Long Live the Queen!

We're off to England and Scotland today. Not sure if I'll get a chance to post while I'm there but feel free to amuse yourselves with previous posts.

Can't believe when we get back Nationals will be about 2 weeks away. Is it possible to lose weight eating scones, Cadbury chocolate and pub food?
Cheerio!

So What Do You Write?

That's usually the question that follows immediately after someone asks "What do you do?" and you answer "I'm a writer."

Sometimes I say romance. Sometimes I say women's fiction. And sometimes, depending on the crowd, I say contemporary paranormal.

How do you answer? Does it depend who you're talking to?

Six Degrees of (Blog) Separation

Do you blog hop? If so, how do you do it? Randomly or with thought? Do you hit the same blogs all the time? Try to find new ones? What brings you back to a certain blog time after time?

I spent some time this morning blog surfing based on the commentors on other blogs. In other words, I started at one blog, left a comment, then picked one of the other commentors and hopped to their blog and so on. I love finding new blogs and leaving a comment.

So, how do you do it?

Leaving...On A Jet Plane...

Hey y'all. I'm headed to England/Scotland on Friday with hubby, sis-in-law, the four-year-old niece and their 18-year-old cousin. Should be a blast! While he golfs, we'll be spa-ing it up and shopping.

I really like England and Scotland. The people are so nice! This will be my third trip but I'm looking forward to spending more time in Scotland this go-round.

I'll be sure to take pics. Edinburgh Castle is one of the most magical places I know. Well, that whole city is, really. The pic below is Slaley Hall, the Edwardian Manor house we'll be staying at. It's obviously been converted to a hotel, but from what I read, still maintains much of its original feel. And actually, we won't be staying in it, exactly - we have a lodge on the 1000 acre property.

And no matter how much Lara Santiago tries to convince me, I will not be eating Haggis.

Friend Me

Well, I've gone and done it. I now have a Myspace page. If you want me to add you, leave your page in the comments section!

http://www.myspace.com/kristenpainter

I feel so hip.

And The Winner Is...

Mel Francis and her caption:


"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for some postage today."

Once again, there were SO many good ones, but this one just tickled my funny bone. Maybe because it most closely captures Scooter's attitude. Anyway, great job to everyone who submitted a caption. I'll be doing this again in a few weeks (right before RWA Nationals, I think). Mel, don't forget to email me your mailing address!

Honorable mention to Bebe Thomas and her stinky breath caption.

Death by Coffee

I almost died yesterday. Or at least, I survived an unintentional poisoning. Via coffee. It's true! I met up with some chaptermates at the local Books A Million as we often do on Thursdays, and as we often do, we sat in the cafe and ordered beverages. I ordered a sugar-free raspberry mocha and so did one of the other ladies. We got our drinks, sat down and proceeded to discuss our writing.

I had a very hard time liking my coffee (even though one of our group had ordered it the last time and loved it). I mentioned that it tasted "icky" and the other lady who ordered the same thing said hers tasted weird too. Almost like the milk was bad, except she'd gotten skim and I had half-n-half. That left the sugar-free raspberry syrup.

We took them back up to the counter where the counter person did a sniff test. What you can tell from that, I have no idea. I watched as she poured a bit of mine out into the sink. It was lumpy. LUMPY. Not a word I want associated with my coffee, capisce?

I immediately felt ill. She made us new, different, non sugar-free raspberry coffees. (Straight mocha - big YUM!) Still, just thinking about that makes me queasy.

If I die soon, you'll know why.

Caption Contest II

Here's the second installment of the caption contest! The first one was such a blast and everyone had such great answers that I plan on doing this at least once a month. This week's picture:

This week's prize for the best caption is PC Cast's Goddess of Light and...it's autographed! This is a great read - if you're not familiar with her Goddess Summoning series, you're missing out.

The winner will be announced Saturday morning!

Pitching the Pitch

The upcoming RWA National conference in Atlanta will be the first conference I've attended since joining RWA at which I will not be pitching (or trying to corner in a convenient location) an agent. Having one changes everything.

I won't be up late the night before rehearsing and rewriting my pitch to perfection with willing friends (who are also in the same boat). I won't walk around the morning of my appointment with sweaty hands, nerves of jello and the inability to stop reading my pitch cards every five minutes. I won't be sitting in the hall, waiting with all the other pitching attendees, staring at the wall mouthing my pitch or smiling nervously at the person next to me, wondering if they'll get a request but I won't.

This year when I meet agents throughout the conference, I will be my normal outgoing self. Will I schmooze? Sure, on the behalf of Romance Divas. But on a career level, I will simply see them as people, not as minor deities in possession of some magical key I desperately crave to unlock a door I desperately want to pass through. (Yeah, I used desperately twice in one sentence. Do you think I didn’t want an agent?)

I’ve pitched numerous agents and editors and had numerous requests for both partials and fulls because of the appointments. Did anything come of those requests? No. Nada. Zip. Do pitches ever result in anything more? I’d love to hear from you if you found your agent or editor that way. I’m sure it happens, just not familiar with anyone who’d had success going that route.

Does that mean if I were still agentless, I wouldn’t be pitching? Heck no! I’d be pitching like an MBA all-star. I’m the last one to turn down an opportunity. Don’t you recall the time I handcuffed Harlequin editor Tracy Farrell to me? If you don’t believe me, ask Diana Peterfreund. She was there.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to this year’s conference with a sense of calm I’ve never had before.

New Agent Blog In Town

There's a new agent blog in town (not my agent - man, do I love saying my agent) but check it out, the chicks from Bookends are blogging!

http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/

The Biggest News of All

In case you aren't on any the same loops with me, or aren't a member of Romance Divas, or don't belong to any of the same chapters as me, or seen the billboard...

I just signed with Elaine Spencer at The Knight Agency!

I can't believe I not only have an agent but I'm with the agency that has been my number one pick since I started this journey toward publication. Life is good, God is great.

I'm A Finalist!

Hey gang, I just found out The Perfect Dish, my third book, is a finalist in the TARA contest! This means that every book I've written so far has finaled in at least one contest. Now, if I could just win one...

Maybe I need ginko?

I thought I blogged today. I could have swore I blogged. But apparently I didn't. So I'm leaving a reminder for myself to blog tomorrow.

Self? Blog.

On a side note, I figured out that between June 3rd and June 13th, I've written 96 pages. Holy cow! Does that seem like a lot to you? It does to me.

Write write write!

I've managed to keep up a pretty good writing schedule and actually hit the 1/3 mark on my WIP last night. My goal last week was 50 pages - I actually did 58. I have the same goal this week - 50 pages. I'm only 7 pages into that goal so far but have high hopes. In fact, today I plan for at least 12, maybe 15. I have my coffee at the ready and my fingers are warmed up.

What are some tips/tricks you use to motivate yourself?

And The Winner Is...

I'm really glad I ran this little contest. As many of you read over at RD, I had to put my eldest cat down last night - a very hard thing I'm still not over. It was great to read these captions and I was happy to have a reason to smile.

There were SO many good ones, I've actually picked two winners (both will receive copies of the book). They are:

"That short little man you sleep with? He's got to go. He burps and farts and takes my spot on the bed. You've got until Tuesday." Laine Morgan

(For the record, Sam would like everyone to know he really loves his daddy, even though everything the nice lady said is true.)

"This IS my happy face" Babe King

(Sam thinks expressing himself is NOT a top priority. After all, there is so much more that goes on in a cat's life...)

Congrats! Laine and Babe, email me with your mailing addresses so I can get your books out to you! And thanks to everyone who made me smile. I think I'll do this again next week!

Caption Contest

I've decided to run a little contest to test your creative juices. The best caption for the picture below will win a copy of Cheyenne McCray's Forbidden Magic. Sound good? Just leave your caption in the comments section. Enter as many times as you like and tell your friends!

Caption this pic...

To win this book!

(Winner will be announced Friday)

Coming Soon: Romance Divas Newsletter

At long last, the Romance Divas newsletter, The Diva Dish, is about to go into production. It will feature articles about writing and the writer's life (some from authors you know and love), book reviews, industry news, diva news, upcoming workshop info, contests, etc - it's going to be great!

And while I know we all probably belong to too many Yahoo groups already, this is a once a month newsletter, so you don't have to worry about it clogging up your inbox. Sign up today!

Subscribe to the Romance Divas Newsletter!
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Just Because

A few pics of my cats, Sam (tiger stripe) and Scooter (black) because I thought it would be fun and Mondays need all the fun they can get.

Scooter sleeps like this all the time. (And his head is on his black furry mouse, that's not some weird mishapen ear.)

Do you really have to write right now?

Brokeback Kitties