Whitewashing Wicker

My boys and I love the library. We typically raid something off every shelf while we're there. Non-fiction, fantasy, audiobook, you name it. Unfortunately those items easily scatter all over my house, and whenever I put them on my bookshelf they always looked cluttered. While I was at a yard-sale one week, I found this nifty piece of wicker.

It was a bout 2 x 1 feet, and had a reinforced lid. I loved the idea of having a covered place to put all the mix-matched titles. Plus it was only $4.00, so it was an easy yes. I brought it home and found the perfect spot to put it next to my bookshelves. The shelves are whitewashed from IKEA, and I absolute love them (Staging them is still a work in progress). So, as I was sitting there, admiring my clutter solution, I thought "I bet I could whitewash that". I looked up a great little video on how to clean and whitewash wicker.

I purchased a paintbrush and Minwax Wood Stain Whitewash Pickling and got to work.
(Click on the picture to be directed to an Amazon description.)

It only took me about two hours total and the project was finished! Now I absolutely love my library basket. I love the way the wood still shows through the whitewash, giving it warm undertones. It's also not a flat white, there are different hues of the whicker showing through. It's one of my favorite small decor pieces!  

It makes the area next to my selves so clean, cohesive, and bright. I love it. If you decide to try it out, let me know how your whitewash projects go in the comments below!

Pitching

Every year, there is this amazing conference I like to attend called Life, the Universe, Everything (LTUE) in Provo, Utah. While I was there, I signed up for two separate pitch sessions. One was with a publisher, and one was with an agent. It was exciting, stressful, rewarding, educational... Everything I hoped it would be. I did a lot of research before pitching, and thought I'd share some of the main points I discovered.

First off, there are basically three different kinds of pitches:

1st: The Elevator Pitch

2nd: A Conference Pitch

3rd: A Query Letter.

All three of these are different forms of presenting your book, but at the heart of all three of them is the same question... What is your story about?

You would think that answering this question would be easy, but the truth is, learning to narrow down my novel to a few key sentences was write a query was almost as hard as writing the entire novel.

First of all let's talk about how each of these pitches should look.

An elevator pitch is one sentence to hook your audience and make them ask questions.

A conference pitch is what you would say after that hooking sentence. You follow up with about a paragraph worth of storytelling that captivates your audience even more and makes them want to read the book.

A query letter is the above two pitches, but lengthened to about two paragraphs. This can be more of a summary of your book, but should absolutely draw your audience in. This summary is followed by a paragraph describing the genre, word count, title, and comparable titles, then another paragraph of your personal biography and qualifications.

Something my writers group did to help us become more confident about pitching, was we made shirts with the following on the back.

Rachel Huffmire

Ask me about "Granted".

This was super helpful, because people continually asked me about my book, in the hall, before class started, at lunch. I had so many opportunities to practice. I would start with the elevator pitch, and if they showed interest, I would continue with the conference version. By the time I was ready to pitch to agents and editors, I had already had plenty of run-throughs to get my jitters out. Plus, I made some excellent friends and we beta read for each other.

All in all, my recommendations are, if your novel is ready to query, try pitching. It is a great way to meet people and a better way to get your foot in the door. When I pitched to the publishing house, they requested a full manuscript and asked about my other work. They even invited me down to their office to take a private tour and let me sign my name on their wall. Because I put myself out there last year, I had an opportunity to "level up" in my understanding of the publishing world. It was a great experience. If you have a pitch, leave a comment! Practice pitching here. I'd love to see what you're working on!