Last week I posted an update about life, where I’ve been andy why it’s been a little quiet here on the blog.
Today I wanted to follow up on what I’m writing, and reading. Before I left from Chicago, I got a full manuscript request for a piece that I finished most recently named A Band-Aid Kind of Love. The tagline for it is:
Noelle’s running from a terrible dark family secret. Joe drives an Uber to flee from the nightmares from war. Neither are looking for love, but the chemistry is undeniable. When a horrific tragedy strikes, how do 2 broken people find their way through?
I was so busy with the move and life moving a million miles an hour that when the response came back, I wasn’t expecting it. Nor, was I expecting the answer which was not an outright no. The agent provided some suggestions, and said to circle back with another revision. Holy shit! So that’s what I did. In my crazy writer brain, I thought that changing the perspective from 3rd person to first person was how to incorporate the feedback, it wasn’t. I didn’t realize that until about 20K words in to the revision. This was a real facepalm moment, but a real eye opener too. I took a step back looked over the suggestions again, and got to work. It took me the better part of the summer, working on my lunch breaks, nights and weekends, while orchestrating a cross country move to get this revision finished. It took me longer to re-write the book than it did to originally write the damn thing in the first place, lol. BUT, what is there now is incredible. Taking that constructive feedback, and listening to it, the agent was so right. I reached out to resubmit the piece and I’ll let you all know how that goes. No matter what happens, this is a better book from this process, and changed how I write.
I also read a lot this summer during the move when my brain couldn’t actually form words and my fingers ached from typing. I read a lot of Colleen Hoover who is having a moment, Go CoHo! I also picked up an incredible series by Karina Hale, the first book is called Dirty Angel, about a woman who is kidnapped by a cartel in Mexico. This book is on fire. I found it at the Ripped Bodice in Culver City, Ca. I also read the Sinner Series by Seirra Simmone this past summer…woah! I think that series falls more into erotica, but it’s a wild ride.
As the holidays passed, our first in our new city, inspiration started to pop. I began working on a new project! I’m past the 40K word mark and it is going well. Interestingly enough though, right before the move I was working on a different project and I got stuck, like really stuck. With the move, I put it out of my mind. Then on Saturday afternoon, the song Claire and Eddie came on the radio by Kings of Leon. This song was the inspiration for this story. Just like that, the solution to the story, and the third act was there! I figured it out. I raced home, to tell my husband who, bless him, has learned to just go with inspired Jackie. There was only one hang up, I never jump from project to project. I am a one at a time kind of girl. But I couldn’t help myself. I figure if the idea is there, go for it. So I jumped projects for the first time ever and am finishing up last year’s book. Oh man, the romance in this one…. swoon worthy!
Eventually, I’ll get back on the querying bandwagon again, but while the muse is there and the words are flowing, this girl is going to keep writing!
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