megwrites

I just received a rejection for a query I sent in February.

I'm caught between being very amused at the eight month gap and slightly bewildered that the agent (or agent's assistant) bothered. Not to downplay that it's a really nice gesture, because it is, it's just that -

a) I think one can assume that after eight months, the agent either was not interested or too busy to take on a new client or both. Which, you know, fair enough. I'm of the school of thought that I'd rather an agent turn me down when their plate is full and concentrate on their clients than try to take me on and have me get lost in the shuffle because they have ten gazillion things to do and people to deal with.

b) That's time out of someone's day to write (or at least cut-n-paste) and send the email (and probably many others)

So thank you, agent. It wasn't necessary, but it was nice of you. I like your style, and hope we get to work together in the future. If I ever have something that's more up your alley, I'll send it your way.

1. My secret hobby right now is collecting poems for epigraphs to chapters of books I haven't yet written, and the fringe benefit is that I've discovered a lot of poets that I wouldn't have otherwise. Which makes me wonder, if there's a 50books_poc, is there a 50poems_poc or something like that? If not, why? Because there should be.

2. When I get extra frustrated about the Query Game which is stressing me extra because I don't have any other projects out on submission at the moment, I find comfort in Dr. Seuss's "Oh The Places You'll Go", particularly this bit:

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles cross weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or the waiting around for a Yes or No

3. The Twelve Days of an Urban Fantasy Heroine. LULZ.


4. My book pr0n, let me show you it by Meljean Brooks. With pictures. I don't know whether this is work safe or not.

5. Eugie Foster reading Little Blossom Makes A Deal With the Devil is made of awesome. I love the story and I love Eugie Foster's reading of it. Have I mentioned that I love EscapePod lately? Because I should say.

I know times are tough all over, but this stunt a writer pulled takes the cake. Apparently, a writer faked a request for a partial from an agent, without realizing that she only asks for full manuscripts to save time. So not only did this writer heinously lie, but they did it badly.

I feel the writer deserves a slap with a codfish and the agent in question deserves chocolate or the sugary confection of her choice, just for having to deal with that sort of thing.

While I can understand the desperation and drive to get published, what I don't understand is the dishonesty. As a tactic, it just doesn't seem smart, much less ethical. First off, the ruse depends on the agent being so disorganized and so bad at keeping track of their work that they don't know who they sent off requests to and who they rejected.

As dianafox said, she had records of who she sent rejections and requests to, so it was very easy to see that the writer was lying.

How could anyone be that stupid? Supposing your ruse does work, you still don't stand any better chance of getting published! Okay, so you snuck into round two. Odds are that whatever got you rejected the first time will get you rejected again.

Even if it doesn't get rejected, you're still dealing with an agent apparently so disorganized and gullible that they believed you! Is that really the kind of person you'd want dealing with editors and publishing companies on your behalf?

I get it, rejection hurts. But lying hurts more, and it hurts more than just you.

There's a Book Barn movie. I kid thee not. It's called "Used Books". It's some kind of student film or something.

But it is just too awesome for words to express. Romantic ninja book fights on Tuesdays for the win! It's straight from xkcd.com I tell you.

For those who aren't in the know, the Book Barn is a very wonderful used book place that has, literally, buildings full of used books. They also have cats (and LOLcats), goats, and a magnificent sense of humor. I'm proud to say I'm part of the cult following.

And guess what? Hahaha, I'm about to go there and trade old books for new-to-me books! I will savor your jealousy and feed it to the goats along with corn. :)

[Poll #1186707]

I'm really glad that I have a fiancee who's so supportive of my writing. He shows his support, often, by sitting down at my computer when I've gotten up to go the restroom or get a glass of water and adding his own special magic to the mix.

So that when I sit down again, there are words that I didn't type waiting for me.

Since I'm near the ending, he's trying to finish the novel for me.

His ending is:

Then monkeys ate them all.

The end?


The question mark is his, because he feels it would be the cleverest, most original thing ever done if a writer were to leave a book open for a sequel, because no writer's ever done that before.

For those who don't know, my fiancee has a monkey obsession. I don't know why but monkeys, pirates, and zombies excite and tittilate him to no end. I think it might be because he possesses a Y-chromosome. Not sure.

But I probably need to go back and make sure that there aren't any hidden monkeys in my novel. It would be really embarassing to have to explain to an agent why, in chapter twenty five, the emotional climax of the novel is interrupted by a horde of flying zombie pirate monkeys who eat everything in sight and then disappear suddenly as they came.