GUTGAA

So I was lurking in the blogosphere this week and encountered several writer friends participating in GUTGAA.  GUTGAA is "Gearing Up to Get an Agent," a blog hop and pitch contest with the chance of landing, or at least getting read by, one or more agents.  First I thought "sounds like fun, it's too bad my novel is nowhere near ready."  And then I remembered that I have a completed middle grade Christmas book and pitching it just keeps getting pushed behind other projects.  It's the perfect match:  even if I get no interest, this will at least push me to get everything ready so I can start querying on my own!

The blog hosting GUTGAA is Deana Barnhart, and you can sign up here if you'd like.
The first event is a Meet and Greet, so here are my answers:

-Where do you write?
At my desk in the basement office

-Quick. Go to your writing space, sit down and look to your left. What is the first thing you see?
A Silhouette Cameo paper cutting machine I purchased months ago but still haven't used, which hasn't managed to muscle its way into a more contained niche of my desk yet, because a lot of my husband's stuff is still behind it

-Favorite time to write?
While the boys are napping (or at least are obeying the rules and staying in their rooms)

-Drink of choice while writing?
I seldom keep something at my desk, I just get water every time I get up.  Unless I'm tired, then I get a chai

-When writing , do you listen to music or do you need complete silence?
Silence.  I sometimes have trouble concentrating if I even have a song stuck in my head.

-What was your inspiration for your latest manuscript and where did you find it?
The novel I'm editing now was the only thing I've ever written inspired by one of my dreams.  I was pretty enthused and couldn't stop talking about the dream for weeks.

-What's your most valuable writing tip?
Just write.  Momentum has a lot of power, on many levels.  Don't spend an hour researching one detail that might get cut in the first round of edits.  Details can be hammered out later, just clear your space and your mind and write.  There will always be chores, jobs, children, etc and you simply have to make time around them.

My first published story appears in the anthology "Doomology:  The Dawning of Disasters" from the Library of Science Fiction and Fantasy Press.  I live in Colorado with my husband and two young sons, and write whenever I can get the boys down for simultaneous naps.  I also recently started developing a mobile app, because life just isn't busy enough.