Hi! I'm the New Maven
I couldn't be more excited to be the newest addition to the Maven family. Clearly, I've been trying to wheedle my way in here by being a guest maven time and again :) As the newest Maven, I thought I'd take the chance to introduce myself a bit.I started writing seriously in 2000 after graduating from Williams College (home of the purple cows). After shelving two manuscripts, I decided to take time off so I could get the kind of hip urban life that would allow me to write chick-lit books (ha!). During that time, I went to law school, fell in love, and chick-lit books evolved so that they no longer had to be set in a big city (d'oh!). After graduating from Duke Law School and starting day jobs, my boyfriend, JP (a fantastic speculative fiction short story writer and trial lawyer) and I decided to start taking our writing seriously again.
That was just under two years ago. In September I signed with Jim McCarthy at Dystel & Goderich and about a month ago I sold my post-apocalypse young adult book -- The Forest of Hands and Teeth -- to Delacorte in a two book deal! I'm still in squee mode, even after handing in my first round of edits yesterday!!
I'd love to say I have this amazing and interesting life outside of writing, b
ut unfortunately I just don't have the time! I'm a full time lawyer with a big firm, working in their Trusts and Estates department (before that I litigated for two years). Now that fire season has started, I love nothing more than to curl up in front of the fire with JP and a glass of wine and play the "what if" game.
ut unfortunately I just don't have the time! I'm a full time lawyer with a big firm, working in their Trusts and Estates department (before that I litigated for two years). Now that fire season has started, I love nothing more than to curl up in front of the fire with JP and a glass of wine and play the "what if" game.Oh, and because every writer has a cat, here's one of mine.
Your turn: Any questions for the new maven? Any of you want to share something about yourselves? What you love to do in your free time?
Your turn: Any questions for the new maven? Any of you want to share something about yourselves? What you love to do in your free time?
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18 comments:
Yay, Carrie!!!! xoxoxo
And super-squee on turning your edits in--yet another ginormous milestone!
Any questions for the new maven?
What is your cat's name?
Is the idea of writing chick-lit gone forever?
Did you get a hip urban life? ;)
Ha!! You crack me up, Erica! My cat's name is Sam. I never did get the hip urban life (Durham, NC not being known for being hip). And I don't know if the idea of chick-lit is gone forever. Right now I LOVE writing YA, so if I were to get back into chick-lit it would probably be YA. But it's sooooo different from my current voice (as you know!) and I think would really throw off my readers.
Who knows?!
Welcome Carrie! You look great in a blue TV! Purple cows? Seriously? Maven Erica and Maven Lacey and I were discussing the unbad-assedness of Oregon's state school mascots (Ducks and Beavers) and Miami's NFL team (Dolphins), but purple cows?
Congats on getting your edits in. I can't wait to read your book!
I love me some wine too, what do you drink? Mr. Burke happens to be a litigator and has started several books. I think I've inspired him to try again. In his spare time (of which he has precious little since he operates his own law firm), of course.
So excited to have you on board!!
Nice intro! Cute cat! And mega-congratulations on widening the circle of the Mavens!!
I was going to offer a poem on purple cows, but I think it's been done already. :-(
*Bill goes off to look for another poetry subject*
Hi Carrie! I'm just a roving commenter, and frequently hold up the end of the bar here. (Someone somewhere should be shouting "Norm!" at this point.)
From the sounds of it, you'll fit right in with these wonderful gals.
Hey Darcy? I think Minnesota's Golden Gophers beat out the Beavers and the Ducks for least scary mascot. Ducks can be mean, and Beavers can be destructive, but Gophers? What? They'll nibble you to death? LOL
Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading posts, Carrie. Enjoy the Mavens. They're a hoot.
Me again, Carrie - you need to get Erica to update the MM link to include your name...it only lists the original four as of now.
(Type "Manuscript Mavens" in Yahoo! or Google and you'll see what I mean.)
Speaking of Google, does membership in the Mavens come with stock options? You know, what Herman Melville called the "joint-stock company" of the human race? Or in this case the Maven race?
Here's how it would work:
Basically, the Mavens issue themselves 51% of the stock at a penny per share. Then they do a much-hyped IPO to the public to give others a chance to share in their fabulous literary wealth.
(I mean, just imagine if you could buy stock in Shakespeare, or Ian Fleming, or J. K. Rowling - think of the residuals from all the reprints and movies and performances!)
Anyhoo, eventually MM stock would go through the roof, and thus play a key part in financing Erica's plan for world domination. And even the lowly investors who bought in early would be able to set up foundations for deserving writers and artists. Yay!!
*Bill goes off to count his future Maven millions*
Thanks for the warm welcome, y'all!
Darcy, we drink just about anything :) In winter it's usually a red: often a zin or a blend. And yes, Williams's mascot is the purple cow. I was a cyclist and our jerseys were tight white shirts with purple cow spots (better than the cross country skiers who wore all white skin suits with purple cow spots -- we really stood out!!)
A poem from Bill? I know I've made it when Bill offers up a poem! And I tried that stock thing with law school, offering my family to purchase stock in my education. None of them went for it. They should have, with the current salary bumps across the country they'd have done well!
Roving commenter - lol, you crack me up b.e.!
Carrie, my goodness! You're one super talented super hardworking person. Welcome to the Mavens. And many, many congratulations on getting agented and making your first sale.
So, when's the debut? Early 2009?
Congrats! For hitting the trifecta -- Agent -- Book Deal -- and Mavenhood.
Carrie, welcome to the Maven's. You couldn't be in a better place.
I can't wait to read your book. :)
So, when do you write? With your work load at the day job do you still come home and write in the evenings or do you do most of it on the weekends?
Love the pic of Sam the cat. :) Although I'm a writer I don't have a cat but two dogs. Who like to curl up next to me or at least very near me when I write. That counts, right?
Oh, and will you be able to make it to the TARA Christmas party???
Congrats on getting your edits in, and welcome to the group!
Travis, your Mavenhood comment threw me off. I was trying to figure out why you'd congratulate her on maidenhood and then trying to figure out how you would know, given that we just discovered Carrie's SO's name is JP...
Welcome to the site! Yes, I suppose this is exactly the kind of misplaced curiosity you should learn to expect :-)
Thanks Keira! Right now we're looking at a Spring 2009 release and I thought that would mean around May. But I was flipping through their catalog the other day and their Spring seems to be December-March! So sooner than I'd thought which is way exciting!
Travis - you crack me up with the trifecta!
Vicki - time to write... I just don't do much else :) Often if I get home before 7 on the weeknights I'll write for a bit instead of watching TV and I try to write in big chunks over the weekend. For me, the busier I am, the more I get done. Plus, I'm a pretty fast writer when I'm actually writing (which I need to start doing now!!) It *really* helps that JP is a writer too because he's on the couch next to me pecking away on his stories and we're almost always talking writing when we take walks.
Unfortunately, won't be at the TARA X-mas party -- I booked a trip to Belize before I knew the date for it (talk about getting some writing done!)
Hey, Norm! Er, B.E.! Golden Gophers?! That's like the Mighty Squirrels or something! Although, Maven Erica might argue about squirrels' capacity for evil.
Welcome to the Mavenhood, Carrie! It's so exciting to have you join us, hip urban life or no. (A book deal's much hipper than an urban life, anyway :>.)
And I think Bill is onto something with the IPO. Can we list on NASDAQ, do you think? I mean, we ARE an Internet presence, right?
Hi Carrie! Welcome to the site. It's a great place to be.
Congratulations on your book deal as well. I can't wait to read it. I read the bit of synopsis on your site and it sounds cool.
*Marnee, a consummate historical reader, scratches head in realization that she is really getting in this fantasy 'stuff'*
There ya go, Carrie -- that's some fabulous ROI for your first day!
congratulations on getting agented and making your first sale; Carrie, welcome to the Mavens.
Sam looks a lot like my Manny - is your cat Australian, by any chance?
Except that my cat sleeps stretched out right now because the weather's heating up, and summer officially starts on December 1 - though Melbourne weather is acting like it's summer already. Nasty...
Have a lovely day! :-)
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