Find where you fit...

Have you ever wondered in a moment of frustration, "Where the heck DO I fit in the publishing world?"
There's a funny little quiz thing online that you can answer and it will tell you what your genre is. I don't think it's very accurate.
Here's the thing, I've been trying to figure this out for months. I'm not horror, not fantasy, not YA, not adult, not... anything?
That should have been my clue. I wasn't narrowed down enough in my scope. But mainly I needed to find books like mine. I need to read books like mine. But I kept picking up books that just made me cring! Wrong genre, wrong audience. Then someone told me where to look. THANK YOU!
The funny thing is, I thought no one was publishing what I wrote... come to find out Vampires are still hot. Weird.
So where do you fit? And how did you figure it out? Did you start with it in mind or did you have to go searching?

The Value of a Good Critique

Nothing is ever less useful (or less honest) than a "I loved it" critique. It never makes me feel good, it makes me feel like they aren't taking it seriously.
Nothing hurts more (ok well maybe there are somethings more painful... like getting your head cut open) than a brutal critique that sees no promise, no value, and only points out how much your work sucks.
Oh but the beauty of the sandwich concept. Something positive, something useful, something positive. I love these critiques!
Something I have just experienced that I love even more. A critique that values what you've done, but sees how you can go higher and shows you a glimpse. A critique that instead of leaving you cradling your manuscript and wailing it's loss, makes you see it for the stepping stone it was and you leave it sitting because your creative juices are flowing and nothing died. Suddenly you see the critique as a chrysalis and not a grave.
Thank you to my favorite colleague for her insight. I hope to prove worthy of her faith.

Update

Things have slown down. I seem to be going in waves. If I can keep from checking blogs and facebook every five minutes I tend to get somewhere.
What's your distraction?

How do you write in the Summer time?

When all the world is green?

Do you run around like mad to activity after activity scribbling on napkins?
Or do you take your note book and disappear near a brook to feel the inspiration fly?
If that's what you do...
I wish I did to.

Seriously, what do you do to keep writing during this season of business and beauty?