Has it really been more than two monthes since I've been on here? Wow, time flys when you are doing nothing!

This is only mostly true. I have still been trying to find work, signing up for classes for the fall, planning a wedding and writing but goodness! I've seen a lot of good movies (ala Time Travelers Wife, V is for Vendetta and 17 Again), found a lot of good music (including Eyes Set To Kill, The Audition and went to a fabo Incubus concert) and read a lot of good novels (If I Stay by Gayle Foreman, Jessica's Guide on Dating the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey and Stop Me If You've Heard This One by David Yoo). I've also hired a DJ, a florist, a baker and done save-the-dates for the wedding.

Also, I've done a lot of writing though I never did finish that first draft of Styx and Stones. Instead, I started over as the plot was just not working. I must say, I'm quite in love with this new version. And by new, I mean like a week new. Here's the beginning:

"The same day I got my acceptance letter to FSU, I found out my best friend's little sister had gone missing almost 32 hours ago. It didn't help that I'd been nursing a crush on her since she kissed me on the cheek while we were suppose to playing hide-and-go-seek in the woods behind her house.
And now she was gone.
When I'd open the thick yellow packet addressed to Mr. Aiden Wright yesterday, the first person I called wasn't my mom or my older brother. It was Cam. The letter was still in my hand when he picked up the phone, when he gave me a half-hearted congratulations after the hours he'd spent begging me to apply, when he told me Blake hadn't come home last night, when he said he had to go to keep the house line clear for the police. As for the shiny new letter, it stayed on the floor where it had fallen from my stiff hands and hadn't been picked up since."

I found my TA's novel on the shelves of my local bookstore and picked it up. I shall be reading Alicia Thompson's Psych Major Syndrome next and I can't wait! Went on her website to give her a grats! and she invited me to join a critique group with her once it starts up. That is just beyond super cool.

Other than that I'm just getting ready to go back to school next monday, get my degree at the end of fall semester and start applying to teach some kid monsters high school english. Because if you are Amber Johnston, then that is how you do.

Birthday is coming up soon! My mother asked me how it feels to be turning 22. I mean, 16 is huge, 18 is wow and 21 is mind blowing (or mind altering depending on how hard you hit the bottle) but 22 is kind of just the same as everything else is. So yeah, that's about it.

I would like to get a job soon like on my 18th birthday. I wouldn't mind it being a really great job like the 18th birthday job which was working at a bookstore!

Otherwise...

It's hard to believe it's almost been an entire year since I first started writing Damage Control. I haven't had much more luck with agents on that one so once again, I'm halting the query process and am going to go back and re-write. I'm going to focus on what the agent said when she passed and re-work the entire ending of the novel to be more explosive! I'm also going to post the first chapter (or maybe two) up here so if you have some free time and want to give me any opinions, I'd appreciate it! But to be honest, I'm starting to slowly (and painfully) come to the realization that DC just might be another novel that has to be placed underneath the bed.

Though it's tough, I'm going to start looking at the possiblity that it might be this new novel that I'll have to put all my hope into which is rough for several reasons. One is that I'm not ready to say goodbye to the last and two is that I'm going to have to wait at least 6 months before I can start querying again. *Sigh* Good thing I love what I do.

I saw a movie trailer for The Time Travelers Wife yesterday and it looks AMAZING! Can't wait for it to come out in August. Also, tomorrow The Material are releasing a few new songs which I'm going to be waking up early to download.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Since the rejection, I've cried a little (a lot) and got that out of my system. The only good thing is the agent looking at he story did tell me why she was rejecting it. That means that I can go back and try and find ways to fill out the story a bit more. I won't be doing that until I'm finished writing Styx and Stones, the newest novel I've been working on. So far, it is going really well and I'm enjoying writing both sides of the story from the guy's perspective and the girls. Strangely enough, I identify with the guy's side a bit more than the girl. I think this is probably because the girl is a bad state when we first meet her and by the end of the novel she grows a lot. Plus, I feel like I was always on the longing side of a one ended relationship when it came to crushes.

I'm working on getting my novel list down (accept I sort of slipped today and bought a new book because I had a 20% coupon to Borders). I'm officially down to 18 novels on the to read category which is loads better than the 21 I was sporting by the beginning of the summer. Recently, I've read some ones that I'm not wild about but had their good points.

Also, in my list of things I've been doing, I've been helping a few young'uns start their first novels. It's pretty fun though sometimes I feel silly. After all, I haven't even got published (yet, I hope) so I wonder how much I really know. I'm finally understanding what a hard place my high school teacher was in. On one hand, I want them to continue writing because that's the only way to get better. On the other hand, I want to tell them about all the mistakes and advice I wish I'd known about earlier. I also, don't want to write it for them because both have such wonderfully strong voices. Tough shoes. I;ve just decided to look at it like I would a college story and critique it while going over with them what it is that is wrong.

So that's really it. Just writing a couple of pages a day, looking for a job, reading, and waiting to hear back from some more query letters on Damage Control.

Ever notice that when it rains blah, it pours?

Got an e-mail back for the request partial with a very nice pass. I'm not as upset as I thought I would be but it still really sucks. I look around the people in my writing classes, asking questions like "why do you need an agent" and realize I'm lightyears ahead of the majority and there's still this. It always stinks to know you're doing thing right-- like following guidelines to the tee, proofing over and over the query letter, reading multi agent and writer blogs a day, and reading books in your genre like your life depended on it-- and still nothing happens. I have to say though, that means I'm this much closer. My stats look like this now:

15 queries total (which in the realms of things aren't that many):
2 requests
6 forms/vaguely personalized rejections
7 still out

So I can only hope...

The other awful news I got was about close family friends. Apparently they were driving home with their boat attached to the back, something flew out and caused the car behind them-- who had a 30-something year old radio personal in it-- to swerve off the road and into a ditch. She died. Our family friends-- who watched me grow up-- had no idea that this happened until they got home and got a message to drive back to the scene. The worst part of this is the man who was driving is a fire fighter whose job it is to save lives. He's completely crushed. It's ironic that no matter who many lives someone saves, it only takes one to make them want to throw away everything. I shiver even thinking about being responsible for something like that and it can happen to anyone.

Ugh, it's a good thing alcohol is so expensive and I'm a poor college student (not like I'd ever drink myself to death or anything, I'm responsible!). This just hasn't been a good day.

The only good thing to report is that Star Trek is amazing. I've never seen an episode of the old show in my life and I hate space and I was completely entranced. Glad I saw it before all this bad news. I truly hope everyone else has better news. Wish everyone the best!

I wish I was drinking... a lot.