December So Far

Hi, readers!
I haven't updated you in over two weeks. I'm sorry about that. Here are a few things that have been going on in December (with some notes on November):

1. I have started finding Beta readers for my first novel, Red Letter Law. I have also made some edits. I am taking a break from querying this month.

2.  I'm working on a book called Tethered, which I started during NaNoWriMo.

3. I'm getting into beta reading, editing and critiquing other people's manuscripts. In order to keep everything manageable, I am limiting myself to two total manuscripts at a time, although there are certain specific circumstances that could cause me to make an exception to this rule.

4. Speaking of time management, I have been getting much better at that recently, and I am very thankful. Sometimes, I write a schedule for my tasks. Even if I only schedule a few things at a time, or if there is a change of plans, writing a schedule is very helpful.

I'll update again soon, and thanks for reading!

QUICK Post (while working on #NaNoWriMo2016)

Hello, readers!
I just wanted to let you know that I am sorry for skipping a week. I was busy with Thanksgiving travel and writing. (I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, by the way!)

Right now, I am doing a very short post because I am catching up on NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Today is the final day, and as of 12:07 pm, I have 6,500 more words to go, so I am really trying to be persistent.

NaNo has been awesome this year, and I can't wait to update you on my experience! I'll give other updates, too. :)

Do I Need to Relax Sometimes?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer:

I recently decided to pursue a writing career, and I finished my first novel two weeks ago. My plan was to start a different project for NaNoWriMo. I started that project on November 1. It is a contemporary young adult novel called "Furlough", and I immediately got ahead. In those first few days, my word count was above the target word count for NaNoWriMo.

I quickly learned that the work of writing a novel does not end when you finish writing. Everyone said that rewrites were important, and I knew that, but I did not know how time-consuming rewrites, revisions, and edits would be for my first novel. I was trying to revise it and write my new one at the same time, and I was putting a lot of pressure on myself. So, I have now decided that NaNoWriMo is not my main writing priority at the moment, but I am glad to be off to a good start on "Furlough" (8,000 words and counting). I have also decided to count small freelance projects, such as poems, toward my NaNo total. Thankfully, my first novel's revisions are done, but I've still got NaNo on the backburner, because I'm in the process of querying.

Querying is another part of the post-writing phase. In case you don't know, querying is the process of looking for a literary agent, which is someone that represents a writer to traditional publishers. To query, you send e-mails (or occasionally snail mail) to potential agents, and they can pass, or ask to see your manuscript. After seeing your manuscript, they might offer you representation.

Recently, when my manuscript was all revised and polished and cute, I had to send the whole thing to an agent. This particular agency asked for full manuscripts from the beginning. I sent the manuscript on Saturday, and I also submitted it to a contest the same day.

I told myself "Cimone, you need to relax now. You've sent your full manuscript to two places, and you need to take a few days off from querying. Don't read your manuscript looking for mistakes. Maybe you shouldn't even write anything. Just relax."

Did I follow my own instructions? For the most part, no. I did look at my manuscript on Monday and Tuesday, and I found...

three mistakes. Three small, one-word mistakes. The first two were unfortunate, but had no effect on the plot. The third one was a lie. An actual lie. The non-spoiler way to say it is that one character asked another character how many doctors were at the grocery store, and the second character said eight, but the answer was thirteen. (The italicized words and phrases are put there as placeholders for other words and phrases.)

Thirteen.

I thought "I lied to my readers!" I was very upset.

I had to remind myself again to relax. Sometimes, tiny mistakes like that happen. I fixed the mistakes in my document, so that they won't be there the next time I send out my manuscript. As for the places I've already sent it, it is now out of my hands, and I accept that.

So, now I know that relaxation is a good idea. But how should I do that? Here are a few ways:

On Monday, I started a new writing project, also for NaNo. That sounds like more work, but this one is a lot of fun. It's a whimsical chapter book for elementary-aged children. It involves a talking camel! Camels are always fun to write about. Chapter books are quite short, so I think I can finish this one before the end of NaNoWriMo, but if not, that's fine. Progress is good.

I also went to the library yesterday, and checked out some books, so I can read when I need relaxation time. I might end up posting some book reviews here.

I live near a beach, so I could try going there sometime soon. (It's South Florida, so it's not very cold right now.)

But there is one way, above all the others, that I need to relax. I need to focus on Jesus. I can get so caught up in the world, and what I need to do, and my goals, and my job, that sometimes I forget that He promised to give me rest.

Matthew 11:28-30:
"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light."

A Quick Note About Unity

Hi, readers! I posted something on Facebook the night before last that was meant to encourage people in light of recent events and controversy. The thought just occurred to me that I can post it here, too, so here it is, copied and pasted:

I will never, ever apologize for being black, or being female, or having an opinion in spite of those things. I will never apologize for expecting to be treated with respect and decency. I will never apologize for the expectation that no one will touch my body without permission. The world is changing, and I'm not running scared.

On the other hand, I will try to give respect and love to everyone, even if we disagree on those fundamental principles. I will try to listen to other people's perspectives, and I will try to stay unified with my compatriots. It is the citizens that make a country great, and not the president. More importantly, God does it, and I need to pray.

I pray for all of you that you will not hang your head based on other people's prejudiced views of you, and that if you have prejudiced views (and I have some, I must admit), you will try to move past them. Reaching out to those who are different, to those who make us uncomfortable, and to those who challenge us, is a good way to promote unity.

I would love to hear your thoughts about this, too. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

I'm back! And I'm a writer.

Hello, readers!

     I know I haven't blogged in a long time, but I am going to try to be more consistent with this, especially because...

     I'M A WRITER NOW!

     Woohoo! Honestly, I've been a writer for a long time, but I just recently decided to make it my career. This has been so much fun. I started writing a novel in July, and I recently finished it. I'm querying literary agents now, and I'm planning to write some short stories and things like that for magazines. I'm also working on a second novel for National Novel Writing Month, but I'm not sure if that will be done by the end of November. It's not a sequel, so it gives me the opportunity to step outside of my first novel, which is good news.

     I am so blessed with the opportunity to do something I love on a professional level. I haven't been paid to write just yet, but I believe that it is coming soon! I also think that I will do ministry as a career at some point, but I am not sure when that is supposed to happen, so for now I am just trusting God and enjoying where I am.

     I am learning a lot as I go, and soon I will make a post with tips for other writers. I also need to make part 2 to my previous blog post.

     My goal is to blog at least once per week starting now and continuing indefinitely. Have a wonderful day!

     PS: I voted today. :)

Words, Promises and Signet Rings (and God being Awesome): Part 1

Hello, readers.

I am Cimone. I haven't blogged in a long time, so right now I want to start. I am twenty-one years old (twenty-two in a month and a half, woohoo!), and I want to tell you my life story, but that would be a lot. Instead, I'll tell some pieces. I have loved words for a long time, so tonight I'll talk about words, from both a secular and a spiritual perspective.

I came to know Jesus in elementary school, and I was told at a young age that my primary calling was prophecy (hearing and relaying messages from God). I thought that this was cool, and I got some use out of this gift, but at that time I had know idea how to steward it or cultivate it. For example when I was about eleven, I went on a trip to a church gathering, with some other young people at my church.
During a service, we were given raffle tickets. I heard God say something about my raffle ticket. I needed to use the restroom, so I thought I heard Him say "It's okay to leave your raffle ticket on the seat, because the raffle won't be drawn until you get back." I think that I misheard, because the raffle ended up being drawn while I was in the restroom, and it was my number. They had to choose someone else. The prize was an iPod (because this was back in 2006, before everyone in the world had music on their phone). It wasn't a big deal, but it taught me to listen a bit more carefully when I heard prophetic words. The Lord told me something major in summer of 2009, around the time of my fifteenth birthday, but I can't go into detail right now, because I have yet to fully understand what that word means in my life.

Here is a side note about me loving linguistics: I love linguistics. Throughout ninth grade, every time someone asked me what I would major in when I went to college, I said linguistics. It is beautiful to me that every language has its nuances. In tenth grade, I found out that there was a field called cognitive science, a combination of linguistics, psychology, neurology, philosophy and computer science--basically, the study of mental processes such as memory and language acquisition. Cognitive science fascinated me, and became my go-to answer for a long time. One day, my dad and I went to a lecture about cognitive science at his college class reunion. The professor giving the lecture showed a video of a woman who was physically unable to speak. She had a device connected to her that could pick up her brainwaves and turn them into words. It was really, really cool. So, from there, I progressed to the mission of giving a voice to those who have no voice. I ended up majoring in Communication Disorders for my first year and a half of college. I loved it, and I still do. I could sit and talk about childhood language acquisition all day.

As for the spiritual aspect, as a teenager, I thought that prophetic words were things I could receive once in a while. I thought that you had to be at a certain level of authority in order to hear from God every day. I also began to pray less as a high school senior, because I struggled with suicidal depression. I do not say this lightly, and this topic definitely needs its own blog post. I was under the mistaken impression that I was too dirty and sinful to talk to God. I thought that I needed to solve my own problem of depression before I could approach Him. This is absolutely not true. You can always go to God, no matter what state you are in. And you can't clean yourself up--you need Him to do that.

A turning point happened during my sophomore year of college (September 2013). I had battled depression for over two years, and I had started going to a church at the University of Houston. But I kept everyone in the church at arm's length for a while, because I was afraid that if they got too close to me, they would find out about my depression, and they would no longer want to be around me. My thinking was "Lord, why do I have to be in a church family? Can't I just go to church and worship you, and then go home?" The church had a retreat called Belonging Weekend, and I did not want to go at all. I thought "I don't want to belong to this church. I don't want anyone getting to know me." But I felt like God was telling me to go. So, I went. The very first night of Belonging Weekend, a preacher whose name I don't even remember gave a profound message about being in Christ and casting off our old identities. At the end, I went to the altar call. In a moment, God took away my depression, my shame and my suicidal thoughts. All I did was weep on the floor for what seemed like half an hour. I had never felt so free. I heard God say "I will fill you up so much with My Spirit, that anything in you that didn't come from me (including depression), will not be inside you anymore." At that moment, I didn't know all of the implications of being filled with the Holy Spirit, but I loved it. So began a huge adventure.

I want to share more, but this post is getting long, so I will make a part two. Happy trails, readers! Please feel free to leave questions or comments.