I’m neck-deep in revisions, and that’s a good thing. No, it’s not on the women’s fiction book I’ve been working on, but rather the Bombshell-targeted manuscript. The editor read and liked the revised partial and wants to see the rest of it, meaning I’m doing a lot of cutting, adding, overall revising to make the story as solid as possible. I really, really, really hope this is the book that finally sells.

A wonderful friend of mine, Stephanie Rowe, recently sold to a new publisher, and I couldn’t be more excited. Be sure to check out Steph’s blog.

Well, I’m cutting this short because those revisions are calling my name. Adios!

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been a week since I last updated the blog. How did that happen? Well, at least I’ve been productive during that week. I’m still going great guns on the chick lit book. I hope to finish the third chapter today, then work on the synopsis for the rest of the week while also revising chapters 7 and 8 of my women’s fiction book, which my critique partners just gave back to me today.

I had a fun trip to Atlanta over the weekend, despite the awful drive down in pouring rain and traffic jams caused by wrecks. I attended a meeting at which the speaker was an editor. I pitched her my women’s fiction book, and she requested the first three chapters and a synopsis. I also got to hang out with several friends and work on my RWA National Conference workshop with my buddy and co-presenter Anna DeStefano. Anna has another wonderful Superromance, A Family for Daniel, coming out in June.

If you’re a writer — and maybe even if you’re not — you’ve heard the saying, “Write what you know.” Well, I started doing that on Friday evening when I decided to try writing a chick lit novel based on my many varied and wacky experiences as a reporter. Some of the stuff is based in fact but is exaggerated to make the book larger than life. And not all the stuff happened to me. Some things happened to co-workers, and some are just figments of my imagination. It’s been a load of fun so far. I use being able to write a few pages of the chick lit each day as the dangling carrot — a reward for getting through the necessary revisions on the women’s fiction manuscript. It’s nice to work on two totally different types of projects at the same time. The fun, light tone of the chick lit helps balance out the heavier tone of the women’s fiction novel. And the knowledge that I can get another partial out there under consideration while going through this women’s fiction manuscript with a fine-tooth comb keeps me going.

Whether this was a rerun or not, I saw a hilarious segment on Blue Collar TV tonight. It was called Redneck Yard of the Week. I’ve GOT to fit that into my chick lit somehow because I’ve definitely seen some yards that qualify.

And put another season of Survivor in the books. I really enjoyed this season even though my favorite guy Ian didn’t win. I was shocked when he made the deal with Tom last night that he’d quit the challenge if Tom took Katie to the final two — all so he could win back their friendship and trust. I admire Ian a great deal for that, but I’m disappointed that I didn’t hear a peep of thanks from either Tom or Katie during the final tribal council, the reunion show or the Survivor Online show today. I truly hope that Ian’s sacrifice was worth it. If there’s a second All-Stars season in the future, I think Ian more than deserves to be a cast member.

Haven’t posted in a week because I’ve been on the road visiting family and traveling with the hubby on a business trip. While on the trip though, I managed to get through the edits on my women’s fiction book. Now I just have to type them all in. I’ll still have more substantial revisions as my critique group goes through the book, but at least this is one more step toward having a completed, ready-to-go book to send out into the single title market.

Summer has finally arrived here. It’s summer to me when I finally turn on the AC, start wearing shorts and going barefoot. Of course, it must pass 80 degrees before I do any of these things. It’s been almost 90 the past couple of days, but I’m not going to complain. This is loads better than winter.

Well, today hasn’t been the best day in my writing world. After being seriously bummed out about a dear friend getting what I feel are unwarranted rejections on three of her manuscripts, I got one of my own. It was on the book that won the Golden Heart last year, the book that I did requested revisions on for an editor who has since left the publishing house. I’m glad I have that nifty necklace because it seems that the book and the one that finaled in the GH this year are never going to see the light of day. Sigh.