Heather Foeh

November is almost here and you know what that means… Oh, you don’t? Well, let me fill you in — it’s time for National Novel Writing Month (affectionately known as NaNoWriMo). It’s the one month of insanity in the year when fools try to write 50,000 words between November 1-30. And yes, this year I’m going to be one of those fools. I’m going to get down the entire first draft of my manuscript by December 1st, so I figured I would go ahead and join the NaNo fray and get their humorous and encouraging weekly emails while I’m at it. Any other fools out there? Come on in — the water’s fine.

As I wrote that headline (”Writing a Synopsis”) I thought of several modifiers that could go in front of “Synopsis”… painful, evil, Satanic…. you get the idea. How on earth are you supposed to intelligently convey a 267 page manuscript in 5-10 pages?! And not only that, but it needs to be in the tone and style of your voice and be compelling and interesting, not just a listing of facts. Sheesh - no pressure.

I am entering my manuscript in the RWA’s national Golden Heart contest for un-published manuscripts and my submission is due by December 5th. The submission packet has to include a synopsis of not more than 15 pages. The total entry cannot be more than 55 pages — so the longer my synopsis turns out to be, the less actual manuscript pages I can submit. My goal is a 7 page synopsis, but so far I’m at 9.5.

I have a great critique group that I’m part of and they very kindly critiqued my first attempt at the synopsis and it was EXTREMELY helpful. Two of the people have already read my manuscript, so they gave me a different slant on what I’m including and leaving out in the synopsis. Others who haven’t read the manuscript asked good questions about important plot points that I clearly need to include in the synopsis. So now I’m ready to pick up the fantastic comments I received and go for round 2 on that evil, dastardly synopsis. Fingers crossed… 7 pages!

Hallelujah - we’re finally getting some chilly weather! It’s 41 at my house this morning…woohoo!  Yes, I know it’s going to climb into the 80’s again later this week, but this first dose of cold is fantastic. I checked the weather forecast on my Blackberry and according to the application that I use, it’s going to be “nippy”. I’m not kidding - that’s the word they used. Which is not to be confused with “chilly” tonight. Tomorrow is “refreshingly cool.”  Who writes this stuff?!

It’s funny - I never really thought about it…but it makes sense now… J.K. Rowling just announced that Dumbledore was gay, and not only that, but Grindelwald was his tragic love. Now it all fits into place, but it’s odd that it didn’t dawn on me before.

Okay - this isn’t original content from me, I’m just spreading the love… The Smart Bitches posted this about 10 days ago — it’s an MP3 of Alan Rickman reading Sonnet 130. Holy Moly. Alan is welcome to come on over and read my grocery list aloud if he’d like.

Right click this link and save it to your computer for your future listening pleasure.

We all have our little secret dreams and a few “what-ifs” from our past. Well, here’s one of mine… I wish I could have been an FBI agent. Doesn’t “Special Agent Foeh” have a nice ring to it? I really don’t remember how or when (or even why) this started, but there you have it. Am I happy with my current life? Absolutely! But I also still have this little fantasy about bringing down the bad guys — maybe cyber terrorists? — and I’ll tell you, seeing The Kingdom this week didn’t help. Jennifer Garner was one tough FBI chick in that movie. She now comes in second place in my ass-kicking women hall of fame, just below Trinity from The Matrix series.

Our Austin Romance Writers of America chapter is having a “301″ challenge — write 301 words a day for 31 days (October 1-31) and I’m participating. Unfortunately for the last few days I’ve been a slacker…basically just trying to get my minimum number of words in. Pathetic. I admit that it will probably be the same tonight because I’ve been struggling with a migraine today and my brain is absolute mush. However, this weekend, I’m turning over a new leaf…BIG WORD COUNTS are on the horizon. First and foremost is my synopsis that needs to accompany my Golden Heart entry. And man am I dreading that. I don’t think I have the Synopsis MoJo — eek!

Interesting… Harlequin has announced that ALL of their new titles (120 per month) will be available in eBook format. They even have a new eBook Boutique. I wonder what kind of response they’ll see? I consider myself a geek, but I’ve yet to read an eBook…maybe I should give it a try?