The awesome and fantastic Chuck Joiner of MacJury, MacNotables, and MacTV was kind enough to invite me on to an episode of MacNotables. He wanted my thoughts on the Apple-Samsung patent infringement battle, and I’ll be honest, I kind of went a little foamy at the mouth. Listen in! Image credit: Shutterstock
The title is a lie, because I am totally stoked! On Monday morning, I got my first request for a partial! That’s publishing speak for when an author is asked to provide anything less than a full manuscript to an agent or publishing editor, and it’s the first possible step towards getting an agent. Here’s what I sent him: How can this not get me representation, right?! It’s illustrated! Here’s how it works. An aspiring author—that’s me—sends a query letter to an agent. As mentioned in previous posts, I began sending out query letters about six weeks ago. This is Continue Reading →
I’ve been pretty busy for the last few weeks, starting with sending out a new round of query letters. I’ve found five really kick ass agents to start with, with four queries still out there. With any luck, one of them will request a partial or the full manuscript, and I am hopeful. Interestingly, the third agent I queried effectively wanted everything an agent might want: a query letter, a synopsis, the first three chapters, and a separate bio. Note that a query letter typically has a very short synopsis/description along with a short bio included, so there’s a little Continue Reading →
Well, I’m no longer a virgin—I have received my first official rejection letter. She was nice about it, and everything; we aren’t a good fit. Plus, I evidently have cooties (see below). And with that, I can now probably call myself a real writer. I have joined the hallowed ranks of, well…every would-be writer who has been told no. As I blogged last week, this was my first query letter to an agent. Getting an agent is a long slog, and I’m moving on to the next set of query letters this week. Wish me luck! Image made with additional Continue Reading →
I rewatched Trek Nation today, and was hit once again with how awesome it is. If you’re not familiar with it, Trek Nation is a documentary about Star Trek made by Rod Roddenberry, Gene Roddenberry’s son. Gene died in 1991, when Rod was just 17 years old, and, as Rod tells us in the show, he grew up not caring about Star Trek at all, and not having a great relationship with his father. Rod Roddenberry in Science Channel Trailer “You know, I really learned about Star Trek through the fans,” he said at one point in the movie, and Continue Reading →
Man, oh man! I finally sent out my first query letter to an agent last night. I’m a delightful mix of giddy, nervous, excited, anxious, fearful, trepidatious, and ARRRGGGGHHHH!!! For those who aren’t familiar with the publishing process, a query letter is sort of a writer’s elevator pitch for a book. It can include a brief introduction and any credentials that you think are pertinent to finding success as a writer, but it must include a very brief synopsis of your full book. Thanks to Nathan Bransford for all the awesome advice to new writers on his blog, I now Continue Reading →
OK, I know I’ve said that I was finished with my novel a couple times, but this time it’s true! No, really! Actually, they were all true, but “through” is so relative. The first time I was “through,” it was finishing the story, getting that last word in Scrivener. But from there came some heavy rounds of editing, followed by focusing on serious refinements. When I was “through” with that, the book went out to all my beta readers—and let me say again that you guys are beyond awesome—for as nit picky feedback as I could get. As this was Continue Reading →
I’ve gotten a lot of help from some amazing friends and colleagues getting my novel to where it is (that is, ready for an agent), but this week I’ve been lucky enough to get input from two new beta readers. On Wednesday, I spent a couple of hours talking to a fellow aspiring writer, and she gave me some very insightful observations that are going to allow me to make a couple of excellent refinements. Better yet, she’s going to let me beta read some of her own stuff, and I suspect that will be a good process for both Continue Reading →
I took some pics of the eclipse from May 20th with a friend of mine. I tried to take blind pics of the Sun itself, but without anything even approximating the proper filters, I didn’t get much. In any event, major eclipses apparently play havoc with shadows. Who knew? It also turns out that taking a picture of a shadow is easier than taking photos of the Sun without any filters. Again, who knew? Oh, and I’ve no idea how the refracted image of the partially occluded Sun got into that image.
Not too long ago, I went to the Mountain View Cemetery to take some photos. This place was built in 1863 and was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the same chap that designed Central Park in New York City. It was a product of the Transcendentalist movement, and was intended to be part park and part cemetery. If you’re able to visit it, this will make sense, because it is beautiful—I’m very glad a friend of mine talked me into going. I only saw a tiny corner of the place, and I plan on going back sometime this summer. In the Continue Reading →