And The Answer Is...

So in response to this entry from Sunday, 9 people (click on their names for their links) asked really great questions. (Although, one really wasn't a question per se. Janet.) Here they are, in the order they were posted, with my answers.

And my sincere apologies for the length of this post. My husband would say that, as always, I could have been much tidier and more efficient with my explanations. But that’s a writer for you, eh?

Travis Erwin: I believe you've mentioned living on or near a lake. How's the fishing, and what kind of fish are predominately sought?

We live at a 600+ acre lake in the Midwest, alongside peace and beauty. My husband fishes occasionally, not for sport but for recreation. We have the same fish as you do in Texas: bass, carp, crappie, bluegill, and catfish (our lake paper just reported a couple caught a 39 lb. flathead, though I'm not sure what the record is). We're also far enough north to have walleye, which I hear fishermen in these parts talk about often.

Janet: Questions with Qualman? This is queer. I quail at the thought, I quiver in fear. Will you quibble with my queries, quell my questions of quotidian quirks? What a quandary. Shall it cause quarrels? I lay down my quaking quill. I am not qualified.

Quite.

Joshua: well....since you answered my rash question lol… Do you find it hard balancing writing, being a wife, being a mother, and making brownies?

Absolutely, it’s difficult. Being a stay-at-home-mom is the greatest of my blessings and priorities, but I don’t want that to be all I do. I don’t want to lose sight of who I am aside from Mommy and what my desires are. So, balance is crucial to me, though I often feel I fall short of attaining it. It seems like something’s always got to give. I’d like to devote equal parts of time and energy to all aspects of my life, but there are most certainly days where my focus skews. My daughters always get that one part of me; the part that fixes their meals, guides their activities, hugs and snuggles, helps them in the bathroom, answers their questions, reads books, etc... But “extras,” like sitting down at the computer to play a game together, or going to the park, or doing a craft, are traded off with the other parts of my life. Some days, because of tasks and demands, I spend a lot of time on homemaker things. Other days, dishes and laundry fall to the wayside and I focus on whatever writing project has my interest and drive. And somewhere in there is physical and emotional support for my husband. Some falls under my homemaking role, like keeping his work clothes clean (he’s working 6 days a week, 12 hrs+, and can’t possibly do it himself) and fulfilling his desire for all things baked. The emotional support is easiest, because we talk several times a day, and I’m always ready with an ear and (usually) a back rub (when he's actually home). I know I’ll be able to strike a better balance once both girls are in school and I have several uninterrupted hours a day, but until then I have to try to juggle it all through the course of each week.

Still, I feel like I’m able to get quite a bit of writing done, which I’ll get into more down in Melanie’s question.

Oh, and there’s always time for brownie making… ;)

Joanne: You've mentioned writing a column. Can you give us some details on that ... how often, subject, topics you've covered, things like that? I think that's a nice facet of a writing career.

Great question, Joanne! I created and write a column called Every Mom’s Column. It’s a humor piece appearing quarterly, based on my life as a mom, and I write it in the vein of Erma Bombeck’s style. (I love her writing.) My goal is to share anecdotes and experiences in a relatable way, one that will leave moms laughing and feeling good about motherhood. Every Mom’s Column is put out in our county’s health department newspaper, which is printed by the local publisher. Having first proposed the article to the publisher himself and getting no response (at all), I approached the health department (who holds creative control) directly, who thought it a great idea and signed me on. I’d put time and energy into seeking syndication with the column (or a larger pub) if I wasn’t trying to make something of myself as a novelist. Still, the kinds of writing that appear in my column (which I’ll give examples of below in Terri’s question) are a passion of mine.

Angie Ledbetter: I've got a long research list of possible women's fiction agents if ya wanna copy! How's the hunt going?

Thanks, Angie! AgentQuery.com has become my best friend, it seems. I’ve found many who might be a good match, though none (yet) who seem to feel the same. My women’s fiction currently has a dozen rejections, and I have quite a few more out… several of which enough time has passed and I expect to hear nothing. So it’s with wavering confidence and strengthening anxiety that I continue. I did decide last night to take anothe swipe at my query letter, make some new changes. Will be working on that...

WendyCinNYC: How's your daughter liking school so far? How did you meet misterwrites?

She’s loving it! Her little friends and the daily routine fill her with excitement, and she’s experiencing so much. She’s also learning that not every experience is perfect, because one of the teachers rubs her the wrong way. I’m using it as a opportunity to teach her that we’ll always have disagreeable people in our lives; people who aren’t nice no matter the circumstance, and all you can do is smile and go on about your day.

A close friend of mine in high school (still a dear friend today) had a block of college classes with misterwrites freshman year. One day she said, “Janna, I know a guy, and you’d be perfect for each other.” So she told me about him, and him about me. Soon we had a blind date… A month later we knew we were serious. Got married almost two years later. And our 9th wedding anniversary is in two weeks. :)

Terri Tiffany: I can't wait to read all the answers!! I wondered about your column too--can we read some?

Since it’s printed in a small publication it's not available online. But I once posted my introductory installment on AW, here, and posted one here on Blogger several weeks ago. Let me know what you think. :)

colbymarshall: If you could name yourself anything other than Janna, what would your name be?

What if I told you I always liked the name Hortense Bolivia? *snicker* I teased my husband with that name for both our daughters. In the end, we chose more traditional names. Anyway, to properly answer your question… I like the name Valerie. And maybe that’s because I was thisclose to being a Valerie. It was just a few weeks before I was born that close friends of my parents' had their girl and stole the name. So I became Janna.

Melanie Avila: Phew! I'm getting in just under the wire. Friday my cousin and I were discussing you over lunch (all good, I swear). As we watched her boys run laps around the table, screaming, she said she can't figure out how you manage to write as much as you do with two little ones. She thought perhaps the fact that they are girls means they aren't QUITE as rowdy, so I'm curious what you have to say about that.

I would also like to know your favorite place to buy clothes. Not your dream place, but where most of them come from. (In the states I'm a Limited/Gap kind of girl.)

Sometimes I have no idea how I manage. My girls are, I think, just as rowdy as the next kids, especially my five-year-old. I guess it’s pertinent to say I rarely have thoughts that aren’t interrupted, and I’m forever having to take a break from my writing and get back to it later. [In example, when I wrote this post yesterday, it took stolen snatches of time over a five-hour period, between lunch, laundry, dishes, phone calls, running to school, talking with the contractor, helping my three-year-old in the bathroom A LOT, changing said three-year-old's clothes A LOT (because she wants to be a princess! no, no, she wants to be a Cheetah Girl!), checking in on Blogger, Facebook and MySpace, and vacuuming up crickets (it’s a part-time job).] Small snippets come to me throughout the day, so it seems I’m often hopping up and down from my desk to get them down. It’s horribly sporadic. (It does help, depending on how you look at it, that my computer is right off our family room, where we spend a large amount of our time. All of that will change once our remodeling is done.) But when one daughter is gone and the other is napping, or they’re engrossed in a favorite movie or game, or they’ve gone to bed and I’ve caught my second wind, that’s when I fill in the larger chunks of my writing. I so wish I had more time like that, but it’s such a hard thing when they’re little. I try not to wish away time, or dream too much about my days when they’re both in school, but a fairly big part of me does look forward to it.

Where do I shop most? Hmm. That’s tough because I frequent so many discount stores, and a lot of my clothing comes from them. (By “discount” I don’t mean Wal-Mart – though they get a large amount of our money – but places who receive overstocks and misplaced freight, of which they then seriously reduce the prices.) But as for retail, probably Target and Kohls most often. And I love Old Navy.

Wow, that's a horribly long blog. Tell me honestly, did you read it all or skim? Perhaps I should make up for it with very short, very simple posts for the next few days...

Thanks for participating! I had fun!

Tuesday's Stuff and Things #2

I've seen a lot of weekly topics on Blogger (like My Town Monday, in which both Josh and Travis participate) and, though I've never adopted any of them, I'd like to make up my own. Since I posted Stuff and Things last Tuesday, I decided I'd like to do it each week. It's a way to share whatever's congesting my mind, writing-related or not, in one fell swoop. It's okay that I do this, right? There's no Blogger Police who're supposed to pass out licenses for such a thing? Good. I thought so.

Today's stuff and things?

My daughter had to get the last of her immunizations this morning. It was my job--through all FOUR shots--to trap her legs between mine, crush one arm behind me as a vice grip would, and immobilize the other with my weak hand. Her tears were almost unbearable, but the reward of colorful band-aids and Goldfish crackers brightened her world once again.

I'm cheap. I know this because I can smell a clearance rack from aisles away, or spot neon-colored sale tags before I've darkened the doorway of my favorite store. When my eyes shift and dart back-and-forth, making me look as though I'm up to no good? It's simply that I'm afraid I'll miss a good deal, and one must be alert to such things. Always. And I most often refuse to pay full price for anything. Today we visited one of our local discount stores. There I got five new shirts for the school girl, a new shirt for myself, two notebooks and a plate. For $24 and some change. AWESOME. Then I very nearly split my lid when I spent the same amount at another store, on two pairs of leggings and a Koosh ball. NOT AWESOME. See? I'm cheap.

I've been able to expound upon the idea for my non-fiction book. I did some tweaking to my concept, which opened the possibilities for content. To give you a basic, at-its-most-general hint, the topic is motherhood. It will incorporate humor and the voice I use for my motherhood-themed column, with essays and anecdotes, and an extra special something. But that's all I'm giving you now. I've still got some research and brainstorming and compiling to do.

As for Novel 2 (I've decided not to deny myself progress on one book while I work on the other - I'll do both!), it still sits, lonely and with no recent updates. Thus far, the only work I've done has been on my AlphaSmart 3000, Sally, so I plan to transfer the files to word document soon. I'll be able to look at it with fresh perspective, I think, and that will allow me to move forward just a bit.

Still no word of any kind from agents. I'm not growing impatient at all, I just feel like I'm not doing all I can to be proactive. Which is silly, because what else can I do but wait on them? I'm not quite ready to send another batch of queries out, but may revisit that idea in another few weeks. We'll see what happens between now and then.

11 rejections, 13 out