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Some happy updates

/ Tracy Abell / 4 Comments

Greetings from a rainy day in Colorado where the landscape has become intensely green! The moisture is very welcome here and in addition to this positive development, I have a few more things to share:

  • My mid-April wish came true and two pairs of House Wrens are nesting in our neighbors’ nest box AND in the box we put up this spring. Here’s one photographed a few minutes ago as it sat in the rain, surveying the landscape and occasionally breaking into that song I just love-love-love.

The wren’s coloration is off and I’m not sure whether that’s due to wet feathers or molting or both factors. But there’s no mistaking that profile and song.

  • As mentioned here, last summer I parted ways with my (wonderful) former agent and in the fall began the querying process. I’m so happy to now share that last month I signed with a new stellar agent (Wendi Gu of Sandford J. Greenburger Associates) and am now waiting for her editorial letter on my middle grade novel. We’ve had really good conversations about the manuscript and Wendi offered insightful suggestions for strengthening the story, so I can’t wait to dig in again and make GRAPPLE the best it can be before it goes out on submission. Hooray!
  • I’m using this waiting time to my advantage (rather than nervously twiddling my thumbs) and am drafting my new middle grade. I’d been working on it, off and on, while querying agents before realizing the uncertainty of the querying process was having such a negative impact on my work that I’d pretty much stopped. But now I have an incredible partner in my career and am motivated to write more stories–lots of stories!–and have been making good progress. My secret? This week I packed up my laptop, notebook, snacks, etc. and headed out in Moby to nearby parks where I am away from the distraction of home and social media. On Wednesday, I parked at the edge of one of the Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater parking lots where a beautiful bird serenaded me as I added words to my story.   A couple days this week I worked in the parking lot of a neighboring park, but yesterday I almost abandoned my session there because someone flew a BUZZING drone all around Moby for about 15-20 minutes before finally giving up on the harassment.
  • And now I’m headed out again in Moby as soon as I post this. The really good news? I don’t have to worry about finding shade because it’s raining!

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend filled with weather of your choice and lots of singing birds!

 

 

Standing at the edge

/ Tracy Abell / 6 Comments

Things can fall apart, or threaten to, for many reasons, and then there’s got to be a leap of faith. Ultimately, when you’re at the edge, you have to go forward or backward; if you go forward, you have to jump together. ~ Yo-Yo Ma

Okay, mourning dove.
It’s just you and me.
One . . . two . . .  three . . . JUMP!

No more mourning

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

For the past couple months, I’ve been struggling with my new middle grade project idea, trying to land on the “correct” tone and approach. I’ve written a bunch of scenes, but knew I was missing the mark. Today in desperation, I turned to the google and asked a convoluted question about how to write a first draft when wandering around in the dark inside your head, clueless about how to find the right approach to the story. And this came up!

None of this approach is new to me, but the way J. Elle framed the info resonated, plus the timing was just right. This afternoon, I was in the right head space to take in the info and think about my project in these terms. I now have a short pitch and tent pole moments, although those may still change. I’m mostly just excited to have a solid-ish foundation upon which to build. No matter what happens next, I feel as if I’m moving in the right direction.

Mourning Dove. July 20, 2022

No more sad, mopey mourning for me. This project is finally on its way and for that, I am grateful.

The face of a dog

/ Tracy Abell / 11 Comments

I’m tiptoeing into a new project. And because I haven’t added anything to the draft in two days, I’m experiencing that panicked sensation of “what if the words don’t come today?”

What if I fail? What if today’s the day I’m exposed as the imposter I am?

Well, those feelings are exactly why I must get to work in order to disrupt that fear and show it to the door. To quote (in translation) Gabriel García Márquez:

“Necessity has the face of a dog.”

I must do what needs to be done. But, don’t worry, Emma. I’m fairly confident neither of us will be harmed during the writing of those words.

Thankful Thursday

/ Tracy Abell / 10 Comments

Today I am thankful for:

  • My home that is warm while outside, much-needed snow is falling. Take that, extreme drought!
  • A feeling of buoyancy as I return to a new project idea I began outlining in Scrivener last month.
  • Twenty minutes of joyful hoop-dancing that brings me closer to the year-end goal of 24+ hours of hoop-dancing in 2022.
  • My weird friend, Marcel, who greeted me with this stare when I walked into Zippy’s office a couple days ago.

  • Anyone who took the time to read this post. 🌻