I Promise

CapClave is tomorrow. This time I promise to bring a camera. Whenever I go to cons, I always make that promise, but I rarely follow through. I think the last time I brought a camera to a con was a couple or three Balticons ago. When I come back from CapClave, I will post pictures.

I promise.

I also think I'll start doing podcasts and posting them here. I'm doing two next year for Broad Universe, and I've already bought the mic. Personally, I think it's a wonderful idea. Add some content besides my own rantings. Of course, reading from my works technically qualifies as rantings but we'll just leave that minor point aside.

You, of course, will be the guinea pigs. But I promise not to post pictures of my paintings. I do reserve the right to change my mind if I come up with a good one.

Did I tell you I bought a couple of disco balls? No, the real thing. I'm going to hang them in my living room. One's silver, the other gold. Saturday Night Fever, look out! Actually, the reason I bought them is because I wanted to be reminded of what Melera's eyes look like. Hence the gold mirror ball.

Who's Melera? She's the alien star of my book, The Underground.

About that camera--better check the battery before I head out the door...

Gone Fishing

It occurred to me as I was eating my broiled trout that agents and publishers are like fish and we would-be writers are the fishermen. We dangle our query letters in front of them, hoping they'll be interested enough to take the bait. Most of the time they aren't and don't. So the fisherman moves on to other waters, hoping he'll have better luck. When the agent/publisher does bite, now begins the fight to get the fish over the gunwales. Sometimes the fish wins, and the fisherman has to start all over. But each time we get a bite, there's always the hope that we'll reel our fish in. If so, we say we've "landed" an agent or publisher, just as if they were literate marlins.

Today, someone took my bait. Only question is whether I can wrestle him into my boat.

And if you're thinking what I think you're thinking, get your mind out of the gutter.

An Author's Work Is Never Done

Rewrote my query letter because my editor had some suggestions. I think it's a better letter as a result. So I edited all my models (saves time) both for "mainstream" and erotica publishers.

One publisher's entry in Writer's Market said authors who have marketing ideas for their manuscripts have a better chance of getting published. How's this for an idea: swing clubs that have BDSM'rs into science fiction/fantasy, and who don't mind seeing the genres bent. Worth a shot...

And, They're Off!

A couple, anyway. I always try to send the email queries first. The paper ones come later. Lucky for my and other wannabe authors' budgets, email is usually the preferred means of communications. At first I thought the rest were Luddites, but then I realized what better way to weed out those who aren't serious by putting them through all kinds of absurd hoops in hopes that some editor will at least glance at the damned thing before throwing it in the trash? So I hope Edge likes what I sent...

Wish me luck. Again.

How Does She DO That???

Okay. I showed my editor what I'd done. She said I was still trying to cram too much information in my one-liner, and took a "stab" at it, and sent it to me.

It was damned near perfect. And she's only read the first and last sixty pages of the book--just under a third of the ms!

So of course I'm going to use it in my queries. I mean, she cut it down (way down) from what I'd written, so some of the words are mine, right? You know, I really hope this sort of thing comes with practice, because I was ready to tear out what little hair I have left over this.

I almost dread having to come up with a one-liner for Jahannan's Children.

Round Two

Here's a second stab at writing a one-liner for The Underground. Fifty words. Twice as long as the panelist at the RWA conference recommended, but she also said that fifty is okay. Not great, but okay. I'll take it.

This time I left out a whole bunch of stuff because it feels like I'd have to explain rationale, motives, da-da da-da da-da. Melera particularly comes off as a helpless damsel in distress. In distress? Yes. Helpless? Hell, no. But I'm trying to get agent/publisher eyes to at least read my query letter, and since TU is anything but business as usual, I guess boiling it down to its understandable aspects is the only thing to do. And, since TU really belongs to Parker, it only makes sense to make him the actor in this one line cast of characters.

"A werewolf, humiliated by how his mage lover had tricked him into serving a vampire he hates, must prove that the beautiful, amnesiac alien he rescued and then fell for isn't the serial killer stalking the city before civil war erupts between preternaturals and humans over the murders."

I sent it to my editor and asked for her opinion. I'm almost afraid to see what she says.

Bitch Session

Okay, I know you're tired of hearing me whine about computers, but get over it.

Found out that Acrobat 8 may not run on a 64-bit platform. Tech support told me "we've never tested it, but you're welcome to do so yourself." Excuse me? Test a product of yours on my brand new computer? Bitch, you best check yo'self! And then I look on the website and yes, there's an Acrobat 9 that'll support what I have. It's just $449.00 bucks. Not much more than what I paid for 8 a couple of years ago. Not exactly what I'd call a good return on my hard-earned dollars, either.

I've a couple more people to ask about this type of thing too...hopefully, it won't mean that I paid big bucks for apps that are, well, outdated.

*raises fist and whirls it around* Onward and upward in a left-handed spiraling motion...