Buying Books by Intriguing Titles

The family lending library finally delivered Jim Butcher's Ghost Story, the thirteenth Harry Dresden novel. Thought the title rather cliched since the twelveth novel in the series, ended with Dresden getting shot. If I wasn't a fan of the series, I don't think I would've pick the book up. 

[Google "Ghost Story" and see how many different books come up, if you're curious and have lots of time. I was surprised at how many.]

In Butcher's Ghost Story, Harry Dresden's caught between life and death after he's been assassinated. In no-man's-land, he's told that three friends will die if he doesn't solve who killed him. So, he returns to Chicago only to discover he's a ghost who can't interact with the physical world. Imagine Dresden invisible, inaudible and unable to blast his way out of danger. On top of this, you just gotta know that the world has become a more dangerous world after his last encounter with the Red Court vampires. 

Watching Chicago's favorite wizard learn how to manipulate events indirectly is fun and the plot twists and turns through a distopian Chicago. New and old characters join the romp as Dresden tries to save his friends. Though Molly seems to have gotten burnt the most by Dresden's adventures.

More important, the story introduces a thinking Dresden. I found this an interesting character development in this long enduring series. I'll have to add this to my list of ways to keep a story line evolving to different heights rather than sinking into carpal tunnel syndrome. I looking forward to new additions to the series, featuring a new more subtle Dresden.

Butcher's prose is just as delicious, as always. An example of distopian Chicago:
"Seedy wasn't a fair description for the place, because seeds  imply eventual regrowth and renewal. Parts of Chicago are wondrous fair, and parts of Chicago look postapolcalyptic. This block had seen the apocalypse come, grunted, and said, "Meh." There were no glass windows on the block--just solid boards, mostly protected by iron bars, and gaping holes."

Yeah the books going on my keeper pile. 

Titles:

Have been muttering about titles -- "on and off the air" ... since my Half-Elven work in progress is title-challenged. Current title is: Traitorous Tides, which at least hints at the scope of the story more than The Somant Troubles.

Titles are one of my many weak spots. Seems every thing I write goes through several title changes. Like, if you've read me for any length of time, you know I've twiddled with the title of this blog too. Felt good to learn I'm not the only one. Kirkus McGowan complained about sappy blog titles. Check it out for a fun read.

Resisting the Query Itch

Queries ...  Queries ...  Of course, I've been studying how to write effective queries ...  I've got the query itch.  With three manuscripts in the hopper, I want to query.  Long to query.  --  So, I have every unpublished, unagented writer's problem (with a completed manuscript).  To query or not to query.

Last week, I thought writing a hooking query was my major problem.  After listening to a couple critique partners, I'm worried more about whether my manuscripts are up to snuff.  (Britt and Emma)

Writing an effective query seems simple enough.  Here, I'll give the "stage" to my guru-in-chief, Janet Reid ... an agent who doesn't represent what I write (dang it).  Here's the link to her guidelines:  http://tinyurl.com/2djd38m

Every other, agent I remember repeats Reid's theme ... if not the specifics. Agent Rachelle Gardner , a very nice person I've met thanks to the Northern Colorado Writers and who also doesn't represent what I write, offers some pointed comments on why an agent wouldn't want to bite on your wonderful, maybe glorious query.  http://tinyurl.com/28z76hm  [Though yesterday, Reid did extend a fin offering a temptation to query even if you think your manuscript is inappropriate.]

Now, I'll tell you a secret in case you didn't read Rachelle's post.  You can write the most glorious query in the world.  If the agent you send it do doesn't represent the genre of the book or hates horses (or whatever), you'll get a form rejection.  Sounds self-evident, but from the agent blogs -- inappropriate submissions happen all too often.  Maybe incompetent submissions more often. 

[I now have only three queries out there -- for Emma.  The rejections should more or less land by June -- one's one of those "if you don't hear from us, it's a rejection." types.  I don't see why if agents can automatically acknowledge the receipt of a query -- they couldn't sent an automatic "Your project isn't for us".

The Read ... Well, I now know what all the comment was about when I finally got to the end of Changes by Jim Butcher.  No spoilers here.  I'll just say the action gallops along to the end with a little rumination about doing the right thing.  A lot of loose ends were tied up ... but huge dangling questions left Dresden simmering.  My disappointment, Mab didn't appear at the end to tell Dresden what she thought about her new Winter Knight's adventure.

One thing I noticed in this book, Butcher is still promoting the Codex Alera series.  I don't know what it's doing nationally, but I don't think it's doing too well where I live.  Two used book stores didn't take the two books I had in trade.  (I more or less just skimmed the books.)  The Friends of the Library gets them to do whatever with.

Trivia ... Pat Stoltey, a friend from the Northern Colorado Writers, gifted me with a BFF Blogger award.  Only I don't know what to do with it.  Maybe, I'll have to go to the office after the chiropractor's to find out.  Must thank her though.  Her mention got me a couple new followers, I think.

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.

Changes ...

The current read...  Am savoring Jim Butcher's Changes featuring Harry Dresden.  The family lending library came through with pennants rampant so I could read the book before the mass paperback came out.  

(Sorry.  I refuse to join Cheapskates Anonymous.  I love pinching my pennies and hugging my dollars.)

Opening hook?  How about learning you have a daughter, you never guessed you had, who has been captured by your vampire enemies.  Talk about pushing an orphan's buttons!  Of course, the Wardens supposedly protecting mankind from the supernatural are dysfunctional again.  If they weren't, Dresden couldn't be such a "lone ranger".  Dresden's going to have to solve this contretemps on his own.

Butcher always blows my mind in how much action he puts into his stories.  The chapters are short, and he leaves all sorts of hooks dangling at the end of his chapters.  You never know which characters from the previous books will appear to complicate things.  More often than not, they poke a finger in Dresden eye ... or wreck more violent mayhem.

How does Butcher work his "action arcs", besides masterfully?  Each chapter presents a problem which leaves Dresden deeper in trouble than he was before.  The larger arc moves too.  By page 70 (out of 400+), I think most of the major players are on the stage, each with a scene that complicates the plot.  Then, when Dresden makes the first move to counter the vampires, I looked up and saw I was on about a third of the way through.  --  [Do you think I've discovered a formula for writing fiction?]

Incidentally, I think Butcher foreshadowed the ending by page 36.  Why?  Just the way it stuck out in the prose.

Web Notes...  The Gotham Writer's Workshop sends out emails to people interested in learning how to write or wanting to improve their results.  You can sign up by visiting:  http://www.writingclasses.com/   There is a little box at top where you can drop your email.  Granted they want to sell you classes, but I find the info in the emails useful (even though I tend to ignore the ads.  (I connected with them when I entered one of their contests ... and lost, but won at the same time.)

Are there any literary types lurking around here, here's Gotham's take on the best literary markets.  http://bit.ly/9nf44I   You can sample their info and decide if you want to read more from them.

Efforts ... Still, revising along to see what I wrote for Kaffy Anne and the Voices of Ghost Creek.  Was pleased that the first ghost appeared right where it's supposed to -- the midpoint of the draft, after much foreshadowing.  Still feel rather elephantine in the lack of speed in my progress.

Trivia ... The surgery went well -- just the removal of some scar tissue, but I had to drive to another town to get it done.  I was going to use it as an excuse to take a vacation but was on the computer and critiquing within two hours of getting home.

I Made It

Progress:  I kept this thing going for a month.  Now, I have to figure out how to make this pertinent to something or other.  Don't ask me what.  Am making a few changes though.

Got Emma through another chapter.  Have some ideas about making words appear faster on the page ... that I can follow through on ... but it remains to be seen if they'll work.  I'd have to start a whole new WIP to test them.  (Actually, I've got notes on file.  Like the characters, but have no idea what they are going to do besides fight something.)  

Bottom line here:  I must devise a way to outline that'll work with the way my brain doesn't work.


Tangled continues on its introspective way.  The tone won't change -- which will probably end up with it and its siblings never getting published.  It is so 70s, and maybe too literary for genre fiction.   -- Whoever said I was a conformist?

Trivia:  Pickings are getting slim at the farmer's market:  apples and squash.  I did buy a green pepper and probably the last corn-on-the-cob (for us).  Of course, there are other vegies there, but we get most of those from our own garden.  Today is tomato sauce day since we had to pick the vines before the big frost.  (I'll sneak one of the zucchini in there so I only have the two smaller ones left on the counter.)

Critical Reading:  (For me, that is.  Like trying to figure out how published writers make it work.  Maybe I should call this:  How They Done It.)

Finished the second of Charlaine Harris' Harper Connelly series (Grave Surprise) with way too many corpses showing up in the same grave and the suspects camouflaged within a sympathetic dysfunctional family.  This is a recently written series so maybe she's continuing it.  Still, haven't looked at the third book yet so I don't know if Harris capped it as a trilogy.  -- This is a mystery ... but it does have supernatural elements so I consider it fantasy.  Paranormal mystery, anyone?


One of the things I've noticed in both of the Harper Connelly books is that Harris gives a hint at the topic of her next book in the series.  In Grave Sight, she mentioned Tabitha Morgenstern as Harper's one failure.  In Grave Surprise, I think she gave some indication the relationship between Harper and Tolliver is changing.  At least, they seem to be reconciling with their estranged family.  I'll find out in the next book.  -- An interesting way to hook a reader outside of the usual pitch.



Guess this qualifies as a "cozy" since the gruesome details occur off-stage.  I'm not too sure what constitutes a cozy mystery, outside the murderous English village settings.  In my mind, I use two classifictions -- soft and hard-boiled.  Charlaine Harris is soft-boiled.  Lee Child is hard-boiled.

Writing:  I'm going to have a hard time concentrating on writing next week.  Fantasy-reading son  sent the DVD of the Harry Dresden TV show.  What a temptation, even though I understand not all the episodes aren't up to the standards of the weaker books.  Who knows, I might hate the episodes, but they should prove an interesting illustration on how a book (s) gets adapted into another medium.

Harking back to Harris.  (Or, is that 'harping', like nagging?).  In Grave Surprise, I could almost see the incident board, as in a police procedural.  The second time the perp (No spoilers here.) was mentioned, my suspicious were raised.  Each further mention of family members dropped clues and few red herrings.  Liked the twisted motive.  Harris puts sugar on southern gothic.  -- Guess, if I add a mystery element (since I flunked at thriller), I'll have to add an incident board to my outline. 

(Nothing like more balls when you can't even juggle three.)