Okay, I’m definitely going to give props to my friend and writing buddy, Gina (at RWU we call her “Vicki”, so don’t get confused if I call her by a different name!) Anyway, as I was pondering my synopsis (between yanking out clumps of hair) I looked through some how-to’s that had been submitted to the group. And Lo and Behold if I didn’t stumble across Gina’s called The Top Ten Questions For a Successful Synopsis Oh Man, it was a piece of cake! All I did was answer questions and the synopsis wrote itself! So I’m a happy camper and I’m seriously considering nominating Gina for some kind of Writer Sainthood. Gotta find out who I talk to about that.

So I’m off today, doing revisions. I’m going to send the Priority Mail off on Monday (post-holiday post-office is a much nicer experience than what’s going on now. Eeek!) and then sit back and gnaw off what little nails I have left. *sigh* I used to have some pretty decent-looking nails. Now… now I feel like Eliza Doolittle. “l say, Cap’n, now buy a flow’r off a poor girl.”

Well, it’s nearly Christmas! YAY! Big fat jolly man gonna gimme some presents. Woot! I tell you what tho… I’d certainly trade in any purchased gift for a contract. Yes indeedy, it’s true. Just a sale would keep me all year and then some. I shall bask in that fantasy for awhile I think… it makes me all warm and tingly!

Anyway… have a holly jolly Christmas! Here’s a little holiday eye candy!

The holly Paisley, the ivy green,
The prettiest picture you’ve ever seen
Is Christmas in Killarney
With all of the folks at home…

So yeah. I missed another day. Oh well. I was tired and Shrek I and II were calling me. So… what’s a gal to do? Well, tomorrow is my last day of work til after the Christmas holiday. Everyone is bringing presents, etc and I brought a cake the other day (it was good… peppermint swirl cake) and I’m thinking of maybe bringing a breakfast casserole tomorrow. Only problem is, I have to have it ready for tomorrow morning and I dont’ get home for another hour or so. So…. it shall be a late night for me. Ugh!

On the writing front: I wrote and revised my synopsis yesterday and printed it out. I honestly think I’m going to wait until after the Holiday spazz to send it out to Michelle Grajkowski w/3 Seas simply b/c everyone is so nutty at this time of year rushing to the Post Office. Ick! My postage stamp reads Dec 17th… that shouldn’t matter, should it? Oh well. I just want it out before the end of the year. That was my goal and damned if I didn’t make it. Woot!

I have a confession to make. I ate a whole tin of Wintergreen Altoids today. EEEEEEEEK! Yes I did. I’m so hopped up on sugar I can’t sit still. But man, my breath is FRESH!

So that’s all the news that’s fit to print (or interesting enough to relate here) for one day. I hope to be able to keep up every day with the blog… we shall see.

I’ll try and list some actual writing news (not just my own) as well. Here’s the latest rumor I’ve heard from Cynthia Sterling’s group:

Harlequin has announced the discontinuation of its Signature program. Special projects, anthologies, continuities and reprints were released under the Signature imprint beginning in January of this year, as well as special single titles (such as my own Learning Curves in October). Each book also featured bonus features. The last Signature will be released in June 2006. Other titles already bought for the line may be redistributed elsewhere in the Harlequin publishing program.

In the wake of the announcement about the cancellation of Signature came news that Harlequin has plans to launch a new paranormal romance series, to be overseen (at least initially) by Executive Editor Leslie Wainger out of the New York office. Ms. Wainger is looking for all kinds of ‘dark’ paranormal — but more than just vampires and werewolves. The paranormal elements should be integral to the story, and not just a frame work or window-dressing for a traditional romance. The sensuality may vary, but no erotica, please.

That said, remember: with your Christmas of white, I’ll have a blue, Paisley Christmas

So… I was bored.

No, scratch that.

I was antsy.

Yeah. Ansty is a much more appropos description. So I was antsy. And I got to planning my life (once again) and my the direction of my writing (again) and the thought of trying to get an agent skittered through my head yet again. So, I thought of all the agents I knew or heard of (and some I didn’t know of) and I kept coming back to one person whom I really liked when I met her at a conference: Michelle Grajkowski of the 3 Seas Literary Agency Anyway… seeing as I was ANTSY, I shot off a letter to her - reintro’ing myself to her and telling her about the book I was working on. Much to my surprise — not an hour later — she wrote back with a very pleasant:

I’d love to take a look. Thanks for the query.

To say the least, I’m floored. I’m excited, nervous, jittery and elated! I’m a lot more I’m sure but that’s all I am without the coffee talking!

WEEE! So now… I have to get my synopsis in order (punch it up a little.. it’s kinda flat) and then send it off and pray & sing & juggle chicken bones & desperately hope that it’s GOOD ENOUGH.

Funny how you never think your stuff is ever GOOD ENOUGH, huh? I’m always looking over mine and saying “That’s crap. Ick.” My delete key is worn out on my keyboard. It just says “elete” and my keyboard is so stupid, it thinks it’s a member of a superior class — HA! I say HAHA! Stupid keyboard doesn’t even remember that ELITE (not elete as it refers to itself b/c it’s stupid, remember) was a SIZE on a typewriter. Poor keyboards. They don’t even know how it USED to be….how the Remington’s fought to the T’s to watch their P’s and Q’s to pave the way for the cordless keyboards of today. If they won’t say it, all you typewriter warriors, I’ll say it: Thank you to all the ELITE and PICA types!

So I’m off to bed. I ate toooooo much pah-sketti tonight.

..and don’t it make my brown eyes…

Paisley!

What have I done? Well, I’ll tell you what I’ve done. I baked a cake! But that’s not why I’m O’migawdin’! Noooo. Here’s the dealio — and I’m tres proud — mind you. I have finito’d my story. Oh joy! Oh rapture! Oh Raptor! Oh My!

I digress.

Let’s start back at the beginning. Well, not the beginning-beginning, because then we’d be back at the Raptors (see above) and I’m so totally over the whole Jurassic Park period. PERIOD!

Are you going to keep interrupting me?

Ok.

Where was I?

Oh yes — the beginning. Plain and simple, I wrote a story — a romantica, if you will (and I will indeed, thank you very much) and soooooo I decided this was the best place to blog about my experience to getting that little baby published. For the record (they came before CDs for those playing along at home, but we’re not talking about those. Pay attention!)… my book is approx. 53,000 words and I’m targeting Kensington’s new Aphrodisia line. O’migawd! I’m so excited I could scream! Wait! I just did! I still am! Yippee!

So I have my fabulous friend (a pubbed writer of the genre, but I’m not gonna name drop — at least not yet muhahahah!) Anyway, she’s reading my ms now and I await her reaction with baited breath… *Gimme the vapors!* Then.. THEN… after the New Year I’ll start subbing to agents and editors and I’ll be posting my news here.

Hence the whole reason for my blog. Ta-da! So this is day one. I’m still learning how to navigate this cuckoo thing. So bear with me, puh-lease! Hopefully, we’ll both learn something from this medium (I’d much rather be a small, but no one asked me. Hmph!)

Until later.. may all your Christmasses be…
Paisley