Edit-Fication

Well I have begun the editing and re-shaping of my holiday Bible club MS. I have been through the five days of teaching and I am in the process of adapting and editing the discussion questions. Once this is done, the main piece of work I have to do is condense my synopsis to one page, which will be a challenge. It was great to sit down and begin to plan and go through the layout and how I am going to submit this work to this particular publisher. I am determind that by mid Feb at the latest I will be ready to submit this again.

I loved writing this three years ago for the holiday club at our church and have been actively encouraged to try and get it published, so we will have a go.

The subject of Daniel is exciting for kids and relevant and I have had a buzz out of revisiting it again!

My YA novel is calling to me but I am determind to do one project at a time to finish it, otherwise I go off and nothing gets finished!

A milestone...am I a real writer now?

Although this is a picture of a milestone on the Camel Trail near where I live, it is an illustration of how I have been feeling this past couple of days, (no not made of stone and static!)

Last post I was fretting about whether I had done the right thing, well I rang the first publisher and the next day received a letter and my manuscript back. I have my first rejection letter...does that make me a real writer? It was a really nice rejection letter, which helps from a Christian publisher, and they gave me some good feedback but they had no room on their list for a holiday club programme till 2011!!! Oh well, I will keep some irons in the fire with it and maybe repackage it a bit before I send it anywhere else. I was kind of expecting the letter but it was a little disappointing all the same. Just a decision about whether I file or frame it as a milestone in my embryonic writing career. I guess if I file it, it is an excuse to buy a nice scrapbook!!

I have had a manic weekend that involved a school fair, a preschool fair and my baptism of fire into the world of face painting under pressure. I hope I still have some friends on Monday rather than comments like, "What did you do to my kid?" or "I still cannot get the blue face paint of the dolphin/peacock/butterfly out of her hair you know!!" However I did have the joy of finishing the prologue for my novel which has started the momentum of writing for me again. Hopefully I will start on Chapter One this week and try to do some more planning. My new memory stick now has a neck strap on it, so hopefully I will not lose this one (they do not make them with a homing device installed yet!!)

Memory Stick, Email and CV

Well I have had a very wet day, as I am sure all of you out there in Blogger land have too!! I had had a great night last night writing a prologue for my children's book. I had thought about taking a slightly different approach and off I went scribbling away while listening to Magic on Sky (radio station). I have had to wait to put it on to the PC however as my memory stick is still stuck in the parallel universe, but joy of joys my new memory stick arrived from ebay this morning. It has a huge memory (4GB) and only cost me £8 HOWEVER it is about half the physical size of the one that has gone missing...how am I going to manage to not lose this one!! Answers on a posting please!

I am still waiting for a publisher to come back to me about a manuscript I wrote for a Children's holiday programme, it has been six weeks since I sent it and I am getting a little anxious now as to whether I should make a polite phone call to ascertain what the defined waiting period for a response is from this publisher. Impatience rules and I sent a couple of prospective fishing emails to the editorial sections of a couple of other similar publishers, attaching the synopsis of the manuscript to one. Tonight...fall off the chair moment, one of these publishers has come back to me agreeing to read the synopsis and asking me for my CV...wait wait, back up...a what? I have never written my own CV. I used to teach people how to write theirs but had never done my own, so here I am at 11.45pm blogging after just finishing proof reading and emailing my CV to this publisher.

Now I am worrying I have done it all wrong by not waiting for the response of the first publisher before sending it elsewhere, what if the first publisher wants it...what if the second one wants it and the first one has not replied yet...what if neither wants it...what if both want it....no that's not likely. What if the CV is rubbish? What if they fall off their chairs laughing? OK cannot change it now, wait and see Mick, stop panicking and going off on one.

Eggs, Notebooks and SAE's

Pictured is my one of my son's chickens, Gypsy, who has given us our first two eggs. Admittedly they are the size of Cadbury's cream eggs at the moment but it has been a momentous time in our household. Hopefully the others will be following suit in the near future. One thing I would love to capture in words is the expressions on my two children's faces when they discovered the egg nestled in the straw. I am blessed with very facially expressive children and the moment was like a photo you want to memorise and convey on paper. Will try to have a go I think as it is a memory of childhood I hope they will both have of owning and caring for their chickens.

I got an ebay parcel today that contained a lovely purple velvet notebook I had won. It is fab and I am considering what extra special project may grace its pages. The fact I have bought another A4 sized notebook from Woolies this week is neither here nor there. One can never have too many notebooks, or decent writing pens for that matter!

Finally I have my submission printed and ready to go to the post office tomorrow morning, proof reading got delayed by me having to count squillions of leaflets to deliver to Bodmin schools today. One thing about submitting work for consideration by a publisher is the dilemma of what postage do you put on a SAE? If you weigh your manuscript and put the postage on that would enable the publisher to return the whole thing...is that a defeatist message? On the other hand if I only put a first class stamp on the SAE and they do not like it, is it too self assured in its message? I am on the horns of a dilemma (not comfy either!!) however I guess the middle ground is that if they like it and it need revision I will at least get it back.

Feels pretty strange submitting this after talking about it for so long. I need to work on not building up my hopes and watching the letterbox every day for a reply.

The Power of an Hour

Well today has turned into something special for me. Thanks to my friend Kat I was able to do some writing in a child free zone for two hours and it not only got my writing ball rolling, it sent it off down the hill and out of site!!! I have been meaning to write up a holiday bible club scheme I wrote for Grace Family Bible Week two years ago. The material was based on the first six chapters of the book of Daniel in the Bible. I was pleased with it at the time and thought I might well be able to consider submitting it for publishing.

Well needless to say, lots of things got in the way and it was all filed away on my PC and in foolscap files. Recently I have been determind to have a go and submit the material to Scripture Union, so today I finished it!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have my first ever manuscript to send tomorrow to a publisher. It is not my Magnum Opus I grant you, but to actually have revised, edited and compiled a submission that I think is good enough to send to a publisher is truly an amazing moment.

Without being negative I am stalling myself for the rejection letter but I do believe in a God of miracles and also believe He is control of all things, so in His time and plan I will see whether it is a yes or a no. What I have determind in my heart today is not to give up and to keep on writing. Having been through a recent time of frustration and weariness I have again experienced the tingle I feel when I am writing and developing ideas. I am reminded why this was my lifetime ambition and I am not going to let it get buried under a mound of ironing, washing up or paperwork. The pen is mightier than the Persil!!!!