Querying – Elodie Nowodazkij

So it’s been FOREVER since I’ve done a Road Trip Wednesday….Happy to be back!

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This Week’s Topic:

Quarterly check-ins! We’re already 1/4 of the way through the year–where are you on your reading and writing goals?

In terms of reading I didn’t set myself any specific goals except the Debut Author Challenge. And I need to review the books I’v read because WOW I’ve gotten lost in some amazing stories!

And I’ve been doing a lot of beta-reading and critiquing. Let me tell you: I’m VERY lucky I get to read all those manuscripts and pages! They’re wonderful!!!!

When it comes to my writing?

I finished the extensive revision of ONE TWO THREE and it’s back in Query Land (plus, it got two requests via Cupid’s contest, yay! and it’s off to the agents of the Submission mailbox of YAlitchat.org)
To get my mind off querying and because my fingers itched to draft again, I started SHINY NEW WIP, i.e. GUILTY…It was supposed to be a YA contemporary romance novel it’s turning into a YA romantic suspense novel. And I’m excited!

One of my goals was to be more appreciative and to find balance. Well…let’s just say I have to work even harder to find this balance I’m longing for. Work has been very very busy, hubby is traveling a lot and let’s just say it can get overwhelming.

But…

I have some coping ways:

The sun is shining again. That ought to help brighten the mood.
We’re moving closer to the train station, which means: YAY project and YAY having some office space and YAY no more waiting for the bus and missing my train because of it.
Writing and reading.
Spending time with my hubby
Enjoying the small things.
Listening to my cat purring (or snoring :-))

Plus, I need to disconnect from times to times, not from Twitter, no but from my blackberry, that should help 🙂

My writing goal is to finish the first draft of GUILTY by the end of April…that gives me about 2 months and I already wrote 10k in the past couple of weeks!

Tell me, how are you doing these days? Did you accomplish some of your goals?

So, I´m full into NaNo (my husband laughs whenever I tell him – he just doesn´t understand it :D), but I don´t want to neglect my blog like I´ve done in the past weeks. Here enters Katy Upperman and her wonderful ideas. She came up with this template to keep readers updated on her progress and I´m totally using it 😀 Thanks Katy

Progress (word count or a general status update): I´m behind on the official daily word count needed to complete BUT I´m writing more than usual and I plan on writing this weekend as well.

Current Mood: Excited and tired. And wondering where my WiP is going. I now have a creepy scene which wasn´t planned at all (think possessed grandmother crawling on the ceiling….)

Inspiration:

“When asked, ‘How do you write?’
I invariably answer, ‘one word at a time.’”

– Stephen King

Goal as of Today: I want to continue using my time in my commute to its full potential. That means actually typing 300 more words than usual.

Recent Favorite NaNo WIP Line(s): (unedited)

“Love you both,” I tell them. My chest constricts and I rub the back of my neck.

“Don´t talk like you´re saying goodbye. You do realize we have school tomorrow, right?” Jessie raises an eyebrow, and glances between me and Aleksi.

“Sure,” I say the word but I don´t believe it. All my certitudes are gone in smoke. And damn it, I really want a puff a nicotine.

Non-NaNo News (because life DOES go on)

There is this little querying thing I´m doing these days 😀 And I entered Baker´s Dozen Auction. I still have to make it through the slush pile but I´m entry #100….The first submission window closed so fast, my head was spinning.

In My Downtime (ha!) I’m Reading

So I´ve been quite slow in my reading. But I´m currently enjoying TIME BETWEEN US (which I picked up based on Jessica Love´s Bookanista recommendation)

You Should Read This Blog Post: Since I started querying, I´ve been looking at ways to release some of the tension. I mean, as you well know, we work so hard on our books, pouring our ideas into the word and a lot of ourselves as well…and sending those words into the big wild world is exhalariting and frightening. So, to keep things light, I read that post several time: That Awesome Day You Get to HearFrom Ryan Gosling

Gratuitous Photo: With the release of Dear Teen Me, I sent my picture to Erin as she is preparing something special for the blog tour…This would be my advice to my teen self.