Boys, Books and Bikes

Check out my favorite photo today here.

Enter www.michelleahansen.com into your blogger following. It will update just like a blogger account.

I am MOVING!

Okay, I am not physically packing up the house and moving. (I wish!) Instead, I am moving from this blog to a professional author website, which needs updating often, so it will become my new blogging zone.  I hope you will all switch out the address and follow me there:

http://www.michelleahansen.com/

I look forward to seeing your familiar faces there. Thanks!

Michelle

About an Author

Anyone who has followed this blog knows that I have been writing and trying to publish for years.  So, I wanted to write a little bit about this journey of mine, because I have been very private about most of it.

I don't like to fail.  In fact, if I had to list my phobias, fear of failure is probably pushing up there near the top.  I take on achievable goals, aim high, but not over the top. So, when I decided to write a novel, I guess I didn't realize publishing it would be like asking for the moon.

When I left Wahluke High School in 2003, a fellow English teacher gave me a book entitled, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Published." I read it cover to cover, learned how to draft a query and set out on this journey to publication.  Little did I know what a journey it would be.  Every time I got a rejection letter, I told myself that I just needed to write better. A good book will eventually get picked up by an agent or editor.  It was just a matter of writing a better book. So, I wrote a second and a third and a fourth and a fifth.  I started attending conferences and paying for agent/editor critiques. I learned a lot about writing and a lot about querying. I kept working to be better.

This fall I hit a wall. I sent my novel into a contest and got really good critiques on it, but both judges had the same problem with the character.  I realized there was a flaw in how she came across to the reader, and I set out to fix it.  Then, I queried it out again.  Still, the rejections piled up.

One night I was venting to my husband.  "If I change this character anymore to give them what they want, she won't be the character I want her to be!" I finally decided I was done editing this manuscript. One more text edit, and I was going to shelve it and write a new one.

Nathan was irritated.  "Who cares what they say? Publish it yourself!" The past month he read two articles about authors who made it big self-publishing.

I stood by "if it is good enough, I will get a book contract," but then he basically said, "What are you going to do with it? Throw it in the closet with the others?"

My only answer was yes.  There was nothing else I could do with it because I had already queried it out, and I wasn't willing to change it again.  Well, Nathan's birthday was coming up, and he'd already bought himself an expensive gift (which he said was for the kids, but I knew better). I didn't have a gift for him, so I decided to give him a book. Published.

PAINTED BLIND launched on Amazon Kindle and BN Nook on January 15, 2012. 

"Seventeen years old and agoraphobic, Psyche Middleton vows her dad will never see the risque photos she took during a summer modeling stint abroad, but one of them ends up on a billboard in her Montana hometown. Suddenly, she is a celebrity. At a street carnival she is rescued from a mob by a guy who has the ability to make himself invisible.

He takes her to his palace in an idyllic kingdom, and she is swept into the beauty and culture of his world, but his affection has one condition: she may not see him.

Psyche must decide if she can love him blindly, and if not, will she lose him forever?"

The print addition will be out in about eight weeks. I am finalizing the details with the publisher now.

So far, it has been well received.  I hope you will all spread the word to family and friends.  Most importantly, if you read it and like it, leave it a good review and repost.  Thanks to all of you who have supported and encouraged me along this journey.  It didn't end up like I planned, but releasing the story and getting feedback has brought me so much joy.  I realized I didn't become an author because I wanted to be rich and famous (no delusions of grandeur here), I wrote because I wanted to share stories, and now I can without New York publisher approval.

Today the sun shines a little brighter for me.

Blogger is Messin' with Me

I can't comment on blogs!  Even on my own.  Every time I go into the blog viewing screen, the info at the top doesn't recognize that I'm signed in.  So, I click "Sign In" and I get sent back to my dashboard, where I am already signed in.  So, I tried another blog.  Same thing.  SO frustrating!  It's been doing this for weeks.  Help!

Does anyone have an idea of how I fix this? 

Not So Hungry Anymore

This spring and summer I attended two writing conferences. 

Of course, everyone in the writing business wants to know: What's new? and What's hot?

Over and over, I heard people saying dystopian is the new BIG thing.  

The consensus was that The Hunger Games is the new Twilight.

In April, I had not read the series, so I did this summer.  When I attended PNWA in August, I had the third book in my car, but I wouldn't let myself read it, because I needed to write. In fact, when I met with one agent, she asked me what the last YA book I'd read was.  When I told her the third book was in my car, she laughed out loud.  "Oh, yeah," she said.  "Those are so addicting." 

I came home and devoured the final installment, Mockingjay.  If you haven't read the series,WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! 

Until the final book, I really did think The Hunger Games was the new Twilight and would go on to be a billion-dollar empire in print and film. Then I read that third book. 
I was so disappointed with the ending that I don't even want to see the movie. 

The thing is, a book sells on fifty pages.  Really, agents and editors don't read entire novels in the beginning.  They decide if they like the concept and they read a few pages, and if they like it they request more.  As a reader though, Mockingjay proved the power of the right ending, because the ending of that book spoiled the whole series for me.  Seriously, I was like, "If I had known Prim was going to die anyway and Katniss was going to marry that dork, Peta, I would never have read the stupid books."

I understand the author wanted the ending to be a surprise.  Maybe she was trying to make a point about how war is costly and life is bittersweet, but I don't care.  I want a good ending, one that feels right and makes me so happy I can't wait for everyone I know to read the books.  I was so mad about about those final pages, that I texted my friend at 11:00 at night.  "This is the wrong ending!"
Because, really, would The Twilight Saga be the same smashing success if in Breaking Dawn,
Bella suddenly decided to marry Jacob and have puppies? (That's for Earlgirl).
Would you love Harry Potter if Voldemort killed Ron and Hermione in the end?  NO!

So, for what it's worth, here is how I think Mockingjay should have ended:

Crazy Peta, who tried to kill Katniss and wanted to change,

should have died saving Prim.  Katniss and Gale should have gone back to live in 12,

and the final scenes should have been of the two of them teaching their children to hunt and fish

in the woods where they met. 

But, who am I to criticize? 

Suzanne Collins got a three-book deal,

and I can't get anyone to look at my manuscript. 

Well, Hello There!

Hi, remember me?  What happened?  I simply don't know, but I think it has something to do with this:

*We moved, and it took me two years to decide I liked my new life.
*But, I still hate what I live in.... Oh, don't even get me started on this step down in the world!
*I now home school all my kids.  Did I mention we live in less than 1000 square feet? 
*While I am an educated teacher, I feel like a constant failure, because home school doesn't look, feel or act like real school. 
*I still feel like home schooling is the right thing to do, so I am making my peace with it.
*I am still failing at getting my novel published.  Even though I attended two conferences, networked with some agents and editors, so far it has been "No, thanks."
*Now I am applying for a Master's degree.  Crazy. 

So, if anyone wants to pick up where we left off, I think I am ready to blog again.

The Big Day

Today was Josie's big day....

She had her tonsils and adenoids out.  The tonsils were moderately enlarged, but when the surgeon got in there he said, "Oh, my gosh!  The adenoids are huge!"

She's always spoken like her nose was stuffed up, even when she wasn't sick.  It's affecting her speech development, so now was the time to finally take action.  Don't be fooled by the happy face in the photo.  That was after they gave her the "happy medicine."  The surgery went great and she's happily sitting on the couch eating an ice cream bar and watching Strawberry Shortcake.  It looks like our week is pretty much planned.  Ice cream.  Netflix.  Repeat.