Arrest Me! New Agent On A Rampage & Eros Sleeping

It seems that some notable authors are willing to be arrested for a cause. Citizen involvment is alive and well, and who better to lead the charge than poets and writers?  There are more causes to stand up for these days than books to be read.

In other news, Ethan Vaughan, who did a reader's report for me some time ago and has recently been promoted from intern to agent at Kimberly Cameron and Associates has made himself available for private editing, a task for which he comes highly recommended. Check out his blog here to see testimonials and get further information.

This morning there is a warning here from Jessica Bell in regards to CreateSpace. It appears there is no end to the trouble we face. Can one never let their guard down?

I leave you with this image from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There is something very moving and sensual about the sleeping Eros who has been out all day shooting arrows and now rests.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Opportunities

Ethan Vaughan is open to queries now for his May project. If he picks your manuscript he will give you an indepth reader's report and then do an interview with you on his blog. I can attest to the value of the report. His attention might not jettison you into superstardom, but it will definitely give you a nudge in the right direction.

April was poetry month and that's the only thing that was good about April. (That and eating the first asparagus from my garden.) Goodbye April. But we can and should keep poetry alive year round. Dare to eat a peach!

May is short story month. There are tons of markets out there for short stories, as you will see here. I've had a small measure of luck with placing some as you can see from my sidebar.  May is also planting season so you might see a little less of me. I'll be torn between editing my beloved BLACK RIVER, keeping a journal, planting lettuce, spinach, and French breakfast radishes, and blogging. Something might give unless I give up sleep. I already gave up television, like eons ago. What do you give up to create writing time?

Good luck if you query Ethan. Write a short story for May. See you around!

An Interview!

Ethan Vaughan, editor extraordinaire and agent intern has just posted an interview with me!! Very exciting...a real interview. He asked some pretty tough questions on controversial issues, and I feel like I've really put myself out there, like my skin is getting thinner by the nanosecond when it's supposed to be getting thicker. Please stop over there and say hi. 

After reading my manuscript, Ethan gave me a "reader's report". It was an in-depth review of the entire manuscript, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses with suggestions for turning those into strengths. He uncannily pointed out all the areas that could benefit from reassessment, scenes and elements that I myself wasn't entirely happy with. He obviously read my novel closely and picked up on things that other advance readers had missed. As he pointed out to me, "All manuscripts have to go through editing, usually of a pretty hefty nature, but they emerge better for it and I'm sure yours will too." If you need any editing help, you should consider Ethan Vaughan.

How To Keep Your Memory In Good Writing Shape

This blog is about the art of writing poetry as much as fiction. I started writing poetry long before I tackled fiction. For me, it was a natural progression. Now it turns out that poetry is good for our brains, at least the memorization of it, and I'd like to share with you Ten Compelling Reasons To Memorize Poetry. I'm all for anything that will help me keep my memory and imagination in marathon shape, anything that will help me come up with that perfect word when I need it. For as Mr. Franklin advised, "The difference between a good word and the perfect word is like the difference between the lightning and the lightning bug."

The first poem I ever memorized began,

"Under the spreading chestnut tree,
the village smithy stands..."

Anyone not know that? Do you have a favorite from school? Sadly, when I got to high school, English class was all about diagramming sentences. I wish there would've been more emphasis on creative writing and memorizing poems.

On another note, I've received some awesome feedback from a most awesome editor/freelancer by the name of Ethan Vaughan.  He will soon be posting an interview with me on his blog and I'll be sure to kindly point you in that direction when it's up (though it's kind of a gut-wrenching reveal.) The guy is wise beyond his years and asked some deep, difficult questions. Interestingly enough, I found that in composing my answers (and it took several days) I learned something about my novel. I learned what was important to me, what I have to keep, and what I can let go. For me it was as valuable an exercise as mapping out the arc of the story to see if scenes follow each other logically to a satisfying conclusion.

Enough said for now. Time to memorize a poem.

Reader's Reports - An Agent-in-Waiting

I’ve finished my novel BLACK RIVER. It’s complete at 105,000, a word count I’m comfortable with. The genre is mainstream contemporary with cautionary undertones. (I know, I made that category up.) Now comes the spit and shine, and to help me see the gaps and inconsistencies, I’ve sent it over to Ethan Vaughan, an agent-in-waiting who blogs here.

Ethan interned at a literary agency over the summer and aspires to one day be a literary agent. Right now he's a college student who writes readers reports in his spare time, which is pretty cool. He has posted a sample reader's report which will give you a feel for how agents critique unpublished manuscripts.

He’s looking for manuscripts to read and critique on his blog. If you’re ready for a little exposure and an independent critique, you might want to check out his site, Searching For The Story.

What have I learned this time around? I found that I can write a novel under 140,000 words. With this one I have wiggle room. If something needs to be added, there's space. If something needs to be cut, I would still end up with a novel in the 90,000 to 100,000 word count which to me is a good range.

While this one is out with a couple of readers, I will compose my query letter, hopefully with help from Mindy McGinnis at Writer Writer Pants on Fire, one of my favorite people from Agent Query, the top spot for query assistance, and anyone else I can impose upon. Then I have a couple of short stories with a deadline fast approaching and then.....I concentrate on Will. Oh, I love the dark and desperate, the hurt and conflicted, those characters who love and lust and make mistakes.