11. March 2010 by colleen.

Over at Extreme Reader Book Reviews!It’s almost St.Patty’s Day. Maybe the luck of the Irish will be with you!Here’s the link :

http://extremereaderbookreviews.blogspot.com/2010/03/mega-swag-and-more-giveaway.html

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6. November 2009 by colleen.

Now that all the conference info has been posted, I thought I’d share with you what I like to do after I attend a conference:

Write thank you cards to the agents and editors who participated (or who you engaged with). Editors and agents are busy people and I think they would like to see that writers appreciate them spending time to share their knowledge of the business with us.

So I’m off to buy stamps and get my cards in the mail.

coll

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14. August 2009 by colleen.

I’ve been working hard, and I’m afraid I’ve ignored you–my little blog.Received an acceptance letter to the Rutgers One on One Mentoring Conference. Yay. It takes place in October. I’ll be sure to post a slew of info afterwards. Read this interesting interview. Take a peek.

DEAD GIRL WALKING: 20 YEARS TO PUBLICATION

By Linda Joy Singleton (in celebration of the release of DEAD GIRL IN LOVE)

Would you stick with a book if you knew it would take 20 years from idea to publication?  In 1988 I wrote TURN LEFT AT THE MILKY WAY. Every few years I would rewrite and submit again. In 2007, I changed the title to DEAD GIRL WALKING. Here are author-editor emails that followed:

June 22, 2007 (8:30AM): Emailing my Flux editor, Andrew Karre, on another project, I added:

I also recently reworked my YA suicide/switched body story, DEAD GIRL WALKING, if you wanted to look at it.

June 22, 2007 (10:30AM): From my editor:

 If you d like to send DEAD GIRL WALKING (email, please), I d have a look, of course.

July 3, 2007 (2PM): From my editor:

Are you going to around on Thursday or Friday? If you are, I’d like to chat with you about this project. Let me know when you’ll have some time.

July 3, 2007 (3:07PM) To my editor:

 I’d love to talk with you on Thursday.

July 5, 2007 (1:47PM) From my editor:

 It was good to talk, as always. I’m attaching my markup of the ms (notes in the right margin), but it’s mostly what I said on the phone. I m excited to see how this develops. I m sure you’ll surprise me.

July 5, 2007: (2:03PM) To my editor:

 I’ve been thinking it over and see the arc of at least 3 books, following her as she tries to go back to her own body. I’ll work on it more and send you a basic description of the three books.

I’m playing with titles and have these ideas so far:

DEAD GIRL DANCING and DEAD GIRL IN LOVE

I think the DANCING one could stem from her desire to be an entertainment agent. I’m seeing Amber as someone who can’t figure out who she is and envies others, wishing she could have their life because it seems easier or more glamorous. Getting lost, finding herself…themes I’m working on. 

July 9, 2007 (10:47AM): To my editor:

 I expect to send you revised chapters and a new synopsis later this week. I am very excited about your idea of a possible short DEAD GIRL series.

July 11, 2007 (10:40AM) From my editor:

I read your new draft, and I think it is much improved. This is much closer to what I was picturing, and I feel like you’ve started out on the right foot with your protagonist. I like this Amber a lot more, and I want to know what happens to her. Of course, I have comments and I’ll pass them along in a bit, but in the main this is what I was hoping you d do. Bravo!

July 11, 2007 (11:05AM): To my editor:

I’ll start plotting the additional books and get this to you within a few days. By the way, I love your ideas about other people being like Amber–very cool! My brain wheels are churning.

July 16, 2007 (3:38PM) From my editor:

I will be pitching the series to the committee on Thursday, so expect to hear from me on Thursday or more likely Friday.

July 16, 2007 (4:00PM) To my editor:

Great! Thursday I’ll be home but Friday I’ll be camping.

Thursday, July 19, 2007: From Linda Joy Singleton’s journal:

At 9AM the phone rang. Editor Andrew…

I sucked in deep breaths and kind of stammered something like “Hi…gasp.” He chuckled and said he had good news. Then he offered me a 3-book contract with DEAD GIRL WALKING; DEAD GIRL DANCING and DEAD GIRL IN LOVE. YAY!!!!!

DEAD GIRL IN LOVE is now available — completing the trilogy about love, loss, best friends and body-swapping.

Cool, huh! Coll 

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23. July 2009 by colleen.

Spent the morning at the hospital with my son. More docs. More tests.

Utilized 2 hr wait to formulate questions for my blog’s first author interview!

Came home. Baked an Irish Pound Cake (why is Irish in the title? Might have something to do with the whiskey required for the recipe).

Industry news tomorrow.    

 Coll 

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15. July 2009 by colleen.

My very first interview decribing me as a writer is here: http://www.querytracker.net/colleenk.php

Exciting!

Coll

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15. July 2009 by colleen.

Sorry, missed my Monday:what am I reading post. The day was spent with trying to pick the new paint colors for our house. Sounds easy–until you pick up the 2000+ color palette.!!!. Thought I made the right choices.

Boy was I wrong. Ick. Going back to a trio of colors similiar to ones the old owners had picked.

Misted lilac sounded so pretty, with dove white, and red earth. Misted lilac was supposed to look like a slightly purple tinged gray–not pink!

I did read a good book last week called  Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. Margo has a magical way of writing, and the ideas are so original. It took a bit of time for me to get into the swing of the phrasing. She’s from Australia, but the dialogue sounds(to me) like perhaps England or Whales in the 1600’s (I’m no expert and could be totally off). I fell in love with the writing, and will read it again at some point.

Tuesday: Writing challenge. My writing challenge is to finish the first two chapters of my book before Monday. I try to make weekly challenges for myself, if not, time has a habit of slipping away. Guess it keeps me on task.

Had my first interview! I’ll post it when it is online.

Coll

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10. July 2009 by colleen.

Had a heck of a day yesterday (sorry no blog post). Spent most of the afternoon and evening with my son in the ER. He’ll be okay, but it was a long night. Woohoo!!! When I got home I signed my contract with Stimola Literary Studio! I’ve secured representation with the wonderful Rosemary Stimola. YAY!!!!!Here’s a bit of email I received today that may interest someone.

Hi,

We still have a few spots open at some of our NY dinners with industry professionals. The price includes your dinner and a drink. Transportation is not included.

July 15th – NYC restaurant. $100

Connie Hsu, Kate Sullivan, TS Ferguson – (editors from Little Brown interested in mg and ya novels)

September 24th – NYC Restaurant. $150

Scott Piehl (Art Director at Disney Group), Ronnie Herman Owner and Agent from Herman Agency)

August 4th – NYC Restaurant - $85

Piper Smith (Artist Rep. from Lindgren and Smith), Patrick Collins (Art Director at Henry Holt)

Please let me know if you’d like to join us.

Kathy

http://www.kathytemean.com  Have a great day!Coll 

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6. July 2009 by colleen.

Well, last week our family vacationed at the beach (and my stack of books were forgotten)! I found a book in the place we were staying–Confessions of a Shopaholic. Not really my thing, but desperate times call for desperate measures. It was an easy read and enjoyable.

Most of my time was spent working on my laptop. I know, I know–vacation. But some very exciting things were happening that I will announce on Friday.

Happy dance!!!

coll

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1. July 2009 by colleen.

…down the shore. See everyone Monday! Coll 

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30. June 2009 by colleen.

Lately, I’ve been reading articles on the internet. Saturday night I read Once Dead, Twice Shy by Kim Harrison. It was a little heavy on the fantasy, but not too much to turn me off (and it was interesting enough for me to stay up until 2am to get to “the end”.

Now back to research. New project brewing. Holocaust story may be on the backburner for a bit.

coll

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