Writing
Brutal 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 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…
Read MoreThe 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…
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