Karen Booth
Here’s what my 2011, personal and professional (they’re all jumbled together) looked like. It’s not short, but still sweet, and I went by the numbers. I’m very thankful for everything that happened this year, but it’s important that people know that this blog post isn’t just about what I got done. This is a chance to take a breath, look back, and hopefully encourage any writers who are where I was a year ago (aka beating one’s head against a wall). It’s also a big wet thank-you smooch to everyone who has helped me. Happy New Year!
3: number of books contracted…one co-authored short novel (Long-Distance Lovers), one novella (Love My Way), and one full-length novel (Bring Me Back)
2: number of new works close to submission…one novella (Title TBD, but I’m accepting suggestions, I am suffering from a case of writer’s title block), one full-length novel (Hiding in the Spotlight)
175,000: number of words I wrote this year. Not including emails and blog posts and queries and synopses. 175K words of fiction. It might be more. I cut a lot.
187: number of times I doubted what the hell I was doing. (Not an exact count.)
1: number of writing conferences attended…Writer’s Digest Conference in January.
5: number of agents I pitched at the WDC Pitch Slam in January for Bring Me Back.
187: number of times I considered running out of the room or simply throwing up during Pitch Slam.
43: number of queries sent for Bring Me Back. I sent a grand total of 89 between fall 2010 and 2011.
0: number of agents who signed me as a result of Pitch Slam or querying
4: small press submissions for Bring Me Back, one of which turned into a contract, from Turquoise Morning Press. (SQUEE).
1: number of agents and/or publishers I needed to say “yes” for Bring Me Back.
1: number of agents and/or publishers I needed to say “yes” to me on anything. My first book contract was from Ellora’s Cave. (MORE SQUEE).
0: number of hours I now spend worrying about not having an agent. I have accomplished plenty on my own, thank you very much, and when I look back at 2011 and forward to 2012, I can say it’s all mine.
1: number of critique partners I need. Karen is my everything when it comes to getting my words on the page and later getting them into shape. I love her for this.
1: number of full-time cheerleaders I need. My friend, Sara, is the perky one on the sidelines with her hair in pigtails, waving pom poms like a crazy woman. I love her for this.
1: number of incredible men I need by my side. None of this (and I mean zilch, zero, nada) would be possible without the boundless encouragement and support I get from my hubby, Steve. I love him for this and lots of other things, like being the best dad ever to our two stupendous-in-their-own-right children.
Countless: number of friends and fellow writers who help me be a better writer or be a writer at all. You know who you are. I would name everyone, but I would invariably forget someone and then everybody I forget would have to get a hastily written apology note. If you’re wondering, “I wonder if she means me?”, the answer is “Yes!”.
Is there a lesson in all of this? Probably. I guess what worked for me was to keep trying. As hokey and trite as it sounds, persistence really does pay off .
Long-Distance Lovers comes out in February from Ellora’s Cave! Yay! 
Author Jennifer Anderson is on deck for RNRHS, to which she says, “Thank you for having me on today. I love these questions! Music. Dancing. Love! Love! Love!” I heartily endorse Jennifer’s use of exclamation points here and below, especially when discussing the finer points of Vanilla Ice and NKOTB. The thing I adore most about her post is the mention of plastering her bedroom walls with photos from teen mags. I was waaaay into those magazines when I was in high school. I saved up babysitting money to buy them. I rubbed the ink from the corners of the pages. I oh-so-carefully went from perforation to perforation to remove the posters. Of course, Duran Duran, played a pivotal role in the creation of my one-of-a-kind wallpaper, but I did allow U2 and The Cure and a bevy of one-hit-wonders to grace the outermost corners of my bedroom.
Jennifer Anderson
Pacific High School, Class of ’95, Go Indians!, Currently: By day, I pretend to know what I’m doing as a medical biller. By afternoon, I dabble in the PR/Marketing industry as a manager for Turquoise Morning Press. By night, I wrap up in a cape and let my fingers do the walking…across my keyboard.
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: To me the 90’s was the rise of rap/hip hop and I luuuuved to shake my groove thang. Six Flags is like 10 minutes from our high school and there was a dance club there for everyone and they played the best music. We’d come off the dance floor soaking wet. But man, we loved it. I would have to say a tie between Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” or Naughty by Nature’s “O.P.P.” Why O.P.P? Yeah, you know me! Actually, we did a dance for cheerleading to it and wore tie dyed shirts with O.P.P puffy painted on our butts!
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: Bopp Magazine was way huge and I couldn’t get enough. My walls were plastered with pictures of NKOTB during my freshman year. Then they died out a bit and so did my need to put up posters. But not my taste in music. I loved it all. Metal, rap, rock, R&B. My favorite CD case was of Aerosmith. You know the one. With cow utters on the front. A close second would be Stone Temple Pilots. I still have both CDs.
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: I loved all types of music but if I had to pick one group that I didn’t like it would have to be Guns & Roses. Don’t get me wrong, I can belt out “November Rain” likes there’s no tomorrow but Axel’s personality is what did me in. Plus, he got into a fight with a fan in St. Louis and well…no one really liked him after that.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: Stone Temple Pilots, hands down. I was going into my senior year of high school; dating an older bad boy and rode to the concert in the back of a pick-up truck. The haze from people lighting up during the concert was so thick, you could choke.
Optional bonus question: Best high school make-out song: Nine Inch Nails “Closer” ( I have to give credit my husband. He helped me think of it. Oh yeah, we’re high school sweethearts!)
Jennifer is the author of “Knight in Armor”, a sweet romance in the Men In Uniform Anthology released by Turquoise Morning Press. Her debut YA novel Ice Princess is due in April 2012. You can learn more about Jennifer at jenandersonauthor.com
Today’s Rock ‘n’ Roll High School entry comes from writer extraordinaire Janie Emaus, whom I met through one of my publishers, Turquoise Morning Press. I could tell from our first email exchange that Janie and I were going to get on like a house on fire–she’s such a huge music fan with many stories to share. For the second entry in a row, we get a glimpse of music as it was enjoyed by American teens in the 1960s, which is so incredibly cool to me. There’s a reason that my contributors who grew up in that era have such enviable music memories–popular music was in no way disposable then. Makes a big difference.
Janie Emaus
Grant High School, Class of ’66, Currently: Freelance Bookkeeper & author
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones reminds me of dancing in our backyard at a party. I can even remember what I was wearing. Black tight pants and a French beret. And of course, any song by The Supremes.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: All The Beatles album covers. Yes..album covers. This was pre CD days. Pre cell phones. Pre “being connected to one another at all times” days.
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: The music of my high school years was so good, I can’t think of anything that I hated. I’d go back there in nanosecond just to listen to the music.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: So sad to say that I didn’t go any concert that I can remember. I did want to see The Beatles. But as close as I got to the Fab Four was living next to a Capital Records executive.
Best high school make-out song: God, any song. I was so excited to just make-out, I didn’t care what was playing.
Janie’s debut Young Adult novel, Mercury In Retro Love, will be released by Turquoise Morning Press in 2012. You can learn more about her on her blog at theboomerrants.com or read more from her in her weekly column at In The Powder Room.
The always awesome Casey Daniel from 7Mary3 is at the helm of Rock ‘n’ Roll High School today. I love hearing about what musicians were into in high school, at a time when tastes are becoming fully formed but are still very much subject to the influence of peers. The sway that the other kids at school can have is an interesting one–a band could lose all points with the cool kids if too many people started to like them. I know I was guilty of abandoning certain artists if, say, Buffy the cheerleader (mythical classmate–some of my high school friends read my blog) started to think they were totally rad. Call it my contrary side. It sounds like Casey didn’t jump ship when The Red Hot Chili Peppers became massive–he was just trying to expand his classmates’ musical horizons.
Casey Daniel
Bishop Moore High School, Orlando, FL, Class of ’92, Currently: Bassist – 7Mary3, Singer/guitarist – NerVer, Producer – Old Groove Studio
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: Ahhh, high school. I think the song that reminds me most of high school was “Give it Away” by the Chili Peppers. It was the first time that all the other kids in school were listening to the same music that I was. I had been listening to the early Chili Peppers stuff and learning the basslines, and the few other kids who played instruments, along with myself, were like a cult until that came out. After that people started listening when I told them that the Eazy-E that we were listening to was made from all the old Bootsy Collins songs.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: My senior year in high school, the drummer from the band I was in caught a drumstick from the second band on the Lollapalooza tour, Tool. We kept it on a mantle in our practice room for the whole two months that we played together. We were mostly derailed by our singer only having one lyric – f*ck – and the Led Zeppelin box set coming out.
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: I was never able to get into Queensryche. I wanted to silence their “Silent Lucidity” so bad. There was plenty of bad music, like Color Me Badd and Enigma, but none that I heard as much as the Queensryche tune. It still haunts me to this day.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: I got to see Rage Against the Machine within a month of graduating high school as the first band on Lollapalooza. That still ranks as one of the best performances I’ve ever seen. They had the smallest crowd of the day, but the largest crowd participation and response I’ve ever witnessed. Groove, attitude, energy – they had everything that makes music click for me.
Best high school make-out song: If I could get a girl to make out with me in high school, I would listen to Michael Bolton on repeat and celebrate the guy’s entire catalog, whatever it took.
Learn more about what Casey is up to at 7M3.com and NerVermusic.com. Seven Mary Three’s most recent record is Day and Night Driving.
The sassy and quick-witted Keri Ford, author of “Through the Wall”, “Making Her Nights”, and more, takes the RNRHS reins today. If you aren’t familiar with Keri’s work, I suggest you fix that real quick. Her books are both sexy and funny (beware the pan of hot biscuits), a feat few are able to accomplish, and she’s just so darn cute while she’s doing it. I also suggest you follow her on Twitter so you can gain first-hand, real-time knowledge of the wacky stuff that goes on in her life. It’s free entertainment, people!
Parker’s Chapel, South Arkansas, Class of 2001, Currently: Mother, Wife, Author and the very, very occasional maid in this house.
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: Britney Spears. Oh no wait—Last Kiss by Pearl Jam. That one that was redone about his girl dying in a car wreck. I don’t know why, but we sang it like crazy. Or well, there was that Left, Right, Left song by Drama. We sang it on the school bus. Then there was that WHOLE ENTIRE ALBUM Eminem and Dr. Dre did together. Green CD. Lime Green Marijuana leaf on it. If my mom had found that I would have been in soooo much trouble.
Favorite piece of musicmemorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: Cheerleader uniform. Does that count? We danced sometimes. I didn’t really have stuff on my walls. Momma would have taken issue with putting holes in the walls or tape ripping the paint off over a cheap poster. Guess I could have framed something…but a little late for that now!
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: Good question. And I don’t think I have an answer for you. I like a variety of music and the people I hung out with liked that music too.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: Enter patheticness. I’ve never been to a concert. Unless you could my Junior High School plays. And they shouldn’t count. Trust me.
Best high school make-out song: Ohhh. It’s that one my dh and I had kissed to or something. Oh, wow. Bad WIFE! Major fail here. OH~ Don’t Close Your Eyes by Keith Whitley. If you’ve ever heard that song, you’re probably thinking wtf is wrong with you? Not really a romance, but it came about because I tended to fall asleep a lot while we watched a movie or something on TV. #GirlfriendOfTheYear
Keri Ford is the author of Chasing Her Trail from Turquoise Morning Press. Visit her website at keriford.com.
