Ramblings of an aspiring writer

We’re taking a break from my weekly updates (thank goodness) so I can introduce you to a friend of mine. I had the pleasure of meeting Jamie Ungaro at the Romantic Times convention this year where he ended up winning the title of Mr. Romance 2010. Jamie is one of the sweetest guys I have met in my entire life, very soft-spoken and genuine. I really believe everything he says comes from his heart, and that, my dear readers, is a rare gift indeed.

Right now, Jamie is in the running for a walk-on role on the TV show MAD MEN and could use some help. I’m hoping once you get to know him a little, you’ll be voting every day like I’ve been. Without further ado, I give you Mr. Romance 2010, Jamie Ungaro.

Image provided by Jamie Ungaro

Most of my readers probably weren’t at RT this year and didn’t get the opportunity to talk to you. Tell them a little about yourself.

Well, I’m 26 years old, I have blonde hair blue eyes, lol!  I grew up in Coshocton OH, and still live here for now. I’m a really positive person and when I see someone that is having it rough I try to rub some of that on to them until I see a smile come through the sadness, and I currently an aspiring model and actor.  I really want to be an actor more so!

The time at RT was a whirlwind, especially for you guys in the competition. You were always busy. Name the top three things you took away from the Mr. Romance competition.

First thing is friends. I met a lot cool people, oh and two very sweet ladies Julie and Pj.  I know sucking up, right?  Ha! ha! ha! Second thing, a PhD in the romance novel world, lol!  I learned a lot in that one week, lol! Third thing was the Mr. Romance title!

Hey, I love a good suck up With all the chatting we did, we never really talked about your work. What is it like having a career as an actor/model?

For someone that doesn’t have the instant hook ups. I would just say that you have to have patience and the will to keep at it even when you have been shooting for the stars for years and people tell me to basically give up, and why do you chase something that is about impossible to get. I look at those people like they’re crazy! Nothing is impossible until you think it is.   I look at it this way, if I had nothing to motivate me I would probably be pretty depressed and I can’t be depressed.  In my life, I want to be a positive light for others no matter how hard my trials and tribulations are, I still want to be that light of hope for others and even more so that I have been saved and reborn again with a new spirit.  I want to reflect the light and love of our Lord and savoir Jesus.  I use to be my own master, walking around with a hardened heart and there’s no way that I could have been the positive person for others if I would have stayed that way.  I’m very blessed that I choose to let Christ come into my heart and soften it and to feel the love and joy the holy spirit brings by reflecting the light and the love of Jesus through me. One last thing, we all have a soul and there’s nothing we can do in the physical to fix any scars left behind from our past.  You can look at Buddha’s happy smiling face and think of happy thoughts, and try to forget your issues and pain through multiple different ways, but the pain is still going to creep up on you with scared memories. My little testimony is that when I called upon Jesus there’s was no denying him. My heart had no more pain from some of my personal scars on my heart.  Even now I can look back and remember, but have no pain and that my friends is a major blessing! Sorry for the preaching, I just felt it come over me.  I guess someone reading really need to hear this =)  It’s not my opinion, it’s Gods work.  As a father shows his son what to do; as I do what me farther shows me.

I hope the person who needed the message hears it loud and clear. As part of your prize, you’re going to be on a Dorchester cover. Have you done the shoot yet?

Nope! As of 8/15/2010 still waiting, lol! I’ll be sure to inform everyone though when I do.

Image provided by Jamie Ungaro

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Bummer. Definitely keep me posted! You recently did a cover shoot and book trailer, what can you tell us about that project?

It was just a book trailer.  It was a lot fun and it was my first time acting for a film. The name of the book I shot for is “An Eye for Glory”.  It was about a soldier shooting his enemy and coming to find out the he was a brother in Christ.  It’s really good.  You can check it out at www.jamieungaro.com in my recent blog.

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The Mad Men competition, what can you tell us about it?

It’s just a contest I stumbled upon and I hope to get the spot on the show.  I think it would be a great start to my acting career. If you would like to vote for me click on this link:

http://madmencastingcall.amctv.com/browse/detail/LE6QKM

Thanks!

To get him to the semi-finals where the executive producer of MAD MEN makes the decision, he needs our votes. I really hope all of you will help him out!

If you are chosen, what would your dream character on the show be like?

Probably that guy that tries to keep the peace, lol!

Image provided by Jamie Ungaro

Speed Round

Sports car or truck?

Car

As a gift for your girlfriend: Roses or chocolate?

Roses

Dog or cat?

Dog

Friends or acquaintances?

Friends

Religion or spirituality?

Jesus Christ =)

Is there anything else you’d like to tell people?

That there’s always cracks in the pavement even if you can’t see them. In other words there’s always hope to get through something even if you can’t see it just yet.

Thanks Julie!

You are most welcome, Jamie! Best of luck in the competition, you know I’m rooting for you!

As most of you know, I have mad love for literary agents. They do a job I could never in a million years do. I like talking to them on Twitter, and most of them are funny, approachable people. Even when they send me rejections, I appreciate them.

If you’re crying bullshit, hear me out. Responses to query letters tell me things. They tell me if the query isn’t quite nailing it or if it is (best determined by requests from queries with no pages). They tell me if the opening pages are tantalizing enough (how many requests for more). And finally, they tell me when I’m not nailing it. Yes, it stings. Yes, there are days it makes me want to cry into my cornflakes. But I appreciate agents who take the time to send rejection letters, because not all of them do anymore.

No response means no has become fairly common in the industry. I’ve made no bones about the fact that I don’t like this. Ultimately, I think it will make everyone’s jobs more stressful. You see, a large number of the agencies with the no response policy don’t have autoresponders in place to let writers know their query was received. Normally, I’m of the opinion if I don’t hear from an agent, I assume they are a non-responder and aren’t interested. Earlier this summer, that attitude almost bit me in the butt. Thank goodness for Twitter. The agent in question mentioned that she’d responded to all her queries. So I asked if she was a no response means no agent. She said she was a no response means your query got caught in the spam filter agent. I re-sent and she ended up asking for more. I don’t know how this will play out, but she was in the first group of agents I queried initially. I would love to work with her.

What this experience taught me is that if I don’t know an agent got my query, I’m going to re-send it. This means more work for everyone. Agents will get frustrated by the extra queries they didn’t want the first time, writers will get irritated because they have no way of knowing if the spam-gods hate them.

On the other side of things, I’d written off an agent I queried last year with Pretty Souls as a non-responder. To be honest, I’d forgotten I still had “live” queries on that manuscript out there. I sent the e-query in May of 2009. Two days ago, I received a rejection letter. *blink* I have to assume mine got lost in her email somehow, but really an autoresponder would have helped in that case too.

I still adore agents, even the one who waited over a year to reject a story I’d shelved. I just wish we could all, writers and agents, work together to make everyone’s lives easier. Of course, I’m glad I took a chance and re-queried that one fabulous agent. *crosses fingers and toes*

So do you have any stories from the query trenches?

Advance warning: this isn’t going to be a normal WBW post.

When I was little, I got to see my favorite cousin, Tracy, only a few times a year. And most of those visits were short (at least in my mind). I looked forward to seeing her more than almost anything I can remember from being a kid. She was my eternal bff as my other friends shifted around as they usually do at that age.

Then, my mom and my aunt had a blow out fight. They cut all ties and have probably only been in a room together a handful of times since then. (Mind you, this happened when I was a kid and I’m 37 now.) It broke my heart. Not because they were fighting. (Though that hurt too, especially considering my mother telling me over and over again how I was supposed to love all my sisters.) No, it killed me because it meant I didn’t get to see my best friend. At the time, I was naive enough to think the two of them would work it out. They were family after all. I could tough it out for a couple months, maybe a year if I needed to.

Here we are, twenty-odd years later, and they still aren’t talking. Fortunately, Tracy and I can exchange holiday cards and have connected on facebook, but the friendship we had as kids isn’t there anymore. We didn’t get to nurture it, so it withered. Not that we aren’t friends, it’s just not the same. It can’t be.

Fast-forward to today, and my dearest friends all live far away. We get to see each other a couple times a year if we’re lucky. One of those friends I get to see for exactly one weekend a year. We plan for it and count down days, and generally act giddy and more like teenage girls than either of us probably do any other time. Fifteen days from now, we’re supposed to meet at the airport. Hell, I scheduled a flight at a god-awful cow-milking hour so we could have the entire day together before our other friends started arriving.

Then life happened.

There has been a tragic death in her husband’s family, and she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to make the trip now. I know she didn’t plan this and is probably stressed about that on top of dealing with everything else. And she and her family have been in my thoughts ever since I found out. I can’t imagine what they’re going through.

But I’d be lying if I didn’t say part of my sadness comes from knowing I might not see her this year. It feels too much like I’m that little girl again, sitting on my bed and thinking, “I can tough it out. It’s only a year.”

Of course, that just makes me feel like a heartless bitch.

Forgive me the lack of entertainment value here while I try to straighten out my split personality so I can be the friend she needs rather than the crazy person she’s stuck with.

• Fitness — Official exercise has been hit or miss, but on a high note, I stuck to the diet and lost all the damn vacation weight.
• The Devil You Know — Yeah, nothing’s changed here.
• Badlands — My editor emailed Friday and barring any big issues, I should have my edits by this Friday.
• When Angels Fall — (aka Dani’s story) Happily marinating on the shelf.
• New project —  I passed 15k on it last night and it has a working title: Surrender to the Tides. With edits coming in just a few days, I’m hoping to pass 20k before that happens. Anything more than that will be gravy.
• The house/yard (non-writing obviously) — We FINALLY got the first part of our new carpeting installed. (We ordered it at the beginning of May. Still not sure what the big delay was.) Our living room is soooooo soft and squishy now. All the furniture is moved back in (as well as all the books). Loving it!
• Keep a positive attitude — Doing pretty good. I have a lot to look forward to over the next few months, so I think it’s keeping me upbeat. At some point in there, I’m just going to have to remember I’ll have Halloween costumes to make. (Crossing my fingers the kids pick easy things this year.)

Oh, and just on a toot-my-own-horn front, last Tuesday Decadent announced the top three sellers from their debut. I was #2! *beams* Now, granted, there were only five or six of us, but considering “Of Course I Try” is just a short, I was insanely geeked to hear that. Huge thank yous to any of you who bought a copy!

It was only a couple weeks ago that I vowed to finish the draft of When Angels Fall by the end of August. Hell, I’d intended to finish it by the end of July, but even though I plotted it just like I’d plotted The Devil You Know, getting words on the page didn’t happen in the same time frame.

The sad thing is I was really (I mean REALLY really) geeked about this story. In truth, I still kind of am. I want to tell Dani’s story. I love how all the pieces fit together.

Unfortunately, I discovered that every word had become a battle. I would look at the page and not know what to write. Which meant I started forcing it, and I’m pretty sure that showed in the manuscript. So, with a huge degree of sadness, I’ve decided to (temporarily) shelve When Angels Fall. My alter-ego is working on a cute little story that may or may not work in the long run, but it’s flowing, so I’m sticking with it for now.

With how excited I was about When Angels Fall, how did this happen? Truth is there were a lot of factors:

-       Going into it, I knew the process of querying The Devil You Know could affect my ability to work on the sequel. Granted, the new story could totally stand alone, so it isn’t reliant on TDYK finding a home, but somewhere in my head, if book 1 didn’t grab anyone, would book 2?

-       Then the other me had success. This should have boosted my ego enough to get past problem #1, and to a degree, it did. But then I had contracts and revisions to deal with (and more to come). So “her” success meant time away from the manuscript, which tends to derail progress.

-       The other issue with my alter-ego having success is it kept screaming in my head that I should strike while the iron is hot and all that. You know, write more stories for her. After all, she’s selling stuff.

-       Finally, Dani is a dark character. Her past is ugly, and it needs to affect all the choices she makes. Summer? Not so dark. The fact that I do my best writing in the dark means my time of highest productivity is minimized. (Oh, and the kids are home from school. I don’t want to delve into the mind of a teenager who’s been physically and psychologically abused around them.)

So, with all those factors, I couldn’t get the kind of progress I needed, and I decided to put Dani’s story on a shelf until I can get past at least a couple of them. In the meantime, I’m going to let it simmer. As the days get shorter (and school approaches) I’m going to let Dani in a little more, and hopefully I’ll be more able to tap into that persona to write her story as it deserve to be written.

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Anyone else having issues like this? Really hoping I’m not alone.

Over the last few years, there’s been this trend to re-do much-loved 80s shows. On the one hand, these new movies/shows could have been fabulous, but they could also fall flat.

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Let’s start with 90210 & Melrose Place. Back in the late 80s/early 90s these were the shows all the teenagers watched (including a lot who’d never admit it). I will admit, I didn’t try the new 90210, but I gave Melrose Place a couple episodes. It fell into trap #1. Too much too soon.

When the show originally aired, it was about this group of people who lived in the apartment complex, and viewers were given time to get to know them before things went crazy. The new version had a dead body in the pool in episode 1 — and it was the body of Sydney, who had died in the original series. *blink*

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I LOVED The Dukes of Hazzard growing up (the warped, unhealthy love only a young girl can feel). When they remade it as a movie, I went, even though I was very unhappy that Daisy was now blonde (we won’t even address the casting choice). Trap #2: Was it really broken in the first place?

The show was always kind of a comedy (Hello, Roscoe.), but it was never really slap-sticky.Until the new version. The people in charge took the heart of the show and totally ripped it out. I wanted to cry after seeing the film.

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In junior high, my mom ran a daycare center. I ended up addicted to cartoons because they were on when I got home. GI Joe was a favorite, and when I saw previews for the film version, I was stupidly optimistic. Trap #3: If you’re making a cartoon into something serious, you can’t go halfway.

As a cartoon, GI Joe was up to the neck in the absurd and it worked. When they made it live action, it seemed like someone wanted to go the way of Batman Begins and make it serious by giving the Baroness and Cobra Commander this heavy-ass back-story. If they’d really filtered that throughout the rest of the story, it might have worked. As it ended up the meshing of the ridiculous with the serious just made a big mess.

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After all of this, when The A-Team was announced as a film, I cringed. So many of my childhood favorites had been destroyed in the re-envisioning that I hated the idea of it happening to another. And when the film came out, it was to very mixed reviews. We saw it twice. Trap #4: You can’t please everyone.

Rather than trying to fix something that wasn’t broken in the first place, they just up-dated The A-Team for a new century. Really, they didn’t have to change much. They kept the slightly ridiculous plans that should never in a million years work, they kept the bad guys who are bad just because they’re selfish and bad. And most importantly, they kept the camaraderie of the main characters. For me, that was the heart of the show, and it was the heart of the film as well. People complained about the lack of depth and the simplistic special effects, but to them I point out Traps # 1, 2, and 3. Give me heart and soul any day.

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What other examples of re-envisioned films or TV can you think of? Did they win or fail for you as a viewer and why? Are there any you’re really hoping Hollywood leaves the heck alone?

(I know, I know, this should have been up hours ago. I promise to be more on the ball next week. Really.)

For a while now, agents have been complaining about how the parents in YA (especially paranormal YA) are either dead, neglectful, or oblivious. They want stories featuring teens with intact, functional families. On the one hand, I totally get it. I grew up in a big family, my parents have been married fifty years now. A lot of my friends from high school had similar backgrounds. Even those whose parents had divorced still had nice, functional familial units (at least as functional as anyone else’s).

So why not in YA novels?

Here’s the thing, that big, functional family of mine? Lots of drama, and when I say lots, I mean LOTS. We love each other and overall can get along, but get us in tight quarters and someone is going to blow at some point. It’s a given. I think this week on vacation I spent half my time holding my breath, just hoping I wouldn’t be the one to set off the explosion this time.

That would be great fodder for some YA stories. I’m thinking contemporary could do it without too much trouble, and it would be perfect to make fun of in a nice comedic YA. When you’re talking paranormal though, it gets a little dicier. Teens in paranormal are generally dealing with messed up, otherworldly stuff. Unless the parents are involved in that other world themselves, bringing them into it just means they are likely to take control of the story from the teens.

Does it have to happen that way? No. Sometimes an author can work it out where the parents are there and not completely oblivious to what is going on. But as often as not, to get to the meat of the story, the parents need to (in one way or another) be out of the way so the teens can deal with the issue at hand. Does it always mean they have to be dead? No. Of course not. But it would make it a lot harder for a teenage zombie hunter to sneak out at night if she has to share a room with her little sister or if her brother stays up till the wee hours of morning playing computer games. Not impossible, just unnecessarily messy.

Having said all that, it’s great when an author can pull it off. I just think expecting it to be the norm in the messed up situations that are the setting for YA paranormals is as bad as the dead parents being the norm. If the parents are dead, I want it to be necessary for the story beyond getting them out of the way. If they’re oblivious, I want something similar. I want everything to have a reason, and a good reason, within the confines of the story and the characters.

What about you? Does the parent/family issue in YA bug you? Can you name some examples of YA novels with whole, functioning families in them?

It’s kind of crazy looking back over the years and seeing how certain styles come and go (and occasionally come back again). When I was little I remember my sisters talking about how awful bell-bottoms were and how they’d never wear them again. Flash forward about twenty years and, surprise, the look was back. Of course, this time around the fashion industry called them flares, but don’t be fooled, they were bell-bottom redux.

Back in the 80s and into the early 90s there were a few trends in hair accessories that I was sure would never return once they died. I’m talking of course about the hair clip, the scrunchie, and the banana clip.

You know, if you would have asked me years ago which one might come back, it certainly wouldn’t have been the hair clip. You see, the other two either had a utilitarian purpose (scrunchies were more gentle on your hair than rubber bands) or a decorative purpose (I still think that the cascade of hair when worn in a banana clip is beautiful and hard to duplicate in any other way). Hair clips? They were just the “new” barrettes.

Shows what I know. Hair clips have new life creating care-free waterfall effects in hair. Some people wear the look well enough that I’m envious of their gorgeously clippable hair.

Personally, I can’t wait for the return of the banana clip.

So what fashion trend from now do you think should be buried in a deep dark fashion tomb, never again to see the light of day?

This is a vacation issue of updates, so I’m going to be really low-key about it.

My house is [barring robbery, fire, or other (un)natural disaster] in the same shape I left it. Grass is probably getting too long by this point, but there isn’t much I can do about it right now.

Working out? Hahahahaha I walked back and forth from the house to the ocean a couple times today. Helped my son with his boogie board, and ran around Costco and some grocery stores hunting for salmon. Does that count?

Writing is going so-so. The other me did her final read-through on the short that comes out next week last night and made a few quick fixes. The YA, however, is going slowly. Good news, both the first kiss and THE first kiss have been drafted. Bad news? I’m still only hovering in the mid-30s on word count. I don’t know why it’s going so slow, but I hope things pick up sometime this week. I at the very least need to get some mad words on the drive home (glad my husband prefers to be the one driving).

That’s about it. Next week I’ll be home, so I hope to be back on my game then. On the other hand, summer is almost over, and once school starts back up, I’m going to need something different to blog about on Mondays. If you, dear reader, have anything you’d like to see in the Monday slot instead of a weekly update, let me know