Tag: rejection

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Right On Track!

The thing about being rejected NOW, with an agent, is that it feels like nothing at all.

At this point we’re looking for the publisher that wants the book, that thinks the book will be the right fit for their brand.  Ultimately I want a publisher who thinks Sleep Over is perfect for them, and will put it out there with enthusiasm.

I’m not phased by rejection at this point.

I’m pretty pleased with how it’s all going.  This being my Birthday, it’s a good day to take stock and see how all my plans are shaping up.  I’m happy.

Google doodle surprised me today.  How sweet!

Want to know some cool stuff?  You can go to the url at the end and find out the same (and more) about you, based on when you were born!

Since I was born, I (read: our galaxy) have travelled nearly 600 trillion km towards the Great Attractor.  The population of humans on earth has grown by 2 billion, 422 million and change.  (World population is now at 7 billion, 288 million and change…)

My heart has beat one billion, 95 million, 841 hundred thousand, and change times. Mmm, good ol’ heart.

The moon has only orbited the earth 401 times since I was born???  For some reason I am surprised.  I think I need to learn more about the moon I guess.

Anyway, find out all this and more, about you!

So that’s all for now!  Just didn’t want to have complete radio silence until the BIG NEWS that will come (soon hopefully).

I’ll leave you with this image of what Andromeda, our closest neighbouring galaxy, would look like in our sky if there wasn’t light pollution.

Doesn’t look so far now, does it.  Oh wait what?  We’re going to collide with it in 3.75 billion years‽

Cheers!

Heidi out.

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Best Rejection Ever, and Grab Bag Extravaganza II

Hello friends and compatriots!

No news yet.  Still waiting on the Agent Train for my stop.

Although, I did receive what is to date, the best rejection letter of my life.

An agent I was really into requested my full manuscript.  That in it of itself warrants a !!!!  But the next email I received from them went something like this:

I cannot represent you.  Because I cannot finish reading your manuscript.  …Because it is giving me nightmares.

!!!!!!!! Holy smokes man.  I could not have asked for a better endorsement.  People who have problems sleeping are going to have a hard time reading about the near extinction of the human race due to mass insomnia… So I guess that goes for agents as well!

I’m going to look at horror agents now, because this manuscript is far more horrifying that I originally gave it credit for.  >:)

I’m also working on a new project which I will soon be able to share with you.  It will be presented in audio format, and has been great fun to work on so far.

Also, I added a link my in “Craft” links- this one to a blurb I wrote on reddit, about my planning process!  It has tons of links to various entries in this blog to elaborate.

SO meanwhile, because I really like that you stopped by, you beautiful resilient caribou, you astonishing display of peacock feathers, you stack of waffles, you, dear reader, I will add some fluff here.  Because I like sharing.  And laughing.

Want to get lost in Youtube watching cake-spinning videos with me?  Because they are *singsong voice* amazing!

My fav:

When I wrote this draft I was mega hungry, so a lot of this first bit is food related.  NOW though, I am stuffed FULL of waffles and have a Magnificent Sandwich (band name called it patent pending HG Bleackley 2014) waiting for me for lunch.  Chicken.  Brie.  Pear.  Hoooo man I am going to have to wait a while on that though… waffles are my world right now.

How about some pictures instead?

Nooooooooo

Something else!  Not cake!  Not food!

Wait for it…

.

.

.

WHOMMP

NOOOOOOOO ok how about- this is how dogs drink!

Ah yes, the rare 9-legged Plover.

And then sometimes, you’re like, no freakin’ way.

Banana!

That’s all for now folks!

Back to agent hunting.  And when I have this audio-project ready, you’ll be the first to know.

Cheers.

Heidi out.

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Kitty, Wild Gears, Rejection

First a video of my kitty playing!  She’s rather subdued when she reaches the end of her “running around” phase of playing.  When she moves into her “rolling around” phase, I really enjoy playing with her and her mouse toy this way.  Cutest!

Next up is some art my mom made with Aaron’s Wild Gears!  Holy smokes she’s been crankin’ ’em out.

Here’s a link to the full album.

My favourite piece of hers:

Intricate!


Photo of his newly-opened gear sheet, by Scott Bleackley:

And in writing news, I’m hearing back from literary agents.  The consensus is very positive- I’m getting a lot of “Great idea!” type comments, but so far all of them don’t feel like they’re the right agent to champion my manuscript.  *crosses fingers*  One of them has got to be the one.  I’ll keep looking.  I submit to really cool people, and it’s sometimes hard to tell if they’ll be into what I got goin’ on, but I’ve got to get it right one of these times!

Tonight: Ink Club!  I’ll spend the night researching several more literary agents I’d like to submit to.

This involves reading interviews they’ve done, looking up what people on Absolute Write Water Cooler have to say about them, and looking up their past sales.  It takes time, but it lets me know if I think they’d be a match for me and my work.

I’ll keep you posted, of course.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Heidi out.

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“Luka and Iso”- Top 10% in The Nicholl Fellowship!

Hello wonderful blog readers!

I received an email from the Nicholl Fellowship today.

Every year, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences picks five writers and pay them, based on the strength of the script they submitted, to produce another feature length screenplay.

I didn’t make the cut for the Fellowship, but my script scored in the top ten percent!

7,251 entrants, and I’m in the top 10%?  Pretty awesome, but of course, disappointing not to advance.

Ah well, I’m hoping I can find someone out there as excited about the story of the first genetically engineered dragon as I am!  Perhaps this will help me along.  It will make a killer film.

Congratulations to everyone that is advancing.  I’m sure there are some amazing scripts, and how they’ll ever pick just five is completely beyond me!

In other news, I received my second ever royalty cheque!  Seems that A Quick Bite of Flesh is still selling.  Want some zombie flash fiction?  Then this book is forrr yoooouuuu!

I am waiting on an awesome agent for a new book I’d like to see in print.  Paranormal romance/urban fantasy here I come!  I’m well into the sequel already, and hitting short stories out of the park on a daily basis.

I’ll keep at it until- BWA HA HA YOU CAN’T STOP ME

Thanks for stopping by.

Oh what’s that?  This is my 100th post?

Hurrah!

Oh man, if I’ve been this into my small successes so far, when I get my first novel picked up I’m going to be happier than a kitten with a feather.  More excited than a porcupine with a banana.  You do know porcupines love bananas, right?

Anyway, thank you for stopping in and staying with me on this long, long journey to authordom.

Heidi out.

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Kells and Reasons for Rejection

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  The Book Of Kells is free on iTunes today.  I don’t know a thing about it, but I will soon enough.  Enjoy!

And today, author Michael J. Sullivan posted some interesting insights from another author, Marion Zimmer Bradley, on Why Stories Get Rejected.  A good read, and something every new author needs to internalize.

I have it down pat by now.  Though I think this can be a problem; this insidious expectation of rejection has effected me in a way I didn’t anticipate.  I have four things that I’m really excited about right now: my novel got a full request at an agency I would love to work with, my screenplay is being considered for the Nicholl Fellowship, as well as a contest to get me into Pitchfest, and also a short story of mine has been shortlisted for an anthology I’m excited for.

This is a lot of excitement.

Usually it’s just a lot of little things, various stories out for various anthologies, and the trickle of rejections come in steady and constant.  No big deal (anymore).

So when I actually have things to be excited for, I realize how oppressed this expectation of rejection was making me.


Sometimes we need to step back to see things more clearly…

The danger of getting excited is that it makes the rejection just that much worse.  I’m finding this creeping into other aspects of my life; I’ve stopped getting excited for movies (movies that I would have gotten excited for in the past!) because of past let downs (not a rejection, but the same feelings are at play).

Last week was the most difficult I’ve found meditation.  My mind kept racing forward to the future, and I’d have to pull it back.  Sit.  Stay.  Not terrible, but it got me to realize just how much I’ve been not been letting myself get excited.

So I’m excited.  Even if none of these four amazing things happen, it feels good to have so much possibility laid out before me.  And even if a single one does happen?  Well damn.  Things are pretty swell.

 

Silly kitty.  My own is hiding under my blankets, scared of the wind.

Right!  So, hope all is well with you, dear reader.

Thanks for reading.

Heidi out.