10 Things About Me…

I’ve had a couple of writer/blogger friends who have done this and I got tagged…so here goes.

1.  I have a wonderful husband who I’ve known for 16 years and been married to for 13.  We have four beautiful children, two boys, and two girls.

2.  I majored in History with a minor in English.  Then I went to law school.  I actually passed the bar!!!   But, my oldest daughter was born premature during my third year and I wanted to stay at home with her, so after the bar exam I have never worked (at least in the legal field:)).

3.  During college I was on the Brigham Young University Ballroom Dance Team.  This was one of the funnest things I’ve ever done.  I got to tour the Western United States, England, Finland, Russia, Lativia, Lithuania, and Estonia.  Becasue I’m so short (5’1″) I was on the Latin team.  Our greatest accomplishment was winning the British Formation Championships in Blackpool, England in 1998.

4.  During college I also spent a summer in Israel and Egypt.  Talk about amazing!

5.  Other things I love to do:  play the piano, read (obviously), sing, watch movies, and eat chocolate.

6.  Until a few years ago, my kids had 13 grandparents that were still living.  (The reason it’s not twelve is because my maternal grandparents got divorced when I was one and my grandfather remarried an amazing woman who I get as a bonus grandma!!).

7.  I’m the oldest of six kids.  My husband is the middle child of seven.  We have huge families and it’s a lot of fun.

8.  I totally drive a mini van.

9.  I love Disney.  I have been to Disneyland too many times to count.  And even though I live in the west, I’ve been to Disneyworld ten times.  We just got back from a trip to Disneyland in October with the kids.  It was so fun.

10.  It’s always been my dream to write a book.  Hopefully it’s about to come true.

An observation about world building…

I know I haven’t been around for a while and there are lots of reasons for that:  kids, vacations, cleaning, and yes, rewriting.  I sent my book out to three beta readers and they gave me great feedback.  As with any criticism, I really look hard at all of it, even the stuff where my first instinct is to say “NO!!!”  I’ve found, however, that sometimes the criticism I hate hearing the most has merit.  That’s not to say I change things exactly how someone might suggest, but I might change them in a different way that still addresses the problem at the root of the critique.  And that is what I’ve been doing for the past month or so.  It took a lot of time just thinking about what to change and what not to change — which is how I approach rewriting.  I might spend weeks, or even a month, just thinking about possibilities.  I run them through my head and examine all the consequences.  I’ve found that if I do it this way, it actually takes less time to rewrite in the end.

One thing that has particularly stood out to me in this round of revisions is how much more depth gets added to my story every time I do a rewrite.  The characters evolve, more emotion comes out, and descriptions get more visual.  But perhaps the biggest thing I’ve noticed this time is that the world I’ve created has gotten so much more three-dimensional.  Every little detail adds so much.  And most of the time they’re not even big things.  A sentence here or a comment there can add enough to indicate an entirely untold aspect of the world.  When I go back and read through some of these I get so excited because the world feels so real. 

My plan is to fininsh up the big parts of the rewrite today.  Then I’m going to send the biggest part back to a few of the betas and see what they think.  During that time I’ll work on some of the little things I need to polish up.  Then it’s time to polish the query and start sending it out again.  I’ll keep you updated, but wish me luck.