SOLD!

That's my new favorite 4-letter word.

More details when I can pull them together but here's the big news:

Alison Weiss at Egmont has acquired world English rights to debut author Kristen Lippert-Martin's Tabula Rasa. In this contemporary YA thriller, a 16-year-old girl held in an isolated research hospital undergoes a forced experimental treatment to erase all recollection of her past. But when the procedure goes awry, she must face off against mercenaries sent to eliminate her once and for all. The projected pub date is fall 2014; Molly Jaffa at Folio Jr./Folio Literary Management brokered the deal. 

Here's the link for the announcement in Publishers Weekly!

Sneaking Up on It

"As God is my witness, I will meet my writing goal for the day!"

Do you do this sometimes?

It’s slightly past that hour in the day, the hour you swore a blood oath upon the souls of your ancestors that you were going to get some writing done.

But you KNOW—you just know that it’s going to be hard going. You need to fix that plot hole and then there's that other thing that doesn’t make any sense, but you’re not sure what to do about it. Oh, and don't forget that character who’s acting like an ass, and you kind of hate him right now.

But you can’t face it.

Not yet.

So you think, OK, I’ll push it off. I’ll deal with that later. Today’s kind of busy, and anyway, I need to [insert good excuse here, eg., "need to re-bait those raccoon traps in the back yard with more peanut butter."]

But then you’re walking past your computer and you have this paltry little idea to fix this totally minor thing, and so you figure, OK, I can at least do THAT. So you sit down.

Next thing you know, it’s an hour later, and gosh darn it, you done did your writing for the day, and now you don’t have to sit in the box of shame for being an avoider-procrastinator person.

Sometimes we must use our mental jujitsu to out-maneuver our inner critics.  

And sometimes you’ve got to sneak up on your manuscript, real quiet like, so it doesn’t see you coming. 

Oh, yes, manuscript, I see you. You're not getting away this time.

What trick do you use to get your butt into your chair? Is it a carrot or a stick?

Space Log: Twenty-thirteen

 Oh, my. I’ve become one of those people.

One of those bloggers who only posts once in a while and then sheepishly slinks back to the Internets, hoping no one will notice how very long it’s been since my last post.

Go on, go ahead. Judge me if you must. I can see those pursed lips, that quizzical, Oh, are you still blogging? I didn't realize.

I deserve it. I do. But I swear I’ve got excuses a-plenty, and trust me, they’re extra good excuses that may or may not involve a very time-consuming fiddling duel with the Devil down in Georgia. (Charlie Daniels wasn’t the only one who’s landed in that situation.)  

I truly meant to blog this past week, but I’ve been digging out from the holidays. Like, literally. All I can say is thank gawd I had the foresight to buy the “post-holiday hell pit” attachment for my vacuum cleaner or else I’d be in big trouble. 

Resolutions, you say?

Sure. Yeah. I guess.

Here they are:

1)       Stop making fun of yoga and maybe do some myself because I’m about as limber as a saltine cracker these days. When I walk there’s so much popping and crackling in my knees it sounds like somebody dancing on a stage covered in bubble wrap. I’ve got to see what can be done about this.  

2)      Write an awesome novel.

That’s it. I like to keep things simple if I can. I’m already hard at work on the second resolution, and I’m very excited about my WiP. That first resolution may take even more effort especially since it involves the acquisition of yoga pants. Oh, boy.

Tell me two of your resolutions, writing or otherwise. I promise I won’t be all like this:

"Oh, really? That sounds ... promising."

(As ever, click on the post title to get the comment box to come up.)