a few weeks. And that’s not making me feel old, either. So I guess the moral of the story is that, no matter how old you are when you have your first child—be it 16 or 42—when that first child graduates high school, you will feel old. So have your kids late in life, so you can feel old, well, later.

Now, for fun, see if you can guess the identity of this piece of pumpkin pie:

cindybaby.jpg

Is there a resemblance?

Tell Me Tuesday–I’ve Been PANned

Not much to report in the WIPpy department. The writing is going well, but I’m still in the No Man’s Land of writing new scenes before I get to begin revising the scenes drafted during my NaNoWriMo experiment. The closer I get to those drafted scenes, the more I realize that the manuscript might just fall in line with my “plodding” (a.k.a. plotting). This, of course, amazes me to no end. And I have my brainstorming group to thank for it, because I couldn’t have done all that plotting without them (thank you, Looney Binners!).

My big news this week (well, last week or the week before, but I don’t think I’ve announced it yet), is that I’ve finally been admitted to RWA’s Published Authors Network (a.k.a. PAN). My Alter Ego’s third sale to Red Sage Secrets did it. It’s taken me so long to get here: two novel sales and three novella sales. Phew! And, if not for the change in RWA author eligibility standards last summer, I still wouldn’t belong to PAN. Because, before the changes, novella sales, regardless of advance level, didn’t count. Only novel sales counted, and my two Amber Quill novels, as amazing as they are, have not yet reached the level of income generation (LOIG – and, yes, I made that up) required to join PAN. However, now I am in PAN and they can’t get me out. Mwahahaha.

I know not everyone in RWA is happy with the changes to the eligibility requirements, but, I have to admit, being in the position of being able to continue entering the Golden Heart although I was in fact a published author always felt weird to me. This year, for the first time, because of the changes, I was able to enter the RITA, RWA’s contest for published works. Even though I didn’t final with either my or my Alter Ego’s entries, that I get to enter feels, well, exactly where I should be.

I was also able to join NINC this year (Novelists, Inc.). However, NINC’s membership requirements are different from RWA’s (which makes sense, considering they are different organizations). When I joined NINC in the fall, the requirements were two published novels. HEAD OVER HEELS and BORROWING ALEX qualified me. Last I knew, NINC was in the process of changing its membership requirements to one that might also include an income generation level (IGL for those into acronyms, as I, um, appear to be), however, seeing as I’m already a member, even if my earnings don’t reflect the minimum (I have no clue if they do), I don’t have to worry about it. I’m grandfathered in, and, unless I allow my membership to lapse, they can’t get me out. Mwahahaha.

Does anyone else have good or bad or lackadaisical news to report?

Tell Me Tuesday-Good News Galore!

I’ve had two excellent pieces of news this week. On Friday, I learned that one of my WIPs, SEX, P.I.s & PACKING TAPE, is a finalist in The Lories Best Proposal by Published Author contest. This necessitated a mad afternoon of printing seven copies of the proposal for the final round and zipping them to the post office, so they’d make it to the contest coordinator in time for the deadline. There are no categories in the Best Proposal contest, so the six finalists are all lumped together (there were only supposed to be five finalists, but there was a tie). Seven industry judges are participating in the final round: two editors, two agents, a bookseller, a book reviewer, and a publisher reader (for non-writers, a “publisher reader” usually freelances, reading and giving her or his opinions on the suitability of a manuscript for a particular publishing house’s needs, and then the editor decides whether she (or he) reads the manu, dependant on the reader’s report.

My other piece of great news is that yesterday I received a phone call from RWA informing me that my name had been chosen in a draw as one of two recipients for the Rita Gallagher Memorial Conference Scholarship. I entered the draw through an ad in the Romance Writers’ Report a couple of months ago. As far as I know, one recipient is a PRO member, the second (moi!) an author with a sale in the past year newly qualifying her for PAN. (Note, if you’re not an RWA member, those designations won’t make sense, and they’re too complicated to go into now, but, rest assured, they make sense to me). When I saw the ad, I thought, “What the heck,” and now am I ever glad I entered the draw—because RWA is comping my San Francisco National Conference fee! This makes the conference a lot more affordable for an author on the…ahem…low end of the pay spectrum. I’m extremely grateful. Thank you, RWA!

Because of other commitments and recovery from the Devil of all Head Colds, I didn’t get as much writing done last week as I would have liked. The cold is still lingering, but I have my energy back, and I’m looking forward to diving into the WIP this week…and next week…and the week after that.

How about everyone else? Have good news to report? Experienced a bump on the road to publication and need a boost? Share your news, good or not-so-good. What are you working on?