The velvet hammer
I recently got a very nice–and prompt–rejection from a literary agent in response to one of the partials I had sent out. It was still a rejection, of course, but it was a heck of lot more palatable than getting one saying Don’t quit your day job. It was, essentially, a velvet hammer rebuff. Here’s…
Read MoreIke 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.…
Read MoreA lot of people may not like Ike
The presidential campaign is off and running. And for those of us who have been around awhile (okay, quite awhile) we remember a campaign button from the days of yore that read “I LIKE IKE,” Dwight Eisenhower’s catchy little phrase. We’ve got another Ike around this weekend, and a lot of people may end up…
Read MoreLet’s not forget about Hanna
The Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters, the recon outfit featured in my novel EYEWALL, will be busy the next few days flying frequent missions into soon-to-be Hurricane Gustav. There’s a lot of concern over Gustav, and rightfully so. The cyclone seems almost certain to slice into the U.S. Gulf Coast sometime early next week, quite…
Read MoreLooking for an agent for EYEWALL
I fired off my first round of four query letters (via email) for EYEWALL on July 7. Within two hours I had a response from an agent with whom I’d had conversations about the novel at a writers conference in June 2007. At the time, I didn’t have a completed manuscript, but he asked me…
Read MoreLanding an agent
The most common method for a writer to find an agent is by sending out a query letter. It’s a one-page letter–probably about 30 seconds reading time–in which you tell the agent about your project: what kind of a novel (adventure, thriller, romance, etc.) it is, how long it is, and what it’s about. And…
Read MoreFinding a publisher
eople have asked me occasionally how I go about finding a publisher. For fiction, such as EYEWALL, it ain’t easy. First of all, if you have aspirations of playing in the big leagues, that is, of being published by a major publisher, you need a literary agent. That’s the only route to the Random Houses,…
Read More