Monday, January 19, 2009

Updates on the Book and a Baby

Well.  I don't like to go this long without a blog post.  I took on some freelance work, which takes some of my extra time.  We had a teensy bit of forward motion in the book front, which took some of my week.  I sang in the memorial service for a great man who passed away.  And the rest of the time, I was doing this:


This isn't the best picture of her that I took, but it's the least dorky of me (since I kept making squishy, pouty baby-talk sort of faces because I was holding all this glorious baby-ness in my lap), and I'm really too vain to choose the ugly pictures of me even for my namesake.  Isn't she gorgeous though?  I mean, that skin!  Those lips!  That hair!  She spent about one day and one night at our house.  (Along with her sweet, cool mama of course), and simply nothing could woo me from her awesomeness.


On the book front, we're working on a proposal to give the manuscript a little extra selling power to the editors still interested.  If someone had told me how difficult it was to convince someone to add your memoir to their already over-published stack of self-discovery narratives, I would have fictionalized the whole thing and made it a great novel instead.  Still, we have interest.  And interest is way down the road towards someday being on a shelf, so it's good.  I'll try and stop by a few more times this week despite my obsession with the proposal on which all my hopes and dreams hang in the balance.  I'll tell you what a wonderful man Keith Lawson was (the previously mentioned memorial service) and what I learned from his life and I'll keep you posted on Jake's antics and the life of a struggling writer.  It'll be great.  In the meantime, feast your eyes on these.






9 comments:

Felicity said...

Nice one, Nola!

In the first video it looks like you were waking her up when she was supposed to be sleeping ... that's what you did, wasn't it?

Yay for editors still interested. If they could spend a minute in an actual room with you they'd be sold! Hope your proposal can pull that feeling off for ya! : )

Serenity said...

She was supposed to be going to sleep - that's totally different. And that's such a lovely thing to say, "If they could spend a minute" with you. Perhaps YOU should write my proposal.

Anonymous said...

Okay this is what I needed to get my smile back, it keeps leaving me today for some reason. That baby is a DELIGHT, what an angel. And Felic is right, it probably wouldnt even take a whole 60 seconds for you to have them completely sold. (t t y r) come on 2009!
luv
Tiff

Kathy said...

Great moments. I'd leave the second video out of your montage for the editors, unless you are looking to create a similar flair as Rees Witherspoon's video application to Harvard in Legally Blonde :)

Anonymous said...

I'm with Tiff, not the best day, and I NEEDED this post.. Especially the videos. Nola is just so gorgeous. And you too. :-)

Cheri' said...

Both videos are so good, and you both look so lovely!

On the book proposal . . . Felicity is totally right! We're waiting with you!

Kelly H-Y said...

So exciting about the proposal ... good luck!!!! That picture of you and your niece is ADORABLE!!!!!

May Vanderbilt said...

ADORABLE!!

And good luck with tweaking the book proposal. It's mad hard to sell a book right now, so remember that any progress is already beating the odds.

And I've definitely had a book never find a home at a publishing house before.

But then I went on to sell something else. You've just got to keep chipping away at the dream, methinks.

Let me know if you think a blurb would help...You know people (like us!)

Serenity said...

May, you are so cool! I'm absolutely certain that would help, and I am officially embossing this comments page to remind you later that you so generously offered. I have no idea when is the right time to drop names and throw blurbs at people, but when that time comes - you're getting an email, Missy. Thank you so much for the encouragement. It is oddly comforting to me that it's "mad hard" or as Nathan B. put it a while back "a minor miracle" to have success in this business. It reminds me to do all I can, of course, but then to chill and enjoy the ride. It could be a long one.