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4/3/06 6:58:52 PM Opening "Chat Log 4/3/06"

Trina Pink: Joshilyn, hello! (And hello to everyone else too)
Rose1533: Welcome, Joshilyn. Thanks for being here.
Joshilyn J: oh ty for having me. I have to say---I am the world's VERY worst typist.
W2PDee: yes, we're excited to have you ... many are big fans of your blog, and of course, your book!
Trina Pink: We are DELIGHTED to have you. You have a number of fans here.
Joshilyn J: huzzah!
Rose1533: Huzzah? You frequent the Renaissance Faires?
Trina Pink: We were avid readers of the blog, especially in the months leading up to publication. We lived vicariously. ;-)
W2PDee: my middle name is vicariously...
LaTina11868: hello all
PCarlson: Greetings, dudes and dudettes.
Joshilyn J: ugh I am back waiting again -- it's a hideous time
Trina Pink: It's a hideous time? Really?
Joshilyn J: waiting for reviews is the worst. It's like squatting on a toilet in middle school and the popular girls are putting on lip gloss and you have your feet pulled up so they won't see
Joshilyn J: waiting for them to talk about you, and then they do
Trina Pink: ROFL!
W2PDee: lol...been there, so understand it, now, is that sad? hehehe
Joshilyn J: LOL
W2PDee: Joshilyn, can you bold your font and color it? Do you know how? We want you to stand out.
Joshilyn J: Dunno how, no. Let me play
Joshilyn J: I am bold! And possibly large?
Trina Pink: Joshilyn, do you have a preference what we should call you?
W2PDee: that's as large as you can get...color is the first A, click and hold, and select color of your choice (not yellow, lol)
Joshilyn J: I go by Joshilyn or Joss (the H is silent, so Joss is the short version. ANYTHING but Josh is fine. Also not crazy about "dumbass" but it is better than Josh.
Trina Pink: LOL!
ShayKay1951: Hi, Joss
Joshilyn J: How is this -- Hiyas
Trina Pink: Oh, perfect! Thank you.
W2PDee: good color on you...compliments your eyes...violet like Liz Taylor?
Joshilyn J: SO like, dude, if I'm like totally pink all chat do I have to TALK, like with a PINK vocab, too???
LaTina11868: hi shay
Joshilyn J: I think this is better
Trina Pink: Guys...Joss has LOTS of great info for us, so we should probably get started pretty dang soon.
W2PDee: wow, I like that one.
Genjii555: lol Josh
Joshilyn J: see that's the one I hate. anything but Josh
Genjii555: oops :-X
W2PDee: whoops, no Josh...lol...no signed book for you, Tiff
Genjii555: lol
Joshilyn J: in my full name, the H is silent, so it sounds like Jossalyn---no idea why my mom put an H in and then insisted that no one use it
Joshilyn J: oops, I lose my bold and color
PCarlson: moms can be like that
W2PDee: Let's get started...settle down gang, Trina will do the intro of our guest, and we are now on protocol.
Trina Pink: Joss, I loved the entry where you said your name rhymes with Moshilyn, if Moshilyn were pronounced like Mossilyn. I still laugh about that.
Trina Pink: We good to go?
Joshilyn J: hehehe yeah it's a weird name, and no my dad is NOT joshua. he is bob. no idea where it came from
Trina Pink: LOL. Bob.
Joshilyn J: I get conflicting stories. it is shrouded in mystery
ABSHRINK: hi
Trina Pink: I want to welcome everybody out. Delighted to see you all! We have a treat in store, but she's got a lot to cover, so we'll leap right in.
Braguine: Gutt iffninckzz, Roomies. :-)
Trina Pink: Our guest tonight is Joshilyn Jackson, author of the novel Gods in Alabama and the very popular blog Faster than Kudzu.
Joshilyn J: Hi---Thanks for having me.
Trina Pink: Gods in Alabama was released almost exactly one year ago. It comes out in paperback in July, as does Joshilyn’s second book, Between, Georgia.
Joshilyn J: do I talk now?
Trina Pink: Although Gods was her first novel, she was well supported by her publisher: sent on book tours, etc.
Joshilyn J: Oh no I don't
Joshilyn J: *shuts up*
Trina Pink: The book got a lot of buzz, some killer blurbs, was a #1 BookSense Pick and a Books-a-Million bestseller (and earned her a large and loyal fan base that will line up to buy Between).
W2PDee: lol
Trina Pink: All this…partly because it had a compelling main character who was a perfect blend of major flaws and sterling integrity.
Trina Pink: But Joshilyn also wrote THE kickass first line of all time.
Trina Pink: (LOL)
Trina Pink: Every review I saw about Gods quoted her first line. So it’s particularly appropriate that her topic tonight is “Openings that Grab.”
Trina Pink: Let’s have a warm welcome for Joshilyn Jackson!
Trina Pink: <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Lightningbug1957: Welcome!
Joshilyn J: hi ty
ShayKay1951: <Applaud>
Braguine: clap clap clap :-D
Lightningbug1957: Great that you could come tonight
LaTina11868: welcome
Trina Pink: (Now you talk, Joss!)
Joshilyn J: OH okay
W2PDee: yeah!!!
Joshilyn J: hehehe this is me talking
PCarlson: yayayayayayaaaaaaaaaa
W2PDee: what a melodious voice...

Joshilyn J: One of my favorite playwrights, Anton Chekhov, once said, "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired."
Joshilyn J: Well, okay, but I think that if you've got a pistol hanging right there on the wall, you should probably rip that sucker down and start blasting away in scene one.
Joshilyn J: Actually Chekhov is being much deeper and smarter than I am pretending he is being---he's talking follow-through and that's vital. But you see my point: Don't hold back, because in a first novel especially, you need an opening that hooks readers on page one in at LEAST two ways:
Joshilyn J: First and foremost, Establish Voice. If it's first person or even a closely directed third, that means your character's voice. Voice is TONE and LANGUAGE and RHYTHM and STRUCTURE. Make her SOUND like who she is.
Joshilyn J: If it's a sliding or omniscient third, the voice you have to establish is YOURS. And if you are writing in first or directed third, you STILL have to do this, but UNDER your character's voice.
Joshilyn J: One way to know if you are writing in your own voice is to read EVERYTHING aloud. Multiple times. Every draft.
Joshilyn J: You are writing the book only you can write, so make sure you tell the story in your own voice, even if you layer a character voice on top of it.
Joshilyn J: No one can tell you how to write in your voice. You write until you find it. Trying to explain how it feels is like trying to describe an orgasm....
Joshilyn J: "Sort of like sneezing, but lower. And um, better. And um, not at all like sneezing."
W2PDee: lol
Joshilyn J: When you are having an orgasm, you KNOW it. And when you are writing in your own voice, you know it. You recognize it.
Joshilyn J: I had so much trouble getting my second novel, BETWEEN, GEORGIA to be MINE that way.
Joshilyn J: Nonny's voice was so strong in my head she overpowered mine. I wouldn't show the book to my editor until I had MY voice underneath hers, in every line.
Joshilyn J: I knew I'd gotten it when my editor said, "This book is nothing like Gods, the narrator is nothing like your narrator for Gods, she doesn't talk, think, or act like her...and yet it's so obvious you wrote both the books. It's YOU. How did you do that?"
Joshilyn J: "Well," I said, "It's sort of like sneezing...."
Genjii555: lol
Joshilyn J: Okay I'm about to stop talking about voice and talk lastly about hooking
Joshilyn J: any Q's so far or should I soldier on and then Q's at the end?
Joshilyn J: not HOOKING hooking
Joshilyn J: like with tube tops and condoms. the other kind
origjasstorm: :)
Trina Pink: ROFL!
ShayKay1951: rofl
Joshilyn J: any ? before I tear on along?

W2PDee: Have you tried to write in a voice unfamiliar to you?
Joshilyn J: I am right now. It's HUGELY frustrating and exciting. I should say that Gods was my THIRD novel (just the first to sell, and BETWEEN was my fourth. I am working now on what is my fifth.
W2PDee: wow...didn't know that...but this one is in an alien voice, so to speak?
Joshilyn J: I say that to say
Joshilyn J: first --- which I REALLY thought this book was third
Joshilyn J: yes it's very alien because she is SO uneducated
Genjii555: ?
Joshilyn J: average IQ but a very HIGH eq
Joshilyn J: you know EQ?
Rose1533: no
Lightningbug1957: no
liamfan@mac.com: yes
Joshilyn J: um it's like intuitiveness, people smarts---NOT book smarts
Joshilyn J: this is a drop out from Pace Florida
Joshilyn J: Arlene could say HEGEMONY -- she's a grad student, like me. she has a killer vocab
ShayKay1951: emotional quotient, rather than Intelligence quotient
Joshilyn J: right
Joshilyn J: me, I am very clinical and book smart -- very SPOCK
Joshilyn J: NOT very savvy
Rose1533: lol
Joshilyn J: I am dumb as a goat EQ wise
Joshilyn J: and she can't sue my vocab either
Joshilyn J: use
Joshilyn J: not sue GOD I wish I could type
Joshilyn J: ah well, thank the lord for copyeditors....anyway
W2PDee: lol...
Trina Pink: LOL. No problem. You're doing fine.
Joshilyn J: it's hard because her education is so different word choice is a HUGE issue
Joshilyn J: I have to describe very complex and layered images that relate to theme with a VERY limited vocab
Joshilyn J: in the places where i pull it off, it is SEXY HOT and I get very pleased with myself. but....there are a LOT of places where I am failing. we'll see how it goes
Joshilyn J: anything else?

MistressMeredith: gah, puter fart, hang on
Joshilyn J: once again -- let me say, reading aloud is the only way i can tell if i have both her voice AND mine in there, in every line
Joshilyn J: AND when I read the audiobook for between the director was like "you read aloud, don't you," and I said, "yes constantly, " and he said "I can always tell by how clean the prose is, the ones who read aloud.

MistressMeredith: I hang out with a group of people that do a lot of adult sexual education and enlightenment. we can describe orgasms in exquisite detail on demand. why would "finding your voice" be so much more elusive than that?
Joshilyn J: well, it was an analogy so it was of course flawed
Joshilyn J: I was thinking of how your best girlfriend did it in high school, and you asked her if she had an orgasm and she said ummm ... I THINK I may have????
Genjii555: ha ha ha
W2PDee: rofl
Joshilyn J: which means, of course, she didn't.
MistressMeredith: *laughs* I never had that girlfriend
Joshilyn J: finding your voice is like that
Genjii555: I AM that girlfriend. lol
Joshilyn J: when you hit your groove, when you FIND it, you get a feel for it like that
Joshilyn J: Genji EVERYONE was that girlfriend *grin*
Joshilyn J: anything else?
MistressMeredith: In that case, I'll be holding an 18 and over discussion immediately following the writer's group lol

PHeeren: Have you ever written a children's story before or not?
Joshilyn J: well I have kids so I write them all the time. :)
PHeeren: great, thanks
W2PDee: we'll do more questions later on...

Joshilyn J: OKAY back to openings
Joshilyn J: first thing, find YOUR voice and if working in first, a character voice that overlays that.
Joshilyn J: SECOND THING
Joshilyn J: and I know you have heard this before YOU MUST HAVE but you can't hear it enough I think
Joshilyn J: Second, you should establish IMMEDIATE Conflict. Nothing boils people down to their essential selves as quickly.
Joshilyn J: I think the best way to let the reader meet my characters is to put them all in a room and then light one of them on fire.
Joshilyn J: When I see how all the characters react to the blazing person, I begin to know who they are and how they feel about each other.
Joshilyn J: Start a big heap of trouble and then watch and see what your people DO.
Trina Pink: LOL
Joshilyn J: If that's not possible, you have begun your book too early. Cut everything away, EVERYTHING, no matter how well it is written or how much you love it.
Joshilyn J: begin this story where the main conflict begins. Be brutal with yourself so that agents and editors don't have to be.
Joshilyn J: you may have the OPPOS|IT|E problem
Joshilyn J: Me, I am so interested in conflict that I tend to start books too LATE, which is also no good.
Joshilyn J: The first thing I wrote when I started GODS IN ALABAMA ended up being Chapter 2. It was Arlene Fleet at 15, creeping up to the top of Lip Smack Hill to beat football hero Jim Beverly to death with a tequila bottle.
Joshilyn J: I realized later that I could NOT start 12 years in the past. GODS IN ALABAMA had to begin in the present with the 27 year old Arlene, because her present goals were going to drive the story. So, I wrote an opening chapter, but the first lines of the book telegraph the central conflict. Here's the opener, and out of 60 reviews, I think 40 of them talked about it.
Joshilyn J: "There are gods in Alabama: Jack Daniels, high school quarterbacks, trucks, big tits, and also Jesus. I left one back there myself, back in Possett. I kicked it under the Kudzu and left it to the roaches."
Joshilyn J: Arlene's wry dark humor and smarts shows in that first line, and nothing says immediate conflict like dumping a dead body.
Joshilyn J: NOW! Go look in a mirror. If you see Pat Conroy looking back at you, feel free to begin with a description of landscape.
W2PDee: great opening, that's for sure.
Joshilyn J: and, really, if you ARE Pat, you can natter on about it for pages and pages if you so desire. If you see a slightly less established writer, you need to cut that beautiful tree paragraph.
Trina Pink: LOL. Pat's not here.
Joshilyn J: I'm being a little facetious, but just a little. ANY established author can take more liberties with an opening because they have a fan base.
Joshilyn J: You pick up an established author's novel based on what that author has delivered in the past---good characters, interesting plots, satisfying resolutions.
Joshilyn J: With a first book, you have to give a reader a TASTE for what you have to offer, and you have to do it in the first few sentences. The first few words even. Because that's all the time you have to hook a reader who has picked up your unknown book in the store
Joshilyn J: and editors KNOW this.
Joshilyn J: So, they are looking for it too....that bang up first line. Save the tree description for book 2 :)
Joshilyn J: the end

Joshilyn J: bold hates me
Joshilyn J: purple is also not fond
Joshilyn J: it keeps leaving me
Trina Pink: But it keeps coming back!
W2PDee: slap it down...got to show you are the alpha color
Joshilyn J: I put it back by hand lol
Joshilyn J: any questions?
Joshilyn J: about part 2 or about any old thing?
PCarlson: another weird computer glitch, brought to you courtesy of AOL ;-p
Joshilyn J: THANKS AOL!
Trina Pink: Oh, yikes. When you cut and paste, the color has to be added every time. :-(
Trina Pink: It'll be better when we're doing Q&A later.
Joshilyn J: actually only every 5th or 6th time
Joshilyn J: it's weird and it cuts out every 5th time when I just type, too!
Trina Pink: Anybody with a question so far?
Joshilyn J: heheheh AOL may not like me, but it likes me a little better than it likes you....that may NOT be a good thing

W2PDee: How long did it take you to come up with that first line ... was it something you had to rewrite a lot (once you got past Ch.1 becoming Ch.2)?
Joshilyn J: It was the first thing I wrote that I kept. When I wrote it, I knew I had Arlene's voice, and I went on to write what is now chapter 2.
Joshilyn J: Then I moved the body of 2 back a chapter, but kept that opening
W2PDee: interesting...
Joshilyn J: I revise a lot more than I write. I spend 75% of my time AT LEAST on revisions

Joshilyn J: Georgia?
Rose1533: How long did it take to write?
Joshilyn J: Gods took 2 years, but I had to stop in the middle to give birth. So probably 18 months I worked on it. Between also took 18 months. The book I am writing now I scheduled 18 months into the contract. GEOR|GIA!
Rose1533: Wish I could write that fast!
Joshilyn J: my first book I wrote in 7 months and my second took 18 months.
Joshilyn J: so 18 is about what it takes me. BUT I think I may get faster. I have never written a book without a baby or a toddler at home. next year my youngest goes to Kindergarten

Mallie1025: I have mostly mastered the beginning, the hooks and the ending
Joshilyn J: hehehehehehe ah the middle is a BUTTHOLE isn't it!
Mallie1025: You must come back and tell us what to do with the middle
Genjii555: lol
Trina Pink: (Mine too, Joss. I cannot wait!!)
W2PDee: oh so true
Joshilyn J: well I know what I do with the middle.
Joshilyn J: I have a nervous breakdown.
Joshilyn J: FOR FIVE BOOKS NOW
Joshilyn J: I am having my breakdown for this fifth book RIGHT NOW in fact!
Trina Pink: LOL!
Mallie1025: Josh I assume you write humor or should
Joshilyn J: yes I get to a certain point -- 1/3 to 1/2 in and I lose my crap
Joshilyn J: TOTALLY lose my crap
Joshilyn J: cry
Joshilyn J: call everyone I know and cry!
Joshilyn J: lie on my bed
Joshilyn J: swear to stop writing
Joshilyn J: say Very Bad Words
Joshilyn J: wander the house at night unable to sleep
Joshilyn J: because the middle is impossible
Trina Pink: ROFL!!!
Joshilyn J: then at some point after i am SO freaking exhausted from being mentally ill that I can’t SEE, I am BLIND with mental illness, I type a middle.
Joshilyn J: and then I go, OH that was easy. wonder what all the fuss was about
Mallie1025: Yep you write humor lol

Genjii555: Is there anything special you do that enables you to churn out a finished product so quickly?
Joshilyn J: I just love revisions is why, I think. I freaking HATE writing.
Joshilyn J: Have to force myself to do it so i have something to play with, then I can revise endlessly.
Genjii555: that's an awesome outlook.
Joshilyn J: i enjoy it SO much----it's like I know people who are doctors with 15 infants and charity works, they have NO TIME AT ALL IN ALL OF LIFE, but they never miss Survivor.
Genjii555: ha ha ha (love that show)
Joshilyn J: That's how I am about revising
Genjii555: thanks
Trina Pink: <==never misses Survivor.

Rose1533: Ha! I gave my character an anxiety attack and 2 days later, I had one and ended up at the ER! And you think you revise endlessly? Took me 7 years for the rough draft and I've been rewriting for 12! Like I said, I wish I could write that fast!
Joshilyn J: Rose I would put that book down---seriously
Joshilyn J: You love it too much. Write another book until you love the one you are working on as much, and the first one is a faded rose.
Joshilyn J: Then I bet you will see exactly what you need to do to it and finish it in a year.
Joshilyn J: I always have two projects going -- the book I am writing, and the book I am writing NEXT.

Mallie1025: That is so true!! I hate writing too, but I love revising and editing and seeing a work well done
Joshilyn J: huzzah!
Rose1533: LOL!

Trina Pink: Joss, do you want to continue with your talk?
Joshilyn J: I'm done. That's all I could say in 850 words.
Trina Pink: LOL. That's fine. We have 15 minutes for Q&A.

MsBugs204: I'm going to start my 3rd rewrite in a couple of weeks.
Joshilyn J: good luck bugs
MsBugs204: Thank you, Joshilyn


Lightningbug1957: Do you come up with a plot first or characters first? And do you plot?
Joshilyn J: Characters first, and I never plot or outline. I would get so bored writing from an outline. I am entertained as plot unfolds for me and it comes out of who the people are.
Lightningbug1957: yeah
Joshilyn J: I work like this:
Joshilyn J: write chapter 1
Joshilyn J: It sucks
Joshilyn J: write chapter 1, it sucks
Joshilyn J: write a worse chapter 2
Joshilyn J: revise 1 until it sucks a LIT|TLE less, but still sucks
Joshilyn J: revise 2, write an abysmal 3
Joshilyn J: revise 1 2 3 and write a horrific 4
Joshilyn J: realize I started too late again
Joshilyn J: write a NEW chapter one that sucks and then 1 is now 2 and is getting good
Joshilyn J: and so on like that
Trina Pink: LOL. Here I thought it was just me.

Trina Pink: I'd be interested in hearing the short version of how you got published, Joss.
Joshilyn J: I got published, Trina, to be REALLY short version, by cold querying agents.
W2PDee: Do you know the ending before you start writing the first draft? I also don't write from an outline, but I usually know the ending...most times.
Joshilyn J: Dee I think I know the ending, but in four novels, twice I have been wrong. :)
Trina Pink: Thanks. That's very encouraging. :-)
W2PDee: oh...so the voice took over, lol
Joshilyn J: Gods had a VERY different ending in draft one --- I won't say more so as not to spoil it for people who haven't read it yet, but it was VERY different.
PCarlson: so there IS hope for the wandering query.
Joshilyn J: if you have read it, I will say this, Rose Mae Lolly was in I think ONE scene in ONE chapter (I think it was chapter 7) in the first draft.
Joshilyn J: YES, the wandering query is how I got from there to here.
Joshilyn J: I sent out between 150 - 200 of the damn things.
Trina Pink: Oh, wow!
Joshilyn J: yeah
Joshilyn J: I know NO ONE
Joshilyn J: had no short stories of note.
W2PDee: that is impressive!!!!
Joshilyn J: I live in the freaking COTTON
Trina Pink: WOW! I'm very encouraged. :-)
Joshilyn J: I hit the right agent with the right query on the right day

MistressMeredith: What do you consider to be your fundamental element of writing? Word choice, sentence structure, plot, character eccentricities?
Joshilyn J: well I write Southern Gothic, so it's place. Everything grows out of place for me. Place shapes the people, the people shape the plot.
Trina Pink: I think that's me.

Trina Pink: As regards your query, Miss Snark says send it out at least 100 times before you give up. So you are living proof of that. :-)
Joshilyn J: Place shapes the characters, and characters shape EVERYTHING else, I should say.
Joshilyn J: I say 100 is for wussies
Joshilyn J: 200 or bust
Joshilyn J: XD
Joshilyn J: I seriously did over 150
Trina Pink: ROFL
W2PDee: dunks my face in cold water...don't want to be a wussie, going for 300!!!
Joshilyn J: WOO HOO!
MistressMeredith: (I was raised on a thousand, but I was also raised short-form)

Lightningbug1957: Did you get to quit your day job yet?
Joshilyn J: no. My day job is "mommy." I can't quit that one. My husband would be crabby.
Trina Pink: LOL

Trina Pink: How much research did you do on potential agents? And how'd you choose Jacque? (I did get it right, didn't I?)
Joshilyn J: if the ? Is do I make enough to support a family writing novels, then the answer is yes. But my lord....I won the lotto. Seriously.
Joshilyn J: It's almost impossible to do that with one book, the way the market works
Trina Pink: Again...you give us all hope! :-)
Joshilyn J: AH JACQUES
Joshilyn J: God I love that man
Joshilyn J: Oh lord it's a LONG story
Joshilyn J: He picked me out of the slush pile, stood by me while I cost him money by not selling (he shopped my first two novels). And made me TURN DOWN A DEAL because he felt I wouldn't get the kind of start we eventually got with Warner -- his dreams for me have ALWAYS been bigger than my dreams for me.

W2PDee: Now that you've written five books (and been published), how has your writing skills/habits/interests changed, or have they changed?
Trina Pink: (WOW!)
Joshilyn J: They haven't changed significantly
Trina Pink: WOW!!!!
Joshilyn J: I am a better self editor.
W2PDee: btw, impressive to be picked out of the slush pile...I am not worthy, I am not worthy!!!
Joshilyn J: My craft skills are stronger but that just happens as you work whether you are publishing or not.
Joshilyn J: I DO NOT READ AS MUCH is what kills me
Joshilyn J: I used to read 4 - 8 books a month, now I read more like 2 - 4 because I have so much other crap on my plate. On my vacation all I do is read. It is HEAVEN.
Trina Pink: And I imagine you hear of more and more that sound interesting!
Joshilyn J: And by the way -- if you aren't reading avidly and insanely in your genre, ESPECIALLY first novels and contemporary stuff, you are crippling yourself. :)
Trina Pink: (Good advice! Thanks)

PHeeren: Have you published children's stories?? Any children's magazines or publishers?
Joshilyn J: No, but my next novel is I think going to be YA. My agent shopped a children's series that I wrote and my brother (who makes his living as an artist) illustrated, but it did not sell. It was BAD MARKET TIMING.
PHeeren: ouch
Joshilyn J: That's why you have to read contemporary and first novels esp --- get a feel for the market. It goes in waves.

Mallie1025: Do you find luck really is an element? I have had the most unlikely stories pubbed by equally unlikely places -- what they want drops away when they read something they like.
Joshilyn J: yes -- love trumps all
Joshilyn J: what an editor wants ----she WILL fill her list, but if she LOVES your book, she will go to war for you.
Mallie1025: If only we could break the code lol
Joshilyn J: Jacques went to war for me, and then Gods ended up at auction with 4 major houses bidding on it.
Joshilyn J: And one editor -- my editor -- went to war already at the auction -- I knew she'd fight like hell for me and she did
Trina Pink: WOW. Oh, wow. I'm spinning here.
Joshilyn J: So I went with Warner
Joshilyn J: I wanted to tour, and that never happens for first time authors
Joshilyn J: I wanted it so I went with Caryn and THE FIRST THING I DID . . . hear me on this . . . my book sold and within 2 months I was in NYC on my own dime.
Joshilyn J: Meeting everyone in the house and making them see I was a PERSON and asking them to please read my book. It made a huge difference.
Trina Pink: Visiting Warner, or bookstores?
Joshilyn J: Warner.
W2PDee: good advice!!!
Joshilyn J: Because people saw me as a person, so they opened the book.
Joshilyn J: First line hooked 'em. They finished it. Then they liked it and they started bugging my publisher to up the marketing budget.
Trina Pink: That's great advice, Joss.
Joshilyn J: Editors who were NOT MY ED|TOR were fighting for this book to break out.
Genjii555: wow
Joshilyn J: And then the reps started reading it and calling the publisher and it became the lead book for spring.
Joshilyn J: All because I went and said "I know you have a huge list ... just read a page or two." And then of course, they liked the book, so that helped.
Trina Pink: Wow. You're a real role model, Joshilyn.
ShayKay1951: All I have to say is Congratulations, Joss. You give me hope for my own writing.
Joshilyn J: Good. Just keep writing.
Joshilyn J: I'm absolutely no one who knew nothing, just wrote and did what all the books say to do to find an agent. lol

PHeeren: when was it published? Before 11 September 2001?
Joshilyn J: Gods came out last spring. It will be in paperback in June and then Between comes out in July. So yes, well after 9-11
W2PDee: not only loved the book, I thought that cover was kewl!!...
Trina Pink: Whoo hoo! I can't wait for Between!
W2PDee: Loved your blog on how it was done. Really makes the book stand out in the book store.
Joshilyn J: omg I love my cover artist!!!!! Anne Twomey -- she did Between, too.
Trina Pink: She did both books?
PHeeren: Well, I'd better go now..........goodnight, all
Trina Pink: My clock says we're at the top of the hour, folks.
MsBugs204: Joss it was nice meeting you. Good chat, Dee, and Pink.

Joshilyn J: Okay, I need to go to bed, but I want to say one thing in closing.
Joshilyn J: The writing is my greatest pleasure and my dearest friend.
Joshilyn J: The writing makes me whole and happy.
Joshilyn J: Forget publishing, it doesn't matter. The writing matters
Joshilyn J: Try to publish, sure. But invest your love in the WORK, not the result.
Joshilyn J: The industry will break you, but writing never will.
PCarlson: Amen, sister! :-D
Joshilyn J: Thanks for coming, ya'll.
liamfan@mac.com: Thank you, Joshilyn
Trina Pink: Oh, that's SO inspiring. I can write for the writing. :-) (course, I still want to publish!)
Trina Pink: THANK YOU, so much, for coming. This was fabulous.
ShayKay1951: <Applaud>
Trina Pink: You have given us much wisdom here.
MoonCat25: Joshilyn it was great!!
Joshilyn J: heheheheheh I have never been accused of wisdom before. ROFL
Mallie1025: Joss -- so glad to find another typing failure. lol
Joshilyn J: hehehehe soul sistahs Mallie. Good night guys, thanks for having me!
Joshilyn J: Bye!
Trina Pink: Joss, we'll send you a copy of the log too.
Joshilyn J: ty
Trina Pink: Bye! And thanks again!
Joshilyn J: I'm off to bed
Mallie1025: Joss you must come back--we need that middle!!
PCarlson: THANKS!!!!!!
Lightningbug1957: thanks!
ShayKay1951: Bye, everyone, hugssssssssss to my friends.
W2PDee: Joss, thanks so much for your session. It was great!!!
MoonCat25: nite all
W2PDee: :-) ;-) :-)
PCarlson: Niters, all
Lightningbug1957: Have a good week everyone

4/3/06 8:08:38 PM Closing "Chat Log 4/3/06"

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