Housekeeping

Today started out like any other day...

Scratch that. It's a lie. Most days don't start out with three wake-up calls and exploding at my children because they won't stop fighting. (Thank goodness.) But really, nothing really wonky happened this morning.

Except after calming down and talking to the kids, I decided to clean.

Don't laugh. This is a big deal. I hate cleaning. Like with the burning hate of a thousand suns. So for me to voluntarily get out of the shower and immediately move to "all right, kiddos, let's bust ass on your rooms is a huge thing. For two hours we cleaned and sorted and otherwise got me into "OMG, we have way too much stuff" mode.

Which means today is also donation day. Assuming, of course, I can remember the login for It's Deductible :P

When I finally made it downstairs, it was to find another housekeeping task on my desk. Or, more specifically, in my computer. The contract for Clockwork Mafia has arrived! This is a huge yay! Except for the whole "print and return" part. See, my background in law consists of having dated  a guy during his last year of pre-law and his first year of law school (the second long-distance). Supposedly I have a bit of a natural inclination toward the way of thinking necessary to be a lawyer, but not the patience (or the poker face), but that doesn't help at all when it comes to contract reading.

Fortunately, this one should be just about the same as my last Carina contract. So I'm going to yank out the one from Badlands and lay them side-by-side just to make sure I'm cool with any differences between the two. But I want to get it signed and in the mail today. Otherwise, there's a decent chance I'll be sending it back with an original story by my seven-year-old on the back.

From the Editing Cave: Clockwork Mafia

Hi all! *wipes sweat from brow* First round edits for Clockwork Mafia have arrived and I'm trying to bust my butt on these changes so I can get them turned in before I take off to visit my friend Dani in Canada <3

To that end, I don't have a blog post of brilliance today. (Please refrain from pointing out all the non-brilliant posts to date. Thanks.) I will let you know that I'm going to be at Steamed! on Friday, and I did a review of Queen of Swords by my crit partner, Katee Robert. You should all rush out to get that. Like now. Here's an Amazon link. Oh, and one for Barnes & Noble. I'm also doing a rant at Writings of a Wicked Book Addict TOMORROW! (There's my post of brilliance, or at least ranty-goodness.)

So for here, since I'm knee-deep in the mind of Henrietta Mason, I'm just going to give you a little video of a song that always reminds me of her. I know the point behind the song is supposed to be one of strength, but for some reason, when I hear it, all I hear is pain--and that fits where Henri's at.

Video from Youtube, all rights belong to Miranda Lambert and Sony

(Also, if you like her music, get the album here.)

Waiting for the...

It's been said many times that writing is like dating. You create this perfect date scenario (your manuscript) then you have to ask the other person (agent or editor) and see if they're as into you as you are them. The part people don't talk about as much is the relationship after you finally hook up.

Once you're dating, there's still usually one person who does most of the "calling" while the other waits for the phone to ring. In all fairness, when dating, you tend to have a pretty good idea when the caller should be contacting you because (assuming they care about you), they'll say. You know, as you part ways before getting on the bus or as one of you ducks into after school practice, the caller will say something like, "I'll call after dinner." Unlike the delay after the initial asking out, this one has a timeline.

But that doesn't always make the waiting easier.

I work with a few editors now--people I like a lot. (Er... I mean that in a non-creeper, only-slightly-internet-stalkerish kind of way.) In addition, I have uber-betas-of-awesome whom I love and adore. But right now, I'm waiting on "calls" (emails really, but the point is the same) from all of them. One I know I won't get for a few weeks, so that's peachy and keeps me from frantic hair-pulling. The others I should hear from this week (and might have by the time this post goes live). I'm to the point that I'm getting more than a little twitchy about getting back to work on something. I mean, we're talking five projects that are currently on hold. I can't start another one. I just can't. Okay, really I shouldn't, mainly because it would be a bad idea to get my mind hooked on something new this summer.

So, I'm waiting. And I'm only a tinge worried that they're all going to call and try to set up dates for the same day. Because as fun as that might be in an actual dating scenario, I'm not sure how well I could survive it writing-wise. So... yeah. Once you're already in with editors, you still wait on the "phone to ring." The good part is, usually you have a decent idea what at least some of those calls will involve. The bad part... well, unless they all come at once (in which case, learn time management in a hurry), there really is no bad part.

And that is the best thing about loving what you do :)

Summer Vacation... What's a Vacation?

Summer vacation has officially begun here. Time off, right? Not so much, more like trying to work with my kids home all the time. On the upside, I don't have to get up to ship them off to school, which means I can sleep in a bit rather than the whole get up/get them off/realize I'm still dead/take a nap routine. Which should result in more productive hours in a day.


Except the kids are home.

Which automatically means my attention is divided. So those days last week when I wrote in daylight? Yeah. Probably not happening. On the up side, I can crit and edit and blog during the day. What that means for the next three months writing schedule is:
Edits on Kiss of Death
Initial (and possibly second) edits on Clockwork Mafia
Revising and subbing All the Fellas... and Love & Other Indoor Sports
Writing and subbing a smexy category romance
Writing Badlands 3 and Kiss of Life

...Unless, of course, other things come through sales-wise. Which would be awesome, but might also mean pushing things back a little. Ideally though, one way or another, I will get somewhere between 150-200k written this summer, along with all the editing and revising and, oh yeah, a pesky little blog tour thing.

And now that I wrote that down... *whimper*

This is me putting on my I-can't-see-that blinders.

Let's just call this the summer of writing badassery. *nods* That makes me feel much better about the whole thing.

So how about you? What are your summer plans?