Another One Bites the Dust

Well, I got a rejection from the lovely agent with The Secret Agent Contest. Man, she’s fast! I sent it off on August 25th and she got back to me this morning. It stings, but the pain is less sharp now. I think my skin is getting thicker as I hopefully get closer to the agent who will be mine!

It was a nice letter so I can’t really complain. She didn’t think the conflict came in soon enough. By chapter 5 which is like page 48 is when the first bit of an “attack” happens so I didn’t think that was too far for the conflict. I do build the world, set up the mystery a bit and then it’s “attack”. Maybe I need rethink the beginning, but at the same time, this is the first time I’ve gotten that bit of feedback, so maybe I should just leave it alone.

She also said she felt like Ryan (one of my mc’s) was whiny and self-indulgent-lol. I smiled when I read that because Ryan is a bit self-indulgent when it comes to the female mc because they have known each other all of their lives and he picks with her kind of like a brother, he's over protective of her, and he's secretly in love with her. He is a bit of an a-hole but that’s how I want him—a slight a-hole who has a big heart and would do anything to keep the people he cares about safe. I guess I can’t really do much if some people don’t like him. It’s impossible for everyone to like what you do and who you create. I like him and I made him to be a bit self-indulgent (not whiny) and a bit of an a-hole.

So, back to waiting and writing, and waiting some more ;-)

DOH!

See, this it why you should not sneak and send a query when you should be working! I was reading the query blog today and saw that Andrea Brown Literary has a new associate agent…Mary Kole.

Well, I got all excited reading her bio, so I got out the old query letter, addressed, read it over and just before I sent it, thought, “Hmm, have I queried them already?” I open up my agent list file, search all the names and don’t find a listing for Andrea Brown. I even took it a step further and did a ctrl-F for Andrea and Brown—nothing.

So I thought, cool, gots me another agent to submit to! I get the submission together and click send. The moment I get the auto-confirmation, I’m like, “Um…this looks familiar.” I do a gmail search of my account for @andreabrownlit.com and wouldn’t you know up pops an email to another agent there that I’d sent a query on August 12, 2009!!! WTH? How could that NOT be on my list? My list is iron tight, well organized and highly efficient! Well, obviously not. How could I NOT have them on the freakin list?

What is the number one rule of most agents? DO NOT QUERY MORE THAN ONE AGENT AT A TIME!!!! I’ve never had a problem with this as I can read AND I have relative common sense.

Although this is highly unlikely, but what if they both say, “Hmm, that Karen is a snappy writer and I’d like to see a partial, nay, a full!” –cause I’m sure they talk just like that—
What do I do, blame it on a brain-fart? Blame it on the alcohol? Blame it on the dog?--my invisible dog can so address a letter and email it, but he sucks at research, obviously.

I’m thinking I’ll just have to place them in the reject pile and be done with it. Anyone out there ever do this? If so, how did it turn out?

Edits, Rewrites and More

Okay, so I’ve jumped the gun on starting my edit of the second installment in my Light Bringers trilogy. I was planning to wait until after I’ve finished reading my friends ms and all the books I just checked out of the library. I blame my premature ed-jaculation on my boring job and having far too much down time today. Since I couldn’t outright read my friends ms while at work, I opened Light Bringers 2 which is tentatively entitled, VENATORS.

I finished it on June 20th and can’t believe I actually let it sit for more than 2 months without reading it! I usually have no self control. Now that I’ve gone back to it, I’m falling in love with it all over again. Unfortunately, the beginning is still giving me a fit…as beginnings always do, but I’m going to press on and see how I feel once I’ve gone through it once on the computer, then again in print.

This couldn’t come at a more perfect time, since I’m waiting for the agent to read my full. Granted, I’m not as neurotic as I was the last time I was in this situation. I really got myself worked up and took the rejection pretty hard—I didn’t go out binge drinking or anything—but I was super bummed.

Now, I just feel more excited than nervous, more go-with-the-flow than on edge biting my nails. I guess I’ve just resolved myself to saying, it will happen, so I’ll just have to wait and see who helps me on my journey.

So, I’m off to set my editing aside for the night, watch some tv for an hour and then read more of my friends ms!

It’s Hard Being Anal

I’m doing a slow trickle with this new wave of queries. I’m finding new agents left and right to submit to…and here I thought I’d submitted to all there was out there when I sent out my last batch, but I’ve managed to find about 40 more. And I’m still looking.

The problem, it takes FOREVER!

It’s my own fault. I’ve compiled my list, color coded the agents based on whether they want only a query (pink) or a query with some type of sample or synopsis (light blue).

Well, before an agent/agency makes my list, I have to research them as thoroughly as possible. This isn’t news to any serious writer out there looking to get published.

However, when I get to the point where I’ve opened a new email draft, and I’ve addressed my query letter, I still Google them one last time. I look at their webpage, I read over any post on them on Absolute Write, and then if it’s still all good THEN I submit.

Being anal like this will probably pay off in the end—let’s hope—but man it’s slow! It took me 2 hours to send 4 emails tonight! Lol.

Now, I’m going to lose some brain cells sitting in front of the tv, and eating some orange sherbet. Yummers!

Oh, btw, I submitted my manuscript to the agent from the Secret Agent contest this morning…despite what I said, I did not wait for a shower and coffee. I woke up at 6:15, logged on and sent it! Godspeed…

Holy-crap-ola Batman!

I won the Secret Agent contest on Miss Snark’s First Victim’s blog!

I really can’t believe it, not because I don’t have any confidence in my work, but because this business is SO subjective and you just never know what will work for an agent and what won’t. I think it was just good timing. I had tried to enter the contest a while back when Authoress did it as a lottery and, alas, my number wasn’t called. Then after that, it was either that my genre wasn’t being represented or I missed the submission because I got the email alert late and submissions were closed.

Now I have my fingers, toes and eyes crossed because not only is agent Emmanuelle Alspaugh looking for something with shape-shifters in it (which Light Bringers has) but she’s looking for a werewolf story and I currently have a werewolf WIP.

Okay, I’m jumping a head of myself.

Nevertheless, if things don’t pan out the way I want, she will still be the third agent to read my full and that can’t be a bad thing!

I’m going to submit to her tomorrow because I’m dog tired right now and fear I’ll address it to the wrong person, spell her name wrong, or something just as stupid. So, I’ll send it in the morning after I’ve had my morning shower, and a cup of coffee.

I’ll keep you all posted…wish me luck!

MIA

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve updated. Life has been a bit busy, what with vacation (HOT azz Reno) and just being summer. I think I’ll be back in the swing of things next week. My birthday is Monday, and I plan to go to Boordy Vineyards tomorrow to have some wine, tour the vineyard and relax with friends. The band playing is a British invasion band so I’m thinking Beetles tributes are in my future. Hope they’ll be good, but I’d wager after my third glass of wine, they may be the best darn band in the world.

Some people think this sounds sad, but I’m making my own b-day cake—lol. I’m not really making my own cake. One of my best friends’ birthday is the same day, and she’ll be at the vineyard too, so I’m kinda making it for her. But the real reason I’m making my own cake is because I was watching this show called The Oprah Effect. They featured this cake company called We Take the Cake. Well they have this cake called a key lime cake. It looked so good that I’m going to try to make it! There isn’t a location near me, and I don’t have time to order one from them…besides, I fashion myself a pretty good baker. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

To round off my b-day weekend, some friends and I are heading to Annapolis on Sunday to have brunch at a restaurant called Buddies. They have the best buffet, and I don’t even like buffets! Then we’ll walk by the water and look at all the shops…that is, if it’s not an ungodly rain like it’s been for the past few days.

Now, I’m off to watch a few more episodes of Supernatural, do a fangirl squee over Jensen Ackles, and then head off to bed.

Back to the Drawing Board…

Well, I’ve received a rejection from the last agent who had my full. She gave me some good feedback—some I’ll be taking and some I won’t. I sat on the feedback for a few days. I had to read over the email again with a brain that wasn’t clogged with disappointment and my ears weren’t ringing with sadness, (dramatic, aren’t I?).

I don’t want to be the type of writer who can’t take feedback because lord knows that would be the death of my career, but I also don’t want to be the type of writer who takes everything that someone says to me and runs with it.

Unless I’m truly delusional, I think I have a healthy balance. One of the things this agent said was that I could build the world a bit more. She felt like it was whole in my head but lacked a bit on the page. She was right. I didn’t have to think twice to answer the questions she posed to make my world more substantial. So obviously I had these world building facts fleshed out, but hadn’t put them to work in my story. I sprinkled them into my ms, and hopefully solved that issue.

This next thing she said was what I decided not to take. My story is told in the pov of more than one character. It’s not head-hopping, but as I’m sure you have all read a story that will give you say, the killer’s pov and then the cop, and then the protagonist, this is sort of what I do except I don’t have a killer or a cop-lol. The agent felt that I did myself a disservice by doing this, and maybe I should consider telling the story wholly from the female or male lead character. The majority of the book is told from the male lead’s pov, and I feel like I would lose something crucial to my story if I changed it all to his pov or maybe the female's.

I realized, (when I was through being bummed) that this agent--as much as I love her personality--was probably not the one for me. I know it’s what we all tell ourselves when we're rejected, but if she doesn’t care for something that is actually my style of writing, and something I’ll most likely do in all or most of the books I write, then she would probably have a problem with every one of my manuscripts. Granted, like she said, I might be doing myself a disservice and I guess only time will tell, but I have to be true to what I believe is right for my story, my writing style and my writing career.

And now I have compiled a new list of agents, revamped my query and when I get back from vacation, I’ll get back out there into the big bad world of querying!