Skip to main content

I will query in 2021 or my name is not Leigh Hutchens!

(It's not, actually anymore. Ha! Tricked ya, but I didn't jinx myself. That's how confident I am. I'll be stepping on ALL the sidewalk cracks.)

*


I'm sitting here with my laptop out, hiding at a corner table on the patio, at this chain bar/restaurant called "World of Beer." I used to come here after work to avoid seeing my boyfriend at the time. I'd sit at the bar, play on my phone, have a few beers - all while he did Crossfit or sat at home, probably as annoyed with me as I was with him.

Now, I'm actually racing through this post to hurry and GET home - to my new husband, my soul mate. Per my usual dumb wiring, I considered telling him that my meeting ran long or that I'd had a drink with my colleague, who he's met - and who really was in town from Lexington for the meeting.

But she's pregnant. And here's the other thing - I don't have to lie to him. I could also write this post sitting in bed next to him. I've only recently gotten back to writing. And despite his (justified) concern about the head space it could put me in, he's been nothing short of supportive. 

I just liked the full circle feeling I knew sitting here would give me. Plus, I wanted a happy hour. At least a happy half hour. After all, super hot husband IS home waiting for me. His office is in our basement. He's probably just finishing up, ooh - he just sent a text! He misses my beautiful face. He's a dream. 

I digress.

It's taken almost twenty years, but my manuscript is on this side of ready. I have a bit more to write, but I'm at the point where I'm looking into hiring some editing help, thinking through my query letter(s) and compiling a list of agents. 

This feels both surreal and hard earned, and like the right time for me to be able to type the end of that sweet sentence, "XXX Title is complete at xx,xxxx number of words." At least by the end of the year. Or maybe by Halloween. I haven't given myself too hard a deadline. 

I started reading about a writer's platform today, and thus - here I am, intending to start blogging more frequently and consistently. 

Can I convert this thing into a website? *Makes note to check on that as well as making a few (strikethrough, wink) THE BULK - of my old posts private* Do they no longer have the strikethrough feature on here?!

Secondly, I started an anonymous twitter account several years ago entirely to complain about the real ex-boyfriend I referenced above. I realized that the handful of tweets I'd tweeted were actually in my main characters voice. Shocker. 

Anyway, I renamed it today and now it's my character's feed. Follow "me" / her at @laurellancaster. 

If you're interested in a critique of my first few chapters or 50 pages, or of me in general, please reach out via email or message in a bottle or in any fashion you fancy. I hope we are well on our way to calling my book something other than a WIP. Can I get a fingerscrossedspice?

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

fetal friday?

I know that I left everyone hanging yesterday. You know, when I went to pee on that stick. (That was mean of me. Not the peeing, but the leaving hanging.) Well, I think the big reveal is best expressed in letter form. Deep breath. Here goes. dear unborn baby daughter son or daughter, I take it back. I take back everything I said about not wanting kids. I was just scaredspice, and the slightest bit selfish, and maybe I had a giant fear of commitment. But, three positive test results in the last eighteen hours seem to say that you actually are in there, getting all comfy. I guess you'll probably be here in mid-December. I never thought about having a Christmas baby. (You've really put a wrench in my whole taking-maternity-leave-during-the-NCAA-tournament plan, but that's okay. At least it's basketball season. Don't tell Daddy yet, but you are going to cheer for the Indiana Hoosiers.) Speaking of Daddy, I take back all the mean things I've ever sa...

in which i have a birthday and a giveaway

The blogger as a child. p.s. it's my birthday. And people at Starbucks like me. (I did get this for free, but it was not for the benefit of my blog.)  (Obvi, it was a gift .) There's a cupcake in that box! There's a hazelnut latte in that cup! In other news, I'm having a 100 Followers/ It's my birthday giveaway. You should enter. I'm giving away the following goodies: 1. A $25.00 VISA giftcard. 2. An original poem, which will be hadwritten and autographed on pretty paper. It might be about love, about being a writer, or maybe the winner will be able to choose the topic. We shall see. This giveaway is a bit seatofthepantsspice. 3. A frame from my wedding day. In fact, this very frame: 4. A mystery. The fourth goodie will be a surprise until you open the package! 5. The whopper: I will dedicate a karaoke song to you, personally, and put it on my blog, vlogger style. If you want to enter this smashing contest: leave a comment. 1 entry if you follow and comme...

love at first sight blogfest, or, go eat a heart-shaped cookie

Courtney Reese is hosting a love at first sight blogfest, in which writer's write about the icky love stuff. Check it out -- there are already a ton of entries over there. Okay, so my scene isn't really love at first sight for my mc, Laurel (in fact, she doesn't even want it to be) but this is the first time she interacts with her second love interest, David.  Read! Enjoy! Critique!      A sea of southerners filled the lobby of the movie theater. David Winter stood at a neon orange podium in the center of the throng, his head throbbing. He tore off one ticket stub after another, pointed the masses in the appropriate direction. The work was monotonous. Most of the patrons were lost in conversations with one another, and they paid David the same lack of attention that he showed them. He tried not to grimace at the giggling teenage girls, the smug looking guys in gold chains, the overweight middle aged couples: all annoyed him equa...