Saturday, July 15, 2006

Q and A on Book Publishing Next Week

Q and A on Book Publishing Next Week

I know that there are a lot of aspiring novelists out there, so, as promised below, I thought I'd spend next week chatting about my road to publication, the pitfalls, the perils, the persistence. I'll spend Monday (and possibly Tuesday) explaining how I got here, and then open up the blog to questions, which I'll do my best to answer the rest of the week.

If people are interested, I can do the same the following week, only this time, I'll deal with magazine writing.

So - if you have questions about the query/agent/publishing process, mull 'em over this weekend, then check back in on Monday! I don't know if I can really be an answer guru, but I'll certainly try my best.

(And yes, I know I'm posting for Saturday a bit early, but I'm out of the city most of the day tomorrow at a 2-year old's b-day party!)

Friday, July 14, 2006

Note to self: don't read US Weekly before going to bed. Disturbing dreams about Lance Bass (driving a white Cabriolet...do they even make those anymore??) and Reichen ensue.

So I got a note yesterday from the lovely Ginger Roddick, who happens to be Andy Roddick's sis-in-law and publicist. I've known Ginger for a few years but you know how it goes: life gets in the way and somehow, you go months without emailing. Anyway, she wrote to tell me that she checked out the blog and she passed along Andy's blog, which I check in on too. Now, I know, I know, you're rolling your eyes: it's only her second day of blogging, and she's already name-dropping? Man, how lame. But let me just say that a) I don't know enough famous people to really name-drop, and b) there's a reason I'm writing this.

I met Andy about a year and a half ago when I flew down to Florida to interview him. I had no idea what to expect, other than that I swooned when he kissed Mandy Moore (girl crush alert!) when he won the Open. I met him at his annual fund-raiser for the Andy Roddick Foundation, and was just so, so impressed by him. Dashing, articulate, smart, witty...and only, I dunno, maybe 21 at the time. But the kicker came when, at some point in the conversation, he learned that I'd just had a baby ("have breast-pump; will travel"), and said, "you had a kid eight weeks ago? Seriously? You look amazing." Now, at that moment, had my (equally dashing and articulate) husband not been at an adjacent cocktail table, I surely would have fallen to my knees and kissed his feet, only to jump up whisk him away and run off with him forever. (The whole age gap thing aside - true, I'm old enough to be, well, not his mother, but certainly his babysitter, which definitely ups the squick factor.) Now, I'm sure that Andy has no recollection of these comments, much less meeting me, but my point here is that he's is a kick-ass guy who knows just how to make a post-partum mom feel dandy. So check out his blog. (And root for him this August/September at the U.S. Open!) It doesn't hurt that he's also a fan of The Office and raved about it in his blog.

Speaking of The Office, I just want to rant very briefly about this year's Emmy nominations. Now, my husband is always telling me that these award shows are total crap (right before he sinks into the couch and becomes entranced with a slightly glazed-over look until the final award is given out), but this year? Well, he's right. Because on WHAT PLANET could John Krasinski NOT been nominated for his stellar, subtle, hilarious work in Casino Night or Booze Cruise or Drug Testing or...on and on. (The smart folks at Television Without Pity agree.) And don't get me started on Lost or Patrick Dempsey or Hugh Laurie or Zach Braff. (True though: hurrah for 24, possibly the best show on TV right now.) I mean, half of the nominees aren't even on the air anymore. Why not nominate Captain Steubing and Mr. Drummond while they were at it? This might just be the first time I actually have to boycott the awards. (Oh, who am I kidding, like I won't be glued to E! for the preshow, at the very least.) Anyway, at least I know that Andy agrees with me.

So who got robbed in this year's nominations? And is my husband right? (Egads.) Are these nominations simply Hollywood's way of tooting their own horns?

And check back in next week - I'll talk about my road to book publication! (Finally, something relevant.)

PS - If you're new here (well, I guess that everyone is new here, technically), drop me a note or post a comment, and I'll be happy to add you to my links on the left!

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Cereal musings

So I've finally figured out how to deal with the HTML of the blog, and so, despite a major pressing deadline, I'm busy tooling around with the site. Whee!

This is my thought of the morning: if I had to survive on one food alone, surely, it would be cereal. I adore, adore, ADORE cereal. Seriously, I mean it: I think I could live off of it. In the mornings, I have a whole system down. I layer five different cereals on top of one another - right now, I'm working Kasha Heart Healthy (which sounds nasty but is really sweet and yummy), Kix (I steal them from my son), Quaker Toasted Oatmeal, All-Bran (because I'm a health writer and know how good fiber is for the bod), and Golden Grahams (again, pilfered from my son's stash). My husband is a fan of Oreo Cookie Cereal (yes, they really do make that) and Honey Bunches of Oats, which I occasionally dabble in myself, but only when he buys the kind with strawberries or bananas.

So...if you had to survive on one food alone, what would it be? Or more importantly, am I missing out on any to-die-for cereals? (Because you know that I could spend hours lingering in the cereal aisle, so I'm always up for suggestions!)

If you start a blog, and no one reads it, is it still really a blog

If you start a blog, and no one reads it, is it still really a blog?

That's the question I'm pondering this morning.

Ah well, we'll give it a go.

Let's see, it's hard to know where to begin. Perhaps with a little intro as to why you should check back in? Hmmm, I'll discuss, in no particular order, what it takes to be a successful freelance writer, why I have serious back pain but refuse to make massage appointments, how my 21 month-old son continually outwits me, how I'm able to wile away an entire day reading (and contemplating) celebrity gossip, my TomKat baby theories, how to write a novel (and hopefully, get it sold), current books I'm reading (as of now, nada because I'm out of ideas - anyone have a few suggestions?), my eternal love of Felicity (and why, at 33, I still have a raging crush on Scott Speedman), mommy guilt, mommy wars, love, cancer, marriage, ex-boyfriends, friendship and all - both good and bad - that comes along with them, pooches, body image, popular culture, and well, seriously, is there any subject that I haven't mentioned? Probably not. So that should be incentive enough to check back in.

A little bit about me: I'm a freelance writer who spends her days toiling for most of the major magazines which you flip through while on the Precor at the gym or waiting for the subway in the morning. My first novel, THE DEPARTMENT OF LOST AND FOUND, will be published in hardcover by William Morrow, a division of HarperCollins, in May 2007.

Thanks for poking around here. I'll be back with a much more enlightening post (see above topics) in a bit!