This picture has nothing to do with this entry. I am just vain. And pale.

So! Good things are happening! Query-related things! There was a time when I would be gushing all over the internet about it, but right now I feel like biting my tongue and biding my time. After all, there’s no real news yet. And don’t worry–I’ll let you know when there is!

My schedule for the next month looks approximately like this:

• Attend one of my college BFFs “Beerlympics”/birthday bashes.
• Visit in-laws.
• Be visited by in-laws.
• Finish/edit/format short story for BEA giveaway.
• Attend BEA.
• Visit New Paltz and find a place to live.
• Complete about 15 hours of training at work.
• Work something like 10 shifts.
• MOVE.
• Continue to read and review 1.5 books a week, to reach my year’s goal of 60 books. Because, why not arbitrary goals?!
• Do that writing-thing.
• Stay awesome.

SO. In light of all that, through June my blogging my be . . . irregular. I’m not going to say this is a leave of absence or anything like that (after all, I have a conference to chat about, and reviews to write). Just that my usual pace of 2-3 posts a week might not quite be feasible unless I have pharmaceutical help or want to risk having my head explode. Or both!

(Don’t do drugs, kids.)

In the meantime, Gentle Reader, you should stop by the following blogs. They have all far smarter things to say than I do lately:

• Steph Sinkhorn’s Blog
• The Book Lantern
• Lady Business

Lately I am totally into:

• Sweaters with shorts!
• Sparkly nail polish!
• Blue-green streaks in my hair!

Lately I have been:

• Totes obsessive about Doctor Who
• Tumblin!
• Beta-ing and being beta’d. You know, it’s really hard to verb those nouns.
• Working! On work! Also on two new projects! One of them is co-written. Interrobang Sean is awesome, by the way. In case you forgot.

Soon I will be:

• Querying! And by “soon,” I mean, “this week”! Gulp!
• Moving! Yes, again! Looks like the husband and I will probably end up in New Paltz, New York! Goodbye, Virginia. You may be for lovers but you weren’t for me.
• Going to BEA! Oh my God, guys–what am I doing?! I’m so shy and I suck at conferences! Anyone have good tips? And who is going to be there? I want to meet you and giggle lots! I will even give you my shiny business card, which includes a secret link to a free short story on it! Assuming I can write it in time! Let’s hope!

Evening everybody.

I’ve calmed down a bit since yesterday. See? Part of it (a Large and Significant part?) is exhaustion. Over the past twenty-four hours or so, I took my manuscript through Round 1 of a serious thrashing editing. It’s now with betas (hi, guys), and I’ve promised myself not to touch it for at least a few days. Meanwhile, my dear, dear husband took me out for drinks and dinner to celebrate tonight. I ate fish and chips and ate a drink that was blue as pool water, in honor of my merman. Dear, dear husband is now sleeping on the sofa beside me, “watching” Shark Week, leaving me to contemplate my query letter.

Ah, query letters.

I don’t hate query letters, not quite–that honor is reserved for synposi. I just suspect that I’m not very good at them, at least not for queries on my own projects. My first draft of my query letter for THE STONER SORTER netted me one request–it wasn’t until my sixth version, written just before I gave up on the project, that I’d started to generate some interest.

So I figure that, what with my deep and abiding love for SEAS RUN DRY (have I mentioned to you guys that I love this book? Really–I love this book), I should start this thing off right. With a query letter that shines. And because I’m not very good at this, I figured that it can’t hurt to ask THE INTERNETZ for a hand.

Hi, INTERNETZ!

So what follows is the draft of my query letter for SEAS RUN DRY. It’s cliche. It’s bland. It’s a little too long. The writing feels flat. It needs your help.

Please, tear it apart–either in the comments or via email (phoebe@phoebenorth.com). Be harsh. Be ruthless. If you need more information, ask away. But, please, please, save my merman from drowning?

Dear Agent:

Mermaids. Sirens. Undines. Whatever you want to call them, seventeen-year-old Loril was raised by the people of the water. But though he was born in the sea, he’s not fully of it. As the son of a human man and a mermaid, Loril is a Walker, able to travel between two worlds, growing legs on the shore and a tail under the waves. But as he nears adulthood, shifting becomes increasingly painful. Soon he’ll have to choose between a bleak life with his dying pod and the alien world of a father he’s never even met.

Eighteen-year-old Irene Cleveland also faces a choice. Wild and impetuous, the shore where her family spends their summers has always spoken to her—or sang. Now, as the bassist for a Bon Jovi cover band, she’s spent most of this final Jersey summer playing gigs at boardwalk bars. But August is simmering to a close, and she’s supposed to give it all up soon to chase her mother’s dream: a scholarship to a prestigious art school in the city. What her mother doesn’t know is that Irene’s been considering ditching college completely so she can stay in the sandy, seamy boardwalk town she loves.

But then she meets Loril—lost among mankind as he searches for his dad—and her choice becomes a little more complicated.

Over the course of one tumultuous week, Irene helps Loril find his father and learn what it means to be human. She also begins to fall for him, hard. And the better he gets to know Irene and her world, the more his own choice becomes clear. Until tragedy strikes, threatening to separate the two teenagers forever.

SEAS RUN DRY, complete at 74,000 words, is a YA paranormal romance. Its vivid setting and relatable teen characters make it a great beach read for fans of Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver. I have attached the first ten pages for your perusal.

As for myself, I am a New Jersey native who graduated in 2009 from the University of Florida’s MFA program. I maintain a professional website at phoebenorth.com, blog about my life and writing at phoebeeating.com, and proofread for the speculative fiction magazine Strange Horizons. I can be reached at any time at (xxx)xxx-xxxx, or at phoebe@phoebenorth.com.

Thank you for your time and consideration!

Oh my God, guys!

I have been incredibly busy!

As you know, I recently moved. And so we’ve been getting settled, constructing Swedish furniture, reducing the number of cardboard boxes that surround us.

And, on top of that, I’ve been writing!

In fact, I finished the first draft of SEAS RUN DRY! (Final word count, 74,000 and change. Final word? “Water.” Amount of coffee I have recently consumed? Tons!)

I figured that I should use this small stretch of unemployment to good use. And rumor has it that a certain rockstar agent is still looking for mermaid books. So I’m marching forward! Spending lots and lots of time at my computer. Writing first, editing now.

And you know what? It’s going well. It’s going really well. I feel so much happier with this manuscript, as a draft, then I have with my other, previous, shelved/trunked books. I think I’m learning. What a novel concept!

I’m going to be sending this draft to some people for quick-and-dirty betaing soon, hopefully in the next day or so, but definitely by the end of this week. Tee and Jaimie and Michele and probably Pat (and maybe Elizabeth?) are already on my list. If you think you might be down for a read-through and feedback session, let me know. I’m happy to share, and have time to crit other work right now, too. So get in touch! E-mail’s in the sidebar.

Anyway, it’s Tuesday. You know what that means! I’ve found a sliver of SEAS RUN DRY that I can share without significant spoilers. Even better, it relates to a few of my central themes: choice, and parents. Namely, how parents have the potential to fuck you up, Phil Larkin style. Though in this excerpt, they’re not all bad. Irene’s dad is trying, at least.

(Teaser removed)

Stay tuned tomorrow for Qwery Qwednesday.