So. What do Agents Feels About Queries?

Several blogs back, I mentioned Janet Reid's formula for a good query ... ie. one that might give her a positive attitude when she reads your sample ... provided your query lures her on. A query that's low on description and high on action.

I was trying to use her formula for my new query for "Dark Solstice", using Linden as the focus rather than Mariah. So, I had been thinking about queries a lot before NaNoWriMo, trying to get away from describing feelings to show action. Still, I've talked to several people who think writing queries is a waste of time, too hard, or ????? Since self-publishing is so easy, they say, I should just go that route.

Jessica Faust gives an agents viewpoint on why a query is important in her Bookends Blog: The Archaic Query. She considers it just another craft skill which writers have to master. The upside? It allows agents, and probably publishers, to work through their submissions faster.

While we're thinking about queries, agent Rachelle Gardner wrote a blog on interpreting "agent euphenisms": Decoding Query Rejections. What I found interesting: she linked to Janet Reid's Query Shark as a place where writer's can get a specific reaction to their query -- if their query is lucky enough to be chosen. Though I should warn you Janet Reid isn't as nice as Rachelle Gardner.

Then, there's the other end of the process, getting some publicity for your book -- whether traditionally or self-published. The Passive Guy gives some good tips on using Good Reads to reach a targeted market of readers. He makes such a good argument that I may have to go back and visit the site regularly in addition to Facebook and Twitter. After NaNoWriMo, of course.

How am I doing with NaNoWritMo?

I'm behind, of course, but not by much. Sunday threw me off my count when I went to Denver, and I was short yesterday too. Still, I've discovered a completely undreamed of character who is central to the mid-story conflict that launches my main character into deep doo-doo, only I don't know what she's going to do to get out of the mess her contentious attitude gets her into.

PS: Got a good laugh when I discovered all my typos after I published an except of "Combine Mythos" yesterday.  Oh, I'm also thinking of calling the story "Combine Blues".

Hopping from Book to Book

The Read ...

I like to give new authors a try.  This time I bombed out ... on a recent grocery story buy.   Paid full price which stabbed a cheapskate's heart.  Did read a couple pages before I bought the unknown author.  The first chapter was nice, if slow.  The concept of a runty, near-sighted goblin was appealing ... but the next three chapters bogged me down.  On the second day of reading ... when I found myself rereading similar dialog on the part of the adventurers who captured the goblin, I gave up.  

A lot of people, though, must have liked the book since it had a couple sequels.  Maybe they were desperate for a new supernatural being?  Or, is that paranormal now?  Maybe someone will be happy to find it used.

Jumped into Christine Feehan's Dark Slayer, the umpteenth book in her Carpathian series.  You have to admire any writer who can keep three different series front and center on the bookshelves.  Must admit the middle ones didn't grab my interest much.  You can only take so many hunky Carpathians forcing their attentions on their newly discovered "life mates".  Granted the stakes are high.  The nocturnal Carpathians turn into particularly nasty vampires when they don't find their one [and only] true love.

Then, Feehan put the villain she'd hinted at in previous books front and center.  The books now have a cagey and powerful nemesis to defeat.  Result.  More exciting books.  For example in the first chapter, tons of back story about Carpathians is incorporated into a fight with a powerful vampire.  At the end of the chapter, the MC discovers the sprawled body of her life mate, "the curse of all Carpathian women", sprawled in the snow as the sun is close to rising, and she needs to seek her lair.

In the second chapter, she saves a child from a vampire trap but is confronted by a more powerful vampire, who just happens to be one of her brothers who thinks the MC is dead.  By the end of the chapter, her problems are complicated when she is confronted by the Carpathians, whom she hates for good reason, who insist on healing her wounds, a offer she resists.  The story is off and running.  I'm a fourth way through, and the story line hasn't lagged yet.  

The only problem.  I'm busy.  I barely got down to the TV to watch Castle last night.

Web and Other Stuff ...

Guess I hit Barnes and Noble wrong.  Today, we had to pick up a book the old man ordered.  Found the books books I bought on the display shelves ... on a Monday.  So, the scenario, went to the store on Wednesday.  They stock on Thursdays. I bought at the grocery store on Friday.  Bottom line:  they lost the revenue on four books. 

I wouldn't have ordered them either.  This writer business is keeping me too busy.  Guess I could have gone to my used book sites to find them ... but, again, too time consuming.

Progress ...

Did get my short story up ...Stubborn Is As Half-Elven Does ... still with no artwork.  The details are on my Half-Elven blog. 

What I wasted my writing time on -- agent queries.  All those listings for fantasy agents makes it seem like a large market.  Then, you look at the websites, interviews, and blogs.  You discover they don't really care much for the type of fantasy you're trying to flog.  Then, you go to the AW Water Cooler and find some have a questionable reputation.  Ugh.  I've landed square in "query hell".

Trivia ...

The old man went to take a shower after the news last night ... and no hot water.  The hot water heater died just when the dishwasher was full and waiting.  The part has to be ordered, and we may get convenient hot water heater by tomorrow ... if they overnight the part.  Until then, the stove's been drafted.

Do Characters a Series Make?

My Book/Series Review ...

While waiting for my trade paperback of Beka, Bloodhound (or whatever the title is) to arrive, I decided to read Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small Series.  The series features Keladry of Mindelan, a young girl who decides to become a Lady Knight of Tortall after another girl [Alanna] opened up the possibilities of a female becoming a knight by masquerading as a boy.  The "powers-that-be" aren't any more accepting for Kel than Alanna, and Kel finds herself fighting the system after being put on probabation.  [Page]  To complicate things, she's a revolutionary -- championing the weak from the "entitled" nobility.

From what I've read, Pierce follows the series pattern of putting different characters into the same fantasy world.  Then, she writes short series about those main characters.  Above I give the bones (structure) of the story.  Pierce like any good writer puts the flesh on the bones.

Pierce limits this series to four middle-grade books about Kel's fight to be considered an equal.  Through the four books, the girl collects a group of friends -- human and animal -- who eventually help her defend Tortall against a necromancer who launches new semi-mechanical weapons [krakans] using the souls of peasant children.  Of course, Kel wins, but the books are a nice read.  I found the first two books a little slow (simplistic?) when Kel was a youngster ... but the "teenaged" books present real moral problems that Kel must solve.

[For those who wonder about the content differences between middle grade and young adult, the "teen" books feature a fair amount of kissing -- with a doomed romance when the realities of the adult world intrude.  The swearing is "Tortall-specific" and not much of it.]

So, what kept me reading?  A well-defined, sympathetic main character, even if she's a little too "goodie-two-shoes", who faces each challenge stoically.  Stubbornness is a two-edged fault at worst.  ...  Okay, I sat here for a couple minutes by the clock and can't think of another meaningful fault.  I should also note that Pierce surrounds with villains suitable for the age Kel is when she faces them ... and a host (if you count the sparrows) of secondary helpers.

So, my question on your "fan" books:  Do your remember the author more than the characters?  An example:  I'm always saying Harry Dresden instead of Jim Butcher.  [Something Butcher probably hates.]  On the other hand, I say Hamilton's vampires instead of Anita Blake.  [Yeah, I remember she has weres, fairies, and zombies as well as humans.]  I don't particularly care for their other series.  Then, there's Charlaine Harris, most of whose characters I enjoy reading about.

Web Notes ...

Rushed through my site-cleaning:  the email, comics, and other web stuff I check every morning.  It's the AM and almost time to do the lunch thing and bill-paying ... and I found myself rushing through the AW Water Cooler.  I'm reminded that this is probably a big mistake.  As an example of the extra-value on this writer's forum site,  AW is is featuring a Q&A with Kathleen Ortiz of  Lowenstein Associates.  The forum/feature lets members ask real agents question -- and get a real answer I hope.

I asked about agents for different types of manuscripts.  Ortiz said it was simplest when you query agencies with agents who handle all the genres you write in.

Writing Progress ...

I read four books over the week-end ... and added a couple agents/agencies to my agent list.

Trivia ...

Went to the bank Friday and discovered my driver's license had expired.  I guess I'm trying to ignore my age.

Queries and Changes

Progress ... The queries in the back of my mind jumped to the front over the weekend -- like it's time to refine my approach to queries.  Spent a whole evening sorting through the stale queries I had hanging out there.  (About six for three books.)  By the time I organized them, cleaned them up and set up a new tracking system, I had three left ... one for a book submission which I'll probably withdraw. 

Actually, I'm thinking of not sending out anymore queries for a while.  Found a new critique partner (I hope.) who caught stuff my other valiant critiquers hadn't.  (Believe me, they found plenty wrong.)  -- Guess I don't have the craft stuff firmly internalized yet.

One thing, I'll be pickier about who I send my queries to.  No more general fantasy agents.  Now, I'm looking for agents who do both middle grade and young adult with a strong interest in fantasy (not necessarily just paranormal).  It narrows my options so I really do need to limit the number of queries I send out there,or I'd quickly exhaust the possibilities.

If you are looking for some in-depth info about agents -- beyond the summaries at Agent Query and Query Tracker (etc), you might look at Casey McCormick's blog Literary Rambles.   Click Here.

Of course, there's Publisher's Marketplace too, but they charge.  I'm still an amateur and don't feel I can justify the cost.

Sterling Reading Advice ... The Sunday New York Times Magazine had an interview with Charlaine Harris, "Once Bitten" where she gives her take on vampires.  I liked her writing advice: "For any writers at all, read everything you can and then put your butt in the chair and write.  That's all there is to it."

I really wish it were so.  All I can think of is the joke about the guy who wrote a class paper:  "Pop pop, poppity pop pop ..."

The Read ...  Jim Butcher keeps moving Harry Dresden from one disaster to another conflagration.  Old and new characters appear ... giving him a smidgen of help while digging him deeper into a hole.   As usual, I love the way he depicts characters through their actions and dialog.  His vampire-hired assassins are a hoot in the way he gets the dialog to indicate their weird mental processes.  I don't know if Butcher was a student of Edward Sapir or Benjamin Whorf, but ...  [I'll reserve that discussion for when I find myself among a bunch of anthropologists.]

Did I mention the action?  During the transition (about half way through) from setting up the problem facing Dresden to delaying Dresden so can't reach the villains in time to prevent his daughter's sacrifice -- he's being chased by these weird  assassins, mentioned above, who fire bomb his basement apartment.  The problem:  Dresden is faced with the problem of saving his cat and the elderly people who occupy the other apartments in the burning building -- with the hurt/broken(?) back he had retreated to his apartment to treat.  By the time he rescues the elderly occupants and gets taken to a safe-house, Dresden is treated for his back only to face a different assassin.  --  All in about 20 pages or so.

Thought I'd just throw in a couple lines, out of context, that had me laughing out loud.
1)  "Wizards don't giggle," I said, hardly able to speak.  "This is a cackling."  [Note the adverb and to-be word, anyone?]
2)  Sanya's eyes danced, though his face was sober.  "You are a drug dealer (pizza).  To tiny fairies.  Shame."

I've noticed another interesting difference in this book -- rather long, for Butcher, existential commentaries about religion, values, change, and other important stuff I don't remember in the previous books.

Trivia ... Went to the Farmer's Market in the cold.  Bought all sorts of good stuff -- kettle corn, snickerdoodles, apple strudel.  Hey, I didn't say healthy.

Plot Points

The Read:  Plot points, big and little, need to be embedded a story -- fiction or narrative non-fiction.  I think plots work as a compass to keep us on track to where we need to end up.  Think of a hook dragging the writer through the story.  If we're lucky, the happenings will hook readers into our tale and keep them there.  Woe be to the writer who can't stay interested in the book they are trying to write.  They will gnash their teeth mightily. 

Now that I've played Cassandra, all gloom and doom, I'll move on to admire Charlaine Harris's nimble exercises in keeping the action in Dead and Gone moving.  No secret that Harris is one of my favorite authors.  I started the book sometime over the week-end (Sunday?) and expected it to take as long to read as Pure Blood.  Only, I was more than half-way through it as of Tuesday, making me wonder why the novels I like the most finish the quickest.  

Dead and Gone is the ninth in the Sookie Stackhouse series [in mass paperback, at least].  I picked it from the pile to comment on because I'm watching the True Blood DVDs.  Only the two don't compare too well.  So, I'll gnaw on the plot points.  By the first fifth of the book [some 60 pages],  Sookie contends with the weres of America coming out, finds herself married to Eric [the New Orleans vampire], and having her sister-in-law [Jason's wife and a werepanther] crucified with silver nails.  A third of the way into the book, Sookie discovers her life's in danger because her great-grandfather (a faery prince) is in the middle of a fae war.  Also, somewhere in that mix, the FBI has shown up to determine whether Sookie's powers are real enough to recruit her.  Yeah, Harris ties it all up in a smoothly flowing story.  --  My mouth hangs open in admiration.  I'll try not to drool in front of you.

In the middle of all this, I went out and bought Dead Until Dark, the first in the series after spending a half hour last night looking for my Charlaine Harris pile.  (I was certain they were behind the Laurell K. Hamiltons, but they weren't.)  It'll be a couple days before I finish the DVDs, and then, I might have something to say about the differences between the two formats.  [Actually, I stayed up late last night and finished them.]

Web Notes:  Technically, I'm commenting on printed material, but since the editor is Chuck Sambuchino of Guide to Literary Agents  [ http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/ ] , I'm going to mention the Writer's Digest Get an Agent.  Haven't looked at too much of it yet, except for the 21 agents panting for new clients.  --  Just my luck.  Very few of them were interested in MG/YA or fantasy.

The publication offers lots of tips to digest, if not implement.  Revising your manuscript.  How not to start your book.  [Probably the next thing I read after failing to get Maren out of the blocks.]  Successful Queries.  Lots, lots more.  Much of the information can be gathered free by reading agent blogs, but I think it's nice to have it contained in one publication.

This blog.  I'm always amazed at the number of non-Americans taking a look at what I write.

Progress:  Gave up on Maren and consigned her to My Documents ... maybe after some fermentation, she'll reappear in another form.  At least, a different story.  I still like her and the new villains.

Emma.  Still, thrashing over a query.  Or, is that twisting in the wind? 

Kaffy Anne.  Pulled her from limbo where she's been languishing for a couple years.  From the looks of it, it's 2/3s drafted with lots of notes for the subsequent chapters.  Got a couple chapters read yesterday, and it wasn't too distressing to read even though it was written before Britt and the gargoyles.

Trivia:  After laying in a stock of sheep sh*t bags ... we went looking for the kind of parsley the old man likes.  The flat leaf kind since he thinks it's best, but that may be a Greek prejudice.  --   I like it too since it has more flavor.  Gives more snap to my mom's German noodle dishes.

Another Batch of Cookies Down

Trivia:  Doing single batches of koulourakia is much easier on my hands.  I should have done it last year ... but then, I'm a slow learner.  Slow but sure, though, has filled the canning kettle.  Figure I still have four more batches to go ... plus the baklava.

(I'm avoiding thinking about wrapping presents.)

Lessons From My Reading:  Have started Joanne Harris' Runemarks.  Did I say somewhere that the Brits do fantasy well?  Well, they do.  This one is delicious ... after I slogged through all the explanation the beginning. --  Outcast girl with a forbidden magical rune mark meets up with a supposed-to-have been-exorcised Odin to change/save the world.

On some blog or forum, I read that paranormal and Nordic themes were "in" now.  The book was originally published in Britain in 2007 and here in 2008.  Maybe the book was part of the vanguard for the trend.

The writing styles British writers are allowed differ from the American blog/forum recommendations.  The beginning was larded with telling and about as interesting as an anthropology text even though the MC was chasing a goblin out of the cellar.  It took me several tries before the action/danger picked up speed for me to read it after the news.  By the time the local bully was following her into the hills after she got fired by his mother, I was into the story.  --  The action really picks after she meets Loki, about 80 pages into the book.

Nice to see Nordic mythology featured rather than Celtic, though.

My reaction to the beginning is ironic.  After thinking and comparing the beginnings of Emma and Demons, I'm beginning to wonder if my own fascination with milieu won't keep me from ever being published.  Of course, I think my action moves faster.  Oh, well.


Progress:   Maren:  Got the first chapter drafted -- POV: Faithfull Alice Sweet's journal.  It just bubbled out.  (It was an expansion of the paragraph mention in a previous blog.)  Now, I'll probably chop it.
 
Perhaps, the draft opening is too much like a prologue with too much telling.  Still, Sweet is a crucial antagonist to the human villain and Maren's defender/mentor in modern ways.   Of course its super short, but it names two more characters.  Forde Travers (sheriff) and Faithfull Alice Sweet.  The next chapter is more like ... 3rd person from Maren's POV.  It's not written but part of the 3rd chapter is.

Playing with and getting to know my characters is my favorite part of writing.  How I implement the ideas is another matter entirely.

Emma: is printed/off the computer. --  I've glanced at the first chapters.  They still don't flow evenly so I have a lot of work cut out for me.  I'm sure it'll go downhill once I get to the middle.  --  I'm using a couple of articles I tore from the Writer's Digest as editing crib sheets.

Need to get the Emma query going to help focus the first part of the book.  (I stink at writing fiction queries.)

Blog:   Note I changed the title.  Since I started this in September, I've been trying to focus the blog on some target.  I think I'm getting there.

Demons:  Am still trying to put the agent query together.  Just chopped half a page out of the five page story sample.  (Makes me worried about the rest of the manuscript.)  Maybe between the last of the Christmas shopping .... ?????