Friday, May 17, 2013

Oh, forget it

I have a couple of posts in various stages of completion, but nothing complete enough to whip out and finish today. I really need to start getting ahead of this game again. Here, have some Tom Petty:




On a good note, The Magpie is now home for the summer following a very successful freshman year at school, The Catbird picked up a couple of awards at the high school last week, and I received more positive feedback on BARTON'S WOMEN. Further encouraged by the news about Last Man Standing, I've submitted a 200-word bit of flash fiction I wrote a while back to a couple of places and am taking a second look at some other short pieces that have largely arisen out of my writer's circle. Sadly, I have not done much in the way of heavy writing on my newer project. I've got some of the elements in place for it, but I think I'm still searching for The Secret Ingredient that will bring it all together. PARALLEL LIVES has been out on query for over a year, and I have to consider what I want to do about it. Aside from two early requests that went nowhere and provided little useful feedback, there has been zero interest in it. The question is, Is it my query, the opening pages, or something else?

That's about it for me here, what's new with all of you? Have a great weekend!

9 comments:

  1. Lots of good writing news for you. But I think if you've been querying for a year and had only two requests on that other project, you might have a query problem. That seems off to me.

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  2. I have to side with L.G. that maybe the query is the issue. You should have a trusted person who can critique it take a look. Glad writing is going well for you and if you don't do heavy writing this week ,ext week is still open. Enjoy your weekend and the presence of your Magpie.

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    1. I'm considering the possibility of manuscript problem, which may be something I'll delve into in a near future post.

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  3. I know what you mean about that. If you're not getting lots of requests, look at your query.

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  4. I don't think it's your query. I think it's the crappy market. All that seems to be selling right now is YA and Romance. It is definitely not your book because PL is amazing. Congrats to Catbird on the awards and yay for having Magpie home! Ah. . . the Secret Ingredient. I have a really fun project that I've written 30,000 words of and now I've been waiting for the SI for 7 years. *sigh*

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  5. Congrats on the positive feedback, that is always nice in the midst of trying to make sense of everything else. I admire how prolific you are in your writing, I need to find a way to be more consistent in my daily efforts. Happy Sunday!

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    1. Well, that prolificity (wait, what?) is the result of 2 years or so of writing. Being in a writing group, where we do some free writing every week, also helps. Thanks for stopping by, as always!

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  6. Jeff, have you ever sent this to me? If you want to email me the query and first 3 chapters I'd be happy to take a look and provide feedback if you'd like it!

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    1. Thank you, Carrie, that's awfully nice of you. Expect it soon!

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