megwrites

1. Over at Romancing the Blog, the always spectacular

fashionista_35 has some great words about the late John Hughes and his wonderful movies. I can't believe he's gone. I loved Breakfast Club so, so much.

2. I think my query letter may need tweaking, so I've hesitated in sending out the second round of them for the Tower!Guy novel. I've been filling my head with sample queries from other sources and trying to analyze and glean what I can from them. I'm afraid that it's either too stripped down or that I'm not highlighting the best stuff from the novel.

I mean yeah, I got a couple of people interested in the full manuscript last time, but both those ended in rejection. Maybe it's the manuscript that sucks?

I wish there was a market-o-meter that would tell you whether it's you or whether it's just that it's slow going, nobody's buying, and agents are all looking for something else.

Nobody seems to want fantasy anymore. Plenty of people want the vampires and werewolves, but it seems like less and less agents are even bothering with fantasy. Also, I can't tell. Does my novel count as epic fantasy? I mean, there's no map and it's only 79,000 words.

But it has dragons, magic, a princess, a tower, and an empire in peril. No swords, elves, or farmboys though. Maybe it is epic fantasy? I don't know.

Anxiety is not fun, in case you're wondering. And I need to stop grinding my teeth. It's giving me very bad headaches and I'm running out of Aleve. Seriously, this is the second bottle I've had to buy in a month. This is getting ridiculous.

3. Work on the UF!2girls (damn I need better working titles) novel is halted while I deal with the submissions process. I'm worried that it sucks and that vampires are also passe now. On the other hand, I'm not sure how the endgame goes anyway, so maybe it's good to take time and let my brain ruminate on that. I've written 82,000 words in a month and a half. I think it's okay to take a break. I'm not slacking, I'm working on other things.

4. I think I may pick up the novel I wrote but didn't finish for NaNoWriMo 2008 and see if it's worth finishing and revising. I liked the setting, characters, and basic structure. But I'm also hearing that demons and angels are now cliche and people are tired of seeing them. This is why I need a market-o-meter.

5. I discovered the hyrax while doing research last night. It's so cute and I never knew it existed. I definitely have to use it somewhere in a novel sometime. Did you know it's closest relatives are elephants and manatees?

Evolutionary family trees in the animal kingdom are weird. Just sayin'.

Current Mood: headache-y
Current Music: Maximo Park - Apply Some Pressure

1. The Top 10 Geeky Things You Don't Know About Romance Writers.

fashionista_35 gets a mention for her Gambit love (which I share). I want to be her when I grow up.

2. I love The Book Barn. Despite the humidity this go, I found some real winners! My finds for this trip:

Snake Agent - Liz Williams
The Demon and the City - Liz Williams
The Becoming - Jeanne C. Stein
Heart of Stone - C.E. Murphy
Happy Hour at Casa Dracula - Marta Acosta
*The Changing Face of China: From Mao to Market - John Gittings
*Colors of the Mountain - Da Chen
*The Woman Warrior - Maxine Hong Kingston
*The Rise of Modern China, Fifth Ed - Immanuel C.Y. Hsu

The starred books are those that I got for basic research on the UF!2Girls novel. The Book Barn had a surprisingly large section on Chinese history, though their selection was more skewed towards pre-1800's history. And while I find the Warring States Period fascinating, it's not as relevant to the material I'm writing as more modern, post-Revolution books are.

I didn't find any books on learning Mandarin, but I may have looked in the wrong area. I'm trying my best to learn as much about the language and get it in my headspace while I'm writing.

Right now, I can't competently say "hello" - but man it makes me miss school. I forgot how fun learning things is, especially when it's something you knew nothing about previously.

3. I have gone over to the dark side. Sorry, guys, they had cookies. And by dark side, I mean Twitter. Yes, I have a Twitter account, @wordroot. I've actually had it for a couple of weeks, but I haven't been using it as a blog or a social networking tool or anything. I've been using it more for a quick way to make small research notes and keep track of my progress on this novel as I go along. I don't expect it to be interesting to anyone, but I thought I'd let you know in case I friend you on there and you're all, "WTF? Who is this crazy person?"

Fear not, though. I will NOT EVER be shipping my Tweets to LJ. Nor will I be using Twitter as my main blogging venue. So if you hate Twitter, don't worry. I'll be keeping my peas and potatoes on separate sides of the plate.

Like I said, mostly just a tool for making quick notes which are easily put together in one source. Feel free to ignore it.

4. Yes, I have been keeping up with the epic race failings of Harlan Ellison and all the ways that

ktempest is made out of pure awesome, and I'll make a post about it later when I won't be derailing or taking anything away. However, if you haven't heard about the situation, get the story straight from her. Also

nojojojo has a really great post about the first letter he wrote and an even better breakdown of exactly what made Harlan Ellison's "apology" for the EPIC FAILURE.

Honestly, I hate to say it, but I'm not surprised. I'm sorry that Ms. Bradford had put up with this, that she had to deal with such rank, rancid unprofessionalism from someone who should know better. More than that, I'm sorry that this is not an isolated incident. This is not just Harlan-Being-Cranky. The thing I'm sorriest about is that this is part and parcel of the racism and sexism that embedded in SF/F as it stands, because it shouldn't be like that.

Like I said, a coherent post later. Go read those links, because they are written by far smarter ladies than I.

Okay, for the project I'm currently working on, I need to do some serious research on China, especially modern China from the end of WWII to the present. Though I'm willing to take something that stops in the mid/late-90's if I have to.

The situation is that the main character in the UF!2Girls project is Chinese. She was brought over by her parents when she was an itty bitty baby, because they had to escape the government at that time who were less than appreciative of their brand of magic. Which means knowing the history, the mythology, the religion, and the culture. So, obviously, a metric ton of reading and learning will be needed.

Even though the story takes place in America, there will be flash backs and of course, if nothing else, I need to understand and have a healthy knowledge of the kind of culture and heritage my heroine is bringing with her.

I'm looking into any resources I can get my hands on. Books, websites, anything. I've been using Wikipedia just to find reference books and articles, and I've been compiling a list of books I'm going to order from Amazon.

But I'm wondering if anyone might have suggestions, resources they consider essential.

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