Ode to Writing!

 I really have to update more often! University life is overwhelming …But, as Mr. Darcy in the ’95 adaptation says, “I will overcome this!”

1.
I must share with everyone the strangest incident that occurred last week. I was walking through campus, observing the colorful array of soggy leaves strewn across the damp sidewalk, then at the gothic 19^th century architecture of our university (I love how UofT makes me feel like I’m at Hogwarts), but when I looked forward I saw someone I did not know, yet felt I should know. She had been on the phone, but came to a stumbling halt, her eyes fixed on me.

“June?” she asked, her voice hesitant.

I just stared. As the seconds passed by, this is all that went through my head: Oh….my…gosh. Oh my gosh. OH MY GOSH!!!

It turns out that she was Custos Morum on Fictionpress, my reader of two (ish?) years. We both recognized each other thanks to Facebook. But how coincidental IS this?! I knew we went to the same university. But our university is the size of a city. That we should walk into each other is… !!!! (for the lack of a better word). I told my LTWF blogger team about this and they shared stories about how they met up with their readers. Though we differed in how we met our readers, one thing is the same, which is: It is SO GREAT to meet, face to face, someone who appreciates your work.

2.
This Friday I met up with Kerrie. She’s the person I sat randomly next to on my second-ish day at my English Lit lecture. We began to talk about books and discovered that we both preferred the classics to contemporary literature and that we were both interested in the publishing industry and THEN that we were both novel writers! So when we lounged at a coffee shop, both of us sipping on our hot drinks, we talked on and on about writing. It’s always so nice meeting someone with the same aspirations as myself. Now we’re planning on making a literary/writing group with a more intimate environment than the one at school. We’re going for a Bloomsbury kind of group. The thought of recreating such a group is so very, very appealing *dreamy sigh*. We’re going to meet up another week to plan this out. Then we need to start recruiting members.

3.
The query letter is FINISHED (got the thumbs up from both Sarah and Alexandra). The synopsis is 40% complete. Sarah J. Maas returned her review of my synopsis rewrite and gave me her stamp of approval–for the general structure of it, that is. There is still a lot to fix and phrases to amp. But I’m getting there! Eeeeh so excited. As I wrote on my Facebook display name this week (paraphrasing):

I CANNOT wait to start querying. Even if I get rejected, I’ll still be excited, saying something like this: YAY an agent WROTE back to ME!

Is anyone else in their querying stage? How did you feel and deal with rejection? Please help me prepare myself…*nervous laughter* As optimistic as I might sound now, I think it’s because the reality of what I’m about to do, has not yet registered in my mind.

BIG NEWS

Fictionpress authors breaking into the publishing industry
…One book at a time

A few of us former FictionPress authors have launched a blog to reach out to Fictionpress readers, and provide resources and information for FictionPress writers also seeking to move into the World of Publishing (I’m paraphrasing the mission statement for our site here). The contributors are writers who have made (or are making) the leap to professional publication like myself, Mandy Hubbard (published author of Prada & Prejudice), Sarah J. Maas (author of Queen of Glass), Poohba (author of Thorn of the Kingdom), Renee Carter (author of His Eyes), Alexandra Shostak (author of Phantom Beauty), Rachel Simon (an awsome FP-BETA), and Savannah (author of Antebellum). This is a community where we can finally keep track of all the FictionPress writers on their progress to publication! If you want to also become a contributor send in your application to the email provided in the CONTACT PAGE of our blog.

Cheers–

J.

Update! (For the lack of a better title)

I would like to begin this post by congratulating Priscilla Shay for completing Willful Wisdom! After two long years she has finally finished this intriguing story of passion, murder, mystery, and spies! I am so happy for her, especially as she is a fellow Historical Romance writer. Now she will start revising this work so she might publish it one day. To keep track of her progress you should check out her blog here.

As for my progress, S.J.Maas and I have finally reached a consensus that my query letter is ready to send out, but just in case, she recommended that I send a copy to Alexandra, another great query letter writer. Now we’re working on my synopsis–basically I need to sum up my 90,000 word story into two pages. I sent Sarah a draft but she asked for a rewrite. And rightly so! I had no idea what I was writing until I read her critiques. She suggested this:

“….make it more about the plot, and less about the characters. Right now, I have no idea what happens in the story. It might help to make an outline of the plot arc of the story, bulletpointing all the key events, and then go in and write the synopsis again.”

I’ve rewritten the synopsis but plan to hang onto it for a few more days and see if I can make some improvements.

Countdown to Querying: 20 days

As I said before, readers, keep me accountable.

 

EMMA (2009) WATCH IT!!!!!

I CAN’T WAIT TO WATCH THIS!! OMG!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!

Querying countdown

True to my word, I have been working hard on my query letter, hoping to send it out by the deadline I’ve set for myself. November 20. I have a feeling I’m really close to my final draft. S.J.Maas (check out her interview here), an agented writer, has been of massive help to me. I thought the original draft of my query letter was pretty decent. But oh boy was I far from it. Through her help I now have a query letter that is beyond recognition from the original draft. I love it. Each time I receive the critiqued draft from her, I am so excited to work on it, so much so that I neglect my school readings and end up staying up till the early hours of the morning revamping it (this isn’t anything to brag about, I know!–but rest assured, I’m not falling behind at school).

I have about 40 agents I want to query to. I need 50 more–It means 50 more chances of getting a request from an agent to read a partial of my work. Anyway, these are the two I am practically salivating to send my query letter off to: 

• irenegoodman
• avon

The first agency has the lady who represented Judith McNaught’s work. McNaught is the author who influenced me most in terms of writing romances (whereas Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen are the two authors who made me WANT to write in the first place). Yes, it’s a big dream for an amature writer to want a big-time agent, but the sky is the limit, right?

On to the next one. Avon. It is one of the largest romance publishing company. They seem to be accepting unsolicited manuscripts. So it’s worth a try. My incentive: I’ve seen some books published by Avon that have really classy covers with storylines that are genre-benders.

Here is an example covers of a lovely Avon book I haven’t read:

I’m just saying, Avon doesn’t just design covers with half naked couples. Not that I have anything against these covers. It is just that I don’t think it’d be particularly fitting for my work.

Also, if there is any other agents or publishing firms that accept unsolicited works, please notify me! I know there’s Dorchester, thanks to Priscilla.

I also need to work on a synopsis, which I am dreading. Grrrrrr.

D-Day: 24

EDIT: 30 days… not 24…

Next stage, querying!

Sorry for the lack of updates. And I’d like to apologies again to my favourite bloggers whose posts I’ve neglected for the past several weeks. If I weren’t pressed for time, I would be clicking from one blog to the next, catching up on everything. Now, I shall give you all my reasons as to why I’m so busy:

1) Thinking kept me busy. I could do little else but think of RWA’s Golden Heart contest. But after a day or two of contemplation my resolve vacillated. It’s not only the cost of entering that made me back out ($100U.S.+printing fee for the required 6 partials and 1 manuscript + delivery fee), but because of the lack of time (refer to reason 4 for more detail) AND because I thought to myself: Why don’t I just start querying to agents and see if one of them wants to take me on? I mean, if I thought TRC ready enough to enter a $100 contest, shouldn’t I just try to query instead? It’s probably as difficult to win the contest as it is to find m’self a good agent. So I’ll go in order. Query to agents, get rejected, THEN enter the contest. Or, who knows, I might get lucky. But anyways, in short, I’ve decided to start sending out query letters mid-November. Readers, keep me accountable! This is my deadline. Make me keep it! Mid-November to the beginning of December will be my deadline for querying. Ok? If I pass the deadline then….scold me. Without a deadline I’ll always put it off. I’ll always tell myself that there is time. And end up taking no initiative at all! 

2) I’ve been working on my query letter. I sent my rough draft to Everleigh. She gave me some great pointers.  S.J.Maas also offered to review it, so once I incorporate Everleigh’s edits I’ll send it over to her as well, and hopefully she’ll have time to look through it *crosses finger*. I’ve already asked so much of her and others! Oh yes, and there’s also Mandy Hubbard’s special offer to review everyone’s query letter. Seriously, without the help of these more experienced awsome writers, I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere.

3)  I also need to write out a synopsis for TRC. A few pages long, I’m going to assume. And this is also going to take me some time!

4) University is overwhelming! No wonder people warned me that those who go to University of Toronto have no life! I’m studying day in, day out. I have two midterms this week. An in-class essay. A novel to finish off. A presentation to prepare for. I’m only halfway through the biography of William Tyndale (a great book but so long). I need to finish this off and write a book review for it by late this October. Now, to some in their later university years, must think this is nothing–but for girl who just graduated from her laid back high school!–’tis madness. But I’m loving it! I love what I’m studying.

5) Oh, and of course, I’m looking for agents to query to. I have about 30 listed down. Priscilla recommended Dorchester press to me as they are taking in submissions. Hmmm but let’s say they do contract my work, I hope my book, when published, doesn’t have half-naked people on my covers. I want something sophisticated.

 And I must close this post with this one amusing but, nevertheless, brilliant example of  PUBLICIZING (“Free cookies!” my sister heard inside the subway station. She went over to get a free packet and ended up getting this):

  

 

 

40% of all paperbacks sold in North America are romances. It’s no wonder that Harlequin has enough in their budget to advertise this way.

I’ll try to search out more interesting ways publishing companies advertise their books. And if you guys find any, send me the pics so I can post ‘em up!

RWA’s Golden Heart contest–to enter, or not to enter, that is the question…

I woke up at 5am today, suddenly, deciding that I should enter my work in RWA’s Golden Heart contest. Let’s say I do win, (though there’s a slim chance at that, considering there’ll be over a thousand works to compare my work to!) then it’ll look so amazingling, superbly good on my query letter. The chances of an agent contracting my manuscript would go up by fourty percent, I bet, if I win this contest. BUT…but…but….the fee for non-members is a $100. Is it worth it, do you think? Should I go against the odds and cross my fingers? Or should I just forge my own way, try to publish a work on my university’s magazine, get some credentials that way, and query agents with a humble letter? ARGGG this is so frustrating. I’m a poor student after all who works only once a week! If only I were rich….haha. Anyway, I just wanted to get some opinions on whether or not this would be a good investment. If so, I’ll do it, only, I’ll just have to live on a tight budget for a month. Is it worth is? is the question.
 
On a lighter note, today one of my editors emailed me, writing that while she had been giving piano lessons to one of her students, the mother of this student, while waiting there for her kid, had discovered my manuscript on the kitchen table. She began to read it, became so “engrossed” in it, and asked my editor to ask me whether she could read the whole story! This email was read at 5:30am, so you can imagine why I`m fully awake right now typing this out. I really needed this email. Lately, my confidence in TRC has fallen to a low again–maybe it’s the fact that I haven’t worked on it for a while now. Ah, we are our worst critic.

Odd ways people found there way to my blog

After studying for five hours at the library, catching up on my readings, my brain was exhausted. So when I came home I didn’t want to do anything productive, so I dropped by my Blog’s Stats page and started skimming through the list of search terms people used to find my blog. I never bothered to look at them before. What I ended up finding was….interesting.

I don’t think any of my blog posts were of much help to this person. It must be really disturbing to have your relative flirting with you. But it’s not unheard of. These things happen. Hmmm Mr. Collins from Pride and Prejduce comes to mind. However, in those days, it was allowed for a cousin to marry another cousin.

 

It’s good to know that there are men out there who want to be wise, smart and dashing–though I believe these are characteristics one can’t attain overnight after having read some advices online. 

 

 I have no idea why people who typed in “boobs” in the search engine were linked to my blog. I do recall having mentioned “heaving bossoms” before….but never boobs. I swear!!!!

So, what are the strangest search terms people used to find your blog?

The child in me

I feel a subtle ache in me which I am unwilling to indulge in, unwilling to wallow in, unwilling to feel the full agony of, afraid that it’ll overwhelm me. My parents are far away, across the ocean, in the tiny country of Korea. I often wonder to myself: The next time I see them, how much older will my parents be? How much will my brother have changed? He’ll be all grown up when I see him again. The little boy I remember might be gone. So I wish I could hold them in my embrace and have time stop. To hold onto them against the race of time.

It’s at times like this when I wish we were all living in Neverland.

But life must go on and will go on. Change is inevitable. I must learn to embrace it. But oh, the past is always sweeter, like a dream.

Teaser for “The Runaway Courtesan”

Everyone voted for a romantic scene from TRC so I’ve posted one down below. Those of you who read the original draft two years ago on Fictionpress might find this bit familiar. Much has changed since the first draft but a lot of the romantic scenes I’ve kept. I just added more of said scenes.

——————————————–

Amanda went with Lucas to the carriage awaiting them. He handed her inside the vehicle and, in this process, she watched as he attempted to conceal his wound. He continued to do so even as they were seated, placing his bloody hand beneath his hat. At this sight her heart ached. She watched him in this manner for some time before she brought out his hand, flipped it over, exposing the ghastly cuts to the moonlight.

“What happened to your hand?” she asked.

He cleared his throat and muttered, “Nothing. Just a little accident.” And as if seeing that his explanation had not subdued her suspicion, he added, “I fell on my hand.”

She had witnessed everything. This had happened because of her. Yet here he was telling another story. She slipped out her handkerchief and began to dab it against his wound to clean away the blood. His hand tried to recoil in pain, but she held firmly onto it.

“It hurts,” he said in a harsh whisper.

“Don’t be such a child, my lord. It’s emasculating.”

“You’re rubbing the cloth too hard against the wound—”

“Here, I’ll wrap the handkerchief around it. Hopefully it shall help stop the blood.”

He remained silent, observing her. “I truly am well, Amanda.”

As she was wrapping his hand with the cloth, watching the dark blood seep through the fabric and soil her own fingers, she had to swallow constantly to repress the sob that continued to creep up her constricted throat. She wanted to cry, not over the way the people had treated her, but because it hurt her so much to see how low he had been brought down because of her.

“There, done,” she managed to say.

“Thank you.” He removed his hand from her grasp, crossed his legs and cast his eyes out the carriage window. Watching him restlessly tap his finger against the top of his hat, Amanda felt uneasy. Was he having second thoughts? Did he now regret stepping into the same carriage as her? Did he now feel too ashamed to even look at her? Did he—

“Are you alright?” came his voice, low and hesitant.

“Me?” She let out a short, unsteady laugh. “You should be asking yourself that. I’m not the one with that bloody wound.”

Amanda’s heart leapt as Lucas took one of her hands and threaded his fingers between hers. His thumb caressed the side of her palm, as if to assure her that he was there, that she wasn’t alone in this cold and hostile world.

——————————————–

Now I’m planning to start a new project–when inspiration strikes. Though I think I’ll still be obsessing over TRC until the day it gets published. I always find it odd, really, how devoted I am to this story. For those of you who have been following my work since the first day I began posting them up on Fictionpress will know how often I started then abandoned stories. Many of them never got past three chapters. Anyway, when a new story does come up, I’ll be sure to share it with you guys.

Related Posts:

Chapter one of “The Runaway Courtesan”

On TRC and Plagiarism

Univoked asked me to add a snippet of my story up here on this blog. I already have chapter one up (if you look to your left you’ll find a page called “sample chapter” or something). I already have seven chapters up on Authonomy. This is a site I’m trying to avoid now. I got so addicted to it during the summer. My ranking rose quite a bit, along with my TSR. But now that school has started I’ve neglected this site, so now my book’s rank has dropped. Oh well. Sacrifices must be made!

Anyway, I’d like to post up a snippet from the middle of my story. Like Lucas and Amanda’s first kiss scene. But I’m wondering if this isn’t a good idea. And the more I write about this, the more I’m thinking I shouldn’t post anything more up. I have plagiarism-phobia after this one incident where someone copied my whole story (the original, crappy draft) off of fictionpress and posted it up on this Westlife fansite (of all the sites…). The administrator found out that this was plagiarized work and so contacted me. The story was taken down immediately. I was so relieved. But for some time after I was scared that this person might try and publish it. HOWEVER, rereading this draft of TRC, I shook this fear off, because without INTENSE revision, the original draft had no chance of getting published. And come on. Someone who plagiarizes a whole story obviously is not much of a writer. A true writer would not find pleasure in receiving praise for a work she didn’t even write.

On a lighter note…. *drum rolls*….I finished my ninth draft of TRC! I am so happy! Now I have nothing to do because I’ve worked on this manuscript for soooo long that I wouldn’t do the story any good in trying to go straight into another round of revision. I need fresh eyes. I need to read as a reader and not a writer. So now my manuscript has finally reached that stage where it will be put away for six months.

The chapter I was struggling with is still rough. But I’m very satisfied with it. And I know that no matter how much time I spend on it now, it won’t improve. I really do need to put this aside.

Thoughts in the A.M.

I have much to share. I’ve been saving everything up so I can spill it out all at once rather than posting one thought after the next.

1) I thought up a new and improved scenerio for chapters 32 & 33. The storyline for the previous version of the two chapters made my heroine seem so callous; my heart just wasn’t in it. The new idea came to me early one morning while I was still in bed. I was neither asleep nor awake then. But these few scenes for the chapters flashed through my mind. The new plot twist fit in so well with the rest of my story. It simplified everything. So I rolled out of bed, scrambled over to my desk, began scribbling the ideas down onto the back of an envelope. Later than day I wrote out the rough draft of chapter 32. I’m liking it. For now.

2) Today I went with a friend to the University of Toronto to sign up for some clubs. Afterwards my friend left. I hung out alone at Tim Hortons, sipping…water…while I read “Into the Wild.” Later I attended this mocktail party (cocktale without the alcohol *snickers*) which one of my friends invited me to. It was….good. Being a rather shy, introverted person when around new people, I was a bit uncomfortable at this party where everyone, save my friend, were strangers. I always prefer to remain in my comfort zone; this is something I try hard to step out of. I’ve made some progress. And I need to do this, I need to improve and overcome my shyness. New people and new environments stimulate my imagination when I write.

AFTERWARDS, midway through the party, I started conversing with this one girl named Rebecca while others were dancing (*sigh* I’m not much of a dancer. I’m a twig swaying in the wind when I try). We fell into such a deep conversation. The music was so loud that in order to hear each other we had to yell. But I didn’t care. For that moment I was lost in her words, my thoughts, her thoughts. It was wonderful. Good, meaningful conversations always make my day.

3)  I was finishing off the book “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer on my subway ride back home from the party. Throughout the read, I kept wishing that I’d met this Chris McCandles. He was an adventurous, ambitious, intelligent young man who was a lover of literature and nature…. Intense people are awsome. They’re passion is contagious. Soon it is I, the relatively sweet tempered girl, now jumping up and down, swinging my fist around. Anyway. I digress. I would definately recommend this non-fiction book to everyone. 

4) I have more to write (one about family and another about psycopaths), but I’m tired, and I have work tomorrow. Full time. From 11:30am to god knows when. 10 at night perhaps. Oh buggers.

Period Film: Stage Beauty (2004)

***1/2 out of *****

I put off watching Stage Beauty for a long while, but when I finally did see it, I was drawn into a romantic, entertaining and poignant story. I was very surprised. No wonder this movie was awarded the Overlooked Film of the Year (2004) by the Phoenix Film Critics Society.

Stage Beauty is set in the seventeenth century England when it was against the law for a woman to act onstage. So Maria (Claire Danes), an aspiring actress, performs secretly at an underground theatre. When she isn’t acting, she is the dresser for the handsome Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup). Kynaston, who has been playing the female role onstage for years, is the leading actor of his day. Little does he know that his loyal Maria is infatuated with him. She ends up heartbroken and repulsed when, one night, she sees Kynaston making out with a male co-actor. Leaving him she pursues her dream to become a respected actress and ends up creating a stir by playing Desedmona in Othello. After a series of events, King Charles II lifts the ban, allowing females to act, but enacts a new law that makes it illegal for men to play the role of a woman onstage. This leads to Kynaston’s downfall while Maria becomes a star. Due to all that has occurred, there relationship becomes a complicated balance of resentment and compassion.

I started watching this movie thinking that the romance between the heroine and the bisexual hero wouldn’t work out, but, surprisingly, this unconventional pairing complemented the film. Stage Beauty isn’t such an empty, brainless film as I thought it’d be. Though the first half of the movie started off as if it’d be another trashy comedy, towards the latter half, there was a bit of depth to the storyline. I found myself constantly surprised throughout.

However, the movie had its flaws. The humor at times was too bawdy and without wit. It lacked the graceful spirit I expect in a good period film. Sometimes it was painful to listen to some of the characters with (I’m not British, yet even I noticed) their faulty English accent. Yet all this I could overlook due to the sheer entertainment of the movie.

The movie can be watched here on YouTube:

On editing and obsessing

As I mentioned in this post, I have been struggling, and am still struggling, with these two chapters (32&33). After multiple edits, when I reviewed my most recent rewrite of chapter 33, it still looked like this:

 

 

It usually does not take me this long to write out a satisfactory chapter. I don’t know why its taken these two chapters weeks merely to reach another standstill. Maybe there’s a reason behind this, either 1) I am stubbornly holding onto my idea of how chpt 32&33 should go while the story itself wants to head a different way 2) i need inspiration–I need to wait until I am drowning in jealousy and despair before I can write these emotional chapters as it should be, because right now, what I’ve written is so dry.

Now, my editor told me that I can’t always be waiting for inspiration, that I should, quoting M.M.Bennetts (a writer and historian who has helped me out a great deal with the historical aspect of TRC), write into the void. And I did that. But the writing so uninspired that is shows when I read it–the chapter just reads like a bunch of point form notes.

Speaking of inspiration, reading Elysium, a story on Fictionpress, really makes me want to write. This is one of the few works on FP which I consider to be a literary masterpiece. Her writing is poetic beauty, and the storyline is just breath-taking! I haven’t read the whole of the story yet, as I was determined to read it when it gets published, but I started corresponding with this writer again, and I agreed to become her BETA (whatever this stands for).

Oh, and before I end this post, here’s a soundtrack that I found particularly inspiring while I was writing:

I am back!

This is just going to be a quick update on what’s going on with me:

1) Leaving my parents and little brother, I’m back in Canada, preparing to attend my first year at the University of Toronto. I can’t say my airplane flight here was pleasant though. I sat down and then later two guys sat beside me on the plane. They used both my arm rests; thus, I had nowhere to place my elbows. It was so uncomfortable that I couldn’t even go sleep. Instead I watched movies all throughout my flight–5 movies, to be exact. Also, whenever I had to go to the washroom, I’d have to moon the guy in my attempt to get out. very embrassing.

2) I’ve accomplished my summer goal. My ninth(?) round of revision is complete! But I’m still not satisfied with these two major chapters. I think I’ll work on them a little during university. Just a little. But I want to have this over with so I can put TRC aside for about six months. Then I’m bringing it out to do one more round of editing before I try querying to agents. Yes, change of plans, I won’t be keeping TRC for another four years. While my intention was to keep TRC and revise it over the next four years, my dad said that I should “try” to get it published, starting this or next year. He said that I’ll always think my story isn’t good enough, I’ll always want to change something, so I need to stop trying to perfect my MS at one point and take the next step.

3)  I learned recently that my dad is a published writer. He’s a professor of theology, so he wrote a book about Christianity stuff (sorry, I don’t know the specifics), and got it published last year. But I didn’t know! I wonder if I inherited this passion for writing from my father?

4) I’m looking for a dedicated editor really good with grammar. I already have two editors (Val and Flora) but they mainly focus on the plot, character and historical accuracy. I don’t want to ask them to start again from chapter one and pick at grammatical errors. They’ve already done so much for me.

5) I’m reading the book “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer. It is soooo good.

6) I woke up at 6pm today. Not only was this due to my jet lag, but because I stayed up until 5am watching “Queen Margot.” I wish I could say I loved it. But, though the historical backdrop was interesting, and though Vincent Perez (the male protagonist) was gorgeous (!!!) in this movie, it was like a bodice-ripper to me. When I see an undeveloped, lust-oriented love story, I get critical. Has anyone else seen this movie?