Busy June

Cannot accurately express how much I want to go back to London, so I won't even try!

June has been unexpectedly busy with the end of the school year, trying to schedule all of my students at times that will work for them and me. Several people have told me times that will work, and then changed their schedules, causing me to do a whole lot of rearranging. It's a bit frustrating at times, but it goes with the territory.  Anyway, I'm always looking for a few good students, so if you know any, send them to my website for more info.

The bites I got on the book turned out to be a scam.  All for the best.  When I started doing extended research on that agency and their supposed "sister publisher" (which I thought was fishy from the start), it didn't take long to figure out that it was a scam. I'm not that disappointed.  The whole thing seeemed too good to be true.  So I am back to submitting to agents - I try to do one a day.  It's necessary to research each agency, find the best agent suited to my work within that agency, and read their blog and anything else you can find on that person so that you cater to their tastes.  I don't get many responses though - not even rejections.  Either it takes longer to get a response than they state on their blogs and websites, or they're ignoring my submissions (or not getting them at all).  Most of them give a time frame for if you don't get a response, when to try again.  I will look into that.

The Y has changed the swim schedule around.  So now instead of going 6 days a week I can only go 4 days a week because my schedule is more daytime in the summer. A bit disappointed about that, but I think I will try to walk around the Rose Bowl the other 2x/week or possibly go to one of the studio exercise classes at the Y (not swim classes).

Went to small claims court yesterday, but the judge needs more time to make a decision about our case. He will mail it to us in a week or so.  I am glad that fiasco is nearly over - I was very nervous and I don't get nervous easily!  Aileen was supportive as always and spent the whole day with me (I love Aileen!) And several others who couldn't be there with me needed immediate play-by-plays.  My dad, who has a habit of not listening to me carefully when I tell him things, unsurprisingly misunderstood the entire case.  Precisely why I am always very vague about whatever is going on in my life.  He's not listening anyway.  Anyway, I'm hoping once that situation is resolved, I can finally work on moving over to Pasadena!

My summer orchestra is cancelled this year, but they say next year they are doing a musical. Hmmm......

Need to find an outlet for doing some acting.  I think I'll start picking up Backstage West and see if there's some theatre auditions I can go for.  Of course it would help to have a headshot that's less than 10 years old!  I'll see what I can do about that cheaply.

You can still view the first 2 chapters of "Strings Attached" at Worthy of Publishing.

Was working on writing the second book in the series, but in the last 10 days, I've been too stressed out about the court thing and in the last few days, preparing for it, so I haven't been writing.  Now I will get back to that.  Here is a teaser from book 2:

“I think it’s time I met your family,” Jack Franklin said to the love of his life, Elizabeth Hennessey.


She scoffed. “Why?”

“You’ve met my family!” he reminded her. For two blissful weeks over the holidays, they went to Jack’s family estate near Reading in Berkshire in England. “When is the last time you talked to them?”

“I talked to Dad last month for about a minute.”

“And the others?”

She shook her head.

Jack couldn’t imagine having so little contact with his family. “You haven’t seen him in how long?”

“Last summer. And you haven’t seen your family in three months either.”

“Lizzie!” He clicked his tongue. “I can’t imagine that, you know. Not seeing your family on purpose.”

“Well…you like your family.”

“You really don’t like any of them? Why not?”

Elizabeth sighed and played with her sandwich. “I’ve already told you a lot about them. My mom isn’t nice, and my dad is a pushover; my little sister is a troublemaker, Charlie is completely withdrawn and aloof, and Will’s in Denver at school and he’s a stuck-up snob. I don’t really get along with any of them except Dad.”

“They all seem to have glaring faults, don’t they?”

She grimaced at his implication. “I don’t have anything in common with any of them.”

“None of them are musicians like us?”

“I think Charlie plays a little guitar. But no.”

“So, they’re not like you; they don’t like music. Don’t they have any redeeming qualities?”

She stared at him and stated, “You think I’m judging them.”

“Yeah, a bit. Even murderers have something you can like about them.”

“Oh, don’t even say that,” she scoffed.

“It’s true.”

“Yes, but at the very least that makes my mother less likeable than a murderer!”

“There’s got to be something about her you like.”

“No. I really can’t stand her.”

“Do you love her?”

“Of course, she’s my mother but that doesn’t mean I have to like her. We have nothing in common, she’s rude, she’s abusive, manipulative, condescending, miserable, cheating, horrible, back-stabbing, slut, whore…” she let her voice trail away and took a deep breath to regroup. This was the first time she let herself get riled up over her mother in front of Jack. She looked into his eyes, finding a flood of concern there and felt a wave of shame. She never wanted to be a person who hates, but when it came to her mother, she couldn’t help herself. Every encounter she now had with the woman drove her deeper into her animosity, so she avoided her like the plague. “She’s…” she hesitated. Talking about it brought it to the surface, where misery lived in consciousness. She preferred to keep her misery in her subconscious.

He felt guilty for pressing her. “You don’t have to talk about it, Lizzie. I can see you don’t want to.”

“No, I don’t,” she admitted, and looked away.

“I’m sorry if I’m pressuring you,” he offered, touching her cheek with his thumb.

“It’s all right. You’re just curious, and rightfully.”

“I really want to meet them. It’s part of this intense desire I have to know everything about you.” He smiled.

She returned his smile.

“Do you like your dad?”

“He’s all right.”

“Let’s invite him to my recital.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because he would find out I’m playing cello again.” She couldn’t let her parents find out, especially her mother.

“I think you should tell him. I just have this strange feeling he’d support you.”

“You’ve never even met him!”

“I know but I just have a feeling.”

She gazed at him quizzically for a moment. “Let’s have him for dinner.”

“Okay.” He lit up.

“Just Dad. And you have to cook. We don’t want to poison him. Not because it’d be bad for him, but Mom would kill me.”

Agent bites (in a good way)!

I have so much to tell!  An agency I submitted to about 2 weeks ago likes my work, and has read it and wants to represent me.  This agency also has a sister-partnership with a publishing company that publishes about 90% of what the agency submits. I am in the process of researching the publishing company as well as the agency and awaiting a contract from the agent.  The contract can be termintated after 90 days of no sell, or after a year.  Also, I have to get a professional critique of the book (which I have to pay for), and as I read up on this process, I see that this is normal. Once upon a time, agencies did this for you, but now they focus on selling your book and contract out the critiques.  A friend from college's sister is a book editor and I am talking to her about doing the critique, and I will also take a referral from the agency and compare them.

I have put the first 2 chapters of my book online at http://www.worthyofpublishing.com/book.asp?book_ID=11393. Feel free to read it and comment/rate what you read (you have to register to comment/rate). You can also send me comments personally.  I am always open to constructive criticism and am interested in many "eyes" seeing this work and offering their perspectives.

I have been processing all of this information about book 1 that I haven't spent much time on book 2 lately. Also, I'm at a bit of a standstill because I need to do some research about the part of the book I'm on before I can go on.

On a more personal note, I'm getting frustrated that all my hard work in the pool isn't making a dent in me.  As much as I like swimming and I certainly feel different, I feel like I should be making some progress. The only progress made was from all the walking in London last month and honestly, my legs/feet/knees can't take that on a regular basis. I was taking a constant stream of ibuprofen by the end of the week and could still barely walk to the gate at Heathrow when I left. 

I am coming to the conclusion that I'm going to have to just wait until 2014 when I can get health insurance and have gastric bypass or lap band.  Unfortuately, this means 4 more years of being alone and being past the point of hope of ever having a kid (I will be too old then). I guess I'm not meant for that.

Going to small claims court on June 22.  Should be interesting.

Recommended viewing:  http://www.the-pillars-of-the-earth.tv/ on Starz Channel.  This is an 8-hour miniseries of the book by Ken Follett.  It's an amazing book and promises to be an amazing series as well!  And of course, it features an impossibly hot monk!