It's Almost Like It's Writing Itself...

Hard to believe. Despite how busy my life has become with working 2 jobs (firefighter & hospital trainer), raising a one-year old, and doing my best to stay in shape AND still be a decent husband, that I'm able to keep cranking out more and more of my new book.

To quote a certain Icelandic songstress: Sometimes the things I do astound me.

It's a great feeling. I'm in the groove, getting this crazy story down, one word at a time. I feel like I'm back to doing what I was put on this planet for. How crazy is it to think that I've got 7 more to write after this one is done? Hopefully I'll be able to keep up the pace I had with the 2nd book. 4 months for a rough draft? That's not too shabby, eh?

In other news, I've sent out a few queries to some unsuspecting agents. Yes, yes. Despite the mental stomach punch I received from the last 'snarky' agent, I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that some agent worth a damn will see the merit in my series.

More details as I get them. Just know this: I ain't done with this yet. Not by a long shot.

Back In Action

I've been itching to work on Book 3 lately and now I'm on the cusp of getting what I started 1.5 years ago (geez...that's awful) back on track. I'm going back to my 2 pages a day plan. If I can sit down and hammer out 2 pages (not perfect pages, mind you) I think I can get this sucker up and finished before summer starts.

I used a thing called the Zokutou Word Meter to keep me honest. Since I've already got around 11,000 some words done and I estimate the 1st draft will clock in around 100,000 words (that's a HIGH estimate) it shows a little bar of my progress. Find it on the left a little further down.

Anyway. It's on, yo. I've got to dip my head back into my characters world. 2 pages will be written before I even realize they're done. My goal is to have the rough draft done so that I can spend downtime during my July vacation editing the thing. I did it with Book 2 and I got TONS of work done. Plus, I felt cool editing the beast while sitting near the lake.

Wish me luck.

Kick In the Teeth

Well, nothing like a rejection letter to give you a nice, solid kick in the teeth and make you feel like you're COMPLETELY wasting your time.

I'd sent a query, 3-page synopsis, & 3 sample chapters to Michelle Andelman @ Andrea Brown Literary Agency out in Palo Alto, CA. I thought, sure. Why not? From what I could gather reading her short bio on the website, I figured she and I would sort of see eye to eye.

The thing that drew me to her name was that she was involved in film a bit. Since I have a film background and I've been told that my stuff reads much like a movie, in terms of pacing and what-not, I thought I'd give it a shot.

(Side note: I didn't say that my stuff reads like a movie in my query. I know that would be TERRIBLY amatuerish to do...)

Well, on 3.18.06, in a good mood, I pulled a familiar-looking return envelope out of the mail slot. Immediately, I knew it wasn't going to be pretty. And to me, it wasn't.

Written on the query letter I sent, were the handwritten words:

Kingsley -

Thanks for the look, but I'm sorry to say I don't see this premise as being strong or distinctive enough for the current market. While it's not quite right for either my representation or that of my colleagues here at this agency, I do wish you the best in finding the right agent and publisher for your work.

- Michelle

Some would say: "Well, at least you got a handwritten note! That's good."

I disagree.

While I know that this is the opinion of just ONE agent, it left me feeling like I'd completely wasted my time even thinking about writing this book. Boy, would she do a back-flip into the dumpster if she knew I'd written the 2nd in the series, am working on the 3rd and have 7 more planned.

Yeah...not distinctive enough.

Not to sound resentful or bitter, but so far 98% of the agents I've come in contact with, stink. They're smarmy little ego-maniacs that take pride in belittling those that have the guts to do what they obviously can't: write. It's enough to make me want to skip the agent altogther and try my luck going directly to a publisher.

I was at a Query Letter/Book Proposal workshop about a month back and it was led by Betsy Amster or something. She spent most of the time telling everyone who paid to hear her speak how 'overwhelmed' they are as agents and how their job is just so tough. In the same breath, she mentioned that she had readers that went through the 'slush' pile.

Ah...you're overwhelmed by the work that your readers do? Boy, oh boy. Please, sit down and have a Fresca. You're over-worked!

Also, we get it. There are terrible writers out there. Those who write awful, unspeakable query letters detailing pretty bad ideas. Great. Move on, though. Please. You're only making yourself sound petty. You're forcing the majority of the people at the workshop laugh at the 'good ones' you've saved. Sadly, they don't realize they're laughing at themselves.

So, it's all good. I'm still in the fight and no, I'm not discouraged. I just think it sort of grounded me temporarily and got me thinking:

What if I am one of those awful writers? What if I am beating a dead horse and my stuff is just not as good as everyone (friends and strangers alike) has been saying it is? Maybe this isn't what you're supposed to be doing, ol' KMC...

Then I snap out of it and realize: one way or another, these books are getting published. It's just going to happen. Simple as that.

The journey continues...

Coming Together? Mayhap...

Readers/Writers,

Well, it seems I'm back in the saddle. It's been a tough, uphill battle, but I've got the energy and the drive to get my stuff off the ground again. One of the biggest problems I've had in beginning work (or more work) on my 3rd book was that my first 2 were just languishing on my hard drive, not getting any attention or anything.

It's weird. The only thing I can compare it to is having two kids and then when a new baby is born, you ignore the first two. I have a hard time doing that.

So, I've made some pretty big leaps in getting Book 1 out the door and into the hands of a couple of place I think it might do well. We'll see.

First thing I did, however, was write a 3-page synopsis of Book 1. Anyone who knows me also knows that I would rather write 2 more 300-page books before having to filter it all down to a couple of decent, flowing pages. Somehow, I managed to do it, though. That's been a huge hurdle of mine.

I'll admit, I'm pretty lazy and easily distracted when I'm working something over and over and over again. I tend to want to create more stuff instead of re-hashing the old. So, for me to get this dumb ol' synopsis done is a major feat.

Secondly, I put together a nice, snappy little query letter. There is something to making sure you're directing it to the right people. I've made sure to be a bit more direct in why I'm sending my work to that particular agent/publisher.

Lo and behold, I sent the query, synopsis and first 3 chapters of book one to a publisher in the UK called The Chicken House. They published Cornelia Funke's The Thief Lord & Inkheart books. If you haven't read 'em, you should. The nightmare about the whole thing? Trying to send them IRCs (International Reply Coupons) so they can send my work back to me. It isn't a simple matter of putting a SASE in the package for them to send it back. Oh no. You'd think you could just go to the post office and they'd help you out. Uh-uh. No, I had to weigh the package, convert the weight from ounces to grams, figure out how much it would cost to send the stuff from the UK back to the US in Euros, convert Euros to dollars and buy as many IRCs as it would cost to get the whole works here.

Yeah. I wish I was kidding.

The final straw? Once I got everything figured out and went back to the post office, the dude almost sent the IRCs without stamping them. Without the stamp, they're completely useless. He sort of hemmed and hawed and said: 'Yeah, well. We don't use these very often.'

Right.

Besides that, I've also sent a similiar package to Andrea Brown Literary Agency in California. I sent it to one of the newer agents there because she has a bit of film background. She has worked on developing childrens stories for film and since I was a filmmaker (and still am, a bit) I sort of used that to entice her to read my entire book. It's a shot in the dark, but we'll see.

Also, I'm adapting a short piece I wrote into an even short piece in my (presumably) ill-fated attempt to get an early reader published. Not exactly my cup o' tea, but if I can get my name on something and maybe start building up a bit of a portfolio, I'm all for it.

Honestly? It's like pulling nails out of petrified wood with your teeth.

I'm going to be better about updating this site. I need to make something happen. Too much time has gotten away from me and I have a veritable TON of projects I want to get off the ground.

I'll be 34 in October. Time's a wastin'.