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Writing Link Library
Cowboy Musings
Volume Five
Be my Valentine? A New Direction for
my Writing The
Christian – and Politics God Used Me! What's Up with Louis L'Amour? Taking on the Taxman
The Power of Christian Fiction Targeted
Submissions Can
You Interpret Dreams? The BIG Bookstore
Eternal Investment Panhandle Professional
Writers Why
Electronic Submissions? Correcting the Bible
A Line Editor I'm Not! I Read Your
Guidelines but . . . Rubbing the Wrong Way
Everybody Sells in 2008 Captain's Log – 2008 - Day
One Getting a
Fresh Start Looking Ahead to Resolutions Christmas Past Introducing Kevin and
Kristen Collier Should
I write? Introducing
Joe Ragont
Introducing Susan Miura Heat of the Moment Introducing Jim Dyet Hunker Down The Good Rejection
Musing and Music Introducing Trish Porter Adding Word Count The Best Blessing Has the Future Arrived? Introducing Donna Marie
Bond Cajun
Party Time! Introducing
Robyn Conley Introducing
James R. Callan Introducing Bonnie
Calhoun Introducing
Jack Loy Intoducing Alan Jackson Introducing Paul Sturm Introducing Tim Shoemaker Introducing Susan Lyttek Introducing Richard Brown Introducing Caron Guillo Introducing Jennifer Hudson Taylor Introducing Amy Alessio Introducing Dr. Bill Griffith Introducing Graham
Garrison Introducing
Carla Bruce Introducing
Rich Dixon Introducing
Celeste Matthews Introducing
Donn Taylor Introducing Jane Thornton Introducing the James
Gang Introducing
Trudy Chun Introducing
Pam Kumpe
Introducing Linda Apple Introducing Michelle
Buckman Introducing
Max Elliott Anderson Introducing Tammy Barlay Introducing Brenda Nixon
Introducing Annette M. Irby Jennifer did great! Enthusiasm
Transfusion The Giants in Dallas
What do they want? One Sheets and Good News Remembering 9/11 Two top hands – Dusty
and Drury National
Cowboy Symposium Sushi
for One Meet
You in Dallas
I remember the days when I'd come home from school with a sack full of little, inexpensive valentines. These were the days when girls were something a guy barely tolerated, and a suggestion that a guy had a girlfriend, or that a girl was sweet on him could be fighting words. Strangely enough, at the same time, a handful of valentines from pretty young ladies was a highly desirable thing. Go figure.
I'm not sure it's the same now. I listened to grandkids not even starting school talking about having a girlfriend. How times change.
Things changed in those days too. It went from cherishing a large number of valentines from cute girls to having one girl I was going steady with. Valentines from other girls were now gently, or not so gently, discouraged. Did I mention that times change?
But it gets to go back to more than one again. We have a valentine banquet at church Thursday and I'll have two of my favorite valentines with me, Saundra and mother. The remainder of the allowable valentine list includes daughters and granddaughters. I'm unclear as to whether it's really ok to have males as valentines. Didn't used to be, but times . . .
Can I have female valentines beyond the 'allowable' list? Maybe, but you remember the girl that gently discouraged it in high school? Maybe times haven't changed that much.
A New
Direction for my Writing?
Maybe. I had an editor that I got to spend some time with at
ICRS in
In addition to that I have a further desire to see some of these books be western, and have a couple of clients who write western who feel that way as well. If we don't spend some time trying to introduce some younger readers to westerns that market may disappear and it is entirely too big a part of our nation's history for that to happen. The only two I know that are really doing anything along this line for young people is Sigmond Brouwer and Paul Bagdon.
That editor is interested in looking at a couple of projects I already have done to see if it might be a possibility for them. I'm pleased, not only for the cause at hand, but because another project that had already made it past committee and that I spent a great deal of time writing another 30,000 words on didn't make the final cut. Agenting takes a majority of my time these days, but I needed a little encouragement to keep a little writing in the mix as well.
You see one thing a lot of people don't realize, particularly young people, is that teenagers simply didn't exist before WWII. Before that time kids went from what schooling they would have straight to work on the family farm or business or perhaps in a factory. Many of those out winning the west, serving in the cavalry, being a cowboy or making trail drives would today be considered teenagers, and it was not at all uncommon for girls to be married as young as fifteen. I think this is something young people will find very interesting, and interesting to think what their life might have been like if they lived in those days.
That's what this editor is looking at, and it's a subject that interests me considerably. I have several projects done that speak to it, and I'm happy to have somebody thinking about it.
The Christian
. . . and Politics!
Politics is not something I talk about very much. That comes from the days when I was a chamber of commerce executive and had to maintain a strict independent standing to be able to work with people from both parties. Today is Super-Tuesday, however, and it is on my mind.
There was an interesting discussion over on one of the blogs here yesterday as people talked about who they were going to support. There was also a very complete and impassioned plea that Christians should hold themselves above politics, not
participate, and just worry about what God wants them to do. I talked with the individual about it and was impressed by the fervent convictions that person had, but in the end do not agree.
The contention as I understand it is that God will put the person he wants into office and we should stay out of it and concentrate on the business of the Kingdom. It is true throughout the Bible that God put the people He wanted in positions of power, but in recent times it hasn't been working that way. Instead He has worked through his people to place those he wants in leadership roles, placing a burden on his children's hearts as to who He wants to serve.
This means electing imperfect people to office. It has to, there has only been one perfect person who walked the face of earth, and even David, Moses, Abraham, and other Biblical notables were far from perfect. I believe God DOES impact who are in leadership roles, but I believe He does it through his children. Everyone agrees that it was the Christian vote that put Bush into office, a fact that stunned all political pundits, but try as they might they could not get it to add up any other way.
They said it was the "Religious Right" which is the detractors way of putting a denigrating label on devout Christians. Were the Christians to stop standing up and being counted when it came time to elect our leaders it would give Satan free reign in putting those he wants in office. I simply cannot believe that is what God wants us to do. Sure, I understand what is going to happen at end times, but it will happen when the Christians are no longer here and their influence is removed, not because we give up and cease trying to make a difference.
I'll pray and hopefully will get Divine guidance in casting my vote, but it will be an imperfect person I vote for. It has to be, that's all there is to choose from, we're all imperfect. I do not fall for the "separation of church and state" ploy that attempts to take Christians out of saying anything at all about how they are governed. That isn't what our forefathers meant and everybody does, or should, know it.
I believe Christians have to make themselves available for the Lord to use in affecting the direction our country is going. When He is ready to stop doing that we'll know it because he will simply take us out of here.
Whew, that's the most I've said about politics in a long time.
God uses his children all the time, you know? Most of the time we aren't aware of it, we don't know when it happens and we don't know the results. Occasionally we do know it and it is at once an incredibly fulfilling yet humbling experience.
We have a lot of people out sick at church, and I had to substitute teach. I do that on occasion. Even at that they had to combine classes and I had a couple of classes together to teach. And there was a visitor. Roger had never been to our church, and he came in late so I had already begun when he did come in.
I hardly looked at the lesson this morning as I taught. I started taking the verses one at a time and talking about them. I had read over the lesson several times so I still covered a lot of it, but more of it was coming from somewhere else. I used a lot of personal experience, including some very painful personal experience that I don't talk about a lot. I prowled the front of the room with a lot of stuff coming out of me that I didn't know I was going to say.
After we let out Roger came over to me and said he had fallen away from his faith, but that just yesterday he had come under conviction that he needed to be in church today. He found his way to us. He said he was struggled with some things and I had spoken to them as if I were speaking to him alone. Then we went on in to the worship service.
Our pastor was sick along with so many of the others and an associate pastor took the podium with little time to prepare. He started out in one direction but was soon talking about the same things I had been talking about in Sunday school, only he hadn't been there to hear it. Roger was moved, I could tell from across the auditorium. When the time of invitation came, Roger was out of his seat and up at the front before the pastor could come down from the podium. They cried together and he rededicated his life.
I went up to Roger afterwards and said I didn't know him from Adam before today, for sure didn't know what he needed to hear, yet I talked about something entirely different from what I had prepared. The pastor did the same. I told him if he didn't know who it was that was really talking to him then he wasn't listening. He did know.
He did listen.
What's Up with
Louis L'Amour?
Creative writing classes study writers, discuss them, pick them apart to see what makes them tick. But I've never heard them give such attention to Louie. Dismissed as a paperback writer, not worthy of such discussion, I think they miss the point. The man died in 1988, and twenty years after his death continues to dominate the western fiction bookrack. Why?
A lot of the writers of the classics that continue to be discussed and dissected ad infinitum, wrote books that today would probably not be picked up by an editor. They were beautifully written, I'm not saying they weren't, but in today's fast paced world and short attention spans they open far too slowly and often have much more detail than modern readers want to wade through. But Louie remains popular. What's the deal?
I have a full set of his books, leather-bound, and I've read them all multiple times. I've heard a number of theories on why he is successful, but to me the answer is simple. Number one, he connects with the common man, and I mean that generically as I know a lot of women who love his books. He writes on our level. The other major secret is the fact that within a scant few pages into the book we have already identified with one or more characters and care about them.
The books open fast, get us invested in the characters, and
they never whirlpool into a section where the story ceases to advance for the
sake of explanation or description or setting or anything else that stops the
forward motion of the tale. I don't know how good of a writer he was, but he
was one of the best storytellers
I think the people who do critical analysis of literature sell old Louie short . . . but it looks like the readers aren't fooled at all.
It's that time again. As soon as Saundra gets her business records caught up I have to do the taxes again. I usually have them done by now, but not this year. I've always done my own taxes. I was an accounting major in college, took tax accounting, and because of that have always felt obligated to use that knowledge.
My accounting professor used to say that to cheat as much as a dollar on a return made someone as big a crook as one who stole thousands. Then he paused, gave us a sly grin and said that he would be even more ashamed of a student who allowed the government to have a single dime they weren't entitled to have.
He'd be ashamed of me. Over the last 40 years I have always prepared my return fairly conservatively. I've pretty much gotten what we're entitled to, but over those years I have been audited several times, and every time I've ended up getting additional money when they did it. I only take what I can easily defend.
It's usually enough. I keep good records and offset as much of that income as I can. It got easier when I no longer had to keep double entry ledgers but instead graduated to Quicken software and began to do my taxes with Turbo-Tax Pro. There is other software as good, but I've been with these guys almost from the time they came out. The pro version of Turbo Tax does a good job of handling not only my stuff but Saundra's massage therapy business as well. It walks me through the process much easier than when I was having to ferret out all the details for myself, and if I'm audited again I buy the option where they'll help with it.
It's all about records, keeping track of income and expenses, of mileage (which with all of the meetings and conventions I did this last year is huge), and of the various overhead connected with both my business and hers. It sounds very complicated, but with the software if we keep up with it, it really isn't. I think we'll do pretty well this year, even better if they do the tax stimulus thing they are talking about.
The only thing about that is I'm not sure how you "rebate" taxes to people who didn't "bate" in the first place.
The Power of
Christian Fiction
In Mark 4:9-12 it says, "And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked him of the parable. And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see, and not perceive, and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins forgiven them."
Jesus taught in parables to reach those who were not versed in the word, those who might not be saved. He did it because the parables spoke to people in terms they could understand. Today this concept is why people write Christian fiction. To wrap Biblical principles in a good story that will maintain the attention of the reader and will put the principles in terms the reader will identify with.
It doesn't mean all Christian fiction will contain a strong message or even a salvation message. The degree of faith content can range along a scale of a very strong message to very little faith content at all. What is important is that it engages the reader, pulls him into the story and keeps him there so he wants to read more of the same.
It is the process of planting seeds, and a very small seed can grow to be a mighty plant. I've been involved in the planting of seeds for a long time. I seldom get to be in on the harvest, those in the ministry get much more of that, though I cherish the few times I have been privileged to be in on the harvest. Yet those who do harvest are dependent on those who plant the seeds and nurture them along the way until the harvest is nigh. This is the business of the Christian fiction writer, to plant and nourish . . .
. . . and above all else, tell a good story that will leave them wanting more.
Many years ago I was the host at the Panhandle Professional Writers conference for NY agent Donald Maass. Nice guy. That meant I was with him for the whole conference. I also had an appointment with him late in the conference. By the time of the appointment I knew I wasn't a good fit for him as a client. I also knew that pitching an agent or an editor without doing the research and knowing that they are at the very least a solid possibility is not only a waste of time, but it is burning a bridge that later with the right pitch might have been a good possibility. I also learned not to try and go after the houses that required an agented submission even if I got a chance to do so, because the odds again were so high of burning a bridge that might later be useful. I stayed with small and mid-list houses that were set up to work with authors.
Getting to spend that time with him reshaped my approach to submissions. I quit just going through the market guide submitting to anybody who remotely listed the genre, but started doing the legwork to try and prove the market was there. Then I found out the reasons I came up with that told me the market was there controlled the way the pitch was structured, were the things the editor or agent needed to hear. I started getting published, and helped some of my friends get published. I owe Donald big time even though he never offered to represent me.
Then I was recruited to be an agent myself. I work with a base of editorial contacts and when I look at submissions I try to find things I know they are looking for. Targeting. Most agents come from a publishing background, being editors or marketing, or some function in the industry. The fact that I came from the writing side gave me some ground to make up in some areas, but gave me some strong insight in other areas. I still think a lot like a writer and don't like to tie a project up if I can't see a good place to go with it.
If I like projects I keep a substantial database on them even if I didn't have a place for them, and if I run across a market will sometimes get back to them to see if a project is still available. If it is we take a fresh look at it. If not I congratulate them, getting published is after all what we're trying to accomplish.
Targeting is the whole ballgame. For me, just submitting to a house I think is appropriate isn't enough. I have to know what editor I'm submitting to and why I think they are the right person to pitch. I not only want an editor that will be favorable to a project, but I want one that will love it and go fight for it in committee. I want an editor that wants it out there as much as my client and I do. My clients help me find those connections that can give a submission that little something extra, a team effort. They meet editors out and about too.
It's a very personal process.
Where's Daniel when I need a dream interpreted?
I had a strange one last night. All of the past President's wives seemed to be alive for some reason and were having a tea party at the white house. I didn't recognize a lot of them, but there seemed to be enough women for them to all be present. I don't remember ever seeing pictures of the early first ladies so I suppose that's why their faces were indistinct. I couldn't call up a lot of the faces of their husbands either. I do know the attire certainly seemed to be authentic for the various time periods.
The point of the dream seemed to be that Hillary was trying to get this august group to support her bid for President but only Eleanor Roosevelt and Jackie Kennedy were willing to do so. Mamie Eisenhower and Bess Truman seemed rather discomfited by the fact that she would do such an unladylike thing as to run for office. Nancy Reagan, Pat Nixon and the Bush ladies had a predictable response, and LadyBird Johnson, Betty Ford and Rosalynn Carter were circumspect and I quite frankly couldn't make out where they stood on the issue.
What's strange about this is that I'm just not a very political person. For 27 years as a chamber of commerce manager who had to work well with both parties I carried an "Independent" voter registration card and gave up voting in the primaries to avoid having it stamped with a party stamp. I was a true independent in every sense of the word and I'm still pretty much that way.
That makes the dream all that much more unusual, and it was a very vivid. I could see all of these ladies that I recognized as clear as day, and I watched as they reacted in each case. Maybe it's true. Maybe the ghosts of the past and present First Ladies come out to offer each other feedback and encouragement. It'd make a good story anyway, wouldn't it?
I suppose being an independent or not, the interpretation is, that my subconscious has made its mind up. I did say it was a strange dream, didn't I?
I did a program for the Panhandle Professional Writers on Saturday. I did it as a Q & A, and since I had a two hour time slot and the content was entirely controlled by the nature of the questions, the subject matter ranged all over the board. The questions were very good and I'm sure I learned more than they did.
One area we discussed was book promotion. We talked about book signings, and how getting the chance to do programs and events is a far better format for selling books than a signing is. Case in point I sold quite a few at that very meeting.
We talked about how important platform is and getting as much visibility as possible. We talked about what a publisher is likely to do and what is left up to the author. Most important, we talked about the internet. Amazon is the number one bookseller in the world, and online book sales are through the roof. But having a book on Amazon means little unless you have means of pointing people to that book to purchase it. Simply having someone stumble across it and find it is a really long shot strategy. I do reviews and comments and other things over there to increase my presence, but mostly it is back to visibility and online presence.
One participant said he was doing well with his site and returned well up in the rankings when somebody searched on his name. That's a great start, but if they already know our name they probably don't need to search for us. Where we need to return well in a search is by genre, or by any number of tags that they might use for a search criteria. We need them to find us when they don't know who we are.
You can find me with Christian Fiction Writer, western writer, inspirational fiction, literary agent, and any number of other tags someone might use. I am in a huge number of online groups, directories, and I tell you right off I don't have the time for all that, but I need the visibility and I have to do it. I don't use screen names at these places, I use my real name. I don't want people guessing who I am. I still work hard to get my work into bookstores and libraries, but I can't afford to overlook a strong presence in the largest bookstore of all.
I think I mentioned that one of my goals for the year is to read through the Bible again. I'm following a plan that has some of both the old and testament each year plus a reading in both Psalms and Proverbs. It's a nice mix.
It seems at present that there is a great emphasis on the need to seek wisdom and understanding by spending time in the word. A theme that fits nicely with encouraging me to keep up with the proscribed reading schedule.
Today's reading for Sunday School fits in with the theme as well, over in Ephesians. The quarterly study material had a phrase in it that really hit home: "We can't take material good with us to Heaven, but the truth we know can go on to eternity with us."
What a wonderful thought! So much of what we have and what we know is fleeting. For example, how much do we remember from school or college? Unless we are using it on a daily basis, not much, but in studying the word we are building a base of knowledge that we can use from now on.
What an investment! Nothing else we invest our time in will produce such long term results. I'm astonished that the truth of this statement never really hit home with me before.
Panhandle
Professional Writers
I'll be giving a program to this group tomorrow. It's one of the oldest writing groups in the nation, founded as the Panhandle Pen Women in 1920 it later changed its name when it allowed men to join, but they wanted to keep the same initials.
I'll be glad to get back to a meeting again. I was a member for something in the vicinity of ten years. I guess I've let it expire as I noticed I quit receiving email from the online group. I'll probably take care of that tomorrow, although it doesn't make much sense as I haven't been able to make a meeting for over a year. They meet on the third Saturday of the month and I'm always off doing a program somewhere on the third Saturday.
I was quite active when I could be though, as I was a 2 term President, 2 term treasurer, 2 term program chair, newsletter editor, and I set up and for several years moderated the PPW online group. I was very active putting on the annual conference. I'm not bragging, the group gave me much more than I ever gave them. Or maybe I am bragging, but to make a point.
Having association with other writers is so important.
Networking. I do most of mine by online these days as a member of the American
Christian Fiction Writers (
Doesn't this level of activity take more time than I have to give? Yes . . . and no.
The stats below show this website has gone over 2 ˝ million hits with nearly 400,000 unique visitors. The other sites I have scattered over the internet produce visibility as well. I can't demonstrate the relationship, but I know it helps drive book sales. This visibility has produced over 900 submissions of people wanting me to represent them as an agent. It has gotten me a steady flow of gigs as a speaker at various programs and conferences. It is the driving force behind what success I've had in the publishing community. I don't really have the time to do it, but I have to have time to do it if that dichotomy makes sense. And it started with PPW.
It'll be nice to go home again.
A lot of editors and agents don't want any attachments to an email. Some want electronic submissions but want it all in the body of the email, no attachments. Others, like Tamela and I, don't want hard copy submissions and do want them as an attachment, not in the body of the email.
These differences point up why it is so important to check the submission guidelines before we send to anybody. Those who don't want attachments probably are concerned about them containing viruses. I understand that. I have massive virus protection and several layers of backups, but understand at some point that I will have a problem. It's a cost of doing business.
A proposal in the body of an email is not a virus threat either, but I prefer them attached as a single word or .rtf file because I like to see if the writing is properly formatted, and if it's a project I like it is easier for me to use it as a base to build an agency proposal on.
Why not hard copy? For one reason I lose them. I toss them in the inbox in the study along with a bunch of junk mail, and they can get away from me. I seldom work there, mostly I work wherever my computer is, so I don't get in there to dig them out and deal with them often. I don't feel all that bad about it because our submission guidelines say I don't take hard copy submissions at all, which means I'm dealing with people who don't or won't follow instructions anyway.
But the big reason for no hard copy submissions is that I do most of what I do online. Most editors I'm working with prefer to work electronically, so I need clients that will work with me in that manner. A person that tells me they don't know how to do attachments or they seldom email might as well be telling me they deliver handwritten manuscripts. I need people who are keeping up with the changing technology of the industry. A contract for one of my clients calls for delivery of a hard copy manuscript. That client is ready to send the final manuscript but when I checked with the editor to be sure, she said even though the contract calls for hard copy, she'd rather have it electronically. Exactly what I'm talking about, I want to see how well a submitting client handles the technology.
So often at conferences I hear people say "I don't see why they ask me to submit like this, or any reason a proposal needs to contain that, or some other facet called for in guidelines." There's a reason, and it isn't important how we wish to submit, it's just important that we give them what they want, unless we are just going through the motions and don't really want our project accepted anyway.
I have a Bible with really big margins, perfect for making notes transferred from Bible to Bible over the years as I have studied it and listened to sermons and Sunday School teachers. Yes, at 65 I still go to Sunday school, teaching a little when I can. When I wear a Bible out it can take me weeks to move into the new one, transferring all these notes.
On a recent visit my grandson saw me studying and making notes and asked me if I was correcting it. The way he said it made me think he was expecting me to mark the errors that I saw and maybe mark a big grade in red letters at the top. I laughed, of course, then told him no, that it was the Word of God and was perfect. I said the notes were for me, that even though the Bible is without error, my understanding of it can be faulty. When someone told me something or I found something that helped me better understand, I wanted a note to help me remember it and I wanted that note right where it could be of the most use to me.
Oh, over the years I've had people complain when they saw me writing in it, people who consider it too sacred to desecrate in that manner. I understand where they are coming from, but I don't worship the Bible, I worship the one whose words it contains. Besides, which shows a higher regard for it, someone who has a pristine, unblemished Bible held in high regard, or someone who considers it the ultimate textbook and guide for life using it and working in it and taking any means or method of finding greater understanding?
I tried to explain this to my grandson, that making such notes didn't show a lack of respect for the Bible, but an intense desire to more and more make it a VERY PERSONAL book.
I hope he got it.
This big Bible is my main repository even if I am using other resources in my study. But it isn't my favorite. I have s small Bible given to me by my mother on the day I was baptized over 50 years ago. It is a full Bible, but is scarcely larger than most New Testaments. Needless to say the print is very small, very hard for these old eyes, but I have always carried it, and usually have it with me as I still carry it each day. It is an old friend and has seen me through a lot.
So if you see me over there writing in the margins (when I can find room) don't bother to chastise me about it. I'm not doing it out of a lack of respect, but out of a strong desire to get closer to the Word.
Nope. Not my strength. In fact, if I'd known I was going to be this serious about writing I would have worked much harder in English class. When I have done critique or first reads for people, I've concentrated on story flow and pacing and if it has a compelling opening or if it drives the reader through the story or has any dead spots.
A line editor I'm not.
A major discussion is going on over at ACFW (American
Christian Fiction Writers) on comma usage. Commas are a nemesis of mine. Rather
than being guided by rule usage I tend to put them where they make the sentence
read the way I want it to read. In fact, When I
finished one book my cousin did a proofing of it. That's her day job,
proofreading for a publication. She made a few small suggestions, and changed a
lot of commas. It went to a copy editor where he made a few suggestions and
changed a lot of commas. Before it went into galley form, a senior editor read
it and what a surprise, changed a lot of commas.
He asked me about it and I said I
didn't need to see it again before the galleys were struck, that I wasn't going
to fight battles over commas unless I found one as I read that I thought really
changed the meaning of the sentence. Out of curiosity I paid close attention to
commas as I went through the galleys and found it was very close to my original
version before the others had changed it.
The discussion has people lining
up on three sides. One side insists on following strict punctuation rules.
Others say that comma usage is declining and sentences are instead being broken
in two or commas not being used. A third group advocates comma usage driven by
how it makes the sentence read. There are other opinions which might be a
derivative of one or more position, and I won't go into where the predominance
of opinion is coming down. What is clear is the fact that, like the editors in
the story above, there can be a difference of opinion as to how they can be
used. What matters to me is how the editor that has the final say on the
project sees it.
Maybe it's easier for me since I
consider this area a weakness than for someone who prides themselves on their
grammar skills, but as I said unless I think it changes the meaning of a
sentence, it isn't a battle I fight. In one case after we had a discussion over
some comma usage I just sent her a page full of commas and said she could just
put them where they went.
You know, the thing about
half-kidding . . . is that the other half is serious.
I
Read Your Guidelines, but . . . .
I love it when I get a submission that starts off that
way. Translated it means "I know more about your business than you do so .
. ." That may be true, but if it is they don't need me to represent them,
right? If they know that much about it they can do a better
job than I can anyway. More specifically translated it
means "Please throw me in the trash."
One of the popular ways this phrase comes in is telling
me they don't need to go to the work of writing a proposal, if I'll just read
their manuscript it will speak for itself. This of course in spite of the fact
that the guidelines say we don't want a full manuscript unless we ask for it.
They figure I'm just being cranky of course.
Maybe I am.
Actually I don't skip the proposal step because there's
a strong chance I won't ever get one if I don't get it up front. Second, the
things I ask for in the proposal help me evaluate whether the project is even a
fit for us. I don't need to spend a lot of time reading things that I don't
have a market for, particularly when I'm having so much trouble keeping up with
submissions anyway. Besides, I want to know if it's something I can work with
before I read because I may really like it, and the last thing I want to do is
fall in love with some project that I can't do anything with. Because if I
loved it I'd have to try, and I'd spend an inordinate amount of time trying to
force something instead of working with the markets I'm presently familiar
with, where I have carefully forged contacts.
Third, I get the best proposal when they are trying to
catch my attention, not when they already know I like the writing and don't
feel like they have to work so hard. And I can do a much better job of writing
an agency proposal if I have a good client proposal to draw on, and I'll never
know as much about a project as the author themselves.
I'm sure others look at it differently and that's okay
too. One thing most people in the industry agree on is to check the submission
guidelines where we wish to submit and to comply with them. And if we feel
compelled to say "I read your submission guidelines, but . . ." then
I should just save the postage and find some submission guidelines that ask for
it the way I want to send it.
Rubbing the
It we're rubbing a cat and it's making his fur stand up
and making him uncomfortable, the cat needs to turn around because we're
rubbing him the wrong way. If we read in the Bible and it makes us
uncomfortable and rubs us the wrong way, then maybe
we need to turn around too.
I like that. When people come to the Lord its because
they come under conviction, start getting rubbed the wrong way, and can only
find peace by turning around their lives. But children of God can get turned
around too, and if reading the word starts making our fur stand up we had
better start paying attention.
I'm starting the New Year reading through the Bible again.
I hope as I go that I'm going to be sensitive to the places that pinch and bind
a bit, places where the fur starts getting ruffled. I surely don't want to be
lulled into trailing off following the ways of the world instead of
strengthening my walk with the Lord. When that still, small voice inside me
starts talking I want to be listening.
Who would think just rubbing a cat would have such a
profound message?
Introducing Kevin and Kristen, didn't I just do that? Oh
yeah. But Joyce Anthony did it much better over on her blog interviewing first
him and then her so
I'm going to suggest you go over and take a look – the URL for it is http://joyceanthony
Are you remembering to write 2008 when you are called
upon to write a date yet? That's always a hard one for me but so far so good.
So many submissions that I receive just aren't a good fit
for the markets I'm currently trying to work in. That's a shame, and I hate to
have to tell that to people who are offering their babies to me. But they
deserve to have somebody who is well placed with the contacts to take their
baby to market. Still, that isn't the worst part. For me the worst is the fact
that I know I won't be able to sell everybody I'm trying to represent. I don't
even want to admit that to myself. My goal is to make it happen for every
single one that I take on.
Do I suspect who might not make it? Nope, I believe in
all of them or I wouldn't have teamed up with them. Is it possible we'll beat
the odds and all of them will be published by this time next year? Yes, it is
surely possible and together we're going to try and make it happen.
Together? Surprisingly enough my clients have woven
themselves together with me in a little writing community. We share leads and
comments and triumphs as well as consolation for near misses. We pray for each
other and encourage each other and I'm blessed to just be associated with them.
We had some sales in 2007, but is it possible for everybody to sell in 2008?
Don't count us out.
Okay, so Day One was eating blackeyed
peas and sauerkraut, watching football and the Rose Bowl parade, and taking
down the Christmas tree. I was operating under a prohibition to do nothing
writing related other than checking email when Saundra and mama weren't
looking. It's Day Two when we start to get down to the business of the new
year.
I did work out and eat a light lunch with an eye toward
shedding that ten or so pounds that need to come off. How'd that work out for
me? Great, I feel terrific. Well, actually I feel sore already, how would you
expect an old fat man unused to a great deal of physical exercise to feel when
suddenly subjected to it? But I'm gonna give it a shot.
I did manage to work in the writing time I promised
myself I'd do and have added about 2500 words to my work in progress. Probably
get another shot at it tonight. Looked over a contract for one of my clients
and have been trying to reach their legal department to discuss it, then I got
a promised submission off on its way. Now I'm working up another submission to
go as soon as I finish this little blog break. Have to change these things each
day if we want to keep people interested enough to drop by.
Let's see, exercise, writing, submissions and blog, does
that cover what I resolved I was going to be working on? Yes, and reading
through the Bible again in a year. I'll get today's portion of that done when I
have a little quiet time here after a bit.
One day in a row. As with most resolutions the task is
continuing to put one foot in front on another and keeping the resolutions
going. How are you doing on yours?
Winding down 2007 and trying to start the New Year in
good shape. I've managed to work through submissions that have bent sent to me
to the point where I have nothing in my hands older than a month unless
something has fallen through the cracks. I only have sixteen sitting here to do
and would like to get them done to start the year fresh. Of course they
continue to come in daily, so there's a question as to how current it is really
possible to be.
I do have 41 that I am waiting for the writers to send
me something. Maybe I've asked for a proposal on a query I liked, or perhaps
liked a proposal and asked for a full manuscript. At any rate, that isn't my
problem, it's up to the folks on the other end.
These numbers don't sound like much until you know that
they are what is left of over 900 submissions. Others may get more than that,
but it was a lot for me. With a fresh start or very nearly so, we'll see what
2008 holds.
The other side of the coin is working on submissions for
my clients, and I'm working up new ones to go out right after the holidays. I'm
blessed to be working with some terrific writers and I know they are all
gearing up for a really strong year as well.
So, a fresh start, positioning to hit the ground running
on behalf of my people, new opportunities to interface with editors already on
the calendar; bring on 2008, I think I'm as ready as I'm going to be.
The only time
I was able to do a very good job of
making and keeping New Year's resolutions was the
year I resolved to not make any more fool resolutions
I couldn't keep. I've kept that one for many years.
But this year is different. Maybe I do need to make
one and keep it. Oh, I could make one about my
walk of faith or my service to the Lord, but to be
honest, that's something I work on all the time and
constantly try to improve on.
This one is writing related. I spent so much of my time
this year representing my clients, and going to and presenting programs at 24
conferences and a number of other events, that I virtually gave up on my own
writing. I really don't want to do that and plan in the coming year to build in
a little writing time myself.
What do I plan on writing? I write inspirational fiction
and have a lifelong fondness for the old west. But even though I like that time
period I don't really write westerns, more like historicals,
and I tend to have many more female readers than male. I suppose I'll continue
to tell the stories I find on my heart to tell, and I imagine they will
continue to be fast-paced, simple little tales. Ernest Hemmingway I'm not.
Some of my tales have made it into print and been fairly
well received. I have others that have made the rounds and have never found a home.
I don't believe in doing major renovation to a story on the basis of a turndown
or two. That is, after all, only one person's opinion of whether it fits their
market or not. But when one has been looked at by a number of people,
particularly if some of the turndowns share common threads, then there is
probably a problem with the work itself that needs to be addressed. I have a
few of these that probably need to be rethought. Not tossed away, as the story
idea is not bad, but maybe needs a fresh approach. Maybe needs to be written
from the ground up. I may revisit some of these in the coming year.
I've also tried my hand at something new, and while
those new efforts have not borne fruit yet, I suspect they will be revisited in
the year ahead. One thing about working as an agent is that I am sent a number
of things that encourage me in my writing. That cause me to think I'm better
than that. Oh, but my goodness I get so many others that make me think these
people write so much better than I do, what makes me think I can write? Apart
from the agent function, as a writer that's quite a range of emotions. I
suppose as I set aside time to do some writing I have to divorce myself from
that process entirely. It isn't about how I compare to other writers, good or
bad. It is only about what I have to say myself and what I have to offer. I
just have to tell my little tales and let the Lord decide whether he has a
place for them or not.
I just know I still have stories on my heart to tell,
and I represent a wonderful group of people who have such stories as well. I'm
going to do my best to help them get their words out in the coming year . . .
and maybe a little of my own as well.
Christmas at my Grandma’s house was there ever such a
time?
And I a button scarcely large enough that I could climb
Upon the wing of Grandpa’s rocker, feet upon the rail
And watch him smoke his pipe & smile as I told him many a tale.
Christmas at my Grandma’s house and the tree would reach the ceiling.
The smell of cooking filled the air & the world was bright with
feeling.
From the height we looked the presents stacked more than halfway up the
tree.
And came back down near half the wall, and many of them for me!
Christmas at my Grandma’s house, and music filled the air.
Uncle Ray’s piano shook the room as he played without a care.
Uncle Bills fiddle took it high, Daddy’s guitar filled it in;
We kids supplied the chorus, though maybe a little thin.
Christmas at my Grandma’s house, but we always had to wait
For Uncle Edgar to get back home from the shopping trip he’d take.
We kids would gather round his door and try to peek inside
As he wrapped those final presents while the smallest of us cried.
Christmas at my Grandma’s house, and how excitement grew!
For though the gifts cost not too great neither were they too few.
As parents, aunts, uncles & cousins all bought something small
For each kid, and our eyes bugged out as our stack grew oh so tall!
Christmas at my Grandma’s house, and little did I know
That I was filling my heart so full of love that through the years would
go.
I still recall and see it clear, the faces plain as day
And though I live a hundred years, I’ll always feel this way.
For Christmas at my Grandma’s house is a fairy tale in time!
When love and laughter filled the air and everyone felt just fine.
It cannot be repeated, nor would I if I might;
For our own have been as special, but still there was that night....
When Christmas at my Grandma’s house made all the world seem right.
But now I would remember, and have YOU see that sight.
And as you celebrate this year comes this vision from the past
And I hope this time is just as good and hope these joys do last.
Yet above all of the wonderful times with
family and friends
we must be ever mindful that the reason for
the season
is the celebration of the birth of our Lord
and Savior.
Merry Christmas to you one and all . . . . .
Introducing Kevin and Kristen Collier
Kevin and Kristen are a husband and wife youth
writing team. The couple has
over 40
books
published either as author, illustrator, or both.
Kevin Collier, an award-winning children’s
author who is young at heart, is truly gifted by the
Lord to write for children. His first book was praised
as a "masterpiece of communication" by critic Diane
was selected by World Magazine (Dec. 6, 2006) as
"one of the 50 fifty best picture books of all
time." Kevin also writes columns and illustrates entertainment pieces for
several print and online magazines. The two have a 9-year-old son. Kevin also
teaches art and cartooning classes at local schools and colleges, is a writing
instructor for Writing Avenue, Inc. of Grand Haven. He has also had original
comic strips published in various
Kristen Collier B.A. in English from
I've been having a discussion with a
good friend who asked me about writing a book. He's been writing a lot of short
stuff and felt he was ready to step up to a larger work. I think I surprised him by asking him
questions, looking to see how motivated he was to do it. I think in the process
I learned some things about how much he wanted to do it and I believe he
learned a little about his own motivation as well.
Why was I asking? It seems to me
that the quality of a book is directly related to how motivated or driven the
writer is about accomplishing the project and doing it well. Good writers I talk to, even when they are doing
something else, seem to never have their current work far from their mind. Even if they have little time to invest in
writing, they are investing all they can. The priority of the work seems to end
up reflected in the quality of the prose.
When I hear that someone has spent
five years writing a book, most of the time that means one of two things. It
can mean they have been learning their craft and constantly going back applying
what they learned, growing as they write the work, or it can mean it was a very
low priority for them and it just took them a long time to do. The time is not
the problem, the priority is. Of course, if I were to represent a book that
took that long to write I'll admit I'd be a bit nervous whether the author
could meet a deadline on corrections, but that's another subject.
Sinclair Lewis said, "It is
impossible to discourage the real writers – they don't care what you say,
they're going to write." So if somebody says, should I write a book, then
I want to know "do you have to?" If they don't have to do it then
they probably shouldn't. Just wanting to write a book is inadequate motivation.
Having a story or stories on your heart that you simply HAVE to get out, that's
where good books come from. After playing with my friend's head a little I
think he might have what it takes.
Introducing
Joe Ragont!
Joe Ragont has been
involved in the Christian
Community for over forty years. He owns and
manages Ragont Design, a
graphic design firm
serving primarily Christian publishers and
organizations. His company provides creative
design and copywriting for books, catalogs,
newsletters,
brochures, etc. He has written and illustrated dozens
of
Bible-based leaders' guides and overhead transparency
programs. For thirty years he has led a weekly Bible
study
for men, and he is constantly sought after for
teaching and
speaking opportunities.