Musings Of A New Southern Man

I wrote a few weeks ago of my hesitancy to get my work critiqued. I am not some haughty author who thinks his work is above reproach. I just have misgivings about certain authors I have talked to even having a clue about the kind of material I write. I welcome critiques from a good source, but I am leery of certain sources. Add in the fact that my day job is on a swing shift schedule, and that shoots down all those evening sessions so many writers groups love. But I am open to having my work hammered, praised, helped, prodded and poked. Nothing made me more interested in that than a critique I received on my first novel when I entered the Pikes Peak Writers Conference fiction contest. I received two critiques, and one of them was a gem. The review came from someone with lots of experience in the trade, and I suspect it was an agent or an editor with a publishing house. He/she was very detailed, which is great. Here's a capsule look at the review: 1. You take too long to establi...

I will let a post I left on Rachelle Gardner's excellent blog (here's a link to Rachelle's entry: http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/03/do-authors-have-a-right-to-be-paid/#comment-304639 ) carry the day on my own blog. There are some issues here on which I just felt the need to comment. Here is my comment: There are so many issues here, but I will center on the most obvious one. Anyone who is honest knows the key is women readers, who make most of the purchases. (I thought Rachel's article about Pinterest was particular interesting on this note.) And ... and I may be stepping on some toes here ... those readers are being fed by an industry where more and more women agents hold the keys to the kingdom. Are you a romance writer? Great. There is a strong market for that, with almost all of it driven by women. Do you write mainstream? Better have a good hook for women. I ran into problems in trying to market my first novel. The main story line sounds dark and ominous...

My blog has been neglected for the past several days, but I have a very good excuse. I have been pouring out the final chapters of my second novel. I still have four or five chapters to go, so this message will be short and sweet. I am pumped!!! by my progress. The chapters I am writing are those ideas that have been there for months, and now it's time to let it all flow onto the page. What a marvelous time. More later. Thank you all for being my friends.