Writing Wednesdays: The Very Inspiring Blogger Award

Yesterday I received the Very Inspiring Blogger Award from the lovely ladies of Sub It Club, an online support group for writers and illustrators who are sending their work out into the world (yes, it's so scary we need our own support group). I'm honored to be listed among some of the bloggers who inspire ME, particularly Dee Romito at I Write for Apples, who was so sweet and helpful when I got my offer of representation.

Here are the rules for the award:
*Display the award on your blog
*Link back to the person who nominated you
*State 7 things about yourself
*Nominate 15 bloggers, link to them, and notify them about their nominations

I'm not going to choose 15 bloggers because everyone is super busy, but I will nominate one: my talented, intelligent, inspiring sister Elizabeth, who blogs at Clash of Cultures about popular culture and lives in Paris. She is also the one who introduced me to Sub It Club so I'm extra grateful!

And now, seven things about myself (with a writing focus, since this is a writing award):
1) In my very first query letter for my very first book, I compared it to Harry Potter. I KNOW. (This is like one of the seven deadly sins of querying, so I totally deserved the "Not for us" scribbled at the top of the letter and mailed back to me. Ouch.)
2) I wrote my second novel about a Marine pilot who is killed in action and what happens to his family in the aftermath. I still think the idea has merit, but I was nowhere near skilled enough to write the story at the time. I never queried it.
3) The only writing class I've ever taken was focused on travel writing. I took it at the UCSD extension and my teacher encouraged me to pursue publication. His kind words were some of the first I filed away to bring out whenever I was feeling down about my writing.
4) WINTERSOUL, the novel that finally found an agent, is my eighth completed manuscript, but I've got another half-dozen incomplete novels floating around.
5) I wrote my first novel after I was fired from my crappy job at a newspaper and had nothing else to do. I also took up baking, knitting, and painting that year. Writing is the only hobby that stuck!
6) Some day, after we've done several posts in the Foreign Service, I want to write a book about parenting overseas. My working title is "Abroad with Boys."
7) Trust is a recurring theme in most of my novels. I'm pretty sure this says something about me, but I haven't delved too deeply yet...

Thanks again Sub It Club!