Kalayna Price

I went to the library today to pick up some books on writing. Over the years I have read most of what my local library carries on the craft of writing, but I have convinced myself that I don’t know anything about telling a story, so I went looking for something new. While browsing the shelves I spotted some books on knitting. A friend taught me two stitches back in college, but I only ever use one of them. Don’t ask if it is a purl stitch or a knit stitch because I don’t actually know the difference. I also can’t read a pattern (or most maps, though I can navigate cross country with an atlas, go figure.) I knit hats and scarves because that is all I know how to do and the repetitive movements are very zen for me. Knitting also gives my hands something to do while my stories sporadically play out behind my eyes. I knit a lot when I get writer’s block because it takes the pressure of the keyboard away and lets me work through things. I don’t have writer’s block right now, but my nerves c...

"The waiting is the hardest part." I've heard it all my life, but I don't think I ever really understood until now. I'm not a patient person. I can be, and I try real hard, but I always end up adding the spaghetti noodles before the water boils. That's the way I am. Now I am stuck in a position where all I can do is wait. What am I waiting for? My agent to call and tell me someone wants my novel (or doesn't want it and she needs more copies,) to find out if my painting will make it into the show, and for the guy who interviewed my husband the other day to call and offer him the job. The painting has a date at least. I will know on the second. The other two are up in the air so they're harder to deal with. It fills me with all this nervous energy, which if I could figure out how to harness and use constructively probably wouldn't be that bad. (Who couldn't use a little extra energy.) But no, nervous energy makes me act a little ADD, always jum...

I am having an issue today, I want to edit DH and I'm not sure if I should or not. Holly has four copies of the manuscript out with editors already, so if I do change anything and one of the editors wants my novel, I will probably have to change it back. (I know there will be edits after the editor picks it up, but I'm not sure what to expect with that or how open the editing will be on my end.) If none of these editors bite, having a tweaked manuscript might be a good thing. I don't know, and I don't even know who I can ask. I suppose I could ask Holly, but I don't want to 1.) bother her, 2.) sound like an idiot, or 3.) make it appear I sent her the manuscript before it was ready. Three weeks ago I was pretty sure it was ready. Now I can think of places that could be better. (I haven't let myself read over it because I knew that would incite another edit. If I ever do get to see this thing in print, I will probably have to continuously buy new copies because mi...

I have become a compulsive email checker in the last few weeks. I didn't use to be this way. In fact, until two weeks ago I had to remind myself to check it, or I would end up going several days without opening Outlook. What changed? My agent contacts me by email. So now I hit send/receive at least four times a day, and with my schedule that is really ridiculous because she is only likely to write me between 9 and 5. But at midnight I still can't resist hitting the button and seeing if something new slips into my box. I foresee this growing into a really bad habit. I noticed something interesting recently. I subscribe to Writer's Digest because, well, I write, so it seems the thing to do. In the last few months they have been sending me renewal slips saying I can get 2 years for 1 low price...2 years (12 issues) for only $29.96 as opposed to 1 year (6 issues) for $19.96. The thing I'm confused about is that the little postcard ads that fall out of the magazine claim tha...

Since the fantasy worlds I write are not reality, I have to accept that all living things have to die. Sometimes it's shocking and sometimes it's merciful, but it is always painful. I woke up today to find my Beta floating upside down in his bowl. Yesterday I thought he had looked a little sick, and I guess I was right. He was around two years old, and I don't know what the average lifespan for a Beta is, but that sounds like a long time for a fish sold for two dollars in a plastic cup. I think my fish had a good life: he had a pretty bowl, was fed regularly, and liked to swim over and look at people. Max was my mother-in-law's beagle. He was old and had been sick for a long time, but he was a sweet little dog. I got the call a couple hours ago to let me know that she had taken him to be put down. It wasn't that surprising, she had tried to take him a few times before, but always turned around before she got to the vet. It is still sad though. Rest in peace fish and...

I look forward to the fair every year. I mean, what's not to love about the fair? You get to eat fried foods that you would never even consider ingesting any other time of the year, there are cheesy haunted houses, festival music by small bands no one has ever heard of, and rides that are scary only because you wonder how precariously they were set up. But that's what makes it fun. It also is the harbinger of Fall (no matter what the calendar says, it's not Fall until the fair gets here, and it's still fall even if it's 101 degrees and all the trees are still green.) In recent years the fair has started meaning something else to me as well, Art Show. I'm not active in the art community, but I do try to enter a painting or two each year. Now that I am out of school and have no deadlines on painting, motivation to work on them wanes greatly most of the time. Knowing that I need new works to enter in the fair is a good push for me. With less than a week left before...

Doubt is one of the banes of my existence.I have been working on building my webpage tonight, but I have been sitting here staring at my screen completely at loss for at least twenty minutes now. Why? Because I am trying to write up a blurb on my book. I have written two synopsizes, several summaries, and even have a short blurb posted on Myspace, but I hate all of them. How can it be so hard to describe something that I, myself, wrote? I have worked in bookstores for years, and I quickly pitch books to customers all the time, but I can't even write an enticing blurb about my own book. The only thing that comes to mind is that the plot must be flaky. See there's that nasty doubt raring its head. My readers liked it, but we all know that doesn't count for much. My agent likes it. That actually matters, and is something I should keep in mind. But still the dark tinge of doubt clings to me. It could be that I'm too close to the novel. It's not that I have nothing to sa...

First blog entries are always strange. My name is Kalayna-Nicole Price and I am currently a writer working on becoming an author. In preparation of things to come (or really things I hope will happen) I am setting up a blog. Sounds presumptuous, huh? *sigh* Earlier this week, well late Friday really, I was contacted by Holly McClure with Sullivan Maxx Literary Agency. But I guess that's not the beginning of the story (hopefully it's the middle or maybe the middle of the beginning.) Okay, several months ago I signed up for a five page manuscript review at a conference. It was my first conference and I'll be honest, I wasn't too sure what to expect but I took my newly completed manuscript and showed up all bright eyed and hopeful of getting good advice. I don't know why I was expecting something like a critique group, my only comfort was that there were others who thought the same thing. Holly was the agent present, and while she gave everyone good advice as a whole ...