Three books I’ve written in first person. Three. (Well, two point nine books–I’m almost finished the third).
You’d think I wouldn’t accidentally slip into third person anymore, but you’d be wrong.
reasons i suck
I should have done this a while ago
StandardActually, maybe I have and just don’t remember.
Anyway, I thought people might be interested in seeing the query letter I wrote that caught the interest of my agent (and a couple others besides).
Here it is with the addresses stripped out:
Dear [Agent’s Name]:
Ray Lilly is just supposed to be the driver. Sure, he knows a little magic, but it’s Annalise, his boss, who has the real power. Ray doesn’t like driving her across the country so she can hunt and kill people dabbling in dangerous magic, but if he tries to quit he’ll move right to the top of her hit list.
But Annalise’s next kill goes wrong and she is critically injured. Ray must complete her assignment alone; he has to stop the man who is sacrificing children to make his community thrive, and also find the inhuman supernatural power fueling his magic.
Harvest of Fire is a completed 99,000-word contemporary fantasy in the tone and style of a crime thriller.
I have sold several short stories to the magazines Black Gate and On Spec. The latest is “Eating Venom,” due out in the next issue of Black Gate.
Thank you for your time,
While I’m proud of those short fiction sales, I’m not sure they did much to catch anyone’s interest. At least, editor and agent both convinced me to publish my novel under a different name than those shorts.
Also, the synopsis covers only the characters, setting and the big plot twist that finishes the “first act” of the novel, which falls around page 30-50. That recommendation came from “Agent Kristin” who runs the “Pub Rants” blog (pubrants on LJ) and it really works.
For the synopsis, I described the whole book, right up to the end, ‘natch.
Notice also that I used the word “magic” three times in two paragraphs–word echoes are my enemy.
Anyway, I hope that’s interesting or useful.
Added eight years later: I don’t have a lot of analysis in this old post, but then I’m not sure it needs it. It bugs me (still) that I used the word “magic” so many times, but word echoes are one of the crosses I have to bear.
Many years ago, there was an account called Evil Editor who would read queries, snark about them, then give advice. The query I wrote or Twenty Palaces, the book before this one, is here. EE didn’t ask me to change much, but they still had fun at my expense (all in good fun). Apparently, “ruthless vigilante sorcerers” became a thing on the site.
I think that query is too long, but it didn’t matter because the book wasn’t ready. It wasn’t until I had my Road to Damascus moment while revising Child of Fire that I began stringing sentences together in a reasonable way.
Role Model
StandardYou know what freaks out my son? Giant spiders.
Last night after rough-housing with him a bit, I was feeling a bit… musty. Shower time!
Except we had a visitor in the bottom of the tub, and my kid freaked right the hell out. This is the best pic I took of our intruder (Mike C and other arachnophobes, do not click.)
Book signing!
StandardI’ll be having a book signing on October 3rd, from 11-1, at Magnolia’s Bookstore here in Seattle!
Eeep!
Anyone reading this is invited! Please bring your friends! And your enemies! And your family! Complete strangers also welcome!
Random House didn’t want this, so I’m giving it to you
StandardI wrote this as part of the promotional stuff I’m doing for Del Rey/Random House, but they asked me to cut it way, way down. So I did, and now I’m posting the full version here.
This is what it’s been like for me to be a debut author.
It’s funny; years ago, when Miss Snark was blogging (all her entries are still online–every aspiring writer should read them) she made a point to tell people, several times, that signing with an agent would not make the agent your new best friend. It was a business relationship, not a personal/emotional one.
At the time, I thought that was weird. Is that really something people need to be told?
Much, much later, when I was about to ditch the whole idea of writing professionally–because a life of daydreaming about monsters and filing rejection slips was fine for a yutz like me, but my wife and son deserved so much more, and hello, grad school, I’ve heard you offer this thing called a “career”–at that point, I received offers of representation from a couple of agents.
Each one of them felt like a hug. Weird, but true.
(Quick note to my agent, in case she ever reads this: I don’t actually expect or want a real hug. I don’t much like hugs except in very specific circumstances, and like Miss Snark said, business, not personal. I hope that’s not creepy.)
Actually, that only covers the first few seconds and doesn’t really answer the question. For me, being an unpublished novelist was like being stranded on a desert island. I was stuck there for years, hoping that someone would see the huge “GET ME OUT OF HERE” messages I dug into the beach. Year after year I survived on berries and wild pigs while planes flew overhead and never circled back.
Then one day I looked up to see a helicopter setting down on the beach. Out jumped my agent with a set of clean clothes and a pepperoni pizza. “We’ve found you,” she said. “Now we can take you away from here.”
And then I was looking out the chopper window as we lifted off. I had put my new suit on, and the pizza was way better than the charred pork I’d been eating. The only reason I wasn’t weeping like a beauty pageant winner was because I was in total shock.
At which point the helicopter touched down on the mainland and someone slapped a shovel into my hands. “This trench has to be finished by the end of the year,” they said, and I stumbled off the helipad into a huge crowd of rescued castaways, all working with their picks and shovels in the blazing sun. Get busy! There’s digging to be done!
So what I’m saying is, it’s the most fantastic thing ever.
Not that you asked
StandardBut Man Bites World has been difficult lately. I have a great deal of work left to do with it before I send it to my agent, but that’s not going to happen unless I can start making my daily goals.
Actually, I’ve been hoping to double them. Ha!
I’m sure things will go better once I establish a groove.
Well, it’s happening.
StandardMy official publication date for Child of Fire is five weeks away, but reviews are already popping up online, thanks to the bound galleys that were sent out.
They’re mostly good (yes, I’ve been reading them), but not all. And no I never expected all of them to be flattering, but come on, how could they not be 100% raves? Really? How could they not?
Of course they’re not. Mostly, they’re very good and very flattering.
I should stop reading them.
Informal Poll, redux
StandardIt was a comment on another board that prompted the informal poll from this morning. The writer stated that many people went to movies they knew would be awful (Hello, Transformers 2) because they wanted to be part of a big event.
Me, I was dubious, because what “event” could he be talking about? The release of a summer tent-pole movie? Somehow, I doubted it. More likely, I thought, was the surge of online commentary–argument about the plot, parodies, discussions of who’s hawt and who leaves you clammy, whatever.
I should note that I don’t go to movies for this–mainly because I don’t go to movies. It’s impossible to find a baby sitter, and my wife and son already saw PONYO without me (do I resent them for it? Fuck yeah.).
Books, well, I buy them near publication now, to support the author and make sure I have a copy when I finally get around to reading it 18 months later. But I don’t generally buy and devour (except for Harry Potter). Books just don’t have the same urgency.
And finally there’s TV. If enough people talk about a TV show, praise or slam, in interesting ways, I’ll make a point of watching it. I watched CASTLE because of this, and DOLLHOUSE, too. I used to read a lot of commentary on SUPERNATURAL, but it’s fallen off my reading list, and I’m not nearly as enthusiastic about the show as I used to be (for several reasons, actually, but that’s just one).
I also watch a couple shows that no one seems to talk about. AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN? Anyone? Even notice how it’s the women on that show who do all the cooking and the men are either taste-testing or in the back experimenting on melon ballers or whatever? No?
Anyway, I was just trying to determine what sort of “event” this fellow was talking about.
Lunch question
StandardA salad still counts as a salad, right? Even if it’s small? Even if it comes served in a split french roll? With a whole bunch of lunch meat? Right???
I had a delicious salad for lunch today.
In other non-news, I’ve been meaning to followup on yesterday’s post about the difference between art and craft, but I slept poorly last night, and now I can’t muster any enthusiasm for it. I guess I’m not going to have a thinkier blog until a thinkier person starts writing it.
Expect more funny links and abbreviated complaints about healthcare reform!
ARGH!
StandardI’m at a very difficult, very painful part of the book, and I have to stop right now or I’m not going to get home in time to relieve my wife of parenting duties. I can’t make her late for work because I wanted to reach the end of a scene.
fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
In other news, I’m really amazingly happy with the way Man Bites World is wrapping up (which means my agent and editor will probably be horrified).