Month: September 2010

Holy Sunday – (or how I spent my birthday.)

Posted on by Zolligirl

I had the privilege of joining The Atlanta Dream Center on Friday night for a ministry called Princess Night. This church, located in Atlanta’s Fourth Ward, spends every Friday night driving around some of the worst sections of town looking for women involved in prostitution. They give them a gift, a card, and a rose, and they tell them they are beautiful and loved.

I went with my friends, Carolyn and Kathryn, and a group of 12 other women from a local church. We spent the night handing out roses, prayers and even hugs. The first woman we spoke too, cried. She had never been given a rose before. What an honor; we got to tell women that God has not forgotten them!

One of the things that struck me is that we were driving around, praying and asking God to send us people that needed to hear His truth. And while I can’t go EVERY Friday night, I can spend my days actively LOOKING. There are hurting people everywhere.

Are you looking? Let’s do it together. The Atlanta Dream Center is transforming their community by showing them the love of Christ. What does He want to do in our neighborhood?

What a difference a year makes!

Posted on by Zolligirl

Today is my birthday! Or tomorrow depending when you read this thing. The 10th, that’s the day I was born. Just a few short years ago and my parents were heard to exclaim: “Oh well, back to the drawing board!”

They wanted a boy. Did you know my middle name is Darnit?

LAST year, my birthday post was titled Happy Dang Birthday and  I wrote this:

I got my THIRD REJECTION today.

Dear Lisa,

Thank you for your query. Dan Lazar asked me to reply after he evaluated your submission.

We’re afraid your project does not seem right for our list, but thank you for thinking of Dan, and best of luck in your search for representation.

Sincerely,
Stephen Barr
Assistant to Dan Lazar

Yeah, the ASSISTANT. So to recap my journey with literary agents:

Agent 1 says she likes my chapter and I should sent out queries.

Agent 2 says she was considering it for a time, but opted to pass.

Agent 3 says she has to feel strongly about a project, and she so does NOT.

Agent 4 has ASSISTANT give me the kiss off.

I fully expect Agent 5 to show up with a tire iron and take out my kneecaps.

Here I sit on my BIRTHDAY, old and rejected. I can’t think of a THING that would make me feel better. Except for presents. Lots and lots of presents.

I’ll be home all day.

THIS year’s birthday finds me with an AGENT. At least I think so. I sent off the contract and have yet to hear from her, but I’m sure that’s typical. Right? A year ago I was old and rejected, and NOW, I’m just old. Er.

Oh, well. Published authors can afford botox.

Or go crazy and eat themselves into oblivion. Whichever.

¡Feliz cumpleaños a mí!

My Schedule

Posted on by Zolligirl

When I decided to send MP to public school, I noted that it would allow me more time to exercise, clean house, and write.

Today, several WEEKS after she began, I decided to give my new schedule a try. I got up at 5:30, dressed, watched TV, crawled BACK into the bed, got back up at 6:45, woke my daughter, drove her to school, and then drove myself to the gym where I ran 3 miles. Okay, I WANTED to run 3 miles, but my legs were like, “are you on CRACK?”, so I huffed and puffed my way through 1.

Then I went to the library, came home and showered, WROTE an entire chapter, which I hated, so I wrote two NEW pages which I semi-sorta liked, then worked at my real, actual paying job until the MP got home.

(Big breath) THEN I got everything ready for prayer night at church, ate, drove to church, drove home, sat down and wrote my blog, and went to bed.

Where I slept completely and totally fine even though I had somehow neglected the “clean house” portion of my schedule. That’s just how I roll.

Blogging Twice

Posted on by Zolligirl

Since I am a soon-to-be-published, well-at-least-I-have-an-agent, author – I think I had better spend some time at my OTHER blog. You know, the one about writing? You can find it HERE.

Don’t bother looking now, since I haven’t written over there since May 30. Which is not really a great pace for a wanna-be author. So from now one, I’m going to write here, then there, then here, then there. And then back here. Cause what I know about writing will probably carry me through Friday.

Oh what am I saying? Not knowing anything hasn’t stopped me from writing this blog for over a year!

Holy Sunday

Posted on by Zolligirl

A  large group of people gathered this weekend to pray for California and the nation. It’s called The Call.

Therefore, we are again summoning thousands of young and old—those who have been marked by The Call’s solemn assemblies and those whose hearts burn for their generation—to gather in Sacramento as consecrated, intercessory representatives from, and on behalf of, California and every state to “altar” their lives, “altar” their states, and “altar” the nation.

There was a live webstream and I spend a few minutes watching it today. The event is over but it was amazing – seeing thousands of young people gathered together to PRAY.

Who needs YOUR prayers? Be an intercessor today.

Book Review

Posted on by Zolligirl

One of the best things about having my very own literary agent is that I can buy books and consider it “research”. I NEED to know what’s happening in the MG/YA market!

That’s Middle Grade and Young Adult for those of you outside the publishing biz.

Anyway, today I found this book –

Louis Sachar wrote Holes, one of the best MG books EVER. And he’s a avid bridge player. I’m sure you know which one I find the most impressive.

This book is about a teenager who’s urged by his mother to help his rich, blind uncle at the bride table. It’s all in a BID, (see what I did there) to ingratiate themselves into his will.

But the best thing about it is that he really explains BRIDGE. It’s a whole book about BRIDGE! You should go right now and get your copy.

Be quick about it. I’m pretty sure it will fly off the shelves.

I watch movies

Posted on by Zolligirl

I went all day without winning a contest, playing bridge OR garnering a great literary review, so I’ve got nothing to share. It’s hard to blog an ordinary life. How DID my brother do it for so long?

Anyway, with nothing exciting going on, I thought I’d show you one of my favorite websites. Trailer Addict is a site of movie trailers. That’s it – trailers. I rarely get to go to the movies but I do enjoy seeing what’s out there. And then I enjoy NOT going to movies.

There’s a lot of scary movies and I don’t do scary movies. Case 39 looks especially creepy. Here’s how it works – I watch the trailer, don’t go see it, read the review, then after it’s been out, read the whole plot on Wikipedia. I get the whole movie AND save 10.00 in the process. I may be a genius. Or at least cheap.