C-Section Study Recently Completed

In a recent stdy it was determined that 1/3 of all births are done through a C-Section. An interesting blog post by InterActive Health

Let's take a closer look at the data from the most recent study:
19 out of 50 states were studied
Florida (38.6%), New Jersey (38%) , and Texas (35.9%), had the highest rates.
Utah (22.4%), Wisconsin (25.1%), and Colorado (27.3%)  had the lowest rates.
Study was done by HealthGrades - this website allows a user to search and rate their physician.
From 2002 - 2009 C-section occurrence raised from 27% to 34%
A separate study from the Centers for Disease Control put the number at 32% in 2007

Take a closer look at the original blog post at: 
1/3 of all births are done through a C-Section.

Oh writing how I missed thee.

After finishing my first manuscript I felt a sense of accomplishment. I knew I had an arduous task of editing. I never expected it would be so time consuming and all encompassing.  It took eight months to really get through the editing process. My manuscript isn't perfect but I needed to move to the next step of querying. This process has been so strange almost foreign in comparison to everything else that I have done. I sent out a dozen or more queries and I am unpatiently awaiting the responses.

I have considered sending out another round of queries but I am concerned about my overall effectiveness of my query letter. I am continuously reading and tweaking my query letter. It seems that because this is my first query letter, I am probably thinking that it is better than it really is. That could be a huge problem.

The only thing that I knew, was that I couldn't sit and do nothing. I considered my options and decided to begin book 2 of my series. I am querying the first book and now it is time to start working on the next book. I really struggled in finding the correct spot to restart my story. It took a surprisingly long time to come up with it. I am pretty satisfied with where I am starting. I began writing last week and really forgot how much I love the pure aspect of writing.  It's really blissful.

The area I love most is attempting to put this story that is in my head onto a blank piece of paper. That blank paper was empty and now...just days later, the first chapter of my second book is done. I am 4,000 words finished for the first chapter. I am wondering if I should do things quite differently than the first book.  I decided to edit the first chapter instead of writing and writing and writing. I initially thought that quality would arrive in the editing stage.  During my first draft, that might have hurt me more than I realized.

But I am back to writing and hoping that the first book snags me an agent, but regardless, I love writing!!  So far, book 2 is called SHATTERED.

Goodbye Prologue

After much deliberation and the help of my most recent conference - I am putting to rest my prologue.  As a reader, I love prologues - if done well.  They really can grab my attention and throw me into the story.  The problem as a writer - it has to be perfect.  Mine was far from perfect.

My real problem was that I have two stories wrapped around each other. I was trying to start my manuscript with my secondary story and my prologue introduce that second story.  Therefore, the prologue didn't have anything to do with the story itself.   The prologue often give a back story that helps the story move.  I've heard many editors say that if a prologue is done - they will skip it immediately - read the story and then read the prologue.  If the prologue teaches them something that they had missed in the story - then they would consider keeping it.

My change wasn't hard at all.  If you can imagine - my manuscript has 51 chapters. 41 chapters are devoted to my main story and 10 chapters are devoted to the secondary story.  Truth be told though - the secondary story is really just a single long chapter. My former prologue was the first chapter of 10 I just mentioned. My change consisted of taking the prologue and moving it to chapter 5 of my story.  From there - every 5-7 chapters I would add another piece of the puzzle. It was a fun way of doing it. In the end, I kept the chapter - because it is helpful in the overall story.

What are your feelings, as a reader, about prologues.  If you are a writer...does your idea of a prologue change?

This blog post was originally seen at Earth's Divide - my book blog

Page Numbers or Word Count - Which is more important?

Through my many discussions into the progression of my book writing process, a question continues to resurface. How many pages is your book? Initially this concern or idea was something that was important to me. I guess I wanted to feel like I was accomplishing something. I tried hard to remember exactly how many pages I'd written. In the end - the first draft - with double spacing was over a thousand pages.

But as a reader and a writer - what does that really mean.  As I have started editing - I've realized that page count means relatively little.  Changing the font size, the font type - single vs double can all change the actual page count drastically.  I started reading author, agent, and publisher blogs and word count is by far more important.

I learned about the importance of daily writing, keeping a constant schedule and trying to write every day. I set myself a word count daily goal of 2,000. This seemed like a good number. Though as I continued to write I only reached this goal half the time of the days that I found time to write. Some days I surpassed this number.  In future writing - I may do a weekly word count.  As my life sits, I am unable to write daily - at least on any book project I may have.  But I do write...in other ways.

Word count is often dependent on the type of book you are writing. You surely wouldn't want a childrens' book to be in the 100,000 word range and you wouldn't want a fantasy book in the 20,000 word range.

I was always unable to answer the word count question because I hadn't taken the time to combine the 25+ different and individual chapters, each being divide into their own document. That changed today. I finally was able to combine everything, with some power and finesse into a complete first draft, word count.

Drum roll please........I finished my first draft of my first novel at 245,000 words. 

I immediately was shocked because I didn't know the actual count until I combined everything at the end.  This really scared me because word count is so important.  I knew immediately that my manuscript was substantially too long. 

I began editing with a vengeance and the number changed dramatically.  I cut out over 100,000 words - which is another person's manuscript. I have now gone through 9 rounds of editing.  From a massive cut and slash - to improving conversation and scene cutting.  I've cut 100,000 words but other senctences have been rearranged and scenes improved in order to tighten up the writing.  It is a process that unfortunately has taken almost 8 months.  

Now, I need to move to the next step - which is the query letter.  I am just beginning this process.  I still have page count in the back of my mind - because I am still asked about it on a daily basis.  But the real key - is word count.  My genre is Epic Fantasy instead of just fantasy for this same reason - Epic Fantasy allows a larger word count. This suites me just fine...I hope. 

Check out this Jaundice

Recently I saw a patient with a serious case of jaundice. It was a new thing and had worsened in the last four days. It was pretty impressive. His chronic condition that causes the jaundice has been an issue over the last few years. Therefore, the symptom of jaundice came from a chronic issue. Jaundice can be caused by several things including hepatitis, liver failure, pancreatitis, and several other issues.

It is the result of elevated bilirubin in the body.

The picture attached of course, isn't my patient. Guess what was the worst symptom that he was having???

ITCHING - It was horrendous.

To learn more about jaundice - Follow this link to InterActive Health- Jaundice

The Importance of a Query Letter

The Query letter is one of the more crazy things in publishing. I mean - right up there with your pitch. It's so crazy that most writers hate it...or so I've been told. The problem is - as crazy as it seems ....it's vitally important to do and to do it well. But when we get rejected - it can be painful. We need to find a solution to avoid getting rejected.

I believe there is an art to Query letters - and a formula. Stick to the formula and you are playing it safe. Add some splashing colors and you could drown out your canvas or make it glorious. Break all the rules and you will usually implode - unless you shine above the others.

The funny thing is that the query letter is written so differently than the actual story. But almost no one will even read your story if you don't knock the query letter out of the stadium.

I just finished my 9th round of editing. It is time to move on. The next logical step is the query letter. I think that I've written it 10 different ways and I can't get a handle on which one is better or worse. I've read a ton of other query letters and some of the ones that succeeded - I didn't like and some that failed - I loved. It's all a matter of opinion and what gets you on a certain day.

It's important to be honest and make your query letter yours. Research as much as possible and read as many as possible but in the end - write what you need but do it well.

What really seemed to hit me is that the final ingredient in a query letter - must be a dash of luck!

Originally seen at EarthsDivide

Trip to the Northwest

Lauren, me and the kids had an amazing trip to the Northwest. It was a good 14-16 hour drive. We were also very fortunate to have Atina [Lauren's Mom] with us as well. We set out to see the U2 concert in Seattle and ended up having a blast and seeing much more that we could have ever thought possible. Who would have guessed that on the second day of our drive we would have hit an inch of snow in early June. An hour later - the temperature had increased 30 degrees as we made our way into Portland.

We also came to one of the three huge dams on the Columbia river - one picture shows how they get barges and other ships from one side of the dam to the other.  Check out the raging water below.

One of the prettiest spots on the trip was at Multnomah Falls.  This was a huge waterfall that allows you to get so close.  You can even walk to a landing closer to the falls. The kids loved this waterfall and the beautiful trees.

The Pride and Joy of our trip.  The U2 concert was fantastic. It was easily the best day of our trip.  We'll maybe not so easy since we had a ton of fun.  The U2 concert was held outside and over 70,000 people came. Lauren and I would not have enjoyed it as much if two of our favorite people hadn't joined us in the fun. Thanks Laura and Eric for coming down from Alaska. We did of course have to spend almost two hours in lines to get a T-shirt and a program.

The day after the U2 concert - We hit a ballgame and watched the Mariners beat the Rays.  Who knew that garlic fries could taste so good. 

Seattle was a blast - from The space needle - to the Aquarium - to the new Avatar Exibit - What a blast!!  We did leave the kids in Portland with Lauren's Mom during our trip to Seattle. - Thanks Kathi and family!!!

Our last spot was Seaside Oregon.  How I love the beach.  The kids and I spent hours walking the beach - looking for sea shells and catching a crab, some sea anemones, and tons of starfish and hermit crabs. Why don't I live closer to a beach???