Car Accidents Involving Ice: What You Should Know

The Midwest is only hours away from getting hit by an ice storm that the weathermen are speculating might be worst on record. I hate ice. HATE. With the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns. The reason being, several years ago I was in a twenty-car pileup on I-40 in St. Louis. This is what happened to my car:

And I ended up in the hospital with thirty staples in my head. Not to mention the resulting back pain and anxiety that I still deal with today anytime I'm on the interstate. It was so chaotic and crazy. Looking back, there was so much I wish I would have known. And, it's because of that, I wanted to pass on my experience in case (God forbid) anyone find themselves in a similar situation.

Don't drive when it's icy out.

Okay, I know this one may not be avoidable. But if you don't have to go out, don't. Your life is worth more than any trip to Walmart.

Seat belt: Wear it.

I would be dead if it weren't for mine.

Drive with your cell phone under your butt/thigh.

This one may seem weird, but for those of you without Onstar (like me), if you get into an accident (especially if you're hurt) you're going to need your phone. I was hurt pretty badly in my accident and had kept my phone in the little dash cubby below the radio. However, after the beating my car took, my cell phone was gone. When you're hurt, the last thing you're going to be able to do is root around your car. If you're driving on ice, keep your phone someplace (I keep mine under my thigh) where it won't be tossed around upon impact. Sitting on your phone will also keep you from using it while driving - added bonus.

If you are able, while you are waiting for the police/ambulance to arrive, locate your valuables.

The EMTs were none too happy with me when, as they were pulling me from my car, I was scrambling for my purse. They yelled at me to leave it, but I'm glad I didn't. Several days after the accident, when I was finally able to locate which junkyard my car had been towed to, imagine my surprise to find that all of my cds, cd player, and everything else of value had been stolen from my car.

While waiting for the police/ambulance to arrive, do not get out of the car.

This one I didn't do. I was too hurt to move. But around me people began getting out of their cars and walking around the wreckage. This proved to be an almost fatal mistake. Not even five minutes after everyone thought the wreck was over, a semi-truck jackknifed and began sliding toward the cars. Luckily, everyone managed to either get out of the way or back inside of their cars before it hit. Bottom line: If you get hit by a semi, it's much safer to get hit inside your car rather than outside of it.

Once the police and/or ambulance arrives (and only if you are able), take LOTS of pictures.

Unfortunately, I was too injured to do this, but boy do I wish I was able to. I had been in stopped traffic when a car slammed into going 50 mph. Then the next twelve cars behind him did the same thing. I was the victim of several reckless drivers, but that didn't stop a woman from trying to sue me two years later for a quarter of a million dollars. Protect yourself. Take pictures of the scene as well as pictures of the license plates of those around you. You never know when that information will come in handy.

Make sure your cargo is tied down.

It's really amazing what goes on inside of a car upon impact. My worst injury came from a dog bed. It was in the back of my station wagon and, upon impact, flew out of the back and basically scalped the back of my head with its plastic leg. I also had a forty pound bag of dog food in the back of the car. When the EMT opened my jacket in the ambulance, at least two pounds of kibble fell out and rolled across the ambulance floor.

And last, but not least, your mom is right: Always wear clean underwear.

Seriously. There I was, bleeding in the ambulance, when the cute EMT asks me about my injuries. Imagine my surprise when, after telling him that my leg hurt, he whips out the biggest pair of scissors I've ever seen. That was the day half the population of St. Louis learned that Hanes really are her way. :) 

Guest Blogger: Michelle McLean on Attitude

Today I have a guest blogger! A lady who I consider one of the the best writer buddies. Not only is she a phenomenal crit partner (seriously, my book wouldn't be getting published if it weren't for her) but she's wonderfully sweet, talented, and hilarious to boot. I'm talking about Michelle McLean! When she offered to do guest post on my blog I jumped at the chance. So, without further ado, I bring you Michelle:

I know you’ve heard it a million times…this business is tough…it’s going to be a long bumpy road…grow thick skin, you’ll need it…and a thousand other variations on the same theme. You know why you’ve heard it so many times? Because it’s true :)

 I’ve learned a lot since my early writing days…both in terms of my craft and in terms of my attitude. I’ve had some incredible highs and some heart-wrenching lows. I’ve danced with joy and been so devastated by a rejection it’s brought me to tears.

The one thing I’ve learned that I try to live every day…it’s all in the attitude.

I can let those setbacks destroy my dream, or I can dry my tears, square my shoulders and get back to it. With a smile on my face and determination in my heart. If you really want something and don’t want to be miserable while trying to get it, there really isn’t any other option.

Forgive the Star Wars quote but that awesome little Yoda man just says it best – "Do, or do not. There is no try."

I understand that it might take a while. I understand that it may not happen for everyone. But if you want the end result, whether it be publication or anything else, it will never happen for you if you don’t press forward. And if you don’t have a good attitude about the journey, you are just going to make everyone, most especially yourself, miserable. Life is just too short for that.

I think this applies to any daunting task. For a lot of students out there, being faced with an essay assignment is little better than a facing a firing squad. But if you want the end result (a passing grade for the course) you’re going to have to square your shoulders and get to it.

But it really doesn’t have to be torture. All you have to do is find something about the assignment you are at least mildly interested in, and take it slowly. One step at a time. It might not be your idea of a good time, but letting your frustration defeat you won’t make life any better.

I figure, "If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance." (Anonymous)

Michelle McLean is a writer and the Chief Editorial Consultant for PixelMags, LLC. In addition to her non-fiction work, Michelle writes YA historical novels and other children’s books. If she's not editing, reading or chasing her kids, she can usually be found in a quiet corner working on her next book.

Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers is a fun, user-

friendly book that guides the reader, step by step, through writing a dozen different types of essays, including the dreaded SAT essay. Using straightforward, plain English, this book shows the reader exactly what they need to do, from start to finish, and includes rough draft, edited, and final draft versions of every type of essay discussed. This book also provides chapters that include tips and instruction on researching, proofreading, and citations.

You can find Michelle on the web here, follow her blog here, catch her at Operation Awesome, or follow her on Facebook! 
 
Her book, Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers can be found at Amazon, Borders, and Barnes & Nobles.  

Poll: Do you find Tweets-to-Facebook Status Cross Posting Annoying?

This is a topic that I'm very interested in hearing what you think. I currently cross post my tweets to Facebook as a time saver, but I don't want to continue doing so if many of you find this practice annoying.

So, in the interest of science, I have created the Cross Posting Poll! Please comment. I'm very interested in what you have to say!

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Eating Puppies

As some of you know, I used to be a professional dog trainer. Not only did I train dogs for the police and military, but I also competed with my dogs in Schutzhund - a German originated sport that is one part obedience, one part tracking, and one part protection. During this time I had owned an amazing German Shepherd female who I named Aridan but the people in my club nicknamed Armageddon. For being so small, she was a vicious bitch (and it's okay to say bitch when you're talking about dogs) but also terribly smart and sweet. Everywhere we went I had people asking if I'd consider breeding her because they wanted a puppy.

So, after careful consideration of the work involved, I decided to breed Aridan not only for Schutzhund, but for the police departments that two of her puppies eventually went to work for. I found her a nice hip-healthy stud and, a little over two months later, we had puppies. But there was a problem. Her labor was long (12 hours), she became overly tired, and there were more puppies than expected (twelve in all).

The first eleven puppies had come out in what looked like dirty water balloons which I tore open and Aridan promptly ate. (Gross, I know.) She then went about licking the puppies until they started breathing, crying, and eventually began eating. Except for the twelvth.

When he came out, I knew there was a problem. His birthing sack was already popped and hung from him like a wet grocery bag. Still, I tore the sack open and held the puppy out to Aridan for inspection. She sniffed him and, to my horror, turned away. I knew this wasn't good. So I scooped all the nasty out of his throat with my pinkie finger and went about rubbing the puppy with a towel in the hopes of getting him to breath - he didn't. In fact, his little tongue began turning blue. Again, I held the puppy up to Aridan and, again, she turned away. My only option left was to perform puppy cpr. (I know what you're thinking and the answer is 'No.' It doesn't involve mouth-to-mouth.) Basically, you squat down with the puppy between your legs (like a football player getting ready to hike a ball) and you swing the puppy up to the sky as fast as you can. Up and down. Over and over again. Until, miracle among miracles, he started breathing.

Ecstatic (and feeling very much like the Dr. House of the dog world), I set the puppy next to Aridan so he could start feeding only, to my dismay, Aridan nudged him away and gave me a look that clearly said, "Will you get this thing away from me?"

I was horrified. How could a mother treat her own puppy that way? Sure, he was smaller than the others. He moved a little differently, slower - and a little twitchy - but he was still her puppy. How could she reject him?

Determined to give the little guy a fighting chance, I set off for the pet store and bought some puppy milk and an eye dropper. When I returned, I tried to feeding him and, while he ate some, he didn't eat enough to make me comfortable. Resolving to make a vet appointment in the morning, I set the puppy among his sleeping brothers and sisters and decided to call it a night.

The next morning, I returned to the puppy pen to find Aridan happily feeding her puppies - all but little number twelve. He was nowhere to be seen. Panicked, my husband and I carefully searched through the blankets, towels, and newspapers we had in the puppy pen. No puppy. Wondering if he somehow got out (not very likely for a puppy who could barely move), we searched the entire room. No puppy.

It was at this point that I, slightly hysterical, called a good friend and dog lover and told her that I'd somehow lost a puppy overnight.

Chuckling, my friend told me that I hadn't, in fact, lost a puppy. That the more likely explanation was, that I had a very sick puppy, a real problem in the animal world, and Aridan had simply 'taken care of' the problem.

I was devastated. Being the anthropomorphic human that I am, I couldn't understand how a mother could eat her own baby - they're so little and helpless. My friend explained to me that that was just the way nature works. That to animals, it is all about survival of the fittest. The weak must be eliminated to make room for the strong to thrive.

Pretty harsh, right?

So why am I telling you all of this? Well, I've been thinking and I've come to the conclusion that publishing is just like my German Shepherd and the puppies are our manuscripts. We fret over our puppies, we breath life into them, do our best to make them strong, and even fall in love with them. But, in the end, none of that matters. The year(s) that you spent writing your novel? Doesn't matter. The passion you bled from your fingertips? Doesn't matter. Maybe the agent didn't connect with your MC's voice. Maybe the publisher already has something on their list that is similar. Whatever the (and believe me, there are a lot) you could wake up one morning, open your email, and discover your puppy has been eaten.

So what can you do? Well, there's only one thing to do. Before sending your puppy off into the world, you have to make sure that it's strong enough to stand on its own. I've often wondered what would have happened if I hadn't put the puppy back in the puppy pen. What if I had a made a separate bed for him away from the others? Would he still be alive? Or did he have an unseen illness? Would he passing have been slower? More painful?

And I've wondered the same thing when I've had manuscripts rejected.  Was there something I could have done differently? Did I send it out too soon? And that's the worst part, the second guessing. It's the second guessing that's toxic - infecting your blood and making you doubt yourself. Because sometimes we just have to let go - to send our puppies out into the world with the understanding that sometimes they will be eaten and sometimes they will thrive.

It's unfair. It's hard. But, just like raising and training dogs, the rewards far outnumber the heartaches. I'll never forget the day I received an email from a police officer telling me how one of my puppies (from the litter that the twelfth puppy was in) saved his life during the riots that took place in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Just like I'll never forget the day my agent called to tell me we had an offer on KATANA. Did that make all of the grief and suffering worth it?

Absolutely.

Come See Me in St. Louis Tomorrow and be DAZZLED!!!

Sorry for the late notice but lately, that's how I roll.

Anyhoo, come see me *dazzling grin* (you're dazzled, admit it), Antony John the recent recipient of the Schneider Family Book Award (he has a British accent - I dare you not to be dazzled), and the fabulous Jody Feldman (who has a pair of purple boots that will dazzle your socks off. Jody also attended a super hero themed wedding over the summer and that makes her my hero.)

But I digress.

Here's the deets: Tomorrow, Tuesday, January 18th at 6PM, the three of us well be presenting a YA books panel at the Buder Branch of the St. Louis Public Library. Per Antony's blog, "We’ll be talking about our own roads to publication, and how we write. But we’ll also be offering advice to emerging authors of all ages, so anyone with aspirations to be a published novelist should definitely come along. It’s free, and we’ll have a lot of information for you."

Antony and Jody will have books available for purchase. And I will have buttons to hand out. Oh yes, you heard me right. Buttons. Behold thy dazzling glory!

Hope to see you there!

The Truth about the Author/Agent Relationship

I know you've seen the posts on twitter:

Author423: OMG I just love my agent @AgentAwesome! She rocks. Not only did she sell my book, but she bakes me brownies, and bathes my dog every Saturday night!!!

Okay, so maybe the tweets don't go exactly like that, but you get the idea. All over the web you'll find tweets and blog posts where authors profess their undying affection for their on-the-surface perfect agent. As unagented authors, we yearn for that perfect relationship. As agented authors, we question the relationship we have with our agent and wonder if the grass is really greener.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that good agents and bad agents don't exist -because they do. And there are plenty of posts out there to let you know when you should fire your agent and look for another one. That's not what my post is about. My post is about whether the problem you think you have is really an agent problem or an expectation problem.

That's why I'm here to dispel the myths. Despite the gushing posts and tweets that would lead you to believe otherwise, as writers, we need the reality check: there is no perfect agent. That mega agent whose blog you follow? Not perfect. The super agent who just made the seven-figure deal? Not perfect. And by not perfect, what I mean is this; There is no agent who will love every single thing you write, never disagree with you, and whose response times are always immediate.

Shock, right? Allow me to continue.

Myth #1: An agent works for you, so they should never disagree with you. And if they do, fire them.

Fact: If you sign with an agent - any agent - at some point in your relationship, you will have a disagreement. This doesn't mean you have an agent problem, though. This could just be a relationship problem.
But, Cole! How can this be? How come we never see the tweets like this:

Author243: @AgentAwesome wants me to shelve my new novel idea. :( :(
-or-
Author243: @AgentAwesome won't sub to @superpublisher because she doesn't think it's a good fit. But I do!!! >:(
-or-
Author24: I sent @AgentAwesome an email this morning and they never emailed me back. WTF!!

Well, you don't see those tweets because they would be unprofessional, but not because they don't happen. Because they do, to EVERYONE. And it's not because AgentAwesome is a "bad" agent. Maybe she knew that Author243's latest novel was not the strongest follow up to her first. Maybe AgentAwesome had lunch with SuperPublisher and they expressed how tired they were of certain plot twists - the same plot twist that Author243 used in her novel. Maybe AgentAwesome didn't immediately email Author243 back because she was in meetings all day and didn't feel like checking her email. Hey, we've all been there, right?

Now, I'll admit, the first time my agent and I disagreed on something, it scared the tar out of me. I thought, "Wait! This isn't supposed to happen. My agent is supposed to love everything I do. That's in the code, right? Because if they don't love this idea, then they don't love my writing, which means they don't like me!!! Wah!!" (Did I mention I can be a bit dramatic?) And this brings me to my next point.

Myth #2: The agent is the publishing professional. Therefor, it would be unwise to disagree with whatever they tell you to do.

Fact: True, a good agent knows the business inside and out. It's their job to make decisions that are in your best interest. But guess what? Like you, an agent is only human. And, like you, they make mistakes.
In the two years that I've been with my agent, I have to give it to him, he really knows what he's doing (but don't tell him I said so, I like to keep him on his toes.) So, more often than not, when we have a disagreement, I relent because, he explains his reasoning and it's something I understand. However, there have been times when I don't agree. I've had this feeling in the pit of my gut telling me, "Cole, you can't give in here. This is something you believe."

So, when you come to a stalemate, what do you do? If you can't see eye-to-eye then is it time to fire your agent?

Not necessarily and I'll tell you why. Besides acquiring new authors, besides selling books, do you know what else agents do? They negotiate. Sounds silly, but this is something I realized just last year. And I don't think I'm the only author to overlook this. When an agent tells an author "no" the urge to jump ship is immediate. And I'm not saying that in certain cases it wouldn't be warranted, but what I am saying is, before you do, talk to your agent. Discuss their reasons for disagreeing with you and your reasons for disagreeing with them. And if you still don't agree, try negotiating. You're agent already knows how to do it, after all.

So, how does this negotiating work, you ask? Well, if your agent doesn't like your WIP maybe you can agree to shelve it until after you sell something else. If your agent doesn't like the ending of your book write two endings and then decide which one is better.

My point is this, just because an agent disagrees with you, that doesn't make them a bad agent. Likewise, you don't have to (and probably won't) agree with everything they say, either. This doesn't mean that the two of you can't work together - because you can as long as you keep the lines of communication (and possibly negotiation) open.

All it means is that you have the same relationship that everyone else has with their agent. I know, gasp, right?

Happy New Year!!!

You guys, I am so pumped for this year. Exciting things are happening. Exciting, I tell you! I'm looking forward to a year of awesome book giveaways, interviews, and contests. All in preparation of my 2012 book debut.

And speaking of 2012 - I'd love to introduce you to another blog I contribute to: The Apocalypsies! This is where you'll find a list of 2012 children's author debut writers. Join us as we interview the Elevensies, keep you updated on our book news and covers, and count down to 2012!