dreams, weather, query frustration

[la_belle_laide]

It got up to 74 degrees today, WOOOOO! I took the dogs out, then I took some of my houseplants out and hosed the winter off of them. Sadly, it's going back down into the 40's again for the rest of the week, but for today, it was like late Spring, and I pretended for a while.

Last night, just as I was drifting off to sleep (you know, that part where your conscious thoughts melt into dreams?) I was dreaming about Kilauea. I was walking along the caldera, when a voice started to come from some intercom systems warning me that I had to get away, get away, get away fast, something was about to happen. It's funny that the volcano had an intercom system, right? ^_^ Anyway, I woke up and wrote "Kilauea" on my wrist so that I would remember it. It stayed there the whole day right underneath the bruises from last night's class.

So, still having some PCD, but I busted out my query letter again and I found a HUGE flaw in it. I struggled madly with that stupid hook, the "OMGz CHECK THIS OUT!!!!" opening, and then I never followed up on that aspect of the story. Even though it is, yanno, the one thing that sets the character apart from the others. I added a little blurb about it again towards the end ("LOOK, it ties in! Kinda.") but I think I need to add more. OTOH, I don't want to make the letter too long. With the stupid letterhead (which I just basically typed my name and address at the top,) it's already spilled over onto page two, single-spaced.

*beats head against floor*

House tonight. New for the next nine weeks! :D

ETA: TREEFROGS!

Comments

[d-r-o-n-e.livejournal.com]

Repost your new query! I am a big proponent of the one-page query letter, and i'm super good at slash-and-burn too so i will gladly help you pare any possible superfluity.

Funny you should post this, i spent my afternoon agonizing over my own query letter to a new magazine in my field, pitching a potential recurring column. *crosses fingers*

[shonagonchan.livejournal.com]

I absolutely will.

Big (sorta) secret: Part of the reason I'm stressing so much over sending my stuff out to publishers is because of your own little self. I sometimes ask myself, if YOU haven't gone and published a novel yet, what makes me think I should, or can? You might not realize this, but you're better than anyone else--at least anyone that I've ever come across--at this writing thing. You should be signing books by now. :D

I will post that bastich, though, and await the hacking of bits and pieces. And I really hope you get your article picked up, because you deserve it. And also 'cause if you don't, then there's just no hope for anyone.

pish tosh!

[d-r-o-n-e.livejournal.com]

Aww, while i am very flattered that you would say that about my writing, don't think that way! Only one of my novels is finished--the other three aren't finished--and that one is so weird (i think) that it's no wonder it didn't immediately get me an agent and a book deal. And, i only sent out queries on it once, in 2002. I haven't exactly been pounding the pavement on getting it published.

What i have been doing though is focusing on short-form/nonfiction/essay writing, and that's been going pretty well for me, with about a 50% acceptance rate from the things i query and submit. I always figure that when things aren't accepted, it's not because the work itself blows or something, but because the subject matter is somehow not quite right for the place i submitted.

In terms of genre/topic and publishing likelihood, your SF/F novel is far more likely to get picked up than one of my weirdass books about homeless drug addicts and amoral piano prodigies.

Re: pish tosh!

[shonagonchan.livejournal.com]

I don't know, dude, I think there could be a huge market for the kind of stuff you write. And although I do tend to see that sort of thing more in movies than in books, there are still people interested in stories like that. Or maybe you should do screenplays. ;)

My worry has always been that even though I write SF/F, it's atypical. Not "atypical" in the way that means "Oh, this is so groundbreaking!" but more like, "Uhhh... Okay then, freak."

What has kept you from trying to find an agent or publisher for that novel of yours? Lack of time, or you just don't feel like it?