Now that's a good blog friend!

I just wanted to start off the day by giving a quick shout out to one of the friends on my MySpace list, Nicole DeNardo. Nicole happened to be at a writer's workshop recently, where she met an editor for a children's/young adult publishing house and shared a table with her. The editor apparently mentioned several times the shortage of good "boy books", and how all she gets is fiction geared toward girls. Nicole gave me the tip, the editor's name and the name of the publishing house. To make long story slightly less long, my agent queried, received positive response, pitched my first book, and the editor liked what she saw and requested the full manuscript. Thanks, Nicole!

That's the kind of thing I'm trying to build here with this blog, with only moderate levels of success. I want a community of friends, fellow writers and aspiring writers, and even fans, who can communicate back and forth and share ideas, tips, and inspiration. Networking and making friends with others in the industry. So, to everyone out there, leave me comments! Send me messages! Leave comments for the other folks who blog around here! Don't leave us hanging.

Now, on to blogging about writing. My agent's comments about my first edit: I meant to say second novel were not as disheartening as one might think. She basically just said there were a few plot leaps in the very beginning that didn't work for her, and that I didn't develop the two introductory characters enough in the first chapter before jumping into a confusing fight scene. I can definitely work with what she had to say, and nothing she said changes the fact that I still think the second book is stronger than the first. Her only complaint was with my opening, and she didn't want to read further until I had addressed those issues, lest they get lost in the shuffle.

Speaking of being lost in the shuffle, my short story work has taken a back seat to revisions on book 2. I'm not likely to make the deadline for a first quarter entry into the Writers of the Future contest at this point. I may be taking too much on… I'm working on book 2, jotting notes for future reference about book 3, trying to write two very different short stories, working on a script for the Comic Book Challenge (speaking of which, any illustrators out there interested in collaborating?), and occasionally outlining/making notes for a new book in a different continuity. Plus, I'm still looking for work and starting to get a bit worried about the financial situation.

So there, in a large nutshell, is where I stand. One last thank you to Nicole, and a request to everyone else to leave comments, send messages, and generally correspond!