Tagged (or, about me and my homies)

I got tagged twice this week. Twice! Such awesome friends I have.

Deana Barnhart tagged me first. She's one of the newer members of my writing group and has an awesome blog. She's doing a "Gearing Up to Get an Agent" Blogfest going on right now that is such perfect timing for me, it's like she planned it with me in mind. Thanks, Deana!

Donna Weaver tagged me next. Donna is a kindred spirit. She let me drag her around at LTUE, let me stay at her house, let me read her copy of Anna and the French Kiss, and is an awesome crit group member. Her blog is chock full of writing advice and tales of her world travels. Go check it out!

The tag rules are mostly the same, so I'm only responding once.

1. Do you think you're hot?

HA! Who cares? My husband thinks I'm hot, and that's all that matters, yes?

2. Upload a picture or wallpaper you are using at the moment.

I use Webshots, which rotates a bunch of different pictures, but this is the one I intentionally downloaded to help me with my WIP:

3. When was the last time you ate chicken?

After my 12-hour day at work Friday, my husband took me to dinner, where I ate one piece of his hot-not-wings chicken and about three bites of my fiesta lime chicken. (Both came home with us and are waiting in the fridge for lunch.)

4. The song(s) you listened to recently.

Um...??? I'm sure there was some sort of song on the radio on my date with my hubby, but I actually turned it off so I could practice The Bells. The radio almost exclusively plays country music. If I'm cleaning my house, I'll often turn on Broadway show tunes. On the rare occasion I listen to music while I write, it's lyric-less instrumental, like the Twilight soundtrack.

I'm jealous of Donna's music video on her tag blog, so this is one of my favorite songs at the moment. I love the words and the Anne of Green Gables allusions in the video. As much as I like Anne, though, if I was at all good at that sort of thing, I'd make a book trailer for Hunger Games with it:


5. What were you thinking as you were doing this?

Is there any way to tie random facts about me into a writing tip? No? Dang.

6. Do you have nicknames? What are they?

In high school, one of my friends would call me random boy names like Fred. Yanno, 'cause my real first name is a boy's name. I'd just answer anytime she talked. :) I also get called Amber a lot--not as a nickname, but as an I-forgot-your-real-name-and-you-obviously-look-like-an-Amber name. This even from people who have never heard my maiden name (which is Ambrose).

7. Tag 8 Blogger Friends:

Shelly Brown--who auditioned for my college theatre of the absurd directing project and ended up as the perfect Elle. (She's still a bit absurd.) I ran into her at LDStorymakers in May and I've been following her brand-new blog ever since.

Chantele Sedgwick--who interviews aspiring authors on her blog (including me, coming up on July 7th!) and is such a cool writer and blogger. She's awesome.

Jenn Johansson--who recently got an agent and who will soon have a publishing contract. Because her book is THAT good. You're gonna love it.

Susan Jensen--who had the dubious pleasure of the room by the kitchen and so was the designated "Robin-your-boss-is-calling-wondering-why-you're-not-at-your-early-morning-custodial-job-again" girl, freshman year of college. Also the one who went with me to my very first writer's conference, who wrote a book in, like a month, and who will have a more appropriate acknowledgement if when my book is published. But only if she promises to give it an A on her book blog.

Anita Howard--who has the scariest avatar I've ever seen, is represented by Jenny Bent, writes about a twisted Alice in Wonderland, and who blogs about awesome writing topics, like how Labyrinth is like the modern YA novel. :)

Julia King--who is beta-switching with me right now, and will soon be my query-buddy. Also has an awesome writing blog.

Heidi Tighe--who is also a newer member of my writing group, is beta-reading my book in all her spare time, and, I hope, is bringing her awesome college English instructor powers to bear to rip, tear, and shred it.

Ashley Graham--who is brave and good and talented and wise and inspirational and who exemplifies determination.

In Poetry Summer news, I have The Bells memorized, but am still reciting it at every opportunity so I can keep it forever. Also, because I keep forgetting the odd word. :P

Awards (for me) and the One I REALLY Want

If you're a writer, you know the importance of maintaining some healthy delusions. Odds say publishing a book is about as likely as winning the lottery? Pshaw. That doesn't apply to me! First book never sells? Stephenie Meyer's did! Why not mine? Most published writers can't support themselves (much less their families) on their writing? Well, some of them do! Why not me?

If we believed the odds, we'd never try.

I don't buy lottery tickets because the odds of winning are so minuscule that it's not worth my money--but I've spent thousands of hours creating my own, custom, lottery-ticket novel (no, it's not about lottery tickets). And I believe in it. I do. I think it's a winner.

This is my first full-length novel (though I wrote the first 5 chapters of a few others--do they count?), but I'm still going to query it. In a few more months, when I get it perfect. And I'm going to cross my fingers, send up a prayer, hit send... and then start refreshing my email inbox. Because, you never know, my dream agents might be so enchanted by it, they'll immediately want the full. And I wouldn't want them to wait more than five minutes before they get it, would I? Of course not.

I want to sell it for a lot of money. Because, see, I have this dream life in my head. Free of debt. Living in a house without threadbare carpet. On a ranch, where my husband can raise cows and my sons can ride horses. With an office just for me, where I can continue to write books people will love. Occasionally leaving to attend conferences and to go on tour. To England. To meet my father's family. Perhaps with a baby daughter (or two) in tow. Doesn't that sound good? Would you give that up just because the odds say it'll never happen?

So I say it's okay to dream. Hard cold reality doesn't have any place in my world. Even if this book doesn't sell, the next one will. Or the one after that. Because I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and gol-darn it, people like me!

Don't believe me? I present Exhibits 1, 2, and 3:

From Anita


From Deirdra


From Jenny

I received these three awesome blog awards within the last week. See? I told you people like me! :) Anita and Deirdra custom-made theirs, which make them doubly awesome, but I have to like Anita's best because she only awarded hers to five people--and guess who was #1? ME! :D Are you jealous? 

Of course you are!

You know who I'm jealous of? I've mentioned her before (once or twice): Brodi Ashton. Brodi I-had-to-choose-between-five-awesome-agents Ashton. Brodi I-waited-24-hours-before-I-got-a-preemptive-three-novel-deal-on-my-debut Ashton. Brodi, who is awesome for reasons I can't even tell you about because I promised not to!!! (Yes, you want to be me. No, I can't tell you why.)

Brodi, who, this time last year, won the LDStorymakers First Chapter Contest.

I was in that contest, yo. I sat through the awards ceremony, watched some dude win first and third in my category, and then watched them announce Brodi's name as the Grand Prize winner. And she wasn't even there! Valynne had to go up and accept her laptop for her. I texted her, though. Yeah. Me. 'Cause I'd had dinner with her the night before, and had her cell number. (You want to touch me now, don't you?)

Anyway, I wasn't at all upset, because I'd already read the first page of Brodi's book and she totally deserved it, but it didn't stop me from rejoicing in the fact that she'd likely sell her book before the next contest and would therefore be ineligible for the 2011 contest. (Really, I'm just too good at this predicting stuff.)

So Wednesday, I'm driving down to Utah. Wednesday night, I'm pushing shiny buttons for another Farland's Authors' Advisory Conference Call--this time with Laura Ann Gilman, who's giving VERY timely advice on professionalism, including how to talk to editors (like at conferences and stuff), so you should totally call in with all your questions. Then, on Thursday, I'm picking up Susan Jensen at the airport and attending the Bootcamp at LDStorymakers, where the first fifteen pages of my book will be torn to bloody shreds (if all goes well).  Friday and Saturday are for the conference, where I will network, hob-nob, hand out business cards, meet cool writers, learn some stuff, and hunt down a few future guests for Authors' Advisory. Lunchtime Saturday, they announce the First Chapter Contest Winners. Not that I'm paying any attention to things like that.

So who's gonna be there? If you're going to be there, I'll tell you a secret: I get a text every time someone @'s me on Twitter. Just sayin'. My Twitter ID is @Robin_Weeks. Don't forget the space. I'd love to get together with you. Meet in person. You know, for meals. Really cool classes. (I sit at the front. Always. That's what elbows are FOR.) Or just for pal-ing around in the hall. I'm the one with the obnoxious rolling briefcase. If you trip over something, it's probably me.

Oh, and only the Blog on Fire Award requires me to pass it on. Since I love so many of your blogs, please let me know if you want it--I'll give it to the first five takers whose blogs are over in my blogroll on the left. :)

See you in a few days?

Reading Woes

Back in April 2008, at the encouragement of Robyn Carr (oh, yeah, lookit me: she's my mentor) I started keeping track of the books I read . Between April 1 and December 28, I read 125 books.

The next year, my spreadsheet got a bit more elaborate (as do all my spreadsheets). In 2009, while working sporadically on my WIP, I read 173 books, 15,632 pages, and averaged 157.9 pages a day.

In 2010, I wrote most of my first draft--and finished it--but still read 138 books, 47,515 pages, and averaged 130.54 pages a day.

Now I'm editing my WIP and this year, so far, I've read 22 books. 7,179 pages. Averaging 85.46 pages a day. My spreadsheet now keeps track of book genres (most books are more than one genre): 12 YA, 13 Fantasy, 10 Urban, 14 Romance, 1 Dystopian (MATCHED), 1 Horror (THE MERIDIANS), 0 Non-Fiction.

Pathetic, yes?

I'm happy with all the other things I'm doing. I am. I'm managing a full-time career (the day-job), trying to start up another full-time career (writing), social networking, blogging, running my online crit group for David Farland's Writer's Groups, critiquing for my group (Meredith, I swear, I'll get your novel crit to you by the end of the month!), holding down two church jobs (teaching Gospel Doctrine and Cub Committee Chair) and being a wife and a mother to three young boys. I sleep 7-8 hours per night (or I get sick). It's a full, busy, and happy life.

But I sure did enjoy this week, when I got too sick to sit at the computer for long periods, and all I could do was lie in bed and read. (Sleep? Who needs sleep?) I MISS reading. I look at Jessica Day George and all she's reading (seriously, that girl is a reading fiend--check her out on Goodreads) and I'm so jealous. I mean, there are hundreds of reasons to be jealous of JDG, but mostly I want to be able to read as much as she does. I'm also jealous of my friend Susan Jensen, who has already read 39 books this year (including mine :))--and that while still writing HER WHOLE FIRST DRAFT.

So, I'm still trying to find balance. Work, writing, family, service, networking, reading, sleep. I watch almost no TV. I hardly ever go anywhere.

Everyday, excellent books are released, and I just DON'T HAVE TIME to read them all. It's tragic.

So how do you do it? How do you decide which books to read? Do you carve out specific time each day for reading, or just grab time as you can find it? How many books have YOU read this year? (Go ahead--rub it it.)

(Also, if anyone wants a great spreadsheet to keep track of their books--with genre--let me know....)