Sunday, September 28, 2008
Introducing AVALON'S SHADOW
My "secret" fantasy romance novel AVALON'S SHADOW is fully revised & polished and now ready for submissions! This book is different from my contemporary work in that it's a fantasy that takes place on an alternate world with a non-typical "space & time" travel flare. Read the blurb on my website and get lost on ShadowMoon Island...a mystical alternate world of danger, sorcery, love, and passion. You can come, but you can never leave...
Monday, September 22, 2008
Close Encounters of the Bear Kind
When in Tahoe, don't feed the bears. Bears, what bears?On my recent trip to South Lake Tahoe, my hotel had posted guidelines about watching out for bears, don't feed them, stay away, blah, blah, blah. I scoffed at them, thinking that bears don't like to gamble in the casino district of Tahoe, and when was the last time a bear came down into the town proper? Well hell, I was proven wrong! As I was checking out of the hotel, this guy was dumpster diving about 100 feet from my parked car.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
The Big Agent Hunt is in full swing
Yep, as of 8/30 I'm in full agent query mode. Every agent likes to see something different when you query (solicit) them, but all of them want at least a query letter (duh!). But 3 parts can make up a query package:
1. Query letter: one page with a "book-cover" blurb of novel with a hook; title, word count & genre of book; short bio with my writing credits.
2. Synopsis: a synpsis of the entire book reduced anywhere from 1 page to 7 pages. The norm seems to be in the 3-5 page range.
3. A partial of the manuscript: could be anywhere from the first 3 pages to the first 100 pages.
In this day and age of email submissions and a green planet, there are still agents who want snail mail submissions. Out of the 10 agents I've now queried, 2 of them request submissions by snail mail.
So here are my stats as of today:
10 queries sent (3 of them just yesterday). Of those ten, 7 of them requested a synopsis and a partial ranging from 3 pages to 100 pages, the most prevalent being the first chapter. The other 3 queries were letters only, and one of those has already been rejected (by a form email). Which means she saw nothing in my query that piqued her interest enough to request a writing sample. That's the way it goes. No one writer can appeal to everyone's tastes. What I did like about the rejection is that it only took a week! Thanks for the quick response!
Do you wonder how I chose which agents to submit to? There are a ton of places on the internet where you can search for agent information (QueryTracker, AgentQuery, Publishers Marketplace, AAR, RWA, and lists others have compiled). I live for the internet! I searched those agents who have an interest in what I write, did further research on them for their submission requirements and specific interests & compatibility. Then I composed my list from whom I felt was the best, bestest fit to the more general fit. I now have about 50 agents on my list.
What happens if an agent likes the initial material I sent her/him? If it was just a query letter, the agent will ask to see either a partial manuscript (MS) and synopsis or the full MS. If the agent has seen my partial MS, she/he will ask to see the full MS. That can be on an exclusive or non-exclusive basis. That means, if it's exclusive, then I give her a time limit to read the full MS before I can send it to any other agent. The agent may ask for a specific time, such as 30 days, if not, then I need to specify a time limit, no more than 30 days. From my research, that's plenty of time for an agent to make a decision and doesn't put too much of a crimp in my submission plans if another agent happens to ask to read the full MS.
There you have the nutshell version of querying agents.
Coming soon to my blog: unveiling the big secret novel I've been working on! And that's all I'm sayin'.
1. Query letter: one page with a "book-cover" blurb of novel with a hook; title, word count & genre of book; short bio with my writing credits.
2. Synopsis: a synpsis of the entire book reduced anywhere from 1 page to 7 pages. The norm seems to be in the 3-5 page range.
3. A partial of the manuscript: could be anywhere from the first 3 pages to the first 100 pages.
In this day and age of email submissions and a green planet, there are still agents who want snail mail submissions. Out of the 10 agents I've now queried, 2 of them request submissions by snail mail.
So here are my stats as of today:
10 queries sent (3 of them just yesterday). Of those ten, 7 of them requested a synopsis and a partial ranging from 3 pages to 100 pages, the most prevalent being the first chapter. The other 3 queries were letters only, and one of those has already been rejected (by a form email). Which means she saw nothing in my query that piqued her interest enough to request a writing sample. That's the way it goes. No one writer can appeal to everyone's tastes. What I did like about the rejection is that it only took a week! Thanks for the quick response!
Do you wonder how I chose which agents to submit to? There are a ton of places on the internet where you can search for agent information (QueryTracker, AgentQuery, Publishers Marketplace, AAR, RWA, and lists others have compiled). I live for the internet! I searched those agents who have an interest in what I write, did further research on them for their submission requirements and specific interests & compatibility. Then I composed my list from whom I felt was the best, bestest fit to the more general fit. I now have about 50 agents on my list.
What happens if an agent likes the initial material I sent her/him? If it was just a query letter, the agent will ask to see either a partial manuscript (MS) and synopsis or the full MS. If the agent has seen my partial MS, she/he will ask to see the full MS. That can be on an exclusive or non-exclusive basis. That means, if it's exclusive, then I give her a time limit to read the full MS before I can send it to any other agent. The agent may ask for a specific time, such as 30 days, if not, then I need to specify a time limit, no more than 30 days. From my research, that's plenty of time for an agent to make a decision and doesn't put too much of a crimp in my submission plans if another agent happens to ask to read the full MS.
There you have the nutshell version of querying agents.
Coming soon to my blog: unveiling the big secret novel I've been working on! And that's all I'm sayin'.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Sword of Truth Series Coming to TV!
Many moons ago I began reading Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series starting with "Wizard's First Rule". Who would have thought after 11 books (the final book, #11, comes out this fall), the series would make it to TV?
Because my reading tastes changed a couple years ago, and I began reading less epic fantasy and more paranormal romance/urban fantasy, I quit reading the series after book 6. And there were aspects of Goodkind's writing I was less than thrilled about. All in all, it's a great story, though. It's full, rich, loads of interesting characters, magic, battles, quests. Lo and behold, I found out this week that ABC/Disney has turned "Wizard's First Rule" into a full season of 22 episodes. The TV series is called "Legend of the Seeker" and is brought to us by the producers of Hercules and Xena. It begins on November 1 in most syndicated locations.
I was so excited by this news that I began reading book 7, "The Pillars of Creation", which is a big departure from the storyline as it follows a new character never introduced before. This may just get me back into reading a lot more epic fantasy again.
Anyway, check out the TV series website: http://www.legendoftheseeker.com Definitely check out the series when it airs.
'Til next time...
Because my reading tastes changed a couple years ago, and I began reading less epic fantasy and more paranormal romance/urban fantasy, I quit reading the series after book 6. And there were aspects of Goodkind's writing I was less than thrilled about. All in all, it's a great story, though. It's full, rich, loads of interesting characters, magic, battles, quests. Lo and behold, I found out this week that ABC/Disney has turned "Wizard's First Rule" into a full season of 22 episodes. The TV series is called "Legend of the Seeker" and is brought to us by the producers of Hercules and Xena. It begins on November 1 in most syndicated locations.
I was so excited by this news that I began reading book 7, "The Pillars of Creation", which is a big departure from the storyline as it follows a new character never introduced before. This may just get me back into reading a lot more epic fantasy again.
Anyway, check out the TV series website: http://www.legendoftheseeker.com Definitely check out the series when it airs.
'Til next time...
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