Musings Of A New Southern Man

I have to thank my son Stephen for turning me on to Paul Simon's song "Rewrite," which has become a sort of personal anthem. It is perfect for what I have been doing!!!! Check it out on YouTube. LOL. And my rewrites are done. I have a finished product, and a much better product, thanks to Ms. Bond and Mr. Kleinman. I have much more confidence in opening chapters, story lines, story flow, etc. How confident? I sent a query to Donald Maass. He wrote the book about how to be a great published author, "Writing the Breakout Novel" ... a sort of writer's bible. I didn't have that kind of confidence before, but I do now. Will I separate myself from the hundreds of other queries he's received in the past couple of days? I don't know. Not my decision. But I didn't back away from submitting. And for those interested in such things, Maass is due to be at next year's Pikes Peak Writers Conference. Pencil me in for that session ... although I'...

I have committed a grave sin. Or, actually I am in the process of committing a grave sin. One thing agents say is to have a completed manuscript when you send in a query. I believed I was at that stage when I first sent out queries. But my Sandra Bond moment forced me to change my start, and now I am filling in cracks throughout my manuscript. What I had before was the nice skeletal element of a novel with some sinew on it. Now I am adding more muscle and covering it all with skin. There will be a complete, deep novel in place in the next few days. I have been hammering away at changes for the past week, and I am dedicating the next two days off to continuing the process. So, excuse me, but I must get back to my sins.

I kept running back Sandra Bond's points in my mind and started brainstorming about possible new ways to enter the story line ... better ways to enter the story line. Inspiration hit at about 1:45 a.m. this morning, and I rolled out of bed with possible lines running through my head. I went to bed at 4:50 with a completely new first chapter completed. It is MILES away from my original in tone and approach. The original story line didn't change one bit, but fleshing out the main character and ramping up the tension did. So, thank you Sandra Bond for kicking me in the butt and making me dig deeper. Jeff Kleinman tried to do the same thing and I brushed off the advice. Bullheaded, you know. Sure MY way was the best way. It wasn't, and the new chapter shows that. It is THAT much better. Oh, about the plot line? I'm being very coy on purpose. The most positive point anyone has made is that my premise ... my story line ... is very good. I have Googled to see if there is a...

I attended the Pikes Peak Writers conference last weekend. What a great experience! There were great sessions on the craft of writing and the business of marketing, and I attended sessions on forensics and covert operations to glean details to use in future story lines. But several things made the conference very, very special. The first was the pitch session with Sandra Bond, an agent based in Denver. My research showed she was very nice and very professional. Both facts were true. I did most of the talking during the eight-minute session, and Ms. Bond interjected to ask a few questions for clarification. Then she ended with the words I wanted to hear: "Send me your first two chapters. It sounds intriguing." I sent in my material and waited for a reply. I got that reply. The result? I will tell it by using parts of the note I left for my wife this morning. "Sandra Bond said no to requesting more of my manuscript. She said she was excited about the premise ... th...

I have been writing quite a bit in the past several days, hence another long break between posts. Or to be more precise, I have been writing and then rewriting chapters for my second book in the series. That much rewriting? What do you expect a veteran copy editor to do. But as I have gone over the matter of query letters, I have reached a conclusion. I have to tweak mine. It is obvious my current query isn't catching enough attention. The problem? I think it makes the book sound too dark, too foreboding. There are dark parts in the book, parts that made me feel uncomfortable while I was writing them. (I am not a violent man by any means, but I have one chapter devoted to a crime, and the violence gets very detailed at the end. But that chapter is so basic to why one of my protagonists reacts the way he does that it has to be included.) My book is more about decisions we make, why we make them and the impacts they have on our lives and the lives of those around us. Dark and foreb...

Writing a novel with strong characters isn't hard for me. Putting twists and turns into a plot and creating a world of challenges for my protagonists is daunting but fun. Dialogue? I love doing it. But if you want to see my resolute confidence shaken, have me sit down and create a good query letter to submit to literary agents. Why such fear and trembling? Oh, I can write a good query, but there is the nagging question when I'm done ... Is it the right wording to sell my novel? Have I done the best job necessary to make some agent in New York City, or Denver, or Tiburon, Calif., sit up and take notice? I may feel fine about my current query letter, but am I separating my work from the 100-200 other queries a single agent will handle during a week? Is my query good enough to avoid being lumped into the dreaded slush pile? Judging by results, the answer is a resounding no. I still haven't persuaded an agent that I'm the author for them. I will press on and refine th...

(I was sick, so pardon the long break between posts. But I'm feeling better. Now, where was I?) Jeff Kleinman isn't one of the true gentlemen in the literary agent business just because he asked for more of my manuscript to review ... but maybe it didn't hurt. He eventually decided not to take me on, but I was impressed by Jeff's commitment to searching out new authors who suddenly show up in his e-mail file. I sent to Jeff one day and got a reply the next. In the world of agents, that's megaspeed. Every agent should appreciate what it means to an author to get that kind of response time. I had done lots of research on Jeff before I filed with him, and he has built an impressive background. He's one of the agent/lawyer combinations, the head of Folio Literary Management. In one interview, he said his day often consists of checking his e-mail at home, going to the office and checking e-mail, getting home and checking e-mail, etc. That kind of commitment to auth...