First off, Happy New Year!
For the past five days I’ve been lounging, sleeping in, and enjoying some relaxed fun with my family. Well deserved, too. After a full week of complete chaos, sick kiddos, sick husband, sick infant, hardly any sleep due to the sickness galore, a manuscript to finish, and a Disneyland trip somewhere in between, which turned all of us into a momentary reenactment of The Walking Dead, it was about time.
I was able to achieve my goal and finish the YA novel before December 31st. In no small part, thanks to you.
As I consider the ups and downs of that project I cannot help realizing the importance of having amazing people to cheer you on and make you feel capable of actually finishing. Thank you! Your support made a difference and I want you to know that.
We took our kids to Disneyland last Monday (December 29th), and that allowed me about eighteen hours in the car with nowhere to go. I finished all my major changes and gave the manuscript one last read, non-stop from beginning to end. I found some minor things that still need fixing, but nothing major. I could not be happier.
After our Disneyland trip, we received the New Year sleeping. I really couldn’t begin to explain how amazing that night of rest was. The flash trip, which encompassed eighteen hours in stop and go traffic, fifteen hours at the park, and a maximum of eleven hours of sleep in two nights, made us all have a sickness relapse. So by the time New Year’s Eve came, all we wanted to do was either vegetate or hibernate, whichever one took the least amount of effort.
By the way, side note here. Next time you go to Disneyland, look at the people around you after 8:00PM. You won’t be able to help noticing the appearance of complete mindless reanimation of human corpses on the faces of everyone you see. Then, get out of the way. Because the lone survivors will give anything to pretty much trample every zombie in their way, so they can move around the park at a humanly acceptable pace. You might be one of these, moving around the park while everyone else barely has enough energy to moan and grunt. But trust me, you too will eventually succumb to the zombie call of utter exhaustion.
I’m still laughing about it.
Today, a new week starts, and life has resumed as it used to be before winter break. My daughter started school, my hubby went back to work, and I am once again surrounded by piles of laundry of monumental proportions. I have been compiling a list of possible agents. Since I am going to seek a traditional publishing route, I have to follow traditional publishing steps. My next step will be researching submission guidelines, query letters, and assembling blurbs, and synopsis of my work. I will be sharing everything I learn throughout this process, so keep an eye out.
I am also putting together a quick reference sheet with all the writing tools I kept on hand while working on my manuscript. I’ll share with you the most helpful tips, posts, and advise I found and how I went about applying them to my manuscript. Keep alert, I’ll post it this week.
Want to collaborate with me? I love to work with fellow writers, spotlight authors, and host writing challenges. I’ve also been known to swap short critiques on occasion. Don’t be shy, reach out to me here.
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M.C. Muhlenkamp 
Haha. You’re funny mom!
– Eva