It’s been awhile since I updated, and there’s a good reason for that: right now, everything in my life is going ridiculously well. That’s great for me, but not so good for interesting blog posts. But here I am anyway.

I feel like I’m living in a fairyland, I really do. There’s a prince who has yet to turn into a frog, my fabulous agent has been a bit like a fairy godmother (for my book rather than for me, but shh), and while I’m certainly working for the money I earn, the money being reliably there is like a friendly woodland creature bringing me shiny things, such as sushi and vacations. (Okay, I don’t know how well this analogy is working.)

Not to say there haven’t been ups and downs–there have–but the downs feel like gentle dips, not the terrifying plunges that were all too possible just a couple of years ago. And I’m doing everything I can to keep those plunges from coming back. Even fairylands have monsters in the woods, but usually they aren’t invincible… so picture me training in a meadow in my fairyland, with a sword or a bow and arrow. If I’m ever in need of rescuing again, maybe I’ll be able to do it myself.

I don’t have much to report on the writing front. To Disturb the Universe has been on submission for about two weeks. It’s a little bit nervewracking when I let myself actually think about it, but fortunately I’ve been so busy that I don’t have time to worry about it much.

Meanwhile, the illusions novel is in the works. (It doesn’t have a proper title yet, partly because it can’t decide whether it wants to be a single book or a trilogy.) A few months ago, I thought I was ready to start writing the first draft, but now I really think I need to do more planning first. I’m hoping to make some solid progress on putting together a more detailed plot outline (bearing in mind that something like “they become friends” is a character arc and not a plot point) in the next month and a half.

(title quote: “Dog Days Are Over,” Florence and the Machine)

Originally published at sarahbrand.com. You can comment here or there.

Or, how I got an agent, part two.

Previously, there was this contest on a really awesome blog, the first 250 words of my novel caught the eye of Ammi-Joan Paquette of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency, and she ended up asking for the full manuscript. I sent it off and waited.

In the meantime, I sent off other queries, two or three at a time, tweaking my query letter in between batches. None of those agents bit, or even nibbled. I got a couple of rejections that looked a little personalized when I squinted. That was it.( Read the rest of this entry » )

Originally published at sarahbrand.com. You can comment here or there.

Or, how I got an agent, part one.

Maybe I should back up: I have an agent! Recently, I accepted an offer of representation from the amazing Ammi-Joan Paquette at the Erin Murphy Literary Agency. I am ridiculously excited.

For the non-writers reading this: getting an agent is the first step on one possible path to publishing a novel. (Not the path–there are several ways to pursue publication, which could be a blog post in itself–but definitely the one I decided would work best for me.) Many large publishing houses won’t even consider a novel that isn’t represented by an agent… or if they do consider unagented manuscripts, their slush pile is scarily enormous. A reputable, skillful agent can connect a great manuscript with the editors who are most likely to champion it. In addition, in the event that a publisher does offer to buy the book, a good agent can negotiate the best deal for her client. Some agents also work with their clients to revise their manuscripts before sending them out into the world.

So, in January 2011, when I was reasonably happy with To Disturb the Universe (aka the protospace novel), I knew that I wanted to find an agent. I had a list of agents to query–that is, send a short letter describing the book and possibly some sample pages–so it was just a matter of psyching myself up to actually do it. At around this time, I stumbled across the blog Miss Snark’s First Victim, run by the anonymous (and wonderful!) Authoress, and saw that the blog’s monthly Secret Agent contest was about to begin. The contests work like this: entrants send the first 250 words of their manuscript to Authoress, who posts all the entries on the blog. Entries are open to critique from anyone, and every entry will definitely receive a critique from that month’s Secret Agent. After a few days, the agent reveals his identity and awards prizes to the entries he liked best (usually things like “send me your first 50 pages,” sometimes a critique of a longer portion of the manuscript).

I decided to enter… why not, right? It actually turned out to be pretty stressful. Once my entry went up on the blog, I refreshed the page so often that Google Chrome put it on my “most visited” list. Slowly, the comments from strangers rolled in. They were pretty evenly split between “this is awesome!” and “what in the world is going on?” Alas, the Secret Agent was in the latter category.

So, why am I telling this story? A couple of days after the contest started, Authoress made a post saying that more agents were reading the entries, and asking to be put in touch with some of the entries’ authors. “Well, that definitely won’t be me,” I thought. I had basically decided to chalk the whole thing up as an interesting learning experience and move forward with querying as originally planned.

But then I got an email from Authoress: Ammi-Joan Paquette wanted to see the first three chapters of my manuscript. Cue a lot of flailing on my part. Having looked Joan up and confirmed that, yes, it would be fairly awesome if she represented me, I sent off my chapters and crossed my fingers. Three weeks later, Joan emailed me to ask for the full manuscript. More flailing, full manuscript sent, fingers crossed again.

On March 4, 2011, I wrote the following in my journal: “In two weeks, I could have an agent.” Several months later, I looked back at this and burst out laughing. Oh, my sweet summer child.

To be continued…

ETA: Part 2 is up.

(title quote: “Don’t Let Your Feet Touch Ground,” Ash Koley)

Originally published at sarahbrand.com. You can comment here or there.

Several people left very interesting comments on my previous post about writing and efficiency. (Thanks, everyone!) In particular, Susanna linked to a post on the SFWA blog, “How I Went From Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day” by Rachel Aaron. One of Ms. Aaron’s main points is that fast writing does not necessarily mean sloppy writing, and I agree.

I’d like to focus on one particular quote from her post: “While butt in chair time is the root of all writing, not all butt in chair time is equal.” If you’re a writer, unless you’re so disciplined that you’re writing instead of reading this post, this will probably ring true. There are times when my focus is like unto a fricking laser, and there are times when I’m sort of thinking about maybe writing, but then Facebook exists.

So, what makes the laser-like times different? Everyone’s answer to this will probably be different, but for me, one important factor is having a definite goal to work toward. When I was hitting 2-3k a day for that one shining week last September, I had a list of revisions I needed to make, and I could more or less go after them systematically. (It didn’t hurt that by that point, I knew the protospace novel inside and out.)

Accountability, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to help me much. When my critique group was running the “700 words a day or shame” list, it didn’t make much of a difference to my overall productivity. Likewise, keeping a spreadsheet, which I started at around the same time, was just kind of depressing.

At any rate, right now, I’ve got a shiny new novel idea, and I’m doing my best to flesh it out into something that makes sense. The problem is that “plan a novel” is a very broad goal, and word count isn’t necessarily the best measure of progress. What to do?

Here’s where mindfulness comes in. I work at a consulting firm, and it’s vital that I track how much time I spend on each project I’m involved in. Tracking my time not only lets my employer know how much to charge our clients, it helps me focus my attention on the job at hand. If I take a break, I have to let the time-tracking software know, and this small action forces me to be conscious of what exactly I’m doing with myself all day.

With all of this in mind, I’m going to divide “plan a novel” into goals that are somewhat more discrete, and I’ve installed a time-tracking program (Grindstone, if you’re curious) on my computer at home.  For the next week, I’m going to use it when I’m writing, and see if time-tracking is equally effective for me when creative work is involved. It might turn out to be more stressful than helpful, but I think it’s worth a try.

Has anyone else found accountability tricks that work for them? Also, if anyone wants to play along with the time-tracking experiment this week, let me know.

Originally published at sarahbrand.com. You can comment here or there.

Here are a couple of pictures from the weekend, which I spent in New York City with some fellow Alpha graduates. We all ate dinner together, and then those of us who were still in town the next day played the Battlestar Galactica board game. It was awesome.

Nine smiling Alphans (there should have been eleven, but I failed at framing the shot) around a table at the Tick Tock Diner in New York City.

Seven Alphans around Yumi’s kitchen table. On the table: the Battlestar Galactica board and about twenty billion different cards and tokens. Seth is facepalming. In related news, the Cylons won.

(title quote: “Your Hands (Together),” The New Pornographers)

Originally published at sarahbrand.com. You can comment here or there.

The first draft of To Disturb the Universe, aka the protospace novel–which was 72,000 words long at that point–took me two and a half years to finish. That’s a long time. Granted, that was a relatively tumultuous period in my life, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that things will always be tumultuous in one way or another.

And it’s not like I’m the only writer on the planet who’s dealt with college or a full-time job. As an economist friend of mine would say, this is a solved problem. There are ways to write quickly (well, more quickly than I do right now), and do it well, even when it seems like life should get in the way. I just haven’t found them yet, so I’m hoping someone reading this will have some insight.

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Originally published at sarahbrand.com. You can comment here or there.

My first week at my new job is over! Here are the reasons I’m ridiculously excited:

1. A coffee shop down the street from my office serves bubble tea.

2. I also found a Barnes and Noble about two blocks away.

3. There’s a farmer’s market practically next door, which is open two days a week and has delicious, cheap Indian food.

4. On Fridays, there are free Dunkin Donuts in the break room. I upgraded my feelings about this from pleasure to ALL THE EXCITEMENT when I discovered that some of the donuts were Vanilla Creme.

5. This company is awesome, and I am excited to be part of the work they are doing. (That should probably be closer to the top.)

6. While I was up here looking for apartments, I bought a SmarTrip card, which is like a debit card for the DC metro. The other day, I was on my way home, and when I tapped the card against the sensor (which you can do without taking your card out of your wallet, a feature I definitely appreciate), the readout told me I only had $1 left. This was distressing because 1) that’s not enough to get from U Street to my stop, so 2) I thought I would have to pay exitfare, which was problematic because 3) the exitfare machines only take cash and I didn’t have any. Turns out, I didn’t have to pay exitfare! The SmarTrip card just had a negative balance and I made up for it when I reloaded the card. In conclusion: SMARTRIP CARDS.

7. I am less than a week away from actually having money. This one should probably be closer to the top as well.

8. Not strictly related to DC or the new job, but several of my friends placed in the Dell Magazines Award! Congratulations to Rachel, Lara, Maddy, Rebecca, and Lily.

(title quote: “So Begins Our Alabee,” Of Montreal)

Originally published at sarahbrand.com. You can comment here or there.

First, the good news: as most of the people who actually read my blog probably know from Facebook, I got a job! I’ll be an economic research assistant at a health care consulting firm, which is pretty much exactly what I wanted to do with my degree. I start in about two weeks. So, as you can imagine, I’m pretty happy.

For a week or so, everything was nice and peaceful in Sarah-land. One of my major worries had been resolved. Finally, I was done with waiting by the phone (or by my Gmail accounts) for people to make decisions that would have a huge impact on my life. Right?

Not so fast, action girl. Turns out I still have to find a place to live. And because even a studio apartment near a metro stop that’s reasonably close to my office costs roughly the monthly budget of a small developing country, that means looking for roommates. I have stressed, second-guessed myself, and generally worried so much that I’ve been just about ready to set something on fire. (I should probably note that this is a metaphor.)

You know what? I’m still pretty stressed. But yesterday I went out and took a walk, and I bought a copy of Legend by Marie Lu and a bag of Goldfish crackers, and then I read and snacked instead of watching the State of the Union address. And tonight I’m going to read some of the materials my supervisor sent me, and maybe think about the new novel* a bit. Everything will be okay.

* Yes, this is the same new novel that I talked about lo these many months ago, in my very first blog entry on this website. It will continue to be “the new novel” until I’ve written at least three chapters. Sigh.

(title quote)

Originally published at sarahbrand.com. You can comment here or there.

After pitiful gchat statuses, even more pitiful Facebook updates, and still more pitiful flailing in the direction of friends and critique partners, I finally entered a story in the Dell Awards for the last time in my life. I’m not completely happy with it, but more than anything, I wanted to put it out of my head, spend some time with my family, and think about the coming year. So now I have, and I will.

I only have a few resolutions this year, but here they are:

1. To keep writing. I’ve tentatively set a goal of around 75,000 words for the year. According to my spreadsheet, I’ve written around 45k in the last four months, so even assuming (hoping!) that I will be significantly busier in 2012, I think this is realistic.
2. To read more. I’d like to read at least two books a month (fiction or nonfiction) and at least two short stories a week.
3. To believe in myself even when the universe doesn’t seem to agree.

Happy New Year, everyone! I’ll leave you with this quote from Neil Gaiman (which you’ve probably seen, but I thought this poster version was pretty cool):

[The image is by dreamripples and the text is as follows: "May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself. - Neil Gaiman" ]

(title quote)

Originally published at sarahbrand.com. You can comment here or there.

I don’t exactly have a tradition of doing end-of-year memes, but this year, I’m procrastinating on revisions for this year’s entry in the Dell Awards, so here you go: my year in review.

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Originally published at sarahbrand.com. You can comment here or there.