Becca Fitzpatrick

and fabulousfrock has a $10 iTunes giftcard!  Please send me your address at ajoywrites at gmail dot com and I'll make sure your giftcard is in the mail tomorrow.  Okay, maybe Thursday.  Either way, very soon!  Thanks to everyone who entered! 

I am such a punk. I was supposed to post this yesterday, but yesterday turned out crazy-daisy, so I'm posting now.
 

One year ago today, I was holding my breath and compulsively checking my email, waiting for one particular agent's response to the second rewrite of my story I'd worked on with her. It came . . . and it was a big fat rejection. It's a little embarrassing to admit, but I spent two hours locked in the bathroom, crying. Big, sobbing, choking tears. I was angry at myself and at my stupid story that I knew was inside me, but could not be lured out. I'm sure I'm not alone here. For 99.9% of authors, publication isn't an overnight journey. Ironically, it's a lot like a three-act play.
 

Act I: The writer decides she has a story inside her

Act II: The writer is tried, tested and pushed to the boundaries of insanity trying to get that story out.

Act II: The writer sees the world through new eyes, and if she's lucky, her story ends with a Happily Ever After.
 

For me, Act II took five years. Every time I read about an author whose Act II took less than a year, I feel the impulse to pull out my voodoo doll. Of course, I'm humbled when I read about authors whose Act II took ten years. Or twenty. Or a lifetime. The lifetime journeys are the most inspiring because after all those years, or all those rejections, or all those trials, the writer never gave up their dream of publication. Sure, they temporarily lost sight of it, or maybe their faith wavered a little, but in the end, they never quit.
 

Now for the good stuff where I tie this all together. To celebrate The Day I Almost Gave Up . . . But Didn't . . . AND to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I'm throwing a contest. I want to hear about your dreams—whether they are short-term, like passing tomorrow's algebra exam or not eating chocolate for breakfast (ahem), or long-term, like . . . becoming the next President. Leave a comment citing one of your dreams, and I'll enter your name into a drawing for a $10 iTunes gift card. The contest runs through next Monday, January 26^th. Good luck and dream on!

So here's the deal. We already know I'm not a domestic goddess. There's one tiny exception to the rule. I bake at Christmas. It goes with the I-must-gain-weight-in-December-so-I-can-lose-weight-in-January-and-feel-accomplished mentality.

I could have been blatant and named this poll: Help Becca Gain Weight this Christmas, but I'm trying to be discreet here. So for discretion's sake, let's pretend I'm baking treats for my friends and neighbors. Keep that in mind and take the quiz.

I'm not sure I'm ready to say good-bye to Thanksgiving weekend just yet.  Pretty much, it was bliss.  I had an endless supply of relatives willing to babysit.  I banned early-morning workouts and went to the gym when I pleased.  I consumed 2 pounds of See's chocolate and told myself not to freak out because hello if I don't gain weight in December I won't have anything to resolve in the New Year. 

Some highlights from the week:

Trivial Pursuit.  In a heated and intense game, my mother-in-law and I beat the men in our lives when we drew the following final question:  What was the stone in Romancing the Stone?  Since my MIL answered all the questions for our team up to this point, I took full advantage of my moment of glory and shouted to my befuddled audience, "An emerald!"  Maybe I don't know world history or science or sports, but I KNOW ROMANCING THE STONE!  INSIDE, OUTSIDE AND UPSIDE DOWN!  

Attack of the Killer Canker Sores.  Thanksgiving morning I woke up with five - count 'em - five canker sores in my mouth.  Possibly due to all the See's chocolates, but for better or worse, I could barely eat Thanksgiving dinner.  Worse, I couldn't talk.  I still can't talk.  I DUS WAN DA USE A MY TONGUE BACK!  

Plodding to Plotting.  I used a healthy portion of my free time working.  I'm pleased to announce I'm over halfway done with the rough draft of my sequel!  I told my agent in many ways I like the sequel better than HUSH, HUSH, because I actually feel like I know what I'm doing this time around.  A little experience goes a long way - or so I'm discovering! 

Settlers of Catan.  Yes, we're game nerds.  We have a big tournament scheduled tonight.  Leaving Thanksgiving week with a bang!   

     

      

Got up, started the chili for tonight's block party.  And you thought I didn't know how to cook.  HA!  I'm a Chili Goddess.  Hopefully it's no big deal that I substituted yellow peppers for green bell peppers because green bell peppers were 5 DOLLARS EACH at the grocery store.  This is why America is obese.  We go to the store with five dollars in our pocket, and we get to choose between two bags of waxy Halloween candy, or one green bell pepper. 

Carved the pumpkins.  Okay, fine.  I carved ONE pumpkin.  I'll do the other two this afternoon . . . I swear!  

Rounded up Halloween costumes (one ninja, one dragon). 

Skipped washing my hair for the second day in a row.  Good thing for good product!

Looked longingly at my computer every time I breezed past the study.  I hit 20k words on my sequel yesterday.    


 

In junior high, I developed an addiction to R.L. Stine.  If I remember right, in THE SNOWMAN, the villain tries to kill the heroine by burying her inside a snowman . . .


In high school, a different kind of book scared me.  THE DAY OF THE JACKAL is one of those books that keeps on giving . . . me nightmares.  I've read it twice, and will probably read it another ten times before I die.  



In college, I had a frighteningly fun fling with Gothic romance.  REBECCA immediately pops to mind.  This cover was on the 1960 edition (its 7th printing) and sold for 35 cents.  I don't know why I threw that in.  Probably because it BLOWS ME AWAY.  



What books scare me now?  I haven't read anything memorably chilling in the past couple months, but I will say I am really, really looking forward to this: