Not a New Year's resolution, but a goal--something you wish to accomplish in 2009.
Me? I will send out query letters and get an agent. Shortly thereafter, you will be reading my Road to Publication story on this very blog.
"Oh," you say, "is that all? Why don't you hit the NYT bestseller list while you're at it."
I have confidence I can do it. This is coming from someone who hasn't even sent out a query letter yet. But, for some reason, I know I will get my book published. What's that old song by Journey? "Don't stop, believinnn..."
That song is now forever associated with Tony Soprano's demise. At least I think it was his demise.
I also hope to get out of the corporate whoring world of advertising.
Whatever, I digress. So what will you accomplish in 2009?
Check out that orange...whatever on Steve Perry. Classy.
I don't think I have the twenty-word pitch down for my book yet. Do you?
Let's say you're in the elevator with your dream agent and she asks you what your book is about. What do you say after sweating profusely and wondering if you have a nose hair sticking out of your nostril?
Here's mine. Which, um, I just made up on the spot. See, I've got skills.
Or maybe not.
The Glimmerlings & The Book of Sleep, in which twelve-year-old Max Hollyoak discovers he is not only half Fae but that he must stop the rebel King of Faerie from stealing the souls of children.
Jeez, 35 words.
I was looking at Cyn Balog's blog--wait a minute--she's got the word blog right in her last name. Sweet. Anyway, after rooting around for a while, I came across her blurb from Publisher's Marketplace:
Cyn Balog's SLEEPLESS, about a sandman who falls for a mortal girl whose sleep he controls.
Now that sounds like a hook. In thirteen freaking words. It's even got the conflict right in it. In fact, it makes me jealous. Damn, what an original-sounding idea. Uh, I need one of those.
So what's your pitch, if you want to share. Or even if you don't want to share it, do you have one?
I never thought my middle grade book, The Glimmerlings & The Book of Sleep, would get to 60,000 words. I thought I was done at 30. Yeah, right. It's gotten a lot tighter in the past few months, thanks to my awesome critique group: Elise Murphy, Michele Thornton, Juliette Dominguez and Janet Krusi, who has yet to enter the blogosphere. Come on, Janet!
They're all awesome writers and I encourage you to visit their blogs.
So what's the length of your latest WIP? And is it what you imagined it would be?
Woopee.
I will say that during the past year I have become much more serious about my writing and have met (virtually) some cool fellow writers who are all pursuing the same dream.
I never really thought it would be a place to get comments and such. I just did it to force myself to write something--anything--when the Muse was absent. So what were you thinking when you started your blog?
Presenting a very interesting list of Philip Pullman's favorite books.
I have to say, honestly, I've only truly read one of them: Maus by Art Spiegelman, and have browsed many others sitting on my dusty shelves. Voyage to Arcturus, Grimm's Fairy Tales, H.P. Lovecraft
How do you stack up against this heavyweight auteur?
Not that it matters. I've read a bunch of books that Pullman hasn't read.
So there.
