My Fantastic Voyage – From October 2020 to October 2021

Part 1 – The Song that Still Inspires Me – Back in 2013 I wrote a slide show on Photo Peach about my writing adventure. It told my story starting in  2007 when I started . . . until I retired in 2015. Unfortunately I can’t use it any more . . . because Photo Peach went out of business.
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My slide show featured one of my favorite songs, Fantastic Voyage. It was released in January of 1981 by Lakeside, and it hit #1 on the R&B chart. I still remember it from my colllege days when I was into disgo and funk. This song still speaks to me, 40 years later, and it still makes me want to dance!

I can’t give you the link because of copyright, but I can show you a screen shot of my search results so you can look it up yourself. The album cover is a photo of Lakeside, the band who recorded Fantastic Voyage.
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 I didn’t know until I did the research today, that this was their one and only hit, or that the guys in the band are from Dayton, Ohio. That’s an  hour from where I live in Wapakoneta. I wonder if they took their name from Lakeside (it’s a small town on Indian Lake near Dayton). With a monster hit like this, Lakeside must have felt like they were on an incredible voyage too!
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Information Source: 
​Fantastic Voyage (Lakeside song) - Wikipedia

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Album Cover:
By SOLAR Records - Discogs. Fair Use
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60306392

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Part 2A – My Fantastic Voyage This Year – I finished the agent audition challenge! Wahoo!

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​​I started my adventure last October, and I finished it this October. It was supposed to take 5 months . . . I should have been  done by February, but I couldn’t do it.
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I could have pushed to finish it. Or sent something in, but if you’re going to do something, you might as well do it right. I persevered! I finally finished the 4th and final manuscript on October 20th. Two days later, I sent off my query.  I got an answer – that I could nudge the agent in a couple of weeks. I won’t. I’d rather wait until after Thanksgiving. No one wants to be nudged when they’re celebrating Thanksgiving.

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It’s been a year! My safety story was done first. That was the one that got the ball rolling, but it took until March to get it right. ​

In May I finished two stories, the nativity and duck ones. The nativity manuscript went out to the agent, but the duck one didn’t. Both are more regional stories than national ones. Christmas pushed the nativity story forward towards that national market. The duck story is done, but it will wait, until I’m ready to look for the right regional publisher for it. 

In May I got the idea for the third manuscript from my mentor. The ants aren’t a picture book, like the others. They’re a middle grade novel/chapter book, but they have lots of appeal. I remember, when I read it for the first time in 2011 at a SCBWI conference in Cleveland, someone remembered me and that page, a year later. I stuck with this story because I believe in its potential. I also believe that when the time is right, that I’ll hold that chapter book in my hand. That I’ll read it to you, and to a classroom of kids near me!
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The fourth and final book was my dog story. I’ve worked on it since 2011. I’ve been revising those ants and that dog for a decade, and now finally,  they’re both ready to send out on submission. I’m so excited!

When I accomplish something special, I go shopping – usually clothes and jewelry to celebrate. This is what I bought when I thought I’d reached the room of requirement. It was 2011, and Bruce Hale said fine-tune and publish. That was my ant story so I bought a tunic and this necklace. I don’t have the tunic, but I still have the necklace. Whenever I look at it, I remember that moment. When I video tape this post, I’ll wear my agent audition challenge outfit. This time I picked something I’ll still want to wear in another 10 years.
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Part 2B - My Fantastic Voyage This Year

​I finished Chapters 28-30 on October 26, about a week ago. I won’t be ‘officially’ finished until Callie gives me the all clear. I hope that will be this Friday, November 5, and it means there’s no more revision until I sign a contract. Did you know, that you’ll do more revision after you sign it? I’ll spend about a year working with an editor with a traditional publisher. BTW – If I don’t get my all clear, I’ll keep revising until I do.

I can’t believe how much this story has changed since I wrote that first chapter back during the summer of 2011. I found my 1st critique group, and in 3 months I went from ‘flat’ to ‘fine-tune and finish.’ At least that’s what Bruce Hale said, you know the one from Clark the Shark fame? Kindergarteners do!

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​​Bruce was one of the critiquers available at the 2011 SCBWI conference in Cleveland. He read the 1st ten pages and gave me suggestions. One of them was making sure the things I’d written about ants were true. My first page said Poppy’s heart was pounding. Bruce asked if ants had hearts. I said I didn’t know, and he said that, if I wanted to get it published, I’d have to find out. I did! 
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​I bought this necklace when I got home from the conference to celebrate. I thought within a year or two, Poppy would be published, and so would I. Oh, how wrong I was! I had so much more to learn! About ants and bees. I found photos and charts like the ones in this post to help me get my story straight!

I pushed the plot and the characters. I took a workshop in 2016 and discovered I had a saggy middle. That I needed more of the 5 senses in my story. That I needed to show, and tell how my characters felt.  It took me until the summer of 2020 to get things almost right. That’s when I added another character to the plot. Why? Because a writing friend suggested it. I didn’t want to add Chase right away. I never want to change. Ever! I have to think about it first, process it, but after a day or two I thought why not? Chase and Hunter, the bees in the story, add fun and humor, but together they play a jokester and his straight man. My critique partners think they’re one of the best things about the story.

The summer of 2020 I got all the way to chapter 18. The saggy middle was gone! But I got stuck . . . Then I started the Agent Audition challenge. I started back with chapter 1 in March of 2021. The hardest part of this voyage was bridging what I hadn’t changed since 2016; then matching them to the new chapters I’d revised in 2020. I kept pushing. I even found a chance to work with my mentor across 6 weeks. Instead of revising a chapter a week, I learned to do 5. It was hard! But so worth it.
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I didn’t let off the gas until I finished chapter 30 on the 26th, but, I won’t reward myself until Callie gives me the thumbs up on my last three chapters. When she does, I’ll message my friend Stacy. She does medical massage, and I think it’s the perfect reward for a year of very hard work!

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The summer of 2020 I got all the way to chapter 18. The saggy middle was gone! But I got stuck . . . Then I started the Agent Audition challenge. I started back with chapter 1 in March of 2021. The hardest part of this voyage was bridging what I hadn’t changed since 2016; then matching them to the new chapters I’d revised in 2020. I kept pushing. I even found a chance to work with my mentor across 6 weeks. Instead of revising a chapter a week, I learned to do 5. It was hard! But so worth it.
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I didn’t let off the gas until I finished chapter 30 on the 26th, but, I won’t reward myself until Callie gives me the thumbs up on my last three chapters. When she does, I’ll message my friend Stacy. She does medical massage, and I think it’s the perfect reward for a year of very hard work!

PS – I’ll let you know when this round is done, and it’s reward time. My advice for you – if you, or someone you know, have something hard you have to do, give yourself some baby steps to get there. REWARD those baby steps. THEN when you finish, give yourself a HUGE REWARD. When you fall back – and I usually do. So do most people. DON’T feel bad. Look at it as a sign of progress . . . you went far enough forward that you fell back. Then move forward again. Believe in yourself! You can do it. If you don’t believe it, message me! I’ll talk you into believing in yourself. Promise!