Now That You Mention It...

Grab Bag O' Gratitude

In honor of Thanksgiving, I present a list of Things I Am Thankful For:

1. Jack's Big Music Show. My toddler loves this show almost more than going through my purse and ripping up old receipts. Which allows me to check my email and brush my teeth.

2. Organic Pasta Rings from Whole Foods--basically, the organic version of spaghetti-o's. Because while I'm not entirely comfortable with my son eating all of his meals from a can, the fact that it comes from Whole Foods and is preservative-free helps me to sleep at night.

3. The Office. Seriously. Best Show Ever.

4. Toddler finally wore out the voice motor on one of his Leapfrog toys. Because if I had to hear, "It's me Tad and my friend Dawn! We love letters!" one more time...

5. New Kids on the Block have reunited. Life goal complete.

Things I Am Not Thankful For:

1. Day Quil. While is lovely for inducing hallucinogenic state, terrible for actual cold-relieving.

2. Crappy economy hurting publishing. BUY BOOKS, PEOPLE. PLEASE?

3. Still not done with revisions on Book #2. Which means Book #3 is about a day away from coming to life, throwing an epic tantrum and spitting hellfire due to neglect.

4. Neti pots. Thought it would be an ingenious solution to the Congestion of Death, but all it did was make me choke on saltwater and cause my husband irreparable mental duress.

5. Toddler replaced obsession with old Leapfrog toy with new, even more annoying toy. "C is for cookie, that's good enough for me!" will now enter my dreams.

I Can Haz Brain Back?

My brain is still in the process of exploding everywhere. Not due to publishing news or exciting progress, but thanks to going a few rounds in the Ultimate Virus Fighting Championship. And the cold is totally winning.

Just when I think I'm starting to feel better, I get a new fun symptom like desert-dry scratchy throat or sinus pressure equivalent to the few moments right before a tea kettle starts whistling.

Yeah, so A Bump in the Road copyedits are done. But the "micro" revisions for Book #2? Apparently, not so micro after all. More like exhausting, mind-boggling and disturbing. Yes, my revisions are causing me mental duress. I'm about halfway through them and originally told my agent I'd be done with them in a week. I told her that...yesterday? Oh. No. It was one week ago today. Whoops. Let's shoot for before Thanksgiving, OK?

If this cold would just move on already, I could get my brain back and focus on a task for more than two minutes. Because now? My editing process looks like this:

Stare at page.

Huh. Need to add a scene here.

Uhhhh...What scene is that?

Oh, right. The cocktail party.

Huh.

I need to blow my nose again.

Oh! Email!

God my head hurts.

Throat is very scratchy. Need cough drop.

OK, back to revisions.

What scene was I supposed to add again?

Oh, right.

Man, I still have a lot to do.

Uh...wonder what Perez Hilton posted today.

Nose. Is. Running. Again.

Oh! Time for lunch!

Tired.

Stare at highlighted and marked up revision outline.

Uhhhhhh...pink highlighter is pretty.

Yeah, so that's pretty much how things have gone the past two days. And I haven't even been taking any cold medicine for fear that I will become all drugged up and high on Robitussen and decide that I want to change my main character's name to Miss Kitten Star. And then decide she should speak in only LOLCat speak, like "I haz baybee! I wurkin mahm."

Cold? YOU WIN. Now please move on a torture someone else.

BREAKING NEWS (OMFG!)

This just in:

A Bump in the Road will be officially released on June 9, 2009.

That's like, tomorrow.

Holy crap!

And I just found this.

*Head explodes more than I ever thought possible*

That? Right There? Is the Sound of My Brain Going KABOOM!

Durrr….electrical brain malfunction due to overload.

Spark.

Sizzle.

Hissssss.

Book #3 Macro edits.

Book #1 Copy edits.

Book #2 Micro edits.

Turn in copyedits.

Finish micro edits.

Plan macro edits.

Work at full-time job.

Spend time with Son and Husband.

Find time to eat, do laundry and clean house.

*Brain explodes everywhere*

Seriously The Most Awesome Cover Ever

OK, so this?

Is the creepiest cover EVER! It looks like a creepy movie poster, doesn't it? And there's fake blood droplets throughout the inside of the book, too. I'm floored at the coolness!

I know I'm a little slow on the uptake here, since the book came out in September, but I just got BLISS by Lauren Myracle for my birthday and I'm DYING to read it. Set in a boarding school in Atlanta in the late '60s, it apparently has tons of real events woven into the story.

So. Can't. Wait. To. Read.

I've heard that YA horror might be getting hot, and I'd bet this little book has something to do with that!

Book #3 Doesn't Quite Rulez...YET

Copyedits are nearly 99% finished, along with my acknowledgements and dedication for A Bump in the Road.

So, let me just take a moment and say: WOO FREAKING HOO.

And, I got back my agent's notes on Book #3: Has An Official Title But I'm Not Sharing Because I Still Enjoy Calling It This Book Rulez And Has Irish Stuff In It. Although, it appears that the book doesn't totally rule because I have huge edits to make on it. Edits that will surely keep me up at night, sweating and screaming out for a plot device.

But, they're all spot-on. My agent totally busted me, in an awesome way. Everything that I was slightly uncomfortable about, everything that I was like, "Oh yeah, sure, I totally fixed that," while ignoring the nagging voice in my head that said, "NUH UH GIRLFRIEND. YOU BE LYING TO YOURSELF!"--she discovered.

So, after my copyedits are shipped off to Awesome Editor tomorrow, I will roll up my sleeves and try not to pass out as I look over the four pages of revision notes I typed up for Irish Stuff Book.

Ah, the life of a writer. And to think I thought writers just layed around in their beach houses, tanned, had servants bring them their drinks and watched soap operas in between flourishing off a book every now and then.

Writer Maureen and the Copyedits of Doom

*Runs screaming into blog*

Copyedits are scary:

Crazy Comma Fun To Be Had By All

I arrived home yesterday to find a huge package sitting on my kitchen countertop addressed to me. Weighing several pounds, looking all official-like, I immediately realized what it was....

COPYEDITS for A Bump in the Road!

(Insert ominous, booming music here.)

For those of you non-writer-people, when a book is bought by a publishing house, an author gets an editoral letter soon after from his/her editor. This covers big picture things like pacing, subplots, dialogue and such.  After a few rounds of those things, the book goes to a copyeditor.

Copyedits are just what they sound like--commas, paragraphs, semi-colons and the like. For me, much more grueling and intense because I'm so much more big picture than detail oriented. I had a brief moment of worry that the copyeditor inserted his/her own commentary onto the pages like, "Did you EVEN take English in school?" and "Seriously. WHY did we buy this book?" and "WHY DIDN'T YOU KNOW THAT YOU MUST USE A SEMI-COLON IN A SERIES?"

Thus, I only superficially leafed through the stack of paper before I quickly shoved it back into the DHL envelope and went to my mental Happy Place. Maybe tomorrow....er....

But, I only have two weeks to turn it around, so...yeah. Time to buckle down and get it all polished up real nice.

Pretty Much Sums Up Every Snorkeling Trip I've Ever Taken

My brain is still in a late-night-CNN-watching-unti-the-wee-morning-hours fog. So, in the absence of anything intelligent/interesting/exciting to mention, I will instead share this:

marriedtothesea.com