Posted in What I've Learned, novel, tagged agents, contests, editing, jubilation, novel, publishing, The Edge of Memory on July 21, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Many big kudos to both Authoress on the Miss Snark’s First Victim blog, and to the amazing Secret Agent Holly Root at the Waxman Agency.
This was a rocking contest in so many ways. Ms. Root invested a lot of time to give thoughtful feedback on each entry to the Are You Hooked? contest. [...]
Posted in What I've Learned, musings, novel, tagged agents, music, musings, novel, pitching, publishing, queries, What I've Learned on July 14, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Well, that title is a bit misleading… I’m new to writing and publishing and don’t know “everything I need to know” by a long stretch.
The inspiration for this blog post came when a quote from Willy Wonka popped into my head and seemed to fit my quest for publication.
“There’s a hundred billion people in this [...]
Posted in musings, novel, tagged agents, editing, music, musings, novel, soundtrack, The Edge of Memory on June 18, 2008 | 10 Comments »
Since I first started writing The Edge of Memory in October, I have spent virtually every minute I’m alone in the car working on it in my head. I commute 75 minutes each way. So that’s a lot of time.
But I think I’m really done now with editing, until/unless an agent or editor [...]
Posted in musings, novel, tagged music, musings, novel, Obama, observation skills, The Edge of Memory, writing on June 4, 2008 | No Comments »
I do most of my creative thinking in my car when I’m commuting. The rest of my life is just packed with too many distractions.
Lately, having plateaued on edits for The Edge of Memory, and patiently waiting for partials to be reviewed, I’ve been spending time thinking about my next novel, which will be more [...]
Posted in What I've Learned, novel, tagged agents, dorkiness, ebooks, novel, The Edge of Memory, What I've Learned on May 29, 2008 | No Comments »
Yesterday, I learned how to use Palm Markup Language. So I have now formatted my manuscript as an ebook (.pdb) for my palm.
With a clickable table of contents, and preserving my formatting.
I have no idea if anyone will ever look at it besides me, but I still think it’s pretty cool.
And possibly, agents [...]
Posted in What I've Learned, musings, novel, tagged agents, identity theft, novel, partial, pitching, queries, SASE, The Edge of Memory, What I've Learned on May 23, 2008 | 1 Comment »
This is tangentially related to Part II.
When in doubt, err on the side of making it easy to contact you.
A few months ago, I attended a lecture on “What to Do After ‘The End’” by author Sean Chercover.
When asked what he would do differently if he was seeking agent representation today, he told us he [...]
Posted in What I've Learned, novel, tagged agents, blogging, novel, pitching, queries, What I've Learned on May 12, 2008 | 1 Comment »
It’s hard to believe it’s been a month already since What I’ve Learned, Part One.
So, Time for Part Two:
Read the Directions.
I know this seems too obvious to bother pointing out. Specifically, it reminds me of one of the most major verbal ass-kickings I survived as a child.
When I was in fourth grade, our teacher, [...]
Posted in What I've Learned, novel, tagged agents, conferences, jubilation, novel, pitching, publishing, queries, The Edge of Memory on April 30, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Kristin Nelson rocks. Seriously.
I attended her workshop on Query Pitch Blurbs at the Chicago-North RWA Spring Fling. Using her suggestions, I crafted a query letter and sent out an equery on Monday night.
Tuesday afternoon, I got a request for a partial.
She has been blogging on the same topic. Well [...]
Posted in novel, tagged agents, conferences, novel, pitching, publishing, The Edge of Memory on April 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Warning! The following post is slightly spoilerific. So you’ll have to click “continue” to read it.
In case you read about my first agent meeting and wondered what my 60-second pitch was…
Posted in What I've Learned, novel, tagged agents, conferences, genres, jubilation, novel, pitching, publishing, queries, The Edge of Memory, wordcounts on April 27, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Well, I’m back to my regularly scheduled doctorhood today.
I got in late last night and I’m working a 24+ hour shift today. So I didn’t have a chance to finish blogging about the conference.
Wow. What a crazy, wonderful experience that was!
Saturday, I drove in early for more workshops. I had a great session [...]
Posted in What I've Learned, novel, tagged agents, conferences, novel, pitching, publishing, The Edge of Memory on April 25, 2008 | No Comments »
Well, here I sit on break from my very first writing conference. A surreal experience to say the least.
After working up a vigorous lather of panic and caffeine this morning, I arrived at the Spring Fling conference muttering my 60-second pitch to myself and trying not to puke.
Much ado about nothing, like most panic. [...]
Posted in musings, novel, tagged genres, novel, queries, The Edge of Memory, titles on April 17, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I have struggled a bit with developing the pitch for my novel, since it doesn’t fit easily into a single category. I had lunch with an English teacher friend who’s just finished reading and asked her what she thought about genres.
“Well, it’s sort of a romantic, psychological thriller,” she said.
“With paranormal elements.”
She snorted her [...]
Posted in What I've Learned, novel, tagged agents, genres, nano, novel, The Edge of Memory, wordcounts, writing on April 14, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I am admittedly an utter newbie to this whole process, so I’m no expert.
But in medicine, the philosophy is “See one. Do one. Teach one.” As soon as you learn something, you pass on the knowledge to those behind you on the learning curve.
And, you don’t find the words “Academic Director” in your title [...]
Posted in novel, tagged agents, conferences, genres, hooks, novel, publishing, writing on April 13, 2008 | 3 Comments »
In my continued quest to figure out how to get published, I’ve been researching writing conferences. The Chicago Spring Fling conference I’m attending at the end of this month is sneaking up on me faster than I’d expected.
In addition to cooking up a verbal pitch, I’ve read that I also need to prepare business [...]
Posted in novel, tagged chitties, editing, gratitude, jubilation, novel, test readers, writing on February 19, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Well, not directly.
But the results of editing make me cry.
I finished my most recent edits and sent the manuscript out to a fresh set of test readers. One reader, after finishing in 24-hours, sent me an email this morning that had me in tears.
DONE!!!
Bravo!!! BRAVO!!!! It’s beautifully written… I laughed, I cried. I was [...]
