Got the van & finished the book.

Yeah! Fa'a and I are the proud owners of a Honda Odyssey EXL. Very very sweet. Leather seats, entertainment center, 8 seats, 13 drink holders (Dylan counted) and just a little bit of traveling heaven.

Also, finished Off the Edge revisions and printed some copies, gave to my hired Editor and she is passing on to 5 beta teenage readers.

Now just lots of brain storming for my new book!

Keeping my fingers crossed

Aloha to this beautiful snowy day!

Loving this morning when I walked the dogs with my beautiful daughter and saw the first snow fall of the season. I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR. It's been 4 years since our family has been around for the season (Hawaii is only rainy and hot). Lili, Aryana's dog, looks adorable in her new winter jacket, now Tali just needs one (her's is an old sweater from last year--get's too wet).

Very nervous for the rest of the morning. We are heading over to the bank and praying hard that we get approved for the loan to by our new Honda Odyssey.

Also, very excited to say I finished my revisions AGAIN on OFF THE EDGE and sent them back to my hired editor to be sent out to 5 beta teen readers, all interested in different genre. Excited to hear back.

This allowed me to now focus completely on my other book (no title yet--lets say Victor). Excited, especially after Fa'a and I drove up to Jackson Hole and Victor this week to do more research.



Enjoy the day!

Ready for the weekend

This week has be so up and down--emotionally. I HATE the query process. I feel like I'm stalking my own email, hoping to get someone interested in my book. It was productive, though. An agent tweeted about my query and I happen to see it. I found out she rejected me so I emailed her about the tweet. We have been corresponding and she has given me ALOT of great feedback --along with public query slushpile blog.

I discoverd that 1). My query letter is too long, and 2). I have it listed in the wrong genre--college age is not considered young adult.

So, I'm back to the drawing board. I have since cut the query from 450 words to 185 words. I am also going through the book (again!) and changing the ages, cuz I can't keep them in high school, it just changes the story.

So...in the scheme of it all, it's just a long, long, process of learning ALOT, taking rejection, and deciding that you have something that isn't worth giving up on.

I was also relieved to discover that Dylan's eyes are better (prayers work!). We just need a checkup next year. I am also looking forward to my boys football games tomorrow, and a fun date night with my hubby!

Have a great weekend.

My website

Yeah! I am finally on the web. I'm excited to google my name and see www.erinapelu.com to come up! I have a lot of work to do on my website,but at least it is finally up and going. It has been way to long since I have updated my blog. I wrote "Off the Edge" in three weeks during April. Then I sent it off to a few friends to read--all different age's and genre of women (all liked it). After that, my friend, Emily Bradshaw, went through and edited my manuscript. I got it back and started working on it last week. I went from 95,000 words, and deleted 4,000 then added another 17,000 words! Crazy. So now my manuscript has roughly 108,000 words, about 450 book pages. Yikes!! I know it's hard for a first-time writer to get anything over 100,000 words published. I am keeping my fingers crossed!!! I can't cut it back, Eden and Noa deserve to have their whole story told. Of course, I left it open for book two. Writing this novel was amazing. I love, love, love to write. It is so theraputic. I am excited to start writing more, once school starts in 2 weeks. I have ideas for four other books, nothing to do with "Off the Edge". This week I am working on my query letter and sending it, along with the first chapter ten agents. If all ten reject me, I will move on to the next, and the next. I will keep you posted!!!!!

Can yesterday not repeat itself??

I woke up yesterday late, that was already bad. I had to run my mom to her Dr. appointment and the were over an hour late and we just made it in time for her therapy. That took 2 hours. Came home and made dinner. My dad has bladder cancer and was having some medication injected into his bladder, sounds easier than it is. It was just a crazy evening between trying to remind him of all the steps he has to follow with this medication without making him angry at me. It was a huge realization that he really can't remember very well anymore. Boy am I glad that everything worked out the way it did so we are here. This is definitely not what I expected to be doing in my life right now, but I am glad I am. I am thankful for the best husband in the world and my wonderful children who are so patient to come out here an live. I love my family. The boys had a great night at basketball practice. Aryana and I got some birthday cards for her friends. Came home and went to bed with a HUGE headache. Woke up in the night and thought I was going to throw up, my head was throbbing soooo bad.

T

Well I just started this blog tonight. It is already past my bed time so I can really say much tonight. It has been a very frustrating long day. I will have to tell you more about it tomorrow. In case you haven't guessed it my favorite color is yellow! It makes me happy.