BETWEEN THE LINES

Every writer dreams of doing this.

This is a message from my friend Luke Chen, pastor of CBC, regarding the recent tragedies in Burma and China.  There are never any easy answers for how a good God could allow these things to happen, but  Luke provides some excellent and challenging insights.

Thoughts and prayers for those suffering are needed.  But so is practical help.  Please consider making donations and/or volunteering whenever disaster strikes

So I am officially up to 30 queries out there for my novel BEYOND JUSTICE.

Today, in less than 2 hours since I queried one particular big name agent, I got a request for a 100 page partial and synopsis!  Wow.
She was concerned a bit that my book of 74,000 words seemed a bit short.  Funny because it started at 165,000 words and has since been cut down.  But she said it might not be a problem.

We'll see if this turns into anything.  Dean Koontz said he got 75 rejections before his first novel sold.  So I won't quit until:

1.  I get a sale
2.  I pass 75 rejections (even then, I won't quit, I'll just slow down a bit in the querying and focus more on my current projects.)

Things are a-movin'!  Thank God. 

 

 I think I'm getting the hang of it.  Or at least starting to actually have fun with it.  Scott Carter's blog Selling Your Book: Ten Tips on Creating a Sense of Urgency Among Agents and Editors"  said something about taking on a certain attitude with querying.  I devoted most of my day to researching and querying agents today and decided to take on the attitude of: Just go for it.  No fear, just query anyone who seemed a good fit.  And I decided to start querying via email, since I've never tried before.

So I snail mailed one query and emailed 8 others for my book BEYOND JUSTICE.

The more query letters I wrote, the more confident I became.  This sort of goes with the "dare to be bad" writing mentality.  A freedom that only comes when you aren't afraid (nothing to lose).  Finding that really good, personalized first paragraph is proving the biggest challenge, but when I get it right, it's kind of fun.  I think it was Noah Lukeman who said something to the affect of making the first paragraph all about the agent/editor you are querying.  This makes it immediately important.  I can see that.  If I get an unsolicited email and it's all about the person sending it or the product he/she is trying to sell, my finger hovers over the delete key.  But if this email points out something about me, or my work (in a positive light, of course) you can be sure I'll want to read on.  I guess this is pretty basic.

One agent replied within three hours from an email query and asked me to send her a proposal and 100 page partial!  That was the quickest turnaround I've ever gotten.

Anyway, it's almost 2:30 AM and I just sent off my last query for the day.

I'm not going to get too excited about that one request for a partial, but I am pleased that I did this query blitz.  Recently I've suffered from query block.


PS:  Thanks Scott, you're an inspiration. 

A66 year old triathlete was attacked this morning by a great white shark. Unfortunately, he died before he could be airlifted to the hospital.

I've never been a fan of swimming out at the beach, and I don't think that position is going to change soon.

The good news is that after sending out nearly a dozen queries, I've only gotten back about 3 rejections.   Not sure that's good news, but I'm glad it's not more than 3 for now.

So I'm sending out four more queries, 1 Editor and 3 major agents today.

I'm feeling good so far.  One day, BEYOND JUSTICE will sell.  Just a matter of time and persistence!

 

Permit me to swell a bit here.  On Feb. 19, Amazon.com and Penguin books announced their top 100 seminfinalists.  Penguin Books has narrowed down the contestants from 5000 in the qualification rounds to the top 1000 and now to the top 100 manuscripts and my book BEYOND JUSTICE is one of them.   

Needless to say, I'm excited and grateful to everyone who reviewed my excerpt.  If you haven't read my free downloadable excerpt for my book, please do and give it your honest review as it seems like it plays a part in the finalist selection.

Here is a link to my book excerpt.

Thanks again!

 

It's comforting to know that nothing has changed in Tech Support, since the middle ages. 


 

You Are a Dragon

You are very charismatic and incredibly popular. People are drawn to your energy, but you are a very difficult person to get to know. You are very active - you are usually hard at work or play. You enjoy drama, and you enjoy anything unusual or eccentric.

I swear, I didn't try to fit the bill for this one, but this is what I got as a result of this quiz.


 

A SILVER Dragon Lies Beneath!

My inner dragon is to dragons what the Ranger is to humans. I possess considerable intelligence and self-confidence. I live by my own code of ethics and I stick to it at all times. Click the image to try the Inner Dragon Online Quiz for yourself.

 

  
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31

I am not a great fan of adverbs in writing. Sometimes, when used judiciousLY, the can be quite effective. But often I find them used as a lazy person's way out of good characterization. This is especialLY true in dialogue tags.

eg.

"Your sister's back."
"Oh great," he said, sarcastically.

If the framing dialogue and writing in general were adequate, then it would be clear that when the character says, "Oh great," he is being sarcastic. Sure, it's quick and easy, and even in some cases, would be the right choice. But in general, I think it better to characterize the sarcasm by showing, not telling. Here's what I mean:

"Your sister's back."
He rolled his eyes and sighed. "Oh great."

Instead of lecturing the reader and telling what should be obvious, I'm showing the reader.

Stephen King said, "The road to hell is paved with adverbs." :)

So just to torment me

erdnase2000sent this to me:

 

  

To all my friends out there.  (Recorded 2001)

My novel BEYOND JUSTICE  got a review by Publishers Weekly on Amazon.com.  Now, before you jump the gun, this book is not yet published.  I am a semi-finalist for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award which means a publication by Penguin Books and in order to get to this point Publishers Weekly has reviewed my entire book.

Below are some of the things Publishers Weekly said in their review of my novel.

 BEYOND JUSTICE:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/B00124COP2/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

Editorial Reviews

Part of the process to make it to the next round is to have as many people as possible read an excerpt from my book (free download linked below) and give it a favorable review.  (Please tell your friends about this too, you like and believe my is worthy of a good review)


Here's where I could use your help:

To get into the finals and eventually win grand prize, customer reviews are needed.  So, while I hate to burden people with extra reading, if anyone is already inclined to check out my book (excerpt) and lend a few lines of review (hopefully positive, if you feel it is warranted), I would greatly appreciate it.  It can be downloaded free and reviewed on amazon here.  (scroll down to the review and click on create your own review.)

I realize that semifinals are kind of premature to be excited about and they only narrowed it down from 5000 entrants to 1000, but it was nice to see kind words from PW.  Now I'm pushing for top 100 semifinalist status.

Here's how it works:



I think I have until the middle of February before they start picking the top semifinalists, so if any of y'all are interested in helping me with a review, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks everyone,
Paul

 

After weeks of outlining, fleshing out my characters and their arcs, and thickening a plot with more twists and turns than the Cyclone inConey Island, I have begun writing my fourth Novel: MISBEGOTTEN. It's a thriller. I will post a blurb here as soon as I construct a good one to tease you what it's about.

I'm aiming for 90,000 words, but considering that I cut 90,000 words out of my last book, that might be ambitiously low for me. Hopefully I've learned to be more concise.

6000 / 90,000 (0.2%)

Thanks to meharet and Ilsa Bick for sharing this

 

Poor Aslan!

He just got neutered.  The vet put him on doggie downers because he was just as hyper as usual when he woke up from the operation.  (Didn't want him to hurt himself---owie!)

Now he's wearing an e-collar, which I call a megaphone.  Now when he barks, which is seldom, he can be amplified.







This shouldn't even happen to a dog!  Oh well, it happens all the time.  Note what our little guy did to our base molding on the right hand side of the picture, when he was teething.

I'm a little late but I just saw this.  Looking forward to seeing it!