Friday, September 14, 2007

It's all about the words now...Lisa's weighs in (again..just try and stop me!)



This was Heidi and I last October terrorizing Juan Valdez as well as everyone else in the Juan Valdez cafe on 57th Street in Manhattan. It was our first meeting (not with Juan Valdez—with each other). We are the only two Wordslingers to have ever "met". We found out quite a few interesting things about each other, one of which was that she is tall and I am short.

Anyway, I guess this was my way of avoiding introducing myself. I am the partially anonymous Lisa A. When and if I land an agent, I suppose I will come "out" and reveal my full name. I am a professor of graphic design and an artist. But you see, writing has sort of taken over my life. It all started about four years ago when I had what seemed like the brilliant idea to illustrate a children's book. Man, was I excited. I finished said book, even did the illustrations, some of which I will even post on here at some point. It was after I had worked on the writing for two years I realized no one was going to want my book if I couldn't write. I threw myself into learning the craft of writing, joined one critique group, then another (this one, bless them!). By the time I realized I had written a Young Adult novel and no one was going to buy an illustrated young adult novel, it was too late. I was irrevocably a writer. Now I keep my shameful secret from my students. Sorry kids, pictures just don't do it for me anymore. It's all about the words, now.

At this point I have four partials out for my latest (second) YA. I have retired that poor noble first book. It served its purpose. It taught me how to write and for that I treasure it. Maybe someday I'll dust it off and take a cold hard look at the poor discarded wretch and see if it has any merit. For now, I'll just keep plugging away on my latest WIP. And keep hoping the good fortunes of three of my esteemed critmates will rub off on me!

TTFN
Lisa

9 comments:

Sherry said...

If Lisa wants to say something--there's nobody on Earth who could stop her from having the last word.
Take it from me, I know.
I'm her Mom.

Unknown said...

Hey, didn't we agree you were going to tell everyone I'm a genius?

Unknown said...

I am also one of Lisa/JW's QT homies, known in that other world as 'Aud.' For whatever reason, I'm already logged in as the name of my new MC -- perhaps because I gave her an email account so she could send me notes about how I'm treating her? Anyway... Just wanted to swing through this new endeavor & show my support for her and the rest of the crit clan. May you all have wild success... it sounds as though you're already on your way!

Unknown said...

Whew, Aud...now I'm really mixed up. So you're like, a girl on here? Zoe/Aud's a He. You should see his mustache! (that really WAS my Mom, you know, so behave yourself.)

By the way, how many emails has Zoe sent you?

Patrick said...

From what I've heard this has been a very successful crit group. Way to go.

And Sherry, do you have any baby pictures of Lisa we can post over on QueryTracker?

Unknown said...

Don't make me sorry I let the riffraff in!

celticqueen said...

Okay I came, I saw, I read...I'm amazed I was actually able to do all the above without a child yanking on my leg! I like it, very nice :-) I am another from QT land, known as elknutswife, elky, elk, elkette (you get the point) and as lisa/jw is my favorite booth buddy I just had to visit :-)

Unknown said...

Hey, Elkie! Thanks for stopping in and come back soon!

Sherry said...

Hi Lisa
It's Mom again.
Does everyone know that you're an award winning artist????
I always thought that was your strongest talent - perhaps I was mistaken all along. Your writing is simply awesome.
Mom