Dr. Catherine Schaff-Stump

I may yet write tonight, but for a day that was supposed to be my first day of vacation, I've had an EKG, a blood test, a CT scan, and an ultrasound. I am certified blood clot free, however. If you want more boring details of this, and other testing, you can come over to awelkin. So, I'd like to rest up a bit from my hectic day, and then hop on the writing express. Tomorrow I have a HIBA scan (more guts checking) and around that, I'll probably hang out at coffee shops and write.

***

Meanwhile, I'm weighing in to log my two newest rejections: Caitlin Blasdell of Liz Dawson and Kate Menick of Howard Morheim. While Caitlin's letter was impersonal, it was polite. Kate's was similar, although personal.

Regrettably, no new progress to report today.

Catherine

Well, Mistoreth's Eyes came back rejected from Apex and Abyss.

The comments are fun.

I wish you the best success in placing your story elsewhere, and hope to
see more of your work.

The first few sentences are quite lyrical, but the last sentence of the
first paragraph is unfortunately hilarious and breaks that illusion
(forget for a moment that The Farmer's Wife is an inn, and read the
sentence with the title as regular words).

After that, the feel of the piece changes -- it's no longer the poetic
piece it started as, so this needs some revision.

I did go back and read that, and yup, the name of the inn will have to change. Oh dear.

You know, when I wrote the first piece, it was a river. Then, I revised it into something else. Sometimes if you try to turn a piece into something it isn't, you can break the original spirit of the piece.

Well. Won't be coming back to that one anytime soon. I've got a lot to do before I'll have time to play with that again.

***

As to Substance, I've whacked out about 7000 words. Some of that hurt, but it wasn't exactly related to the main story. No more Welkins Menagerie scene. No more Hamwich family scene. No more warm and fuzzy Klarion family scenes. I liked them, but I don't think they need to be in there. Missing them doesn't detract from the story. You still get the idea of the piece with all those scenes off camera, and the characters still exhibit those qualities.

What this does mean, though, is I probably will go a little further with my original source material, and rewrite the Stephan unbound scenes. Stay tuned. Because I've whacked 7000 words out of the first six chapters, and I don't know how much more I'll whack out of the remaining ones.

At any rate, I've whacked through chapter six. I'll continue whacking, add a couple more relevant scenes for the ending, and then read things with a roller coaster meter to make sure the action is rising.

And if it's rejected again, well, we're no farther behind than we were before.

Time for Christmas decorating.

Catherine

And now...

Rejection from Denise Shannon.

sonyamsipes is sending a contract soon for Hulk Hercules.

And this:

I read 130 pages or so of your book. There is definitely something compelling about these two boys who are children, but speak like grown men. as well as the curse, demons in the form of animals, and the dark tone that pervades the whole story. But for me, it was a bit plodding, and I'm afraid young readers would find it even more so. Unless you can move things along a bit more quickly, I'm afraid it's a pass.

Followed by this from me:

I usually don't ask this question, but, given the unless statement in
your message about the pacing, I wonder if you would be interested in
seeing a faster paced rewrite of it? If you are, I'd be happy to send
it again after tweaking it a bit.

Followed by this:

I am definitely open to reading a revised version. As I said, there were
certain aspects to the book that I found compelling. So, feel free to send
it to me when you are finished.

***

This changes a lot. I'll finish and send off Sister Night, Sister Moon, then get back in the saddle with Substance of Shadows. This agent is worth courting, given her agency and connections. This is VERY good news. Not necessarily the easiest or the best news, but good news. I think it may sound familiar to many of you who have landed an agent, especially frost_light. I consider this a rock moving up the furthest I've ever had it up the hill. At any rate, good news I think.

At the same time, there's the Hulk Hercules book, so soon it may look like I have plenty of writing to do in my spare time.

I'm putting off plans to send out more queries until after the revision of Substance is done and I've sent it back to Agent A. Agent B is still out there with a partial.

Keep taking rice cakes and sake to the gods of publishing. It seems to be working. And send me A LOT of caffeine, 'cause I still gots the day job, so I'll need energy.

Catherine

PS Will talk about Fantasy Matters some too. It was very, very good, and I got to see some cool people. I could go to conferences like that every weekend, but I would turn into a well-educated sleepy zeppelin.

Just received rejection from Daniel Lazar via his assistant.

Sent out another 5 queries: Ted Malawer of Firebrand, Tamar Ellman Rydzinski of Laura Dail, Kate Menik of Howard Morhaim, Shana Cohen of Stuart Krichevsky, and Russell Galen of Scovil Chichak Galen.

Whew. What a day. Work. 'Nuf said.

Catherine

I wrote to Nathan Bransford just to get it out of the way. I had my rejection in hand in five minutes. As I mentioned, I expected one from him, and one from Ellenberg, if I get a reply from Ellenberg in two weeks at all. BTW, manzabar, I forgot to mention that Ellenberg is John Scalzi's agent. I know how you feel about him!

I don't necessarily expect a rejection from my next query, Kathleen Bransford, who is both a fantasy and a young adult agent. I feel my chances are more on an even keel there. Those who have corresponded with her have good things to say.

***

You know, what is interesting about using a tool like Query Tracker is that you really can research agents thoroughly, and since I'm not approaching this from a desperation angle (I'm determined to find an agent with a good fit) I've easily ruled out agents that have been rude to others often, weird, philosophically unaligned (can you see Substance being represented by a fundamentalist Christian?), or who aren't shopping for my genre.

I would like an agent, but not at any cost. It's like considering a hire from this angle as well. If I get a bad vibe, or a place doesn't feel suitable, I'm not hooking up.

***

The slush pile is hardly a reality yet. I've searched and found 216 agents. Thirty of them do not accept unreferred writers. That gives me 186, of which I've discarded 5 and queried 9. Two are still out there. Seven are nos. That gives me a whole 172 agents left to query. That could keep me busy for a bit.

So, the plan is first AAR/email agents. Then AAR/snail mail. Why? Ease, pretty much. I'd also like an ecologically friendly work place if I can get it. Then nonAAR/email. Then nonAAR/snail mail. Pretty straightforward.

Will I do the slush pile if all this comes to naught? Realistically, all could come to naught. I probably will. I could sit on the manuscript, or I could try for the longshot. I'll have the rest of my life to sit on the manuscript, and if I have a book deal in hand, it might leverage an agent.

All right. Enough of this for today. Back to the students, the emails, and the planning.

Catherine

(to quote Donkey from Shrek: Pick me! Pick me!)

Fast turn over on the rejection. She did not feel it was the right project for her. I'll get this out again to someone else shortly, maybe this afternoon.

Catherine

anyabast, you posted somewhere in response to me, and mindless girl (yours truly) deleted lj's notification message in gmail quite by mistake. Can you point me in the right direction?

Meanwhile...

Rachel Vater sent me a very courteous not interested. That was fast! She did help me to find a mistake in my submission process: she thought the story was high fantasy, which she's not interested in. Now my query includes the words "contemporary fantasy" to avoid future confusion.

Just sent a query off to Kristen Nelson of Nelson Literary Agency in Denver. If this rate of return keeps up, I should get my rejection from her before the week's out. :P

Here's my favorite nice thing from Rachel's letter. I think it's good enough to be encouraging to all you fledlings out there!

Just because a project isn’t quite right for me doesn’t mean the right agent isn’t just around the corner. I wish you the best of luck with all your writing endeavors and in the querying and submission process. Persistence pays off, so don’t give up!

Agents are nice people, aren't they?

Don't give up out there, guys!!!

Catherine

Mistoreth's Eyes has been returned by Cat Scratch Press.

Positive feedback: Your tale definitely had the darker feel that I was looking for, but it lacked the classic elements that make a story into a Gothic Romance. Keep subbing this one, though -- there is a home for it out there, I am confident of that.

Only Blood is Thicker Than Water remains alive in the Wiscon submission pool. I don't think I'll be hearing on that one anytime soon, as David is doing some editing, so it will sit in a slush pile for a while. That's pretty much my submissions since May accounted for, then.

I will need to find a market for Mistoreth's Eyes eventually. It's a novella, so I'll have to keep my eyes open. If any of YOU know of anything, ping me.

Meanwhile, I continue to make Substance of Shadows ready for its rounds. I am a novelist firstly and foremostly, so may as well concentrate on my strengths.

Teaching in 18 minutes...

Catherine

This time, the rejection was because the story was not dark enough for the anthology. The story worked for the editor until the ending, and I can buy that. I became antsy about getting it done, rather than letting the thing take some time and letting my subconscious puzzle it out, which is ALWAYS my best strategy. (Watch the Type A personality fight the inner artist. Go on! You know you want to!)

Again, encouraging words:

( Read more... )

What have we learned, author buddies? Both the take home message for me with this rejection and with Delirium has been, "this is good, but it's not what we want." So...with careful work, we get the good work to the right person. Your market research, when you can do it, is essential.

Both Cat Scratch and Delirium still each have one. We're still a contender. :)

Catherine