Tag Archives: writing biz

Writing. Agents agents agents.

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Writing Stuff

Okay, I think it’s time I started getting serious about acquiring an agent. I consulted my market listing spreadsheet for more places to submit my middle-grade novel, and discovered that several markets that used to accept unsolicited submissions will now only look at agented works. Suddenly, I find myself in circumstances where my submission options are seriously constrained by my lack of a literary agent. Going to send off a few queries today, and I dropped a note to my mentor, Ann Crispin, to see if she’d pass on a good word about me to her agent.

This is totally new territory to me. I’ve made one or two forays into agent-land, but have been haphazard and unenthusiastic about it. Time to start being systematic and efficient. There’s much anxiety here, and I’m not sure why. Why is submitting to an agent harder than submitting to an editor? It really shouldn’t be.

Stupid brain.

Started on a new Chinese folktale to go into my Cricket queue. Made good headway into it. The virtue of 2K children’s works: gratification is fast, and I tend not to get bogged down dealing with plot pitfalls.

Words: 700 – the first day in a while where I’ve been able to hit my 500 goal. Rah.

Club 100 For Writers
4

500/day
18

All about the writing

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Writing Stuff:

Wrote a critters critique for one of my favorite regulars (our mutual friend, britzkrieg).

jinzi has already paid me for “Only Springtime When She’s Gone.” Uber coolness.

Got my first glimpse of the cover art for “Inspirations End/Still My Beating Heart” from Kirk Alberts. It’s glorious! Full color art with main colors a rich, blood-red crimson, and a shadowy black. I’m delighted with what he’s come up with. Can’t wait to hold the finished product in my eager little hands.

Received a pile of review books for Tangent in the mail. I think I’m going to need to clear some space to store all my review material. The current “pile it on any open counter space” isn’t working out well. I’m running out of counter space.

Received:
21-day “does not suit our present needs” signed reject from Analog.
78-day “It’s not at all bad but . . .” with invite to send more from Ellen Datlow at Sci-Fiction. I’m quite pleased with this one as far as rejections go. She also thanked me for taking over Tangent.

Moving on

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Went back into the office yesterday, but my heart wasn’t in it. Accomplished some stuff on my “things to do” list and then called it quits for the afternoon. Came home and watched The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy with Matthew. Fun flicks, but not really anything to ooh and ahh about.

I find that I’m in the market for a new laptop. I just need a bare-bones machine that can handle word processing and wireless Internet action–email, surfing, FTPing. Light, so I don’t feel like I’m sitting beneath a boulder when I have it on my lap, and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW would be nice. Maybe we’ll swing by Best Buy and Circuit City today.



Writing Stuff:

Received:
– Rejection from Flesh & Blood.
– Invite to submit something to a women’s erotica website from the editor, jinzi.

The god of publishing taketh, but She giveth too. Hey, it’s always flattering to get asked to write something for money. Thanks, wicked_wish for the recommendation!

Mailed out the Revenant Anthology contract for “Caesar’s Ghost” and emailed the editor my bio and a blurb to publish with the story. According to said contract, the anthology is slated for a June 15th publication date. Coolness. It’ll be out in time for Dragon*Con. Which reminds me, now that the guest application forms are online, I should see about filling it out and sending it off.

Beginning to send my middle-grade book out to agents. The whole agent submission thing is pretty new to me, but after seeing the numbers for Tobias’ survey, I’m thinking I want one.

Briefly broke the Tangent website. Well, maybe not broke, perhaps “dinged.” I was trying to add more sub-menu items and I accidentally created main menu additions and couldn’t figure out how to unpublish them. Several panicked emails to the webmaster later, and I fixed it and managed to add the sub-menu entries I was trying for. Whew.

Keeping busy

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The crud is slowly clearing from the house. Hobkin has renewed his interest in broccoli and cottage cheese, and we are no longer going through Kleenex at a phenomenal rate. But there’s still a lingering “I feel crappy” element. Ugh.


Writing Stuff

This cold and other various life events has totally thrown off my stride. Too many days have gone by without writing, so I’m dropping back to “Day 1” in Club 100. Sigh. I’m behind in writing crits too (I’ll get one to you yet for “Genescape,” britzkrieg!). Going to play catch up today, see if I can’t cleave through the rising tide of “things to do” before it crashes down on my head.

In “yay” news, E. Sedia reviewed The 3rd Alternative #40 for Tangent and had this to say about “Running on Two Legs”:

“Eugie Foster’s ‘Running on Two Legs’ is a positive tale, and the beauty of the language carries one along with the story . . . the protagonist is deeply sympathetic and believable . . . It is difficult to write a thoughtful story that features a terminal disease without melodrama, and Eugie Foster achieves it with style.”

Coolness.

And I got a note from the artist, Kirk Alberts, who’s going to be doing the cover art for my Scrybe Press chapbook, “Inspirations End/Still My Beating Heart.” He’s actually soliciting feedback! I get to have a say in how the artwork turns out. Wow.

I haven’t been totally lump-like, even though it feels like I’ve been galloping along at top speed, just to stay in the same place.

– I completed the blurbage for C. Dennis Moore’s Icons to Ashes.
– Signed and sent back the contract for “Year of the Fox.”
– On the Tangent front, I emailed a slew of editors to notify them of the address change for review copies. Several of them are going to start sending me electronic review copies, which makes me happy. It’s so much faster and cheaper to email PDFs or RTF story files to my reviewers. Plus, the overseas thing stops being an issue then. Tangent has reviewers in Canada, France, the UK, and now Australia, as well as the ones scattered across the U.S., so postage costs could quickly become scary. Also took on our first advertiser. Shiny front page banner goodness which, more importantly, is bringing in revenue.

*hack sneeze cough*

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Didn’t even going to try to go in to work today. What’s worse, Hobkin has been making snuffling/wheezing noises, and has been rubbing his nose with his paws. I’ve given him my cold! Now I’m wracked by guilt as well as sick as a dog.

Crappity crappity crud.


Writing Stuff

Received the contract for “Perfidious Beauty” in the Embark to Madness anthology.

Finished and published my Tangent review of this week’s Sci-Fiction story. Not sure what the deal is with the rest of the e-Market reviews. The editor for that side of Tangent has been largely MIA. . .

Still sick, but happy

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Thanks to everyone for their well-wishes and/or alien mucus-harvesting commiseration.


Writing Stuff

Having a very good sales month! Just found out that the editor liked the rewrite I did of “The Wizard of Eternal Watch and the Keeper of Forever” and he wants to buy it for his Razor-edged Arcanum anthology. Hurray!

In less “yay” news:
4-day “it was well received but . . . ” from Lenox Ave.
105-day “not for us” from Feral Fiction.

But y’know, the sting of rejection is pretty toothless after a series of juicy sales.

Still oozing mucus. Returning to bed.

Superbowl and writing stuff

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The Eagles (our randomly appointed team to root for) didn’t win, but it was a close game, which is more than can be said about the last several Superbowls I’ve watched.

dude_the is recuperating from all the shouting at the screen from yesterday’s game, Matthew is sleeping the early morning nigh-unto-death coma of the unabashedly nocturnal, and Hobkin is curled up under the hutch wrapped in his new blankie. I, however, am awake. I’m also sick, as in sinuses filled with phlegm, head stuffed with mucus sick. My throat feels like a small feral cat used it as a scratching post. Ouch.


Writing Stuff

C. Dennis Moore asked me to write blurbage for the back cover of his collection of vampire stories, Icons to Ashes. I’m being solicited to write blurbage! Cool.

Sent a copy of this month’s issue of Cricket with “Razi and the Sunbird” to my in-laws, and my mom-in-law liked it so much, she’s reading it to her second graders. They also contacted their local paper who are sending a press team to cover it. More coolness.

Mailed a “your terms are spiffy” letter to my Cricket editor, as well as a couple lines of requested clarification for “The Tanuki-Kettle,” and also included a line letting her know I hadn’t received my check for “Razi” yet. If the universe conforms to expected form, the check will cross paths with my letter en route.

mroctober wants an “author’s note” paragraph or so to accompany “Year of the Fox.” On today’s agenda: dwell on that. Hmm. Perhaps not the cleverest of ideas for me to attempt to me insightful and/or witty through a noggin full of mucus.