Funk OVER.
I’m so rarely down and morose, depressed, out of sorts, that it really puts me off. In fact I’m typically a glass ¾ full kind of gal (don’t ask me to explain how that sprung from my ‘what glass?’ parentage). I’m oblivious to obstacles, and ‘work, work, work’ is okay by me, because it always pays off (Dread Pirate Roberts just shuddered, did you see?)
How did I get here? Who knows. My nature, probably. But maybe because the vacuum between my grandfather’s birthday (Wednesday) and my mother’s (today) gives too great an emphasis on things I can’t control… those damn Leos always need to be the center of everything. But by Sunday we have Virgo, and yours truly, whose emotions (moon) are controlled by control-freak central (again… Virgo) will be on solid ground again. And as a crab (Cancer) I’m pretty happy just to be swimming in that general direction—I don’t actually have to BE there yet.
Disclaimer: I’m not bi-polar (Facebook quizzes notwithstanding), just an optimist with mother issues.
Life is Good
I have twelve queries out at the moment. The plan is to now wait four weeks—since they went out in two rounds, that means 2 and 3 weeks before I get to the next batch. My A-list is currently those who’ve been successful with long first novels (commercial fiction only—Sci-fi and fantasy seem to get exceptions on the long book front, but CONFLUENCE is not that)
Brave Writer Update
I have an acronym that I’ve fallen in love with that seems tartish, but wanted a little feedback as to whether I’m entirely delusional: LAPDANCE: Literary Agents & Publishers Dance, Acknowledging Notable Courage & Encouragement. I figure a PG hottie with the acronym and an explainer makes it fun, instead of offensive. What do you think? Too over the top? I’m inclined to go for it unless someone finds this offensive.
The plan is to do an awards ceremony HERE (maybe monthly) and have a group on Facebook with a place to compile agents and publishers who are different KINDS of brave or encouraging, so that authors can look at it if they need a certain type of agent or publisher (a resource to us in addition to an acknowledgement to the agents).
I will need to test the popularity a little to know whether every nominated agent gets an award, or whether there needs to be some standard… I’m shooting for maybe the last day in August or first in September to kick it off—if anyone else wants to be involved, give me a shout.
Non-Fiction
Among my manic meanderings… I was browsing an agent book my friend Stacy gave me last night and came across an article by a guy who was trying to get a novel published and got the recommendation “it’s easier to publish non-fiction” which I had heard before. Now this baffles me a little, because you can only see so many titles (Zen and the art of Bass Fishing) before you wonder just how delusional these non-fiction writers, publishers, and promoters are. But then I thought… Hey… I’m delusional. I could do that. And I actually HAVE a few areas of expertise (oddly enough). I know how to research the psych and medical literature (though I can never type just psych… I always type psycho and then have to remove the o)…I have a master’s degree in social psychology, so I know some things about human interaction and motivation… behaviors…
I might or might not follow through… more likely I will try to develop a blog feature (separate from here?)… but Man can you see the ideas swirling? Mojo is back in full swing!