The thread is yours. We can only hope that this open thread is as crazy as the last.
Reader Interactions
Comments
Jansays
JaxPop … VW bug was my first car … had a ton of memorable trips in that car!!
ManiacScribler … Italy was fabulous – and I LOVED art history when in undergrad and grad school.
I went to Cortona (Under Tuscan Sun), Montepulciano (great wine!), Assisi, Orvieto, Tivoly, Villa Adrianna, Florence, Naples (yucky/dirty) but had to go there to get to Pompeii … explored 9 cities in 14 days.
LOVED Tuscany = felt right at home there…
Can’t wait to go back!
But can’t until I get this novel off to a wonderful agent and find representation…
Ulysses – I’m not as old as the Monty Python guys but … it does sound like that skit. I did not, however, walk 10 miles to school in the snow – up hill both ways. Thanks for the laugh.
Maniac – The Sistine Chapel was amazing. I took so many photos in the Vatican Museum … that was an amazing day I’ll never forget.
I can’t wait to take my 17 year old daughter there. She graduates next year and we are planning a family trip to France (Giverny of course for Monet) and Le Mans for the 24 hour race for my husband/son and I want to take the entire family back to Italy!
Enjoy your Art History class – it’s served me well in life for a great deal of enjoyment!
Good luck to all who are studying for finals… I’m glad to be done with those days!
Back to edits on my MS and fine tuning my query
Can’t wait to see your comments Nathan (Mr. Nathan doggy-dog, sir) đ
Tiffany and Nathan (and all others who are “romantically inclined” – Linnea Sinclair got the call today – her GAMES OF COMMAND is a finalist for best paranormal.
Tired and hungry: One of my professors, a famous forensic investigator, is under criminal FELONY investigation. It seems her graduate students caught her in the act of serious wrong doing and turned her in to FDLE.
Much shame and adverse publicity for my university (and no sympathy from Josie D. who warned the administrators years ago about this famous lady prof playing fast and loose with the rules. Did they listen? Nope.)
The atmosphere at my school, and in my graduate program in particular, is shall we say, rather tense these days.
Josephine – I think ‘Tired & Hungry’ may have been looking for something a bit more uplifting. That was cool mentioning Linnea’s work making it to the finals. Go Linnea!!!
Anyone interested – My fellow Floridian Josephine has a terrific blog that should be checked out regularly. Good stuff.
Tired and hungry: Over the summer I worked with a couple of complete goof balls. One day, I found a shiny pan under the counter, but I was helping some people, so I had to wait to say anything about it. When they were gone, I pulled it out and asked the two guys if they were using it to look at their reflections all day long. And somehow, it ended up behind the one guy, at the seat of his pants, and the other guy looked into the reflection and said that he looked good in that guys pants. Yes. That was an actual event. File under whatever you would like. Maniac
Who else misses watching TV until the national anthem comes on late at night, then turning it off and watching the screen fade away to a little dot that sits there for a minute or two and then vanishes?
Do you feel that this Borders buyout will affect the number of books that editors will take on? If Barnes and Noble buys, that is? I remember reading somewhere that there is one national bookbuyer for genre fiction in Borders, and one for Barnes and Noble. If they merged, there would only be one bookbuyer instead of the two there were before. So I would think that this would affect the number of books a publisher is willing to publish each year, but I don’t know. And I know that it’s quite possible that someone other than Barnes and Noble will buy Borders, and that it’s possible that I’m completely confused about what I heard, but these are the questions that have been floating around in my mind. Any thoughts? Thanks!
Re: “…I should mention again that if you receive a rejection from me and you would like your query critiqued politely and anonymously on the blog, send me a follow-up note. I can’t critique all people who ask me to do so (and sometimes I honestly just don’t have anything interesting to say on the matter), but I’ll consider your query for a public dissection.”
I understand no guarantees, but still it sounds like it’s worth a shot.
Can’t say anything more than this, I really am fried with “March Madness” – not the basketball kind – my heart shall always belong to Tayshaun, Chauncey, Rasheed – just general craziness of life on planet earth. That and the wind.
One last comment for the night, and then I must bid sayonara (Japanese is my second language, darlings. ;)) because I still have class tomorrow. What fun…Actually, I’m looking forward to it, because I get to discuss “Symposium” by Plato. Yay! Anyway, in reply to everyone talking about getting red underlining for the Canadian spelling: You can set your default dictionary in MS word to recognize it as Canadian English instead of American English. Find the Dictionaries (I have the new edition of Word and don’t know my way around it easily), then select the Canadian English, and then say that you want it as a default. It helps a lot – I love it when it actually corrects my spelling for Canadian! ăăăăȘăïŒ Maniac
After going to the laundromat last week and getting a distinct Twilight Zone feeling, I think there’s a story there.
I’m calmly sorting clothes when three men walk in. One has his cell phone trapped between his ear and shoulder and I think his voice has been affected. Then I realize all three of them are talking the same way and if they are talking Texan it’s a part I haven’t heard before.
They are all very happy and laughing a lot. One is so happy he squats down and does a hopping thing as he starts chanting. The other two join in the chant and I have to assume it is some sort of African dance to the laundry gods. The two who aren’t doing the dance are stomping and chanting. This is probably to ward away the spirits of stain and spot.
I’m so astounded I drop part of my laundry and it just kind of lands right there on the toe of the boot of another man, who is watching the laundry dance with mild amusement. As any gentleman would, he reaches down to retrieve my laundry until he realizes it’s a pair of pink panties.
The African laundry warriors whoop, my gallant sits back up and stretches his boot out a little further for me. I turn about the same shade of pink as the fallen laundry and try to snatch them away, but in my haste, hook the toe further and only succeed in making a sort of sling shot looking mess.
The African laundry warriors whoop again and shake imaginary sticks at the pink beast.
I turn a brighter shade of pink, wad the remainder of my clothes into baskets without folding them and depart.
As I said, I’m quite sure there’s a story there somewhere.
Well, I don’t think Borders would probably go away entirely, but if, say, they were acquired by B&N that would indeed be concentrating book stocking decisions in the hands of just a very few key people. I’m hopeful for an outcome where Borders retains its independence, because more choices and competition between chains can only be good for consumers.
kajaal-
It really depends on the project and the client. I don’t know that I could be particularly specific here. Maybe it’s a topic for another post someday.
Would an agent be less attracted to a novel that has been workshopped online in a writer’s forum? The majority of these sites are password protected, but anyone with an email address can see a person’s WIP.
Which brings me to a side-question: Does posting a work to be critiqued on the internet via these sites technically destroy its status as being “previously unpublished?”
You know your blog about word counts, of about a month ago? I loved it so much Iâve wallpapered my office with it, including your picture, of course. It wouldnât have the same impact, otherwise. Well now, itâs spawned this rhetorical question that I canât get out of my head, what with the wallpaper and all. So maybe you could answer it for me and then I could stop muttering to myself and looking like a crazy person.
Let us say that a plumber named Leo Tolstoy, who, except for an ad in the Yellow Pages, has never published anything before and doesnât have an MFA (didnât need it to unclog toilets, you understand), sends you a query about his book, which he spent ten years writing. Not knowing how the business works, he also happens to send you his first chapter, which, because itâs late and youâre bleary-eyed, you pick up first and start, completely unintentionally, to read. You realize your mistake, but nonetheless keep reading because, frankly, you are blown away. You think to yourself that youâve never been so fortunate as to read anything this good and it is the standard by which all writing should be judged. Overjoyed and your heart pounding with excitement, you pick up the plumberâs query letter. You read this masterpieceâs title, War and Peace, and you think, well damn, thatâs just poetic. Then you read the first couple of paragraphs of the plumberâs query and you start envisioning the movieâdefinitely perfect for TomKat. As youâre reaching into you desk for your form contract to sign the plumber and grab him up before somebody else snatches this guy away from you, your eyes distractedly scan the last paragraph of his query and you read that this book that is making you droll has a word count of 700,000 or there about.
Now hereâs my question: What would you honestly do?
Nathan… you’re absolutely right about only needing a short query letter… What was I thinking? I was able to reduce mine down to an easy page without loosing any impact. Story details beyond a general description are a waste.
With your advice, I feel my query is more powerful and inspires a curiosity it previously lacked. Thank you. (The revised version is available by clicking on my name.) Feel free to read it, critique it, or use it any way you deem appropriate.
other lisa: Okay, I’m still having a bit of a problem distinguishing between Chinese and Japanese…Though they, now that I look at them again, do look more Chinese. Thanks Maniac
ManiacScribbler, Kanji is the same as the old-style Chinese characters – you really can’t distinguish them. I don’t know very much about Japanese, but they took the characters directly from Chinese. Then there are two other alphabets (?) in Japanese, hiragana and katakana. Check out the wikipedia entry – it looks pretty good.
other lisa: Yeah, I’m studying Japanese actually. It’s just that a lot of the sentences in Japanese are all in kanji. So it can be harder to distinguish them. Haha And you have the other two right. Maniac
In my critiquing group, there are a limited few that always say to take out all was, ly words and limit the ing to make it more active. Yet when I read some of my new and old favorites in the fiction industry their books are chock full of them. Who do I believe? What’s your take and should you have an editor look over your work before submitting or would the agent that accepts it refer you to an editor?
Jan says
JaxPop … VW bug was my first car … had a ton of memorable trips in that car!!
ManiacScribler … Italy was fabulous – and I LOVED art history when in undergrad and grad school.
I went to Cortona (Under Tuscan Sun), Montepulciano (great wine!), Assisi, Orvieto, Tivoly, Villa Adrianna, Florence, Naples (yucky/dirty) but had to go there to get to Pompeii … explored 9 cities in 14 days.
LOVED Tuscany = felt right at home there…
Can’t wait to go back!
But can’t until I get this novel off to a wonderful agent and find representation…
Oh the life of a writer
maniacscribbler says
jan: I so want to go to Italy! And I actually recognize some of those names specifically from ARHI. Haha
And I would love to have a VW Bug for my first car…But I have a feeling that it wouldn’t survive the roads around my home…Hm…
Maniac
JaxPop says
Ulysses – I’m not as old as the Monty Python guys but … it does sound like that skit. I did not, however, walk 10 miles to school in the snow – up hill both ways. Thanks for the laugh.
Jordyn says
Oh my gosh, has The Hills started up again?
I am SO out of the loop.
Josephine Damian says
On that note I should mention that I’ll be attending RWA this year.
Nathan, please promise me you won’t wear a goof-ball costumes with gauzy wings, or do one of those Fabio/Chippendale dance routines.
Those RWAs meeting are wild!
Jan says
Maniac – The Sistine Chapel was amazing. I took so many photos in the Vatican Museum … that was an amazing day I’ll never forget.
I can’t wait to take my 17 year old daughter there. She graduates next year and we are planning a family trip to France (Giverny of course for Monet) and Le Mans for the 24 hour race for my husband/son and I want to take the entire family back to Italy!
Enjoy your Art History class – it’s served me well in life for a great deal of enjoyment!
Good luck to all who are studying for finals… I’m glad to be done with those days!
Back to edits on my MS and fine tuning my query
Can’t wait to see your comments Nathan (Mr. Nathan doggy-dog, sir)
đ
tired, hungry, and behind on homework says
Who esle is currently suffering from “broke, tired and school work over my head” syndrome, thanks to university?
Yup. Just…yup. Final semester of college and I am literally about to fail all of my classes.
Someone say something funny, please.
Josephine Damian says
Tiffany and Nathan (and all others who are “romantically inclined” – Linnea Sinclair got the call today – her GAMES OF COMMAND is a finalist for best paranormal.
Yay!
Josephine Damian says
Tired and hungry: One of my professors, a famous forensic investigator, is under criminal FELONY investigation. It seems her graduate students caught her in the act of serious wrong doing and turned her in to FDLE.
Much shame and adverse publicity for my university (and no sympathy from Josie D. who warned the administrators years ago about this famous lady prof playing fast and loose with the rules. Did they listen? Nope.)
The atmosphere at my school, and in my graduate program in particular, is shall we say, rather tense these days.
JaxPop says
Josephine – I think ‘Tired & Hungry’ may have been looking for something a bit more uplifting. That was cool mentioning Linnea’s work making it to the finals.
Go Linnea!!!
Anyone interested – My fellow Floridian Josephine has a terrific blog that should be checked out regularly. Good stuff.
ManiacScribbler says
Tired and hungry:
Over the summer I worked with a couple of complete goof balls.
One day, I found a shiny pan under the counter, but I was helping some people, so I had to wait to say anything about it.
When they were gone, I pulled it out and asked the two guys if they were using it to look at their reflections all day long. And somehow, it ended up behind the one guy, at the seat of his pants, and the other guy looked into the reflection and said that he looked good in that guys pants.
Yes. That was an actual event. File under whatever you would like.
Maniac
Scott says
Who else misses watching TV until the national anthem comes on late at night, then turning it off and watching the screen fade away to a little dot that sits there for a minute or two and then vanishes?
superwench83 says
Do you feel that this Borders buyout will affect the number of books that editors will take on? If Barnes and Noble buys, that is? I remember reading somewhere that there is one national bookbuyer for genre fiction in Borders, and one for Barnes and Noble. If they merged, there would only be one bookbuyer instead of the two there were before. So I would think that this would affect the number of books a publisher is willing to publish each year, but I don’t know. And I know that it’s quite possible that someone other than Barnes and Noble will buy Borders, and that it’s possible that I’m completely confused about what I heard, but these are the questions that have been floating around in my mind. Any thoughts? Thanks!
Polenth says
Scott, I miss the BBC test cards. I know they still show them briefly at weird times, but they aren’t scheduled, so you never know when it will be.
Anonymous says
Mr Bransford
1. What happens when an agent sells a client’s book but doesn’t like his/her next project?
2. If a client queries for a project and you reject it, but you like their next book, will you ever sell that first book for that client?
Thanks
Kaajal
Wanda B. Ontheshelves says
Worth Querying and Getting Rejected For
Re: “…I should mention again that if you receive a rejection from me and you would like your query critiqued politely and anonymously on the blog, send me a follow-up note. I can’t critique all people who ask me to do so (and sometimes I honestly just don’t have anything interesting to say on the matter), but I’ll consider your query for a public dissection.”
I understand no guarantees, but still it sounds like it’s worth a shot.
Can’t say anything more than this, I really am fried with “March Madness” – not the basketball kind – my heart shall always belong to Tayshaun, Chauncey, Rasheed – just general craziness of life on planet earth. That and the wind.
ManiacScribbler says
One last comment for the night, and then I must bid sayonara (Japanese is my second language, darlings. ;)) because I still have class tomorrow. What fun…Actually, I’m looking forward to it, because I get to discuss “Symposium” by Plato. Yay!
Anyway, in reply to everyone talking about getting red underlining for the Canadian spelling: You can set your default dictionary in MS word to recognize it as Canadian English instead of American English. Find the Dictionaries (I have the new edition of Word and don’t know my way around it easily), then select the Canadian English, and then say that you want it as a default. It helps a lot – I love it when it actually corrects my spelling for Canadian!
ăăăăȘăïŒ
Maniac
Captain Ron says
Goodnite all…..
Anonymous says
I’m thinking about writing a new book.
After going to the laundromat last week and getting a distinct Twilight Zone feeling, I think there’s a story there.
I’m calmly sorting clothes when three men walk in. One has his cell phone trapped between his ear and shoulder and I think his voice has been affected. Then I realize all three of them are talking the same way and if they are talking Texan it’s a part I haven’t heard before.
They are all very happy and laughing a lot. One is so happy he squats down and does a hopping thing as he starts chanting. The other two join in the chant and I have to assume it is some sort of African dance to the laundry gods. The two who aren’t doing the dance are stomping and chanting. This is probably to ward away the spirits of stain and spot.
I’m so astounded I drop part of my laundry and it just kind of lands right there on the toe of the boot of another man, who is watching the laundry dance with mild amusement. As any gentleman would, he reaches down to retrieve my laundry until he realizes it’s a pair of pink panties.
The African laundry warriors whoop, my gallant sits back up and stretches his boot out a little further for me. I turn about the same shade of pink as the fallen laundry and try to snatch them away, but in my haste, hook the toe further and only succeed in making a sort of sling shot looking mess.
The African laundry warriors whoop again and shake imaginary sticks at the pink beast.
I turn a brighter shade of pink, wad the remainder of my clothes into baskets without folding them and depart.
As I said, I’m quite sure there’s a story there somewhere.
Nathan Bransford says
superwench83-
Well, I don’t think Borders would probably go away entirely, but if, say, they were acquired by B&N that would indeed be concentrating book stocking decisions in the hands of just a very few key people. I’m hopeful for an outcome where Borders retains its independence, because more choices and competition between chains can only be good for consumers.
kajaal-
It really depends on the project and the client. I don’t know that I could be particularly specific here. Maybe it’s a topic for another post someday.
Christi says
I’m trying to write a synopsis for my Fiction novel! It sucks!
Other Lisa says
æç°ćšć°±ćæŹąćçșąèĄèé ïŒ ç¶ćçĄè§ă
Anonymous says
I can then only hope that you blog about it soon.
Kaajal
Curtastrophe says
Nathan-
Would an agent be less attracted to a novel that has been workshopped online in a writer’s forum? The majority of these sites are password protected, but anyone with an email address can see a person’s WIP.
Which brings me to a side-question: Does posting a work to be critiqued on the internet via these sites technically destroy its status as being “previously unpublished?”
Margaret Yang says
@other Lisa–
That red wine isn’t good for you anyway.
@Nathan: you’re going to RWA this year? You’ll be eaten alive!
superwench83 says
Thanks for answering my question!
Anonymous says
You know your blog about word counts, of about a month ago? I loved it so much Iâve wallpapered my office with it, including your picture, of course. It wouldnât have the same impact, otherwise. Well now, itâs spawned this rhetorical question that I canât get out of my head, what with the wallpaper and all. So maybe you could answer it for me and then I could stop muttering to myself and looking like a crazy person.
Let us say that a plumber named Leo Tolstoy, who, except for an ad in the Yellow Pages, has never published anything before and doesnât have an MFA (didnât need it to unclog toilets, you understand), sends you a query about his book, which he spent ten years writing. Not knowing how the business works, he also happens to send you his first chapter, which, because itâs late and youâre bleary-eyed, you pick up first and start, completely unintentionally, to read. You realize your mistake, but nonetheless keep reading because, frankly, you are blown away. You think to yourself that youâve never been so fortunate as to read anything this good and it is the standard by which all writing should be judged. Overjoyed and your heart pounding with excitement, you pick up the plumberâs query letter. You read this masterpieceâs title, War and Peace, and you think, well damn, thatâs just poetic. Then you read the first couple of paragraphs of the plumberâs query and you start envisioning the movieâdefinitely perfect for TomKat. As youâre reaching into you desk for your form contract to sign the plumber and grab him up before somebody else snatches this guy away from you, your eyes distractedly scan the last paragraph of his query and you read that this book that is making you droll has a word count of 700,000 or there about.
Now hereâs my question: What would you honestly do?
Anonymous says
Opps, I meant droo. Ah well, I can’t spell or do commas. Lucky thing my name’s not Tolstoy, huh?
Anonymous says
Can’t type, either. One more try now– DROOL.
There now. That’s better.
Nathan Bransford says
curtastrophe-
I assume a novel has been workshopped before I see it. And no, posting it in an online forum wouldn’t really be considered publishing it.
anon-
If it’s a work of genius and it’s 700,000 words and I got through it and think the length is justified, I’d go for it.
L.C.McCabe says
Hey Nate Dogg,
My alma mater Michigan State is in the Sweet 16.
Suh-weet!
Go Green! Go White!
Linda
Nathan Bransford says
Linda-
So is mine! Go Cardinal!
Captain Ron says
Nathan… you’re absolutely right about only needing a short query letter… What was I thinking? I was able to reduce mine down to an easy page without loosing any impact. Story details beyond a general description are a waste.
With your advice, I feel my query is more powerful and inspires a curiosity it previously lacked. Thank you. (The revised version is available by clicking on my name.) Feel free to read it, critique it, or use it any way you deem appropriate.
Now I wish I hadn’t sent the old one out!
Nathan Bransford says
Captain Ron-
Great to hear!!
Adaora A. says
Anyone following the new season of THE BACHELOR?
He’s British, and he’s heart to “steal all your women.”
Excellent.
ManiacScribbler says
other lisa: Is that kanji? It looks like kanji, but I’m not sure…haha
Maniac
*sigh* Back at school…
Other Lisa says
Heh – Margaret, you know a glass or two is good for one’s health! As is 8 hours of sleep.
Maniacscribbler – it’s Chinese. Kanji comes from Chinese characters, though they are pronounced completely differently.
ManiacScribbler says
other lisa:
Okay, I’m still having a bit of a problem distinguishing between Chinese and Japanese…Though they, now that I look at them again, do look more Chinese.
Thanks
Maniac
Other Lisa says
ManiacScribbler, Kanji is the same as the old-style Chinese characters – you really can’t distinguish them. I don’t know very much about Japanese, but they took the characters directly from Chinese. Then there are two other alphabets (?) in Japanese, hiragana and katakana. Check out the wikipedia entry – it looks pretty good.
ManiacScribbler says
other lisa:
Yeah, I’m studying Japanese actually.
It’s just that a lot of the sentences in Japanese are all in kanji. So it can be harder to distinguish them. Haha
And you have the other two right.
Maniac
Other Lisa says
Oooh, good for you! Japanese has got to be pretty tough! The grammar is hard, right?
Adaora A. says
Does anyone watch UK premiereship league football? Go Red Devils!
Nathan Bransford says
Go Newcastle!
Other Lisa says
Baseball or football. I’m boring.
Go Padres!!!
mlh says
Hockey Fan!
Go Pens!!
ManiacScribblewr says
other lisa:
The grammar is so-so. I’m not having too bad of a time with it, though.
Maniac
L.C.McCabe says
Nathan,
Both Michigan State and Stanford lost yesterday.
Bummer.
I turned in just before halftime and saw the score. I could not put myself through the agony of watching what I knew would be inevitable.
Maybe we shall reclaim the “magic” next season. At least Earvin Johnson tried lending it to his old team by being in the stands.
Linda
Stacee says
Inquiring minds want to know…
In my critiquing group, there are a limited few that always say to take out all was, ly words and limit the ing to make it more active. Yet when I read some of my new and old favorites in the fiction industry their books are chock full of them. Who do I believe? What’s your take and should you have an editor look over your work before submitting or would the agent that accepts it refer you to an editor?
Stacee