Really, I'm very inconsistent here.

You should see my myspace. Full and ridiculous. Or maybe you shouldn't see my myspace. Highly personal. Anyway.

I took a brief break from writing. About two weeks. I mean, I've been blogging and writing a bit, taking notes or whatever, but not a whole lot. And I've been reading like it's water and I'm on a hike. In the last two, maybe three weeks, I've read every Blake Nelson (re-read GIRL, one of my fav books of all time), all but one Laurie Halse Anderson, the new Jane Green as well as her first, JANE EYRE (loved it much more than when I read it in HS), BEFORE I FALL by Lauren Oliver, INTO THE WILD (oh my God.) and... I think that's it. A ton of this is YA, which I love and was thinking, maybe I'll write a YA novel. But no, I don't think it's in me.

Besides the crazy reading, I've been revising and sending out queries for WHERE CURRENTS PULL. It makes me nervous that I haven't had any requests yet. With JUST A LITTLE RAIN my first letter out got me a request. While it was the only request, and though I stopped querying when I really got into writing WCP, it gave me a hopeful feeling. I've sent out a few letters with WCP and all form rejections. I really like the writing in that book too. I feel like Nat has a very distinct voice and is relatable, so I wonder if my query sucks? Or the query's fine, but my writing sucks and I have no objectivity? Sometimes I wish an agent would send back a rejection with, "Honestly, no one's going to want this. Your book sounds horrible." Or "The book sounded like it could be okay, but your query is so God-awful there was no way I'd request anything." At least then you'd know. You could get on with things and maybe get a job at the Gap or something. Certainly, I'd be dressed better and perhaps have some more money...

Small rant aside, the writing has recommenced on ABOVE THE WAVES. I realized that I'm at the 50 page mark. Here I've been, feeling stuck and wondering what's wrong with me, and it occurred to me that, with each book, I get to the 50 page point and get stuck. Then each time I've skipped ahead with much success, then went back to fill in, before writing the last chapter. I've forgotten I do this when writing both #2 and #3. Even though I've left myself notes about this. Ah well. So I'm skipping ahead today. And very excited about it because it's right in the meat of it all. Nothing more thrilling than skipping the build-up and getting directly to the juicy.

Listening to: Jeremy Enigk and getting back into my writing groove.