Saturday, 1 September 2012

GUTGAA MEET AND GREET


GUTGAA Meet and Greet Questions.

If you are following along, you will know that I am participating in Gearing Up To Get An Agent.  An awesome initiative by the lovely Deanna Barnhart. So here we go...

 -Where do you write?: On our kitchen table

-Quick. Go to your writing space, sit down and look to your left. What is the first thing you see?
GIGILAND, explanation, the space we have created for our divine miss Gigi to play in.

-Favorite time to write? Early in the morning, around lunch and after dinner, lol

-Drink of choice while writing? Chai latte oh yeah

-When writing , do you listen to music or do you need complete silence? I usually have one or all of the following, Music, Tv, baby mumbling, baby crying, husband asking questions and not getting answers......

-What was your inspiration for your latest manuscript and where did you find it?

Driving down the street in our old neighbourhood, I turned into VESPER street. 

I love coffee so I found a last name for my character by the starbucks cup sizing guide VENTI. 

I also work for a virtual reality medical gaming console company as their nurse adviser, so that sparked the idea of VESPER VENTI'S VIRTUAL REALITY 


-What's your most valuable writing tip?

When editing, read your manuscript out aloud.  I was told that by the very wise and talented Val Taylor, an English writer who I had my first manuscript reviewed by.

Just to let you know a little about me, at present I am stay at home mum with a nerdy sci fi addiction. Yes I own a tardis. I am also a registered with a serious cupcake habit.
I am hoping for an agent one day but I am not content to wait forever , so I have had a fabulous cover designed by an animator friend and I am going to self publish very soon.

So stay tuned for a cover reveal and good luck with your pitches.

Oh finally I am an Aussie, so Gidday. . Yes we really say that lol 
See you all in the blogging hallways,

Julie Anne Grasso

Please remember to stop by as many other bogs as possible, as this fest is all about meeting other writers and making new connections.

You can find the full list of participants here:

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Monday, 27 August 2012

GUTGAA is almost here

For anyone following my progress, I am participating in a wonderful opportunity called GUTGAA, thanks to the very generous Deanna Barnhart for hosting an awesome Blog Hop.

So if you are interested, head on over to Deanna's blog and join in the fun.

Deana Barnhart
Week one starting 3 September will be a meet and greet, so here are a few things you might want to know about me.

Julie Anne Grasso
  • I am a registered nurse with a nerdy sci fi addiction
  • I love cupcakes and absolutely anything caramel, infact, some may say I am obsessed with caramel. Hopefully if I make it into the agent pitch contest you will see why, so look out for my query, hint hint.
  • I live in the wonderful city of Melbourne Australia
  • I do not have kangaroos or koala's in my backyard.
  • I have a baby girl that we like to call the Divine Miss Gigi
  • I have one super supportive husband who shares my nerdy sci fi addiction
  • Yes I own a Tardis.
  • I have a dream of traditional publishing my middle grade science fiction, but I am also pursuing self publishing and I have an absolutely awesome cover, almost ready to reveal so stay tuned.
That's all for me, so stop by and leave me a comment and I will be sure to hop over to your blog to say Gidday, ( yes I do say gidday, despite cringing internally even writing that, lol)

Looking forward to GUTGAA and maybe, just maybe, I will have some nibbles on my query, fingers crossed.


Best of luck to all my fellow bloggers,

Julie

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Thursday, 23 August 2012

A small vegemite toast window of opportunity

Well friends

I have been a little bit mute on the blog the last month, and to explain the title, I have a small window of quiet when the little G is in her high chair consuming vegemite toast.  The clock is ticking, so I better get on and post.

I have been busy with a few things.  First, my book cover is almost done, Hooray and it is looking awesome. So I will be loading it to Createspace really soon.  Just a few things to finalise and then we are go for launch.  Watch this space............. ESCAPE FROM THE FORBIDDEN PLANET IS COMING SOON.


Second I now have a website or domain name  www.julieannegrassobooks.com  Its just a place holder with my blog at the moment but eventually there will be some great info about my books and where you can buy them.

Thirdly, I still have the sparkle in my eye for traditional publishing so I have been involved in some stuff to help me hone my query letter.  Write on Con, was incredible and I have met some really talented folks who have offered some great advice on my query.  No Ninjas requesting for me but I did notice one view my profile page, LOL. 

Fourthly, the toast is almost consumed.  I am participating in Deana Barnhart's Gearing Up to Get An Agent Blogfest http://deanabarnhart.blogspot.com.au/ from 2 September. It is going to loads of fun.
I have already had a lovely visitor to my comments from Donna L Martin, so I am heading on over to her blog now to say hello. www.donasdays.blogspot.com

And the last piece just went crunch, so I better go.

Take  care Jambo




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Wednesday, 22 August 2012

Gearing Up to Get an Agent Blogfest


Hosted by Deanna Barnhart, head on over to her blog to join in the shennanigans.
http://deanabarnhart.blogspot.com.au/

 Its sounds like a blast and I can't wait to be a part of it. 

Deana Barnhart



Jambo
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Thursday, 19 July 2012

Happy 100th Birthday Beaty

Well folks
Its been a while since I posted, so I better give you an update but first.

Today is my Grandmother Beatrice's 100th birthday and to say the least she is the personification of persistence. Life has never been easy for grandma with her fair share of tragedy, comedy and romance but as she celebrates another birthday it reminds me that she has always given me a great example of that "never give up, never die spirit.'

So, on the subject of never give up, I have been plugging away at my little booky, which is now actually two books with a third one in conception.

The past few months I have been silent on my progress as it was actually getting a bit depressing as I searched for another illustrator for the cover of my book.  About a month ago, I got word from a friend who is an animator who was super keen to start drawing and voila, I have now seen the first sketches of my very first book cover.

As I have detailed in the past, I am going to Indie self publish and I have been mulling over whether that would be a print on demand or an ebook.  Well after much research and many twitterings, I have decided to do a print on demand via create space.  It is an affiliate of Amazon so we will be able to see a real paper back in the not too distant future.

However, I haven't given up the dream of traditional publishing and really with an example like Beatrice, how could I.  I would also love one day to show my little Gigi what believing in yourself and being persistent and hard work can bring. 

So I have been working on what the literary world calls a Query letter.   I am basically sending a short synopsis with the hook of my book to as many literary agents that fit my genre as possible and of course the inevitable rejections have been rolling in.  LOL

However, I recently entered a Query competition on twitter through a couple of gals who have had success with their query's and are now holding publishing deals in their hands.  I wasn't successful in the contest but just reading the query letter that got through has given me new and renewed vigour for my query.  I realised I wasn't putting enough in my query to hook the inevitable agent's attention.

So, there you have it, I am back in the game and am going to keep submitting whist I continue to journey along the path to self publishing.

One wonderful benefit of self publishing is that you can chose your own cover and I am pee pants excited to see the next round of drafts from my illustrator.

Ill be sure to keep you all posted, WATCH THIS SPACE, book cover coming soon........

See you in cyberspace

Jambo
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