Abstaining from Pitch Wars

For the first time in three years, I decided to abstain from Pitch Wars this year.

I'm not sure why. Part of it was probably that I felt like I've been ignoring my own writing in favor of paying attention to other media and wallowing in distractions, and part of it was that I feel like I've gotten a little jaded about publishing and whether I really belong giving anyone advice about it. I mean, sure, there are plenty of beginners I know more than enough to help, but the only difference between me and my potential mentees the past few years was that I had an agent and they didn't. Even after securing representation with agents for two different books and selling one of them, I just kinda started doubting my competence. I haven't been actively writing much at all, and my publishing career hasn't gone anywhere since I sold a book in 2013. What I did worked for me, but I don't know if it would work for anyone else, and it wasn't fiction anyway.

But honestly I do think I have good advice on improving manuscripts and providing perspective on agent searches. I just think maybe I've been using the cause to avoid working on my own projects. It's time to get back to it.

I have Bad Fairy 2 to finish up; it's been complete for a long time, but my test readers have all either finished or petered out on reading and dropped off the radar without explanation, and I'm still undecided on how to present the first half of the book since it still feels too much like a sequel in my opinion. 

I have Ace of Arts to write. I got really jazzed about this book the other day, wanting to get back into it, but I had just returned from vacation and convinced myself I had some digital housecleaning to finish first. (I did that.) Maybe I should dive back in.

I have a short story I started but stopped writing after a page because I was kinda hating how it was going. I'll want to start that over again and get it busted out.

I don't think I have any short stories out for consideration right now. I had a couple rejections in June and then July was just a mess for me, so I didn't bother addressing it. Need to get some short stories out there to be considered by magazines.

But it's weird to not be in Pitch Wars. Part of me is glad I'm not, because as usual there have been some hiccups and some nastiness, though there's also tons of excitement. I am kinda sad that I won't have a mentee this year. I loved working with my mentees. Year 1 I mentored Whitney Fletcher, who got an agent immediately through the contest. I had alternates Ryan and Jessica; Ryan's gotten close but his project never hit the right agent, and as far as I know he hasn't tried writing something new, while Jessica got picked up by a small publisher without an agent. Year 2 I mentored Megan Paasch, with whom I don't really chat much anymore, and we never found our match, but my alternate Natalka found representation for a book she wrote after Pitch Wars and that book sold also to a small publisher. And Year 3 my mentee was Lynn Forrest, whose book didn't hit with an agent during the contest but seems to be getting a ton of full manuscript requests these days. I love having a relationship with another writer the way I do during Pitch Wars, and I'm sad I won't have a Year 4 mentee to put in this list.

I hope whoever I would have picked does well. :/

It sounds weird, but the part I really enjoyed besides mentoring an individual was sending feedback to the people I didn't pick. I was a bit overwhelmed the first year, but the second and third years I had a ball picking apart and analyzing query letters and initial chapters. And people were so cool about it, taking my feedback so professionally and in some cases having great discussions with me about their work. I miss that part of it too. But you can't have that without the whole package, and I just couldn't handle the package this year.

I don't know if I'm done with Pitch Wars forever or if it's just this year. Time will tell.

 

Personal Digest Saturday: July 30 – August 5

Life news this week: 

• VACATION WEEK! It went by SO QUICKLY! And yet I got SO LITTLE DONE, except I did a fair amount of art and stuff. But I was expecting to spend more time reading and answering mail, and I didn't do that at all because I was just hanging out with my friends! Wow!
  
• Saturday was departure day. My friend Fred arrived and I got to meet his girlfriend Kathy for the first time. We went to breakfast while waiting for the arrival of Meghan and Katelyn. We chilled at my place until they got there, then traveled to New Port Richey in two cars. We found our vacation home and got in with a couple glitches, and then went grocery shopping to stock up the house for the week. We then ordered Chinese food, played Cards Against Humanity, and laughed ourselves silly.

Fred on the Tiger Millionaire phone.

Meeting Kathy for the first time.

My room at the beach house.

They were good at the game.

• Sunday I had a poolside breakfast! Coffee and a banana while watching my friends swim. Kathy and Fred were at church so it was just me and Meg and Katie for a while. I joined them in the pool for a bit and managed to avoid getting sunburned. Then we made a cake while listening to Steven Universe soundtrack music, went to get Jeaux from Tampa and brought him back, and then made a rib dinner. (I ate fake ribs!) We watched the the Reduced Shakespeare Company's program and played Cards Against Humanity again, this time with Jeaux. I drew some pictures for the upcoming Steven Universe episodes, which was fun because in previous weeks I've just done simple calendar pictures and these ones were a little more detailed.

Meghan's beautiful dress!

Tubing Fred.

Swimming couple!

Poolside with coffee.

7UP cake making!

Cards Against Humanity group!

• Monday we had breakfast and coffee together--I made Together Breakfast, which is waffles with syrup, whipped cream, a strawberry, and popcorn. We then went to the beach, but it was this little lagoon place. Fred attempted to swim completely across it and didn't quite make it. Then we went back to the house, went to the movies to see Ghostbusters, and came back home for the new episode of Steven Universe, "Gem Hunt." Kathy and Fred had never seen the show before. I don't know if our enthusiasm annoyed them. Then we made enchiladas and ate them, and checked out Hamilton until everyone felt sleepy. We all talked after and I drew some pictures.

Together Breakfast! Yes, that's popcorn.

Crew about to eat Together Breakfast.

Constructing the Together Breakfast.

Jeaux is just chillin'.

Beach Bums with Meggie.

Meggie and Katelyn.

I like this shirt.

• Tuesday I hung out with Jeaux and Meghan and Katelyn in the pool while Fred and Kathy went to Crystal Springs. We brought Jeaux back home, went shopping, had lunch together, and had some down time. Fred came back and we talked about art. We watched the new SU episode, "Crack the Whip" (yikes!!!). Then we went to Tarpon Springs and got to eat at Rusty Bellies, where I had a fantastic salad and a bite of key lime pie. We watched Clue at home, and I drew more pictures. And I gave Meghan a cool necklace.

Friends in the pool.

Messy pool hair.

Excited about cartoons! Notice coffee and toys in the background.

Fred and Kathy enjoying the seafood restaurant.

The group at Rusty Bellies. I had a good salad.

• Wednesday we said goodbye to Kathy and Fred, who were only staying half the trip. They left and we had a Bum Day around the house. We had breakfast and lunch together, watched the new SU episode "Steven vs. Amethyst" (ahhhhh), and made pasta and salad for dinner. We spent all night watching silly videos and talking.

Sometimes I watch cartoons in Steven Universe boxers.

• Thursday we had a shopping day in Tarpon Springs, where I got some gifts and candy and they caught some Pokémon. Haha. We didn't find any of the toys we wanted. We came back home for Steven Universe's half-hour special, "Bismuth," and that kinda destroyed my productivity for the day (as if I'd had any to begin with). I'm glad my friends like rambling about cartoons as much as I do.

Crystal Temple star shirt oh yeah.

Gals shopping in Tarpon Springs!

They caught many Pokémon.

• Friday was the last day in the house. We had planned a beach day, but it rained and made that impossible. :( So we had another Bum Day. I drew some pictures and Meg and Katelyn watched Miyazaki movies. I chatted with a friend online and we finished up some of our food. And then we watched the week's last episode of SU, entitled "Beta," which only aired in Canada and was hard to get our hands on (but we managed). I doodled some Negative One stuff too. Nothing else really happened except packing!

I dig this shirt and this lighting.

New reviews of my book:

• Nada.

Interviews, Features, Mentions:

•  Nada.

Reading progress:

• Finished this week: Nothing. I'm not very good at getting things done while on vacation, am I.
• Currently reading: Dumplin' by Julie Murphy.

New singing performances:

I actually didn't do a karaoke recording this week. I could have, but didn't feel like it.

New drawings:

Did a bunch of more-detailed-than-usual drawings to celebrate the third week of Summer of Steven episodes. These were each drawn as sort of "guesses" about each episode's content focus, so I could use them in my Facebook posts to talk about episodes.

Day 11: Connie and Steven on Connie's first mission (with Pearl).
Episode: "Gem Hunt."

Day 12: Connie and Steven sparring while Amethyst observes.
Episode: "Crack the Whip."

Day 13: Steven and Amethyst compete for Pearl Points.
Episode: "Steven vs. Amethyst."

Day 14: Bismuth, the new character, grinning her butt off.
Episode: "Bismuth."

Day 15: Peridot, Amethyst, Steven, and Lapis apparently about to
fight something, which did not happen in the episode.
Episode: "Beta."

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0586: "Asking Her."






New videos:

None!

New photos:

Well I certainly had a ton of new photos! I put them above for the most part so they wouldn't be in a huge annoying clump, but if you want to see the entire album beyond the highlights, it's right here: New Port Richey Beach Vacation 2016 Photo Album!

Social Media counts:
 
YouTube subscribers: 5,352 for swankivy (lost 1), 579 for JulieSondra (no change). Twitter followers: 812 for swankivy (2 new), 1,272 for JulieSondra (no change). Facebook: 292 friends (1 new, added Kathy) and 200 followers (no change) for swankivy, 636 likes for JulieSondra (lost 3), 55 likes for Negative One (no change), 124 likes for So You Write (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,467 (10 new). Instagram followers: 80 (1 new).

Wednesday Factoid: Texting

Today's Wednesday Factoid is: Do you text? Who do you text with the most?


Yep! I got on the texting boat a little later than most people because I didn't want to pay for a separate text plan on the phone I had since there were already multiple text-based ways to reach me. And yet some of my friends just still couldn't remember that every time they texted me I'd have to ask them not to use that form of communication to talk to me because I had to pay 20¢ to read every one of them. One guy would send me "happy [whatever holiday]" texts no matter how many times I asked him not to, and one seemed to think sending me photos (which I had to pay 50¢ to download) fell into the category of emergency. But I couldn't block texts because sometimes my sister would talk to me that way and I wanted to keep it open for her.

Eventually I bought a different phone and got a package with unlimited texting, and now I am fine with it.

I talk to my mom and Jeaux through text the most, but Victor and Meghan get the next most texts, and then occasionally my sisters, my dad, and some other friends. I believe Jeaux would be the winner if we're considering quantity, frequency, and length of the conversations. He and I never talk on the phone though.

What do we text about?

Well, besides the incidentals like where we're going to meet for lunch and stuff about work . . . we talk about cartoons, I guess.

Jeaux asking the hard questions at 2:30 in the morning

 

Like you're running out of time

I'm on vacation with my friends! It's pretty great.

We've rented a beach house for a week and the first half of it is busier than the second half because we have more people for the first part of the trip. I'm packing in lots of interaction, silliness, food, shopping, movies . . . and lots of swimming! I don't even really like swimming that much but I have only been here since Saturday and I've already used all three bathing suits I brought. (We have a washing machine, don't worry.)

Anyway, last night my friends and I were checking out Hamilton and there's a sort of contradiction between Alexander Hamilton's philosophy of life and Aaron Burr's. Burr waits for things, lays low until he sees an opportunity, and is very patient and plays his cards close to his chest, so to speak. Hamilton chases everything openly, is very opinionated, and very aggressive about what he wants. He's not willing to wait for it. One of the songs asks Hamilton why he writes "like he's running out of time." (I mean, he kind of was, retrospectively.)

That's kinda how I usually am. Lately I haven't been doing a lot of fiction writing, but at least historically I'm more like Hamilton--always kinda chasing what I need to do and being all driven and stuff.

There's a scene where Hamilton's wife, Eliza, and her sister, Angelica, are encouraging Hamilton to take a break and come upstate with them for some down time. He refuses after being tempted and says he has to get his work done. So they leave him there and he falls into other temptations because of the pressures and stress. Hmm.

This isn't something someone made up. It's someone's actual life, even though we're guessing at some of it.

I've been enjoying my vacation, but I'm sort of also itching to DO THINGS with my free time while I'm away from the office. Do some writing, do some drawings, get stuff done. I've been having a really good time chilling with my friends and pretending I don't have this whole other "things I want to be doing" aspect to my version of "vacation," and I'm actually surprised at how easy it's been to just have fun with them. They're a really great group of people and even though it's been three days I haven't had even a moment where I wish I could just run away into a room and work on my own stuff without anyone talking to me. That's really unusual for me.

But I also really do want to make some of this vacation count toward creativity and maybe even complete that short story I've been playing with. Maybe get ahead on the webcomic. Do some other stuff. Answer some mail. Play catch-up.

Still, there are the Angelicas and Elizas of the world telling me I should just take a break from everything I usually do, and I wonder sometimes how right they are. Whether I'd actually be more productive in the long run if I took a vacation from everything I usually do. 

I guess we'll see what I decide to do. And we'll see how I feel about what I decide to do after I've done it.

Hmmm.

Personal Digest Saturday: July 23 – July 29

Life news this week: 

• Another week of Steven Universe episodes made the week kinda weird since I had to go to Jeaux's every day after work to watch it. The mood of this thing is flipping around so dramatically that it's kinda messing with me.
  
• Saturday was really good actually. Most things went right! I went shopping and found some really cute toys at GameStop, and had time to shower and pack before Eric came over and collected me for Drink and Draw. And the night was lovely--got plenty of drawing done, hung out with Eric and Joy and Christian, talked cartoons and art, and then spent the night opening my new toys and eating candy. I felt like it was just a really sweet day.
  
• Sunday I did some shopping and almost got caught in the rain--made it home minutes before the sky opened up. Had a chat with Fred about our upcoming vacation, talked to my parents, and did some household chores.
  
• Monday I worked, shopped for groceries, saw the new episode of Steven Universe at Jeaux's house ("Restaurant Wars"), and opened some packages I got at home.
  
• Tuesday my work had a party for me because it's my ten-year anniversary. Wow! I got pizza from one of my favorite places and they gave me a nice card, aww. I saw the new SU episode, "Kiki's Pizza Delivery Service," at Jeaux's, and Mom came over at my place for a very short time and didn't stay over. I just got some more vacation prep done.
  
• Wednesday I had some printing and binding to do at work, and then it was Jeaux Day. We ate at Marlow's Tavern again (I had a coupon), and my food was super good. I had chickpea fries and a bowl of pasta. Wow. Then the SU episode was "Monster Reunion" (eek), and we hung out at my house listening to Alice Isn't Dead. Got some drawing done too.
  
• Thursday I had some extra time in the morning and spent it on watching some silly stuff and preparing some vacation stuff. After work I saw the SU episode "Alone at Sea," which is one of the most disturbing depictions of a realistic abusive relationship I think I've ever seen in fiction, much less in a kids' cartoon. Yikes, this show. At home I chatted to Victor and finished processing my webcomic.
  
• Friday I tied up some loose ends at work and went to Jeaux's to see the SU episode "Greg the Babysitter." Aw! Then I came home and packed for vacation. That pretty much took up the whole night.

New reviews of my book:

• Nathan gave it a four-star review on Goodreads.

Interviews, Features, Mentions:

• Tumblr user useduppaper posted a picture of my book with caption "finally got it!" Woohoo!
  
• Tumblr user kaylamacintyre answers a writing survey question "tell us about a writer you admire" with stuff about me in this blog post.
  
• The Let's Read About Feminism group is voting on their book club book and my book is a potential selection.

 
Reading progress:

• Finished this week: Nothing this week, but while on vacation I should get some done!
• Currently reading: Dumplin' by Julie Murphy.

New singing performances:

Here I'm singing "Violently Happy" by Björk.

 

New drawings:

Did a bunch of calendar drawings to celebrate Summer of Steven episodes. These were each drawn at work as sort of "guesses" about each episode's content focus, so I could use them in my Facebook posts to talk about episodes.

Day 6: Fryman and Kofi arguing about food.

Day 7: Kiki cheering on dream warrior Steven.

Day 8: Centipeetle eating Chaaaaps.

Day 9: Lapis looking grim.

Day 10: Greg holding a baby while Rose looks on.

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0585: "Looking For This."






New videos:

None!

New photos:

I'm at Drink and Draw!

My cute new figures in their box!

My ten-year thank-you card and gift card.

My calendar filled up with cartoons.

And here are the shirts I wore for the Steven stuff:

Day 6: Cookie Cat shirt, watching "Restaurant Wars."

Day 7: Keep Beach City Weird shirt, watching "Kiki's Pizza Delivery Service."

Day 8: Secret Team shirt, watching "Monster Reunion."

Day 9: Back Together shirt, watching "Alone at Sea."

Day 10: Guitar Dad shirt, watching "Greg the Babysitter."

Social Media counts:
 
YouTube subscribers: 5,353 for swankivy (lost 2), 579 for JulieSondra (3 new). Twitter followers: 810 for swankivy (2 new), 1,272 for JulieSondra (4 new). Facebook: 291 friends (no change) and 200 followers (lost 1) for swankivy, 639 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 55 likes for Negative One (no change), 124 likes for So You Write (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,457 (2 new). Instagram followers: 79 (3 new).