YOU JUST KEEP ON TRYING TILL YOU RUN OUT OF CAKE

[la_belle_laide]

Today is intensely historic and I can't seem to quit watching Al Jazeera's live feed of Egypt's celebrations. I realize it's not over, and they've still so much work to be done, but the people are just letting loose and partying in the streets and it's a beautiful thing. Just playing the live stream in the background keeps giving putting me in a good mood.

What else is happy times? Well, I have another poem up at HitRECord.

And, freaking, CHECK THIS OUT. My friend RJ, an incredible musician, toon an awesome reading of the poem I did before this one, and set it to music. It's fantastic. It's like, iPod, driving music fantastic. ^_^ He put a lot of effort into it and it paid off.

One of the happiest things that can happen in HitRECord is when you load your own page and you see a new "results" tab under your work. I can't even tell you how gratifying that is. :D

So, and check this out. One of my longtime good friends, a fellow crow-lady, has another longtime friend who has a book published. She was talking to her friend about my attempts to find an agent, and her friend revealed that her agent is someone whose name I dare not even mention, and whose most famous author-client I dare not even name, whose ridiculously well-known and iconic SF books—one in particular—he sold, and I dare not even breathe. ANYway. Ends up that said agent is super fond of his client who is my friend's friend, and he said that he would be open to an email from me. He's not looking to sign any more writers right now; he is closed to queries and even if he wasn't (he made this clear to me,) he doesn't deal with unpublished novelists anymore. BUT. Because he is such good friends with my other friend, he would make some time to, I don't know, give me some tips, some pointers and such.

He allowed me to send him the first three chapters of my novel.

I was like,


And that's how I still feel, awaiting his feedback. WHICH I WILL TAKE LIKE A HXC PRO. I actually kinda pride myself on taking all sorts of criticism as a writer and applying it instead of getting butthurt. There is something to be said for going through a writing program in college. If nothing else, it gets you used to having someone tell you, "This part blows, but here's what would make it better."

In fact in college, I had these two very stern teachers, stern in different ways. One was entirely old-school. He was this older gentleman with perfectly coiffed white hair, still wore 3-piece suits to lectures every day, and spoke in absolute perfect Northeast English. He'd offer devastating criticism with a smile, but wasn't above occasional vulgarity.

My other favorite writing teacher was of an entirely different sort. He was actually a published author of quite a few books, and he dressed in the same exact chalk-stained clothes every single day. He didn't temper his criticism with kindness. Or actually, he sort of did, but it was edgy kindness, like damn it, if you can't have a sense of humor about suckage, then why were you there? If I handed in something halfway decent to him he'd comment, "Fair enough, I guess. But what the hell was this part?" If something truly sucked he would just write, "Honestly?" in red ink. Or, "Must we?" He used to tell all of his students, "If you can only be intelligent for three pages, then please don't bore me with ten pages of filler."

I seriously didn't mean to get on this tangent. I loved college, (the first time, I mean,) and I miss a lot of my professors.

Anyway, today is a good day to send out another query. So I'm going to pick out one or two agents, tailor my stuff to their submission guidelines, and have another go.

I'm never going to run out of cake. :)

Here, look at some pics of my adorable crow with a heart crystal in his beak.









AWWWW.

Comments

[neomeruru.livejournal.com]

OMG, agent news, that is so ridiculously exciting. I am excited by proxy. I have compersion excitement for you. I love, lov,e LOVE hearing stories of people breaking into mainstream business with their passion.

I WILL BUY YOUR BOOK, BB. Or, like, the e-book, or something.

[shonagonchan.livejournal.com]

♥♥♥♥ So much effing hearts for you. :D

But first I gotta nab an agent. Like, maybe if I set a net, or something. Or put a bunch of twigs across a pit and cover it with leaves, I will get one. Then I'll hug it and cuddle it and give it chocolate.

I just sent out another query package, too. My fingers are too crossed to type anything else coherent. ^_^

THANK YOU!