Oh Embrace, How I love thee

Notice how I am skipping all of the sorry I've been away, thank you all for checking up on me, and am glad to be back? It's because I am so ecstatic about Embrace Books or Jane Holland to be specific. Most of you know I have been away for health reasons but the one thing I promised not to give up was my writing.

A couple of weeks ago I finished a baby I worked really hard on (I plotted). After two bouts of critiquing and heavy rehauling, I sent my top aces baby to Embrace Books.

Now here comes the good part I got feedback in an hour, actually it was 52 minutes – it took me 8 minutes to face my fear of rejection and open it.

I wish I could paste the email for you all to see. The editor – Jane Holland read it and liked, she thinks my writing is edgy, ME!

If you really want to know why I am so overwhelmed, go to her website and read her resume, she is all that and then some more.

Anyways she did point out something I knew I sucked at – Punctuation and Sentence Structure. When I saw that, I did a face-palm because I knew that was my weakness and I worked really hard on it.

Now this is how amazing she is, she went ahead to give me examples of what I did wrong and how I could fix them. I was really humbled by her email.

So guess what I am doing now? I have bought three no, four books The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, Eats, Leaves and Shoots by Lynne Truss, Woe is I by Cant remember the author's name and What a Westmoreland wants by Brenda Jackson.

I am hoping to learn from these books; Jane said I could study how other authors did it too so I am just going to be soaking up stuff. My amazing CP is reading Strunk and White with me. She is too amazing for words and is explaining stuff to me. Some awesome people from our blogging community have also offered to do some punctuation and sentence structure crits for me. I am so close to realizing my dream that I am taking all and any help I can get.

I also will share what I learn in my books in my blog posts in case there is someone out there who can learn something through me.

What have I learned from all of this? It is not enough to have talent or book ideas. You also have to work hard to hone your craft if you intend to make a career out of this. Watch out for the part two of my story, I am determined to get "the call" this year.



Xoxo

Joanna

It is with great distraction

that I bring you this blog post today, as I speak I am in the same room with four children under four years old, all of whom have the ability to make extreme noise.

That aside let me share my joy with you - its not about publication so you can keep the pompoms away - for now (but still save them specially for me, cos something's gotta give eventually)

I was walking around in Houston and found myself in walmart, i went in for some french toast but came out with 5 books instead - how did that happen? I think I went blank till I got back in the car and hugged my books like a dolt. I have missed walking into a store and just indulging in books, my in laws looked at me with concern but I did not care. These are books, I have not seen books in english just sitting and waiting to be sold in a long time so excuse my indulgence.

To make things even better I won 2 Miranda Dickinson Books from Kath at the Nut Press, and a you can have whatever book you like from Raquel Henry and an ebook from lily Harlem - all of these people shall be properly thanked next week.

let me get back to loving my books and squeeze a little writing time somewhere in between too.

You Asked

and No, I do not take caffeine, I only drink herbal teas and will have the odd piece of chocolate every once in a while, I have also stopped all fizzy drinks except for the odd glass or two of champagne.
My next energy booster of choice would be multivitamins but the jury is still out on that one, I heard its better to eat healthier than pop any pills and I also heard if you start you have to keep on taking them.
Third energy booster of choice would be daily exercise and yes I gym-ed for the better part of last year (okay 3 months) but it works I was perkier than usual, I looked good and felt awesome only downside is if you stop like I did your body gets worse than it did when you first started.
Fourth energy choice (my kryptonite) Sugar - I am a selective sugar addict, you won't find me eating oreos or twinkies because well I am trying to be healthy. I can drink my weight in juice so I only do 100% juice but even that has sugar, I do however indulge in bread, nutella and shortbread, there is also my addiction to Mueller Corner Yoghurt (I just found a french substitute yay!).
So if I ever come to your book signing and you need a speed demon just feed me sugar and you will be amazed (be careful though, too much sugar and I might start dancing on table tops).

That said, Tomorrow is my self proclaimed Talli Roland Day, please do all you can to help support one of us and be excited for her I will do the same for you when your time comes.

What do you do to keep your energy going? Tell me all about your pumpkin spice latte addiction