Thirteen Things about being an editor!
1. I still can’t believe that I get paid to do what I do!

2 I get to see the product from start to finish.

3. I get to work with some amazing people.

4. I get to have input on the text.

5. I get to have input on the illustrations – if applicable.

6. I feel like I’m making a difference.

7. Sometimes the authors mention me in the acknowledgments and that feels good.

8. Since I’m a contractor, I make my own hours.

9. I do most of my work at home.

10. I can’t think of a better job for me at the moment except being a full-time writer.

11. I get to work with fiction, non-fiction, adult and children’s books.

12. I learn a lot by reading other people’s books – both technically and just in general.

13. I have the best boss in the world!

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!(Leave your links in the comments)

1. Jennifer Leeland

2. Rian Fike

3. Tempest Knight

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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I have the extraordinary opportunity to work with a talented poet at Nelson Publishing and Marketing. Her name is Kawita Kandpal, and when you first meet her you find yourself in awe of her peaceful and unassuming presence, her quiet voice. She and I are working together on two children books, and with each meeting I find myself amazed at her insights.

At a recent work party, we shared our writings. I was taken aback when she read from her book of poems. The raw emotion of her words were like a mirror to her soul. Truly, I was stunned. A week or so later, I asked her if I could purchase a copy of her book. She brought it to one of our author meetings, and I had to restrain myself by putting the book away. Although I enjoy our meetings, I was so looking forward to reading her poetry.

When I was able to sit down quietly at home, I devoured her poems. Many of them brought me to tears. The emotion she expels upon the paper is vivid, brilliant, and heart-breaking. I think my favorites, and I can’t chose just one, are Grounded and Dreaming, Kashmir. These two poems spoke to me in ways that I’ve not heard before.

You can purchase her book at her site here.

Peace,

Kris

It’s sometimes strange being the mother to two boys. When they were born, I briefly grieved the loss of a First Communion dress, a shopping spree for prom dresses, and the entire idea of being the “mother of the bride.” I’m sure you notice the common factor in all of those is clothes. No, I’m not a girly-girl who has to have the latest fashion. But I do have the female gene and clothes are just one thing that girls think of each day. Well, some of us think of clothes, others think of shoes, still others are more into purses or jewelry.

But I digress.

Being the mother of only boys brings a quick sense of loss when the child starts bonding more with the father figure than the mother. I’m not trying to be a downer here, but it’s a fact of life. I’ve seen my oldest son pulling away from me for some time now. He’s always asking when his dad is going to be home and if his dad wants to play hockey with him downstairs (really all this is is watching him shoot pucks at our imaginary net.)

But I often wonder what it would be like to have a girl. I wonder if I’d have that bond that I’m afraid will leave once my boys reach a certain age. I know that girls come with their own set of issues, but a mother-son relationship can be so tricky. If the mother and son are too close, people think that there’s something strange going on. Society lets boys know that it’s no good to be a “Mama’s boy,” yet it’s ok to be a “Daddy’s girl.” Such a double standard.

What got me thinking about bonding with my son was yesterday when my husband wasn’t feeling well, and my son wanted him to shoot pucks at him (he’s going to be the goalie in a scrimmage tomorrow.) Since my husband wasn’t interested, I volunteered. We didn’t spend too much time downstairs, but enough that I felt like we clicked. Tonight we played Guitar Hero together. My husband doesn’t like playing, so son #1 and I play. We aren’t competitive, yet he doesn’t like it if I’m a lot farther than he is in the game.

I guess I can’t control the amount of bonding that happens between my children and I. What I can control is the way I bring them up. I pray that if I show them love, attention, and respect, they will mimmick my actions and continue to love and respect me. It’s the best I can hope for in being a parent.

I was so excited about the agent offer, that I failed to mention how I spent my Monday morning and early afternoon. My very good friend of over 30 years had a baby. What was so cool was that I got to be in the room with her and her husband when the blessed event happened. Violet Grace Nardelli was born weighing 9 pounds 11 ounces and was 21 inches long.

It was strange not being the one having the baby. I was able to take in what the midwife and nurse said and did in a calm fashion. Although it has been many moons since I was in that situation, I remember feeling so frantic and that everything happened so quickly. In reality, or in this case, there was nothing frantic going on. Once it was determined that it was time for her to push, the medical staff got ready and we waited. It didn’t take long for the baby to come. She said all the things I’d said (“I want this over!” and “I can’t do this anymore!”), and I felt as if I’d been transported back in time to when my last child was born. Although I couldn’t feel her pain physically, a part of me remembered the pain and I cringed.

If you’ve never given birth, you wouldn’t know that once it’s over the pain pretty much stops. And, it’s a pain that you’ll never experience again unless you give birth again. It is a pain that you forget and forgive because the outcome is more than worth it. But her screams, grunts, and contorted face brought me back to my own deliveries. I silently thanked my husband for agreeing to not have any more children. Sure, drugs could be use to ease, or even stop, the pain. But my friend and I both didn’t use them. Too scared to have a needle stuck in my back, both of my deliveries were done naturally. Well, the second one had a bit of pain meds (something like statin or whatever, I kept thinking the nurse said stadium, like U of M stadium), but it left me feeling drunk between the contractions and didn’t relieve the pain in any way.

The pain of childbirth, as I said, is easily forgotten. It is the other pains that stay with you; the first time you leave your child with someone else, their first day of school when a teacher will spend more time with your child in a day than you do, the day when your child prefers to spend time with your spouse rather than you. All of these pains still are worth the outcome.

It was wonderful to see this miracle of life happen in front of my eyes. I feel blessed to have been a part of it.

Peace,

Kris

Last Thursday, I received “the call.” I have to admit that it was sort of strange; it was something that I didn’t expect. Let me give you some background…

Last year, I queried Christine Witthohn of Book Cents Literary Agency for my then current wip, Stolen Years. I’d sent a paper query. She emailed me back, letting me know that she wasn’t interested in that particular story, but wanted to let me know that I’d written a really good query letter. Being the non-conformist that I am, I emailed her back thanking her for her kind words. You know you aren’t supposed to do that. In this case, it paid off. She emailed me back, asking if I had anything else. I sent another query, and she asked for a full. In the beginning of August, she called me to say that she really liked my manuscript. We exchanged a few more emails, and she said she wanted to read it whole thing (I guess she read only a partial.)

Book Cents, I later found, got slammed with over 560 submissions in the fall. Christine and I emailed back and forth, but honestly I was pretty busy adjusting to my new lifestyle of having no kids at home and working as an editor. Fall turned to winter, and we continued to email. I felt in no rush to start the agent hunt again, and I still wasn’t confident that Christine wasn’t interested.

Around the holidays, I sent her an email thanking her for all of her time and motivation. Even if she weren’t interested, I felt jazzed that an agent would be somewhat inclined to my work. She immediately emailed me back, and the rest is history.

I signed the contract and mailed it off to her yesterday. Once she receives it, I’m officially her client.

It’s funny because although I tell myself, “this is the year to get the agent,” I never really believed it until this year. It’s that whole Law of Attraction at work.

Before my mantra was, “I have an agent that loves my work.” Now it is, “I have an agent that sells my work.”

Keep your fingers crossed!

Peace,

Kris

Ok, Morgan St. John, from Romance Divas, tagged me for this meme. It seems simple enough, but I’ve got to come up with 7 things that you all don’t know about me. Hmmmm…..first the rules and then the nitty gritty.

The rules:
Link to the person who tagged you;
Leave a comment on their blog so that their readers can visit yours;
Post the rules on your blog;
Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog;
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post;
Include links to their blogs;
Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

7 things about me…

1. I’m the youngest of four children, all named with K’s. My oldest sister still introduces me to friends as “the baby.”

2. I became a Great-Aunt at the ripe old age of 38.

3. I’ve just been appointed as the Newsletter Editor of the Detroit Chapter of WNBA (Women’s National Book Association – NOT Basketball.)

4. Speaking of basketball, I HATE watching it. I’d rather watch baseball over basketball, and I don’t really like watching baseball either.

5. I spent my junior year of college in Spain and drank more alcohol there than I have in the last ten years.

6. I secretly wish that I was related to Dr. Wayne Dyer. I LOVE that man!

7. I have a Persian Cat Webkinz that I named after my late grandmother, Mamie. I got the cat because it was a Buy 2 Get 1 Free deal, and both of my boys wanted the Penguin. I figured that since I can’t have a real cat (hubby is allergic) that I’d get a fake one.

Ok, so here’s the thing…I’ve not been trolling the blogs that much these last few months due to lack of time. So, I’m going to forego the 7 people and only post those few that I do read…..

Ric Marion

Robin Grantham 

James Goodman

Jennifer Leland 

Ok guys, have at it!

Peace,

Kris

Today the boys went back to school. Big sigh. We made it through the holidays unscathed and no worse for the wear (wow – too many cliche’s in one sentence.) I’m glad they’re back because now it is so quiet in here. When they are both home, it’s like a tornado is going through the house. Add the dog and my husband, and it’s a wonder the house doesn’t take off.

But seriously, I can get back to work and be able to do it without any interruptions. How soon I became used to the quiet. It couldn’t have come any sooner because I’ve just been given two new authors at work, and I need to get back to my own writing.

Wow what a concept; work on my own stuff. I’m determined this year to get that agent and start my novel writing career for real. No more fooling around, you hear me?

Ok, now that we have that straight, on to more pressing issues. Hockey. What? You’re surprised? Just one little thing because I have to brag. HockeyBoy got a hat trick in their hockey game on Saturday. Our team beat the #2 team in our division. So, HB is now up to 9 goals in the last 4 games. Crazy, isn’t it? He’s got another game tonight against the team that has his buddy on it. That should be interesting.

Well, no more procrastinating by writing here…I’m off to my story and then to do some work. Have a great day!

Peace,

Kris

Here he is. Doesn’t he look like a hockey player? I mean, well, you know what I mean. It’s hard to believe that he’s only 8. He looks much older than that when he’s all dressed, especially since he’s pretty tall for his age. We’ve got our hockey party tomorrow night, and in honor of that I’m posting his photo. Like his red gloves? At first I didn’t like them, but I have to admit that he’s easy to spot on the ice.

How are your holidays going? I’ve gotten almost nothing done in regards to work. I’ve got a manuscript to read for a meeting on Friday and a layout proof of another book to review. I’m hoping to get to them today.

HockeyBoy got Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii for Christmas. Yes, it’s a Teen rated game and I mentioned that he’s only 8, well, almost 9. He actually got two of the same Wii games and then had gotten money from his grandma in California. He’d been over to a hockey buddy’s house and had played GH3 and begged us to get it for him. We caved and let him use his money to buy it.

OMG I’m addicted to it! He gets angry with me because I can play it better than he can, but my defense is that I know a lot of the songs so it’s easier for me. But his competitive nature comes out and he gets down right pissy. It’s strange because he doesn’t get that way very much when he’s playing a game against my husband. But then, this has been the first game that I can actually do without be a complete failure. Oh well. He’ll be back in school in a few days…….

Hope the year is starting off good for you!

Peace,

Kris