Ike eyes Texas

Another weekend, another hurricane threat. Six days ago it was Ike (doing some saber rattling at Florida and Cuba), and guess what? It’s still Ike, now in the Gulf of Mexico after shunning Florida and lashing Cuba.

Now it’s Texas’ turn in the barrel, and the barrel could be a really bad place to be. Ike is forecast to crank up to major hurricane status (winds over 110 mph or Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) before thundering ashore sometime late Friday night or early Saturday morning.

Not much good can come from a landfalling Cat 3 or Cat 4 hurricane, but it is what it is. I guess from an authorial perspective, I can only hope the recent spate of hurricanes (Gustav, Hannah, Ike) raises the awareness of literary agents vis-a-vis the immense public interest in these fierce storms. There’s a vast potential audience for novels like EYEWALL out there: 86 million people live in coastal counties along the Gulf and East Coasts of the U.S.

Turning to my query letter ventures for a moment, immediately after I completed last week’s blog, I found I had a request from an agent for a partial (75 pages) of EYEWALL. So here’s my box score to-date: 12 queries sent; 1 request for the entire manuscript (exclusive expired); 1 request for a partial; 7 no-thanks; and 3 non-responses.

Photo: Ike again (a NOAA IR image from 9;45 a.m. Sept. 11.)
Ike is churning through the Gulf of Mexico, drawing a bead on Texas.