Amendment to Dream Number One: Before I'm 20!!!

I am: in my Venturing uniform.

What's the anime freak listening to now? Leave out All the Rest by Linkin Park

Dream Diary: Dream Number One, Dream Number One!!!!

I had a confrontation with my dad today. I told him I don't want to be so involved in Venturing, that I'd rather dedicate that time to my book. Every once in a while I get panicked and anxious like this. In a way, it's desperation, but it's not reckless desperation; I channel it effectively. I like to call it printlust. Lol.

I feel rededicated to this chase today. As I told my dad, if I can get an agent this semester, I still could be on the shelf I turn 20. But I have to get an agent before my 18th birthday, and even that might cut it too close. . . .

I think he was impressed I had this calculated. He knows I'm giving my all to this.

Getting Personal

Status: At school.

What's the anime freak listening to now? Nothing, I'm at school. But I have Lion King music stuck in my head.

Dream Diary: I was saving someone again. I forget the rest.


Wow. The"blockages" on the school computers are so messed up. I can sign into my blog, but I can't view it. So strange.

I'm writing to log a new development, another milestone! I started sending query letters last week. I've gotten four responses, all No's. Three standard and one personalized. Woot woot! Personalized rejections are supposed to be a good sign, especially when feedback is all positive. It's good to know that nothing is wrong with my query letter.

I still have five letters out there, three in cyberspace and two in FedEx trucks. Plodding right along!

Meanwhile, it's still sort of awkward doing all of these things as a high schooler. It forces me to take many things much more seriously: my ability to lead, my public speaking skills, my composure when I'm trying to act professional. I gotsa be a grown-up.

I'm President of my school's Writer's Club, and I'm trying to think of way to bring all the things I learned in the conference (soon to be conferences!) to them. I'm going to start making photocopies of the handouts and such I received and try to give a 5-minute lesson of some kind at the beginning of each meeting.

I'm also going to come up with monthly writing prompts. October: What was happening in the world on the day you were born? At certain landmark moments in your life? Did they affect you? Could they be symbolic in an autobiography? Do they have any relation to you at all?

Just a concept that fascinates me.

Well, the lunch bell is going to ring soon, so this author is out! ^_~

Very First Query Letter EVAR

Status: FREAKED. OMFG holy fizzy taxijacking shoe cow.

What is the anime freak listening to now? A Whole New World from Aladdin

Dream Diary: Last week I was doing a paper on nuclear nonproliferation, and I dreamed that the United States had decided to go to war with North Korea. A bunch of high school kids were drafted, and we got phone calls saying, "Don't go to school tomorrow. Be at this-and-this park to launch the nuke. Don't tell anyone! ^_~" o.o

Well, I sent my very first query letter today. *gulp* Of course, I sent to Krisitin Nelson, my dream agent. Barry Goldblatt is a close second, but it was Ms. Nelson's website that told me to "Go to conferences" and I obeyed immediately--resulting in the two awards my book has now received. I've been keeping up with her blog for most of a year now, and I've quite possibly learned more about the publishing industry just from that than I have anything else.

Plus Ally Carter's voice in I'd Tell You I Love You, but then I'd Have to Kill You matches my own voice better than the voices of all the other books I've read for agent research.

*is FREAKED*

More query letters will soon be out there as well, of course. I just take a lot of time to personalize my letters, so I'd rather create them one at a time.

Not the best thing when I'm on such a tight schedule, I know. I realize that "before I'm twenty" is setting the bar a little high. I'm 17 and a half exactly today. . . . lol

Wish me luck! ^_~

I'm In Love with my Bad Guy

I am: watching this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY.

What is the anime freak listening to now? Other than that? No Good Deed from Wicked the Musical

Dream Diary: Can't remember. Although I recently dreamed about a massive set of headphones.

When I created the bad guy for my novel, Dravvind, I had no idea how deep and dynamic a character he would become. I always hoped he would evolve into something memorable, something truly terrifying, but back when I tried to make him those things, I pretty much failed.

Lately, however, he has evolved all on his own. He has thematic significance, beyond simple "power corrupts." The themes of insanity, obsessive love, family, and sacrifice are all inextricably bound to his character, and they are all themes I wanted in my book. His biggest theme, however, is the theme of human goodness. He is not pure evil, and he will profoundly prove that before the end.

Do other others get this fascinated by their bad guys? Their villains?

I know of quite a few works in which the villain is obviously dynamic and powerful in terms of impact. Wicked the Musical, for one. (I'm addicted to the soundtrack to that, and I'm dying to see it!) Star Wars, The Godfather, All the King's Men, Nineteen Minutes, Macbeth, nana nana na.... Yeah, bad guys are everywhere.

But which bad guys do you love?

Obviously, I have to kill my bad guy. I tried to get out of it, but one of my readers said "No way. He must die." Okay, I'll kill him. But I will make you cry when he dies. xP

Laughing in my Sleep

I am: Happy to be home!!!!!

What's the anime freak listening to now? As Long as You're Mine from Wicked the Musical

Dream Diary: Oh, where do I even begin today? I took an escalator at the mall, a down one, and got stuck on the up escalator across from it. At the top I just flipped around and came back down. or something really wierd like that. Then we were kinda snooping through the mall at night, when it was dark and the storefronts were barred. We finally made it outside, and then there was this Joker-like voice coming from somewhere telling us to get in this nearby fighter plane and run through the mall in it, shooting everything and breaking windows. We never got the thing off the ground, but we still smashed some stuff up with it.

A little note: I always refer to "us" and "we" in my dreams. I'm seldom alone in them. I'm usually with my Venturing crew, my cousins, a class from school that I really bonded with, etc. That, or it's just me and one other--Aenso, the love interest in my book. (Don't get dirty ideas.)

I'd like to share this today. It's a great bit of advice for aspiring writers like myself.

Dream Number Two: Book Two!!

I am: itching to write!

What's the anime freak listening to now? Pocket Full of Sunshine by Natasha Bedingfield

Dream Diary: None that I can remember. Just a freaky midnight encounter with a closet and twenty coats billowing out of it like a serial killer.

I'm wanting to write so much today! So here's just a little book two teaser:

Apparently, Miradellian Princesses can't have normal bodies. They have to be fit. They have to be small and agile for convenience's sake--really, combat's sake. This explains my thorough petite-ification, literally from head to toe. This explains why I scared myself losing track of time for nearly an hour out running yesterday, stopping only when the cold felt like a flaming sword in my throat.

And have to symbolize majesty, which supposedly explains why my hair suddenly puts the best conditioner in the store to crimson ignominy. (There's another thing that's been majorly annoying, English homework.)

And I still proudly to not wear the American Anorexia Physique. No, I look a little more along the lines of . . . an anime girl. Which I really wouldn't mind . . .

. . . . if all the freaking mouth-breathing otakus in the anime club would start queuing up in the manga library line to check out the books, the way they used to--NOT the librarian!!!!!

One-Day Intern

I am: At my Uncle Ed-itor's house in Texas.

What's the anime freak listening to now? Megumeru, the Clannad opening theme.

Dream Diary: Agents. And something else I can't remember. I think it had to do with prairie dogs.

The prairie dog thing would be from talking with an editor I interned with for one day at Boy's Life Magazine. She was telling me how she looked up prairie dogs online one time, and she found this site that had been poorly translated: "Piece of prairie dog has napkin party!"

It was interesting seeing how magazines operate--which parts are creative and which arent. I did a lot of fact-checking for them. Emails, phone calls, websites.

I never want to go into journalism.

Dream Number One: Publication

I am: READY TO GO HOME!

What's the anime freak listening to now? Whispers in the Dark by Skillet

Dream Diary: "We" were in a house in a valley that was attacked by something that resembled a cross between a tornado and a dragon. A character that resembled a clown in a blue bodycast hid with us after our planes crashed into the mountain when we attempted to fight it.


So, to introduce myself (if the dream diary entry didn't scare you off already):

The first thing you should know is, I'm a writer. I'm trying to get published.

The catch is, I'm seventeen.

I finished the book at fifteen, and I've been editing and researching since. I hope to send my first batch of queries at the beginning of September. (August is a vacation month for literary agents.)

I attended the Southeastern Writer's Conference this summer, and the first chapter of my book won 2nd play for the SWA Juvenile Fiction Award and placed third for the M. L. Brown Award for Young Adult Literature.

Also, this summer, a certified individual has informed me that I have "a genius level of verbal ability."

You may have the next Amelia Atwater-Rhodes or Christopher Paolini on your hands here. We'll have to wait and see. ^.^