Showing posts with label Agents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Agents. Show all posts

Monday, February 2, 2015

The Watery Tart and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Month


I have never been so relieved to have a month over. Seriously. Mercury is still in retrograde until the 11th, but I am seriously hoping my issues were with January. And here is hoping this will be my last whiny baby blog for a while...


My Boss is being replaced at work. I LOVE her and have worked with her a long time, but the administration at the hospital has changed and I believe [redacted because my real opinions would probably get me fired]. It has shaken me up and caused my workplace to feel hostile, even if I still believe very strongly in our mission and care a great deal about the coworkers left (though there is some broken trust I will need to get over).

So my worklife is messed up.


ABNA is gone, which is a blow to my writing routine. But worse...

My agent and I have had a parting of ways. She doesn't want to represent What Ales Me and hasn't been excited about the stuff she's seen post Garden Society stuff... I have been feeling for a while like she doesn't quite get me, but I get attached to people. I stick with relationships even when they maybe aren't ideal because loyalty and permanence are part of my core, so probably this is for the best.

But it feels really scary to be dangling out here agentless again... I will go into this bit more on Wednesday, as that is what Insecure Writer's Support Group is all about, but suffice it to say my writing confidence is totally shaken. I am meant to be editing, but I have lost all confidence that I know how to make something better—I keep getting the idea that my editing makes stuff worse. And MAYBE it is because I haven't found the right “professional” to give me feedback—my FRIENDS who give me feedback seem to improve it... but the pro feedback I've gotten I think maybe sends me off into “try too hard” range and it adds an element of not quite fitting... I need an agent or content editor who really gets me, but I am not in a position to pay for that right now, which means I need to get SOMETHING close enough for an agent to love me.

So my writing life is a mess.


And Remember the Cleanse?

The work shake up largely threw me off, but it wasn't doing huge leaps and strides. I've decided I maybe need some professional help because I am of an age where my hormones may be throwing me a wonky-do, if you know what I mean. I keep reading all these tricks, and I am going to try a few of them (need to eat so the body becomes more alkaline, do super-doses of vitamin D, eat so my body doesn't horde estrogen... really? Does every woman have to do all this crap?

On top of that, on my way home Thursday it was slick, but what I was THINKING about was trying to take advantage of a rare break in traffic on Stadium (where there is no crosswalk) so I stepped to go and slipped, landing hard on my knee. Finally, three days later, the upper part is no longer numb, but around the bottom and inside it is very purple.

So the health issues are fun *rolls eyes*







Tuesday, July 24, 2012

It’s Not You; It’s Me…


Such hard words to hear…  because you KNOW it isn’t quite what’s meant.  I mean it IS, but it’s a statement of mismatch… you didn’t do anything wrong except BE YOU… which isn’t working for me… Only this time I'm you... ifyouknowwhatImean...

So I’ve been on the receiving end of a little heartbreak…

A big heartbreak, actually.

My agent for my YA stuff, the fabulous Amy Tipton, has broken up with me… She was really nice about it—felt terrible. She has just been looking over my revised Kahlotus Disposal Site and got to feeling like she just isn’t the right person.  She thought I wouldn’t have any trouble at all finding new representation—nothing she specifically thought I should do before sending it out again. She even passed on a few names and a few different agencies she thought would fit me better.  Our visions just aren’t quite compatible. She said she loves my writing and knows I’m talented and promised to remain a fan… it is just the collaboration piece…

I’m not sure what to do with this… I’ve felt like things were settled for a while… I haven’t shopped for an agent actively for two years and strangely, in that time, accumulated two of them. Now I’m back down to one, but Ellen is project specific—just the cozies… I think she’s a great fit for my mystery stuff but I need to head back into shopping for an agent for my darker stuff.

Not yet though.  I mean soon.  But I need to let this settle.  Sort of like a relationship—if I dive in too fast, I might settle for any old person, and the sex might be fantastic… wait, what?  No, seriously—I think I need to really look at some personalities… stalk people a while if I think they’re a good fit, rather than just desperately groping for the first person who will have me. After looking, I will Query people who I think I might manage a mind meld with. Because they are out there—I know MANY people like that—people I meet and know right away that we get each other. Surely one of them is a literary agent. I just need to FIND HER.

So I think the PLAN… (oh how sad… I can’t make myself cackle when I say plan… it’s a dark day indeed)

1)       Finish writing A Shot In The Light.  I can’t lose the momentum on this—I’m nearing done. And I KNOW the query thing is a MAJOR creative block, so until this rough draft is complete, I’m not even going to think about it. My deadline is the end of July.
2)      AugustHARD COPY, I will edit What Ales Me. With my online time I will make a list of the agents I think may be a match, including Twitter and blog info, if there is any so I can keep track of them for a while. Start with website. ALSO look into their authors I think might be sort of similar to me.
3)      Pull together my KIT info:  Query letter, synopses (a couple lengths)—get it all set so as I query, I just pull out what I need as I need it.
4)      September I will query and send What Ales Me to first readers. THEN I will begin my first revision of Medium Wrong.

I will give myself August through October to edit and query, then I know I need to step back. If I am doing a WriMo in November (meaning WHEN I do a WriMo in November) I need to have this stuff off of my emotional radar. I may not have an agent by that point... in fact knowing the speed of these things, I probably won't. But I will have done a few query rounds, hopefully have had some full requests... I will set aside thinking about it until AFTER ABNA entry in February...

One thing this DOES mean, is I am now free with my YA stuff instead of just my adult, so Medium Wrong may be my best ABNA BET... Or maybe not... I was intent on A Shot in the Light, but at 120K when it's done and two other editing projects before I get to this... I just don't imagine it will be quite polished in time... That particular piece, I suppose I can play by ear.

Anyway... I hope you will pardon me while I nurse my wounds for a bit...

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Two Fabul-Agents

On the second day of Christmas (less that Zombie incident, so really the 3rd day, but never mind) the Book World gave to me...

Two Fabul-Agents
And the notice of a best selling book!

I have a very unusual agent story; I came through a bit of a side door. But what I really want to do here is to throw out a GIANT thank you to Ellen Pepus and Amy Tipton of Signature Literary Agency. They are opposite on many levels, and strangely, that makes them perfectly suited to the very different genres they represent for me.

Ellen is my agent for the Cozy Mystery, where I get license to act like a bit of a nut. My first, due out in June, includes a cross dressing incident, a boxers versus briefs debate, and the exclamation, “I'm naked!” I have a lot of fun writing this series—people who know my online persona think the MC's BFF Annie channels me, and in a lot of ways she does. What is less obvious to those who don't know me in real life is Cam (the MC who is a public relations specialist) and her journalist boyfriend ALSO draw on real life experiences. When I read the description for this series (which they were soliciting author auditions for) it really spoke to me. My first degree was journalism and I know this world. That said, it was a HUGE chance to help me (a green, unknown author) go through the process of auditioning.

Ellen is a lawyer, covering a HUGE part of what I am afraid of in publishing—doing something stupid because of my legalese-aphobia. You see... when I look at anything legal, my mind starts to wander and my eyes cross and I can't absorb ANYTHING—which is pretty darned bad when the consequences can be so huge. She is also calm and meticulous, something that is amazing for me as intermediary between me and my editor (my editor is amazing too, by the way and I luuuurve her... but that doesn't mean I don't want what I send her to be professional). And it is a nice balance for this series that encourages me to be a little nutty, as too nutty might not fly.

Amy is, in many ways, a total opposite. She is moving through the social media with energy and fire and she inspires and pushes at a conceptual level. She read Kahlotus Disposal Site because when I was an Amazon Semi-finalist last year I hoped maybe I'd get agent interest and I wanted to see if Signature was interested first. I felt an immediate connection. She pushed with her ideas on what would fit better in the genre, and sell better with the publishers, and each idea pushed me to use my creativity to problem solve. I feel like I have a lot better book for her insight. She and I communicate in similar ways. She is encouraging and regularly in touch. This submission thing could be terrifying if I got left out of the loop.

And see this fun, energetic, encouraging presence balances the angsty dark part of my work. I know it seems almost counter intuitive, but each of them being them, allows ME to be that side of ME.

So I want to thank them for helping me navigate this strange and changing world!