Goals being met!

Yay! I'm excited because I found a blogfest to enter... not only that, but it's a really cool one and will likely be a good challenge for the next month or so. For full details, see here:

WHAT IF?

Fairytale Madness BlogFest! 

AUGUST 13th – 17th 

I have these categories to choose from:

I have to pick a fairy tale and ask "What if...?" and then in 300 words show you what I think would have happened in answer to that question. Hmmmm... decisions, decisions...

One of my summer goals was blogfesting! I'm very excited to take part and hope I'll make some new blog friends in the process. You know I said I'd throw my own blogfest when I reach 100 followers. Won't that be fun?

7x7 award

Thanks to Nick Wilford over at Scattergun Scribblings for bestowing on me the 7x7 award!

I don't really participate in these kinda things anymore (because there are way too many to keep up with!) but this one had some interesting aspects that I wanted to follow through with anyhow. Kind of a blogging retrospective, introspectively... the following links are all to posts from my own blog that I think fit these categories.

Most Beautiful: I'm biased, but Big Island Dolphin Swimming, while not perhaps the most articulately written post, and not even the most well produced video, was the most beautiful experience for me...

Most Helpful & Most Popular: This post was incredibly helpful to me in terms of feedback I got toward my main character Lilith... and it comes in second for number of views on my blog.

Most Controversial: I don't know that I've posted anything "Controversial" yet... but this post with a flash fiction piece I wrote stirred up a lot of speculation...

Most Surprisingly Successful: Possessing the Secret of Joy. Without a doubt, this is the most surprising post. Not because of content, either, I expect. It's an emotional reaction to the novel by Alice Walker. But it has the most views on my blog of all of my posts... even still today.

Most Underrated: This post about my internship with the literary agency was a LOT of fun to write and full of information, but it didn't receive quite the response I was expecting/hoping.

Most Pride Worthy: My Name is Elisabeth and I am a Vegetarian There are some things that just need to be said, and this post says it.

You can feel free to visit or not visit them :) You may already have, if you've been following me for any amount of time.

If you want this award and haven't received it yet, I'm awarding it to you now!

Have a lovely week, all.

Summer Writing Goals!

First! OMG my blog has had 10,000 views! I know that a lot of those are probably bots and people wandering in accidentally, but yay!

Now to get 100 followers! It's a right of passage, ya know? I will host my first ever blogfest/giveaway as soon as I hit 100 followers! Woot! There will be mermaid themed prizes and a little writing contest... You know you wanna join in!

It's summer. It's time to make some lists, to chart out a path of goals for the next couple of months, wouldn't you agree? I have to admit, I have been caught in the writing doldrums this entire spring! Not a letter typed, not a plot device turned over. Granted I am busy with internships and my first paid editing job, but I feel like I'm letting myself off the hook to easily.

Well, I'm ready to shake it off. So here's completely off the cuff random list of goals I'm making for this summer.

1. Writing! Make headway on second draft/1st person perspective of my WIP. Not just any headway... let's say that by the end of August I would like 20,000 words written. I've been reluctant, but there's really no way I can know how I feel about it until I write more.
2. Editing! Get a little further on that pesky first draft/3rd person perspective of the WIP. I wanna crank it up a notch, and now I think I'm starting to get a grip on what needs to happen there. I would like to have a version that I could show to someone without embarrassment by mid-September.
3. Reading! I have some good editing books in my pile that I would like to get through... my goal is to read one more of them this summer.
4. More reading! I found at B&N a couple of books with a similar theme to my current WIP... so I bought them and intend to read them by the end of August as well. Gotta know what my competition is!
5. Fests! Participate in 3 blogfests. This means I need to get down to some research... I don't wanna just participate in any o'l blogfest... but if you're throwing one, let me know!
6. Blogging! Get back up to 2 posts a week, at least! Man I have been slacking! The time to hesitate is through, though. I'll be brainstorming topics later today (as a break from editing). Feel free to leave me suggestions.

Anyone else got any good goals for the summer?

I'm back!

Wow... somebody took a blogging break! It was really an unscheduled break from the blogging world brought on by a trip to Hawaii with the hardworking hubby. He needed (and well deserved) a vacation!

But now we're back and I've spent the past few days dragging my brain back into EST and life as usual. Why? Because tomorrow I'm starting a brand spanking NEW internship! That's right folks! For the summer, I'll be interning with an actual publishing house (in the romance division). It's a definite break from my usual reading habits, but any way you slice it, I'm looking forward to learning so much and more about this new side of the industry!

So look for posts from me this summer with juicy little insights that I hope we will all be able to benefit from, as writers/creatives/etc.

Leibster award and internships abound

I'm starting off this post with a big THANKS to Dave at Dave Wrote This and Kathy at Imagine Today. Thanks to Dave for bestowing on me the Leibster Award, in all it's glory. And thanks to Kathy for nominating me for it!

Rules for accepting this award:
1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.
2. Nominate up to five others for the award.
3. Let them know via comment on their blog.
4. Post the award on your blog.

I like the idea of awarding this honor to 5 people who have less than 200 followers on their blog. So! If you know someone who fits that criteria and deserves a shout out, I'm leaving it up to YOU to nominate them in the comments below. I will treat these on a first come first served basis, as well. So hurry and get your nominations in!

On the internship front... this is my last week with the Agency in NYC. I am so grateful for the experience I have had there these past two months. I think that the Agent would have kept working with me forever if I had let her... but I'm not necessarily in it for the long term yet. I'm still trying to figure out my path. I have read so many queries now... and I can tell you what mine WON'T look like... I have seen how to professionally submit a manuscript for review... and I have seen that even if your novel is really amazing it's not always likely to get picked up by a particular agent.

Everything I have learned so far will, I hope, make me a better writer in the long run. We'll see.

I'm leaving the internship with the Agency after only two months, though, because I have landed ANOTHER internship... with a publishing house satellite office only 30 minutes from my home (instead of a one and a half hour train ride). I'm excited because here's a new angle of the publishing industry I have not seen yet! I'm headed from the agent's world into the publisher's world! By the time I am done interning my resume will be thick with experience!

The next challenge is what to do with all that experience.

I have one more response request. A couple of you mentioned wanting to know more about my experience the past couple of months at the Agency. There's a blog post here, that I think sums up a lot of what I have learned, but I'd like to open the floor for questions. Please ask me questions regarding the internship and I will compile and answer them in a post next week!

I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

Insecure Writer's Support Group, yay!

Hi all! It's time for a monthly installment of Insecure Writer's Support Group, as hosted by Alex Cavanaugh.

I don't know about you, but I can't believe it's already April! Where does the time get to?

I wanted to post about blogging memes today... because they make me insecure. Currently, when I look through my blog reader, it seems like I am the only person I know who is NOT doing the A-Z Challenge, a monthly meme started here.

Now, part of the reason I didn't join in was because I've been doing an internship in the City (which ends April 19th). The internship has been intense and educational and I'm SO glad I have had the chance to take part, to get dressed up professionally, commute into NYC, and learn about the art of discovering a marketable manuscript. But it takes up a lot of time! So I haven't been posting very regularly, anyhow... and the idea of writing a blog post a day within the loose theme of the alphabet (much less the more planned out themes that I see some of you are doing)... well I'm not super woman.

But also, I don't want to be a joiner just because I think I'm supposed to attach meaning to something that everyone else does. I'm not just referring to this particular challenge. There are "blog awards" and weekly/monthly memes all OVER the place! How does a girl choose between them all without feeling like she's missing out on something, or more importantly, without feeling like she's losing her blogging identity?

Obviously I am choosing. I'm participating in a meme right now! IWSG has been very useful to me - from reading other writers' insecurities to sharing my own insecurities to receiving supportive feedback. I will definitely continue to participate in this one. I just wonder, does anyone else out there besides me feels overwhelmed by the flood of daily/weekly/monthly blog memes?