It's Like The Wind Is Back In My Sails...Or Something.

I don't know if it's the news that someone actually wants to publish something of mine that's got me in creative overdrive, but there's something going on with me lately. I've got ideas coming out of me like I'm a stuck pig.

Okay...so I'm not so creative with the similes tonight. Sue me.

Example: I was sort of napping while my wife was watching some garabge on VH1. It was about Beyonce (hence why I was sleeping) and she was talking about something. I caught a fragment of it, my head ran it through it's rigorous mechanical doo-hickeys, and VIOLA! I sprang off the bed and went to fetch a pen. My wife thought I was nuts. When I told her what I was doing and basically 'pitched' the story to her, she just shook her head.

She still thinks I'm nuts, but I guess was amazed at how my mind works.

Yeah, yeah. She's my wife. Of course she's going to say that, right?

Wrong. You don't know my wife. She isn't like that. It's her curse and her gift.

Anyway. As if that weren't enough, I got another idea while coming home from a wake. I'm going to need about 10-15 more years tacked onto the end of my life to get all this stuff down.

Side note: Ah...so you saw the new profile picture. That's my son and I on our vacation. He's almost 1.5 years old (I don't calculate months) and that was his first swim. I look like I'm mad at him, but that's just how my eyes get in the sun. All squinty like a shorter, stockier Clint Eastwood.

Or something.

And Then...Something.

Hey kids!

Well, it was one of those weird days. My wife and I were exchanging e-mails about will-power and procrastination (in regards to working out at the health club) and I made the correlation that if I had the will-power for my writing & submitting that I had for getting my butt into the gym, I'd have Book 3 done and who-knows-what-else.

Two hours later, I got this e-mail:

Hi, Kingsley,

Hope this email finds you enjoying the summer -- blazing heat and all. I ran your reader, APTLY TITLED KIDS STORY*, past my editorial director and our product manager last month, and, you'll be happy to know, the response was positive.

Sarah, our product manager, thought it was a cute story; however, she also thought that the ending needed reworking. She was confused by the last three spreads, from page 18 to 23 (how did blah blah blah happen? did the whats-it-calleds get them and not his something or other?). I assume the blah blah blah just slipped off on his way back to bed, and he was just too tired to notice, but I don't think it's as clear as it needs to be. See what you can come up with.

SO, I'm sending the edited manuscript back to you, and I'm hoping you'll be willing to take another look at the ending and play with it a bit. If we can all agree on an ending that works, we'd love to put the story into production here.
<>

Thanks, Kingsley. I'll look forward to your rewrite.

Best,
Editor Lady

*I've made some 'changes' to protect the details of my title, story and etc. Sorry to be vague, but I'm still a little paranoid putting real titles and pieces of my work online. Hopefully that'll change.

So, it sounds good, right? I mean, this isn't the one I thought would get published first (if it even does!) but I'll take it! This piece started out as an entry into a small little rinky-dink local writing contest (and was rejected!), but now with a little retooling and some discipline, sounds like it's going to be my first.

Who knows. Maybe this will be the springboard the rest of my work needs. Maybe this will be how I'll land an agent and get my proverbial foot into the door. At the very least, it'll look nice on my list of writing credits.

Well...it'll look alone on my list of writing credits, but I gotta start somewhere!

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about all of this. Maybe by this time next year, you'll be able to find it on Amazon.com!

(Side note: I checked some of this publisher's titles and yep...you can get 'em on Amazon.)

Okay. Getting ahead of myself. First I gotta rework the ending and then see how it goes. Baby steps, Kingsley. Baby steps...

Slacker MC's in the House

So, yeah. What's up?

It's been a while since I've dared show my face around these-here parts. Shame on me. SHAME!

Well, here's the thing, folks. I haven't been exactly unproductive. Having taken my umpteenth break from Book 3, I stumbled into an idea I had while at the ol' Festival of Children's Literature.

It was one of those weird moments. Like, I don't know where it came from, but during a boring speaker, I jotted down three words and a pretty slick story has erupted from it.

Weird, eh?

Well, I spent some down time at work chiseling away at it, thinking it'd be a little 8 page short. I brought a very ROUGH version of the piece to my writer's group and lo and behold, it was a smash hit.

Yeah, yeah. Not that it means anything, right? They're just my critique group. Who knows? I was told it was 'my strongest work so far' and that 'I've really got something here.'

All I know is, it's fun to write and it's a nice departure from my usual fare.

So, I'll share the 'deets' as they become available. Until then, I'll crawl back under my rock.

KMC out!