Is Trump a Russian Operative?

It seems like Donald Trump is hell-bent on alienating everyone in this country, one insult at a time. But maybe Fio isn't giving him enough credit.  Maybe he's an undercover operative for the Kremlin.  Maybe he was turned when he was in Russia setting up the beauty contest and is now dedicated to undermining America.

Speaking of Russia, where has Melania disappeared to?  Her webpage has been discontinued and she seems to have dropped out of sight.  And what about Sarah Palin?  Maybe Trump's decided to move on.  After all, women are disposable in his world.

Always Trying to Make It Better

As you might have gathered, Fiorella has been looking over her old short stories lately.  Most of them still resonate so she's thinking of re-editing them and trying to get them published as a book.  Hey--maybe her agent could help with that!
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On the local front, the shelves on both sides of the fireplace in the den look good now so Fio is planning to move on to the shelves above the built-in desk--and she is merciless.
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Fiorella has been looking at some of her old paintings with an eye to touching them up, but just for her own sake.  She's never yet let a good piece of art rest in peace.

Welcome to the World, Little Lamb

Methinks your Fiorella has come smack-dab up against the reality of a writing career, that it is a business, 180 degrees away from Fio's world of daydreams.

She went through all the steps--entering contests, winning contests, getting a great agent who got her a big publisher, working with a great editor.  But her book, for whatever reason, has not been embraced by the waiting world, as she had assumed it would be.  And now that the second book in the contract is at the publishers, her agent wants her to write a new book in a different setting.

Which leaves Fio is in a quandary about what to write that will be well-received by her agent, a publisher, and readers, yet contain the messages she wants to get out.   And--oh--be a story Fio wants to tell.

Promotion

Fiorella is overwhelmed again.  It isn't just the house or the yard or the writing.  It's the literary promotion.  Everywhere Fiorella looks, people are advocating self-promotion, which Fio does NOT want to do.  One reason she held out for an agent and a publisher was so that she would write, write, write her stories, and OTHER people could sell, sell, sell them.  Besides, she was blessed with many talents and skills, but NOT electronics!

Yes, your Fio has a blog, email, and Facebook, but that's it--no Pinterest, no Instagram, no Twitter, no WODDL, no Buffer, no Street Team, no give-aways,  Definitely a dinosaur.

Whoopee!

Fiorella is counting down the days till the national Romance Writers of America conference this July in San Antonio.  She's got transportation and a roommate, has worked out her wardrobe, and bought herself a glamorous awards ceremony dress. Best of all, she'll meet with her agent, her editor, and attend both her chapter's party and her publisher's party.

Fio never thought she'd fly this high.

At It Again

Fio stupidly told her agent she'd send her the first nine chapters of Lolly's story by the end of the week--last week, that is--but, needless to say, she didn't make her own deadline.  Not that she hasn't written said chapters, but she's not satisfied with them.  They're rough, very rough, and she's afraid they'd horrify Liza. 

This is a typical Fiorella behavior.  Perfectionist to the core, she'll revise till the cows come home, which will be forever because Rancho Fiorella doesn't run any bovines.  (And to show you just how crazy Fio is, she revised that last sentence nine times before she was satisfied with it.)

Catching Up with Fio

The relationship in the comic strip Luann between Luann and Quill is too good to last.  Fiorella is steeling herself for his plane to crash into the ocean, for the whole adventure to have been an Australian reality show in which Quill was challenged to make a "Yank" fall in love with him, or for everything to have been a dream sequence, with Luann waking up as a high school freshman again.
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Back on the farm in her own life, Fiorella had her first physical therapy session for kyphosis and everything looks good to go.  Her neck has not been irreparably ruined by hunching over her laptop for the past several years after all, and she still retains the ability to stand up STRAIGHT, although the necessary muscles need strengthening.  What a relief--her grandmother had such a bad case of kyphosis that the family said she could see around corners.
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On the literary front, Fiorella's agent has suggested she write more stories set in Bosque Bend.  Fiorella was at a total loss for about two days as her ever-fertile brain mulled over the challenge.  Then, yesterday morning, Fio's pop-up toaster function spat out three different scenarios.  Yes, your Fio seems fixated by trilogies.

Journey

Fiorella joined Romance Writers of America in January 2008, and that summer, she flew to San Francisco to attend her first national RWA conference.  What she learned there was that successful romances writers come in all sizes, shapes, and ages, which meant  she too could aspire.  In  2010, with several contest firsts under her belt, Fio attended her second national conference, in Orlando, and came away with the realization that she not only had to be as good as other romance writers, but better, in order to get published.  In 2011, she came away from the New York conference determined to get a good agent.  Now, in 2013, she will attend the Atlanta conference, meet with her agent, the divine Liza, and discuss her career.

Before Fiorella joined RWA, she had been writing romances for twenty-five years and even aroused some editorial interest, but she didn't know how to follow up or respond appropriately.  Now, in just five years, she's on the brink.

Wish her a good journey.

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Divine Intervention Needed

Fio's running late.

 She thought she'd have the former P of BB totally "tightened" by now, but she has lots of work to do on the last three chapters.  In fact, the final one needs to be totally rewritten--again.  And she's due at the hospital at 5:00 a.m on Wednesday.  And she told agent Liza that she'd have everything done by then. 

Pray for Fiorella--on several accounts. 

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Random Observations

Fio's been cleaning up the house lately in prep for surgery next week, and most of her clean-up has involved the tons of notes she's written since time eternal, some of the random wit and wisdom of which she will now regale you with:

Finally getting an agent is like learning there really is a Santa Claus.

I put off getting writing because I know that once I start, I can't stop.

I don't understand why doctirs are so particular about prescribing hydrocodone.  I've been taking it for years and never gotten addicted.

Wouldn't it have been better if Loughner had been forcibly medicated BEFORE he shot those people in Arizona?

When it's between people, it's etiquette.  When it's between nations, it's protocol.

 

Former Agent

About ten years ago, Fiorella acquired a literary agent. She was a part-time author who had just been turned down on her latest book. That should have been Fio's first clue, but instead, being Fiorella, she was sympathetic.

The second clue was that she admitted she didn't know anything about the romance market. The third clue was that she sent Fio's dark romance to Harlequin. The fourth clue was that she was unavailable for long stretches of time, taking care of sick relatives.

It was the fifth clue that did it--she couldn't sell anything Fio had written and couldn't give any suggestions as to what Fio could do to fix the situation.

Luckily, no contract had been signed. The parting was amicable.

But just think of all the wasted time.

Revision Blues

Fiorella feels strangely bereft today. She finished her requested revision of the first fifty pages of Princess of Bosque Bend and sent them off to New York--twice, in fact, because her "send" box went squirrely on her and didn't record the first time until after she'd submitted the pages the second time.

Fio hopes/prays she correctly interpreted said agent's advice/guidance. But, in the meantime, after four days of being dedicated to nothing but revision, she feels odd, like there's something she should be doing, but isn't.

Oh, yes, there it is--the Christmas tree needs to come down, her desktop needs to be unloaded, and she needs to start communicating with Husband again.

On the other hand, there are 250 more pages waiting to be revised.

Good News All the Way Around

It's been a semana buena en la casa de Fiorella. Su hijo menor has a job, a real live job, and his art is being showcased by un amigo of his. And the knee replacement surgery de su hijo mayor went very well--he's undergoing physical therapy as we speak. Meanwhile Fiorella is talking to a real live New York agent about Princess of Bosque Bend.

The nexus was the birthday del padre de la Fiorella en Lunes, and having Nephew Aaron's cumpleanos en Martes augmented it.

Gracias al buen Dios, muchas gracias. Merci, grazie, danke shoen, spaseeba, shyeh shyeh.

Okay, Fio took a flyer on this one so any corrections to her linguistic prowess are welcomed.

Not THE call, but A call

Fiorella had a very nice conversation with an agent today--the first time one has ever called her on the phone. No, wait a minute, an agent called her about this same story years ago when it was in its embryonic stage. The agent said the story was too short, which Fio took as a rejection. Dumb Fio, she should have said she'd make it longer.

This time, Fio's a little wiser and she's taking the agents comments as calls to action. Yeah, Fiorella's going to be doing a lot of revision in the next couple of weeks.

Kamikaze

I'm flying on wings of wax
Right on up to the sun!
Look out, Icarus,
Here comes another one!

Has Fio shown you this little lyric before? She wrote it when she was in high school, and, since Fio hasn't changed much since then, it still holds true. Right now, she's as high as a kite because a literary agent wants to talk to her about edits to Princess of Bosque Bend.

Pray for Fiorella, that she doesn't crash and burn.

Further Portents

Not only did it rain on Saturday, but Fio received an email announcement of Nephew Barney's marriage, And the custom picture frame she's making seems to be working out. And there's the possibility of an eye operation to repair a scarred macula, restoring Fio's depth vision.

Surely that literary agent is right around the corner.

Whoopee!

It's easy to go fall asleep at night and wake up happy in the morning when yet another agent wants to see your magnum opus. Yes, Fiorella had a request for a full from an agent she had queried last week, and she loves the way it was worded--if the manuscript is still available--implying that hordes of eager agents must be pounding at Fio's door.

Fiorella tried querying last year about this time and got nothing but form rejections or even worse, silence. But she's won more contests by now and kept her ears open at RWA meetings. She's also better prepared: her query letter is sharper, and the Jessica Faust hullabaloo produced not only a biography, but a contest and publication history.

Is the Emerald City in sight yet, Dorothy?