Summer Fun!

I knew when Rachel got out of school I could say good-bye to any writing time other than little short spurts.

I hate it when I'm right. Sometimes it is better to be pessimistic and pleasantly surprised than too optimistic and disappointed.

This week I did manage to edit the same eleven pages that I edited last week. I deepened the scene a little, caught a couple of present tense boo-boos, caught an incorrect plural pronoun (they instead of we, since I changed point of view to first person). But it's slow progress. I hope once I progress into the story that it will speed up a little--but I have my doubts. See--there's that pessimistic side of me again.

The first couple of chapters are always the toughest: setting the stage, getting into the character without adding backstory that doesn't add to the story, plus I have to rewrite the first two chapters in a different POV. I had written the first two chapters in the mother's POV, while it can be done for a middle grade book, it really isn't acceptable since the story is about the kid and you are trying to get kids of the same age to relate. Bryn, the mom, is also privvy to certain circumstances that Rhee wouldn't be aware of--financial issues. Her emotions about the death of her husband are very different from the way an eleven year old would think about the death of her father.

So during the first two weeks of summer vacation, we did doctor's appointments, hair appointments (got mine cut yesterday and it's too cute--I NEED to update my photo!), dentist appointments. I planted three flats of impatiens, a flat of verbena, two hanging baskets, four pots for the front porch, swam and played in the pool, helped Rachel with her third grade workbook, etc.

Next week I will get down to the business of editing MOGG. Rachel is at an all day soccer camp so once I dump her off at Tulsa University, the day is mine until I have to fight traffic to pick her up. Until then, I'll plod along with my edits, tweak a query letter to send to Query Shark blog, and get my life tidied up for my writing stint next week.

Oh, and I need to start thinking about a plot for book #2 in my middle grade series.

Write on!

Equery Quandary

Here is a question that I've been asking myself lately, should I equery agents or snail mail them?

Technology is a good thing, but I wonder if the idea that you can sit down and dash off numerous equeries in one sitting can be a bad thing for the serious writer.

Let me explain:

Everybody and his brother thinks he can write. Just like every wannabe on American Idol thinks he can sing, but when he is told by pros that he doesn't have a hope in hell of making it in the biz, he still listens to mom, dad, bro, sis and Great-Aunt Gertie who think he's the next big thang.

Well, you ain't, brother. Listen to the pros and don't give up your day job. Sound familiar?

Think about this if you will. If every yahoo wannabe writer out there in cyberspace equeries every agent who accepts equeries that would increase the amount of queries in an agents inbox by at least a ten-fold, probably more.

Agents already have a job. It's to work for the writers signed in their stable. So if an agent has a busy week those queries pile up in the inbox, AND if said agent doesn't have an auto-reply letting wannabe author know the equery was rec'd, he gets hit again and again. Methinks there is a lot of deleting going on just to clean out the mailbox. And the serious writer gets dumped just as quickly as the yahoo who doesn't have a finished manuscript, or doesn't know how to write, or asks if the 'idea' is good enough to write about, or doesn't have a clue about the genre he's writing in.

As much as I hate the idea of going old school and giving USPS my money, I DO want to give my Leprechaun story a chance. I've exhausted all the agents who accept equeries (I finally got tired of looking at my rejections folder and deleted it all--without documenting who I happened to query--OOPS!), but there are a slew of agents representing fantasy that don't accept equeries I haven't queried via USPS yet.

True, it might be time for me to shove this story under the bed, but I'm not ready to do that yet. I'm giving it another try and will query the last few agents on the list. What will it hurt? Yeah, I could get rejected, but I'm used to that. Who knows? I might actually find my 'dream agent'.

What do you all think? Shove the book under the bed or give it another shot by going old school?

Write on!

Queryland

I've entered queryland again with LC. I think this is my 25th incarnation of the d*mn query, and I think I finally got it right! Too bad I've exhausted virtually all the agents on my mythical list. That's what I get for getting overly excited and querying before I was true to my story and query.
Now, repeat after me: "My fantasy stories do not fit in the romance mold, so stop trying to force them!"
I equeried 7 agents, so far 3 thanks, but no thanks. Two form letters, one semi-personalized.
I don't know about you, but don't you just hate the non-answer is a "no" mentality?
Ciao! Gotta get my 5 pages written.