Okay first things first, my youngest child was born 17 years ago this morning. Out of all the kids his was the easiest (birth). By the time he came around I was a veteran. I had a caesarean and was up and walking that afternoon. The cry-baby in the bed next to me was screaming about her freaking episiotomy. I can’t tell you how much I just wanted to smack the crap out of her. To get some sleep I left the hospital the next day against my doctor’s orders. It was either that or go to jail for murder.

It is true that the baby gets, well, babied. What can I say? William is the light of my life, right next to his brother and sisters. I couldn’t imagine life without any of them, but I do fantasize about them living out on their own. Two down and two to go.

As far as my latest obsession it is my iPod. I can walk for miles with Def Leppard thundering in my ears. It’s amazing. I finally had to force myself to leave the iTunes store last night. My friend Josie has been upset I haven’t read her latest book IMPOSSIBLY TONGUE TIED (hey, it got stashed with all the other stuff in my house during the holidays, I dug it out yesterday), so I cracked that baby open at about ten last night and stayed up until almost 4:30 this a.m. reading it. Good stuff people. Josie is such a fab wordsmith. Her flair for pop-culture-lit amazes me. Go buy her book.

I now must hasten my butt to the store. Birthday boy wants rack of lamb for dinner. Yum, no hardship there.

Okay just had to share. Write on chicas!! 2007 is the year!

Oh just incase you were wondering what is playing on my iPod right now, it’s SAY IT, by yummilicious Enrique Iglesias. Did I mention Ricoo Mazza, a mucho caliente Latino cop in my current wip? Spicy hot hot hot, ladies.

K*

I had a mini epiphany a few months ago. I was at my SFA-RWA chapter meeting. I think I announced either the Cosmo gig or the historical sales, anyhoo afterward, I was standing there refilling my coffee cup when a member came up to me and said, “So many good things are happening to you. How do you do it?”

I sipped my coffee and thought; I could give her the long version and bore her senseless. Or… Instead I gave her the short version. “I keep moving forward.” I told her. And it really boils down to that.

So that is my resolution for this year, well actually it’s a life resolution. Keep moving forward. No backward steps. I’m allowed to stop once in a while, regroup and redirect but no regressing.

So here are a few things I have on the horizon here at The Write Life for 2007. The First Line Contest will commence some time in January, so spread the word. Probably around the week of the 15th, just in time for the new season of American Idol. (Sorry, I am hopelessly addicted, so y’all will have to bear with me until it’s over.) Kensington editor Hilary Sares will be the final judge, not of AI but the First Line Contest. I’m also going to have another First Line Contest commence some time in June, maybe July, depending on a few things. I will have either a top agent or editor as the final judge.

I plan on giving away lots of books this year. I have several friends with releases, and to support them I will be purchasing their books for the winners here. Probably one a month.

So, I’m addicted to the iTunes Store. I won’t tell you how much I’ve spent in the last 24 hours. But whoever came up with this idea is one smart rich cookie.

I’m blogging over at Murder She Writes tomorrow about the war of words between Rosie and The Donald. It seems to have flared up a bit this a.m.. Unexpectedly, I am amused among other things.

So, coming full circle here, what are your 2007 resolutions?

K*

I hope you all had a great day yesterday. I woke up cranky. The family was over Christmas Eve, and I was up late cleaning so my kitchen would be usable for Christmas morning breakfast. With the help of my in-laws and kids we managed to make it respectable. I just wanted to sleep in Christmas morning, but my youngest, who will be 17 this week, was up and attem’. Grrrr. And it wasn’t like he didn’t know what he was getting. Hop Along Cassidy took him out last week and bought him the sound system of all sound systems for his truck. Of course there were a few surprises but still, I was grumpy grumpy grumpy. Until I had some corn pancakes. By the time we opened gifts I was sociable. My fav gift was an iPod nano and docking station from hubby. A pink iPod. Now I’m not normally such a girl about these things but I love the pink!

Number two son is going to set up my iTunes account and away I will go!
Today on my list of things to do is walk, (I have been a bad bad girl in that department) then gut and rework my office. Tomorrow, I will take care of all of the other straggly things around here, then Thursday it’s balls to the walls writing. I had to send my Dana back to the manufacturer for repairs last week. It won’t hold a charge. I love writing on my Dana. Officer Friendly will be back next week to take questions.

My agent will be back next week as well, and I’m hoping to announce a few things here in January.

Now, for those of you who are still in food and present induced comas, take a minute and share what Santa left under your tree.

K*

And I am finally psyched! I just picked up the cutest Santas for my girls, shipped off the books to the winners here at The Write Life (sorry I got a bit tied up with projectile vomiting and other stuff), went grocery shopping for the Christmas Eve hordes. My housekeeper is on her way to clean up from the last party, and my laundry is nearly caught up. And the really good part about all of this is, I actually have a few bucks left over. Louis Vuitton here I come!

I have also confirmed with the outrageous Hilary Sares regarding her willingness to judge the next First Line Contest, which will commence some time in January. Probably mid- month. I’ll keep you posted. I think I’m going to allow 75 entries this time. There will be a few rule changes, but all in all I think the last contest went really well. One lives and learns.

I’m excited about my trip to New York in March. I’m taking my mother-in-law, aunt and number two daughter. While I am conferencing they will be shopping and doing Broadway. I hope to catch a show or two with them. Then in April I will be off to Houston for RT then in July to Dallas for National. I’m going to squeeze Kauai in there somewhere. It’s been too long since hubby and I took a real vacation. Between the long football season, which starts with Spring training, my conferences, my son’s school schedule, and deadlines it’s been pretty crazy. At the very least we’ll shoot down to the OC for a long weekend.

2007 looks to be my busiest year to date. Being a homebody at heart I’m actually looking forward to traveling and meeting many of you who I’ve come to know in the cyber world.

I get the feeling there will be lots of first sales for many of you. I’m hoping one of them comes from Hilary when she judges the final five entries of the First Line Contest.

With that, I’m going to take off and wrap gifts. Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll see you back here next week. I’ll be checking back to visit though.

And I want to know what Santa brought you! Don’t be shy in sharing.

Merry Christmas,

K*

As many of you know, my house has been infected with one of the most virulent strains of the stomach flu I have had the misfortune to encounter. All my guys have been sick. Nasty-fever-vomiting-sick. I had to dig out the foul weather gear. As I type at my keyboard all hunkered down up in my office away from the puking, the germs and the moans of the wounded, all I can think of as I hear another retch erupt is, “Incoming!!”

It is after such an episode that I take my trusty can of Lysol, the linen scent is my fav, and do a spray-by. The lord has for some reason deemed me unworthy of the germs. As of this tying, I am unaffected. It’s a good thing. I mean who would have taken care of the guys? Not that they needed much caring. They couldn’t eat anything, they didn’t want anything to drink, and they couldn’t take meds. They basically wanted to be alone in their miserableness, which suited me just fine.

This morning there is finally life after stomach flu.

Number 2 son went to school, number one son was up early and fixed himself the ugliest double egg and sausage sandwich I have ever seen, chased it with a carton of OJ and said he was going out, and hubby got himself showered and dressed. He’s waiting downstairs right now for me to fix him something to eat. I can feel his stare. Like the dogs when I have something really good I’m eating, they just stare at me, willing me to feed them. Sigh. I could say my stomach hurts and crawl into bed. But alas, I have the family and friends coming over for the big Christmas Eve party, and I do have some Christmas shopping left, and oh yeah, I have a book to write!

How about you? Any germs thrown a wrench in your holiday plans?

K*

Kristi!!!!
Come on down!!
Email me at Karin@KarinTabke.com with your snail mail addy and I’ll get it out to you!!
Congrats!

K*

Yep, it’s too much right now. Without going into a litany of reasons why, something has to give. I have too much on my plate, and with an invalid husband (my fifty year old toddler) I am at a point where if something doesn’t give I’m going to go medieval on someone or something. I came to this realization this morning when I pounced on someone I love very much and hurt her feelings. No more of that!

So, I’m taking a big deep breath and saying no to a few things for now. And regular blog posts are one of those things. Knowing me I won’t be able to stay away from y’all for long, so check back. I will however be announcing this Friday afternoon the winner of Jasmine Haynes book OPEN INVITATION, which by the way I started the other night. It’s vera sexy. So to win all you have to do is comment here or on any of the blog posts this week.

And for those of you who came around too late yesterday to chat with Hilary, you missed all the fun. If you read the comments and her responses you can understand why I stalked her for two years until she finally cried uncle and bought me.

Okay, so I really have to go, for a little while and get these boxes off to New York and my family back east.

Ciao for now.

K*

Please welcome the incomparable, the witty, the urbane, the one and only, Hilary Sares, Kensington editor extraordinaire. (envision the sound of maniacal clapping, whistling and cries of ‘pick me, pick me!’)

Now without further adieu here’s Hilary.

A publishing house during the holidays… Well, we never dream of a white Christmas. The predominant color in our offices is white. We sit amidst toppling white mountains of paper. Manuscripts under consideration. Manuscripts going through the long process to publication. White FedEx envelopes bulging with more manuscripts. Stacks of white napkins waiting to sop up the black coffee we spill from our white coffee cups. Johnny Mathis, make a song outa that. And I didn’t even mention the giant white scheduling boards and calendars with lunches scrawled in and hairdressing appointments crossed out. We eat too much and we rarely have time to beautify our shabby selves. Besides, who would see us?

Our colleagues, who don’t care. The people who water the plants and peer into our offices just in case they missed one, but all they see is white paper and move on. Our kids, sometimes, who believe that we must be doing something because there is just so much stuff on our desks. My daughter sits opposite me in a red armchair. She, a poor broke hungry college student, is investigating the varied contents of a beautiful gift basket and has found out that gift basket salami is not what it seems. But she bravely takes a bite. The cheese is more to her taste. The snacky crackers hit the spot. I am left with a jar of mustard. Yet she has a 24-inch waist. I do not. I could live on mustard slathered on slabs of please-recycle-this-if-it-does-not-meet-your-needs manuscript and I would still gain weight. (I never eat manuscripts if an author includes a self-addressed stamped envelope for their return.)

What writers probably dream of: The Call. How often we make The Call around the holidays: very rarely. We would love to brighten everyone’s Christmas but deadlines are deadlines, and there’s nothing we can do about it. So the interminable wait to hear stretches into the next year.

And yes, we make New Year’s resolutions to send back what we aren’t going to buy as kindly and gently and expediently as we can. We sometimes keep them (the resolutions and the manuscripts). We brood about good writers we can’t buy because their work doesn’t fit the program or the schedule or whatever we’re calling it this week, and we rack our brains for something polite to say to the ones who aren’t so good. They sure as hell are trying.

If the mother of Jesus had written WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING, that would make nine billion copies in print. Right now there are only nine million. And she would probably get a semi-coherent rejection letter that started like this.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to consider your non-fiction work on pregnancy, but the focus on gestation seemed a little overdone.

Okay, writers and friends of writers. What would you like for Christmas?

Hilary Sares
Editor

Maybe because I am the daughter of a successful entrepreneur and the owner of my own business for the last 20 years my view of corporate America is different from most peoples’. I see business through the eyes of an employer: my focus is bottom line. What do I have to do to trim the fat in a lean economy? What key people do I plug in and where? How do I handle disgruntled clients, when do I cut losses and move on? And the hardest part? how and when do I make the decision to reduce personnel?
These questions apply to Fortune 500 companies as well as mom and pop enterprises.

The truth is, that while I’m not a bitch, and I’m not a scrooge, if my company revenue is beginning to slide then I have to make adjustments. I would not be in business much longer if I didn’t. Example. My overhead has hit critical mass. For the good of the whole: the company, I will have to sacrifice certain employees, certain benefits and certain perks to tighten up the budget. It is corporate suicide to spend more than you generate in revenues. If I’m not fiscally responsible the entire ship suffers. So, as hard as it was in the beginning, (it gets easier) I let someone/someones or somethings go. And while the cut may bleed for a short time, and that person/persons or something suffers, the whole, the remaining sum of the someones and somethings, survive. I would never sacrifice or jeopardize the whole, the compnay, for a single person.

The same theory applies in publishing. If a certain author is not hitting numbers they are for the most part history in a lean market. And today’s market is to quote an A + agent, ‘difficult at best.’

Recently the fact that certain agencies don’t respond to all query letters came up. As a business person I find this completely understandable. A one man or woman office does not have the luxury of time to respond to every query letter. If they are interested they let you know. If they responded to every query one of two things would have to happen. One: this small agency would have to hire someone to pick up the slack. That equals expenses this one person agency cannot afford. Or two: the agent sets aside valuable time they would otherwise be spending on their clients, the clients that are paying the bills, and piss off said clients for not selling their books. So it makes perfect sense to me to read the query, and respond only to those you are interested in.

Now I know many writers think less of an agency that doesn’t respond to every query, but look at it from their side. It’s a matter of time equals money. Their time is better spent courting clients who will make them money then sending even a form rejection letter to the scads that won’t. Not to mention the cost of postage, the paper and the ink.

It’s even worse with editors. It’s not a money issue with them, it’s a time issue. They have a stable of authors they must push and pull through production, some of those authors are divas and require daily phone calls by their editors to remind them how fabulous they are. Editors have agents throwing great material at them daily, they don’t have to dig through the slush pile and they don’t have regular time for it either. On top of their current author list they have to manage there are sales meeting, art department meetings, budget meetings, editing, reading agent submissions, and all kinds of other distractions to cram into their day.

If they don’t get back to you any time soon, can you blame them?

I guess what I’m getting to, is while so many writers take this business personally, my advice is, don’t. It’s a crazy overwhelming business for the parties on all three sides, something has to give, and it’s usually time. Time many in the industry do not have for the things that won’t generate revenue.

That said, to sell, write the best book you can, and get an agent. Less and less editors are taking unsolicited submissions. Of course pitching to an editor at a conference is a great way to get your foot in the door. I know many editors try to get back asap on the requested work.

This is why I started the First Line Contest. The finalists get their work under the nose of an editor. Hilary Sares agreed to be my final judge for the contest beginning next month. I plan to have an agent be the final judge for the June contest.
So start polishing those first lines!

Speaking of Ms Sares she will be by tomorrow as my guest. Be sure to stop by and say hello.

Also this week I’m giving away a signed copy of Jasmine Haynes OPEN INVITATION. To win, comment this week. The more times you comment the more chances you have to win!

So after all is said and done, my question is: What is the longest amount of time that has passed between a query and a response from either an agent or editor, and what was the response?

K*

Amie!!! Come on down!!! Actually email me your snail mail addy at Karin@KarinTabke.com, and I will send you a personally autographed copy of Jami Alden’s debut novel DELICIOUS. If you want something extra special inscribed email me tonight and I’ll have her do it tomorrow.

Next week I’m giving away an autographed copy of Jasmine Haynes OPEN INVITATON!!

Ciao for now

K*