August 28, 2012 by khaula mazhar

I Really Love Writing Query Letters

Query letters are so much fun. I love them. Don’t be jealous because you don’t feel the same way. Query letters just make me want to …

There are so many rules there should be an encyclopedia just to contain them. And no matter how many times you write it out, somehow it just never seems to be quite right. And every agent wants it just a little different. You have to read through entire websites and at least five googled up interviews before you even attempt to write a query to a particular agent. That is a lot of fun. Especially in the summer vacation with kids in the house.

Anyways there are some sites I found really helpful and have been meaning to post them for quite a while. But I get distracted really easily. Did you know piranhas are really mean little buggers?

Oh and that ~~Snooti~~ Snooki just had a baby.

Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, Fiance Jionni LaValle Welcome Son Lorenzo!

Of course then I just had to find out who she is. Ironically she has written a book and it has been published. I wonder how she managed to write the query letter. I wonder if she can spell query letter.

Sorry, got distracted. What was I talking about?

Query letters!

They really freak me out! Here are some places that were very helpful.

1.http://elanajohnson.blogspot.ca/p/writing-query-letter.html. She makes it seem so much easier. She breaks it down with lots of helpful examples.

2.http://www.nelsonagency.com/faq.html This is from the Nelson Agency Website. Very helpful.

3.http://agentqueryconnect.com/. This is a great site to learn lots and lots and lots and rant and moan and whine with other writers. And helpful. Helpful helpful.

4.http://www.americaneditingservices.com/. This is a website for an editor who was really nice and she helped me with my query a lot. I needed a lot of help. I now need a lot of vacation from summer vacation. So I can fit the lot of help I got into the rewriting of the query letter. Then I will pray I get a lot of requests. And a lot of books published. And eventually a lot of money. Then I will send a lot of my children to a lot of faraway schools so I can write a lot more without a lot of distractions. I get distracted easily. Did you know Mexican Salamanders are really weird-looking little critters?

(All Images are from Google Images)

August 14, 2012 by khaula mazhar

Being Appreciated

I really appreciate Amyth Banerji at Mythbroakia for appreciating me. He nominated my blog for the Reader Appreciation award. You all know how the rules go:

1. Appreciate the blogger who nominated you. I did.

2. 7 things about yourself. Since I have done this many times, I don’t think readers will appreciate another 7 things. I plan on appreciating something else.

3. Appreciate 5 to 10 other bloggers.

So I am going to appreciate 7 things my kids have said.

1. Twin 2 (5 years) at an Aftar Party a few days ago when using the host’s washroom:

“Toilet bowls are so big. Babies could just fall in. When I’m grownd up and have my own baby where will I make it go potty?”

2. Twin 1, just now. “When I am grownd up, I am not going to have a boy baby. He will just bug me all the time!”

3. Middle Child when she was a toddler observing an earthworm after the rain: “Mommy look eardworm hole is digging!”

4. Only son in answer to anything: “It wasn’t me!”

5. Eldest daughter in answer to anything:”It wasn’t me”

6. All at once at the dinner table: “I like dogs, can we get one?” “No! You have to pick up their poop!” “Ha ha he said poop! Stop pushing me!” “Poop, doggy poop!” “I am not picking up the doggy’s poop” “I don’t believe this! Why are we talking about poop at the dinner table?” “Ewww! Doggy poop!” “Stop it! Stop saying poop!” “Poop, poop,poop…Ow she hit me! you are a poopy face!” “MOM!!”

Me: “Pass me the poopatoes…”

7. After yelling at them to stop fighting, reminding them how lucky they are to have each other and that I was all alone as a child: Twins: “don’t be sad mommy you’re not alone anymore, now you have us.” And I am enveloped in a large odd shaped hug of five children.

I have nominated quite a few blogs the past few days so I am nominating some new blogs I have just started following that I thought were interesting:

1. Nyparrot

2. Zainab Khwaja’s Blog

3. Unspoken

July 27, 2012 by khaula mazhar

Thanks

Thanks Fortyteen Candles for nominating my blog for the One Lovely Blog Award.

No that is not the Award, this is:

And you don’t just get an award and then do nothing but be happy about it. There are some things you have to do.

1. Give credit to the person who nominated you. Which I have done.

2. Describe 7 things about yourself. Which I have not done. Yet.

3. Nominate 15 other bloggers. Which I suppose I should do. Even though it is Friday afternoon and I am feeling very lazy.

7 Things About Me

1. I need breakfast first thing in the morning. Other wise this happens…

2. I have an obsessive-compulsive disorder for putting things in the proper place. None of my children seem to have inherited this. They insist on inheriting all my husband’s genes. They will be sorry when they one day grow up and find their houses are on “Hoarders: Buried Alive”. And I will be watching and laughing in my spotless living room.

3. After I had kids I started using Mommy language. This consists of standard sentences such as :”who ate all the ice cream?” “who didn’t flush the toilet?” “who put the cat in the freezer?” as well as “no I don’t have money” “no I have not cooked anything else for dinner besides the four course meal on the table” “no you can’t use my lipstick”. And most commonly, ” I can’t wait till you have kids of your own!”

“who took my tweezers damn it?!”

4. I forget to close the lid on the toilet at night even after reading “Good Habits my Cats Have Taught Me” by http://misanthropology101.wordpress.com/.

And my cat falls in without fail.