Cares:
A dear friend is saying goodbye to her father. Please pray for her and her family.
Another hurdle jumped. The editorial team (of a publishing house that I would LOVE to write for) is officially taking my proposal to Pub Board in mid April. The editors made a suggestion regarding the manuscript that I’d love to work on before it goes. I have two weeks to get cracking. Prayers are appreciated!
I’m diving into research for my next story and listening carefully as my main character reveals bits and pieces of herself at random hours of the day. I’m super pumped about this story. The industry I’m researching is incredibly fascinating.
Concerns:
School resumes on Monday. Back to life. Back to reality. (You know you’re singing it.)
Only in Iowa would it be 68 degrees and sunny one day and snowing the next.
Celebrations:
I received a message on facebook from a gal who lives exactly where I live and she’s also a Christian writer. She’s just beginning her journey. After some emails back and forth, we found out we go to the same church. I’m so excited to have a writing friend close by and even more excited to meet her in person.
I’ve had such a fabulous week with my little man. Sunny days outside. Play dates with friends (he’s kissed a few little girls this week…shame, shame). Relaxing time all around. Now I just have two and a half more months until summer break!
Question to Ponder: What are your cares, concerns, and celebrations today?
FYI: If you ever have any questions about what it’s like to be a yet-to-be-published, agented writer, feel free to ask! I’m not shy about answering questions.
Congratulations and best of luck as your writing career continues to move in the direction we all want to go. One of my best writing buddies is a member of the church I went to before I moved. We were able to get together once a month and talk about writing and do critiques. It was a real joy. I still email my friend with new ideas.
Praise God for your diligence, your willingness to edit, your transparent nature!
May God walk this manuscript through the whole process!
Cares: meeting a deadline. Aack!
Concerns: my mother-in-law, whose health has been failing for several months.
Celebrations: Spring popped in, at least for a few days! God lets me glimpse eternity through the face of a lamb, the smile of a child, the joy of best friend time.
Blessings and prayers going your way!!
Yay! I'm sorry spring break is almost over but glad you and Brogan got to hang out. 🙂
And wooho about the pub board. 😉
My concerns are mostly financial. I don't want to get a job, but I feel like I should. Ack.
Have a lovely weekend!
Maria – what great questions. I waited to search for an agent until after I went to my first conference last September. At that point, I had written three stories and I felt that I was ready to take that next step. As far as the pros and cons…oh wow, where do I start? There are SO many pros! Rachelle not only gets my stuff ready and submits it to publishers, she helps me brainstorm ideas, she offers career guidance/advice, and she's just fun to talk to. This is just skimming the surface. Jody Hedlund has a phenomenal post about this very thing.
Here's the url: http://jodyhedlund.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-do-agents-really-offer-writers.html
I highly recommend reading it if you haven't already.
Thanks for visiting my blog today, Maria! I look forward to getting to know you more. 🙂
Take care,
Katie
Wow! You have had some exciting great news! I'd be dancing around the room!!!!
My cares?? I pray pray pray that I hear about a different job this next week–not sure how long I can hang on where I am.
I pray I hear about one of my manuscripts too!
WOW! can I just say huge congrats???!!!! I'm so thrilled for you. I love watching you and Jody break through to your dreams. I'm excited to se it.
Cares: I really hope I can gain more momentum in my WIP. I'm at 45K and loving it so far, I need to see it through another 50K.
Concerns: That I can resubmit my MS to dream agent. We shall see.
Celebrations: Great weather and good coffee. Yay and Yum!
Praise God, I have many more celebrations than cares today.. It's Friday! I have a beautiful daughter, who just sent me an unexpected gift of a book she knew I wanted; I have a job and it has been more than usually interesting this week because I'm training somone new – and she's lovely and will become a friend I'm sure. I'm blessed this week. God bless you too.
Congrats to finding a fellow writer in your town/church!
Good luck, prayers going up for your book to get picked up by the publisher!
I'm celebrating GORGEOUS weather!! Hellooo Spring!
Love,
Lola
Hey Katie! I've seen your comments on several of the blogs I follow and decided to pop over. Love your blog! How neat that someone you met via blogging goes to the same church you do!! I have a question for you: at what point in your writing career did you opt for an agent? What are the 'pros' & 'cons' to your author/agent experience? Look forward to hearing from you! Have a fabulous weekend and God bless!
Ooh, good luck when your book goes to acquisitions! I'll keep you in mind. Sorry you have to go back to school soon. That's a bummer. But hey! It's almost summer! (Hey! That rhymes… Ha!)
Erica – YES! They are smooching back. Potential problem….
Yay! Pub Board! Cool!
Hilarious that the Little Man is smooching girls! The big question is, are they smooching back?
What great news about the publishing house! I'll pray for you!!
I'm having a great week. The weather's gorgeous, I've made it through the first pass of revisions of my latest, and I'm getting excited about my next book. Oh, and it's FRIDAY!! Woo-hoo!
Congrats and good luck with the book going to the editorial team! It's going to be 70 here today snowing tonight. Oklahoma weather keeps me on my toes. Hopefully, my little guy and I can get some good outside time in today before the bad weather hits.
Katie ~ I'm so excited to hear that your story is going to the Pub Board. I look forward to more good news soon. I'm eager to happy dance with you.
How fun to find another writer at your church. It will be great to get together and talk writing. I'm sure you'll be a great source of information and encouragement for her.
I'm glad you enjoyed your break and hope the transition to being in the classroom again goes smoothly.
Jody – Maybe I'll write a post on the suggestions. I'm going to talk to Rachelle today. After that, I'll have a better handle on how to make the changes! As far as I know – they are interested in both books. It's actually a three-book series that we're submitting, however each book can stand alone. So it's possible they'd only want to contract the first.
Julie – I met my agent at the ACFW writing conference. I'll answer your other two questions in an up-coming post. Thanks for visiting!
Wow! Congrats on everything! I bet it must be such an amazing feeling to have so many people interested in your work and your success 🙂 How did you meet your agent and long after you finished a novel did you begin querying? Did you always know you were going to be a writer? Happy Friday to you, hope you have a great weekend!
Yay on Pub Board!! So, I'm curious to know more about what you're having to change and how extensive it is! Are they interested in both books or mostly the first one!
What a blessing to find someone nearby that you can share the writing journey with! I recently met a fellow author that also goes to my church. We got together for coffee a few weeks ago and it was so nice to chat!
I really enjoy your blog!!
Here are my 3 C's
Care: That my health will continue to improve
Concern: Hoping that feelings of homesickness don't knock me down this spring break
Celebration: My dad is feeling much better..yay!
Katie: I am so outrageously happy for you, to have a pub house interested in your ms, and a writer friend in your own church. God is favoring you on all sides!
Watch that boy of yours; in about 14 years you'll have to put a fence around your property to keep those kissin' girls at bay.
Cares: That my Mom be safe and can cast her cares on the Lord.
Concerns: This weekend free of strife. Satan likes to put roadblocks to peace in our way every weekend. You too?
Celebrations: It's sunny! Who could ask for more?
Cares: a good friend is in Dubai, I miss her.
Concerns: will I have everything ready in time
celebrations: a weekend away with my family yippeee