I Need Running Music

I jogged for 30 minutes today without stopping! Woo-hoo! This has been sooooo hard for me. It has been a really long week for me (running wise). I can usually catch on to things but my body is in such bad shape that it is going to take a while to get the hang of this. I am really motivated though. After a week and a half I have already lost 6 pounds. My motivation is that if I have to do any kind of presentation or workshop or demo for my book, I am not letting people see me at this weight. No, NO, NO!
I didn't quite finish the 3 miles I am suppose to do today (it was time to pick up the first round of kids)but at least I ran for a solid 30 minute block. That is more than I have in a long time and I actually feel good today. I am worried about my long run this weekend, 6 miles.
Anyways I need your help!!!! PLEASE!!! I need good upbeat, fast paced music or just something with a good beat kind of beat to keep my spirits high while I am running. If anyone has any suggestions please, please, PLEASE help me and let me know!!!
I love Mika, Match box 20, some mainstream punk, etc. I guess I like what mainstream America likes. I'm pretty generic. Gotta go pick up kids, homework and all that stuff, but please drop me a song or two. Thanks:)

Mormon Mommy Writers

I've just been invited to contribute to Mormon Mommy writers at http://mormonmommywriters.blogspot.com . The sharing ideas thing is really fun. It is what I've been praying for for the past year. So come check it out :)

I changed my blog back ground. Let me know what you think! I'll most likely will change it again soon. It needs some more tweaking to get it just right but I was excited that I could do it myself, sans the aid of my computer genius hubby! My daughter does not like the header. She wants it to still say olsens7. So that must go!

My kids mean a lot to me and I love sharing about them and with them. I love involving them in this whole writing process. My children have been models in my book, my oldest son Scott (he is a 10 year old genius for naming things) has helped me title several of my books as well as projects, they have been giving me creative ideas for my projects etc. They are my little muses (along with my totally awesome rad agent, Emmanuelle). This has been a family process and we have grown closer together by listening and appreciating each others ideas.

My agent just sent out the finished proposal to publishers, so we will be hearing back sometime next week. Keep your fingers crossed :)

One last thing before I go and I am almost affraid to admit this new one, but what the heck! I have been wanting to do this ever since my aunt Judy ran one when I was a child. (Maybe it will make me have to do it now that I told the world!) I am begining to train for the L.A. marathon. My marathon group says that I have enough time to train. At 18 weeks, I'm having some doubts. I am sooooo out of shape. But at least I will get in shape if not for this one then the next soonest one for sure.

In the mean time, back to laundry, dinners, homework, my 2 jobs etc. :)

Life Coaching? You Need It!

I have to give a shout out to John Henshaw, my Life Coach, friend and father. He has been a life coach all his life. When ever we would sit down for family meetings or one-on-one Dad time he would always ask, "What are your goals?" He is always coaching his children and helping them as well as others attain their goals! That's John Henshaw! When I was a child he would be my life coach in any thing that I decided to do. When I was on the track team and wanted to improve my time, he would help me map out my training, envision the finish line and obtain my goal. You may think that I was an only child with how much individual attention I got. No! I was one of 4 kids! We were all given that special attention. His goal was and is to help his family succeed. He took class after class to perfect his Life Coaching talent. He has tried many new, innovative ideas and concepts with us. He has perfected the art. But that does not stop him! He continues to pursue new ideas and concepts even now. His knowledge and life energy are so powerful, you can't help but have it rub off on you.
Through my journey writing this book he has been there. Coaching me and motivating me. His excitement and energy has rubbed off on to me and I am ready to succeed. I envision that finish line and ready to achieve my goal. Thanks Dad. You can check him out on Linkedin under John Henshaw Professional Coach & Organizational Development Specialist at Northrop Grumman.

Still Working!

I am still working on my proposal for my book ideas! There is so much to learn in the world of writing and getting a book published that I never knew. You think it's somehow like the movies. You write la-di-da and then you publish...pow!

Movies lie. Why? It's a lot of writing, re-writing proposals and back and forth. So if you are wanting to write a book, just know that you are in for a lot of rejections and work. Many of you want to know how to get your book published? Well all I can tell you is how I am trying to do that. The #1 thing is to get an agent. If that doesn't work, try re-writing your query letter and re-sending it or find new agents to send it to. A query letter is a small synopsis of your work. Kind of like what you would find on the inside of a book jacket. Something that tells a little about you and the book. Something that will really reel them in! Here are some sites to go to to find agents (remember to research each agent and find out if you are the right fit for them and what they are looking for in a query letter). Here are some of the sites that really helped me:

Start with this one first! It was the best. I went through the entire list and e-mailed every agent that I thought would fit the bill. Some only wanted paper/snail mail queries so I skipped those. I am going green like many agencies and I couldn't afford the money to print and mail to all of them so I did all the e-mailed ones first. If I didn't get a response then I was going to do the paper/snail mail ones. I was't going to give up no matter how many rejections! I knew that this was an awesome book and that I had soooo much more to share!

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/3575/wn/writerstext-uspublishers.html

http://www.literarymarketplace.com/lmp/us/index_us.asp

http://www.spywriter.com/litagency5.html This guy really kept me going! Check out how many query letters it took him. He's got me beat. I sent out 350 individual query letters (do not spam agents, they do not like that and you will most likely be rejected. Personalize each query. It's slow but do it!).

http://www.author-network.com/agents2.html

I also went to Stephanie Meyers website here http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilight.html

and read about how she did it, got a subscription for a month to writers market http://www.writersmarket.com/ and went to Janet Evanovich's website http://www.evanovich.com/. This is where I learned to write a query letter. Then by researching on agents sites I found out more and more. When agents tell you that your work is not right for them but offer suggestions, take those suggestions as if they were pure gold. Take them into consideration. I did. An agent told me that it wasn't long enough. I had about 16 ideas in the book then. So I added a bunch more and it really has been good advice!

So #1 FINISH YOUR BOOK

#2 get family and friends to help you edit it

#3 Send out a million query letters and don't give up until you get an agent or if you have tried your best, then go for a publishing house that takes un-agented work. But don't go that route unless you have queried at least 400 agents. Yes really that many!

I hope this helped and good luck!

WOW!

WOW! WOW! WOW! Is all I can say right now. I actually have a literary agent! She is awesome! Already she is putting not only my finished book out to editors but my future book ideas as well! How awesome is that. I knew she was the one when she emailed me for my proposal. It was inspiration! I already emailed the 4 other agents and told them that I already had representation! I am still in shock! Can you believe it! I might actually be in print some day! I can't wait to show everyone all the cool things they can do with very little money, some elbow grease and an imagination!

Oh ! About the image above. I drew it several years ago as a part of my pop couture t-shirt line. I hate to leave my posts pictureless!

Have Fun, Be Creative, Look Fantastic!

Bandana Girl

Just started this blog, www.crazy4bandanas.blogspot.com for the re-launch of my latest book: Bandana Girl, 118 fun and fashionable bandana creations! (working title). I finally finished and sent out queries for Tie It Up, I am awaiting 3 agents response. My friend Sarah, a writer, said that I needed to wait patiently on the agents to respond (a book I am reading said up to 2 weeks) and write the next book in the mean time, in order to not go crazy! So I took her advice and I am back in the game! After that, I can finish a sequel to Tie It Up, called Tie It Up in the Home (working title).

I am really excited to getting back to a schedule but not having the kids in school. I love them at home. We can do stuff together, have friends over, no stressful homework, no getting places on time, did I mention no homework? I am already back to cleaning the house, dinner on the table, and grocery shopping! For most of the vacation I was just writing, creating and photographing and letting everything else just go.

Hope you all had a great vacation! Thanks Heather and Gabby!

Work! Work! Work!

Just sent out over 250 query letters and I got 2 agents back that wanted to see the entire book! So my entire Holiday Season has been dedicated to the book and getting a house full of relatives and kids over sickness after sickness! Did I mention the garage was cleaned out too? Now the real work begins. I have to make up proposals, work on my Tie-It-Up.blogspot.com page, my http://www.tie-it-up/ web page (I want to add video and better graphics). Who knew that writing a book was so much work?