Why This Blog?

Basically, I am very selfish, and self-involved. One blog is simply not enough to contain the brilliance that is me. Also, and probably more to the point, my family and friends that follow my other blog would get totally bored of all the book talk I intend to do on this blog. So, I am simply writing it for the wide world to read, although I am fully aware that I may be the only one ever to see it...or be interested in it...or ever read this paragraph...
So I have written a book. It's a Young Adult Paranormal Romance. In other words, I have become a new resident of Stephanie Meyerville, just a short distance away from J.K.Rowling Town. And what have I discovered as a new resident? There are a TON of people here. I currently live in the unpublished part of town, where every house tries desperately to look different from its neighbors but ends up looking exactly the same and every yard is littered with discarded reject letters. I am proud to say I have yet to receive a reject letter, but that is only because I haven't sent my book out to agents yet.
Uptown are the published authors. They have the manicured lawns, the beautiful views, and every once and a while us downtowners drive by in hopes to glimpse their glory and stare enviously at their houses.
Okay, enough of the metaphor.
So I wrote a book. And now I have been studying exactly how you get it published. What I have learned so far is that it is a LONG journey. After slaving away for months and usually years to complete your novel, you then have to muster all the creative genius that you possess into writing a query letter that essentially condenses your book into one short paragraph. If this weren't difficult enough, it has to be brilliant enough to stand out in the ocean of query letters that the agents receive daily. On top of that, it somehow has to withstand the agent's bad days, deadlines, and all the other things that an agent deals with, and inspire said agent to stand up, shout for joy, and proclaim that they must have more!
Of course, it will still take a few months to find out if that was, indeed, their reaction because most agents use snail mail and request that writers do the same. Why do they do this? I'm not sure of all the reasons, but I can tell you that my manuscript somehow sounded completely different when read off a printed page as opposed to on my computer (reading it out loud was a whole other story all together).
But, I have discovered that I love writing. Love it. I would and will still do it even if I never get published. I have edited my manuscript to the point of exhaustion and I am ready to start the sequel.
Thanks to my husband, who has gathered the kids together the last few nights to tell stories, I even came up with another, more child-friendly story idea that will relocate me strait into J.K.Rowling Town. Hmmm, I sure hope the weather is nice there...