Skyla Dawn Cameron's Blog

So it's been just over a week since I decided to sit down, recharge my batteries, and get some writing done.

I've written June's CotA chapter, July's, August's, and then I decided that--since I'm technically one chapter behind my plan due to missing March's--I'd have a mid-month chapter in August.

In summary, that's four chapters and twenty thousand words, all on top of my other full time work. Go me!

And, even better, I'm really stoked about some things I've written. I'm also petrified--for the

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I think I've only gotten half of what I need to get done this weekend actually done, but I don't care anymore. It really hit me that I need to take weekends for myself. Right now, I only tutor until Thursday. That gives me Friday to catch up with publishing work stuff. I'll still do some stuff on the weekend (like I got some edits done this weekend), but I can't keep using it as my catch up time because it's stressing me out. If stuff doesn't get done, it doesn't get done.

So Friday, after s

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So I get an email from a, uh, literary agency, telling me to check out unpublishedink.com, and how I should go through the book proposals there. I went to the site because I thought it might be fun to blog about.

Unpublished Ink is for unpublished authors to "present" their work. Who are they presenting to? Supposedly agents and publishers. Huh.

Directly from the homepage: "Message to the Publishers and Literary Agents. Among the avalanche of manuscripts you are buried under, you might overloo

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I'll make this one quick. I'm only posting 'cause I'm waiting for my drugs to kick in so that I can go to sleep...

1) Dollhouse. I just wanted to make a comment about the penultimate episode, Briar Rose. I read a lot of comments by viewers about the Paul Ballard/Boyd fight in the Dollhouse. Some people were on Paul's side, others were on Boyd's. Am I the only one who wasn't on either of their sides?

These were two men fighting over what *they* thought was best for a grown woman. It doesn't mat

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I sent out half a dozen acceptance letters last night, for both Mundania and Awe-Struck. I'm going to try to get through most of the rejections later today. But since I always bitch about what makes us reject a book, I thought I'd list some of the reasons *why* we ended up accepting these ones out of hundreds. I'm not naming names or anything, since we're still signing contracts, but here is what these books and authors have in common... (This may be lengthy, so I'm putting it behind a cut.)

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For those concerned about my major stress and workaholic-ness (which is 90% of the people I talk to), I'd just like everyone to know that I'm about to take a hot bubble bath, have a beer, and do some writing (that doesn't involve the serials). Also, Dirty Dancing is on, which is Teh Greatest Film EVAR! ;-)

Remember, nobody puts Baby in the corner!

(I think I might be swinging into a manic episode, but I'm not complaining after all the depressive ones.)

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No idea if this kind of thing actually helps me get shit done or not, but here's the list of things I have to do:

* Send out rejections/acceptance letters for Sept/Oct slush (Mundania books and Awe-Struck ones). We made final decisions a week ago, and I've been meaning to get them all sent out...but I have at least a hundred and fifty rejection letters to do, and that's time consuming.

* Make and send out some contracts for Phaze (that's the extent of my involvement there--I'm contract girl).

* Wo

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I may come under criticism for this and be accused of snobbery/insensitivity/etc, but it really needs to be said.

If you have a previously published book, either by a commercial house or a vanity publisher, that you would like to submit to a new publisher, please, please, please really think about it before hand.

Yes, Mundania is known for our reprints. However...these are typically books by Piers Anthony, Louise Cooper, Anne Logston, Don Callander, Robert Adams...people with a huge fanbase and h

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So for fun today (I have a weird idea of fun), I decided to go through the last 250 pieces in my slush pile from March/April.

Different publishers get different stuff in slush, so I'm not saying this is going to be the same results across the board...BUT it should give you a good sense of what I end up seeing.

What I was looking at, specifically, is how many submissions followed our basic guidelines. We aren't, really, all that strict. Email cover letter with your contact info, book titles/genre

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I'm a writer.

No, honestly, I am.

I know it seems like all I do is wrangle editors, yell at authors, nag my boss, read slush, reply to emails...but I really, truly, am a writer.

Or at least I felt like one when I had time.

Last year, I didn't have a job for a few months. Then I had a job, but it was like ten hours a week. So I got a LOT of stuff done. I finished four novels, got two polished and submitted, started some other stuff... And now I get nothing done.

I thought, "Oh, I can do Curio Ki

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