Unveiling Veiled!

Okay...so that's me, the chicken. You can thank me later for not putting up a picture of a chicken with it's head cut off. But you get it right? I've had chickens before and they pretty much run around cackling aimlessly. In fact I have a pretty funny anecdote about me and my omega 3 chickens...but that's for another time. I actually have a reason, for feeling like this, several really.

Veiled has been approved and will soon be ready to be purchased. The actual release date will be a few days before the release party. All of which will be happening while I'm on vacation. My husband's work is taking us to Hawaii for a week and it falls on the release of my book, so while all of you feel very sorry for me and my dilemma, I am running around trying to get everything squared away!

Snorkel gear, bug spray, sun-tanning lotion, book release announcements, blog tours, book orders, shopping carts (so ya'll can buy the book) ;).

Then there's my son's birthday party, in-laws coming into town, homeschooling, taxes, sports and yes! Cleaning, laundry and all those things that I never seem to get to.

All and all, I can't complain. My book is coming out! So please be a dear and spread the word, tell all your friends, send me a message if you would like to pre-order a book and mark your calendars because on the 14th Amazon will have it available for purchase. Once you read the book, don't forget to leave a review on Amazon.
Reviews are very important, so be kind and give me a good review!
Cluck--cluck!

Super Mom Rocio Wilde. Super Power: The Energy of Ten Women Packed into a Size 0 Petitte

I met Rocio in college, and she’s always been a fireball! So when I recently ran into her at The Heritage Museum,downtown Dallas, I wasn’t surprised to hear that she was still a fireball and still up to too much. She’s a Fashion designer, Interior decorator, Author and Mother of four.

S- Amiga, tell me how it all started.

I've been in the world of fashion and beauty since my pre-teens when I briefly modeled. In junior high, I would run to the grocery store after school to get the latest Vogue magazine. I would tear sheets and make notes of things I would change…how audacious of me! I remember my mom telling me to hurry up in the mornings as I got ready for school...it was a big event!
I would polish my shoes on the weekend, and plan out my outfits with accessories. But in the mornings, I would take time to iron pleats, collars and even my socks! I'm not sure why?...*smile* but it was just fun for me!
I recall waking up in the mornings with fashion ideas twirling in my head and sketching them on paper. I bought my first velvet-covered curling iron at a vintage yard sale when I was about 8 or 9.

I started doing beauty makeovers for friends in junior high, high school and at a department store in college as I studied art and interior design. I loved to sell clothes at retail and helped manage a wholesale jewelry store in downtown Los Angeles.
I received my degree in fashion design and merchandise marketing. I spend a lot of my time working on my business, attending and covering fashion events and parties, interviewing and researching, but I'm a normal, everyday mom.

S-I heard it was a conscious decision after you had kids to get back into these hobbies of yours, is it true?

Yes, it was a conscious decision…. There was a time when I was so busy raising babies that taking a shower felt like a vacation. I had a long to-do list filled with priorities. One day I made the decision to put "myself" back on my priority list. I had to remind myself what my hobbies were. I loved design, fabric and colors. I started designing everything...crafts, a garden, herb-filled wooden frames to sell...I even I designed our home.

S- The big question that all busy moms have is: How? How on earth do you make time to do all that you do?

Keeping a balance between family life and personal interest or a hobby is always a challenge, but it's a priority to me and I try very hard to keep it in constant check. We all have the same 24 hours in a day, but we get to choose how we spend it. It's like any budget, we plan it out first. I believe in making time for self.
Do what makes you feel alive and passionate about life! I'm a writer, a designer, and a business owner, but most importantly I'm a mother. When I spend time with my family I feel fulfilled.

In a business, it's so easy to go overboard because you can always grow your business a little more or network a little more...I have to keep checking myself. In my book, Polka Dot Moms, I go over some basic checks to keep a healthy balance; these are steps I've gathered as I've learned from other moms, leaders and past experience. I used to think I had to be all or nothing...either a great mom with no other life, or completely focused but a terrible mom. Not true! I now know that you can be a great mom and still do the things you enjoy! It really is a balancing act, an act that changes from time to time as we change.
I love what I do, but nothing is better to me than being a mom.

S- Tell us more about your e-magazine and your book.

My new magazine, Happy Vintage Mom was inspired by my book, Polka Dot Moms, as well as my passion for vintage living and vintage fashions. It just launched about a week ago. It's a periodical with new issues each season. However, because it's an online periodical, the articles are published and presented in between issues too.
Circulation is similar to a paper magazine in that there is a targeted audience, but it's much larger because of the internet; obviously we can reach more women within a world presence, but we still have to market ourselves or no one will know we exist.
http://www.happyvintagemom.com http://facebook.com/HappyVintageMom

Make sure you stop by Rocio’s facebook page and Like it, for a chance to win a copy of her book “Polk Dot Moms”.

The Final Countdown

So the proof is in the mail, and Linda Boulanger's finger is suspended over the 'enter' key, that will tell Amazon to list my book in its endless files! One drop more drop in the ocean of published books!

I'm not too worried about the ripple, I'm just happy that it will be out there.
There is no price on a dream coming true, and as it happens there are few words too.

This just goes to prove that it's not in the destination, but the journey that we will find joy.
It has been a joy for me to write. It has been a joy to speculate and chat with my friends. It has been a joy to work with Linda and the TreasureLine crew. It has been a joy to dream and to see that dream take shape.
So now the clock is ticking faster and faster until Veiled makes it's first appearance to the world.
http://treasurelinebooks.blogspot.com/2011/03/introducing-sbniccum-and-veiled.html

Featuring [drum roll] Naomi DeLaTorre!!

Have you ever met someone with whom you think, “Have we been friends in another life?” because the friendship develops so effortlessly and naturally?

That’s how it has been between Naomi and me. I honestly think we were friends in heaven, and a couple of years ago we just picked up where we left off.

What’s great about Naomi is her attitude, she is always happy and encouraging and if she’s ever not; the most she’ll ever say to indicate otherwise is, “I’m not great today.” She has been indispensible in my own journey as a writer; in fact, she’s the one who through her vast networking skills connected me with a publisher. So without further ado, here’s my awesome friend Naomi DeLaTorre.

I grew up in Chicago with my mom, dad and sisters. We have an awesome and mildly crazy family. I went to college in Iowa where I studied English lit, Spanish and dance. I spent my last semester living abroad in Chile. That was one of the best experiences of my entire life. When I came back from Chile, I wasn’t sure what to do with my (not incredibly useful) English lit degree, so I became a secretary and professional salsa dancer.

After a little while, it became clear to me that I might become an ax murderer if I didn’t do something outside of secretarial work. So I applied to grad school to get my MFA in creative writing. At the time, I was writing mainly poetry. I was accepted by the University of Arizona, so I ended up living in the beautiful desert of Tucson for a few years while I got my MFA. The poets in my department were a wild and wacky crew and I also met one of my closest girlfriends while I was there.

I moved to Dallas the next year where I met my husband while we were out salsa dancing. He is an incredible dancer and an amazing person. We hit it off immediately and got married less than a year after we’d met. We have two little boys, Nino and Diego, ages 6 and 3. They are fabulous and full of so much love. I can’t help but be awed by how much I learn from them and from being a mom. I feel blessed each and every day that I’ve been given the opportunity to raise such amazing little people.

You studied Creative Writing in College, what did you imagine yourself doing while in grad. school?

Honestly, I don’t know if I ever really thought through what I would do with either of my degrees. (I think somewhere in my brain I was hoping I would become a famous dancer or writer, but I’m not even sure if I had that plan fully hashed out.) My BA in English lit was a total bomb (as you can see from my subsequent secretarial jobs which caused me to consider killing as a profession—just kidding—maybe), but I was actually surprised by how useful my MFA became. While I was still in grad school, I got a job writing grants for a local arts nonprofit organization, whose mission was to teach creative writing classes to the Native American students in the reservations surrounding Tucson. It was a great organization and I learned fabulous grant writing skills working there. After I moved to Dallas, I continued writing grants when was I was hired by a really awesome children’s hospital to help fund their programs.

What made you want to start blogging after you started a family?

Those who know me well will know that I am mildly neurotic and slightly insane. Anything that I throw myself into becomes a serious obsession if I enjoy it at all. So when I became a parent, it wasn’t any different. I lived, ate and breathed motherhood for several years.

I’m one of those wacky co-sleeping, babywearing, extended breastfeeding, partially homeschooling folk you hear about who will probably have tweenagers in my bed in a few years. But in all seriousness, I love being a mom. It has been an amazing experience for me to have the opportunity to watch my boys grow and learn. I feel so lucky to share every day with them.

I started my blog as a way to get back into writing again. Specifically, I wanted to write a book about the experience of motherhood that didn’t sugar coat everything the way most parenting books do. I wanted to write about the nitty gritty reality of day-to-day life with babies and toddlers. Amazingly, I did manage to land eight literary agents who were interested in working with me. But unfortunately, my agent and I have not been able to sell my book as of yet.

What do you prefer to write, fiction or non-fiction?

I enjoy writing everything from non-fiction to fiction and poetry. My degree is actually in poetry writing, believe it or not. But I am pretty focused on non-fiction right now, mostly because I don’t have a lot of time to write and so I am just sticking with one thing for the moment. Hopefully I can write poetry and fiction again when I’m older and have more time.

How did you choose the topic of your Blog? (Organic Motherhood with Coolwhip)

My parents were card-carrying hippies and so I grew up really aware of healthy eating, eco-friendly living and other progressive ideas. When we started out family, I read a lot about different methods of parenting and became really interested in attachment parenting and natural family living, which both encourage parents to rely on their natural instincts and parent in a way that respects humans as part of nature. I’m really happy I found out about these parenting ideas early on because I have truly enjoyed co-sleeping, babywearing, breastfeeding and even homeschooling for a period of time. I love being integrally involved in my children’s lives and I hope we can remain close and connected for the entirety of our existence here on Earth.

The cool whip part of my blog (and book) title is a metaphor for all the ways we fail as parents. I recently was featured on the awesome site, “World’s Worst Moms.” That was a big honor for me because I think it is so important for us as moms to acknowledge our imperfections. Yes, I try to feed my kids healthy food, but I’m not going to lie and tell you I never go to McDonald’s.

What advice would you give someone who is currently blogging and wants to expand their following?

Honestly, I suck at blogging right now. I was hired as a freelance writer back in July of last year by SheKnows, a fantastic online magazine for women. I am doing a lot of writing and blogging for them right now and my own blog is kind of languishing meanwhile. I hope to get back to it at some point in the future, but right now, I just can’t keep all the balls in the air.

But for those people who have time on their hands, my best advice to expand your blog is social networking. There are so many amazing and incredible bloggers out there. Read their blogs. Comment. Talk to them on Twitter. Connect on Facebook. The entire world is open in cyberspace. During my time blogging, I have had to pleasure of connecting with so many amazing writers. I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful and supportive they have been to me. I only wish I could be more involved right now because I miss everyone, but I know things will get easier as my kids get older and I have more time.

Tell us about your latest venture as a fee-lance writer and how you landed the job.

I feel extremely lucky to have landed the position I have at SheKnows. I think I must have applied at a lucky moment and my application happened to fall into the right hands at the right time. I had applied for a position writing for the Parenting Channel and one of SK’s editors wrote me back and told me that she had forwarded my application to the Parenting editor, but that she had another position she thought I might like. It was the Baby Banter blog position. I applied, was accepted and Baby Lucha was born.

Now I write Baby Lucha’s blog on a daily basis, as well as articles for the Parenting, Health, Food, Pets and other channels at SK. It is a really fun job. Probably the most fun I’ve ever had working before in my life. (Except maybe when I was working as a professional salsa dancer. But that’s another story.)

Share a sample of your writing either from your blog or from Baby Banter. 

I can’t republish my writing at SK, so I will just leave you with a few selections from my work over there and at my own blog:

http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/819751/What-is-Natural-Family-Living

http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/818482/The-Pros-and-Cons-of-Extended-Breastfeeding

http://babybanter.sheknows.com/2010/11/my-socks-are-trying-to-kill-me-and-other-reasons-why-i-want-to-be-a-nudist/

http://babybanter.sheknows.com/2011/01/competitive-meat-sculpting/

The Vagina Chronicles: http://organicmotherhoodwithcoolwhip.com/subBlog.asp?bID=122

Momolympics: http://organicmotherhoodwithcoolwhip.com/subBlog.asp?bID=169

“Steadiness and toil will serve you better than brilliance.” James E. Faust

“Steadiness and toil will serve you better than brilliance.” James E. Faust

I love this quote; I first read it when I was 21. I knew then, what I still know now, that I’m not or ever will be brilliant. But I thought that perhaps I might still have a chance with the other two. And even when steadiness might fail me, I could still toil—and toil is definitely something that I can do.

I hear so many people limit themselves by saying, “I could never do that!” And I know that sometimes there are real limitations that need to be taken into consideration, but for the most part we all have the capability of accomplishing things that are way beyond our expectations.

So it’s in this spirit of accomplishing and achieving, through sheer work and determination that I’d like to start a series of interviews featuring friends that I admire greatly. Amid raising a young family and all the everyday cares, these women have managed to turn hobbies into a career that defines them without changing them or their lives. It hasn’t taken them away from children or family, it hasn’t turned them into millionaires, but it has given them great pleasure and they have achieved that which seemed to be unattainable at first. What I like about these moms is that they are your average women, who live their dreams every day and get the laundry done in between—sometimes. They embody this quote of mine, thought I have to say—I do thing they are brilliant!

So stay tuned for my next blog entry to learn more about Naomi DeLaTorre, blogger, writer, salsa dancer supreme!

Spot Light

Hey, hey!!! stop by Naomi's blog www.organicmotherhoodwithcoolwhip.com and read the spotlight she did on...yours truly.

Queries, Agents and Publishers

I was recently asked about queries and that brought back all kinds of bad memories! Querying agents has got to be every author's worse nightmare. Writers are artists and as such are whimsical not marketers. But we are a large bunch and clog up agent's inboxes and publishers with our creations. So to be able to put out creations out there, we have to polish our business side.

I was lucky in the sense that I went through the process of sending queries with one of my good friends Naomi De la Torre www.organicmotherhoodwithcoolwhip.com

Having a buddy who understands and is ready to hear you rant or watch you bounce off the with excitement is, in my opinion, essential! It keeps you motivated and focused.

Like so many people who are trying to get their book under the right pair of eyes, I did a lot of research on how to write a good query. I wrote and re-wrote it more times than I can count, but in the end I settled on this one.

I'm sharing it now because I loved reading the queries that others were writing, and I found that the most helpful blogs were the ones that had sample queries on them.

With this said I have to add: I don't think my query was particularly good.
In fact I don't really know what a good query is. I read so many queries that I found confusing and uninteresting that had managed to get an agent's attention, that in the end I was led to believe that a lot is hinged on whether the agent's bean burrito was good or not. Or if their skim mocha cappuccino was particularly hot at that moment or not.

So I'm not going to pretend like I can give you any advice, other than...Buena Suerte! and Valla con Dios!

Query for VEILED (draft # 426)

Silvina B. Niccum

My address
My e-mail
My phone #


July 19, 2010

Agent’s Address

Dear Ms. ________:

“I have always existed, not just me but all of us, the un-embodied spirits who wait to live.”

VEILED is the first of a proposed three part fantasy about Tess, and the evolution of her soul. Tess is an unborn spirit, who is about to embark on a much awaited journey into mortality to a brand new planet called Earth. She is chosen by the Eternals for an important mission, and is put under a rigorous training, which exposes her to some of her darkest fears and insecurities. These experiences, however, enhance her gift as a discerner of thoughts and reader of auras—thus helping her become one of Heaven’s most powerful angels.

But even angels falter, and deep inside her a gnawing fear is growing. Will she meet her soul mate in life? Will their love be strong enough to overcome the forgetting effects of the Veil? And, is she prepared to take on the responsibility of keeping the most dangerous renegade and leader of the Fallen Angels at bay during mortality?

In this 107,000 word YA fantasy, the supernatural, the spiritual, mortal, and the out-of-this-world intermingle quite naturally as twelve feet tall Cherubs with feathered wings and half-lion, half-human Seraphs take center stage as the superhero watchdogs of the universe. With a good moral and uplifting message about the never ending quest of finding oneself and that one true love—VEILED will capture the interest of “Ghost Whisperer” fans and C.S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia” readers alike.

I was born and raised in Argentina and at the age of fourteen, my family moved to the United States. I later attended the University of Utah where I studied Spanish Literature. I now live in Dallas, Texas with my husband, and am a proud homeschooling, yoga stretching, treadmill running, 6 a.m. writing mother of three. I am also a member of the Writers’ Guild of Texas.

I appreciate the time you have taken to read my query and would be delighted if you were interested in representing me before a publisher. This is a simultaneous submission. Sample chapters and a full manuscript will be provided upon request. Please feel free to call me at _______ or ____________.

Sincerely,
Silvina B. Niccum