Why I Love My Husband...

There are just no words...

"Bright Star"

My good friend Ashley told me about this film and invited me to go see it with her yesterday. For those of you who haven't heard of it, it's a story about John Keats the poet and his love or Muse that inspired his greatest poems (don't know much about Keats' life, but apparently it's a true story).
Anyway, I can honestly say, without any reservations that it is by far one of, if not my favorite movie of all time. Really and truly. The only word I can give you to describe it, is "Exquisite". When it was over, Ash and I were riveted to our seats until the last credit had run. It's full of Keats poetry which is so beautiful, and apparently it received a 96% or 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
If you love artistic (not artsy-fartsy, necessarily) but very sophisticatedly made, and very human movies, you need to see this one. Bright Star is a real love story.

p.s. This is one of the cleanest, yet most romantically stirring love stories I've ever seen. It's done so well that even the slightest touch of the hand sends your heart racing.

Sunday at Tiffany's

Okay, first off let me clarify that this is not a review of the beloved Audrey Hepburn film Breakfast at Tiffany's this is for "Sundays" at Tiffany's. Read on and you'll see there is a HUGE difference.

I usually give good book reviews on here, because, thanks to recommendations from friends with excellent taste, I rarely read books I don't end up liking. However, last night, I finished one of the lamest books I've ever read. I'm not kidding. I was so disgusted with it that if it hadn't been so late when I finished, I would've chucked it against the wall. (Didn't want to disturb the neighbors.)

So. Here is a list of reasons why I didn't like the book.

1) The writing was pretty terrible.
2) I felt like it was an insult to my intellectual capacity as a human being, let alone as a woman. I mean, do women really LIKE that kind of crap?
3) There was a sex scene. I always hate it when they have to put sex scenes in books; it's such a cop-out, not to mention disgusting to read. The thing I hated so much about this one, however; is that it kinda crept up on me. The book was pretty decent (morally) up to that point and then, WHAM! I so hate that!
4) The storyline was very weak.
5) It wasn't just because I had high expectations on account of James Patterson co-writing it. It was really just that lame.
6) They didn't give you any explanation whatsoever as to why everything happened the way that it did. There were no rules, it just happened, and I think that's why I felt like the author thought I was stupid, like, "Oh, this book is going to be read by women mostly--housewives even, so we don't really need to explain anything, they'll just buy it." Um...not so, pal!

Anyway, done with my rant. Don't read this book, unless you like books where you pretty much have to turn off your brain completely to be able to stand them.
Sorry, this review is really mean, and I'm usually not easily riled, but when it's this bad and it has to do with books and me wasting an evening on complete and utter rubbish, I just have to say something about it. :}

Time to Relax

Hey Everyone,

So, I heard back from Upstart Crow Literary last week, and unfortunately she didn't want to see any more of my book. I was half expecting this, since the rest of the book isn't in nearly as good of shape as the first two chapters. (I told you I jumped the gun.) But I must say, I actually feel relieved. The last six weeks have been excessively stressful trying to get my book in the best shape possible in case she requested it. Now I can take a nice break for the holidays before going back and really polishing it up.

I've actually been really surprised at how undiscouraged I've gotten from the five or so rejections I've already received. I think the reason why, is because the manuscript isn't as good as I know it can be anyway, and so I haven't been expecting much. It's good practice though. I'm sure I'll get a few more "no's" before I find the right fit. But, after four years of working on this project, it's nice to have the extra time to do it right. The whole time I was waiting for the response, I was kicking myself for sending it out before it was ready. I knew when I started on this story that I needed to take the right amount of time to really do it justice, and I'm happy to say that I didn't blow it completely. Now I've got time to polish, and outline the rest of the series. That'll be a nice selling point when I am good and ready.

Anyway, thanks all for your support, and thanks to those of you who've read it and been so supportive! You make such a huge difference!

"Catching Fire"

SO AWESOME!!!

Catching Fire is the much anticipated sequel to The Hunger Games mentioned below. "Oh my!" Is all I can say about what this book did for me. There wasn't a dull moment, which is the kind of writing I love and strive to mimic. Oh, and of course, "Go, Peeta!" Really and honestly though, I can't believe Suzanne Collins did it again, and even better than the first time. I highly recommend this book. This doesn't happen to me very often anymore, but this was one of those "up all night reading" kind of books. The last one I read that kept me up all night, was it's prequel. :) I think I mentioned this below, but this truly is one of the best young adult fiction love stories I've ever read. Peeta is the best, and I swear if things don't go the way...but I'll stop my rant here, because I don't want to spoil the fun for anyone else.

Happy Reading!

Extraordinary News!!!!

I seriously just finished jumping up and down on my bed. So, ehem! Here is the news before I get ahead of myself. After I handed my manuscript over to my writing group this month, I was feeling especially antsy to be doing something with all the spare time I had during the times I would originally be writing. So, I started writing and sending out queries to agents I'd been eyeing for a while. Well, after a week or two, I'd received two rejections, and so I thought I'd better wait until I got feedback and could polish my manuscript up some more before I started sending more out. Well, I'd already sent out five, and after my meeting, I felt like I might have a bit more work to do on my manuscript than I originally thought, so I was planning on waiting until the end of this month to query more. That, alas, has ceased to be the plan, since only today I received an e-mail from Upstart Crow Literary and one of their darling agents named Danielle asking for the first 100 pages of my manuscript! I know, but just wait, it gets better! She said, and I quote...

"I just read your sample pages, and I was absolutely riveted. I'd love to get a look at more!"

YIKES!!!

Of course, this is only the beginning, and she could very well hate it by the time she's finished with the first thirty pages. But after three and a half years of work on this baby, I'm inclined to be optimistic.

I'd better get cracking if I want these pages out before the end of the week. I'll keep you posted.

:)

When is Enough...Enough?

So while my writing group has been reading my manuscript, I've been researching the agent/publishing market, and sometimes I feel excessively overwhelmed by it all. I feel so much like you have to have the most perfected piece of literature imaginable before offering it to an agent, and yet there seems to be a lot of crap that ends up getting published anyway. So, does any one have any feedback on when a manuscript is good enough to query an agent with? I think if I spend much more time on my novel, that I'll go insane and start destroying it by nit picking everything.