Query Letters and Mind Traveler Update

I spent some time yesterday reading the internet for query letter tips. The query letter, as you may or may not know, is an important part of the author's toolkit. I'll send a query letter to my favorite agents or agencies when I'm ready to be represented with my book(s). The agency I most want to represent me asks for a brief synopsis to be included, so that's the type of query letter I wrote. For practice, I wrote two query letters, one for the Guardian Covenant series (which used to be titled Unbroken Promise), and one for Mind Traveler, which I'm currently writing (I'm currently on page 140!). It was actually fun writing the little blurbs that I imagine on the backs of my books.

I also saw the movie Twilight, made after Stephenie Meyer's first book. There were a lot of teen girls screaming in the audience whenever the hot vampires came on screen, so that was mildly entertaining/distracting. I also cheered when Edward's volvo spun out in a fast and dramatic way. It was so cool! I know I'm a dork.

But after we got home, I wrote ten more pages in Mind Traveler, so that makes about 15 pages for the day. Not too shabby. I'm enjoying Ruby's sidestory, too. It's helping me form the main plot.

I just got a call from my mom this morning wherein she made me feel really good by gushing about the first few chapters of the second installment of Guardian Covenant: Proving Ground. After all the criticism and lukewarm reactions or no reactions I've gotten from people, it felt really good to hear that I'm getting better as I go along. That's great news! It means that when I go back to revise, it really will be an improvement, instead of just rehashing the same old garbage.

I'm getting better!! That's a really good feeling. Thanks, Mom.

For those of you skeptics who think my mom is just patronizing me, you haven't met my mom. She's very honest, and I love that about her.

So I think if I get the opportunity, I'll write more tonight. I find my writing flows best late at night when I'm really sleepy. That's also when I most want to go to sleep, so it's kind of a toss up; I have to make the choice anew each night.

I tried Stephenie Meyer's idea of listening to music while I write, but found that it actually makes it more difficult for me. I think it's because when I write, I do a lot of rereading of the part I just wrote in order to keep it coherent and connected, and I can't read coherently--let alone write--when my mind is distracted by lyrics and beats. Maybe I could listen to enya or classical piano, but that's about it. :-) I'll just have to keep it silent when I really want to get a lot of story covered.

Oh, in the news, there's a story about the "Buddha boy" which is quite interesting in light of my story. My husband mentioned him to me earlier, but I didn't really read about him until recently. It seems he is capable of suspended animation for long periods of time. Interesting: a modern day example of what I've been writing. This story idea just gets cooler and cooler.

On a side note, I sliced my finger a fifth of the way in while cutting up a lemon for the salmon. Now I can't type with it, as it is largely bandaged, and all of my other fingers are picking up the slack on the keyboard. It feels weird hitting 't's with my middle finger instead of the index finger.

This too shall pass.