My batting average
Time for an update on my efforts to find an agent for INSIDE THE WEATHER CHANNEL. The bottom line is that I haven’t found full representation for the book yet, although a NY agent did tell me she had one particular publisher in mind that might like it. The agent said she’d be glad to…
Read MoreWhat’s the one thing…?
I asked novelist Steve Berry the following question at the Southeastern Writers Association workshop a couple of weeks ago: “What’s the one thing you know now that you wished you’d known when you started writing?” He didn’t hesitate with his answer. “How tough it was going to be,” he said. It’s a topic I’ve touched…
Read MoreBrutal Heat, Bugs and Broken Air Conditioners
Right up front, let me say that Epworth-by-the-Sea, a Methodist retreat on St. Simons Island, Georgia, is a lovely place to hold a workshop. Which is something the Southeastern Writers Association does every June. I just got back from my fourth workshop in five years there and fully intend to return. It’s one of the best writers’ conferences…
Read MoreWriter-in-waiting
Writers not only spend a lot of time writing, they spend a lot of time waiting. Waiting to get a response to a query letter (usually an e-mail) sent to an agent. Waiting to receive feedback from an agent on any “partials,” usually 50 or so pages of a manuscript, that might have been requested.…
Read MoreThe Turnaround Kid
The Turnaround Kid by Steve Miller isn’t the kind of book I typically read, but I loved it. Normally, you’ll find me with my nose buried in a novel: James Lee Burke, Alan Furst, Cormac McCarthy. Occasionally, I’ll detour into nonfiction, usually recent American history or religion. I suppose The Turnaround Kid fits into the…
Read MoreUpdate
Now that I’m retired, it’s full speed ahead on INSIDE THE WEATHER CHANNEL. You probably noticed I finally got around to updating my Website to reflect this new focus. I’m close to getting a proposal package finished, so will soon commence harassing literary agents. But first I’m going to dangle a portion of my proposal…
Read MoreInside The Weather Channel
Now that I’m about to pull the rip cord on my career as a meteorologist and float into retirement on my leaden parachute, it’s time to start thinking about taking my writing in a new direction. At least temporarily. Brian Jay Corrigan, 2006 Georgia Author of the Year (The Poet of Loch Ness) told me…
Read MoreYa just never know
I have a rather bizarre story to tell. I wrote a novel, my second effort, in 2002 called THE OLDUVAI CONSPIRACY. I can look back now and say it wasn’t very good. Needless to say, it never sold. I tossed the manuscript into a drawer and forgot about it–wrote it off as part of my…
Read MoreThe velvet hammer, part deux
The search for a literary agent goes on. Here’s my box score so far: 45 queries dispatched; 6 requests for partials (up to 100 pages of the manuscript) received; 1 request for a full manuscript (which I now believe wasn’t a serious request–but that’s another story). At least some of the rejections I’ve received have…
Read MoreYou’ve got to be a stubborn SOB
Novelist Steve Berry, one of my encouragers, told me, “If I can do it, you can do it.” Steve labored twelve years, completing eight manuscripts, querying 300 agents, and suffering through 85 rejections from publishers before his first novel, The Amber Room, was purchased by Ballantine. The book became a national best-seller. All of his…
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