Christine Norris's Blog: Christine Norris' blog, page 19

Teen Track Turmoil

So, I managed to wrangle myself an invitation to be a guest at Balticon next year.  I am SUPER excited about that, because I've been dying to go for years and could never justify the expense. But now I have a little more freedom, and a new book next year, and an agent who will be trying to sell the Steampunk book, I figured I should give it a go.

Part of the reason, I think, is that I offered to volunteer for some of their Teen Track programming. Apparently it's not a huge draw and not as...

The second post, in which I wax a little about getting an agent…

So I hope all of you in the US  had a wonderful and filling Thanksgiving and you spent your Black Friday doing whatever you wanted, either shopping like mad or sitting at home.

My day was filled with online shopping, finishing a paper for Grad School, and putting up the Christmas tree. And here I sit, already falling behind in my promise to myself to keep up this new blog and to be madly interesting and give you all kinds of great tidbits about publishing and writing. So I decided that I'd do ...

Just for fun...

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You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Bad blogger, no biscuit

I know, terrible. I am completely out of control with the lack of blogging. Every minute of every day the last few weeks has been sucked up by work, grad school, and/or football. I love being busy, but it's also meant I'm a little stressed out and there has been no writing time. I have gotten a couple of pages of rewriting done for the new edition of TALISMAN OF ZANDRIA,but that's about it. 

*I cannot wait for this semester to be over.  A ton of work and reading for 12 weeks. If I were still only subbing it would probably not be a problem. But she's killing me, this professor.

*I cannot wait for football to be over.

Well, that's not really true. My son is having an awesome time this year, after a bumpy start, and I'm happy to see him happy. He was getting a little stressed too, being at practice four nights a week, and once school started he was just worn out. But we've had some days off, he's adjusted to the schedule, and we're all happy again. But I have been skipping practices to get schoolwork done. Gotta do what I gotta do. The break from writing is nice on one hand, but on the other now I'm itching to work on something. I will miss football when it's over. And we move into basketball. Sigh.

*I cannot wait for the NJEA convention break.  I will catch up on a lot during that four-day weekend.

*Work is good - there's this weird thing going on that I'm not talking about. But it doesn't involve my actual job, which I love and look forward to every day.

*I got my bio questionnaire from my AGENT.  Squee!

* I am looking for some Steampunk stuff to wear for Philcon. Steampunk Emporium seems to have everything I need (I'm actually considering just wearing a pair of brown pants I already have in my closet), except a vest big enough to fit my, um, ample, chest. The measurements are all just a TAD too small. Still thinking, but I need to decide fast because I need to order ASAP. If you have any suggestion, I would be glad for them. 

Have a great day!

Radio silence

I know, been weeks since I posted. Sorry. Busy. 

Be back soon. Promise.

The Big Secret

I can now let you all in on the Big Secret. Well, unofficially anyway. I've been keeping it to myself for nearly a week, and it's been hard! But I wanted until I had the paperwork in my hands. 

Let me 'splain. No, it is too long. Let me sum up. (sorry, I'm a little giddy and I can't help myself.)

I believe I've already stated that I started writing ten years ago. Ten years this month. Of the seven novels I've completed, I've sent three of those to look for agents. My first book went nowhere with agents, and probably rightly so. I mean, kids love it and it's all right, but I can see how it wasn't ready for prime time. The rewrites for the new edition are coming along fabulously. Anyway, then it was the first of the Library of Athena series, which got a better response but no takers. Hey, it went to Samhain and I'm still getting royalty checks. Didn't seem right to send the rest of the series to look for an agent when the first was already published somewhere. 

And so we come to my Steampunk Fairy Tale, SMOKE & MIRRORS. This was the one, I said. My best effort. I sent it out, oh, a year or so ago, and it's been doing the rounds ever since. Two years, and two nearly complete rewrites later, and here we are. 

And now, I'd like to introduce you to someone. Meet Terrie Wolf, of AKA Literary. She's an agent. 

As of today, she's MY agent. 

Yep. Took a decade, and seven books, and two rewrites of the one that finally landed her, but I have an agent. Terrie is AWESOME. We talked over an hour and a half last week, and we seem to be a perfect fit. I am completely confident in her ability to take SMOKE & MIRRORS to a great publisher and get us a great deal.

Here's an interview she did at Middle Grade Ninja just yesterday. Isn't she adorable??

While I am still a little in shock, and it doesn't seem real yet, I am really really really happy. 

I HAVE AN AGENT!!!!!

I have a...

Big fat secret. Can't tell you. Next week. 

Stay tuned.

Ten years since...

Yes, of course, since 9/11. Yes, I remember where I was and what I was doing. I remember my husband was at work and my dad was at work in a government building and they had NO IDEA what was going on until I called him on his cell. They were all in a meeting and no one had told them. I was calling to find out if they had closed his building and he had NO IDEA why. I was talking to him when the plane hit the Pentagon. No one had told them, these government employees. I just remember thinking how weird that was. I was on the phone with him again when they finally sent them all home, he was on the road and I was talking to him when the first tower fell. 

Some say that if you weren't in NYC or Washington D.C., you should't feel a certain way about today. Maybe that's true, maybe not. Now, besides gut-wrenching helplessness, we here in my area were afraid all day. NYC is about 95 miles North of me, Washington D.C is about 105  miles south. Philadelphia is 15 miles west and there was a lot of fear that an attack was also planned on Philly, because it was the founding city of the U.S.A. Apparently either the terrrorists don't know American history or just didn't think it was worth it, or maybe the plane that went down in Shenksville was headed our way (I don't know that's true at all) but we had real fear and there was this claustophobic feeling of being squeezed from both sides.  And I feel perfectly justified in feeling that way. 

But it's been 10 years and some say we're still feeling the aftershocks of that day. But it's been ten years since I worked at a High School as an athletic trainer. 10 years since I started writing, just a few weeks after this day. 10 years that has given me quite a lot. A pretty good 10 years.

While today is sad, I'm looking forward to the next 10 years. Today I won't attend any memorials or spend all day watching TV coverage, because I have so much work to get done. But I think that's kind of a way to honor this day--by going on and doing what I need to do despite the best efforts of some radical group to stop our country from doing what we do. 

Life goes on.

Hey there!

Am I the worst blogger in the world or what? I'm going to try and be better, but don't hold your breath. My birthday came and went, I survived turning 40. NYC was awesome and we had a fabulous time. Hubby and I will be going back next February for a day, since my sister gave me tickets to the NYC Ballet for my birthday. Squee! I am happy, hubby is incredulous about going to the ballet. He'll just have to suck it up.

It's the last day of August, the official last day of my summer vacation. Tomorrow is my first day of work/school for the new year, even though I spent two half-days up at the school this week, getting things in order. They're still NOT in order, but at least it looks sort of like it knows what it's doing. My office computer is up and running properly (thank you, tech department!) and I've been playing with the cataloging software. I entered a book and tried to print up sample spine labels, but for some reason they didn't print. I'll have to work on that, because I am NOT going back to cards and pockets if I can avoid it. The last big thing I need to do is put up the main bulletin board. I have everything out and ready to go, just need to get it done. 

Grad school also started this week. But, because of Hurricane Irene, campus was out of power until yesterday. So they pushed the first day of classes back to today. Fortunately one of my professors posted her stuff so I could get started, because I KNOW things are going to get crazy between work-school and school-school, and I'd rather NOT be running behind. So I'm spending this day, my last day of summer, getting a jump on projects, reading, and putting the finishing touches on the next Library of Athena book. 

Yes, that's right, it's done. Or at least I think it's done. It has been written and rewritten, except for the last chapter. Sometimes I leave that chapter until the end, after I've revamped the rest, because that last chapter hinges on everything else and there's no sense in rewriting it five times. I am very, VERY happy with this book, which is complete turnaround from how I felt about it a few months ago. I just have to write a couple more paragraphs and tie it up. Then I can send it off to the editor, and finish up the author forms and put it to bed until the publisher is ready to get moving on it. Which I kind of hope isn't until the semester is over. And then I can work on re-writing TALISMAN OF ZANDRIA, which will be easier to do than writing new material.

Meanwhile, back on the farm, I'm still waiting on the three agents that have SMOKE AND MIRRORS. There's one that I have a really good feeling about, but no definite responses yet. I'm wondering if I shouldn't send it out to one or two more, just in case. I have a couple on my list that I was waiting on until I got all the replies back. Maybe I'll add that to my list of stuff to-do today.  

Like I need that.

Reflections on turning 40

Yes, on Saturday I will be 40. It's been a crazy 4 decades, and sometimes I'm kind of sad that I didn't find certain things earlier in my life, like being a librarian or writing, but then I realize that those things happened in their own time, when I was ready for them and not before. I should enjoy them. I've been writing, this September, for 10 years. Ten years. There are things I still want to do, and things I've accomplished. 

Do I have an agent? Not yet, but this last book has gotten me more partial and full requests and more personal feedback than any other. I feel like this is the one. 

Do I have a big contract? Nope, but I've written six (almost 7, as soon as I finish this chapter) books and had five of them published. 7 books in 10 years isn't too shabby. If that big contract is coming, I've worked for it. I've worked really hard.

I have a new job that I love, and family, and all that other stuff people say is the most important. I'm healthy. The world is such a weird place now, I think I'm doing pretty well, better than I did in my 20's.

40 looks pretty good from here.