Just the kind of day to induce one to stay in and at the computer. Looked nice enough this morning. The sun was out, the sky was blue, and only a few white clouds rode through the heavens. But they were propelled upon their way by a strong gusty wind. A cold wind that quickly changed one's mind about the weather as soon as one stepped out into it. As the day wore on, it clouded up and at my last glimpse, the sky was a solid leaden gray. And still the wind howls and whips through the trees and around buildings, scattering dry leaves with abandon.
To start the day, I slept in. That's pretty much habit for Saturday mornings, seeing as how I'm up so early during the week to go to work. Even with sleeping in, I was still up a little after six, and since the paper wasn't even here yet, I got a bunch of bills paid while having my first cups of coffee. Following that and a read of the local press which had finally arrived, I did some work here on the computer. That was followed by a run to check mail for the Inland Northwest Corvair Club and Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers. I also stopped and deposited dues that had been collected at Thursday's SASP meeting. Then it was back to the desk, a break for an early dinner and some television. (Watched an interesting show about Death Masks on the History Channel.) Now, I'm back on the computer again. Don't know if I've actually accomplished much or not today, inspite of all the time I've spent at the keyboard. A lot of it has been e-mail correspondence, particularly with regard to SASP. (www.spokaneauthors.org) Also filled out the chapter report and made out the check for the filing fee for the Corvair Club Chapter report.
Tomorrow, or even later tonight I intend to get a start on the monthly Rear Engine Review. I'd hope to have gotten to it a few days ago, but there was a lot going on with Spokane Authors. Last weekend a few of us were exchanging e-mails at a near record pace, trying to put a proposal together to present at the meeting this past Thursday. That then meant that I didn't get a start on an outline for my presentation until nearly the last minute. But I did finish it, and from all indications after the meeting, I did quite well with my little talk. (As I preside over the monthly SASP meeting, month after month, I find that my confidence and perhaps even my skill as a public speaker improves.)
Last time I mentioned that I was close to finishing James Rollins' THE LAST ORACLE. I finished it on Monday, and on Tuesday read the excerpt from the DOOMSDAY KEY that was included in the volume. Then I started PEOPLE OF THE WOLF by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear. If it is like PEOPLE OF THE RAVEN which I read a few years ago, it will take me a while.
That is probably about it for this time. But if you are so inclined, go to the top of the page and click on "friends." Then go down a few entries to jpsorrow 's entry about Chapter 6. If you are interested at all in what Joshua Palmatier writes, he has been given permission from his publisher to post the first six chapters of THE SKEWED THRONE. His post on "Chapter 6" has links to all six chapters. If you like what you see, he is also offering some really fine deals on purchasing copies of his books.
Well, it's either time to get busy on the newsletter or to relax a bit and get to sleep.
Dave
Sun, Nov. 1st, 2009, 08:38 pm
Another Week!
Sunday again! Another week gone by. Where does the time go?
A fairly busy life since I last posted. At work, the construction and remodel is complete for the most part. We are now operating in the refurbished areas and that's taking a bit of "getting used to." I don't think I left work on time any day of last week. Ended up with a lot of overtime from the five minutes extra here and there, so should have a nice pay check on the next pay day. Now I need to finish this post, get a shower and some sleep so I can tackle it all for another week.
I got fairly ambitious as far as sending out query letters and/or query packets last week. Wanted to get one or two out over the week end, but I was busy enough with other stuff that I didn't get a chance to. I've been trying to write out an outline for a presentation I volunteered to give at the next SASP (Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers) (www.spokaneauthors.org) meeting on Thursday. Besides that, the rest of the Board of Directors and I have come up with a couple ideas for future activites, and we have all been busy e-mailing back and forth, trying to build a proposal package for the membership. We wanted to get it done in time to send it out with the e-mail we send a few days ahead of the meeting. Said e-mail is basically a reminder to SASP members that meeting time is once again approaching. Besides finishing up the presentation outline, I also need to develop an agenda sheet for the meeting, and it is once again time to start work on the next issue of the REAR ENGINE REVIEW. Looks like it will be a busy week. If I'm lucky, I'll get time to work on Chapter Five of DARNAHSIAN PIRATES some more. (I did finish the scene that I'd started on when I got back into the story a few days ago.)
It's probably time for me to end this and get on my way to some sleep. Sorry to be so rambling.
Dave
PS: Nearly finished reading James Rollins' THE LAST ORACLE. One of those books that seems to get better and better as you read through it!
Sun, Oct. 25th, 2009, 10:06 am
Progress Update
Last week I mentioned that I had actually made some progress on DARNAHSIAN PIRATES. That continued on for another couple of days, and I've now added a little over three pages to chapter five. My plan is to do a bit more on it later today, once I've caught up on all the computer stuff I want to get to.
Didn't do much at the keyboard yesterday. It was fairly nice (a bit cool) out and I tried to do some outside stuff. Got the lawn mowed for what is probably the final time this fall, trimmed a couple of shrubs, and attempted to reinstall the five section wide angle mirror in my truck. Maybe I should have let the adhesive for the mounting button (on the windshield) set longer. It ended up pulling off again. Then I noticed that the right hand one was broken as well. I mounted the original mirror, which screws into the metal above the windshield and will use that for the next few days.
Today is a bit cooler, lots of white frost all over everything this morning, and it's getting foggy as well. A good day to stay inside and work on writing and other indoor type stuff. And as the SEAHAWKS have a bye, there is no football game that I'm sufficiently interested in to take me away from my computer endeavors. There is, however, game six of the ALCS (unless it's not rained out again), but it is not until late in the afternoon, and I'll be done with my efforts by then.
I'm still pressing forward with my querying efforts, and earlier today discovered an agent/agency that might be a good fit while looking at the Publishers Marketplace web-site. They want e-mail queries only, so I'll wait until the middle of the week to send it off. (I've heard that queries received over the weekend and cluttering up an agent's assistant's desk or computer screen tend to be more subject to rejection than those received in the middle of the week. Something about trying to get the stack or the file down to a managable level.) I did receive one rejection letter this week, but in a way it was good to receive it. It was a result of a query to an agent that I had great difficulty in tracking down any sort of contact information. Basically she said she was not accepting any new clients, but I feel relieved to know that she did get my query.
And before I forget, I received my free copy of the Fall Issue of SPOKE WRITE this week. All those who have their work published in it get a free copy. If I haven't mentioned it before, my essay, TENNIS BALLS AND BROADSIDES was scheduled to be published in it, and it was! In fact it is the very first piece in the collection. If you are curious about this particular writing effort, you can view it at www.annemini.com/?p=5092 If you are interested in what other folks in the Spokane Area are writing, you can go to www.graydogpress.com and order a copy of SPOKE WRITE. As a final reminder, you can also check out ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jpsorrowwho is posting the first six chapters of his first book, THE SKEWED THRONE. I think that as of Wednesday he had four chapters posted.
And now, I suppose it's on to bigger and better things. Hope you all have a great week!
Dave
Wed, Oct. 21st, 2009, 03:07 pm
On This Day...
...in Naval History, two very significant events occurred. In 1797, USS Constitution was launched. A short eight years later, Admiral Nelson and a British fleet defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet at Trafalgar.
Obsessed as I am with Naval activities of that era, I feel most fortunate to have been aboard Constitution for a turn-around cruise a few years ago. Interestingly, about a month later I was reading Patrick O'Brian's The Fortunes of War, in which Jack Aubrey and Steven Maturin are captured and transported to Boston aboard "Old Ironsides." While these two are fictional characters, the realization that I had recently trod the same decks that they supposedly had was an amazing sensation. It was also awe inspiring to think of the real people, among them at least one Pope, the Queen of England, and so many American Naval Heroes who had also been, or who had served aboard.
In connection with the second event mentioned above, I also had the privilege of touring HMS Victory while USS Forrestal, in which I then served made a visit to Portsmouth, England. Again it was awe-ispiring to be aboard such a famous vessel, a true remnant of the historic past, and to see the markers indicating where Lord Nelson was wounded and where he later died. Nontheless, a shipmate of mine ended up with the better deal when he toured the huge first rate. He was aboard for the last tour of the day and ended up drinking rum with some of Victory's crew in what had been Nelson's day cabin.
Dave
Well, amongst other things accomplished this weekend, I actually made a little progress on Chapter Five of DARNAHSIAN PIRATES. It was only about a page, but at the rate that chapter (and book) had been progressing, that was a huge step forward. Depending upon the time when I finish posting this, I might even see if I can't expand that fresh start a little bit. I've finished the first scene of the chapter and have moved into the second one. Doing so helps me define which of several paths I was contemplating taking with the story at this point. I had several ideas as to what should happen next, as well as a definite event that Pierce would become involved in. I suppose that the variety of choices at this point was why I could never get started and move on. But I have made a decision as to what occurs, and now perhaps I'll keep going along that route. Still, I know that next week, next month, or next year, I may decide that that was the wrong road to follow and eliminate it from the story. But for now I'm glad to once again have a road in front of me.
In order to stay the course and maintain a good pace of writing, I'm thinking to unofficially participate in NANOWIMO next month. I won't actually take part, but will try to use its presence to encourage steady progress on my part for the month. I'd like to get two or three more chapters done during November. Then I can feel like I'm making progress again.
With a couple of exceptions, the rapidly ending weekend turned out to be pretty good. Aside from the rare progress on my third book, I got more stuff updated on the Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers (SASP) web-site (www.spokaneauthors.org) and my own web-site (www.stoneislandseastories.com). Saturday I spent the afternoon at a farm north of Spokane, as one of the newer members of the Inland Northwest Corvair Club had invited us up for a Cider Fest. Only a few club members showed, but a lot of others came as well. The cars (Corvairs) were all parked together and got a lot of attention. And as most folks brought something for the table, there was plenty to eat, and of course fresh pressed cider to drink. Yum! Next year, I'll have to take along a couple of jugs so that I can bring some home. Better by far that what you can buy in the stores.
That will probably be it for this time, especially if I want to see I can progress a little on the writing.
Dave
Almost forgot, but the writers group I belong to met today for the first time in several weeks. One of the other members had something for us to review and critique, so I was thankful not to be the one in the "hot seat." No, I don't really mind, but it seems a little selfish to always be going over my stuff. We've gone over three chapters of this gal's latest project, and in my opinion, she has a possible winner! I don't know for sure where it would fit category or genre wise, although I can see it as being on the border line of URBAN FANTASY.
I don't know that the title/subject I've selected will actually have that much to do with this post. Still, I have this thing, this rule in my mind that I need to have something in that spot. And as I have no particular subject to rant or rave about today, such a subject line is probably as good as any.
To begin with, one of these days I shall be re-drawing and replacing the user-pic depicted at the top of this post. HMS Theadora is the ship Edward Pierce is serving on at the beginning of BEYOND THE OCEAN'S EDGE. I thought the representation of it, as shown above came out rather well. But I suppose I do the same with drawings as with my writing, and that is that after time I begin to see those things that could have been done a bit differently. Lately I've decided that both the fore and main masts need to be shifted slightly forward. And in reading through the very first chapter, I've discovered a technical discrepancy between the drawing and the text. The story mentions four carronades per side on the quarterdeck, and the drawing only shows two. So whether I change/redo the drawing or alter the story, I want the two to agree. I tend to think that the story is more true to what would have existed at that time. Thus it will be the pictorial representation of the frigate that gets redone.
Before I get around to doing that, I want to update and revise the drawing(s) of HMS Island Expedition as well. In fact, I've started several times and never seem to progress beyond a certain stage. What I have now (see user pics) just doesn't convey what I feel this vessel looks like. There are some peculiarities in its design that I am having trouble rendering in a convincing and authentic fashion.
Yes, to me creating these visual representations of the ships involved in The Stone Island Sea Stories is a form of research for writing them. I want the written and the visual depictions to match as much as possible. When a certain action takes place at a certain location on deck, I want to be able to visualize it in concrete terms. Thinking ahead, it might be that readers will someday also want to be able to see the ships and vessels in pictorial form.
Writing wise, I haven't accomplished a lot as of late. I do have some ideas for another leg of the overall story, one that has come about while engaged in my latest read. I suppose a year or so ago I developed an overall plot line while reading another book by this same author. I began weaving it into the tale as I neared the end of SAILING DANGEROUS SEAS. The one just conceived, however, will mean the eventual start of an entirely different story, but one that will eventually tie in with the current one. In other words, it will be a different series, a different tale, one that is set in the same location, but related events that happened hundreds or even thousands of years earlier.
My first idea for an overall, somewhat hidden plot line came while I was reading James Rollins' THE BLACK ORDER. My latest idea has come while reading his THE LAST ORACLE. Funny that work of an entirely different nature from what I write can influence me that way. Perhaps it is what he tends to imply in so many of his stories that intrigues me. So, unless it confuses anyone, I am currently reading THE LAST ORACLE. I'm probably a quarter of the way into it and enjoying it tremendously.
Over the past few weeks I've managed to send out a goodly number of queries. One has come back as a reject, but I've still not heard from the others. I had it in mind to query an agent who seems to deal with the type of books that mine seem to be, but it appears he is not accepting queries from new writers at the time. It's my goal to get as many as possible sent out before the industry takes a break over the Thanksgiving and the Holidays. Depending upon the results achieved, I may then attempt to submit to a local small press.
Right now I'm waiting for the fall edition of SPOKE WRITE: The Spokane / Coeur d'Alene Journal of Art and Writing to come out. My TENNIS BALLS AND BROADSIDES essay that I wrote for Anne Mini's AUTHOR! AUTHOR! First Periodic Awards for Expressive Excellence is supposed to be in it. By the way, you can see the effort at www.annemini.com/?p=5092
If you would be interested in seeing what others in the Spokane and Coeur d'Alene area are writing, copies of SPOKE WRITE can be ordered from Gray Dog Press. www.graydogpress.com
While I'm thinking of it, fellow LiveJournal user jpsorrow has gained permission from his publisher to post the first six chapters of his first book, THE SKEWED THRONE. You can go directly to his journal or to my friends page and scroll down to the appropriate entry.
I should end now. I still have some things to update on the Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers web-site www.spokaneauthors.org There's a football game this afternoon, and if possible I want to get the oil changed in the '98 Sidekick.
Sat, Oct. 3rd, 2009, 11:21 am
Car Deals
After needing to take the newly purchased Audi in for a repair, days after having bought it, we got to thinking that perhaps it was not the ideal vehicle. It was getting to the point where it was going to need various things repaired or replaced, simply because of the mileage on it. Unfortunately, because of what it is, those repairs can cost more than on many other cars. With that in mind, we contacted the dealer where we had bought it and arranged to trade it for something else. We ended up with a nearly new Suzuki SX-4. It only has about 4600 miles on it. Payments will be a little higher, but being as new as it is, the worry over possible repairs and their associated costs isn't there. Plus that it gets a lot better gas mileage and looks more like what you would expect to see a college student driving. Definitely the better deal over the long run.
Truly a fall day today, and a good one for catching up on stuff at the computer. As we are into a new month, the REAR ENGINE REVIEW, the newsletter for the Inland Northwest Corvair Club is due. Once I finish this week's post I'll be working on that. And since I'm trying to send out a couple of query letters each week, that'll be something to do as well.
I don't think I've mentioned my current reading projects for awhile. A week or so ago I finished THE REALM OF SHADOWS by Shannon Drake. From the way some of the cover material read, I suppose it was one of those vampire romances. I didn't really see it as such, even though the main protagonist was female. I suppose there was some romantic elements in it, but I read it more for the suspense and terror. It was a book that a co-worker had brought in along with several others she had read. I picked it out of the selection along with two others that I've recently added on to my "what I've read" list.
Since then I've also read ANGELS THREE-SIX: CONFESSIONS OF A COLD WAR FIGHTER PILOT. Its author, Col. Chuck Lehman is a member or Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers. (www.spokaneauthors.org) and I bought the book when our local Hastings had a mass book signing a month or so ago. Next up for me is an unpublished short story that a friend of mine wrote. I should have taken it to work yesterday but I forgot and ended up looking at magazines on my lunch hour.
That should do it for this time.
Dave
Earlier today, while I was doing the "guy thing" and watching baseball and football, Jessica announced that she was going to the store for a few things. So, she went out, got in her car and drove off. I had this tremendous urge to tell her to be careful, to call me if she had any problems, and to remind her that she is a newly licensed driver and that again she should be careful. I refrained from doing so, she left, and after a couple of hours she returned, safe and sound with the car intact.
As a DAD, I still see her as the little girl entering kindergarten or riding her bike with training wheels still attached up and down the street. But I know that she is now a high school graduate, a licensed driver, a first year student at Eastern Washington University, and old enough to be considered an adult in all matters except for the consumption of alcohol. Yet I know it will be a long time before I can watch her leave the house as she did today and not worry about her.
Dave
I think I've mentioned that the Spokane Club at Fourth Avenue where I work is currently undergoing renovation and remodelling. Sometimes that can make the job a little hectic and confusing. For example, there were a couple of days in the previous week when they were painting the area where the time clock is. Because it was sealed off to prevent paint from getting where it wasn't wanted, we could not get to our time cards or the clock. However, management is pretty understanding about such stuff, so we'll each just put a note on our individual card when they close out next week. It usually happens that someone ends up forgetting to "punch in" or "punch out" now and then. A note is usually all it takes.
The past week was a little more relaxed and it seemed that we could work a little more efficiently. Friday (yesterday) was a little confusing as new carpet was going in, and at the same time office furniture that had been removed to storage was being returned. Made it all the more worthwhile to know it was FRIDAY!
I mentioned last time that we ended up buying a slightly used Audi A6 for Jessica. As luck would have it, the CHECK ENGINE light began to stay on and flash. According to the book that could indicate a problem that might damage or destroy the engine. Called to have it taken in and looked at. Turns out that it is a fairly common problem with that year and model, as well as being a fairly common problem with many of the newer cars. Rather than the single ignition coil of days of yore, these newer vehicles have one per cylinder/sparkplug. Evidently, one had malfunctioned, lighting the light and causing it to run rough in idle. The service rep said it might even have been caused by them detailing the engine compartment in prepping the car for sale. Quite possibly some moisture got into it and... Didn't cost anything, however, so I guess it's a good thing we got the extended warranty with it. Now I'll have to see if she'll let me drive it now and then.
After the car buying adventure last Friday, the trip to Palouse on Saturday, and the Corvair Club's Tech-n-Tune on Sunday, this weekend is pretty much one of doing nothing. At least it is one of not going anywhere or doing anything away from the house. I did get the yard mowed today, and tomorrow I'll get a query letter or two ready to mail out Monday. I do have a feeling that I might be watching a good deal of television as well. The Mariners play in the morning, and the Seahawks in the afternoon, and I'm sure I'll end up viewing both games. I'm anxious for the M's to pick up at least one more win this year. One more and they will finish at at least .500 for the season, a great improvement over last year.
More next time!
Dave
And it was, too! Seemed that I was on the go from soon after I got home from work Friday afternoon.
First, I suppose that I should explain that our daughter, Jessica, who graduated from high school a couple of months ago had never gotten around to getting her driver's license. The past few weeks of this summer, however, she's made a concentrated effort to practice her driving and go take the test. She did that Thursday and passed. YAY!! Knowing she'd need something to drive when going to college in a few days, we relented and decided to buy her a car. Well, while I was a work Friday, Eva and Jessica went car shopping. I had just gotten out of the shower and was ready to sit down with my coffee and paper when I got called. They'd found one and thought I should come up and see it.
Now, I've probably mentioned it before, but I have two old Corvairs, one of which runs at this current time. I also have a '98 Suzuki Sidekick, which while fairly new, especially compare to the two rear-engined air-cooled Chevies, is still a basic no-frills vehicle. Yes, I do have to wind the windows up and down by hand. And it has a manual transmission, which means neither Jessica or Eva can drive it. Eva has a Toyota Highlander, which has always seemed to be the ultimate vehicle in our household. Now I thought that we'd end up getting a smaller SUV or a compact car, automatic of course for our neophyte driver. I figured that something that would be good for winter driving would be a prerequisite, as would a reasonable price and reliability. Therefore, you can readily imagine my surprise when they called and explained that they had found a 2003 Audi A6 for just over the limit we had decided on for an addition to the family garage. It has so many options and standard features that the Highlander looks like a barebones basic econo-box vehicle. Finishing up all that took the rest of the afternoon, so Friday was basically shot for me.
Saturday I went to Palouse for the annual town festival. Yes, it's mysteriously known as "Palouse Days," and they have a huge car show in conjunction with it. Took the '62 Corvair Rampside Pick Up, and although I didn't expect to win anything, especially as I hadn't even washed it, and it is developing a good case of ferrous acne, I nonetheless parked it along with all the pristine show cars in attendence. There was a fabulous looking '55 Nomad to one side of the truck, and an immaculate 2nd generation Camaro on the other side. Even so, I had a lot of lookers and in general many favorable comments about the old rig. And as I walked around the park and looked at all the vehicles there, it was quite evident that not all of them were really show quality. Some were simply older vehicles that ran and whose owners brought and showed them with pride.
One of the events the show organizers have along with hosting the car show is a poker walk. I've always participated but never have expected to win. My luck just doesn't run that way. So later in the afternoon when door prizes, trophies and the like were being given away, I was surprised as can be to find out that I had garnered "top hand" and was awarded $150. A most profitable day indeed, as I had spent less than $30 for registration, a t-shirt, a double-cheese burger, and a funnel cake. I also stopped by the town library where they were having a book sale and found a paper back copy of PEOPLE OF THE WOLF by W. Micheal Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear. I paid $.50 for it. Having read their PEOPLE OF THE RAVEN a couple of years ago, I thought it would be something I'd want to read sometime soon. (With this purchase and the ones I made at PNWA and the recent mass book signing at our local Hastings, I should have plenty of reading material for the next several months.)
As it turned out, the lady working the counter for the book sale is also president of the Inland Empire Chapter of Romance Writers of America. I guess we had e-mailed each other a time or two after that group put on their one day conference last March. I'd suggested that perhaps that group, along with some of the other local writing groups such as the Idaho Writers League, Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers, and the Inland Northwest Writers Guild might want to consider banding together to host a writers conference sometime in the future. I'm not saying any such thing will happen, but if enough folks and organizations get involved, there is no reason why a most successful event couldn't happen right here in the Inland Northwest.
I spent a large part of today outside Coeur d' Alene at one of the Corvair Club member's house. It was another "tech-n-tune" session where folks could get stuff done on their cars. I had hoped to see if anyone would have a chance to adjust and sync "Tim's" carburetors, but never got around to it. I did make contact with an individual who says he can do the welding I need to have done where the frame is starting to rot away. Hopefully we can get to that in a few weeks, ideally before cold weather gets here. It will be nice to drive down the road with out that nagging thought in the back of my mind that perhaps the whole back portion of the truck, including the engine, might just decide to fall off.
Well, exciting or un-exciting as it was, that was my week-end. I put over 200 miles on the old truck, and it did well. Now I'll finish this, watch a tad more television and go to bed. That 4 am start time for work will be here before I know it.
Dave
Sat, Sep. 12th, 2009, 09:08 pm
Favorite Music
If you should take the time to go through this LJ page's archives, you might find a post in which I talk a little about the "current music" entry that accompanies each post. If I remember correctly, and I'm too lazy to search through past posts myself, I mentioned that I'm probably not actually listening to that particular song as I write the journal entry. Rather I just name a song that I've heard recently, or one that ties in with my current mood. It's quite probable that I'm not listening to anything at all while on the computer.
My active listening time is usually when I'm driving. If I have the radio on, it's usually tuned to a country station or an oldies rock station. If I'm playing a tape or CD, it's usually one that fits into the above categories, but I have a few CDs and tapes that will lead me far far away from those genres. I have a few classical music CDs, some with big-band, jazz, and pop music from before it was rock and roll. I even have a little bag-pipe music.
Some years ago while on break at work, folks got to talking about what their all-time favorite song was. I hadn't really thought about it before, but when I did, I came up with three that I've liked ever since I was a little kid. The first is EL PASO by Marty Robbins. The second, NORTH TO ALASKA, by Johnny Horton and the third, RING OF FIRE, by Johnny Cash. Please note that this is not in any order of preference. I suppose the thing for me about El Paso is Marty's voice and the harmonies. In many ways it harkens back to groups such as the Sons of the Pioneers. I remember hearing North to Alaska, right after my folks, my sister, and I had moved to the "lower forty-eight" from what would soon become our forty-ninth state. It was a reminder of the place I'd lived for the first six and a half years of my life. It's the horns in Ring of Fire that grab me. As it is a fairly short recording, especially by today's standards, the repeat function on the CD player is really neat. Fact is, I'll usually select "repeat" whenever any of these songs happen to be playing.
On the "oldies rock" side of things, most things by the Beatles find a spot near the top of my all-time favorites list. I probably like the earlier stuff the best, although I've always thought that the collection on Rubber Soul was the sharpest, cleanest, and most classical sounding work that they ever did. As one who grew up during those years when the "Fab Four" were at the very pinnacle of the music world, I find it heartening to find so many of today's younger folks, my daughter included, fascinated with their music. It's timeless.
Other groups and individuals whose music I find appealing include, and in no particular order of preference or type of music: Jim Reeves, Merle Haggard, The Kentucky Headhunters, Loretta Lynn, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Red Sovine, The Beach Boys, Fats Domino, and many, many others. For every one I've named there is probably two or three that my memory just isn't capable of remembering right now.
So to re-cap... As usual for me, I'm not listening to anything right now. Yet, when I finish the post and list "mood," and all those other things at the bottom of the page, a particular song will come to mind and I'll list it in the "music" section.
Dave
In many ways, the past week was busy, and one of accomplishments both large and small.
At work, the facilities reopened on Tuesday. We are still under construction in some areas, so a lot of things are temporary and relocated. I did notice that the repositioning of certain areas changes my routine. What had become nearly automatic now takes some planning to accomplish. I probably notice this most when I first get there, as at 4:00 am, I'm usually operating on memory.
One of the things they did while we were closed was to resurface the tennis courts. Now they are very much like sandpaper and the fuzz comes off the balls with the slightest provocation. (See www.annemini.com/?p=5092) That means my task of cleaning the courts is even more vital. And of course the powers to be seem to be paying more attention to the courts and worrying about every little ball mark and shoe scrape. The sweeper will get the fuzz, the dust ground off of the players' shoes, and the dirt that naturally filters in, but it won't immediately remove marks that are imbedded in the surface. Even if I "crank" the brush down so that it makes more contact, all it really does is wear the brush out faster. And if I lower it too much, pushing it becomes harder, almost as if it had brakes that were on.
Besides renewing the court surfaces, they also have repainted the walls and ceiling of the court areas, and have put up new curtains, divider nets, and court nets. They also revised the numbering system as to which court is which. I contributed a little at this point, designing the numbers and then taping them off so our "engineer" or maintenance person could paint them. I have to say that they came out looking good! (Whether it was my efforts at taping, or his skill in painting them, I don't know.)
On Thursday, Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers (SASP, www.spokaneauthors.org) met for the first gathering of the official "season," which runs from September through May. (For the past two years we have met in the summer months, simply because people have wanted to stay in contact.) Our program was a presentation by one of our members who talked about his trials and efforts in geting his book published. We did learn, however that our Treasurer is quite ill and may not be able to keep up with her duties. For the time being, I and the other officers will be able to fill in. I'm also listed on the account and have a key to the post office box. But we might need a new or at least an interim Treasurer for a while. More importantly though, we all wish Elizabeth a successful treatment and a speedy recovery.
We had a grand selection of door prizes to give away. One was a copy of Joshua Palmatier's
(jpsorrow)THE SKEWED THRONE. You may remember that I won it in a contest he ran a month or so ago on his LJ page. Since I already have a copy, I donated this one as a door prize. Another SASP member brought a couple copies of advance reading copies of books that she had acquired in her editing work. She donated them as well. And we should be set for at least one good door prize next month. A few months ago, a writer in New Mexico contact SASP regarding his book, REVISING FICTION: MAKING SENSE OF THE MADNESS. He had sent along some excerpts allowing us to post them on the SASP web-site, and promising to send us a copy of the book when it was released. Well, I checked SASP mail yesterday, and the book is here. Having glanced through it, it seems to be a very thorough guide and should do wonders for whoever should happen to end up with it.
As to my progess, I'm planning to fire up the query engine later this week. If I get those queries I plan to send in the mail sometime close to next weekend, they should arrive at the respective agencies after enough time has elapsed that the agency screeners or agents have had a chance to wade through the glut that has accumulated during August vacations and over the Labor Day weekend. One agent/agency that will be receiving a query is one that I've been interested in for a very long time. However, I've never been able to find any contact information for her. A few weeks ago, a friend sent me an e-mail address, but it appears that I mistakenly deleted the e-mail the information was in. Hoping against hope, I "googled" the agent, hoping to find her e-address. Lo and behold, I actually found a mailing address! You can bet that she will be one of the first that my next round of query letters will be going out to.
Lastly I finished up the September issue of the REAR ENGINE REVIEW yesterday. It's been e-mailed, and once I finish this, I'll get to work on printing out the hard copies. I can mail them Tuesday when the Post Office is open again.
I hope that everyone is having a great Labor Day Weekend!
Dave
Sun, Aug. 30th, 2009, 07:54 am
Book Signing!
As I mentioned yesterday, our local Hastings held a mass book signing during the afternoon. While I don't yet have anything that could be signed and sold, I went by for a while to offer my support and somehow feel that I was participating. To my surprise and delight, Trish, the Book Manager at this particular store had rounded up over two dozen authors. Several were members of Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers. (SASP www.spokaneauthors.org) Others were self-published or locally published writers who do not have a connection to the previously mentioned group. Still others were local authors who had been published in the more traditional way. If anyone is familiar with the crime stories of Frank Zafiro, he was probably the biggest name there.
My impression was that those attending and participating thoroughly enjoyed the experience, even though sales were not as robust as could have been hoped for. In a way, the afternoon was like a mini-conference, with writers meeting other writers and exchanging ideas and encouragement. On occasion, regular customers in the store stopped by, and I believe a few even bought a book or two. Trish and I agreed that perhaps the response would have been better, at least with regard to the buying public, if we would have had the appropriate publicity. She had sent the information about the event to the local paper, but no one I spoke to had seen any mention of it in recent issues of the Spokesman-Review. Several attendees suggested that perhaps such an event would do better as we move into the fall and as the Holiday Shopping Season approaches.
To me the event was a close parallel to the "autograph party" held one night at the PNWA (Pacific Northwest Writers Association www.pnwa.org) Conference. As I usually do at that event, I made the rounds and picked out a few books that I would like to read. Had the authors sign them, bought them, and then came home. As a matter of fact, I probably bought more than I should have, at least in terms of cost. I had stopped by the bank on my way there and had withdrawn a little cash from the account. But when my purchases were totalled up, the amount was close to what I had in my pocket, and wanting some of that for other things during the week, I ended up putting the purchase on "plastic."
Now, with what I bought yesterday, and with what I bought at the PNWA Conference a month or so ago, I should not lack in reading material for the next several months.
As to my own writing? It seems that I always have some sort of project to get finished, and thus progress on DARNAHSIAN PIRATES has slowed to a crawl. Over this next week, and perhaps through next weekend, I'll be doing the next issue of the REAR ENGINE REVIEW. Also coming up is the next SASP meeting. That means one computer session of preparing a meeting agenda or guide, and another after the event to update the website and prepare a new PRESIDENT's PAGE. I've got SASP members whose books I've read wanting reviews, and.... Beyond that, there's yard work, and as the weather cools a little bit this fall, I have the Corvairs that need a little (quite a lot of) work. There's also the possibility of revisions and edits to both BEYOND THE OCEAN'S EDGE and SAILING DANGEROUS WATERS. So while I probably shouldn't do it, my actual writing seems to take a back seat to everything else that's going on.
I might even need to curtail my efforts at posting and divert a bit of that into continuing the STONE ISLAND SEA STORIES. Yet, now that I have this Live Journal, I feel I should use it. While I know that not many are likely to be reading it, I write it with the feeling that many, many folks peruse it on a regular basis. Thus I feel a sort of responsibility to post on a fairly regular basis. From my own experience, it can be disappointing to follow a "friend's" LJ page and then not see any new posts for weeks or even months at a time. I just don't want to provide that sort of discontent with any of you who have me on your friends list.
The Sunday Paper has finally shown up, so I guess I'll call this quits for now and go read it. Then perhaps I'll get outside and get some stuff done!
Dave
Which of course means I did not have to get up and go to work, a situation for which I am extremely grateful. As one who puts in the traditional forty hours a week, I look with great expectation towards the weekend. If for anything else, I enjoy the ability to sleep in!
I may have mentioned the last time I posted that my work schedule over the past week was a bit different than it usually is. Because the Spokane Club at Fourth Avenue was shut down for renovation, there was no need for me to be there at 4:00 am everyday. Instead, I went in at 6:00 and came home a corresponding two hours later. One would think that this would have allowed me the privilege of staying up a bit later as well, perhaps to finish watching a Mariner's game or view other rarely seen television programs. Instead, I found that I would be nodding off and ready for bed at roughly the same times that I always am. That was true even later during the week when the extra hours of sleep should have had an effect. I'm inclined to believe that this was due to the different sort of work I ended up doing. I was no longer engaged in my normal daily routine. There were many things I wanted to do, things that I normally don't have a chance to get to on a regular basis. While I did get a start at them, those in charge also came up with many things that needed doing. Needless to say, we were all busy. Monday is supposed to be the last day that the facility is closed. I'm assuming that we'll use the day to put things back or rearrange so we can open again on Tuesday. The scope of renovations however mean that some work will still be going on, so a lot of the facilities will be of a temporary nature.
Later today I'll go up to our local Hastings store. The manager there is really supportive of local authors and is holding a mass book signing from 2:00 to 5:00 pm. Several SASP (Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers www.spokaneauthors.org) will be taking part, as will other writers from the Spokane area. When I last spoke to the manager, she mentioned that about twenty people had signed up. Sadly, I do not yet have anything that I can sign, but I'll go to support and help those that do. More than likely I'll by a few books, even though I still have plenty lying around that I haven't read. Books are a timeless treasure, so even if one sits on the shelf for years, it still has the same potential as it did when purchased or received. My secret hope is that this event will prove successful and will be repeated. Next time I just might be able to sign something. No, I'm not that close to having any of my Stone Island Sea Stories published, but the little essay I wrote for Anne Mini's Author! Author! Contest for Expressive Excellence (www.annemini.com/?p=5092) is supposed to be in the next edition of Gray Dog Press's (www.graydogpress.com) SPOKE-WRITE. As I see it, anyone in the store who would happen to by a copy could then have the potential of having several of the contributing authors sign it.
Speaking of SASP, our next meeting will be this Thursday. We'll have one of our members speaking about his experiences in getting his book published. In addition we will have a unique and worthwhile door prize to offer the holder of the lucky ticket. A few weeks ago I won a copy of THE SKEWED THRONE by Joshua Palmatier (jpsorrow ). As I already have a copy, I will donate this signed copy as a door prize. Hopefully the winner will enjoy it and become a fan of Joshua and his THRONE OF AMENKOR series.
I have one other project in mind for the weekend. That is to fix the interior rear view mirror in "Tim," my '62 Corvair Rampside pick-up. I've installed one of those long five section "Wink" mirrors in it, something I do with al most any vehicle when I buy it. It currently mounts via a couple of pads glued to the windshield, much as many mirrors do today. However one of the pads is starting to tear away from the windshield, and I cannot adjust the mirror as I would like. I guess the solution is to go to the nearest automotive store and get a tube of glue made for such applications. Don't want to drive the truck until I get that fixed. In its current condition, I don't have the rearward visibility I want, and I'm a little nervous that it might come loose at an inopportune time. Perhaps after I drop by Hastings for a while, I'll head on up the street to Schucks and get what I need to fix it.
If the weather is nice later today or tomorrow, I should also mow and trim the lawn. And since I've no doubt bored any readers of this into a stupor, I should probably end now.
Dave
Last Sunday's Corvair Club Picnic went well, even if it was somewhat sparsely attended. Jessica and I were the first to arrive, and we got there about ten minutes before the announced start time. Of course at events like that, precision arrival times are not important. The first hour or so was spent in general conversation as additional members arrived, most in their Corvairs, and then we ate. Our host member (and the club) provided hotdogs, hamburgers, buns, and condiments, while everything else was brought by those attending. I had hoped that Eva would have been able to make pancit, adobo, fried rice, or perhaps even lumpia for us to bring. Unfortunately she has a lot going on and wasn't able to. Therefore we simply brought a small tub of pre-made potato salad. It seems like a lot of those attending also didn't have the time to make anything from scratch, as we had about four different kinds of salad. The one dish that was homemade was a crockpot full of the best baked beans I've had in a long time.
Of course one of the things I wanted to determine from the drive to and from the picnic was the mileage that "Tim" would get. Since I got "him" running again in June, gas mileage has been pretty dismal. I'd definitely notice a hole in my budget if I had to drive "him" every day. Once every third or fourth work day I can manage. I topped off the tank the day before the picnic, and the day after returning I gassed up again. I didn't want even a single trip to work to mess up the mileage calculations for the trip. And yes, the mileage experienced over the ninety or so mile round trip was much better than what I'd been getting around town. In rough figures I showed about a 50% improvement. Still, what I got on the picnic trip is closer to what I should be getting overall and around town. We also noticed a distinct lack of power while going up a long, fairly steep grade just before we turned off the main road to our destination. We were probably doing a good 60 mph at the bottom of the hill. With my foot all the way to the floor, we nevertheless slowed down as we climbed the hill. We gained the top doing about 30 mph. Although I'd never driven this particular hill with this particular vehicle, I have driven up others that are similar and know "he" should have done better. Perhaps I will need to take "him" to the club's next "TECH-N-TUNE" and have one of the club experts adjust the carbs, etc. Or it just might be that there are other problems with the engine that prevent it from running at full strength and with the efficiency it should.
This coming week should be interesting as far as work is concerned. The Spokane Club, Valley Facility is closed until September 1st for renovation. While many of the administrative types will be off, those of us in the maintenance end of things will still be working. Hopefully we will be able to get to some of those areas we never get a chance at when the club is in operation. And because no members will be showing up to play tennis, I won't have to go in so darned early to clean the tennis courts before they arrive. Rather than starting work at 4 AM, I'll be starting at 6. The fact that I will be able to sleep an extra couple of hours in the morning will seem almost like a vacation to me. And I'll still be home around 3 or so, and since this will be closer to a "normal" day shift schedule, perhaps I'll have a bit more ambition once I am home.
The little writing group I'm in met earlier today. I passed along a hand-out I'd picked up from the PNWA Conference about "starting a writing group" and we all agreed that we were pretty much doing it by the "book." Basically we decided to keep going as we have been as the way we've been doing it seems to work for the group. Hopefully the one point that the hand-out emphasized will get us all on the ball to have something ready for review when we are the one scheduled. If no one else has anything we usually review the next chapter in my work. While I appreciate the consistency of having my stuff reviewed, it gives me an uncomfortable feeling of selfishness and using the group to my advantage. But as the others don't seem to mind, and as we did need something to review and critique, we went over Chapter 14, DESTINATION FOUND, of BEYOND THE OCEAN'S EDGE. To me, this is one of the milestone chapters in the story, as it is where the fantasy aspect of the story becomes readily apparent. Members of the group felt that in this respect the chapter worked well. They also pointed out a few fairly minor problem areas, such as word repetition, things that I'll be able to fix without much trouble.
So, where am I at with regards to finding an agent? I think I've mentioned that my scheduled pitch at the PNWA Conference (www.pnwa.org) did not go as well as it could have. The particular agent and I simply did not match up. I speak briefly to another agent who is familiar with stories/series that tend to cross between genres as I believe mine do. With her verbal permission, I've queried the agency and have been invited to submit a more "formal" query. That is, the query letter plus pages. Also as a result of some detective work by a friend of mine who is more deeply entrenched in the writing and publishing world, I have an e-mail address for an agent who has been handling a series of stories that also seem not to fit neatly into any one genre or category. But as this same friend reminds people every year, many agents and their staffs tend to be on vacation about now. Therefore I'll probably wait until September is well underway before I do any more querying or submitting. As it has been explained to me, one does not want his or her material to be in the stack of queries and submissions that accumulates while the agent/agency screener is gone. Nor does one want to send material so that it arrives while said agent/agency screener is still trying to whittle that pile down to a more managable size. So around the second week of September, I'll dig out my basic query letter and update it to match the agent(s) that I'll be querying. I might also work up one and send it along to our local Gray Dog Press.
Lest I forget, for anyone who is in or will be in the Spokane area next Saturday, 29 August, give great consideration to stopping by the Hastings at the corner of Ash and Wellesley. The store manager is setting up a mass book signing with as many local authors as she can gather. (At last mention, I believe she had around 15 authors scheduled.) The event runs from 2PM through 5PM. While I don't have anything published yet, I plan to go up for a while. As many of those planning to participate are members of SASP, I feel can help support them simply by being there. In addition, I'm sure to find a few books that I like and will no doubt buy a few. After all, I need stuff to read on my lunch breaks at work.
As for what I am reading, I finished SHOOT/DON'T SHOOT by J. A. Jance on Wednesday. As I still had a few minutes left on my lunch break, I started in on SEA CHANGE by Robert B. Parker.
More next time,
Dave
Don't you just love it when a plan comes together? Or how about planning to get certain things done and actually doing most of them? Well for once yesterday went pretty much as I had planned it.
It's always been my goal on non-work days to spend the mornings at the computer and the afternoons doing outside stuff... automotive work, yard work, and the like. Many times though I get into a computer trance and can't seem to shut the thing off and get on with the other stuff. Yesterday I managed to get the stuff done at the keyboard that I wanted to do, and since the weather was just about perfect to be outside, I got to it.
Got the lawn mowed (although not trimmed, because I did that a few days ago), the oil changed in "Tim" my '62 Rampside pick-up, and played with idle and mixture adjustments a little. Also washed the engine. It's so much nicer to work on a clean power plant than it is to delve into an engine bay covered in oil, grease and grime. My ambitious day did not stop there, for I also washed the entire truck and "Ichi" the '98 Suzuki Sidekick. Also got the truck windows coated with "Rain-X." If you never tried it, you should. If applied properly it lets rainwater bead up and roll right off. If you are at any speed at all, you almost don't need wipers. At the very least you can run the wipers on a much slower speed than you normally would.
If the Sunday paper had been here when I got up this morning, I'd be reading it now instead of posting here. But since it wasn't I decided to do this while having my morning coffee. Figured that if I was going to do anything "here" I should do it early. Around 11:00 we'll be leaving for the Inland Northwest Corvair Club picnic. As I mentioned earlier, it should be interesting to see if "Tim's" gas mileage improves.
Dave
Sat, Aug. 15th, 2009, 09:25 am
Door Prizes!
You may recall from an earlier post that I was fortunate enough to win a copy of THE SKEWED THRONE in a contest jpsorrow was holding. The book arrived in very good condition a couple of days ago. As I have it in paperback form and have already read it, it is my intention to use this new hard cover copy as a door prize at the next meeting of Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers (SASP) www.spokaneauthors.org.
Earlier this summer, SASP was contacted by an author who had written a book on revising fiction. He offered the group a chance to post a few of his chapters/articles on the website and promised to send along a copy of the book when it was released. I recently received an e-mail from him stating that our copy of the book would arrive shortly. I believe it also will make a great (and useful) door prize at a future SASP meeting.
Now if you happen to wonder why authors would give away copies of their books, rather than demand payment for every copy that ends up in a reader's hands, I think the answer can only be...PUBLICITY and ADVERTISING. Hopefully, who ever ends up with that autographed copy of THE SKEWED THRONE will like it enough to buy and read THE CRACKED THRONE and THE VACANT THRONE, completing the Throne of Amenkor Series. I'm sure jpsorrow is betting that these folks will enjoy them enough that they will want to read his newer work as it comes out. At the same time SASP has been allowed to post excerpts from Kirt Hickman's book, and very soon one lucky member will be in possession of a copy. The excerpts and an enthusiastic review from that reader/user will convince other SASP members or their writing friends to purchase the book as well. As word spreads, both about the availability and overall great treat of reading either book, demand for copies (and sales) can only go up.
Then again there that inner divide that most authors/artists experience. While most certainly want the sales and the resulting money, some also want the knowledge that their books are "out there" and being read by thousands of people. It also might be this urge to see their books in circulation that prompts authors give copies away.
That will about do it for this time. I need to do some updating on the SASP website and then get some outside stuff done. It's supposed to be nice today, sunny but not to hot, so I should get some yard work caught up. I also want to wash "Tim," my '62 Corvair Rampside, and perhaps do an oil change and a little tinkering with timing and carburation. Tomorrow is the Inland Northwest Corvair Club's Annual Picnic, and quite naturally I want to be able to go in a Corvair. It should be a good chance to see if the tinkering will result in any improvement in gas mileage as it is a good drive over to Kidd Island Bay on Lake Coeur d' Alene and back.
As always, more next time. And lest I forget, and in case anyone wonders, I'm now reading SHOOT/DON'T SHOOT by J. A. Jance.
Dave
Vacation and my annual trip to the PNWA Conference (www.pnwa.org) are now history. I've been back to work for three days, and already it has started to feel as if I was never gone. Still, the effects of being on vacation and to an exciting event linger. The three days I worked this past week seemed to have lasted forever. By the time Friday rolled around, I was more than ready for the weekend.
Thursday was the lastest SASP (www.spokaneauthors.org) meeting. We didn't have a formal presentation, but rather simply had members read from their works for five minutes or so at a time. In most cases, what our fellow members had written and presented to us was informative and entertaining. We have a speaker lined up for next month's meeting, but it is evident that the group's officers will need to meet and firm up a speaker schedule for the coming year.
In another random note, I actually won something a few days ago. Joshua Palmatier,jpsorrow , has been giving away hard copy covers of his first book, THE SKEWED THRONE on his live journal. He's celebrating the completion of revisions to his newest story, WELL of SORROWS, and the release of the German version of THE SKEWED THRONE, known there as DIE ASSASSINE. His contest was(and is) quite easy. All I had to do was comment on his LJ entry/post for the day. I've sent him my mailing address, and he assures me the book is in the mail. I already have (and have read) the story in its paperback form. I'll probably just keep that and will perhaps donate the hardcover version as a door prize at a future SASP meeting. By the way, he's running the contest for another day or so, so if you want to take a chance at winning an autographed copy of a book by an up and coming fantasy writer, head on over to his LiveJournal.
With regards to my own writing efforts, yesterday I finished some revision to Chapter 14 of my first book, BEYOND THE OCEAN'S EDGE. Some was minor typo correction and that sort of thing, the stuff that I figure I've already taken care of... until I look at it again after a significant amount of time away. However, a judge's comment from a contest a year or so ago pointed out a possible "gotcha" in the plot structure. Basically I had the characters looking back on the course they had sailed, supposedly in the Indian Ocean area, only to discover they had unknowingly crossed over and had sailed over dry land. The comment simply was, "wouldn't they have seen that they would be doing so, by looking at the locations they were supposed to journey to?" So I had to revise the situation a bit, and have them do a series of "jumps" every time they passed through one of the special sets of coordinates. Then when they compute their position the next time, they find they are not where they should be, and often they are sailing where their charts show dry land should exist. I ended up taking out slightly less than one page of material, but adding in over three pages. The chapter itself grew from fourteen pages to nearly seventeen. That of course adds to the length of the entire book, and if no other remaining chapters are modified enough to change their length, the whole story is now at 399 pages.
While I was at the Conference a week or so ago, I also did some "editing" work on the third book, DARNAHSIAN PIRATES. So far I have four completed chapters in that story, and I got into the fourth with suggested edits and revisions. Haven't made any of the changes yet, but hope to in the near future. I also hope to get back to actually working on the story and progressing with the fifth chapter and beyond. I also want to resume the querying efforts for the first, although at this time of year it might be a matter of common sense to hold off until after the end of summer and allow prospective agents to return from summer holiday trips, etc. Then I want to make a final push at querying and finding an agent. If I don't land one in the fairly near future, I'm thinking about going with a small press. Honestly, I think what I'm writing is good enough to end up with a big-time publisher, but I also see that because of it's unique genre-bending situation, traditional agents and publishers might find difficulty in placing it. That is a situation that I hopefully touched on in TENNIS BALLS AND BROADSIDES, as presented at www.annemini.com/?p=5092 My thought is that if traditional publishers can't figure out how or where to place it, then perhaps a small press can. In today's world of internet communications, I think I would still have a chance to get word of the product out ot a significant amount of people, and hopefully a significant amount of them would find the work interesting enough to purchase it. As a writer, there is always that inner conflict of wanting to sell my work and make MONEY, while at the same time simply wanting to have my work in print in a professional format.
I did hear at the recent SASP meeting that the local small press publisher I'm thinking of dealing with has become inundated with hopeful authors and that those hopeful authors now must pitch or query their work. Which, I guess is as it should be. For the mean time, I'll continue on with the traditional querying route, and perhaps as the days shorten and the air grows colder, I'll approach that small press publisher. (I have also by means that I won't reveal, come up with contract information for an agent who handles a series of books that I find very similar in their cross-genre flavor to my own. Whether this particular agent is looking for new material or not, it certainly would not hurt to revise and update my query letter until it is the best it can be, and then query with all the politeness that I can muster. After all, all that can happen is to receive another rejection slip, and as an author with considerable querying experience, I have a rather large collection of those.)
Dave
Late last night I replied via e-mail to a member of Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers (SASP www.spokaneauthors.org) and hopefully answered some of the questions put to me. As I finished, I realized that this information maybe of interest to others, and I decided to post it on my LiveJournal page. Before I do, I will go through it and try to eliminate any references that might serve to identify that SASP member who had the questions. I'm thinking about going to Gray Dog Press myself, especially if I don't land an agent pretty soon. I hope you had a chance to check out their web-site at www.graydogpress.com. They are fairly unique in that they offer three levels of printing/publication. On the first level, they are merely printers for those who want to self-publish. Naturally the author pays all the costs. The second level is a partnership arrangement. The author still pays, but Gray Dog Press is listed as the publisher. It might be a small distinction, but it is a distinction, nonetheless. Depending upon who you talk to, there is still some stigma around work that is self-published. On the top level, Gray Dog Press functions just like a big publishing company, printing and publishing the work at their expense, if they feel that work has sufficient merit. It wouldn't surprise me if they would be willing to meet an author with a decent book half way between the mid and top levels they offer. It certainly wouldn't hurt to get in touch with them and see. If you go to the web-site they have contact information listed there. Other small Presses or as they are now called, Independent Presses probably operate differently. It would behoove anyone to check each one out on an individual basis. If you happen to be approaching one that is not so familiar with SASP and local Spokane/Coeur d' Alene authors, it would be a good idea to approach them just as you would a potential agent or acquisition editor (big publisher). That is, utilize a formal query letter and all the niceties that go along with it. If you are like me, your dream is to see your book(s) published by one of the big New York publishers and distributed nation, or even world wide. To do so requires a bit more work, as one generally needs to have an agent. These days most if not all major publishers will not deal directly with an unagented writer. As you are probably aware, there are two ways of landing an agent. There is the query letter, and there is the face- to-face pitch, usually made at a conference like I was just at in Seattle. Writing a good query letter or constructing an attention getting pitch is not something one approaches on a casual basis and develops in the course of an afternoon. I originally wrote my basic query letter four years or so ago. Since then I've refined, polished, buffed, and at times completely revised it. I think it's gotten better, as now I occasionally get requests for material. My pitch has usually worked as well. This past conference was the first where I did not have the agent to whom I had pitched, ask for pages. (It wasn't so much that my pitch was bad, but that the conference folks mismatched us.) If you want to learn more about writing query letters or constructing pitches, I recommend Anne Mini's Author! Author! blog. It's at www.annemini.com. Just check the category list on the right side of the page. Probably a lot to wade through, but she provides enough information that all but the densest will eventually become knowledgeable, if not expert in the field. I addition, if you have time to wade through over a thousand lengthy posts, Anne has advice and comments concerning nearly every aspect of writing and the publishing world. Yes, some posts are rehashes of earlier ones, but often she incorporates comments and suggestions made in response to those earlier entries. Finding an agent to query or pitch to is a different matter. You certainly want to address your desire for representation to an agent who represents your type of work. As I write fiction, I certainly would not want to send a query to, nor pitch to an agent who only deals with non-fiction material. Even with in each of those major sub-divisions, most agents specialize. However, other folks have done us agent seeking writers a favor, and have compiled lists of agents that we might go through as we attempt to find the one just right for our work. One such list is Writer's Digest Books GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS. It is published yearly, and is usually available in major book stores. It is a bit spendy, so perhaps one should look to see if a local library might not have it. Publisher's Marketplace also lists the top twenty agents, based on visits to the agents' websites hosted by Publisher's Market place. You have to go to the site to determine if the agent is a possible match. I also think that they list more, but possibly you have to pay a monthly fee to get all the benefits of the Publisher's Marketplace site. There are also a couple of free online sites designed to help find an agent. One is the web-site of the Association or Authors' Representatives, or AAR. If memory serves, its site is at www.aaronline.org. Another place to look is at Agent Query. Their website, interestingly enough is at www.agentquery.com. By the way, the GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS for 2009 lists about eighty five agents/agencies in its index under the RELIGIOUS/INSPIRATIONAL heading. There is another very important thing to keep in mind while searching for an agent. You should never ever pay up front for anything, other than for the cost of mailing query letters or requested materials, the materials used in printing those letters or in producing pages of your work to send out. Some agents will charge, once you have signed with them for such things as copying and other mundane office expenses, but they will usually add that to what they deduct for their fee. Any agent that asks for a reading fee or who guarantees to sell your work and get a published for a price should be avoided like the plague. I hope that this has at least made inroads into answering some of, if not all of your questions. (I also hope that it might answer any questions that one dropping by to visit my LiveJournal page might have. On the other hand, my reply may prompt those visitors with more insight and knowledge to offer that wisdom to the rest of us. Dave
I returned yesterday from the 54th Annual PNWA Conference in Seattle. Having been my fourth year in a row to attend, I find that many aspects of it are getting to be, "old hat." Yet I'm glad to had attended, as I did meet some interesting fellow writers, and I learned several things, including gaining a better understanding of just what it is that I write.
During the summer, it is customary to regard the Eastern portion of Washington as being hotter than the Sound or the coast. But as I left last Wednesday for the four or five hour drive to the conference site, an odd weather pattern had settled over the Pacific Northwest. It was warm enough here in Spokane, even though I was on the road earlier than I usually am for the trip. After I crossed the Columbia River at Vantage, it actually cooled off a little, the effects, I believe of a recent thundershower that had just passed. In fact, I drove through a bit of rain, which I believe was the remnants of the large dark cloud passing to the North. Many times when driving westward, there comes a point at which the warmth of Eastern and Central Washington is replaced by the coolness of the West Side. However, once out of the cooling effects of the passing storm, I was hit by a blast of heat. To add to the discomfort of the later portions of the drive, once I reached I-405, traffic slowed to a near stand still. I had experienced a bit of that on previous trips, but never had it lasted until reaching I-5. Those last ten or fifteen miles of the trip seemed to take forever. As I do not have airconditioning in my vehicle, I was a soggy, bedraggled mess when I finally reached the hotel and conference center.
I've always gone over the day before the Conference actually starts. That way, I have an evening in which to cool off from the drive, have a nice dinner, get a good night's sleep, and relax the next morning before things start to happen Thursday afternoon. While I usually dine unaccompanied, I was joined this time by a friend who lives in the area. Having placed in a contest she had sponsored on her blog, we elected to do the "consult" portion of the prize in person, rather than over the phone.
Thursday before the conference started, I did some editing work on the beginnings of a story written by one of the members of a little writing group I belong to. I also did some work on one of the chapters of my first book. I need to make some changes in that chapter to eliminate a "gotcha" that was mentioned by a reader some time back. As I was only working with a hard copy and a pen, I did not actually make the change, but simply indicated where it should go. Naturally, while reviewing the chapter, I found a few other things that needed revision and changing as well. I also had the first four plus chapters of DARNAHSIAN PIRATES with me and worked on them during breaks.
( Read more... )
That should about do it for now. As this is fairly long and perhaps a bit tedious for some, I will see what I can do to use an LJ cut.
I still have today and tomorrow left on my vacation. Perhaps I'll get more posted before I go back to work Wednesday morning.
Dave
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